We are on a bit of a roll accommodation wise, MariaTe introduced us to her sister Carmen, an architect who owns a magnificent house in Palomino, a small town around two hours drive from Santa Marta. We were invited to stay for a couple of days, lucky us!! We had seen photos but they didn't really do it any justice. We had a bit of trouble finding the place in our broken Spanish but after rattling around in a moto-taxi down winding dirt tracks, we finally found it - another spot of paradise! An infinity pool over looking the Sierra Nevada mountains and a beautiful open plan thatched house on top of the hill above the beach. Sulde, the house keeper, came to meet us and showed us around. Her heavy Costenos accent made it near impossible to understand her Spanish so there was a lot of gesturing. And the house was wifi free so we didn't have Google Translate to rely on this time! But we managed fine. The view, the pool, the beach and our books kept us company over the next few days. Oh, and the museum sized bugs which at first gave us a few surprises but later became our friends. The mosquitoes however will never be our friends and sadly we were totally blighted by them. They were everywhere and I was constantly covering myself in DEET but the bastards even got me through my clothes so I was fighting a losing battle. Better to just stay in the pool then! The sea has very strong currents so is not recommended to swim in but the beach provided a welcome breeze in the sweltering heat and a lovely walk. We pretty much had the whole beach to ourselves! Sulde made us some mean huevos arepas for breakfast and treated us to a wonderfully fresh fish dinner one evening. So fresh, we think they arrived to the house in buckets as we heard them being knocked out moments later! The highlight activity in the area is tubing down one of the two rivers Palomino sits between. Albert, Sulde’s eldest son, was our guide and made sure we didn't float off into the mangroves. It was such a shame we couldn't properly communicate with him as he was such a friendly chap and was clearly intrigued by us. No photos as you get soaked so the cameras were left at home, but it's a super relaxing activity. You just sit in the rubber ring and float away letting the river’s current take you as you glide through the rainforest. It's refreshing too as the water is cool, and we established early on that there were no baddies in the river so you literally lean back and watch the world go by. And then, we lost all power for a full 48 HOURS!! There was a terrible storm, with the kind of thunder that makes the ground rumble and sets off car alarms. We didn't mind having no electricity at first, we had some candles and luckily a torch which Albert had given us earlier that day, but the worst was that we had no fans! The heat whist trying to sleep was indescribable! The only relief was a cold shower every hour and wet towels to lie under whist trying to keep very still! The museum bugs also seemed to take pleasure in the cover of darkness. Thank god I had my mosquito net that I have been uselessly hauling around with me for months. There was a lot of nakedness as we did pretty much everything to try to keep cool. Even the pool was like a bath! It wasn't much fun at first, especially when our laptop and both phones ran out of battery which meant we were totally cut off but looking back on it now, it's a good story for the grandkids.
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AuthorsRob & Charlie's travelling adventures on their long journey back to London after living in Hong Kong. Four continents, twelve countries, lots of experiences. Archives
July 2017
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Robert Ware & Charlotte Nunn |