We went to Taganga for our first full beach day of many to come in the next few weeks. At almost 40 degrees it was definitely sunbathing weather! The beach wasn't the most beautiful I'd ever seen but may have had the most atmosphere and character of any beach id ever been to! Renowned as a party beach, Taganga was surprisingly clean with clear blue water and no litter, and the surrounding mountains of Santa Marta provided pretty great views.

The beach was packed with locals who were mostly all crammed under tony patches of shade on chairs, which was an extremely funny site; there could be for example 50 Colombians all sat shoulder to shoulder under one tree! We found ourselves a spot on the sand to discover that this beach cove was incredibly windy and every 5 minutes or so it was as if we were laying in a sand storm - not the most relaxing! We got used to it after a while and to be honest it didn't matter, we were both just so happy to be sunbathing on a Colombian beach by the Caribbean Sea. The sea was absolutely freezing which was actually very refreshing with the baking heat.

In the afternoon we decided to visit another of the nearby beaches, Playa Grande and took a boat over to a different bay. The beach was nicer than Taganga with better ocean views but was absolutely fillllllled with people - I had never seen a beach so busy! There was no where on the sand to lay and nowhere in the sea to swim. Again all the Colombian huddled under the small bits of shade and the wind was even stronger there! Unfortunately we didn't last very long on that beach and after being pummelled with sand we chose to get the boat back to Taganga. We definitely aren't Colombian!

After a look round the shops and some more sunbathing we got a drink at a beach bar and headed back to our hostel. Excitingly the hostel was running an event for the night and we both signed up more than ready for a night out. We had some drinks at the bar, including a bucket of watermelon juice and Aguadiente (a South American spirit made from aniseed) before it was time to get on the..... PARTY BUS! It was literally an old school bus with seats round the sides and poles in the middle, blasting music and 45 of us from the hostel dancing on it with unlimited alcohol as it drove around the streets of Santa Marta; it was crazy and I must say extremely difficult to drink standing on a moving bus - rum was everywhere.

We stopped and got out a couple of times on the way and eventually made it to a club, by which point we were all very very drunk. The club was so much fun and the locals genuinely salsa dance to the Latin American music that was played all night. At one point Liv was swept away by a Colombian man who gave her a salsa lesson on the dance floor! I gave it a go with a guy named Justin from the hostel and all in all it was a really entertaining night.