Trekking in Tayrona Park

March 10^th-11^th, 2015

I relocated to the other Dreamer’s Hostel in Santa Marta and I have to say I prefer the one in Palomino as it’s got more wide open and natural spaces and is near the beach but this place would do for a few nights.

The pool at the hostel:

  

Nice big kitchen...that I didn't bother to use:

And a little lounge:

The main reason why I moved was to visit Tayrona National Park.  It is supposedly some of the nicest coastline on the north end of Colombia.  I met a few others backpackers in the hostel who were planning to camp for one night in the park as it is about a 2 hour hike in.  I didn’t have the time since I had booked a plane ticket to head to Medellin and had already extended my time in Palomino but I wasn’t worried about hiking in and out in one day.

I caught a local bus for the forty minute ride out to the park entrance.  Everyone had to sit through a short video, or at least part of it as was in my case, about the park and how to help preserve it (well I think that it was as it was in Spanish and I couldn’t comprehend everything).  Then I had to fork out $20 for an entrance ticket and another couple bucks for a shuttle ride to the trail head.

The trail began with nicely maintained boardwalk with minimal elevation change (good to see the entrance fee money is being used for something beneficial).  The whole path was quite easy and I arrived at the first stop, Arrecifes which means “reef” in forty five minutes and to the main spot, Cabo de Juan in about an hour and a half.  I hiked at a relatively speedy pace but did stop for the odd viewpoint, the occasional leaf cutter ant highway and some small monkeys hopping around in the trees.

The hike started off easy:

The little yellow bits are leaves being carried by ants.  If you look carefully a line of them straight up to the top of the picture:

Ze Autobahn...or is it the "Antobahn"?!?

The first view of the coastline:

Looking west towards my goal:

There were nice big boulders on the beach:

Arrecifes Beach:

With some horses enjoying the sun:

And so was Flat Stanley:

The horses decided to go for a dip:

Pelicans flying over...they are awesome birds...

Cute little guys...not sure what type they were:

The beach was lovely but on a large portion of it swimming was banned as there were strong riptide currents and large crashing waves.  Cabo de Juan was protected however so there were some tourists frolicking in the water.  There were rows and rows of tents and some hammocks available for rent.  It didn’t look like the best equipment, but I guess it would do in a pinch.  

Tent town:

The protected swim area:

Looking west:

More poor Panamanian hat really is getting beaten up (spending most of its time folded up in my backpack)...although it looks pretty good in this pic:

I guess you could rent one of these hammocks for the night, this is up in that little hut on the point about 5 pics ago:

I'm starting to like Aguila more and more:

I explored around, had a beer and a few hours later started my walk back and much to my delight I ran into the three Aussies I’d just said good-bye to a few days early (Pat, Mitch & Jazmin).  Oh the Gringo Trail can be mighty small at times.

Playing in Palomino

March 6^th-9^th, 2015

From Cartagena I hopped in an early morning taxi with my sailboat bunkmate Jeff while Mitch, Jazmin and Pat followed in another cab from their hostel in Getsemani.  We travelled by the marina and had a last glimpse of the Quest, our boat that had safely brought us over from Panama and then I also recognized a few other ships that were docked nearby.  They looked very similar to military ships that I’ve seen in Victoria and sure enough I saw the Maple Leaf flag flying on both decks.  Must have been a third of our navy sitting there!  Nice, a send-off by my own country.

At the bus station we shopped around for tickets as multiple companies offered transportation to Santa Marta.  We started at 22,000 pesos, then 20,000 and finished on 18,000.  I double checked with the guy: “Es directo si?”  “Si senor.”  Well sure enough it wasn’t quite direct as it stopped many times on the way but also once we reached the city of Barranquilla, we were told to switch buses.  In my broken Spanglish I tried to ensure with the conductor of the original bus that we wouldn’t have to pay any more fare but sure enough, once we were under way in the new bus we had to fork out another 3000 pesos each, only a $1.50 but it was more the principle of the thing.

A not so fancy town on the coast:

This old guy got on the bus after Baranquilla.  I actually moved my day backpack so he could sit down if he wanted to but he had other plans.  He took out his "Waist Speaker" and began to preach to the occupants of the bus.  I meanwhile was listening to music and writing a blog entry but I took off my earplugs long enough to hear words like "Dios" and "palabra"...the word of God.  I couldn't help but think of something I saw on the Internet that read something like "Religion is like a penis, it's okay to have one and be proud of it but you shouldn't take it out in public."

Reaching Santa Marta we bid farewell to Jeff who planned to stay there and organize going on the 5 day Lost City trek.  The rest of us were heading another 70 kilometres onwards to the small town of Palomino.  I had read that there was some tubing on a river there and it was also a little closer to the Sierra Nevada Mountains, some tall mountains that stretch right out to the coast.

Palomino seemed to be a one street kinda town, well at least only one paved road, which happens to be the highway.  The four of us hopped off the crowded bus and followed some vague directions I had from the website of the hostel we had booked which was called “The Dreamer” and it looked fantastic online, complete with a pool, sand volleyball court and thatched roofed buildings.  Soon our dusty straight road which passed by some very basic local housing with the odd kid playing about or elderly person sitting watching the world go by turned into a trail passing by some farmers’ fields with crops or grazing horses in them.  It was a stark contrast from Cartagena earlier that day.

