My cousin once explained to me how horrible traveling over 24 hours was and I had never planned on doing it so I didn’t think twice about it. Well it happened, I was stuck traveling for almost 26 hours on the same damn continent. I think as an American I take for granted how interconnected our flights are and the same probably goes for Europeans. It’s pretty simple to get anywhere you want without super long delays and it’s cheap (well cheaper). My flight started in Santa Marta at 3pm pretty much just walked on the plane that’s how small this airport was. There was literally no security at this airport; I walked on the plane with a large amount of liquids and a Swiss army knife in my bag. I guess the Taliban doesn’t care about Colombia. I got to Bogota an hour later and had to wait 8 hours till my flight to Sao Paulo at 11:59pm. I got to Sao Paulo at 8am, which I had to sit in the smallest waiting area till 4pm for my flight to Montevideo, Uruguay. If you are an American you have to have a Brazilian visa before leaving the country in order to visit, you cannot get one there. So I was stuck in my terminal sitting with one sandwich shop for hours. The only reason I didn’t fly straight into Buenos Aires is due to the fee they put on Americans of $140 if you fly into the country it doesn’t exist for land or sea travel into the country. By flying into Uruguay I save that and also get to see another country on my trip. The downside is I would’ve only had an 8 hour trip if I had simply flew direct to Argentina instead of this full day of travel. I’m still trying to gage if it was worth saving the money.
Stupid me decided to have my flight booked out of Cartagena to Bogota, which is 3.5 hour shuttle ride from Santa Marta where I was. The flight was at 5 pm but all the shuttles were booked till 1230, which would’ve left me probably missing my flight. So luckily “Shakira” my nickname for the front desk girl told me you were allowed to actually cancel your flight and get a credit. It only cost $30 to cancel/change the flight to 5 days later thus giving me more time with my new found family and extra days of summer instead of my original plan to have my 5 last days in Bogota which is cold year round due to the elevation.
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| Oldest Cathedral In South America |
Santa Marta was not exactly the most beautiful city, but it had its charms. Close to Tayrona, cheap food and less humidity than Cartagena. The nightlife however was leaps and bounds better than Cartagena. This was mostly due to the ridiculous amount of backpackers who venture there in order to do the lost city trek or go to Taryona. Every night people would be out till 5-8am. The night would always start out with everyone pregaming at the hostel then going to one of two clubs in the fishing village 10 minutes away in Taganga. El Mirador or Sensations were the two huge discotecas in the village of Taganga. Everyone dancing the night away till around 4am then an after party would commence at the Israeli hostel till sunlight. One of the nights Luke had the grand idea of getting everyone from our hostel to skinny dip after El Mirador closed in the Caribbean ocean in Taganga. What we all failed to realize is that the police station was only 100 yards away. So as 15 of us are in the ocean Luke is standing naked on the beach trying to convince Taylor the last one to lady up and do it. Next thing you know 5 cops are walking up one with a giant log, which he tosses at a drunken naked Luke. Luke immediately sprints to the ocean. The cops then tell everyone that if we get out now we wont get in trouble. So everyone gets out of the ocean and gets dressed. However Ollie the hilarious English ginger kid whom Ashley coined the nickname “Big Fucking Ginge” wonders over to a group of Colombians thinking they took his clothes as a joke. As they all sit laughing at him, everyone yells to Ollie his clothes are with us.
