Tayrona... Que chevre!

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Back to civilization again, unfortunately. We had an amazing trip to the most amazing beach I have ever seen or could have imagined. Tayrona is a national park located on the north Caribbean coast. We took a bus into Santa Marta and found a connecting bus to Tayrona on Monday afternoon. Since we heard that food prices are outrageous (quite true) we brought some standard backpacker diet staples of doughy white bread, peanut butter, granola and beef jerky. All the Aussies and Kiwis give us crap until they try it in all of its deliciousness. You´re welcome, Sean.

After an hour or so hike that we dominated if I might say so myself, we came to the first beach of the park, but it wasn´t good for swimming and my Colombian stalker recommended another one farther down the coat, Cabo San Juan. Thanks to some stellar Aussie navigating, the 30 min trek took about 1.5 hrs. Apparently we had taken the horse=cargo path instead of the people path. Oh well, got a little more jungle time. We eventually met up with another trail, the right trail, and found the beach about 10 mins later. Emerging from the bush we came upon the most beautiful beach either of us had even seen. The cove was a brilliant aqua green and amazingly clear. Huge boulders jet up from the water and form barriers around all the beaches.

Thanks to another recommendation, we sprung for the hamakas arriba and got the last 2 in a small hut placed atop a boulder hill, smack in the middle of the ocean. Thankfully, the refreshing sea breeze also kept the mosquitos away at night. We spent the afternoon being bums on the beach and went to bed quite early,as there is no power by the hamacas so there isnt much to do. I woke up at 530 with the sunrise and got some amazing photos and time to reflect.

After a 830 AM beach calling, we decided to hike to another beach and followed a random path away from the camp. Again, due to awesome Aussie navigating, we found ourselves emersed in a dense jungle on a hike to who knows where. After about an hour of grueling uphil climbing, we came upon another couple who looked exhausted and said that we had just gotten started. We gained a little faith that maybe our trek had a destination after all. Coming to a stream crossing, I had bent over to wet my bandana and Sean cried snake. I wasn´t entirely surprised considering it was about the 30th time since we started, but turns out he was serious. About 3 feet from my head was a basking snake. I´m not sure on the type (bio nerds?) but I know it was a bad one. Thankfully I was with a med student who happily told me he would have run for the hills if it came after us.

We continued up the path for another half hour and still got nothing but false snake scares, so we decided to turn around. Passing the scary snake again, I saw another small one that looked less deadly but it just scurried into the bushes. The hike back was less grueling thankfully, and mostly downhill. We stopped at a couple of the other beaches on the way back and I think I interrupted a shy skinny dipper. Oh well, I could have cared less but he ran back to his clothes as soon as I got in. Apparently we had found the famed nude beach! We were both hungry and thirsty so headed back for a nice afternoon of lazing and swimming.

Last night we met a couple of Texan girls who shared our uncomfortably close hamaca arrangements with us. It reminded me of the little ball on string toy that people have, where you send one ball into the rest and the all start moving. Good times.

This morning we were up fairly early again, but I feel like I´m starting to get a cold so I didn´t do much. We walked back out to the entrance via the main path, shaving about 30'60 mins off our trek and barely missing the rain. We naturally picked the bus back that was in need of an oil change, done when we got on, of course. Eventually we made it back to Taganga around 5 this afternoon. We were.are both exhausted, dirty, and hungry so we just bummed around and got some delicious mango smoothies and arrepas from vendors.

Tomorrow I head out for my Ciudad Perdida trek so I´ll be gone for 5 or 6 days. I met one of the guys going along in line for an ATM and he seems cool so hopefully it will be a good trek. My Aussie med student leaves tomorrow so I´ll have to hope no snakes attack while I´m in the jungle.

Hope all is well with everyone and I´m sure I´ll update soon enough! Besos!

Noel

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Comments

[Aunt Lila]

Aussie Friend
Hi Noel. Glad you hear that your trip is going well. As you know, some of the relatives are worried about you traveling alone. Doesn't sound like you've been alone much at all! We leave for Australia on Tuesday, July 13. From which part of Australia is your friend?

[Noellie231]

Aussie Amigo
Hey Lila, very jealous that you´re going to Austrailia! My friend that I traveled with for a week is from Melbourne and raves about it. I also met some people from Sydney and Adelay. They said Adelay is really nice and a smaller city. Let me know where you guys go and how it is. Hopefully I will make it there next year when I´m on the East Coast. Hope to see you in August!!

[Michael]

Very nice picture
I must say that this is one of the best Fer de Lance pictures that I have seen in last few months. There are lots of great pictures we can find about other snakes like mambas, cobras, pythons, vipers etc but certainly not a great deal of Fer de Lance pictures. I am also glad that the snake didn't kill you because they surely can be lethal and that is why they are know as one of the most venomous snakes that can be found in South America. You can find more information about these snakes at venomoussnakes.net/fer-de-lance.htm