We found The Dreamer Hostel and it did not disappoint, it was like being at a holiday resort.  I ended up extending my stay from 3 to 4 nights as I liked it so much.  The restaurant served up great pizzas, the dorm was alright, the staff were friendly and the grounds were great.  It was only about fifty meters from the beach but one negative was that the beach wasn’t super stellar.  The wind often blew hard, the waves were punishing and the water was murky brown for the first 100 meters out until it turned into a more appealing light blue colour.

The entrance to the hostel from the beach:

On the left is the main restaurant and bar:

The volleyball court...with palm trees holding up the net on either side.  Playing the ball off either palm tree was legal.

This building housed three, or maybe four dorms, including mine.

The nice looking, but not overly functional pool:

What a lovely place.

The beach:

And the murky water:

On the first day at the bar I met a couple from Belgium, Anna and Bram (as in Bram Stoker he kept telling people who couldn’t get his name at first).  Bram had a shaved head and was sporting a massive beard which he’d been growing for their entire six month trip, I’m sure to Anna’s slight dismay.  I gather he was normally clean shaven back home.  Another couple we met a day later was Ole and Julie from Denmark who had recently lived and worked in Vancouver for a year.  Together with the Aussies and a few other people at the hostel there were some pretty competitive beach volleyball games played each day in the late afternoon.  I joined in for a few games one day but was a pretty obvious anchor to my team, plus the sand on the court barely covered some hard spots which caused all of us to suffer a few scraped knees and elbows so that was enough for me…spectating in a chair with a cold beer in my hand was more appealing.

One afternoon I took a long walk along the beach to a river mouth about two and a half or three kilometers away from the hostel.  Pretty spot but it was still a bit windy so I found a little sheltered cove around the corner where I could hide form the wind and the sun and read for a while…very nice and peaceful.

This wasn't the main river, but pretty nonetheless.

Looking back down the beach:

Here's the main river on the right:

It was a nice coastline:

My little sheltered area:

My last Aussie friends from the Quest sailboat experience, Mitch, Jazmin and Pat left after three nights to head to a place called Minca, in the mountains up from Santa Marta, while I stayed one more day and went tubing down the nearby river with the two newly met couples, Anna & Bram and Julie & Ole.  We found a tubing company right near our hostel so we each grabbed an inner tube, threw it over our shoulder and hopped on a motorcycle taxi to take us about 15 minutes to the river put in (with a seemingly mandatory stop for beer in town on route).  The river was quite lazy and slow and at first we weren’t super happy that it was overcast but later on when the sun did come out when we were close to the ocean we almost immediately felt fried so it was a good thing that it wasn’t out the whole time, as it did take us between 3-4 hours to reach the sea.

The European couples were staying a few days longer at the hostel, which I could understand as it was a lovely place but I had to peel myself out of there and continue on…there’s a lot more of Colombia to see!

Cartagena

March 4^th-5^th, 2015

My first tourist activity in Cartagena was a visit to the San Felipe fort, a massive stone stronghold with numerous cannon lines up on a hill across an inlet from the historical center of the old town.  It’s an impressive structure which stood watch for a few hundred years over this vital Spanish harbour.  Unfortunately I had spent an hour trying to find a post office before getting to San Felipe and I was now close to noon and the sun was beating down.  Luckily I had my authentic Panamanian hat which I had primarily purchased for the sailing trip and had hardly worn but it came in handy here.  I paid the extra for an audio tour and spent almost 2 hours wandering around.  There were some great views from the top of the fortification and I was also impressed by the myriad of tunnels inside.

The view from my accommodation:

Approaching the fort:

The view from the top:

The odd cannon is still around:

The backside ramparts:

Still rockin' my Panamanian hat...but not often:

One entrance to the tunnels:

Inside the labyrinth:

Spelunking:

I sought a bit of reprieve from the heat in the nearby air conditioned San Felipe mall before crossing Getsemani into the historical center for a short wander before meeting up with the other Aussies.  It was Jazmin’s birthday so we wanted to celebrate it.  We had some beers in the restaurant at their hostel and later, when the bar opened at 10 pm, we ventured up there.  I left shortly after midnight as I needed to get up to get my yellow fever vaccination but I guess the others continued on until 6 am!

Even with some explicit instructions I found on the Web it took me a while to locate the vaccination centre (which didn’t surprise me).  But once I did it was quick and relatively painless to get…and free!  The Aussies had received their vaccinations back home and the yellow fever one had cost them about 70 bucks, which is probably what it would run in Canada, so I was happy to have gotten a bit of a break.

I walked over to the historical centre for some more aimless wandering.  It is a pretty area with lovely old building that are well maintained, many of which contain fancy shops but there seemed to be a lack of cafes or restaurants where I could find some breakfast.  Sadly I ended up eating at Subway!  Afterwards I chilled out in a lovely park and then visited the Caribbean Naval Museum, which was okay but everything was in Spanish.

Approaching the Historical Center:

The main entrance:

The main square:

One of many lovely streets:

I like how this ship transports you back in time...

One of the view nice parks where you could sit down in some shade:

Just leaving the old part of town:

Looking back towards Getsemani:

The rest of the day was pretty chilled, as was the evening.  Cartagena’s not a bad city, but I’m ready to move on.