Today is Tuesday, August 28th and I am currently staying at The Dreamer Hostel in Santa Marta. I arrived here last night after 6 days in one of the prettiest cities I have ever seen called Cartagena. Time since the last blog post has been consumed with beaches, a boat ride to sandy Playa Blanca, pizzerias, and bar hopping around Calle Media Luna. It was a truly great experience and the Makako hostel housed some really cool people from all over the world. On Saturday a group of us wandered through plaza after plaza in search of a good discotech and Friday was a fun night with a buddy from the UK as we stumbled upon a Reggaeton mini bar dance spot. For anyone interested in Playa Blanca it is a little over rated but the beach is nice if you can avoid getting trapped by the persuasive beach vendors. Cartagena, being a major Colombian tourist destination, is very lovely but is swarmed with people trying to sell anything from fake Ray Bans to sea food supposedly good for improving ones sex drive.
Santa Marta is a very relaxed town, a 5 hour bus ride north of Cartagena, and serves as a gateway to the famed Tayrona National Park. Unfortionately I do not have enough time to do an overnight trip so instead I have decided to take surfing lessons tomorrow at a nearby beach. I have committed a major travel blunder and accidentally left my money belt, holding both my credit and debit cards, in a Taxi while enroute to the Cartagena bus station. After calling the Makako hostel and public transit authorities to no avail, I learned the hard way that it is actually really easy to wire money from home. After cancelling both cards my Dad wired money via Western Union and within 10 hours a crisis has been averted and now I have access to money from my savings. I luckily was holding onto my passport which avoided a complete disaster.To celebrate not being broke and left in a Colombian gutter I am laying low with a couple Aguila beers. On Saturday I return to Bogota to begin a three week volunteer assignment with Emerging Voices.
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