Parque Tayrona - Day 1

Parque Tayrona - Day 1

     We woke up early on Monday morning to hear a plane is missing as we are about to embark on our own plane ride, isn´t that just fun. We had a 730 a.m. flight to Santa Marta, a small town in the north of Colombia.

     We arrived on time and were picked up by a driver from the hotel in the park. He drove us the hour, stopping for necessary supplies like water along the way, to the park entrance. We saddled up our luggage on some over worked and under paid horses and set off on a 45 minute hike to our hotel through the jungle. As it was our first time in the jungle, we seemed to meander through the winding path that went up and down hill, had tons of horse turds, and fought of mosquitos while we snapped many pictures of the Colombian jungle. We saw some nice morpho butterflies and monkeys having a good time throwing branches and coconuts in the trees.

     After tons of walking and sweating, we arrived to our hotel, where they had a tasty juice treat waiting for us. Check-in wasn´t until 3 o´clock and since it was only 11ish, we had a lunch at a local beachside restaurant to pass the time. The food was tasty and surprisingly not too expensive, and the view, well, it´s the Caribbean, is there really much to complain about? The best part about all of it was the lack of civilization, everything was still in an uninterrupted by progress form and maintained its natural beauty. 

      After lunch, we checked in to our cabaña and took a walk down to the pool, which is really just an area you can swim in near on the beach. The difference in this area and the others was that the ballast stones were further out to sea and broke most of the bigger waves so that they arrived to the shore in a much calmer fashion. After a swim and a walk back to our hotel area, we ate dinner and called it a night.

     It really was like being in another world. Everywhere we looked, there was nature, wild, tame, and beautiful. Wild horses roamed, birds bathed and fished in the standing water, and the sound of the waves crashing made every thought in my mind melt away. The only reminder of where I was was the occasional helicopter flying overheard ensuring the area was secure. The early sunset time had been a bit of surprise to us in Bogotá but along the coast, it was just a different way to view the beautiful world around us.

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