Tayrona National Parque on the Caribbean coast of Colombia

Cabo San Juan

Tayrona National Park is a vast area of jungle, very near to Santa Marta and even nearer from Taganga. It does say in the guides that it takes half an hour to get there from Santa Marta…well, it does if you only include the ride! We got on a bus from the corner of the Calle 11 and Carrera 11, which is in the middle of the Market (Mercado).The bus costs COP 5,000 (£ 1,80) and instead of half an hour, it took us to get there one hour and a half, as we had to wait until the bus fills up. It is very common in Colombia, that musicians get on the bus and sing along the journey and play instruments. It is quite entertaining.

Bus from la calle 11 and carrera 11

After arriving at the entrance of Tayrona, one needs to obtain an entry ticket of a current value COP 37,500 (£ 13,50), unless you are a student of an under 25, then you only pay COP 7,000 (£ 2,50). After obtaining the ticket, we were searched by the police officer:

           “-     Any drugs? No, sir.

-       Any alcohol? No, sir.

-       Any plastic bags? Yes, sir.

-       They are not allowed.” 

So he took them away from us.

   

It is not advisable to bring any alcohol with you, neither plastic bags, as they will be confiscated. What IS recommended to bring though, is the food…biscuits, granola, cereals, fruit, tins of tuna, ham, bread, etc.

Arrecifes

From the entrance to the first camping site is Cañaveral, accessible by walk (45minutes) or by buseta (COP 2,000), which will take you there in five minutes. The downside of a bus was that we had to wait again until the bus fills up, and it took good 40 minutes.  We didn’t want to waste our energy, as the long walk was before us.

From Cañaveral we walked one hour and a half to the next camping site – Arrecifes. One can stay overnight there and rent a hut, tent or a hammock. The beach in Arrecifes is long and beautiful, but it is not possible to swim there, as it is very dangerous. The sea was ruff and the waves high and strong. We headed further to our destination - Cabo San Juan.

Another one hour walk and we arrived at La Piscinita, which is mostly a place to swim and chill out on the beach. It is a short beach in a form of a natural bay protected by a reef, so the high waves break earlier and don’t arrive to the shore. 

La Piscinita

It is one of the places where it is safe to swim, for this reason they called it “Little swimming pool” (La Piscinita).

It took us another half an hour to get to the Cabo San Juan.

We arrived there at 2 p.m., right in the time for check in. There was a big queue, so we had to wait a while. In the meantime on the TV they announced new Pope Francisco I, first Latin American pope ever. Glory Latin America!

Our hammocks

The accommodation they offer is (per person, per night):

Hut for COP 100,000 (£ 35), 

Tent for COP 50,000 (£ 18), 

upper hammock (very windy at night, not recommended) COP 25,000 (£ 9) and a lower hammock for COP 20,000 (£ 7,20).

There is a restaurant serving surprisingly good food (rice with prawns £6, fish fillet £9 or spaghetti tomato sauce £3,70). Not bad as for such an exclusive place, but we did bring our own food, so we only ate dinners there, breakfast and lunch we were supplying ourselves.

It is a beautiful, unique place in the World we got to, but the weather wasn’t great, so we headed back the next day to Santa Marta.

A vision of walking back 3 hours wasn’t appealing to us, therefore we rented horses (COP 30,000 p/p), which turned out to be mules.

The ride was quite pleasant, excluding the mosquitos biting my ankles. The ride back is only one hour through a different route, but its pretty muddy, not recommendable to walk. It is better to use the common route.  

Tayrona is not only an important place in the region for its nature – flora and fauna. It is a place of a cultural heritage, where the tribe Tayrona habited. The current descendants are Koguis, you can meet them in the park.

Tips:

·      Bring a GOOD repellent. Don’t save on it.

      ·      Bring some food with you, flip flops and trekking shoes.

·      Leave early, as we travelled from the hostel to Cabo San Juan 5 hours in total.

·      Check the weather earlier. Windguru.cz is the best website.

·      If you sleep in a hammock, bring a blanket to cover yourself at night.

·      Getting there by boat saves you the entrance fee, which is a good option of hiring a boat from Taganga or Santa Marta, if you are a group of four.

·      Bring books, cards to get yourself entertained.

·      Don’t enter with alcohol, unless you’re going by boat. It will be confiscated by the police.