After the Cuiadad Perdida jungle adventure I spent a few days on the Colombian Carribean Coast in Taganga (with the remaining straddlers from the Cuidad Perdida Trek) and in the idyllic Parque Tayrona. There´s not really much to write about the Parque Tayrona apart from the fact that you have several unspoilt, undeveloped beaches and turquoise/emerald green/ blue ocean. There´s not much to do apart from swim in the ocean, enjoy the seafood, swing in a hammock, read a book and get eaten alive by mosquitoes.
I headed to Mompox after returning from my ocean days. Things got off to a less than ideal start when the "door to door" service that my hostel ordered for me failed to show up at 4am. After asking the hostel owner how I might find my way to Mompox I was reliably informed that I could get a direct bus to El Banco and then a boat to Mompos. Sounded easy enough. I turned up at the bus station to find that I would have to change at a place called Cuatro Vientos to get to El Banco. Cuatro Vientos wasn´t marked on any map that I looked and there´s a good reason why...it consists of a few shacks on a road crossing. From Cuatro Vientos it was a collectivo to El Banco and another 3 hrs on a bumpy road to Mompox. After getting up at 4am, I finally got into Mompox at 6pm. The "travelling" part is definitely the least glamorous part of "travelling".
Mompox is a bit like stepping back in time to a Colombia slightly isolated from the modern day pace of life. It is definitely more Garcia Marquez than Shakira (many say it resembles the Macondo from 100 years of solitude) and has a great charm to it. There really isn´t much to do here apart from "hacer un relax". The colonial buildings here are well preserved and the local residents can be seen sitting out in the street in their rocking chairs watching the bats fly overhead at dusk. For the tourist all you have to do is soak up the local atmosphere, watch the locals play dominoes, read a book in one of the several plazas, drink fruit juice (guava is particularly nice) and swing away in a rocking chair like the locals do.
Mompox maybe isn´t the most happening town in Colombia but it is a great place to wile away a few days not doing very much in a place where time seems to stand still.
