El viaje

Early morning it was and having had enough rain we decided to check out the beaches in Tayrona Park

The Tayrona Park is a protected area starting at 30 kilometers away from Santa Marta.

The park covers approximately 30 squarekilometres of maritime area in the Caribbean sea and approximately 150 square kilometres of land. It goes up to around 900 meters above sea level and the majority of it is covered by dense jungle.

They sell it to you as a kind of ecotourism thing and while the nature truly is beautiful, the way they handle the tourism is quite the opposite.

Entering at the first opportunity we had to stop at a gate where copies of your passport are being made and you have to pay the entrance fee. Since copies of you passport are being made for everything this is something you just have to get used to. So, fair.

But then when you think you can just walk back to your car, you have to pay for an insurance in case something happens in the park. Still fair, but already stretching it a little since there is nothing, i repeat, nothing dangerous in the park. Apart from a couple of pointy cactus maybe.

You get little neon bracelets that prove you are a true gringo. I doubt anyone has ever paid attention here but i had a quick look, since i paid for it. The emergency number on the insurance bracelet is from Bogota. Safety first!

At least you are being reminded every 20 meters that there is no Planet B and the place is plastered with say no to plastic signs while your car is being swarmed by people selling you all kind of imaginable china plastics, wrapped in plastic.

Anyways, still in good spirit we headed onwards. The first bay we got to was mediocre at best.

Before even having parked the car a guy was already at the window, offering us coco locos (at 8 am in the morning) and trips to the lonely lovers beach with a speed boat. We declined both, politely.

Since there is many of these bays we thought we could do better.

On the way we encountered one of the super dangerous cactus. It almost got us! But knowing we had insurance, we boldly continued.

The next bay „ Playa 7 Olas“ truly was nice.

Unfortunately, you are not allowed to go down to the beach there. Why? Probably, too dangerous, you could step on a stone… or even worst, not buy something…

Neguanje beach or bay was the one we settled for . It was super hot and we needed a bath to cool down. Not before being charged another 10.000 pesos for parking the car and having been offered more alcoholic drinks, private trips to better beaches, sunscreens, plastic googles and all other imaginable nonsense . We declined , politely.

And walked down the opposite side to where there was no people.

But a red flag to keep you from walking too far onto the dangerous side of the beach. We settled under a nice tree

and decided to swim to a nearby island inside the bay

It took us maybe 35 minutes to swim there but with 5 minutes before we actually got there a coastguard boat came speeding towards us . Shouting we should immediately get on the boat and leave the dangerous waters.

Upon politely asking why , they explained in an unpolite way that we were swimming in open waters, that the sea there is full of dangerous animals and that they would drop us back at the beach immediately.

I promised Lu to try not to get angry at authorities anymore but FUCK OFF! In my life i have never seen calmer waters, zero waves, no currents, no animals at all and to top it all off, the mini island is inside the very beginning of the massive bay, open waters? FUCK OFF again.

This is where the island was.

I did not say a thing.

Having payed quadruple now, having been offered, no, having been hustled for shit i dont need , i am now not even allowed to swim? Again i did not say a thing but it pissed me off in a major way. Especially the charade with which they are trying to sell you their salvage nature bullcrap.Oh really , there is no Planet B? How about you let us enjoy our current one without sunscreen , ridiculous stories about dangerous sharks and a bit of fucking common sense?

I gave Lu another 30 or so minutes to dry and burn in the sun while i angrily read my book in the shadow.

Bye Tayrona, i will not be coming back.

You have to drive all the way back to the gate you came from, continuing up northbound we had to option to enter the next bit of the park with more of its beautiful bays. We would have had to pay for the next entry again, politely we did not even consider this option but drove out of the Park to a town called Palomino.

We had a quick beer down at the beach,

and a quick walk about all the backpacker hostels, both puzzled and amazed by some of their names.

Following Caros recommendation,

HUGE shout outs to our beloved Schölli at this point !

we drove up a very shitty road for a bit to get to a hotel, she had stayed in before. What a place! Tucked into the jungle just by a very nice river, we had to explore first.

before having a swim in the beautiful cold river.

After our bath we got the terrible news that it rained into our accommodation and that it was the last they had..

But we could sleep in one of the rooms from the service personal for free, if we did not mind!

Haha of course we did not mind!!! The room was the nicest we had seen for days !!! And for free 🙂

After having discovered their own little aroma lab,

after having tasted the best piña ceviche ever

and after having had a tomate de arbol desert for the first time in our lives,

we politely fell asleep in our free room.

Very happy campers!