Oswaldo dropped me off at the entrance to Tayrona National Park with a few words of advice. First, if I need to buy drinks and snacks, buy them outside the park. "Muy caro dentro del parque," and after buying my ticket and entering the park on foot, it’s just a short, flat 10-minute walk to the hotel. No problem. I tell you... Colombians and their idea of flat. But it was a nice walk and mostly paved so I could roll my bag. I was greeted at the entrance to Ecohabs Bamboo Parque Tayrona by the gardener, Javier, who helped me carry my bag over the cobbled pathway to the reception. I was early, so I happily waited in the restaurant, doing some computer work, when I met the menaces.
The hotel has four resident Blue and Gold Macaws, and they are characters. As soon as most of the guests departed from their breakfast tables, these sneaks made their way to the tables and stole sugar packets, walking around the floor with what looked like cigarettes in their claws. The staff seemed perfectly okay with this and would just put out
an arm and the macaws would jump up and be taken back to their perch with their sweet cigarettes in hand. It was so cool just hanging out with a big parrot sitting on my shoulder trying to eat all of my jewelry. Although, I have to say they are a bit loud.
Day off
If you hadn't noticed, I don't tend to rest much when I travel. There is just so much to see. My first day in Tayrona was supposed to be a rest day after the hike; however, I was eager to go check out the beach. Luckily, it started raining, and the beauty of this resort, along with not wanting to walk in more mud, forced me to stay put and enjoy this stunning place. Yes, that’s another bathtub. It’s my happy place, especially when it’s raining. My goal in life is to find the most perfect bathtub in the world, and this one is up there. Check out that dinner. Luckily, I had a cute pup as a date who helped me finish it.
The Park
The next day opened with sunshine and bird songs. I was dressed and fed by 8 am, ready to explore Tayrona National Park. This park was created on April 24, 1964, to guarantee the reserve and conservation of the ecosystem. They only allow 6,900 people to enter the park each day, and no one can enter after 12 pm. Thank the gods I read this information early in the morning. I departed and left Santa Marta at 9 am instead of the originally planned 11 am (it’s an hour drive). The park covers approximately 12 square miles (20 sq km) of maritime area in the Caribbean Sea and extends approximately 58 square miles (93 sq km) of land in the Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta Mountains. Incredibly biodiverse, the park has species of 100 mammals, 300 birds, 31 reptiles, 15 amphibians, 471 crustaceans, over 1,000 marine species, 110 corals, 350 algae, and 770 plant species. Unfortunately, all I saw was a giant grasshopper which I thought was a bird, who almost hit me in the head flying across the road, and a fox who dropped by the hotel to get a boiled egg. But the beaches were stunning.
Bad Idea?
I don’t always think things 100% through when making a decision, which leads to some great adventures and possibly some really bad ideas. The staff at the hotel explained to me, in Spanish mind you, the amount of time it takes to get to the different beaches, if you can swim at them, the shuttle you can take, and what time to be back. Darkness doesn’t wait. I mostly listened and made a plan to take the shuttle to the first beach, and then walk to the furthest one, which I believe was about an hour and a half hike, seeing as many other beaches as possible on my way back. Well, I waited for about 10 minutes at the bus stop and no shuttle came, so I decided to walk the 40 minutes to the first beach. It was a nice walk along the jungle road with the sun filtering through the green vegetation, howler monkeys grunting, and birds singing. I arrived at the parking lot where the shuttle would have dropped me off and made my way to Playa Carnival and Pacinita, the first two beaches, but as I turned down the trail to the beach, I saw a horse stable and a sign that said horses to rent. I continued down the trail, dodging large mud puddles from the day’s rain before, and thought, “That’s a good idea. I’m still sore from the hike and with these puddles, it will take forever to get to Cabo San Juan. I can just take a horse to the furthest beach and walk back.” So after having a swim in the beautiful waters of Pacinita and checking out Carnival, I returned to the horse stable and paid $14 for what I thought would be a nice leisurely ride along a flat beach path. See, that’s the problem when you speak a little Spanish but not enough to ask a lot of questions. There is no point in asking because I most likely won’t understand the answer anyway. After about 10 minutes, my horse, Fiona, and my guide, Henry, were ready, and I mounted up and headed up the mountain? Not the nice flat beach path? I did not even consider that it would be a different path. Not only was it straight up and then down steep canyons, but it was sooooo muddy, like up to the horse's belly in parts muddy, and Fiona, as lovely as she was, is a runner, so if I wasn’t gripping the reins for dear life at a 60% angle, I was being pounded into the leather saddle as Fiona fast trotted on any remotely flat portion. The path with the beach did reunite after a while, and that’s when I saw how muddy the other trail was. So after enjoying the spectacular beauty of Cabo San Juan, drinking two beers (so needed), and looking at the dark looming rain cloud coming over the mountains, I decided it would be a good idea to torture myself again and return on a horse. Although I could not sit for three days without wincing and my knees felt like they were put on backward, it may not have been a good idea, but it was definitely an adventure I will not soon forget.
To Conclude
As with everything on this taster trip of Colombia, two nights was not enough in Tayrona. I could have gone diving, snorkeling, taken a boat ride or just relaxed more, but so grateful I got to experience a bit. Highly recommend.
What a mud path, and what a fun adventure with Fiona! I like how you can be spontaineous and make the best of it! One of life's most important aspects if resilience!