Tganga, Christmas, Tyrona and Cartagena

The Christmas period didn´t go precisely to plan due to our little group being hit by an ongoing bout of random illnesses. It all started when Tom fell over on Ciudad Perdida and twisted his ankle. Following that we stayed at a camp on the trip where Eli got really bad vomiting illness of some kind, the common travellers bug but particularly not fun when you still have 2 days to walk. We got back to Tganaga safely where we had a big night out which Chris took on with all his energy consuming the majority of the 2 lt bottle of rum, it was funny until the next day when he contracted the Eli bug as well, followed shortly by Tom. Chris made it through the day and we ended up on the random boat trip which I have no photos of because I was just wandering down the beach at the time.

Tom chilling in our apartment:

On Christmas eve Eli, Chris and I headed over to Santa Marta to shop which was a bit of a disaster because it turned out to be a massively busy shopping day for some reason. Anyway, I had no shortage of sunglasses to chose from, we though these were funny pics:

In the evening Eli, Rafael and I made a good attempt at the other bottle of rum before we went to the dinner. This is Raf and Eli playing poc-ite!
Unfortunately Eli made a bit too much of a good attempt and ended up cutting his evening short. Raf and I perservered through and ended up in `El Garage` (the only club) until the early hours. Tom by this point was staying in bed, Chris was with Ranie and Simon did the sensible thing and didn´t go clubbing.

I suffered the next day. Christmas was a very hung over day involving lots of siestas and limited eating, actually all I ate was homemade pancakes which were very good. By the evening I had gone down with the virus and spent the whole night dashing to the loo. I´ve never vomited so much, it was miserable.

Tganga wasn´t proving to be a healthy place so Boxing day we decided to go to Tyrona. One of Ranie´s friends, a lovey guy called Moras, drove me, Eli, Chris and Ranie to the National Park. I was better but not full of energy and it wasn´t the best idea. I had thought it was going to be an 40min walk and then I could relax but I instead ended up walking for about 3 hours carrying all my stuff. I wasn´t so happy. It is a beautiful place though and eventually we settled at a campsite and I got a hammock and went to sleep.

The next day I woke up having been bitten 32 times on my face. Not happy. Actually it was more funny than anything because Eli is unable to have a serious conversation so I was laughing before I´d even got out of my hammock, good thing he was there! I still couldn´t eat much, and I had a horrible headache, possibly caused by mass biting, so I stayed around the campsite most of the day. Simon and Tom pitched up which was nice but Tom was still not well and got steadily worse over the next two days. I spent three nights in Tyrona and met lots of people who had been in Tganga as well, there was a nice little group by the last day who are hopefully all going to be together for New Years.

This is Tyrona National Park, the Colombians are very proud of it with good reason but I don´t think I was able to make the most of my time there:

Ranie is a very spirital person, very into yoga, crystals, bindis and ummmms. It´s not totally my thing but the others got into it a little. This is Lewis playing one of Ranies un-namable instruments and Ranie preparing crystals for us all to wear. Lying next to Lewis is his other half, Collette, from Watford!! Hopefully they will be around for New Years.

With Tom still not 100% or anywhere near, Simon and Tom decided to stay in Santa Marta and Eli and I headed off to Cartagena with the responibility of finding accomodation. We got to Cartagena about 9ish last night, 29th Dec, and managed to find somewhere for us to stay in a hotel. The hostels here are rammed and there are travellers wandering the streets trying to find beds. It is a very cool city though and I´m looking forward to New Years here. We went wandering round the old town last night which is still lit up with Christmas lights, which may I add are so much better here than in England. I´m still not feeling 100%, got a headache and am quite tired so poor Eli had to deal with me in a strop last night - whoops.

This is Cartagena old town by night: