For me, the highlight of our trip so far came in a wildly adventurous and fairly dangerous form, as I suppose and high point of a South American Odyssey might occur.
And that highlight was our boat ride from El Cabo (the last location of the hike through Tayrona) back to Taganga where we were staying. The only way back from El Cabo is to either take a boat, or hike the trail all the way back to the start and catch a bus (this would be about a 3-hour hike). You cannot book the boat in advance because the winds are so dangerous on the northern Caribbean coast of Colombia that they decide pretty last-minute whether or not the journey will take place.
I took my Dramamine about 20 minutes before we got on the boat. Post boat ride, on out wet, salty, sandy, crunchy walk back to our bungalow, I remember hearing Matt say "I can't actually believe how dangerous that was. Like I can't believe it was legal. If I'd known it was going to be like that, I wouldn't have done it."
We shared the boat with a ton of tourists. This is because Taganga is quite touristy so only tourists would be taking the boat from El Cabo back to Taganga. Luckily there was a hilarious group of Spanish fratty guys across from us and beside us.
The water is the most amazing blue. It's unlike any I've seen, even in the Caribbean. It's the deepest, brightest cerulean. And we saw a lot of it.
Basically the water was incredibly rough and we were jumping probably 10-14 foot riptides in the middle of Who Even Knows Caribbean Sea. As we started, and they threw everyone's bags in the bow of the ship for "safe-keeping" (everything was soaking wet when we received it back). We would be physically lifted off the seat when we jumped these white waters. I definitely had moments of "shoot...Ma was right. I am actually going to die in Colombia." But for some reason, I couldn't stop laughing. And neither could most people. It's like we were all hopped up on adrenaline and thought "well I guess it's sort of funny how close we are to death right now." The boat ride was incredibly fun and honestly I wouldn't trade it for anything. I got a lot of good footage on the gopro (which was strapped around my wrist in the waterproof case). I haven't had a chance to review it all yet to see if it's done the journey justice.
I think had we capsized, we would have been saved in not too long because we pretty much ride the coast about 2 miles or so out the whole way back. So the next boat going by would have seen us. We were all wearing life jackets. Matt is pretty sure we would have died though haha :) no radios on board.
Our captain was this skinny, muscular, weathered older man who was quite small but resolute. He stood at the front of the boat the entire time, leaning slightly back whilst holding some rope for balance (this made the rope taut). What a guy. I'd like to buy him an Aguila. The engine our boat used was HUGE as you can imagine. Two Colombian boys manned the engine in the back.
Good grief what a ride. It should have been one of those "kiss the earth" moments upon our return, but I think we were all too stunned and still pretty loopy from the adrenaline to react in that way.
Woohoo life!!!!!
