After some jungle-beach-adventure we were feeling like getting even more into this relaxing beachlife! From Tayrona National Park we decided to go to the small fishing village Taganga near Santa Marta, the oldest city of Colombia. We were planning to just stay for 3 nights to enjoy this quiet place, but as you all know travel plans change quickly… 😅
Taganga on its own doesn’t really offer much which reminded us a bit of Palomino. When we arrived by bus quite late on the first day we only saw the dirt roads and heard loud music everywhere. So at first we were a bit scared of. The first night was also hard as we were tired from the roadtrip and the music started to blast loudly at 7 a.m.! Nonetheless we fell in love with this place quite fast, especially because the hostel was so amazing! We still miss the time there!
We were so lucky to got a place in the Tortuga Hostel as it offered an amazing area to relax and a swimming pool! The pool was necessary as everyday the weather was like in paradise. ☀️😎 And as the name of the hostel suggests there were even one big turtle and 2 small ones running around! 😁🐢
Into the pool
We used the first few days to just relax at the hostel and then made a big decision! As Taganga offers great and cheap diving courses we just booked the Open Water Diving course lasting 3 days at our hostel. From only 3 days in Taganga we extended to 6 days.
The course started with some basic theory at the pool. Our diving instructor Omar spoke really good English and had an amazing calm aura. We definitely needed that! 😅 As we climbed into the pool for the first time with all our gear on, we felt both overwhelmed. Calmly we tried to get under water which wasn’t that easy as the pool was only 1.60m deep. It felt so strange to breath under water for the first time! Magda had some problems at first and panicked a little, but Omar, our diving Buddha, helped her overcome here fears quite fast!
In the pool we had to do some basic exercises like taking out the breathing apparatus or taking off our goggles. It was a bit challenging as the feeling was so new but we made it! With these completely new impressions we were excited for the real diving in the ocean the next two days.
Going really deep
The next morning started quite early. Especially Magda was a bit worried as she panicked in the pool and now we headed into the ocean… 😱
By speedboat we arrived to our first real diving spot and all the lessons we had yesterday jumped into our heads. It was time to get into the water and go around 10m deep…
Magda just got into the water and was the first of our three people crew to reach the bottom. Then came a girl who was also doing the course…and sadly after that Christian really had big problems going down. His ears didn’t clear and so it took like 20 minutes for him to reach the bottom. With this kind of stress it was a big challenge for him to do the complete routine after that.
Beeing so far down in the ocean was amazing and weird likewise. Everything was so new and again overwhelming. We were really happy that we just did a free dive after the lessons and had time to experience the new surroundings for the first time.
Challenge…completed!
The third day started with some big doubts. Christian had still problems with his ears. Luckily we got Omar who calmed him down and he went on the last two dives to get the certificate.
At first we had to do some exercises underwater again and everybody was feeling more comfortable now. We also got to enjoy some more free diving and were lucky to see a lot of different fish, morays and even a seahorse! 🐟🐠🐚
After our last dives for the course we just had to finish a short written test. As we were able to do the test together it got even easier. 😅 And now… WE ARE DIVERS! 😁😁
Escaping the Beach
With these new accomplishments and the awesome hostel in mind it was really hard for us to leave Taganga. We met so many great people, got new stories and definitely got into the Caribbean lifestyle.
Finally we realized that we have time during our travelling! We forgot about the rush of sightseeing and just enjoyed our time…laying all day in a hammock sounds boring but we will miss it! 😅😁 Taganga and Tortuga we had an amazing time and hopefully come back someday!
