Bike About South America with Stuart and Anita

Colombia's most famous and most visited National Park is called Tayrona. It is named for the people of the Lost City who inhabited the area for 100's and possibly a 1000 years.

The western end, just outside of the park boundaries is marked by Taganga. Taganga is a fishing village turned gringo tourist village. It is packed with hostals, restaurants, and even a decent book exchange. It was in Taganga that we booked our La Cuidad Perdida trip and it was from there we embarked on our beach retreat to the national park.

A bus to the main centre (1200COPs each. Divide by 2000 to get approximate $USD) of Santa Marta over the hill and then an inter-city bus towards a town called Palomino (4000COPs each) dropped us at the gates of the park entrance. A whopping 34000COPs entrance fee got us in the gate and a 2000COPs mini bus got us to the start of the walk at Carnaval. It was very hot but when you finally get yourself away from the cramped spaces and start walking in the jungle it is significantly cooler.

From memory it was about 45m to an hour to Arrecifes where we had lunch and then another 45m to El Cabo San Juan de Guia. A few people stay at Arrecifes but unless you are staying in a fairly expensive Cabana it didn't seem so appealing to us. The swimming at Arrecifes was dangerous and banned. The food was relatively expensive.

We walked out of the jungle and up the beach. The jungle is nice but not really so different from the jungle we had seen walking to the lost city. The beach however was very special. Nice sandy beaches, palm trees, and massive granite(?) boulders adding punctuation marks to the scenery. 

We strolled past La Piscina (The Pool) aptly named for the safer waters protected by a rock reef, a Panaderia (Bakery), and a few smaller hammock sleeping stations.

As we turned back into the jungle on the beach periphery we saw many crabs, and small lizards. Anita saw a monkey and we talked to Lars later who saw an anteater in the same area. We saw more animals in that 30minute stretch than in 5 days of walking up to the Lost City.

At El Cabo we were greeted by some fairly arrogant and not so friendly reception staff with a take it or leave it attitude.  The grassy area looked like a refuge camp. I suppose it is though - a backpacker tourist refuge camp. We expected it to be full of party chasing back packers and while there was this aspect they weren't over the top and there was a decent mix of singles, newly coupled, couples and even some of the grey brigade.

We opted for a tent as we didn't believe the staff that there weren't many mosquitos attacking the Net-less hammocks. At 25,000COPs each per night, it wasn't cheap but then this spot was pretty glorious. It may take 10 or 20 years but someday I suspect you won't be able to camp there and the Cabana's that replace the tents will be significantly more expensive.

On our first night the full moon rose in a clear sky, the beach filled with couples taking advantage of the romantic "animo" (mood). We were on our honeymoon so we were one of the first out there! But it wasn't all kisses and snuggles, we also had fun taking photos of the moon rising behind palm trees, over the sea and back to the camp.

We had 2 wonderful days and nights at El Cabo. The food was reasonably priced, fairly average but edible.  We did score a very nice fish lunch on the first day.

The swimming was safe and warm. The beaches were "frisbee friendly". The day hammocks were shaded. The organic "Tinto" (black coffee) and Pan de Chocolate (chocolate in bread) was delicious.

Alas, after 2 days, the rest of Colombia beckoned so when we scored a discount on the boat ride (from 40,000 to 25,000 each)home we jumped aboard and headed back to Taganga. From there we rode to the bus station in Santa Marta and caught an overnight bus to Bucamaranga and then another the next morning to Tunja to start ou mini bike tour to Bogota.