Tayrona park
Thursday, July 7th, 2011Day 287 Wed 15/6
The taxi (a jeep) from Taganga to Tyrona took about 2.5 hours! Picking up folks in various hostels, stopping to allow folks to withdraw money and then a stop at a local shop. Tayrona park is pretty expensive – the entrance is about 35,000 CoP and lodging and food more expensive than outside.
We arrived at entrance around 12:30 – 1pm and started our slow trek to Cabo de San Juan, stopping for photos, lunch and ice creams enroute. The girls and I were joined by 3 Italians living in Ireland.
Tayrona wasnt in my original itinerary, but I am glad that the girls managed to convince me. Paradise doesnt quite cover it. Lovely beaches with a nice trail connecting them. The only problems are the mosquitoes and that one cannot swim at all the beaches as some of the currents can be quite treacherous. There were signs warning people not to become part of the statistics of the number of people who have drowned trying to swim at a couple of beaches.
Arrecife offered the first set of cabañas, hammocks and tents for visitors, but it was expensive and the nearest “swimmable” beach 20 minutes away. We decided it was well worth the effort to walk another hour to get to Cabo de San Juan. We braved the heat and the humidity to trudge along. However, by the time we got there, it was too late for all of us to have the choice of sleeping in hammocks. The girls took the only 2 hammocks available and the guys took two tents, with Darrio and I sharing one.
Shower and time for dinner. We had crackers, tuna and some fruit. The cheese and meat that the Italians carried with them from Taganga looked pretty bad after 6 hours in the heat!
Neither Darrio nor I got much sleep. It was too hot to sleep with the flap closed and the mosquitoes made life unbearable with the flap open. We even tried the beach, but not much helped. I managed a couple of hours of sleep around 3 am.
Day 288 Thu 16/6
The day was spent swimming, resting at the beach, going on a couple of short walks and chatting with folks. It was a nice, relaxed day. The girls managed to procure a cabaña for the night and the view from their cabin was well worht the price they paid for it. They invited us all up for a look and to watch the sun go down. However, lighting and thunder were our companions that evening, but still offered stellar views. We looked out into the ocean knowing that Mexico was on the northern end of Carribean on lines we could draw from where we stood!
Slept well on the hammock, the mosquito net proving quite useful! The only bite I had was when I had to get out of my hammock to pee in the middle of the night.
Day 289 Fri 17/6
More time in the water and the beach and it was time to say goodbye to the girls. The Italian lads were heaidng back to Tayrona as well, since they were short on time. It is never fun to say goodbye to people whose company one enjoys, but it is after all the life of the traveller: after 10 or 11 days, it was time to part ways. The girls were going to spend a couple more days at Tayrona and then head to La Guajira, the peninsula.
Hike back to the parking lot where Jose was waiting for us. We had to run the last few kms or so to make it just in time.
Had dinner with the lads and headed to bed at midnight, prepared for the 5 day trek that I had been looking forward to since I had read about it during my research well over a year ago!
Damu