Parque Nacional Tayrona

We wanted to go early to the bus station to catch the bus to the National Park but there was breakfast included in our hostel and it took a little while until we got it 😬 The guy at the reception had also said that currently during the high season people go super early and the park fills up. Our initial plan had been to hike a while from a secondary entrance through the jungle until the most famous stretch of beach, Boca De Saco. But the hike leads through a sacred village of the indigenous tribe, Pueblito. And therefore it has been closed for the public access and you can only go there with a guide.

So we reached the main entrance by 09:30 and had no issues at all to enter. We walked the 5km from the entrance to the parking lot because we thought there was a viewpoint on the way but it was just the name of a hostel 😅 The next viewpoint we had on our list turned out to be a dead end with pretty high inaccessible cliffs. But the view was great and there was a little secluded beach. From the parking lot there was a little loop trail through the jungle of 2km where we saw a lot of monkeys directly above us in the trees. Around 12 we were finally on the main trail leading to Boca De Saco and the trail was amazing! It doesn't have spectacular views but the trail in itself is so entertaining by changes in the underground and vegetation surrounding it. The infrastructures with the camping spots scattered along the way are well maintained and you can rent either the set up tents or hammocks.
When we arrived at Boca de Saco we had walked almost 15km along beautiful white beaches, lush jungle, palm gardens and the serene mangrove forests. There we had two beautiful beaches but the sea was very rough and cold. The few ones we saw snorkeling had a tough time. But it was perfect to enjoy our lunch and just as we had arrived the clouds came in and it was bearable laying in the open without shade. For dessert I got a delicious Colombian coffee and pan de chocolate. Since Central America there were quite a lot of Colombian bakeries so we had to try it and it was really good 😊

To get back to Santa Marta we decided to take a small boat as we didn't feel like walking all the way back that we came. Besides that we needed to check for buses going in direction of our next destination. But as mentioned before, the sea was pretty rough so during the hour of driving we were shaken thoroughly and Julia got seasick 🙈 When we arrived she had a lemon which eased the symptoms. Then we took a taxi from the cute little harbor town of Taganga back to Santa Marta. Afterwards we tried to get a bus to Tunja for tomorrow but it turned out a little complicated. First we went to two tour agencies in town but they only did local tours, so we needed to grab a taxi to get to the main bus terminal. There we tried several companies but they were fully booked to Tunja. So we tried it for Bucaramanga, North of Tunja, and there we had luck at the third bus operator to get a spot at 08:30 in the evening for tomorrow. Which means that we'll spend more time than planned in Santa Marta but we'll have the whole day afterwards in Bucaramanga!

Happy to have something we returned to the hostel, had a cocktail by the pool and then made ourselves presentable for dinner where we had Mexican 😬 Mainly because they had vegetarian options and Poutine on the menu 😁En savoir plus