Happy days in the Octopuss' Garden!
Trip Start
Dec 27, 2008
1
47
93
Trip End
Dec 08, 2011
Taganga, Colombia
Monday, June 29, 2009
Taganga itself is a small fishing village located in a picturesque little cove a couple of kilometers from Santa Marta. The beach itself isn't too nice, but thats not particularly why I came here. The reason I came here ws to learn to scuba dive, and that is what I did.
After a day or two faffing around trying to sort out accomodation and money (the stupid Bancolombia atms won't take our credit cards for some reason) and doing a bit of research, I settled on the Aquantis dive school, run by an affable Belgian chap named Johan. Some other schools offered a little more for your buck (or your 275 bucks to be precise) like an extra dive or two, but Aquantis was one of only two (out of ten) Tagangan dive schools that was listed on the PADI website, an official endorsment that swayed my decision making process.
Having signed up to do the 3 day Open Water course, I spent an afternoon watching an educational video, then was up bright and early the following day for the beginning of the fun stuff. The days basically involved explanations of the equipment, safety features and the exercises which we would be performing, followed by the performance of these exercises followed by a dive. The water here is lovely, 27-28 degrees with 10-15m visibility, and makes for quite a pleasant environment for learning. The reefs here are pretty cool too. In the grand sheme of things I'm sure they don't really compare to the world's most impressive corals, but for someone who has never been up close and personal with a polyp before it was quite impressive!
There were corals and sponges of all shapes and sizes, the most impressive for me being the enormous Brain Corals (you can guess what these resemble, I'm sure), and swimming amongst all this submarine furniture was a varied and colourful selection of fish and other sea-critters, including angelfish, butterflyfish, rock beauties, trumpetfish, and lobsters of varying size and shape (none of those things will mean much to most people, but they're very pretty, take my word!). I even saw a seahorse in its natural environment, which I was quite chuffed about, though we missed out on seeing a sea turtle by a matter of a minute or two, unfortunately. Hopefully I will get some photos off the dive school soon which showcase some of the underwater splendour so you can see for yourself, but until then you'll just have to use your imagination!
Overall, we did four dives, two to 12m and two to 18m, the deepest to which I am now qualified to go, having passed the piddling exam that we were set at the end of the third day. It was great fun, though the general price of diving worldwide is likely to prove prohibitive to me taking it up as a full on pastime. It is nice to know that its an option for me while on holidays, though.
The day I finished up the diving also happened to be the occasion of our 6 month anniversary of setting out on our current travels. To begin the celebrations we ate our by now customary meal in Casa de Felipe, where Patrick, the Dutch gourmet chef serves up some knockout food at very reasonable prices. Seriously, some of the fillet mignons I've been devouring here over the last few days wouldn't be out of place in a 5 star restaurant, and thats the most expensive thing on the menu (changed daily, steak apart) at a trifling 6 euro. If you're ever in the area, this place is a must. Actually, Phillip's house is a great spot overall, with my bed costing me a mere 4 euro or so a night, a great tv room and plenty of hammocks to sway in when the aforementioned Caribbean heat gets too much. Definitely a hostel I'd recommend, though I would also recommend reserving well in advance.
Anyway, to celebrate the anniversary we dined well before partaking in some games of flip-cup as a precursor to heading out. It was largely a forgettable night though, with Taganga surprisingly quiet considering that it was a public holiday and little open in the way of bars. Ah, well, we made our own fun, as per usual! Tomorrow we head for la Ciudad Perdida (the Lost City), a pre-Incan ruin hidden in the depths of the jungle. I hope my Ecuadorian bought insect repellent is up to scratch, because some of the people we've seen returning from the trip were displaying some horrific looking battle scars from their encounters with the mosquitoes. Only time will tell, I guess....
