Whilst we were still exploring the Caribbean coast on the north shores of Colombia, we made our way to Tayrona National Park. Nestled in the foothills of the Sierra Nevada of Santa Marta, the protected area is known for it's coastal lagoons, rainforest and rich biodiversity and most of all, for tropical beaches like this one...
Getting here isn't quite as easy as you would like. First you need to base yourself in Santa Marta and from here there are a few different options to get to the entrance of the park in Zaino, which is about an hours drive from Santa Marta. We jumped into a back of a jeep with a handful of other sweaty tourists and headed for there for the opening time of 8am. Once you arrive there you can purchase your park ticket and book your accommodation for the night if you are staying overnight (which I highly suggest due to the distance you will end up walking!). There were a few options for this, hammocks or tents set a little way back off the beach, or hammocks on 'the rock'. This is the option we went for and whilst you have to walk across the beach to the facilities (which are very basic may I add!), the views were incredible, there is only room for a handful of people, and you get to fall asleep to the sound of the waves rolling in.
Once you have sorted tickets and accommodation, simply follow the path headed for Cabo San Juan. The first part of the path is along a man-made boardwalk and eventually it turns into a dirt track, so watch where you are walking! The majority of the time you are hiking through the dense rainforest, so keep an eye out for for a variety of wildlife such as the cotton-top tamarin, caimans and even jaguars! Sadly, we only saw lots of electric blue poison dart frogs and leaf-cutting ants!
We continued our hot and sweaty walk, occassionally stopping for a breather as the path bought us out onto a new beach or a different view point. Make sure to check if you are able to swim before you do so, some of the beaches have such strong riptides that swimming is banned. We waited until we made it Cabo San Juan before we enjoyed swimming in the cool turquoise waters!
We spent the afternoon relaxing, reading and swimming before we had a bite to eat at the make shift restaurant (the only place serving meals) and made our way to our hammocks for bed.
I remember swinging gently in my hammock, listening to the waves crashing on the rocks below us and staring up at the stars that glittered in the dark sky. It was one of the best night skies I have ever seen. I remember thinking how many times I had looked at photos of this place and now I was here myself. It all seemed so unreal.
I didn't sleep much that night but I didn't really mind. We woke up to the most gorgeous sunrise and then we headed back out the park the way that we had came and hopped onto the next bus we saw heading back to Santa Marta.
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