Beachside in Colombia

The past few days have been fantastic down here. We left Bogota on Monday morning and flew to Santa Marta on the Caribbean coast. Our original plan was to rent a cabana in Tayrona National Park, but after some difficulties and ridiculously high prices being charged by the travel company that now runs the accommodations in the park, we elected to hop over to the beachside town of Taganga. It was a good decision.

The town is bascially a fishing village that draws a large backpacker crowd. There are basically just hostels, bars and dive shops in town. We stayed on Monday night and did some hiking along the coast. After that we just hung out, grabbed some dinner and had a few beers at the hostel.

Yesterday morning, we decided to just head into Tayrona and rent a tent, hammocks, or whatever we could find. We opted for the tent for no reason other than it would better repel mosquitos. (I´ve got 14 bites on my right leg alone if that tells you anything.)

Overall, it was a pretty nice park. We met a couple from New Zealand on the way there, Jody and Dan and have spent the last two days with them. They were planning on staying at a beach at the very end of the park trail, so we tagged along. There isn´t a really good way into the park, so you have to hike everything in. It´s only about 3 miles to the last beach, but it was a fun hike.

This morning we four hiked up to some Tayrona Indian ruins called Peublita. They are similar to the Cuidad Perdida, which is Colombia´s version of Macchu Picchu. It was a tough hike, virtually straight up over boulders and rock slabs most of the way. It was worth it though. After that we hiked out, said goodbye to Dan and Jody as they made their way to Medellin and we returned for another night in Taganga.

Overall, it´s been an awesome trip. If things continue the way they have, Colombia is going to go down as one of the best places I´ve traveled through. The people have been so friendly and it is, for all intents and purposes, untouched by tourism. We have yet to even see a souvenir shop, much less a postcard or any other form of souvenir. Elliott´s rather maniacal obsession with putting on sunscreen has also been funny to watch.

Tomorrow we´re off to Cartagena, which should be a great time. I´ve been wanting to visit for a while, so we´ll see if it was worth the wait.