From Cartagena, we took a shuttle bus to a beach-side city around 4 hours away, Santa Marta. Although it definitely didn't have the same charm as Cartagena, Santa Marta served as a great base to explore the surrounding areas and had enough going to keep us occupied in between!
After a few days in Santa Marta, we decided to escape the heat and head an hour inland to a tiny eco-town called Minca. We stayed in a hostel right by the river and had a lazy first day enjoying the peaceful surrounds. On our second day, (Elise's birthday!) we met one of the locals (Joe) who offered tours of the town and took up his offer of a day of swimming in waterfalls and tubing down the river! Joe smartly outsources the hard work to the local teenagers so off we headed up the river with our 17 year old guide, Fabio. We didn't realise that the "walk" up the river involved many sections of being chest deep in water and scaling a waterfall, but it was an adventure nonetheless. After around an hour, we were swimming in one of the beautiful natural pools of the waterfall which made the crazy river walk seem worth it in the end. As we started to head back down the river, the sky turned grey and suddenly we were scampering up the muddy hillside, barefoot in the pouring rain. We eventually made it back to meet our other 17 year old guide by the river who had our tubes ready to go. The tubing was great fun, albeit a little extreme with the heavy downpour creating some huge rapids. We arrived back where we started it all at a small restaurant and had a bite to eat before changing and enjoying a walk around town with Joe to see some of the nearby coffee plantations, nature trails and even an area full of hummingbirds. Minca was such a nice escape from the city and the perfect place to celebrate a birthday!
After a couple of nights back in town, we jumped on a small bus to the entrance of Tayrona National Park and started the hike to one of the camping sites where we planned to spend the night. Tayrona is unique in that it's a beautiful area where the jungle meets the sea and you have to work a little to see the best parts. After a picturesque hike through the jungle, passing monkeys & white sand beaches, we arrived at El Cabo where we rented hammocks for 2 nights. It was so peaceful to be able to sleep with the sound of waves, fresh air and unfortunately the buzzing of mosquitoes (the mosquito nets definitely came in handy!) The hammocks were surprisingly comfortable and each morning we only had to take 20 steps to get to the beach - not a bad place to spend a few days! We took the easy / fun speedboat option to get back to town to avoid another hike back in the humidity.
Incredible sunset on our last night in Santa Marta
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