Where have we been?

Taganga, Minca & Santa Marta (Colombia)

 

Where have we stayed?

3 nights @ local’s house with room for rent 40,000 pesos, £8 per night double room, clean and we were allowed to use the kitchen to cook fresh seafood just landed a 5 min stroll from the house.

2 nights@ Casa Loma  90,000 pesos, £22.50 per night for double room in the tree house, private balcony, stunning views, chilled vibes, eco friendly, no wifi, no fan/ air con, great veggie food.

1 night @ Sierra Nevada 55,000 pesos, £13.75 family run, very clean, no fan, ok wifi.

1 night @ hostel Miramar 60,000 pesos, £15 small clean room, relaxed atmosphere, free breakfast, good wifi.

 

What have we spent?

Still on a £50 per day budget  £350 per week.

Total Accommodation: 391,000 pesos, £97.75

Total Food: £73.50

Rough price of main meal is around £2- £5 estimated 3 meals @ £3.50

Transport:

Taganga-Santa Marta bus: 2800 pesos, £0.70

National park bus/boat trip:  25,000 pesos, 2800 pesos, 45,000 pesos boat each: 145,600 pesos, £36.40

Taxi to Minca: 22,000 pesos, £5.50

Taxi from Minca: 16,000, £4

Total transport: £46.60

What have we done?

Diving: 2 dives each 130,000 pesos , £32 each

Tayrona National Park: 35,000 pesos, £8.75 each

Hiking : free

Cascade waterfalls: 3000 pesos, £0.75 each

Coffee Plantation: 10,000 pesos, £2.50 each

Total cost of Experiences: £88

 

Total spent: £305.85

Loss/ Profit?  We have probably broke even this week as that £44.15 extra  we add to miscellaneous drinks, cheeky coffee & cake, new flip flops

What we loved?

It had been slightly over a year since we had been Scuba diving. So our highlight of this week was getting back into the under water world. Hear about our fun dives in our Taganga post.
What we learned?

• Don’t sit on a petrol can of the boat
• Don’t let a cat in your room whilst sleeping catastrophical!!
• We can achieve much more than we think we can. We just need to act on situations.
• That we are able to eat only vegetarian meals, the only non-veg we will eat is fresh seafood.

 

How’s the Spanish going?
We are now having simple conversations in Spanish to locals who are able to comprehend what we are saying. A few words may be mixed up but we are definitely on track in listening for key words and understanding the basic context of the conversation. By pushing ourselves to learn more words we are also able to interact in the conversation. We know we can always do better and strive to be fluent in Spanish one day soon!

We were able to translate for a Russian guy and Filipino woman in the restaurant as the waitress was trying to tell them there was no fresh juice except maracuya (passion fruit) and they had no idea what she was saying so we manage to tell them. They were so thankful and the woman then thought we actually spoke Spanish and now we feel more confident and very happy with our accomplishments as we basically had no Spanish when we arrived.