Santa Marta left a lot to be desired. The beaches waters
were murky and the sand was covered in rubbish…. It certainly didn’t look like
a Caribbean Beach yet it is. The streets were covered in rubbish, mud and large
puddles, I couldn’t go anywhere without my legs getting covered, yet the locals
somehow managed to stay clean. There wasn’t anything worth seeing at all yet we
stayed two nights just to relax in their hammock area and to plan our adventure
into the wild.
We left our large backpacks locked up in the hostels storage
room and took our small school bag sized bags with us. Our directions were to
go to a certain street corner and find a local bus that took an hour to get to
Tayrona National Park. We managed to find the bus ok and luckily the driver
told us when we were supposed to get off as we would have had no idea. It cost
35,000 pesos ($19 US) each to get into the park, which is more than double what
Colombians have to pay. Here we saw a large spider crawl up a man’s sleeve and
that instantly had me paranoid and feeling creepy crawlies all over me! From
the gate we got a small van further into the jungle and got deposited in the
middle of nowhere.
We walked an
hour through the jungle on a small path that due to recent rain and horses
trotting through; resembled a mud pit. Very quickly, spiders became the least
of my worries…. Our main focus was on surviving the track and avoiding the
masses of large red ants that seemed to dominate every surface. Jandels were
not sufficient foot wear, especially
once our feet were covered in mud we kept slipping out of them as we climbed up
hill and jumped from rock to rock to get around especially bad patches. It was
extremely humid so it didn’t take long for us to be dripping with sweat.
Finally we
arrived in a clearing where some tents were erected and a few thatched roofs
covered a hammock area and a ‘restaurant’ (planks of wood for tables and chairs
and the kitchen is only open a few hours a day). As the hammocks didn’t have
mosquito nets we opted for a tent which cost 24,000 pesos per night. The place
was like a funny farm with a horse, a donkey (which made the most hilarious
honking noise), a turkey, a quail, many ducks, a parrot (which of course I
loved), 2 puppies and 3 dogs all wondering around free. They all interacted
with each other and it was quite entertaining. Occasionally a wild horse would
come into the clearing and the dogs would chase it off.
It was a 10
minute walk through more jungle to the beach. Just as we arrived, unfortunately
it started to rain. We still went for a walk in the rain along the beach and
were starting to wonder if we had wasted our time and money in going there…
Once it was dark (around 5.30pm) we played cards and read in the hut until we
became bored so we just went to bed. (Well, we just used our jackets as a
pillow, and they provided a thin mattress with bottom sheet, we had no covers.)
All night we felt sticky, sweaty and itchy and in the morning we both had a few
mosquito bites (although others seemed to have so many it looked like they had
chicken pox!). The night there was a lot quieter compared to the jungle in
Palenque!
We were very
fortunate with the weather that day – bright blue skies and the suns glorious
heat. Walking through the jungle to the first beach (Arrefices) we encountered
a yellow and black snake all coiled up in attack mode! Thankfully we got around
it with no hassles but it definitely had me thinking about how many dangerous
creatures were surrounding us. The beach was surrounded by mountains covered in
tropical jungle but unfortunately swimming is forbidden as it is too dangerous
so we walked the length of the beach onto another jungle path. On our way we
encountered an alligator sunning itself! It bared its teeth at us as we walked
by. It was such an incredible experience seeing these creatures up close and
personal in their natural habitat as opposed to a zoo.
As we
continued past a village of large crabs and many startled lizards we came
across a beautiful cove and another beach further along. We kept walking around
rocks and through a forest of palm trees (all the while being wary of just how
often coconut’s fall, you can hear them crashing all over the place!) until
after an hour we came across the most stunning beach in the park. Cabo San Juan
– now THAT was a Caribbean Beach. Glistening gold sand, clear sparkling aqua
waters, clusters of palm trees and rounded rock formations, all surrounded by
lush tropical jungle. And the best thing was that it was so unspoilt by
tourism. The people that were there had put the effort into getting there and
they were appreciating the beauty as we were. There were no hawkers trying to
sell things, no buildings other than a few thatched huts, no shops – nothing
commercial in any way.
We spent the
day lazing about and swimming and then got stuck into the walk back to base.
The showers here were a pipe sticking out of the wall pouring cold water with a
flimsy wood wall covering you up to your shoulders. We were covered in sweat,
salt, sand, bug spray and sun tan lotion so despite it being so basic, it was
divine! (Of course it didn’t take long
until we felt unclean again but I managed to cope fine and didn’t complain!)
That night
we were sitting in the restaurant and the sky began lighting up from bolts of
lightning so often it was like someone turned a strobe light on. Slowly, the
storm came closer and closer. The wind picked up and then the torrential rain
fell from the sky. It was so heavy it was like a curtain of water had formed
around the hut. The thunder claps were the loudest I had ever heard and it was
directly above us. The clearing around us kept lighting up an electrifying
bright blue and white, it was absolutely surreal! A lot of the animals took
refuge with us; even a large toad joined the party! After an hour the storm had
moved on and we tiptoed through the extreme puddles to get to our tent –
thankfully it hadn’t flooded!
There were
some other couples staying at the same camp, most of which were Germans. Some of
them were doing a trip around the world for a whole year!
The next
morning we tackled the jungle path back to civilisation. I was expecting it to
be flooded from the storm but surprisingly the track seemed easier in the
opposite direction. There were fewer ants which was nice and we saw a tiny psychedelic
colored frog along the track, and some flies that were the size of bumble bees.
I managed to stay a lot cleaner this time except for my jandels flicking mud up
the backs of my legs. Andrew however had an incident where the mud tried to
claim his jandels. He ended up both feet ankle deep in mud and had to dig his
jandels out! I’m sure if I was in front, I would’ve experienced the same fate
as the ground looked more stable than it turned out to be in that spot.
Thankfully we passed through a stream where he could clean up.
Once again,
sweating and exhausted from our adventure, we climbed aboard another local bus
and headed back to Santa Marta to retrieve our bags. We paid a small fee to use
their shower (another pipe sticking out of the wall with cold water in a tiny
tile bathroom stall where nothing remained dry - and we had to use our smelly
dirty wet towels again) and then headed off on an overnight bus to Medellin.
17.5 hours later and very tired and grumpy we discovered our chosen hostel was
fully booked….
