I decided to head to Tayrona Park because I have heard great things about the beaches etc. I took a taxi to Santa Marta from Taganga, and then took a bus from there for about 45 min where it dropped me off at the entrance to Tayrona Park.
After I paid my entrance fees I asked them how long it was to hike up to where I was looking to go, and I was told about 3 hours. As I started walking I decided to speed up the process and hitch hike to the pathway of Arrecifes where I was headed to...this nice guy picked me up and he was giving this German girl a ride from the main entrance as well and she was heading in the same direction I was. He saved me about 30 minutes worth of walking which was nice and we were now at a point where no cars could continue any further, and now they had a spot where you could take a horse the rest of the way to our destination, but this German girl and I decided neither of us wanted to pay $20 to take these horses, and continued with our walk. During the hike I was talking with the German girl in Spanish for about an hour or so. It was a lot easier to understand a non-native Spanish speaker because she didn´t talk so damn fast.
It ended up being about 4 hours to get to where most of the backpackers go to stay at where they have a bunch of hammocks that you can rent for the night (Arrecifes beach area). I asked her if she could read English and she responded yes, so I showed her my guidebook that recommended this area to stay in their hammocks. I also found out now that she could speak English which was nice for awhile after racking my brain trying to speak in Spanish the whole hike...lol. It was a great hike though through the jungle and once we arrived, the beaches there were beautiful with mountains and huge boulders all over. I grabbed a bite to eat once I arrived and then decided to relax and chat with this guy I met from the states and this Sweden guy. We all just chatted about the upcoming travels and places we have been to. In this area there is no electricity so after it was dark and Emanuel(guy from Sweden) and I were done talking we decided to hike up this big boulder to where our hammocks were and it was not an easy task in the dark. Luckily Emanuel had a lighter in his hand to give us a little light, otherwise it could have been an ugly walk up. I definitely did not get much sleep because these people from Israel were up all night talking loud, and the hammock was not comfortable by any means. Emanuel said he didn´t get any sleep either because these Israel people were quite inconsiderate, but I guess that is all part of the travels.
The next day after walking and checking out some beaches I came back to relax around 1 pm and this guy said that he was catching a boat back to Taganga where I was heading to eventually as well. He said there was room on the boat for me, so I decided to pay $15 to catch this boat back to Taganga as well because I knew I probably would not get much sleep again anyways. The boat trip back was 1.5 hours and a little better than hiking all the way back. It was raining out, but it was pretty sweet to see all the mountains and big boulders during the whole boat ride along the shoreline.
It was definitely a great short adventure!
