Colombia: Minca & Tayrona National Park
After spending a few days in Bogotá and Cartagena, on Sunday the 18th of June it was time to see some of Colombia’s nature. Our first stop was Minca, a small village in the hills of the Sierra Nevada. It was quite a long and exhausting trip to get there, since most hostels are located high up in the mountains.
We first took a bus from Cartagena to Santa Marta, then a taxi from Santa Marta to Minca and lastly another taxi from Minca to our hostel. After more than eight hours of travel we finally arrived at our hostel, Mano Verde Minca.
On the first day we did a hike to the Jaguar Waterfall. On the map we saw it was a 1,5 hour hike, but it took us way longer. On top of it, it started raining on the way back. For the rest of the day we stayed at our hostel, chilled in the hammock, had a chat with some people who also were in the hostel and ended the evening watching one of the prettiest sunsets I have ever seen.
The day after it was already time to leave Minca. We headed to Santa Marta, where we initially planned to stay for two nights. After a terrible first night (the beds in our hostel were really crappy), we decided to go to another hostel and book for two more nights. After exploring Santa Marta a bit, on Thursday we went to Tayrona National Park.
We totally underestimated how hard this hike would be! The combination of the super hot temperatures and humidity made it quite an adventure. But it was totally worth it! After a few hours of hiking, we reached Cabo San Juan, Tayrona’s most popular beach. While swimming in the sea we met Jefferson, a super cute 7-year-old local kid. Afterwards we had two options: hiking all the way back to the starting point (by foot or on horseback) or taking a boat to Taganga. We chose the second option and had the most fun!
On Friday we left Santa Marta and took a night bus to our next destination: Medellín!
