Taganga / Santa Marta Colombia

Hello everyone! We've moved out of Cartagena and further north to a small fishing village called Taganga. We've actually been here for 3 days now and have enjoyed our time here for the most part. There's more English speaking tourist here than there were in Cartagena but the crowd here is younger and full of backpackers. It's what I would call a "hippie" town. It's been very crowded over the weekend due to Colombia's Independence Holiday. Party's going on all night w/loud music. Not really our thing we're deciding. We'll call it "maturing". The beach is very nice and the water is much clearer & colder here than Cartagena but it feels so good...it's very HOT here. Bob & I are up to 3 showers a day because we sweat so much from walking. We haven't done any tours yet. Bob's been deciding where he wants to lay his head each night. We've been here 3 days and we've stayed in 2 different hostels. Needless, to say I've been a little irritated. There are 2 "hotels" here while the rest are "hostels". The hostels are priced nicely and are very nice but none of them have A/C and can be a little louder than a hotel. Our 1st day here; we had no reservations but we had done a little homework on some of the hostels we were interested in. We had 5 places in mind and we would check each of them out for the best beds. Bob has a thing about beds. Anyway, I did mention it was a holiday weekend and everyplace we had on our list was booked. So, we spent all day carrying our luggage to find something with availability. We did find one and it was rather cute too called Bayview. Our 1st night there Bob was miserable. He said it was way too hot for him. So, we checked out the next day. We spent all day AGAIN looking for another place to stay. Our options were very limited since all the hostels and hotels were full. The hostel next door had availability so by the end of the day we decided to take it. We were in a nice big room but it was in the front by the lobby and it was loud. People came and went all hours and the lobby is a place for conversations. This didn't work out for us either. Bob got up early the next morning and ventured out for another hostel. We had been wanting to get into this one place called La Holanda; very nice place but it too was booked daily. The policy here is a little different. When we check in we don't need to tell them how long we plan to stay so, each hostel has no idea of availability till that day's check out (11:00 a.m.) So, we asked the owner here at Moramar if there was another room we could move into away from the lobby. Lucky for us; someone had just checked out and we moved towards the back. So, 3 beds in 3 nights.....Please let this work for Bob! Guess what my friends...we're still in the room. Woohoo! Other than that all is good. I gotta tell ya "high maintenance man and low budget is difficult". That's all I'm gonna say. We do plan to move to another city not far from here called Santa Marta. We went there today for a look and it's nice. It's a much bigger city, beautiful beach and a little more diversity. We'll be staying at La Brisa Loca for the next few nights (hopefully). And we do have reservations for a private room w/aircondition. http://www.labrisaloca.com/ We booked our Galapagos Island Cruise out of Ecuador. I'm so excited about this deal. Bob found it in his internet search and we jumped on it. They were running a special 2 for 1 and since we have nothing but time. We are able to be in Ecuador the week the special takes place. Here's the link of the boat we'll be boarding. Looks amazing. http://www.galapagosexcursions.net/galapagos_luxury_tours/nina_luxury_class_cruise/index.htm Nothing much going. Just kicking back and enjoying life's ventures. We'll stay in touch and hope everyone is doing well. Hugs! B&B