Tayrona National Park - Day 1

After a couple of days in Bogota, a very early flight took us to Santa Marta, the start point to explore Colombia Caribbean coast.

We planned to go to Tayrona national park, where the Sierra Nevada  mountains go down directly on unspoiled beaches, where nature is wild & human presence is almost invisible.

Tayrona being so uncontaminated & remote is a long trip to reach the heart of the park.

I searched google for hours to find out how to go from the airport to Tayrona, but I could find no information. So we just thought we figured it out once we got there.

Indeed, there was no need to worry: once you arrive at Santa Marta airport, you'll find all the information you need, not only to go to Tayrona, but to go to all the other destinations nearby, such as Palomino, Minca, ...

Basically you can go everywhere by bus, but in this case you need to have time as the journey will take longer: you'll need to take a first bus to Santa Marta central market & from there one or two other buses to your final destination.
Also people are really nice, so if you're a bit lost with all the buses in Santa Marta, they'll help you out!

Or you can go by taxi. The taxi fares are fixed and clearly displayed on several billboards inside the airport and in the taxis as well.

For European standards, those taxi fares are really, really, reasonable.

Once you arrive at Tayrona entrance, you're still faraway to the final destination. We were there in the middle of the week & it was low season, still we had to queue more than 1 hour to pay our entrance fees. Once you have your entrance tickets, you still have to watch a video on how to behave in the park, then you have to take back the bus or the taxi to go a bit further in the park & finally you can choose to walk or ride a horse to your final destination in the park (cars are not allowed in the park).

There are no many places where to stay in Tayrona: some luxurious & completely over priced cabins on the first the beach & a sort of a camping on the most remote & most beautiful beach.

We obviously chose this last option and ride our horses until Cabo San Juan. 

There we queued again - I must say that all those tourists take away some of the beauty & wilderness of the place...  - to book a place to sleep, you can choose between hammocks or tents.

There are also two double rooms in the wooden cabin overlooking the sea. You can book them in advance through internet, but they're obviously quite always full.

We finally had our tent & strategically placed in front of the sea and a bit far away from all the others ;) 

Tired & hungry from the long trip to reach El Cabo, we made a beeline for the only restaurant available.

I read food was expensive & not really tasty in Tayorna, but I actually found the restaurant served good food, exceptionally good seafood & prices were quite affordable.

Plus, when you can have lunch in front fo such a view, who would complain? 😜

We spent the afternoon chilling in the sun 

& swimming & snorkeling in the crystal blue water 

Tayrona is a wonderful sequence of a beach after another & at the end of the afternoon we decided to have a walk to explore a bit more & headed to the beach next to El Cabo one. 

Discovering blue crabs along the way.

The next beach was even more beautiful & also much more wild.

But waves & currents are really strong - not only in Tayrona but generally on this side of Colombian coast - and swimming is not recommended, except in naturally protected beaches like El Cabo or La Piscina.

Nevertheless, the place is beautiful & just walking on the sand enjoying the view is wonderful...

...until you start seeing naked people & you realize you're on a nudist beach. 🙈   That's when we decided to turn back to El Cabo beach.

The sun was starting to set & people were playing football on the beach

& we took possession of our tent to relax & watch the sunset...

...Before heading back to the camp restaurant for some grilled fish & exceptionally good fruit juice.

What you should also know is that, except for a couple of hours in the restaurant, there is no electricity nor lights in Tayrona. 

Once the sun sets down, it's very dark & there's no much to do at night... But if you don't mind being surrounded by nature in a still untouched place, El Cabo in Tayrona is a perfect, wonderful place. 

2 days in Bogota

Back in cold & gray Paris from warm & colorful Brazil... such a change of scenery ahah! ;)

I obviously didn't even begin to go through all the pics from Brazil, but I finished with the ones from Colombia in May. And to live again our Colombia trip should be a good antidote to the winter weather ;)

Colombia wasn’t one of the first destinations on our bucket list, but we have friends living in Bogota so we took the chance to visit them & explore the country.

It was a wonderful discovery as there are some really stunning natural places & people are really kind and open to tourists; if you speak a bit of Spanish, almost everyone will be happy to talk with you, tell you about his country & know about your.

We started our trip with a couple of days in Bogota.

Honestly, Bogota isn't exactly a nice city: it's built incoherently, with ugly, modern buildings touching old, cute houses; the weather is quite disappointing too as the city being quite high on the mountains, the sky is often grey & rainy and it's never very hot, nor too cold neither;  & it's quite dangerous too. About that :

• Taxi can really be an issue: don’t ever grab a taxi in the street; always book a taxi from the official app or ask your hotel or restaurant to book one for you;
• Book in advance a taxi for you arrival at the airport too;
• Don’t’ ever walk in empty streets, even during the day. Basically don’t go by foot outside the city center;
• Avoid to wear any signs of wealth: jewelry, watches...
• Use common sense ;)

But enough with the downsides! We actually had a very good time in Bogota, as we were with our friends who live there. And if you know the city & where to go, there are really some cool places to go out in Bogota!

The day we arrived, we had dinner in one of the restaurants I liked the most in all Colombia: Central Cevicheria.

All the ceviches we shared were incredibly yummy & fresh (we had others during our trip, but couldn’t find any as good as the ones at Central Cevicheria).

Unfortunately, I was feeling quite bad (note to myself: never drinking that much again before a long flight, ever. To my excuse, the night before the flight was one of my best friends' birthday!). So I don't have any picture of the place or the food... You'll just have to trust me and pay Central Cevicheria a visit!

By the morning after, I was feeling super good & after a yummy breakfast - we tasted pan de yuca (manioca bread), which I really liked - we started our visit of Bogota with the Gold Museum. 

The museum displays a collection of gold & stone objects from the pre-Columbian civilizations.

And there's a funny room, where you'll find yourself in the middle of a shaman rite.

We strolled the city center streets, stopping here & there to look at the cute lamas...

...or more commonly, to visit churches.

And finally reached Bolivar square, the city main square, house of all the government buildings & the surprisingly simply decorated Cathedral.

Time to go to Botero Museum. The nice thing in Bogota is that in the historical center everything is close by & you can easily walk from one place to another.

Botero Museum is located in a very cute colonial house

& displays a huge collection of Botero paintings & sculptures as well as works from other artists such as Picasso, Miro', Monet, Dali'...

It's really, really beautiful! I remember as a kid to be extremely annoyed to visit museums & art exhibitions with my mum, except for Botero. I vividly remember going to an exhibition at the National Modern Art Gallery in Rome as a child & absolutely loving those fat, funny, non-conventional characters!

I could happily have stayed there for hours, but it was time to meet with friends for lunch. 

We passed through streets full of graffiti

We discovered a surprisingly modern & funny theatre

Before arriving to our lunch spot.

After lunch we climbed the Cerro de Monserrate, to have a view of the city from above, realizing how big it really is...

We spent the rest of the afternoon wandering the colorful, little streets of La Candelaria, the historical district of the city.

I really wanted to visit the Holy Mother of Carmen church - I saw a picture on google & it looked incredible - but unfortunately we were only able to see the exterior as it only opens for the the holy Mass.

For our last night in Bogota, our friends took us to Gaira Café, a music bar & restaurant where we could listen to different groups of local music while people watching - Colombian people dance so damn well!! :)

Decoration is really nice & the menu is in the shape of an old disc!

We shared different little local dishes, one better than the other, & enjoyed some cocktails while chatting & laughing :)

A perfect end to our first Colombian experience!

& tomorrow I'll take you to Tayrona National Park! Trust me, you don't wanna miss it! 😜