Parque Nacional Tayrona

We awoke in our hammocks to calls from arepa vendors. Alex had those while I enjoyed a huge chocolate bread loaf and meager coffee.

Each of these dangerous beaches has claimed 100-200 folks.

We hiked along sweltering beaches with dangerous undertow (closed to swimmers, lifeguards patrolling) before arriving at La Piscina (the pool), which is a relaxing beach with decent surf. The water was perfect, and full of couples and groups of friends, both local and foreign, all under the age of 35ish. Mica flakes danced in the cerulean waves as we swam.

La Piscina, much safer for great swimming.

We then threw on our shoes to hike the 20 minutes to the twin bays of Cabo San Juan de la Guia.

These were much more popular with foreigners and locals alike. The beach was challenging to navigate with all the bodies tanning in the sun. Palm trees everywhere too. Really nice. And surprising that so many people (as well as restaurant food and beers) have made the trek out here. Maybe boats had some help getting everyone out?

We went to the gazebo on the outcrop between the two bays for some great pictures and some perspective on the scene.

Woah. Cabo San Juan

From the Cabo we hike through a short patch of jungle before getting to another sunny, dangerous undertow beach. Having seen or swam all the beaches on this side of the park, we head back to our backpacks in Arrecifes. We develop burns on the sun blasted walk back.

On our hike out of the park that evening, we saw a small deer/large rodent creature a bit smaller than a capybara and with nearly black fur.

Another mile later we encountered a pair of monkeys crashing through the foliage above. We barely saw them, but they were hiding and equally curious of us.

We passed over a number of leaf cutter ant highways during our time in the park. We noticed that they stopped working during the heat of midday. The ants had long ago cleared their paths of leaves, plants, and debris, making it look like a miniaturized human footpath.

Ant Highways

We arrived at the park entrance at El Zaino after a quick collectivo ride down the hill. Joe and Jessica, our friend couple from Arrecifes, had recommended MarSol buses for our return trip to Santa Marta, where we planned to overnight before taking a flight to Medellin the next morning.

Unfortunately we found that the extra 10,000 pesos per person that we paid didn't take us directly to a  hotel in the city center, and instead we got dropped off at the Centro Commercial- the mall, instead of the centro of the city.

Checking flights from the Juan Valdez coffee at the mall revealed that timing and prices for tomorrows flights were not ideal, so we high tailed it in a taxi to the bus station instead. We booked an overnight bus to Medellin. Alex was not enthused at first about a 16 hour bus ride but it was a fraction of the cost of a flight, and it actually got us there quicker than staying overnight and flying the next day. Air conditioning and super reclining seats made it much more comfortable than she had initially feared.