Feb. 20 Day 5 Minca to Taganga

The coffee woman, not to be trifled with.

A small taste of the hummingbird porch.

Feb.20, Day 5
 Up early for an excellent breakfast with sour (in a nice way) orange juice on a porch buzzing with dozens of hummingbirds.  We then piled into 4 x 4s up some very bumpy roads to a coffee plantation.  Unfortunately, 4 or so of our group were stomach-challenged and didn't like the thought of a long, bumpy ride. 
 After being properly churned by the drive we got a tour by the owner, a woman who had to be in her 70s.  She talked about  reluctantly taking over the plantation after her parents passed on s they wouldn't have to sell it off.  She was quite proud of her husbands inventions to augment the core machines which were mostly over 100 years old.  They made their own compost and used running water to move beans and power most of the plantation, either mechanically or electrically.  Se lamented how little (less than a dollar a pound) the growers got from the companies selling coffee and how difficult it was for a small plantation to get licenced to sell overseas.  She was a real force of nature and probably tough as nails.  Also, the coffee was excellent and Meg bought a slice of cake that kicked butt.
 We drove back along the same road and then pulled over for a short hike down to a swimming hole under a waterfall.  It was small but the water was cool and felt delicious on such a hot day.  Then is was back into the truck in our wet suits and back to our hotel for lunch.
 After some more hummingbird time we took paved but switchbacked roads that followed the coast into the big city of Santa Marta and then into the small beach town of Taganga.  It looked idyllic but Filipe warned us about not going more than 5 blocks away from the beach or over the lonely trail to another beach one cove over.  We were desperately in need to laundry so dropped that off and headed for the beach.  They rented beach chairs for a little over a dollar and the water was cool and deep.  Swimming and lounging was the order of the day until Filipe took us our for beer and rum shots on a beach patio.  Meg got tipsy and so we danced on the beach and things weren't so bad.  We had several great conversations with our fellow group members, these trips attract many seasoned travellers who have so much knowledge about places we are going or want to go to.
 We stumbled off to dinner at Babaganouche, which was one of the few things they didn't have on the menu.  The food and conversation were great and we found out that Filipe would be joining us for the last city week of the tour, which was not the original plan but was good news for us.
 Back at the hotel, we found that our neighbours liked cranking out football games and loud music.  Unfortunately, this did not stop.  Meg got up at about 4 am and a nervous guard told her it was carnivale.  Later, we found out it was a club two blocks away that the town and the police couldn't stop playing loud music for some unexplained reason. 

Beach town of Taganga with unnamed supermodel in foreground.

It basically went all night and few in our group got much sleep.  It was occasionally punctuated by loud bangs and would stop between songs just long enough for you to get your hopes up before starting again.  Brutal.