Settling Into Beach Life in Taganga Colombia
Taganga Colombia is an interesting place to live.
At times a sleepy fishing village and at times a loud tourist destination, these two worlds seem at odds here. On the one hand, if you are an overnight or weekend tourist, you would be tempted to think that all of your basic needs are easy to find in Taganga. But if you are staying longer, it becomes clear quickly that one has to adjust to a different pattern of life.
We’ve been making the adjustment, and it’s working out just fine.
So what’s it like here, when you aren’t in tourist mode?
Tourism in Taganga Colombia
As the population of Taganga Colombia is only around 5,000 people, the tourism infrastructure can’t be too extensive, and it isn’t.
But this is a good thing, as it keeps the population of tourists at reasonable levels overall. And if the crowds get too much, all you have to do is wait until the weekend is over and things become much more laid back.
Presuming that people are only interested in legal tourist activities, Taganga has 4 major tourism draws:
- Explore Playa de Taganga and the local waterfront area
- Explore Playa Grande and other nearby beaches
- Snorkeling/Diving/Boating
- Departure point to explore Tayrona National Natural Park
At this early point in our stay, we’ve only done a couple of items on this list. But we fully plan on doing everything eventually!
Meeting Day-to-Day Needs in Taganga Colombia
Getting our long-stay Airbnb outfitted properly has been an interesting experience. Grocery and supplies shopping is limited here, restricted to a handful of corner stores that seem to sell the same limited number of items.
The basics are certainly for sale.
Rice, beans, cervezas, water, bread, and essential cleaning supplies are all available. And the prices are surprisingly reasonable. Fresh meat and produce, however, are very hit or miss. To us, it reminds us of shopping in remote campground stores when we camped in the United States. You can find the basic supplies you need, but there will be compromises.
We suspect that the lack of shopping diversity is a problem for the locals too. Thankfully, there is an easy solution.
There is a public bus that frequently makes the 15-minute run between Taganga and Santa Marta. And it drops you off directly at the Santa Marta Public Market, which is HUGE! You can buy anything you need there. You then just hop on the bus back to Taganga.
Best of all, bus fare only costs $2,400 COP/$0.50 USD each way!
Needless to say, this is a popular route with the locals and the bus can be packed full.
We’ve already made this trip a couple of times, and we think we finally have our Airbnb fully outfitted for the month.
Springing The Tourist Trap – Visiting the Taganga Waterfront
The waterfront area of Taganga Colombia is actually very nice but is more rustic than some might expect. It reminds me a little of some of the island communities we stayed in when we visited the Galapagos Islands in another life. The waterfront is a mix of reasonably priced restaurants, bars, hostels, beach-centric shops, general tiendas, and street vendor stalls. There is also an area where guides offer tours of the natural wonders of the region.
The actual waterfront is split into two areas: Playa de Taganga (Taganga beach) and the fisherman boat launch.
You can visit the beach for free. But if you wish to rent a chair and sunshade it will cost extra.
And you can buy fish directly from the fisherman in the boat launch area, should your culinary inclinations steer you in that direction.
The waterfront might sound extremely busy, but it is actually laid back compared to any of the tourism-based coastal communities I can think of in the United States.
Honestly, it is really easy to escape the bustle if you want.
Just get off the waterfront and explore the other streets of Taganga! The further away from the waterfront you get, the more laid back (and cheaper) it becomes.
Hanging Out On The Beach – Two Travel Turtles Style
As we’ve made clear by now, Two Travel Turtles are not a fan of hanging out in big crowds. And that especially goes for beaches! Being elbow to elbow lying on the beach with a herd of sunbathers is not our idea of fun.
But thankfully with a little effort and planning, it is easy to spend a good 3 or 4 hours on a beautiful beach in Taganga and have some room to really relax.
And for us, that means hanging out on Playa Grande!
Playa Grande is a beach about 1 kilometer away from the Taganga waterfront, although there is no direct road to get there. The only way to get there is by cliff walk footpath or by boat shuttle from the Taganga waterfront.
What we prefer to do is get an early start and walk to Playa Grande, getting there at about 9:00 am. At that time we might be sharing the beach with 8 other people, plus the beach workers.
We have the run of the place, so we usually rent two beach chairs ($5,000 COP/$1.04 USD each), position them strategically under a shade tree, and enjoy ourselves. We swim for a while, then read and relax on our shaded area of the beach.
It is really nice!
But as the morning progresses, boat shuttles bring more and more people from Taganga. So by about noon, we are ready to wrap things up.
For comparison, this is what Playa Grande looks like on a weekend or holiday!
There are other local beach options too.
On the opposite side of Playa Grande is a mildly treacherous cliffside path that takes you to a number of small beaches, popular with the locals due to a lack of tourist traffic. At the far end of this path is Playa Rosita, which only a few determined individuals reach.
Be warned that the path to these more obscure beaches can be tough to find. We only found it using our Maps.me app!
Here is a map of the hike from AllTrails that shows the general route, but Maps.me has more specific path details.
Closing Thoughts
So this has been our life for the last week. Getting our Airbnb up and running and living the beach life as best as we can.
Dreadful, we know.
Of course, we are going to explore snorkeling and diving opportunities, as well as Tayrona National Natural Park. But we are going to take this weekend to do some boots-on-the-ground research so we get the best deals for those activities
Until next time…
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