Blogs from Parque Nacional Tayrona, Santa Marta, Colombia, South America - page 6

Lazy time on the beach?... read more

Von unserem Abenteuer im Regenwald ging es direkt zum Eingang des Tayrona Nationalpark. Am Eingang wurden wir ersteinmal gruendlichst vom militaer durchsucht, wobei sie unser Taschenmesser in den dreckigen und stinkenden schuhen nicht fanden...war ihnen dann doch etwas zu eklig. Wenn sie es gefunden haetten haetten sie es behalten, ist naemlich verboten es mit hinein zu nehmen, dafuer haette sich christian vermutlich zwei tage spaeter weniger geaergert, als er es mal wieder, wie schon in den drei urlauben zuvor verloren hat ...und nun ein neues braucht.... wer also noch ein geburtstags oder weihnachtsgeschenk braucht weiss was er schenken kann... Um fuenf waren wir dan drin und mussten dann erst mal mit einem jeep und dann erneut fuer eine weitere dreiviertel stunde zufuss durch den matschigen wald laufen. am ende wurde es dunkel und wir erreichten nach ... read more

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 Santa Marta is an old town, but the old town glory has been replaced by concrete buildings in most places.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 ... read more

After asking around in Taganga we found a boat to take us 1 hour round the coast to Cabo San Juan de la Guia in the Tayrona National Park. The first couple of people we asked wanted a lot of money 50,000 and 40,000 each but then we met John hanging out on the beach and he does it for 35,000 pesos per person as he's a friendly chatty guy that easily puts groups together (about 14 went out on our boat). We asked about his name (he's a tall carribbean Colombian black man) and when he was young mucho boats from North America used to land in Taganga to buy massive quantities of cocaine and marijuana and his parents got to know many American names. As he said its much different now, as evidenced by ... read more

The day had finally arrived for me to be sitting on a beach taking in the tranquility........a feat I had been trying to obtain for many months and had pretty much given up on as there are very few good beaches in the countries I had been in. Sharyn and I got ourselves organised and then got a lift into Santa Marta with Santiago to catch the bus out to the Parque Tayrona. In Santa Marta we had to grab some food and other necessities before finding the bus, this in itself proved to be a very fun experience and very Colombian. When we walked into the supermarket we found two men, one playing guitar and the other keyboards through an amp, and belting out a few salsa tracks for the shoppers who were enjoying the ... read more