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Published: September 11th 2008
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Santa Marta
We reached Santa Marta after a very early departure (4AM) from Maracaibo, Venezuela. The trip was uneventful, except for police blockades, many passport checks and a maniac driver in our Por Puesto (Shared taxi) - basically an old Chevy or Ford with a 5 litre engine.
We booked into a very nice hostel, called Hotel Nueve Granada. This is probably one of the nicest places we have stayed up to date. It has a small pool and palms in the courtyard, with friendly, helpful staff and a very fat cat. We booked in early and wandered around Santa Marta for the rest of the day. Santa Marta is an old town, but the old town glory has been replaced by concrete buildings in most places. It has managed to retain some charm, though. What sets the place apart from Venezuela is the people. The Colombians here (hopefully everywhere in Colombia) are extremely nice. We have been helped by a few kind people, without expecting anything in return, which was certainly not the case in Venezuela. One does not feel like a walking dollar sign.
We went to Rodadero the next day in order to visit the
aquarium there. The weather was not that great and we ended up drinking beers at a street-side cafe, overlooking the beach. We booked a snorkel trip for the next day at Taganga from here. Taganga is a beach village 5 km north-east of Santa Marta.
The snorkel trip was, unfortunately, not really worth it. After snorkelling in Mozambique, this did not really qualify as snorkelling. It is more like drifting in murky water looking at some rocks. The day was still great, though, and we met a friendly couple - from Venezuela! Amazing to meet one of the few friendly Venezuelans in Colombia. A warning to other travellers - if taking this trip, do NOT eat at the restaurant that the tour is using, they will extort you for a bunch of money. We stayed in Taganga that night in a lovely, cheap place called Hostal Pelikan. The next morning, we left for Tayrona National Park.
Tayrona National Park
We took a 1 hour boat ride from Taganga to Cabo San Juan de Guia (a mouthful, we know), which is a really beautiful place. Lots of palm trees line the beaches, huge boulders dot the coast and
there are hills covered in forest inland. This is the kind of place where one can stay for a week or two and just forget about the world, which in our case, already has occurred.
All facilities at Cabo San Juan are communal. We rented a tent for two days, just up from the beach. Hammocks are also available for much cheaper, if you don't mind being carried away by mosquitoes! The sea is very calm and warm, so one tends to stay in the water almost the entire day - the result: both of us were badly sun-burnt, even though we applied copious amounts of sunscreen.
We met a group of travellers: an American girl, a Swiss girl and an Israeli guy. We hung out with them for the two days we were there, playing cards, drinking rum and going on hikes together. We visited the neighbouring beaches to Cabo San Juan, called La Piscina (The swimming pool) and Arrecifes. La Piscina is really nice, with a rock and reef barrier that forms a huge lagoon in front of the beach. Sara (the American) and Bernhard swam out to the barrier to stand on the rocks and
Bus
We took this funky bus to Taganga got into a spot of trouble with the local authorities, as it is apparently "dangerous" for everyone. It was worth it, though.
After two nights in Cabo San Juan, the group decided that we would hike back to the main road instead of taking the boat back. This is a scenic route and passes through a small site of ruins, called Pueblito (little town).
The hike was relatively intense as a result of the heat and humidity. After the first 10 minutes, everyone was already completely drenched with sweat. In addition to this, we got slightly lost, and continued on into very dense forest, cursing the people for not maintaining the "path" very well. We were climbing up boulders and through dense bushes, only to find the "path" ending in forest that was too dense to penetrate. We spent an hour retracing and finding where we went wrong. Some of the group did have it worse than the others, though. Marion, the Swiss girl, was carrying all her gear in a big, yellow cooler box made from polystyrene. The shape of the container made climbing up boulders nearly impossible, so it was a group effort for some part
of the way.
After the entire trip, we were all pretty tired. We had walked for about 5 hours, doing 7.8 km (officially), probably closer to 8.8 km or so. It is still a very beautiful hike and well worth it.
We have planned a trip to Ciudad Perdida, the Lost City. We are starting this 6 day hike on Thursday, 11 September. Hopefully this goes well, we are certainly excited about it. This will obviously be the topic of our next entry - but don't expect anything too soon, as we might just go back to Cabo San Juan afterwards for some R&R.
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Chantal
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Pure Bliss
Aitog! Kan ek nie maar op so 'n vakansie gaan nie! Thanks vir die update - ek is glad nie jaloers nie :) Beautiful Pics - is daar baie tropical bugs...?