Advertisement
Published: April 13th 2010
Edit Blog Post
Arriving back in Santa Marta on the 21st March after 5 days trekking to the Lost City, we decided that the following day would be designated a rest day, allowing us to get our washing done, catch up with emails and updating status’ on Facebook! It was a welcome break where we did very little; we must have completely switched off as we came last in the Monday night quiz night…although we did win a free shot for having the best team name - ‘If She Was My Teacher at School I‘d Have Learnt Fcuk All‘ - homage to the better than average bar maid! In fact, all of our drinks were free that night as they forgot to charge us for them when we checked out the next day - it’s funny how quickly a hangover from free alcohol subsides. Thanks La Brisa Loca for the 7 beers and 3 bottles of red wine, much appreciated!
We headed to the much talked about Tayrona National Park, a place of natural beauty where we planned to laze about on beautiful tropical beaches for a couple of days. It didn’t disappoint! We took a bus a couple of hours from Santa
Marta and paid the entrance fee to the park. We decided we would save the equivalent of £1 and walk to our intended beach, a mere 2.5 hours away…great saving there! The walk through the jungle was pretty boring, along a well trodden path with very little to see, so it was a big relief when we spied a campsite and the sea beyond it. We walked along Aricefes beach a short while before checking into what can only be described as a run down camping ground where 2 of us needed to rent a hammock, and I needed space to put mine up. All sorted in double quick time and we were off to the beach!
The sea at Aricefes beach is too dangerous to swim in, so we walked along the shoreline until we found a more secluded beach, surrounded by palm trees, logs and rocks. A beautiful setting where we easily wasted an hour. We (Andy, Emy and I) had our first experience of swimming in the Caribbean sea before drying off in the late afternoon sun shine and heading back to camp for dinner. Our intended restaurant closed at 18:30, so when I tried to
order at 18:34, was extremely put out when they refused the extra trade. We were all pretty hungry at this point and hadn’t realised that they actually served meals at our ’accommodation’, however the guy who ran the place, didn’t seem too enthusiastic to put dinner in front of us. He was a weird guy, dressed in cream trousers and a cream long sleeve t-shirt with a red waistcoat and a little red hat. He looked like something out of the circus and I was fully expecting him to serve dinner riding a unicycle with a monkey on his shoulder! To be fair, he came up with the goods, serving some deep fried fish and a few chips, which was a long way from gourmet cooking, but certainly filled a hole before breakfast. We got into the hammocks at around 20:00 and was asleep by ten past.
I awoke early the next morning to find that my lower arms had been a rather attractive feeding ground for the numerous sand flies who had descended on me whilst I was in dreamland….the little bastards! The flies were already up and about by 05:30, so rather than go back to sleep
I decided to go for a walk along the beach in the opposite direction to the day before, taking photos of the early morning sun. It was very peaceful and surprisingly enjoyable being up and about alone at that time, although I don’t think I’ll be making a habit of it. We checked out, had breakfast in the restaurant next door and then headed for another beach, Cabo, which we had heard was slightly more touristy, but more picturesque with safe water to swim in...the only downside was that it was a good hours walk away. Best foot forward then! Sure enough, the beach was beautiful and the campsite better setup to cater for tourists, although still pretty basic. We went swimming, listened to music and read books before having some lunch and then finding another patch of sand to while away the afternoon…life isn’t getting any easier that‘s for sure! That evening we had another deep fried fish dinner, played some more shit head (a card game) and retired to the hammock. Another great day.
After 2 nights in near paradise, we left Tayrona early and headed back to Santa Marta to pick up our bags, before taking
a 4 hour bus west, to our next destination, Cartagena.
Advertisement
Tot: 0.222s; Tpl: 0.014s; cc: 10; qc: 61; dbt: 0.1473s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.2mb