Cartagena to Rodadero - 5th October to 17th October

After a bit of gentle persuasion I finally managed to convince Dan that we had plenty of time to squeeze in a couple of weeks in Colombia. The bribe was the promise of some scuba diving in the warm crystal blue waters of the Caribbean with some much needed beach time thrown in. So, feeling pretty pleased with myself, I had a look on-line at average temperatures and rainfall in Colombia in October only to find that October is, by far, the wettest month! Undeterred, we went ahead and booked flights to Cartagena via Bogotá regardless.

Unfortunately we didn't get off to the best start. We left our hotel at 3am to catch our 6am flight to Bogotá which was delayed (because of the weather!!) which meant we missed our connection to Cartagena - leaving us with an extra 5 hours in Bogotá airport. We spent the time watching the most horrendous storm and the rain lashing down and flooding the airport. Fortunately the rain finally subsided and we boarded our flight to Cartagena wondering whose bright idea this was. An hour and a half later we landed in Cartagena where we were met, much to my relief, with clear blue skies and wall of Caribbean heat. Happy days!

We took a taxi to our hostel which was located just outside the Old City. We checked in then headed out for dinner. By this time is was pretty dark and there were lots of armed police around which was not so obvious in the daylight. Whilst on one hand this can make you feel safer, on the other it does make you wonder how bad things can be to warrant such heavy security in a busy touristy area. The door to our hostel was also kept permanently padlocked which doesn't give you the best first impression.

Erring on the side of caution, we decided to stay close to our hostel until we had a chance to explore in the daylight. Luckily there were plenty of places to eat and we found a really nice restaurant a block away where we had a lovely meal.

The following morning we woke to another beautiful hot sunny day and headed out to explore. Cartagena is reputedly one of the Caribbean's most beautiful cities and was declared a World Heritage Site in 1984. The walled Old City is where the bulk of the sightseeing is and is packed with colonial architecture and plazas and flower laden balconies on beautiful brightly coloured weathered buildings which use coral from the surrounding sea's reefs as their primary construction material. We spent most of the day wandering through the streets just enjoying the relaxed atmosphere.

The following day we headed in the other direction to the Castillo de San Felipe de Barajas, the largest and most important fortress in Cartagena built between 1656 and 1798. We rented one of those audio guide things which was a bit long and dull but did have some interesting tit bits which was useful as there were no information placards in or around the castle. We spent a couple of hours exploring the grounds and under ground tunnels and generally trying to avoid the intense afternoon sun - funny how that happens!

Desperate to escape the heat of the city the following morning we boarded a bus to Taganga, some 4-5 hours (160km) east of Cartagena. Taganga is a small fishing village with unpaved streets and a small bay of equally small fishing boats. In recent years Taganga has sprouted lots of dive shops and has become one of cheapest spots in the world for scuba certification. So, our first stop was Poseidon Dive Centre where we signed up for our Advanced Open Water Dive Course which consists of 5 different 'Adventure Dives' and started in 2 days time. We then headed off in search of accommodation (or sweat box as it lovingly became known) then down to the beach for dinner followed by pancakes with chocolate and ice cream - yum.

We spent the next day lazing on the beach and getting kitted up with our dive gear for the start of our course the following day. As usual we were given some homework reading for our first 2 dives - Deep and Navigation - which we had to do before our first dive the following morning so that was the evening accounted for!

The following morning we were up nice and early and looking forward to our first 2 dives. On arrival at the dive centre our instructor told us we would be starting with Navigation and Buoyancy. Glad we read up on Deep then!

There were 12 of us in total on the boat which was a bit cramped but only the 2 of us completing our Advanced Course so we had the instructor to ourselves which was a bonus. We started with the Buoyancy Dive which aims to refine your underwater bouyancy so that you don't drift up or down, or crash into delicate corals. There were a few tests such as swimming through underwater hoops and hovering above the bottom in various positions. It was good fun and we both learned a lot from it. Next was the Navigation Dive which involved following compass readings and natural features. It was a bit frustrating as we were getting pulled off course by a pretty strong current, but we both managed to complete the tasks successfully so job done. We had enough air at the end of each dive for a bit of a look around the reef as well, which was bright and colourful.

