Taganga

 

Taganga is a beautiful horseshoe-shaped bay and ancestral fishing village just north of Santa Marta.

 

Surrounded by mountains, natural views, beaches, deserts, marine fauna as well as deep and tranquil water that constitutes one of the most important scuba diving locations on the Colombian Caribbean Sea with about 2.000 inhabitants and a conservative culture which has impeded its overdevelopment.

 

Taganga is a very authentic and relaxing fishing village, with beautiful beaches, on the Caribbean coast of Colombia. It’s located 10 minutes by minibus from Santa Marta. Taganga welcomes many tourists every year, but still remains unspoiled. A must see for every traveler in Colombia!

Santa Marta

 

Santa Marta, a coastal city on the Colombia Caribbean Sea, lays claim to being the oldest surviving colonial town in Colombia. It was Rodrigo de Bastidas who planted a Spanish flag here in 1525, deliberately choosing a site at the foot of the Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta to serve as a convenient base for the reputedly incalculable gold treasures of the Tayronas.

 

Santa Marta is a reasonable small city with a population of approximately 410.000 inhabitants. Santa Marta is a poor, but interesting city and has many beautiful beaches.

 

The native inhabitants were the Indian Tayronas which populated the Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta long before the Spaniards came. They lived of fishing, extraction of the marine salt and the exchange of products with other towns. The Tayronas are divided into Aruhacos, Koguis and Wiwas.

 

The 5 most popular things to do while in Santa Marta are:

• Visit National Park Tayrona with it´s gorgeous beaches

• The adventurous 6 day trek to The Lost City

• Get a Scuba diving licence or do some fun dives

• Learn Spanish

• Do nothing and relax in a hammock

Colombia

 

Colombia is located at the centre of our planet, at the north-east of the South American Cone, on the equatorial line. Colombia has a population of approximately 45 million habitants, which makes it the 4th largest country in South America with the second largest population. It shares borders with five nations: Venezuela, Brazil, Ecuador, Peru and Panama.

 

The capital is Bogotá D.C. (2.600 m). Colombia is the only South American country with coastlines on both the North Pacific Ocean and the Caribbean Sea. 25% percent of the Colombian population is living below the poverty line.

 

Three mighty North-South Andean mountain ranges separate the western coastal lowlands from the almost empty eastern jungles, with 54 percent of Colombia´s land but only 3 percent of the people.

 

Most Colombians are of mixed ethnicity; about 20 percent claim European descent. Native Indians, about one percent of the population, live in the eastern jungles. Colombia is home to 5 different nature-zones, including the Atlantic Coast, the Pacific Coast, the Orinoquía, the Amazon and the Andean region. It is a country with beautiful nature and many different cultures and customs.