Tayrona National Park

We awoke early due to the suffocating heat and no air conditioning in our room. Unfortunately in Colombia they have to take their security pretty seriously so our plans of going to check out the neighboring beach, Playa Grande, were foiled by the locked gate, instead having to just lay in the marginally cooler hammocks and await our breakfast. At 10am we finally bud farewell to our hosts (including the awesome dog Slinky) and headed into Santa Marta via taxi with just our day packs in order to meet Khalid as planned and walk to Cabo San Juan in Tayrona National Park. 

After picking up supplies from a local supermarket (more mango, avo, tomato, coriander wraps coming up!) due to the rumoured horrendous food prices once inside the national park, we then got a cab to the bus station area.  There was a bus waiting there so we climbed straight on. The bus was an ancient non tourist bus so there was definitely no air conditioning, instead we had over an hour bus ride in the searing heat. All three of us were dripping in sweat by the time we reached the park entrance. 

Here we had heard we would have our bags searched to confiscate plastic bags, alcohol etc but the guard didn't seem very interested in us so we just paid our entrance fee of 38,000 pesos and jumped into the waiting collectivo van for another 2,000 pesos which would take us a further 4km into the start of the walking track.

We had been advised to not stop at the first campsite but keep going walking another 1.5 hours until we reached Cabo San Juan as it is the nicest beach. After a dip along the way and a highly aggressive pelican charging us down, we trudged on in the heat until we reached the campsite by about 3pm. I don't think I've ever sweated so much while walking.

We were too late to get a hammock so instead had to settle for hiring a tent for the night and hope for a hammock the next night. Khalid ran into a kiwi guy he knew so we all headed down the beach for a swim and some beers. After not long we were getting a not so friendly welcome from one of the guards (who was casually resting his hand on his glock) after he noticed one of the guys we were sitting with had a machete (for opening coconuts). Finding that meant he thought he had better search all of our bags where he then found another guys stash of weed (and luckily missed our bottle of red wine in my drink bottle). Off he took the offender where we heard later he was asked to pay a fine of 500,000 pesos (about NZD$300) but he explained he only had 20,000 as was poor and had brought his own sandwiches for food. Instead he made them a counter offer of 0 pesos and they seemed happy with that and let him go. We all thought it was incredible that he managed to get them down from 500,000 to zero in one go but it definitely put a dampener on our arrival as it felt like we were at some kind of school camp being watched over.

As the afternoon wore on we figured we should have our first round of wraps which we ended up preparing in the dark as the sun goes down at 6:30pm here (regardless of the time of year, it always stays roughly the same). Then it was time for about all you can do while camping - cards followed by an early night.

The tents were horribly hot with zero airflow happening which meant for a long night feeling as though you were suffocating in the heavy air. Thankfully it was overcast in the morning but we still had to escape our tents by about 7am and head straight to the beach for a cooling off dip. 

That's where we stayed for the rest of the day, only moving to go for a swim in the sea. The boys managed to secure us a hammock for that night too but we had to get one of the ones out on the point that they charge a horrendous 26,000 pesos for. At least we knew it would be cooler than the tents with the sea breeze being right there. The camp grounds way of doing things was pretty backward though with them not allowing you to book two nights to begin with and then only letting being rebook after 1pm (which became 2pm) despite there being a queue from 1pm and the guy just sitting there doing nothing until 2. 

It is a shame that the people who run the campground just seem to be in it for the money rather than creating an enjoyable experience for the people staying. Luckily the beach itself is pretty damn beautiful so it makes up for the not so friendly staff. 

After another evening of wraps and cards and no beers due to our lack of money left, we headed to our hammocks to try and sleep. Try we did but not so successfully as hammocks aren't actually the greatest beds. And then the wind picked up around midnight which meant our silk sleep sacks (which had been too hot for us in the tents) were not warm enough for us in the warm, damp winds that stuck around for the night. I managed to sleep in two hour increments throughout the night and woke up to the sunrise at 5:15 or so. Tents were probably a better option in the end!

As we wanted to go and check out Minca with Khalid before he had to head off for his week in Jamiaca, we thought we would leave the beach early and miss the heat of the day while waking back. Of course we had to enjoy one last swim before the two hour walk. The boys couldn't resist doing the rock jump either, Jimmy teaching Khalid all the NZ dive specials.

On our way back we managed to see a few monkeys, an assortment of lizards and a new trail which followed the beach rather than the horse trail we managed to get on on our way there. We were pretty happy to get to the end and have a collectivo waiting which we jumped in and left straight away. Then there was a bus waiting at the bottom which we also jumped on straight away so we were feeling pretty happy to not have to spend any time waiting around in the horrendous heat.

Once we were back in Santa Marta we decided pretty quickly that we weren't up to missioning to Minca so we decided to find a hostel and just chill here for the night. And hostel we found.. One of the nicest hostels I've ever stayed in (although too expensive for privates so back to dorm rooms again), Masaya Hostel. Two pools, movie room, hammocks and bar sounded like a bit of us for the night so I doubt we will be going far tonight.