Day 2 and we had both the instructor and the boat to ourselves which made getting into our gear a bit easier. It poured with rain during the night so we were not expecting the visibility to be good but luckily the sea was really calm so it wasn't too bad. We started with the Deep Dive to 30 meters; our PADI Open Water had only allowed us to go to 18 meters. We had some fun playing ping pong with a raw egg yolk which stayed intact thanks to the pressure at this depth but more importantly neither of us had any negative reaction to Nitrogen Narcosis (a kind of euphoric drunken feeling that can come on from breathing nitrogen under this pressure) - although we did mistake a bright red tomato for a brown/green/yellow kiwi fruit thanks to there being no red light at this depth! These were really nice and relaxing dives as there were no 'tasks' to complete, so we could spend the whole time swimming about the reef and enjoying the colourful fish and corals. The three of us had two whole dive sites to ourselves which was a treat.

Day 3 and our 5th and final dive was Photography. Very interesting but it would have been helpful if my camera battery had been charged before the dive! I managed to take about 10 photos before the camera died, but luckily Dan's was fully charged so he managed a few more photos and between us we got some nice shots. We were also rewarded with a free fun dive on the last day which was a nice way to finish off the course.

Despite a bit of drift the diving here was so much more relaxing than some of the other dives we have done - the water is calmer and considerably warmer which was lovely and also meant more efficient air consumption and longer dive times! Although there are not the big wow fish and turtles like the Great Barrier Reef and Galapagos we still saw some cool stuff including a huge puffer fish, barracudas, sting rays, moray eels and some beautiful lion fish. The lion fish are not native to these waters (they were introduced as a result of an aquarium breakage in Florida or somewhere in the States!) and with no natural predators are becoming a bit of a problem. As a result the dive masters spear them to try and keep the population under control. Very sad and another example of human error creating havoc on the planet! Okay, I will get off my soap box now!

Back at the hotel we celebrated with a few beers / Smirnoff Ice then (after a bit of a nap for me - no change there!) headed out for a celebratory dinner. We have now completed 22 dives which is pretty staggering and way beyond either of our expectations.

After our course we headed to the beach side resort of Rodadero for a few days of lazing on the beach and soaking up some rays. Rodadero is described in the guidebook as "loveably tacky" which is probably a fair description. It is really popular with partying Colombians and we happened to arrive in the middle of a holiday week. The beach was packed out every day and well into the evening. At night the beach fills up with pizza and kebab stalls and swarms of people sits around on their plastic chairs eating pizza and drinking beer. There are still people in the sea past 8pm which is not such a bad idea when the temperature is still up around 25C. The only time the beach cleared was during one of the unpredictable rain showers which fortunately were usually confined until after dark.

We took a break from the beach on our second last day here to visit Tayrona National Park - "Colombia's Premier Caribbean Paradise". Tayrona is Colombia's most unspoilt tropical area and is around 45 times the size of New York's Central Park. It is a wilderness of jungle fringed beaches and lush forest and a very relaxing place to spend the day. We saw lots of leaf carrying ants and a Cayman crocodile which was pretty cool. We had considered spending the night here sleeping on a hammock on the beach but the unpredictable night time weather deterred us.

On the drive back to Rodadero from Tayrona the heavens opened and the resulting floods were immense. In a short period of time roads turned into rivers and became impassable, water was flowing into peoples homes and businesses and still the locals seemed to take it all in their stride - carrying on with their games of pool or just sitting around watching it all unfold. Incredible to watch and mind blowing how relaxed the locals were about it all.

Back in Rodadero the streets were flooded and we had to wade through ankle deep water in our road to get back to our hotel. Needless to say the town was in darkness except for emergency generators which provided minimal lighting. By this time the rain was easing off and after an hour or so the floods began to drain away and the small river that our road had turned into dispersed as quickly as it arrived. A very very odd experience.

Looks like our decision not to sleep outside in a hammock was the right one!

So, tomorrow we head back to Cartagena then to Bogotá for a few days. We have our fingers crossed that the weather in Bogotá is better than it was on our previous short stop over.

Take care and we look forward to seeing you all again in 7 weeks time!

Sue & Dan xxx