Santa Marta, Colombia, South America

I had an incredible day today! I got up and had breakfast at the hostel and got to Magic Tour by 8:30am. Hanan walked me down to the bus stop where I met the other 20+ people who were all coming on the same tour. Luckily I got a seat next to an Italian guy who spoke english, so we could chat a bit on the bus journey. It took about an hour for us to get from Santa Marta to the Tayrona Parque entrance at Caí±averal. The bus had A/C, but they didn’t use it and just opened the windows, so it was sweltering in the van, and the seats were smaller than anything I’ve ever seen. My seat next to Cody was very cramped, but we survived the ride.

We got out and followed our tour guide (who spoke only in Spanish, but I managed to pick up on a few things he said) for about an hour to get a beach called Arrecifes. Every one of us was completely drenched in sweat. It was like nothing I’ve ever experienced before. From head to toe, I was soaked. It was really cool to walk through the jungle though. It’s been really dry in Santa Marta lately and they are having a big problem with getting fresh water, so a lot of the vegetation on the walk was brown and dying. The further we got into the jungle, everything got a lot greener though.

We arrived at Arricefes and Fernando just said that it’s not really worth stopping there, and we should continue on for another forty minutes until we get to Cabo San Juan. It was a bit disheartening, because we all just wanted to jump in the water, but we didn’t want to get lost in the jungle, so we followed Fernando. The beach at Cabo San Juan was beautiful. It was this little naturally formed bay, that was the perfect blue-green color, surrounded by rocks and jungle. It was stunning. I found a place to chill with the italian guys, and finally got to go for a dip in the water. It was perfect. Warm enough where it was inviting, but cool enough that it was still refreshing.

We had lunch at the restaurant by the beach, which was alright. Grilled chicken with rice and french fries. Nothing too special, but it gave me enough energy for the trek back. We only got to hang out at the beach for about 2.5 hours before we had to turn back and head for the bus. The italian guys didn’t want to walk again, so they paid to take a couple of horses on the one hour path, whereas I walked the whole journey back by myself. It was actually really nice because I wasn’t stuck behind a lot of people walking really slowly, so the journey that took two hours to get there, only took an hour and twenty minutes to get back. It was just as hot, and I was sweating just as much, but it still didn’t seem as bad. There were a couple of spots where I wasn’t sure if I was actually going in the right direction, but I followed my instincts and ended up at the bus about a half hour before the tour guide did. Good thing, or I could still be walking around in the jungle by myself. That would have made for a much different blog entry.

We got the hour bus ride back to Santa Marta and I grabbed a quick bite to eat on my way back to the hostel. I also drank three liters of water because I was incredibly dehydrated. I sweated a lot today. I figured out today that my next stop from Santa Marta should be Cartagena. I was going to stop in Baranquilla, but after talking to a few people today, they said it’s just a port city, with not much to see, and no diving. I am just going to head to Cartagena tomorrow after I get back from diving. I found a hostel there in the middle of the old town, and it has air conditioning! Thank god!! Now I just have to figure out the bus schedule to get me from here to there, and I’ll be golden.