Blogs from Santa Marta, Colombia, South America - page 5

I've been recommended a hostel called La Brisa Loca in Santa Marta by Jamie, a Colombian now living in Miami. The town, he told me, is a great place to explore from. He further explained that if La Brisa Loca is full there's another place across the road called 'Hostel California.' Now it was my turn to raise a eyebrow. "I've stayed there once" he said. "But don't worry. I checked out. There were no issues" La Brisa Loca hostel is up there with the best I've stayed in (the best bring Erratic Rock in Peurto Natales). I checked in for a couple of nights but ended up staying for six. Over a beer and football I started speaking to a 72yr old scouser called Les. An amazing character, full of stories of his travels. In ... read more

After a not-so-good sleep, we got up and headed out to catch the bus to Tayrona. We grabbed a street breakfast on the way to bus. I don't remember what we had, but it was probably bunelos. At the bus stop, the first one was full, but they come every fifteen minutes so we caught the next one, and we were at park gate an hour later. Thanks to our hammock reservation, we got to skip the line at the park entrance. The trip into the park starts with a short 1-2km walk along a road to the start of the trail, so we elected to take the van shuttle to save some time. It was about an hour and a half walk through some beautiful scenery to our hammocks in Arrecifes. We passed by lots ... read more

We took a bicycle taxi to the bus station to save some walking. It only cost us 6000 pesos instead of the10000 it cost to get into town. Prices may vary... We bought tickets to Santa Marta on direct bus, but the six hour bus ride took eight hours, which is the norm for Colombia... On the bus we bought arepa with egg from one of the many vendors that got on at one of the stops, and it was delicious. We should have bought more bus snacks on this trip. There's really no downside. We took a taxi to Hotel Miami and got a room. One of the staff had a huge Great Dane that was super friendly. I don't think dogs that big really know how big they really are. We needed food so ... read more

We decided to fly from Medellin to Santa Marta as the cost of a flight wasn't much more than taking the bus and it was much quicker. We arrived at Santa Marta airport and took a taxi to our accommodation in Taganga. Taganga wasn't what I was expecting, the lady in the hostel described it as a poor suburb of Santa Marta which was very true. Most of the roads were dirt, there wasn't mains water so our hostel had to buy it in, and there were numerous mangey dogs roaming the streets. We spent the afternoon in the pool at the hostel as it was really hot and humid before venturing out down to the beach. The beach didn't inspire me to want to swim and the area had a strange feel to it, maybe ... read more

Sme v Santa Marte na severnom karibskom pobrezi Kolumbie. Mesto nic moc, ale hostel At Jackie's je prijemny. Trosku som sa tu v tento den zezoterizovala. Betho z Nemecka mi na pockanie vyrobil naramok z farebnych spagatikov na nohu a ucil ma zonglovat. Vyrazame do narodneho parku Tayrona, ktory je necelu hodinu autobusom od Santa Marty. Na ceste stretavame prveho Slovaka s jeho kamaratom. Pridaju sa ku nam. Alebo my k nim? Do parku sa plati vstupne (39.000 pesos). Kolumbijcania to maju za polovicu. V pralese stretavame skupinku indianskych deti (indigenas). Macetou nam predelia kokosovy orech a my sa osviezime nie zrovna zrelym kokosovym mliekom. Ubytujeme sa v kempe Cabo de San Juan. Postredie a plaze su nadherne, wecka a sprchy uz trochu menej. V pozadi plazi je prales, napadne pripominajuci obrazy Henriho Rousseaua. Nad celym ... read more