Colombia: Santa Marta, Minca, Tayrona & Cartagena

Alright! This is a fairly long post because I didn’t want to have individual posts for each place. Ive been travelling pretty quickly lately so finding time to blog hasn’t been easy! I am heading out to sail the San Blas Islands for 5-6 days but here is a recap on my final week and a bit in beautiful Colombia!

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SANTA MARTA

After Carnaval, we left the hotel and went to the bus station to catch our bus to make it to Santa Marta. Being the dummy I am, I booked tickets for the wrong day so I had to jump through some hoops to communicate that I needed to get on a bus that day instead.

After two hours of waiting at the bus station, we finally made it onto our bus ride to make it to Santa Marta! It was a two hour bus ride and I was able to sleep for the first hour but woke up and was so motion sick for the last hour which was treacherous.

I got settled at our new hostel: Cacao Hostel. It’s incredibly friendly, includes breakfast, has air-conditioned rooms and even a swimming pool! It cost me $9 a night to stay there and there’s two hostel kitties to snuggle with! Monta and I walked to a nearby grocery store to stock up on some food for the next couple of days and then made supper. It was a pretty lowkey evening and I was so tired from the last few days, I ended up heading to bed early and discovered they have the comfiest beds!

Breakfast is included so I was up by 7:45 the next morning to eat. From there, I did a little yoga practice on my own but had two others join in: Monta and a girl from Germany! The rest of the morning and early afternoon was spent either in the pool or in the lounge chair beside it. (I’m not complaining!!)

Monta and I walked to the town centre around 3pm and came across a free museum dedicated to Simon Bolívar - the Spaniard who stood up against his own people to fight against slavery. He is viewed as a local hero here because of it.

Before heading back to the hostel, we grabbed an ice cream and walked down the streets to check out the architecture.

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MINCA:

We woke up early on Thursday, February 27th to head to Minca: a nearby jungle town! We walked to a bus station near our hostel and paid $16,000 COP ($6.40) for a return ticket to Minca for the day.

We started hiking up one of the main roads to get to Poto Azul - a waterfall area! It was fun because you had to cross the water which gave me an excuse to hike barefoot - my favourite!

We spent about an hour just climbing up the rocks, swimming and cooling off in the water. People were cliff jumping there as well, but I was too nervous to do it myself. (Safety first, people!)

Our next goal was to get to Casa Elemento, a hostel with some giant hammock that overlooked the jungle and then to another waterfall area. However, somehow we missed the turn and ended up hiking UPHILL for almost four hours before finding out we took the wrong turn. Regardless, we stumbled upon pretty beautiful views!

Based on the time, we wouldn’t be able to make it to the hostel/other waterfall and then back in time to the town of Minca before the last bus left so we began to hike down. We ended up finding two guys who brought us down on motorcycles which was a blessing. It was great to just enjoy the views (and hold on for dear life) going down steep, winding roads.

We calculated we hiked 22.5 kilometres that day, with it being mostly uphill which is pretty insane. Needless to say, I was SUPER sweaty.

Once we returned to Santa Marta, I stopped by a stall to pick up some fresh veggies and popped into a store to buy some other ingredients for supper. Dinner included: rice, green beans, ginger, garlic & onion!

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TAYRONA NATIONAL PARK:

The next morning I packed up my belongings and caught a bus to a cute jungle hostel just outside of Tayrona National Park. The park is closed until March 1st but the area the hostel is in has access to nearby beaches and short, relaxing hikes! It also has some AMAZING sunset views as it’s a little bit of a hike up the hill.

On Saturday, February 29th, I had coffee with granola for breakfast and then by 9:30 set out to go for a little walk to the beach. Apparently, you can see monkeys on this walk but I didn’t get so lucky. It was a lovely little 30 minute walk that brought you to the beach!

You had to walk on a path through some locals farming areas, cross a river and follow another path before reaching the Caribbean.

I spent the day on the beach (my FIRST beach day since leaving Florida!). I napped, listened to music, read my book, had a beer and enjoyed the gorgeous views of Los Naranjos & Los Angeles beach!

It’s funny because usually I am a sun-worshipper and would lay in the sun all day to ensure I get super tan BUT this time around Im really not intentionally spending much time in the sun (partially because it’s SO hot!) and the sun is super powerful. On top of it all, I really just want to take care of my skin👏🏼

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TAYRONA NATIONAL PARK:

This national park didn’t actually open to the public until 8am on March 1st, so that morning I got up at 5:30am to walk down the highway to make it to the entry called “El Zaino”

Fun fact: there are more than 300 bird species in the park!

I was lucky because we arrived and the lineup was not that long but it filled up quickly! The park didn’t open until 8:00am and so by the time the line began moving, we had already sat out for nearly 2 hours.

