North coast of Colombia

After the island paradise in Providencia, we planned to travel the north coast of Colombia for two weeks before leaving the wonderful continent of South America by sailboat towards Panama.

So we flew from San Andres to Cartagena and visited the town of Santa Marta for a day. Santa Marta is actually considered a starting point for the town of Minca in the Sierra Nevada and also as a starting point for one of the most beautiful national parks in South America, the Tayrona National Park.

We experienced Santa Marta as a beautiful town where we found many charming cafes and restaurants with good food.

The next day, we took a minibus to Minca. Minca is the highest coastal mountain range in the world. We spent two nights in a wonderful accommodation in the jungle, from where we could admire a wonderful sunset over hills. We also did a great day hike through the hills and cooled off at a waterfall at the end.

After Minca, we continued along the coast to the vicinity of the Tayrona National Park. There, too, we spent cozy days in a nice accommodation and took extensive walks on the beach, during which we talked about the Corona situation. We decided to wait for three more days, do the national park with the booked accommodation, and reassess the situation in Palomino. We were glad to push the thoughts aside until then.

Well, it didn't come to that. Our big day was Saturday, March 14th. In the morning, our sailing trip to Panama was canceled. We made a new decision and thought we would wait until after the national park. That was in the morning. Not even nine hours later, we were sitting at the laptop, searching for a flight to Costa Rica on Monday morning. Colombia was on the verge of a lockdown, including national parks. On Saturday evening, we booked a flight from Cartagena via Panama City to San José in Costa Rica. We just hoped that the borders in Costa Rica would not close by then and that we could fly in transit through Panama.

In a way, we were glad about the decision. On Sunday, we traveled to Cartagena and spent a wonderful afternoon in the beautiful colonial city. On Sunday evening, we realized that we didn't have a onward flight ticket within three months and booked a fake ticket.

On Monday morning, we were extremely nervous and grateful that we had booked an onward flight ticket. We had to show this before we could even check in. A long procedure at check-in, regarding how long we had been in Colombia in relation to the entry into Costa Rica. After what seemed like an eternity, we had our boarding passes in hand and flew to Panama City at 6:30 am. When we took off over Colombia, the sun appeared once again and the tears of disappointment and relief could not be pushed aside. Our dreams of experiencing the wonderful Colombia and the sailing trip were destroyed within hours. So we headed to what we thought was the safe haven of Costa Rica...