Tayrona National Park

Tayrona National Park was the first time I did a proper hike by myself. As I arrived to Costeño Beach with Luis and Antoine I didn't really bother to meet other people and everybody I talked to had already done it or didn't want to go. But as I didn't want to miss it I decided to go anyways. I left my big backpack at the hostel and only took my small one with clothes for the second day and snacks and water for the hike.
I took a motorcycle taxi to the street (it's a 30 minute walk from La Brisa Tranquila back to the road and I had enough walking ahead of me) and a bus from there to the entrance of the park. From the entrance I first had to walk about 45min along a road to get to the track, which was pretty boring first. But at some point I spotted some howler monkey in a tree nearby. Even though I had seen and heard them regularly around the surfcamp in Nica I'm still impressed every time I hear this cute little monkeys make noise.
After I had reached the real trek the hike got more interesting and fun. I had decided to go to the last of 3 campgrounds (as most backpackers do). To get here I passed a few nice beaches. But I kept going as I had heard the campground fills up quickly and if you get there early enough you might even have a chance for one of the hammocks on top of the lookout point surrounded by the ocean.
I passed a lot of different groups along my way. Lots of backpackers but also older people traveling with guided tours. At some point a couple passed me that was running the track. I guess there are things I will never quite understand ;)
When I got to the campground the hammocks on the lookout were all already taken. But I got one of the many hammocks under a huge roof in the middle of the campground surrounded by ready set up tents.
I left most of my stuff in my hammock and spend the rest of the day on the beaches around the campground. The one directly in front was nice but pretty crowded. So I went back to one of the ones I had passed on my way here.
Of course I also checked out the lookout point. It would have been nice to sleep up here but I guess you have to be a lot faster for that.
At night I ate in the crazy overpriced restaurant at the campground - obviously they are in the position to take these prices. But at least the rice with seafood was really good!
Sleeping in the hammocks was pretty funny as they were really close to each other and it felt like you could make the whole row of hammocks swing if you started bumping into the people next to you.
I wanted to hike up to El Poblito the next morning. Ruins of an ancient village up in the mountains. Antoine had told me to leave early for that as it does get pretty hot during the day. I woke up the next morningmorning around 5 and people around me were already moving. Did he mean that early? I couldn't be bothered and stayed in my hammock till 6:30 and started around 7. This should be early enough, right?
As it turned out it was as I was still the first to get up there and only started meeting other people on my way down 😅
The hike was kind of adventurous and in between more climbing than walking. I really like these kind of tracks but being by myself it wasn't always easy. There were a few spots where it took my a while to figure out where to put my feet to climb up. One time I even pushed myself up back first by putting my feet against a wall opposite of the rock I had to climb.
But it was nice to get up there and have the ruins all to myself (except for some indigenous people who actually live up there). I found a nice spot on a rock overlooking the village and had breakfast before climbing back down.
On my way down I met this couple fighting in german. The girl was close to tears complaining this hike was far to advanced and dangerous for her.
I wanted them to know I did understand every word they said and also wanted to help so I told them to keep going, as they had already managed the hardest part. At this moment it felt to me that I had just started climbing down and I definitely hadn't passed the really hard parts on my way down yet so they must have managed them already. Unfortunately it turned out going down was just so much easier. Shortly after I passed a sign telling me that I was more than half way down and I never recognized any of the hard parts on my way down. So probably I send them right into a big fight "Why did you believe some random girl telling you this hike would get any easier!!".
Back to the campground I grabbed the rest of my stuff to walk to one of the other beaches on the way out for a swim. Once I knew it didn't matter anymore if my phone would die as I had taken enough pictures (inside the park the phone was only camera as there was no signal anyway) I started listening to music. It was the first time hiking with music and it was a fun thing. I guess I was faster like that but obviously you also miss out the sound of your surroundings like that.
The last bit walking on the road was again not really exciting and as I realized it was actually going uphill quite a lot also a bit annoying.
But I made it out of the park at some point and caught a bus and a motorcycle back to Costeño.Read more