A Little Bit of Paradise

Upon arriving on a Sunday afternoon in Taganga, a small fishing village, I immediately felt the urge to leave. Herds of locals crowded the small and dirty beach and music blared from the restaurants on the sand. What I thought might be a quiet ending to my trip proved the opposite. I hopped on a boat the next day and headed to inside Parque Tayrona located on the Northern coast of Colombia.

Parque Tayrona is filled with jungle, beautiful beaches and the ruins of the Tayrona Indians. When my boat hit land, I immediately claimed my hammock, my bed each night located on a small hill overlooking 2 inlet crescent beaches and chilled out. I spent the next couple of days floating around in the water since I really don't like to swim, watching the sunrise and set, reading by candlelight at night, listening to the waves crash below my hammock, and laughing under the full moon with Andries, a South African who oddly managed to see the same shapes in the clouds that I saw. A perfect bit of paradise without the city chaos. Unfortunately, I can only chill for so long and needed to get back to civilization after 2 days.

I returned the same way that I came, but the boat somehow transformed itself into the death boat that jumped across the turbulent ocean back to Taganga. I unwisely chose a front seat and found myself bouncing up and down and nearly off the motor boat. Overall, I survived the boat ride, but my back didn't. Despite my pain, my frugality steered me into buying a 20 hr bus ride instead of a 1.5 hr plane ride back to Bogota. Of course, I later regretted that decision. Thankfully, Victoria let me stay at her place when I returned to Bogota.


On the same night that I met German, the politician, in Cartagena at a bar, I also met a couple of wonderful people working for USAID, a US government agency that provides international development support around the world. I loved chatting with Victoria. Three years ago, at the age of 34, she left the US and decided to live in Colombia where her father was born. She gave up her life as a real estate agent in Manhattan and decided to start over because she was not happy. Now she is totally in love and married to a Colombian, about to start her own bar business and completely happy.

Interestingly, Victoria tells me that Colombians often ask people "estas contenta?" meaning are you content or happy whereas one of the first questions an American will ask is "what do you do for a living?" as though a job completely defines a person and their level of happiness. I think that most Americans would say "no" to the Colombian question because they are so busy trying to keep up with Jones. Being surrounded by poverty during most of my travels, I try to keep my perspective and am thankful that I am at least healthy. I, like many, have lost a ton in the stock market, but it is only money and we do have better opportunities in the US to keep ourselves above the national line of poverty than we would in many other countries. Although the state of the economy may determine when I must return to the US permanently.

After a nice evening of conversation, Victoria invited me and Lucy, the Brit, over for breakfast the next morning at her Dad's place overlooking the city. I loved the views from the top of the building! Victoria and I met up again in Bogota and spent an evening attending an opening of a new fashion store, salsa dancing at a nearby club and drinking up at Mark's, another USAIDer, gorgeous flat. Fun times indeed.

My time in Colombia has now come to an end, but at least I have met some extraordinary people, learned a little more about this phenomenal country and people, and created friendships I know will last. I am now back in LA for my 5 year MBA reunion.