Vacationing in Colombia

You choose...

Option one- scroll past the writing and just look at the highlights through the photos.

Option two- read below and listen to us complain about spending our time on the Caribbean coast (spoiled brats!) and see the photos after...

Our Holiday Break was well not the most relaxing and ideal vacation but perhaps our expectations are set to high. We have been super fortunate to have lived in and traveled to amazingly beautiful and empty places. So when we read about the national park on the coast of Colombia where you can hike into beaches and sleep in hammocks our minds of course pictured empty quiet beaches and lush pristine forests- well that was our first mistake- having expectations. We were pretty disappointed and aggravated during this travel session. There were people, lots of people, people shoving and cutting and littering - everywhere we turned.

The national park is just a front for an exploited beach full of people cranking music, selling crap and taking up space. Although it is a decent hike into these beaches, people made the trek- lots of people that it is. Which I must say was pretty impressive, considering your average American is not willing to walk more than a few hundred feet to a beach. But most of the people who hiked in hired horses to carry, what seemed like their whole house into the campground- which was not too unlike a refugee camp. It was wall to wall tents, filthy bathrooms with long lines, over flowing garbage and people, people, people!

Our trip was this:

First we flew into the ugliest city of Barranquilla where the dried up river canals over flowed with trash, we spent a night there and the next day we drove the coastline about 2 hours to a beach town that was highly recommended to us called Santa Marta. It was kind of a mix between an industrial port town and a tourist town- not really our scene and the cheap places were dumps- or maybe we are getting old!

From there we went to the next village over that was quoted to be a sleepy fishing village. Turns out there was nothing sleepy about it. It was full of Colombian tourist and backpackers and there wasn't a square inch on the concrete rubble they call a beach to even lay a towel. We stayed one night and high tailed it out of there.

Next stop Parque Nacional Tyrona. A bus ride loaded to the max with people with my big backpack full of camping gear on my lap the whole way, we arrived to a crazy scene- lines of cars and people making their way into the park. It was, well crazy crowded. There were small highlights but surely not what we expected.

After about four days there we hitched a ride with a kid who was driving south to Bogota (the capital city.) We figured what we needed was a nice road trip through the country to get away from the people. Well get away from the people we did, it was about a 14 hour drive but stopped at a cool place for a few days. But lets just say the ride was pure 100% terror. Yes people here drive fast and aggressively but this kid did it poorly. We seriously almost crashed, I mean really crashed four times but that is not including all the times we hit speed bumps going about 90 miles an hour. After a while I said I couldn't take it anymore. After we almost skidded off the road or crashed head onto a car while trying to pass I asked if Aaron could drive for a while. Aaron did drive and I was more relaxed- even though Aaron doesn't have an international licences and was not carrying his US license and we were having to pass through many military check points- this risk outweighed the previous. Not to mention the kid we were was constantly getting high and consequently paranoid- one time he freaked out so bad because we had heard a gunshot and he believed we were being chased by the guerrillas! It was intense.

That night we finally arrived at a place called Rio Claro, which was the highlight of the trip. A canyon and river bed made completely out of marble, with high cliff walls with caves and waterfalls. The water was crystal clear and refreshing. We tubed the river and swam, this was a nice change to be away from people- well for the most part. The campground was gnarly and horrible but most of the people didn't hike too far up the river where we went.

The next day we made the windy death defying drive up the mountains to Bogota. It was dark, rainy and foggy and the kid was driving too fast. We were exhausted and although our ticket wasn't for a few more days we just asked to be dropped at the airport where we slept the night and got on the first flight home to Cali.

We were so happy to see our clean house, especially the bathroom and sleep in our quiet bed. I think we may be ready to graduate to the next level of traveling and we are even willing to pay the higher price. I am hoping our next vacation may be out of Latin America, maybe Europe or Ice Land....any ideas anyone? Traveling in Latin America was so much more intriguing and exotic when we were not living here full time. But I think we were just cut in line too many times, waited too long and were just too crowded with fake buts and big boobs!

Cabo San Juan- The beach at the national park infront of where we camped.

The Nudey Beach down the way at Parque Tyrona.

The Beach after sunset.

That little hut up on the rock is full of hammocks to rent for sleeping.

Pueblito- This was a old village of indigenous that was just about and hours hike from the beach. It was an amazing trail of huge rocks and stella views. The old village is still inhabitated by native Cogies but it was an old city where 1200 people once resided. The stone work was impressive.

More of Pueblito.

Steps leading to an old path in Pueblito.

One of the huts used by the locals.

The campground at the National Park, the photo doesn't do it justice- it was worse in real life. Our Favorite neigbor was Alvero, who was there with his six year old son and they would great us RIGHT as we stepped foot out of our tent. They would be sitting just a few feet from our tent in their silk, yes silk pajamas cooking breakfast.

The river just outside of the national park.

Aarons lovely soup which goes by the name of mondongo. This soap includes the tripe (lining of the cow stomach), the hoof of the cow and other various guts. Yummy huh. Now wonder we have diarrhea.

Someone asked me to take some photos of the food, which is easy becuase it looks about the same everywhere you go. This is a typical plate. Jokingly referred to as ACPM which stands for. arroz, carne, plantain, maduro....but it is also the word for diesel.

A lucky dog chewing on the head of a cow, the rest of the cow is not far...see below.

Roadside meat market in the middle of nowhere, a good place for a beer. We picked up some beef too, doesn't get much fresher, they slaughtered the cow that day.

Better than in the rivers and streets I guess...

The death trap that averaged 130 kph most of the way!

Sun setting in the valley close to Bogota.

Road trip crew. (Philepe is his name)

Fruit Stand in Taganga.

Sunset in Taganga Bay.

Taganga

Taganga

Raspados on the Santa Marta Beach.