Jungle, mountains, and beaches...OH MY!!!
Tayrona National Park in Northern Colombia is what dreams are made of.
We were lucky enough to spend our Thanksgiving break at the Caribbean. First, in Santa Marta to celebrate Thanksgiving with good friends. We cooked, swam, relaxed in the sunshine, and took turns huddled up next to the internet router in order to Skype our families! It was a relaxing start to our vacation.
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| We rented an apartment in Rodadero from Airbnb and enjoyed this sunset. |
Then, we spent Friday, Saturday, and Sunday in Tayrona National Park. It was easy to find transportation there because if you are a gringo (foreigner), every Colombian assumes you'll be heading to Tayrona and offers you bus rides there every 5 seconds! The hour bus ride is beautiful and highlights the diversity of Colombia: beach, countryside, mountains, and jungle. We arrived at the park entrance and watched an informational video about the park and how to keep it pristine (Tayrona's version of the video you watch before entering the Boundary Waters). The park fee is $35,000 COP for foreigners and $13,000 COP for Colombian residents (which we are! :) Then, it was another short bus ride to the beginning of the trail. By this time, we were feeling the humidity. It wasn't even that hot, but the humidity blanketed you in sweat. We began our hour hike to Arrecifes beach where we were to stay. You could get a horse to carry your gear, but we decided to carry our backpacks as the hike was not too bad.
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| Some of the trail is boardwalk through the jungle. |
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| So many rocks to climb! |
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| Our first peek at the ocean! |
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| Finally on the beach! |
We all were staying at Yuluka (Aviatur) on Arrecifes. When we arrived, our friends were staying in a cabana while Aaron and I were camping. Our friends were greeted with a fresh fruit drink after our sweaty hike while Aaron and I were greeted with the task of setting up our tent. :) But it was worth it!! We were both excited to be in a tent again. After setting up camp, we headed to El Cabo which is the most popular beach. It's about a 40 minute hike from Arrecifes along the coast and into the jungle. That's the best part of Tayrona--in order to get to the next slice of Caribbean heaven, you hike through beautiful jungle!
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| The group on El Cabo! |
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| Aaron with his ladies. |
The next 2 days involved hiking, laying on the beach, dodging falling coconuts, swimming and climbing rocks. Arrecifes is non-swimmable due to crazy currents and riptides, so we spent most of our time exploring the beaches along the way to El Cabo. Oh, and we also spent time eating as much ceviche and fresh fruit juice as possible. Food is a bit pricey in the park. We brought snacks which was smart, but the restaurant where we stayed was definitely the nicest around, and we found it was worth paying the little extra for really good food.
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| This rock at La Piscina beach was just begging to be climbed and jumped off of! |
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| One of the beaches along the way from Arrecifes to El Cabo. |
Ultimately, it was the most beautiful beach destination we've been (well, aside from the beaches of Thailand...). Although it's a plane ride away from Cali, I know we will be coming back soon!
