Santa Marta, Tayrona National Park & Taganga

1 - 12 June 2011

Wednesday we arrived at Santa Martas airport and were greeted by a balmy heat, a big change from the cold of Bogotá. Kitty asked a security guard for a rough taxi price guide & all we got was a taxi driver called over and our gear loaded into an old renault! Luckily the taxis here are fixed prices! We arrived in our hostel (Hostal Dreamer) where we were surprised to find friends of ours, Scott and Roniet were also staying. We went down to the shops and bought supplies for the next couple of days before returning to sit in the pool. Lawrie had a sore left foot but it wasn't too bad so we were still keen to do some trekking!

Scott and Roniet were heading off camping in Tayrona National park for a couple of days and invited us along. We were planning to head to the lost city trek ASAP but the park was meant to be nice and this way we´d know people. From what some people had told us food was very very expensive in the park, so we went back down to the shops to get enough food for three days camping! The only thing we couldn't find was a gas cannister for the stove, which would mean an early morning trip to the markets. It bucketed down raining all night.

Thursday morning Lawrie & Scott headed off early to the markets, in search of a gas cannister, which took them through shin deep slop and past many stores selling meat & butchering animals...it was not a nice market! The search was fruitless and the boys returned muddy.

We started the walk to the park and were stopped immediately by the police, who confiscated all of our alcohol (a brand new bottle of Havana Club) because you can't take alcohol into the park (which nobody told us & which they sell inside the park). The police would't let us come back for it or even to take it over to a store across the road for safe keeping! Technically we weren't even in the park yet as we hadn't paid our entry fee! They then proceeded to search Scotts bag completely, even checking individual cigarettes!

The walk into Cabo San Juan de Guia was through the same path as the lazy people who take horses take. Given the amount of rain we were soon walking through shin deep slop comprised of mud and horse droppings. Lawrie took his thongs off and went barefoot for a time (hindsight is a bugger as it's probably here that something got into that sore foot). We got lost a few times due to poor signage but eventually found our way to the campgrounds, where it proceeded to bucket down!

The park entrance sign

The start of the trail

Leaf cutter ants, everywhere!

A view from along the beach.

Beautiful little bay near other campsite.

We setup our gear in the hammocks and helped setup Scott & Roniets tent, in the rain. That night we played cards and refilled our waterbottles using the pleantiful supply of rainwater.

Friday we spent the morning relaxing by the beach and snorkelling. When it got too hot we retreated back to the large hut and relaxed, waiting for the sun to go down a little so we could swim again! Lawrie's foot and thumb were getting sore by this point but there was nothing we could really do, the thumb felt just like a bruise and we thought it was a throw back from our Salkantay trek.

Cabo San Juan

Typical beach.

That night we had dinner at the restaurant and played cards, Lawrie heading off to bed early but not sleeping due to the pain in his thumb and foot. Even after taking whatever painkillers we had left, sleep was an issue.

Saturday we had breakfast before starting the trek out via Pueblito ruins. A combination of shoes and other peoples painkillers got Lawrie started for the day, but walking was difficult and the thumb getting more painful! The trek, however, was excellent! We walked from ocean side grass land with coconut palms up through rainforest, through streams and over boulders. There were three or so places where we had to boost people over the rocks as you could not climb them alone easily! The ruins themselves (terraces) were not that impressive but we really enjoyed the hike.

Terrace stonework, useful, not pretty.

Walking out in the rain.

An easy section of the trail

One of the many streams.

We arrived on the main road and waited a few minutes before getting on a bus back to Santa Marta. We really felt sorry for the other passengers as we were so stinky! The bus got searched for drugs at one point and dropped us around 1km from the hostel, which we walked back. The hostel called us a doctor and Kitty picked up the antibiotics for Lawrie. His thumb was twice normal size and luckily some people in the hostel felt sorry so gave him some pain killers, which promptly knocked him out for a few hours of sleep. The thumb continued to grow overnight ripping the nail off from the inside. Eventually in the morning a needle was used to pop the thumb and drill out the nail. This relieved the pressure and stopped the pain, but was very gross!

Extremely waterlogged feet!

Thumb on Saturday

Sunday morning

Sunday afternoon

Sunday we walked to Quinta de San Pedro Alejandrino, the house that Simón Bolivar died in. We spent some time on a guided tour before walking through the gardens. Lawries foot was starting to get sore and we headed to the shops to buy some hiking sandals, perfect for trekking in hot wet places, but with little protection from spikey things in the mud. That evening we tried to see the Hangover 2 but were too late for the session.

Old fig within the quinta

Malt & Alcohol stores.

Statue of Bolivar and an impressive tree.

His (white) & Hers (pretty colours) chamber pots.

Lake with mural of Bolivars life

Iguanas!

On Monday we headed to Minca, touted by the hostel as having ¨coffee farms, waterfalls and rockpools¨ however we soon discovered that the coffee farms were ages out of town! We took our worst taxi ever (Holden Gemini equivalent) up there and walked to Pozo Azul for a swim. It was quite a pretty spot but there were people everywhere and nowhere to get changed.

Bridge over the river

Beautiful river

The first pool

The top pool (deeper, for jumping)

On the walk back we discussed the lost city trek and Lawrie decided that he wasn't able to do it with his foot in such a bad state. We had a very nice coffee and cake in a local organic place before heading back to Santa Marta. We cancelled the trip (which was booked for the next day) and went back to our room to hatch a plan. We still had time to get to Cartagena so a few days on the beach would probably help Lawries foot, but Kitty would be bored. Finally we decided the best solution would be for Lawrie to go to Taganga & Kitty would do the lost city trek.

(Refer to Lost City Entry)

Lawrie:
I spent the next few days relaxing in Taganga. My foot swelled up even further, prompting a day of doing nothing. Thursday I went fishing and had fresh tuna BBQ on the beach. Friday was another down day, but the evening was spent doing a night dive not too far from the town. The left foot required a size bigger boot and barely fitted the fins!

The sore foot.

On Saturday I went for a two dives around a small island, with lunch at a house overlooking a small bay. The day was beautiful and the water calm and warm but visibility was a bit low. Luckily the DM was an relaxed Aussie chick who dropped the others on the tour off to the surface before returning for another 20min of diving. The only reason we had to come up was because she was low on air! Diving felt natural again even after the fair break.

(waiting on dive company photos!)

The second dive had even poorer visiblity but did have heaps of really cool little things to keep you interested including spider crabs. Again I waited on the bottom (only 10m deep) but there was a mid water current which took the ascending divers away and I lost sight of them (they could see my fins). After some time waiting, I headed back up to the surface.

I headed back to Santa Marta and was surprised to find Kitty back a day early from the trek.

Sunday we took a shuttle service (door to door) to Cartagena. Unfortunately this turned out NOT to be a door to door service so we had to walk to our hostel. Lawrie hadn't copied down the address of the hostel but it was in our guide book. Upon arrival we discovered that there was a Hotel El Viajero as well as Hostal El Viajero...located a few blocks away.