Off the Beaten Track... In Search For Christmas Spirit...

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Since the university semester ended last week, I decided to go travel somewhere, maybe to find some Christmas spirit...
Even though the whole university is decorated with Christmas lights, Senora Mariela with whom I live play X-mas songs very loudly all day long and I went to Bazurto, the local market, to buy gifts for poor children, I just don't seem to be able to find any Christmas spirit in 30 degrees heat, warm water and among palm trees...

So I decided to take the bus to Parque Tayrona, a National Park, that many of my Colombian friends have recommended.
I finally actually ended up in Taganga, a beautiful small fishing village about 15 minutes from Santa Marta. It is tiny tiny tiny, has only a main street along the water and five streets up the mountain. Along the main street you eat very good fresh fish with coconut rice and freshly squeezed fruit juices. The water is blue blue green green and behind the village starts the mountains.
I slept in a hammock on top of a roof, feeling the sea breeze all night long, listening to the breaking waves. Like a paradise...
But the main reason why I went there was because the diving is supposed to be wonderful - and I can assure you that it was. I am only used to diving in Europe with all of the inconveniences that means - freezing water, a 7mm wet suit and an ice jacket over that, and very limited sight. Here I found the opposite. Well, the water was the coldest in the year so I wore a 5mm wetsuit and boots, but the water had very good sight and the amount of fish and coral I could see was amazing. I did two marvellous dives and dived for the first time in my life in a current, which was such an amazing feeling, almost like flying in the water!!!

After that, I decided to go to Parque Tayrona. I joined a South African adventurer to the park, to be sure to get some thrilling experiences...
The first day we took the bus to the entrance of the park and trekked along some of the most beautiful beaches I have ever seen. Many of them were not bathable though, because of very strong underwater currents. It was along the main gringo-route and many of them had visitors, icecream salesmen and braid-your-hair-ladies, but if you trekked further (tourists are lazy... ;o) you would find deserted beaches, palm trees swaying in the wind, roaring waves and wild nature.
We stayed one night in a camping and decided to head for the less touristy places of the park the following day.

So, we convinced a captain to go off his normal route and take us to a beach called "playa cristalina", the name speaks for itself. After 40 minutes of rough rough boat ride, looking at big waves splashing into edgy cliffs and unfriendly nature... we got there and discovered, to our disapointment, that the beach was invaded by Colombian tourists. Aaahhh!!! This beach was not in our guidebooks, probably because only Colombians go there... So we bought a fruit salad and continued to trek further, to the virgin beaches. Actually doing what everyone told us not to do - going in the wrong direction, to the dangerous beaches and where noone is (the Colombians didn't seem to understand that we wanted to be alone and not in overcrowded beaches...)

We walked and walked and walked... and walked and when it was very close to getting dark we found the perfect spot to place our tent. On a tiny tiny beach, in a protected bay, with cristal clear water and noone around.
Well, that is not true, we saw a little fishing cabin further along the trail, so we went there for two reasons - to let them know we were there and to ask if they could sell us some fish.

Their dogs started barking when we were far and there were about five men outside the shed, working with their nets. I thought their eyes would pop out when seeing two white tourists coming their way... Suddenly there were about ten people out there looking at us and fortunately, because it made me feel safer, there was also a woman.
We explained that we were camping down at the beach and that we wanted to know if they could sell us some fish. Even better - after some very intense activity, soon there was a plate of cooked fish with rice in front of me and a young guy was making a lot of sound and looking around in the fridge, to finally hold up a really nice, freshly caught tuna - that they gave to us as a gift. Yet another sign of the generousity of Colombians and their sincere hospitality.
Then they were worried about our safety, the smell of the fish might attract animals and especially snakes, so they accompanied us down the trail to the tent to see where we were living. They explained that they made it themselves to get to their house when they don't have the boat (aha, that is why it did not appear on any maps). I am sure they will talk about this night for many weeks "remember when there were two crazy, lost tourists here wild camping at the playita..."
We cooked the lovely, big fish (too big for the two of us to finish) and then went to bed with the sound of the wild animals and the ocean very close by.

The following day, after a morning swim in the bay, we started our trek back to civilization. We hiked up to a road and started following it, persuaded that it would lead to a big route where buses go. After some time we met two policemen on a motorbike - they were patrolling and were persuaded that we had done something wrong so they kept asking tons of questions. But I guess we answered well, because they did not fine us or take us away.... So then we started asking questions, and they told us that it was 7 km to the main route and that it would take us about an hour to walk there. Great, we were running out of water, but 7km is nothing!

So we walked and walked and walked... It was only going uphill and there was no sign of a big road... And we continued walking and walking and walking... And there was no water left... and we continued walking... and there was a bus, going in the wrong direction... and we walked... and we were thirsty... and it was 35 degrees... and we walked... and suddenly there was a motorbike (with four people on it... hahaha only in Colombia) so I stopped it and asked for the big route... "yeah" said the guy, "you go uphill for a while and then it is only downhill, but still a fair amount of road before the big road, maybe 1,5 hours..."
What!?! I should have known better, time estimations from locals when walking in South America are Never Ever reliable, even not when coming from a police man...
So being thirsty, tired, sunburnt, we finally found a taxi going the wrong way, hailed it to ask for it to go back the same way, and finally caught it to the bus station in Santa Marta where our adventure in Parque Tayrona ended (and from the car, even 1,5 hours would have meant running down to the main road...).

Lovely adventure, wild camping is always a nice experience, but I had a bad headache for the rest of the day, due to the lack of water... ;o)

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Comments

[Siv]

Åh, låter ju helt underbart!!! Hade gärna varit med dig i djungeln men misstänker att jag hade blivit lite grinig utan vatten så tur för dig att du slapp ha mig med ;) Vad var det för hundar de hade? Puss!!

[Annica]

utan vatten???
jobbigt utan vatten, tyckte jag ocksa... Men det var lite aventyrligt!!! Hundar??? Ingen aning, det springer ju runt hundar overallt har och alla verkar ha hundar (som aldrig gar ut...) Puss!!!