Mar 7, 2011 - Colombia: Cartagena, Santa Marta, Lost City & Taganga

CARTAGENA We arrived in Cartagena, hot, tired and hungry after spending the night on the Bogota Airport floor. Immediately hit by the hot air of the Caribbean we were thrown when we saw how much chaos and traffic there was- as we had expected Cartagena to be small and colonial like our Antigua experience. This was our first welcome to South America and realisation that things wouldn’t be that similar after all! After a good nap the hostel we headed into the old part of the city, feeling dubious and unsure that Cartagena is all it is cracked...

Oct 12, 2009 - Parque Nacional de Tayrona--aka Paradise

After our relaxing night on the beach of Rodadero we headed back to the hostel, took naps, and headed out on a CHIVA (basically a party bus) that the hostel organizes every week. Its a huge open-aired bus with rows of seats, decorated with gaudy tassels and electric colors, a booming sound system, and of course plenty of ron y coca cola. There were several groups of friends parents in town, so they got a front row seat of what a typical saturday night of travellers debauchery looks like. Dancing on a moving bus after three or four cuba...

Jul 16, 2009 - Playa Cabo San Juan

The next morning right on schedule our “taxi” arrived. We arrived at our new campsite and thought that we really should protest something. Tents were everywhere and it looked like a tent city. Don’t most people in tent cities protest something. We could protest their definition of a walk and insist they name it properly. Day two at the beach was not a super hot day, but was sufficient enough to catch some sun. Tents at Cabo San Juan are $50,000 a night, and bathrooms and showers are 500 pesos. It is hard to remember to take money...

Jul 15, 2009 - Parque Tayrona

Another adventure, everything is packed and we were ready to go. Cory found a list on line that says Parque Tayrona is number 2 on a list of top 10 beaches in the world. Number 9 was a beach in Atitutaki, Cook Islands where Cory and Elaine spent some time on their honeymoon. If number 9 had impressed them, number 2 had to be way better. Maury, a new staff member at Casa de Felippe had sat down and explained the layout at Parque Tayrona, and he recommended the first campsite at Dom Pedro. First we had to jump on a local shuttle bus to...

Apr 18, 2009 - Parque Tayrona: Hike to Chairama Pueblito

We woke up to clouds today. Rather sad since we wanted to get in a bit more sunshine before leaving the park but also good since it made us less sad to leave and to return to the comforts of warmth and a bed at night. We did the hour hike up to the old Tayrona ruins of El Pueblo where a few Koggi Indian families still living. The hike was rather gruelling as we had to navigate around giant stones the whole way up. The pueblo was nice but nothing spectacular. Its not entirely excavated and much no longer remains to it is hard to see what an...

Apr 17, 2009 - Parque Tayrona: Beaches and the Piscina

Another beautiful day!!! We were up for breakfast and then did the 15 minute hike over to the Piscina, a natural pool in the ocean with giant Seychelles-like rocks to climb. It was heaven. Later on, we headed back for a late lunch and a bit of beach. It was another really calm night hanging with some beers and our friends. I was freezing again though less so since I decided to put on every last article of clothing I had brought with me so no part of my body was vulnerable to the wind.

Apr 16, 2009 - Parque Tayrona: Death Boat Ride to Heaven

I had read that the boat ride to Tayrona Park could be rough. I never thought it could be THAT rough. WOW was I mistaken. We spent the first part of the trip trying to outrun the Coast Guard (I guess we were overloaded in violation of the Colombian rules ) and had to spent an hour hiding out on some beach tucked behind a cove. We then silently made our way across the bay to escape the Coast Guard. We were happy to be back on our way to the Park but OMIGOD, the waves were SOOOO big and huge and sitting in the front, the three of us got the...

Mar 19, 2009 - Tayrona National Park

Enter my favourite part of Colombia.. Fortunately for me the antibiodics is so freeking good and by about 10 or 11am I was feeling almost as good as new. And I needed to be for this day. We left the hostel at 6am to get to the start of the trail that would take us to wheere we would sleep that night. So we get there, eat breakfast andstart the hike that lasted around 7 hours... thankkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkk gooooddness I was feeling a lot better1!!!!! The first part was pretty easy walking just that it was up hill and I felt weak i´m...

Jan 31, 2008 - Communal showers

Strange things happen while travelling. Rachel and I had spent two days in Tayrona National Park, sleeping in a tent at a campground. The campground has a communal shower with four showerheads side by side. While the overwhelming majority showered with their bathing suit on, a few went unclothed. During one of my showers a sexy 20 year old girl, a gringa from Florida, gave us guys a nice show. She showered topless but also treated us all by pulling the bottoms to the side in order to meticulioiusly ... for lack of a better expression ......

Jan 22, 2008 - Wonderful Arrecifes

We decided to take the tourist bus to Tayrona national park - we figured it would be quicker and less hassle... until we saw the 'bus' which turned out to be a 30 year old taxi car that drove at a maximum of 20km/h and stopped every ten minutes for oil(!). Two hours later (a 35km journey!!) we got to the entrance and started our walk through the forest trail to Arrecifes. We decided to stay at the campsite on Arrecifes beach (after visiting a few!): it was relatively cheap, and we could string our hammocks where we could see the sea. After...

Jan 4, 2008 - Taganga -the fishing village

We left lovely city of cartagena to Santa Marta and then to the samll fishing village of Taganga. Taganga is the gateway point to the Tayrona National Park. After spending couple of days in Tanganga we headed in to the Tayrona National Park. Tayrona is home to some fine-hidden beaches that foriegners are yet to discover. by the time we finish the exhosting hike there were hundreds if not thousands locals camp inside the jungle. overnight stay was pretty harsh considering the fact that very limited facility needed to be shared by large...

Oct 17, 2007 - Tyrona National Park and Taganga

Sooooo, After a weeks worth of trecking, what better way than to head off to a national park on the beach and chill out for a few days by the beach and sleeping in hammocks. From there met up with a few old friends (at least in backpacker circles anyway) for some party in Taganga and some scuba diving as well ahhhhh