Paradise at Last!

June 24th - 25th 2008

Despite the weather warnings, I woke up to blue skies. With my fingers crossed I shared a taxi to the port. This was awesome itself. There were fish stalls, mango people, corn sellers, beef skulls, and every other type of hustler you could imagine. I boarded the boat after picking up some fresh fruit for pennies and waited to leave while 20 different hustlers came to peddle their goods. The funniest buy was a 5 litre bag of mineral water but the best deal was the jersey tank top for $2.5 USD (4 mangoes at 50 cents was a good deal also).

The speed boat took us 45 minutes and we arrived at the white sand beach. IT WAS SUNNY. Not only was it sunny, the sky was blue and the ocean was green. I found what I have been waiting for. Mama Ruth took us into her beach front restaurant-tent-hammock business. I payed $1 to hang my hammock at her place and set off for a walk along the beach. After avoiding the money hungry hustlers (necklaces, snorkel gear, fruit, rum, beer, sunglasses, you name it), I found a patch of desserted beach and relaxed by stretching to take in the sun.

Back at the hammocks, I grabbed my snorkel gear and set off for the reefs. The 3 km white sandy beach seemed to be split into 2 sections. The Western White End and the Eastern Black Side. Although inter mingling was totally permitted, the boat drivers seem to have deals with the local hammock-resort owners and drop off the gringo's in their designated area. Happily, I marched through the swarms of black children and families to the coral reefs. I will say the snorkeling was boring in comparison the the Galapagos but still fun for 5 minutes (I may be forever tainted).

As I walked back to my hammock, I heard the beats start up and wondered where the party was at. A few hours later I made my way over to the fiesta. It turns out that the day was El Dia Pescadores (The Day of the Fisherman). That meant all of the locals came down to the beach to party.

I sat alone and watched as the sole white guy but soon made some friends. These local islanders were fun-loving good spirited people. One guy bought me 4 beers within the matter of 15 minutes as I sat and watched the locals grind, flirt, and party on to the carribean beats.

I snapped a few photos and headed back to my hammock to store my camera and grab some money. I payed double price for a mickey of rum ($10US) and met up with Kim-Jang and his Korean travel friend he just met up with (who I hung out with for a day but can't remember her name - I blame it on the rum).

Koreans know how to drink, let me tell you! Shot after shot, we were dancing away and mingling with the locals. One local islander started to put on a spectacle for the other partiers and kept prompting us to have dance-offs with him. As you can imagine, all the locals were watching, laughing, and generally everyone was having a great time. I will say that these people feel the music and the crazy way they dance made me feel better about my maniacal stance (for all those people who laugh at me when I am drunk-dancing). Also, it was interesting the way the girls and guys expressed what they thought of each other through dancing (very close, slow, careful, sexual but not dirty grinding-type dancing if they like; reluctancy and laughter if they don't like).

We partied until well after the beautiful sunset before heading back to the hammocks for the night. Just to give insight into the state of us: K-Jang happened to bury his camera\money pouch under the sand while he swam during the sunset, he returned without it. I said goodnight to my new friends (Mama Ruth's 11, 13, and 15 year old daughters) and we planned to wake up early to find the camera.


We found nothing but sand, however, the sunrise was quite nice. I should add the hammock sleeping may take some getting use. It was 6AM and I couldn't sleep. Instead, I played card games with the 3 girls and listened to their cute version of Spanish (sounded like southern slang mixed with Spanish). I waited for Mama Ruth to break out the corn bread for lunch but instead I had fried fish, rice, salad, and papas - delicious.

The sunburn from yesterday kept me under cover for most of the day playing cards until I caught the 3PM ferry back to Cartagena.

We bought some groceries, used the kitchen, and socialized with other travellers over some beers. Tomorrow I plan to go to Taganga to do some scuba diving (the cheapest place to do it in South America).