Taganga - where rubbish lives

Honestly, those who say Taganga is great, are wrong – or maybe they were right, once upon a time. Fair enough the heat of the Caribbean makes one forget time and relax, however, the beach and the surrounding beaches are downright ugly and dirty. Colombians should be ashamed to have allowed such a stunning setting to fall into such disgrace, but perhaps they don’t care, as we saw hundreds of them swimming in amongst the bottles, plastic bags and dirty nappies in the sea (all photographed as evidence).

Taganga is set amongst the Jungle which slopes down towards the sea, and is really is a stunning setting. However, as you descend into the town you realise that things have really gone wrong here in a bad way. The roads off the main beach are hard to walk in, let alone drive a car. 

Playa Grande - nice from a distance

Down on the beach, things weren’t looking great with a dirty sand beach littered with rock and rubbish. After taking a look at the beach we consoled ourselves as we had read there is a beach down a cliff path which was supposed to be one of the best in the region. It still pains me to write that this magical beach, Playa Grande, was perhaps the worst beach either of us have ever seen. Again the setting was great, but the beach was full of dirt and grime, huge piles of rubbish floated amongst playing children. The back of the beach was lined with huge tin warehouses which were apparently restaurants, however, despite being hungry, we had lost our appetite due to the disappointment we felt.

Rubbish in the water

Swimming in the rubbish

Waves lapping on the shore

You can see how perhaps this was once a great place to hang out, with the deep bay littered with fishing boats, fishermen offloading their catch straight onto the beach for sale (or pictures with tourists) and occasional glimpses of true local life at the soccer field or Salsa club on a Sunday afternoon. It has potential to be an intoxicating mix. However it does not handle well the massive influx of tourists from abroad or from Santa Marta on the weekends, and perhaps it is no wonder that the best place to be in Taganga is underwater on a scuba diving course – of which it is well known that Taganga has some of the cheapest (not the best).

Passing long beach days with no beach with Aguila beer

Things we liked about Taganga:

• Good cheap seafood. We ate multiple times at a restaurant called Botarico (which we found out was in the Lonely Planet – which would explain why it was always full). Red snapper, Cazuela (seafood stew), spag bol all really good;

Breakfast

Arepa snacks

• Our apartment, which we moved to after a less than impressive stay at the Divanga hostel (where they gave us a discount of 1 dollar for having construction outside our room at 730am Saturday);
•  The walk along the cliff to Playa Grande gave really nice views back to the town and once around the corner down to Playa Grande (it’s not about the destination ...);
• Bar Pachamama was good fun. We had some great drinks and snacks and good conversation with the bartender and his friend (the drug dealer);

Our favourite menu in town

• Mish “caught” someone trying to break into our apartment. We were coming home late one night and as I opened the outer gate to our complex Mish spotted a guy coming across the road and casually informed me about him. As mish went inside the man said something to me in Spanish, indicating he wanted to come in, when I told him to go away (in my finest French) he grabbed the door and I had to wrestle it away from him and slam it shut. Mish of course was oblivious to the fracas, but later said he looked friendly because he had a beer in his hand … go figure.

Sunset