The line ups to get into the park were ridiculous! We waited another two hours to get through three (yes THREE) lines to get entrance into the park. You first present your passport, then you pay in another line and finally, you get your wristbands at the final line. Lucky for me, I met friends along the way and so we tricked the system and had a couple friends in each line and were able to get through quicker than others.

Another fun fact: Tayrona is home to jaguars, howler monkeys and iguanas!

This is the group that I spent the day with - there were two girls from France (Margot & Valerie) and a guy from Holland (Joran) plus myself and Monta. The two other guys (Gabriel and Daniel from Chile) checked in to a hostel in the park so didn’t join us for the day but were people we ran into in both Minca and Barranquilla.

By 10:30am, we were finally on our way to hike through Tayrona! We took just under two hours to get to Cabo San Juan - the most popular beach in the park. The paths are incredibly well-kept and we even saw monkeys along the trail!

I spent about an hour at Cabo San Juan just relaxing in the sun and cooling off before we hiked to another beach: La Piscina. It was so much more relaxed there and the waves weren’t as rough so we swam there for a little while before trekking back to the entrance to head home.

The hostel I am staying at has a family style supper each night and they had Shepard’s Pie with salad and bread which was delicious to have after a long day. I ended up heading to be around 8:45 and fell asleep nearly instantly.

In the morning, I slept in until 7:30 and was woken up only by the sound of birds (and other jungle animals) chirping and singing! Typically, I fall asleep listening to a sleeping playlist but I definitely didnt need it when there was the sounds of the jungle surrounding me. I grabbed breakfast, packed up my belongings and walked down to the highway where we (me, Monta and Margot) hailed a bus heading directly to Cartagena. It’s air conditioned and is about a 5 hour bus ride so I’m thankful they had comfortable seats... and wifi!

The joy of any bus you hop on in Central American countries is that you don’t really need to worry about packing snacks because every so often, vendors come aboard the bus with all sorts of things: drinks, chips, snacks and hot food. I personally try to avoid buying from them as it’s not always the most healthy food but it’s great to have an arepa con queso (cheese arepa) when you’re hungry!

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Cartagena:

I made it to Cartagena on Monday, March 2nd after about 5 hours of riding on a bus. I was so thankful to get off because we actually had to randomly switch buses in the middle of the road and I was tossed in the passenger seat by the driver because it was so full. It was directly in the sun and for the last two hours of the trip, there was a super creepy man who wouldn’t stop saying who-knows-what to me in Spanish so when we finally got to the terminal, I was thrilled.

I booked in a hostel called “Hostel Getsemani” for six nights - my last week of being in Colombia. It‘s super basic but it has air conditioned rooms, free breakfast and strong wifi. 👏🏼 The hostels in Cartagena are much more expensive and in hindsight I wish I booked one with a pool to hang around in during the afternoons but this one is much less expensive so I’ll take what I can get.

After getting myself settled, I found a grocery store and got ingredients to make suppers at the hostel. Monta and I met a girl (Ana) from Germany and got a beer along the wall at night before heading back to the hostel.

I booked in for a free walking tour on March 3rd which was full of information but was so bloody hot. This city is just like dead heat and barely has a breeze so its definitely something to adjust to! The streets are a beautiful combination of colonial and republican style buildings.

Margot, Monta & I before the walking tour!

In the late afternoon, I found on the map there was a mall nearby and so Monta and I walked there to spend time in air conditioning (how ridiculous are we?😅). It seems like down every second street there’s a fresh bakery and OH MY GOSH, if you’re ever here, you need to try some treats. They’re fluffy, fresh and full of assorted fillings! There’s also so many little vendors selling assorted treats so if you have a sweet tooth (like me), you’ll thoroughly enjoy treating your taste buds in this country.

My second day in Cartagena was awesome as well - I did a little personal fruit tour by hopping around from street vendor to street vendor buying assorted fruits and learning their names. (I’ll post all the details in my “Colombian Food” blog post coming up!) it was the PERFECT day for me because I love fruit and it was amazing trying so many new things.

I made my way through the lovely streets of the old city and got to the wall. Some history on the wall was that it was built in 1586 (crazy that its still standing!!) and was originally created to protect the city from pirate attacks. It gets so hot here and the heat barely moves so I made sure to be back in the hostel to spend my afternoon relaxing instead of out on the streets - I definitely understand why siestas are a thing now!

My last few days in Cartagena involved reading my book along the wall, buying fresh fruit, having tasty (frozen) lattes in cute coffee shops and coordinating my things to prepare for sailing for a week!

Although, I did sneak into a theatre that was obviously blocked off to public access and just apolgused when I got caught (ha!). But how could you not want to see what inside looked like when the outdoors is this gorgeous?!

Anyway, it was the slower paced travel I needed to prepare for a of sailing week the Caribbean. I am excited to sail to Panama and hope to land a Workaway gig at a hostel perhaps in Bocas Del Toro, but only time will tell!

Talk to you when I (hopefully) make it back from my sailing adventure! 😜

- T