Santa Marta, Minka and my farewell to Colombia

From Tayrona National Park, I took a minibus back along the Caribbean coast to Santa Marta. The city is located directly by the sea and has a nice colonial-style old town. And that's where most of the tourists hang out. From Santa Marta, I wanted to take a trip to the small town of Minka. It's about half an hour outside of Santa Marta in the mountains. From there, you can go hiking and visit coffee and cocoa plantations.

The journey to Santa Marta took about two and a half hours and the driver dropped me off somewhere in the city (not where I expected). I steadfastly refused to take a taxi, even though I was besieged by several drivers as soon as I got off the bus. Instead, I asked a street cleaner for the next bus. As often happens, the city bus driver was nice and showed me exactly where to get off, and I found my hostel right away.

In Santa Marta, as in Tayrona the previous days, the weather was perfect. However, it made the city even hotter. Therefore, my city walk was rather short, and I spent the rest of the afternoon in the pool of my hostel. There, I met two young women from Germany and two Argentinians. It turned out that the two Argentinians also wanted to go to Minka the next day, so I joined them.

Although my Spanish skills were reasonably proficient again after a few weeks in Central America, it was nice to be traveling with two native speakers, especially since the likelihood of getting ripped off decreases significantly when you speak fluent Spanish. So we drove together to Minka and initially went to the hostel where the two wanted to stay. However, I had to return to Santa Marta that evening because I was flying to Bogotá the next morning.

The detour to the hostel was worthwhile in the sense that the host gave us some tips on hiking routes. We decided to first hike to 'Pozo Azul' (Blue Pool). On the way there, we took the longer route through coffee plantations, which gave us beautiful views of the green peaks.

Pozo Azul consists of several pools in a river stream, surrounded by waterfalls, where you can swim. Although it was cooler in Minka than in Santa Marta, we were happy for the refreshing swim after our hike. At one point, you could jump several meters into the pool below a small waterfall, which I eventually did after some consideration and a lot of encouragement from my two companions. Overall, we probably spent an hour there before taking a different route back to the town.

I only had a few hours left before I had to return to Santa Marta, but I still decided to go on a second hike to a larger waterfall with the two. The route was beautiful and led alongside a stream through the jungle. When we arrived at the waterfall, I only had enough time to take a few photos. Then, I took one of the motorcycle taxis and had it drive me back to Minka to catch the last bus.

Even though I only had a little time in Santa Marta and Minka (I definitely recommend planning at least two days for Minka), I enjoyed every moment there, and it is definitely a place I would visit again. But my time in Colombia was almost over.

The next morning, I flew back to Bogotá, and from there, I continued on to Guatemala the following evening. In between, I had time to explore some new areas of the Colombian capital with a newfound Colombian friend I had met in Santa Marta. We strolled through the streets, tried a new hamburger creation, and had coffee beer.

Like so many before, my last day in Colombia was filled with friendly people, good food, and interesting impressions. I hope to have the opportunity to return someday, and until then, I can only recommend everyone to discover this fascinating country with their own eyes.