Santa Marta to Minca Colombia! Feb 15

This week was a mix of several places. Medellin, Santa Marta and Minca

Comuna 13 is this shantytown neighborhood up on the hillside in Medellin and it's known for its outside escalators and graffiti all over. Lots of Street dancers and vendors and restaurants and extremely loud music everywhere.

Comuna 13 in Medellín has transformed from one of the city's most dangerous areas into a vibrant, safe tourist hub for daytime visits.

Panoramic view from Comuna 13

We also went on the cable car again this day because it was nice and sunny and there was no chance of getting stuck on them in the rain.

these cable cars are public transport to combat the steep hills everywhere in the city instead of over land by bus

After that we rushed up the hill to have some dinner with John and David

Now here's a crazy story for you.

John, my Irish friend. I met in 2003 in Honduras.

John met David in 2008 in Southeast Asia.

I met Lukasz and Nicholas (UK Boys) last year in Peru on a train on February 1st. BUT They were supposed to be on the January 31st train but circumstances changed and they delayed a day and met me. so thats cray cray on its own!

All five of us met for dinner as we were discussing where we are from yada yada.

The UK boys are saying that they're from a small town just outside of Bristol in the UK called Clevedon at David's face just twisted up and he looked at them and he's like you're shitting me. I'm from Clevedon.

It's where he grew up and so the meal unfolded that they basically knew a whole bunch of the same people. David's mother had been into the Gin distillery in Clevedon to visit and was always like talking about the gin boys and the new Gin distillery (David: YOU OWN the Gin Distillery? she never shuts up about it!!) and now we're in, Medellin, Columbia having dinner. Talking about all the people they knew in common. Wild s that had to occur to get us all there in that place. Insane

and then when I asked about a location in Clevedon, David cranks his head in my direction.

YOU'VE BEEN TO CLEVEDON TOO?? Yes Sir! Last May.

Then some of us departed The city the next day and I moved to the northern coast Santa Marta. I had watched a few influencer videos. The place looked beautiful and it was on my list of places to check out.

Santa Marta at Night

Cute and charming at Little seaside Town. Beautiful beaches. I spent about 3 days here.

Caribbean Sea

Wandering around and just checking things out. The few restaurants that I checked out were amazing. I also got eaten alive by sand flies or midges some kind of tiny little bug that you cannot see and they leave the largest most itchiest welts ever. So I also went to a pharmacy to get some Reactin and some other anti-itch type lotion or something. Anyways, the pharmacy actually did me a solid and I got some stuff that worked wonders and I was able to actually not make myself bleed from scratching but that first night I did not get any sleep.

I was supposed to go to Tayrona park which is a national park in the area which is known for it's Absolutely stunning beaches and hikes and jungle walks. This is what I missed!!!!

Tayrona, So sad i missed it

However, due to some bad weather recently and some indigenous pressure, the park was closed while I was there and so unfortunately I missed it.

So instead I booked a sailboat ride where we went snorkeling and just along the coast hoping to see it from the coast, but as it turns out we were not allowed to even sail that direction. It was all good. Still had a beautiful day on the water and I met a new friend Joyce from just outside of Toronto. We're about the same age. Do we travel the same way and we have connected so that we will be friends forever and travel together likely in the future?!

Santa Marta Shoreline

Boat Lunch!!

On Saturday I joined them again after I checked out of my hotel and took the local bus to a new town called Taganga where we had lunch wandered the seaside and then took the back bus back to Santa Marta.

Taganga, fishing village water front

so many street dogs

new friend Joyce!!

Other new friend Gloria

Dirt Roads Taganga

I then transferred to a different bus to go up the hill to a jungle Forest town called Minca. Checked into my hotel wandered through town a bit and found the river where I sat and enjoyed a peaceful hour sitting at the river listening to the birds and just relaxing after a very hot day.