What the heck is " Sticky Lollipop Head" ?
Its a condition that is all too prevalent here on the tropical coasts of Latin America.
It can only be truly appreciated by people like me who have no hair on their heads (through mechanical or natural means).
Its so humid and hot down here that you are constantly sweating during the day. The moisture from the sweating does evaporate (albeit slowly), but the body oils that the skin pores emit do not. The result is that after a couple of hours you find that you are covered with a layer of slime... and it stays there and collects the dust etc till you have a wash.
Im currently staying in a very basic hostel here in Santa Marta and the dorm rooms are cooled during the nights with a single ceiling fan... This is a bit inadequate, and the nights are quite stuffy if there are a few people in the dorm...
And so, this morning as people woke up and discovered that the water was also not working (for one reason or another), an Irish guy called Glen declared ..." I need to go have a swim to get rid of this sticky Lollipop head"... So thats what I will call this condition from now on :)))
Actually Glen is a really great guy and is half of (along with Lee) an Irish musical documentary team. They are travelling around with their guitars through South America for a few months connecting with local musicians and making some sort of a documentary... It gives them a reason to go places, see people and do things, so I think its great :)
They are great guys and have added to the atmosphere here a lot for the last couple of days... They are however hard on their guitars!... They have only been on the road a couple of weeks, and one guitar has a big hole in it from a Coconut being lobbed (in a friendly way) at the player, and last night the other guitar got beaten up by one of those afore mentioned ceiling fans... Its now got a couple of sizeable notches and cracks in the front!... I hope the guitars survive the journey or the closing stages of their documentary will have to just be them Humming along to other musicians instruments :))
The hostel Im at has a bit of a "Hotel California"aspect too it... There are several people who seem to have been here for weeks if not months, and there is a real crowd of characters around. So despite it being a bit dingy, I have stayed here four days with no real reason at all...
"...you can check out any time you like; but you can never leave..."
The dingy old hostel has been running a very long time though... It was a built as a hotel around 1930 and the current owner changed it into a "backpacker" style hostel about 30 years ago! Thats impressive!
But, tomorrow I will head back south. Ive had a look at the coast up here and seen:
The big town (well actually a smallish city, of Santa Marta - lively port town with very high concentration of bars and prostitutes and assorted drugs in the backpacker hostel district - but I like it anyway. It also seems quite safe despite its seedy nature 'cos there is a massive police presence with two or three police standing about on almost every corner during the day and motorbike patrols passing every couple of minutes during the night.
The small fishing village of Taganga which is rapidly becoming a little tourist spot with lots of Scuba diving shops and lots of public works to pave the frontage road. A bunch of rich foreign owned houses on the hillsides and some hostels and restaurants and bars etc. Its grown enough already for the fishing to have more or less stopped... Locals are changing over to work the more lucrative Tourist type jobs and the only fishing going on is "fishing" another beer out of the cooler :)... Ahh.. Its a light beer!... No good for eating, Better chuck it back! :)
The coast here reminds me strongly of Northern Mexico. It has very steep hills "plunging" down to the coast. The beaches are either white or light beige sand. The vegetation varies dramatically from arid and cactus dominated, to tropical jungle in the space of 10Km or so. But as yet it has only minimally been developed... Yep, you can still buy yourself a bit of Caribbean beach hear if you want to (but only for a few more years though!). They also have a very nice and quite pristine coastal national park here that everyone raves about... I had a look and Im afraid Im not super impressed though... Guess Ive been spoiled coming from Australia. But I have to say the national park is quite clean... It seems that the north of Colombia is quite poor and the garbage problems that I didnt see last time in the centre/south of the country are alive and well up here... Plastic drink bottles and shopping bags EVERYWHERE! So the nice clean
park is a huge achievement and a welcome relief for the eyes.
But, now Ive seen a bit of the north, its time to head south again... Apparently Christmas is soon so I should figure out where Im going to spend it!
