Tayrona National Park, Colombia

January 15, 2015

Tayrona National Park, Colombia

We took a 4 hour bus ride from Cartagena to Santa Marta and stayed there for a night before we headed off to Tayrona National Park.

The next morning we headed an hour outside of Santa Marta to Tayrona National Park, a greorgous Park with numerous beaches and alcoves that you can camp in. We had to hike about an hour into the park to get to the campsites. It's a huge pain in the ass when you're carrying 5 liters of water and all your food.

I should've hired the donkey...

The ocean has an extremely strong current, and most beaches you aren’t allowed in the water past your knees.

This is Cabo beach, the busiest beach in the park. The casita at the top of the hill is filled with hammocks that you could rent for the night for $7.

We were traveling with Max, who we met on the sailboat, and his friend Jessie, who flew into Cartagena a few days before.

The park is visited mainly by South Americans - lots of Colombians and Argentinians. We were definitely a minority... not to many gringos. Lots of families come and hang out at the beaches. There are tents and hammocks that you could rent for around $7 a night. Each beach has a little family run restaurant that sells mainly fish and arepas - flour pastries filled with meats and cheeses.

This is our campsite, Don Pablo.

One the second day we met up with our friend from back home, who was traveling with about 10 other Americans - all law students from Virginia. We were probably the largest group of Americans that has visited this area in a very long time... maybe all time.

We did a 5 hour hike to see some ruins that were within the park.

The ruins were cool, a couple stone walls here and there.. the journey was better than the destination.

After a long hike we walked along the beaches toward our campsite, stopping at various food stalls along the way. We gorged on chicken arepas, chocolate bread, fresh juice, and fish.