Colombia's Caribbean coast: Santa Marta, Tayrona National Park and Palomino

On August 25, 2022, we will take a bus to Bogotá and then fly to Santa Marta on the Caribbean coast by plane. Once we arrive there, on August 26, 2022, Fabi, Fine, Chris, Sophie and I will go on an e-bike tour to the surrounding mountains of the Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta. Our nice tour guide will ride a motorcycle next to us as we pedal through mud and small streams in tropical temperatures. The path will lead us to Minca and after a short hike to the Marinka waterfalls, where we can finally cool down from the humid and warm weather. After that, we will quickly return to Santa Marta, as it is all downhill and we will realize how many meters in elevation we have covered with the e-bikes.

Covered in mud splatters from head to toe, we will have dinner in the city and stroll through the "downtown", which doesn't impress us too much.

Furthermore, one should be extremely cautious in Santa Marta, as there is a lot of crime. Our friends were robbed at gunpoint in broad daylight a few days ago, so we don't feel very safe in Santa Marta.

That's why the next day, we will continue directly to a beach near Tayrona National Park. Here, we will finally experience the real Caribbean feeling. A small wooden hotel right on the beach with a hammock in front of the room, soft sand, palm trees, a few nice restaurants, cold beer, a surfboard rental - what more could you want?

Early in the morning on August 28, 2022, we will meet again with our e-bike group at the entrance of Tayrona National Park and wait for each other without any further information - there is no cell phone reception here. When everyone finally arrives with Colombian delay (no, we weren't the last ones, but actually the first ones on time for once), we will set off into the jungle. The path is beautiful, full of tropical trees and animals, and soon we will see little monkeys swinging in the trees and large leaf-cutter ants carrying their load on ant highways.

What makes Tayrona National Park special is not only the variety of animals and plants (you could probably spend weeks here and still discover new species every day), but also the different vegetation in such a small area: the sea, dreamy sandy beaches, tropical rainforest, and then uphill to over 5000m in the Sierra Nevada.

We will float around in the crystal-clear water at bathtub temperature, snorkel among colorful fish, and get a nice sunburn in the Colombian sun.

Then we will continue, because we have not seen all the beaches of the national park yet... We will pick up the pace and struggle through streams and mud that the horses churn up daily to transport the lazy tourists who don't want to walk from one end to the other. But then, the breathtaking postcard motif of Cabo San Juan lies before us!

But also a lot of other people... Unfortunately, we don't have time for a longer stop, and we will have to walk pretty fast to catch the last shuttle bus at 5:30 pm to leave the park before it closes. But in the end, we all arrive on time.

After the exhausting day, we deserve a day off, which we will mostly spend in the hammocks or surfing. We also need to recover from the restless night with severe thunderstorms, during which the power went out at times and rain poured into our room...

On August 30, 2022, we will continue driving along the coast to Palomino, a typical backpacker village with many alternative hostels, small organic shops, and free yoga and salsa classes. Together with Fabi and Fine, we will spend two more beautiful days here before they head back home.

For us, the journey will continue by bus from Santa Marta towards Cartagena.