Parque Tayrona

As soon as a landed at the amazing Hostal Kaia in Santa Marta, I messaged my friend Laura, who I had met in Bogotà, and asked her if she was planning on going to Parque Nacional de Tayrona. It's the number one thing to do in Santa Marta, and indeed high on the list for anyone visiting Colombia. Laura and I had planned to catch up in Santa Marta and visiting Tayrona together would be a nice way to hang out and also much nicer than us both going it alone!

Hostal Kaia is amazing. I was very quickly able to change my booking so that the next morning I was on the bus with Laura at 7am, on the way to Parque Tayrona.

We arrived just before the park opened at 8am, to a queue of about 15 people ahead of us. 15 minutes later and 44,000 pesos down, we were armed (literally) with our bright pink Parque Tayrona wristbands and sat in the minivan that for 3,000 pesos drives you ten minutes up the road to the main trailhead, to spare you an extra 45 minutes hiking. Worth every peso!

The trailhead.

Thank goodness for the van, because the area around Santa Marta is a pretty consistent 90% humidity, and Tayrona, consisting of dense jungle, gives no respite.

Welcome to the jungle!

"20% of the trail" Not really what you want to see when already completely soaked through in sweat and struggling with the heat.

There are a few beaches that everyone makes a beeline for, and we were no different. The hike itself is relatively easy as hikes go - the pathway is very clearly marked and even built out with wooden planks and handrails in many parts. There are some steps and few rocks to climb, but nothing particularly challenging... apart from the constant heat trying to cook you alive on the 90 minutes hike to the first beach, La Piscina. I'm making a complete assumption that it is so named because whilst many of the beaches in Tayrona are not suitable for swimming because of the strong current (over 100 people have perished in the waves here), La Piscina is a-ok.

But just before we reached La Piscina, we spied an opening in the bush, leading to what looked like a beach. It actually led to a channel opening out into the sea, and we arrived just in time to find someone baiting a crocodile. This is another thing about Parque Tyrona - it's a haven for wildlife and on our wanderings we saw many eagles, butterflies, lizards and this lovely croc:

Picture courtesy of Laura, who was braver than me.

Laura took this picture. I was about 10 feet back. It's jaws were extremely wide.

Look at that massive jaw!

5 minutes later and we reached La Piscina, a small but nearly empty stretch of white sand. The sea had never looked so good and inviting!

La Piscina

It was so nice to swim and cool off, and for a while we were 2 of maybe 10 people of the beach. A little paradise to ourselves.

After a few more dips and a little napping in the shade we decided to move on. Although it felt like an hour at the time, Cabo San Juan del Guia is only about 20 minutes from La Piscina. So on we went, excited to arrive and book our hammocks for the night. Doesn't everyone have a dream of sleeping in a hammock, overlooking the Carribean Sea, swaying in the gentle breeze while moonlight dances on the ocean waves?

We did, and I had read a few blogs that extrapolate this ideal, but we got a reality check as soon as we arrived at Cabo San Juan del Guia. There's only one place to set up home for the night and that's the Cabo San Juan del Guia Ecolodge. When we arrived at 1pm, there were no hammocks available and only 3 tents left.

The "eco" offerings at Cabo San Juan.

The moral of the story is that if you go directly to Cabo San Juan the moment you enter the park at 8am, you *might* manage to get a hammock with a sea view. If you dally at any of the beaches prior, you will probably struggle to get any type of hammock, may end up in a stuffy tent, or may end up working your way back to Arrecife to lodge there for the night. It's worth adding that we were visiting in low season, and all the accommodation at Cabo was gone by 2pm.

Worth the 2 hours swimming in your own sweat!

Why not head straight to Cabo? The only reason we didn't is that by the time we reached La Piscina we were just desperate to cool off, but had we known otherwise we would have ploughed on. And Cabo itself is lovely- two postcard picture bays, with gentle waves and palm trees for shade. We had started the day early so it was nice to land at Cabo and realise that all we had to do for the rest of the day was swim and snooze.

And play cards and drink beer, when the clouds rolled in and brought rain, thunder and lightning. Ah, the Caribbean!

There are three options when it rains: your tent, the beach or the restaurant, which opens between 7pm and 10:30pm for dinner

Teaching Laura how to play Shithead!

Dinner was an orderly affair, with everyone queuing up to order from the menu - a variety of Italian and local dishes! Once over it was time to sit on the beach with a beer, watch a crab dance around in front of us, and then play a few more rounds of shithead before heading to "bed". As there were so few tents left when we arrived, we had thankfully been given a 3 man tent. I can't be sure it made a difference but like to think we had a little more space for air circulation, not that it felt like there was any air moving around in the heavy heat. We would maybe have slept with the door unzipped, had it not been for the visit from this guy, just before bed:

Our little snakey friend, getting cosy on Laura's bikini

And also a desire to avoid mozzie bites!
I think I managed about 4 hours sleep in total. I wasn't uncomfortable - the tents have thin mattress pads, but it was just difficult to sleep in the heat. Luckily it rained at around 5am, which took the heat off, and meant we could snooze in the tent until about 7:30am.

We headed off pretty much straight away, to try and cover some ground before it got too hot. When we landed back at La Piscina 20 minutes later, the water beckoned once more and this time we really did have the beach to ourselves for some time, along with 2 other people.

Feeling pretty happy about being the only ones on the beach!

It was so nice to share this sweaty little adventure with Laura!

It was very easy to slip back into the routine of swim; sunbathe, but after a couple of hours we pulled on the trainers and started the 90 minute hike back to the trailhead. All too soon the cool sea was a distant memory as we got sweatier and sweatier. It's a great look:

I tried many selfies to capture just how much sweat there was but it was quite impossible!

That cold bottle of water at the park entrance never tasted so good! As if we had known, a bus pulled up 2 minutes later and we were on our way, and before long we were back in Santa Marta, this time with fond memories of our sweaty and very fun little jaunt to Parque Tayrona.

I had to sit up front! And I think the driver enjoyed sharing my biscuits!

-

Laura came to join me at Hostal Kaia, because it is awesome! It's just out of the centre of Santa Marta, which is fine as there isn't that much to do there. It's just a beautiful place, with a lovely pool, hammock canopy and a rope bridge! The staff are nice and helpful, the wifi is good, they have dorms with and without A.C. and it is perfectly located for buying groceries if you fancy cooking, and for catching the bus to Tayrona and Palomino, and Taganga.

The hammock canopy.

Underneath they have a large Bluetooth speaker, where you can connect your own music.

The pool! And the "Camino del Rey" above!

- Parque Tayrona: Vital Stats -
The bus from Santa Marta leaves every 15 minutes from the Mercado and goes via Avenida Libertador. It costs 7,000 pesos and takes approximately 1 hour to Parque Tayrona.
Parque Tayrona Entrance Fee: 44,000 pesos (low season, for non-Colombian nationals)
The shuttle from the park entrance to the trailhead costs 3,000 pesos
The hike from the trailhead to Cabo San Juan takes 2 hours at a steady pace.
You can also pay for a horse to take you - approximately 25,000 pesos.
Accommodation at Cabo San Juan:
1 night in a tent: 30,000 pesos per person
1 night in a hammock: 25,000 pesos
1 night in a sea-view hammock: 30,000 pesos
Price includes access to lockers, communal showers and toilets, but not toilet paper. BYO or buy a roll onsite for 2000 pesos.
Meals at the cafe onsite range from 16,000 to 35,000 pesos. A can of Aguila is 5,000 pesos.