On Monday we flew from Medellin to Santa Marta and grabbed a cab to our hostel, Villana which turned out to be one of the nicest hostels I’ve stayed in. Beautiful, clean, sturdy bunkbeds in the dorms, air con, bean bags and a small pool beside the bar. We headed straight out for dinner at Lulo which was healthy and veggie friendly. 

Tuesday morning we were up early to head for Taganga to go diving with Octopus dive centre. Victor and the rest of the staff were great, really professional and friendly. I did two dives and struggled with my ears on the second one but still loved it. There were a lot of fish and eels and a funny looking lobster type creature I’d never seen before. I also took some time to practice my underwater handstand. 

After the dive we chilled out on the beach in Taganga for the rest of the afternoon and that evening ate in a more traditional restaurant near the hostel. I’m going to have to learn how to make beans the way they do them here and in Brazil or I’ll suffer serious withdrawals when this is all over! 

Wednesday morning we got up and out early again to get a bus to Tayrona National Park. We knew there’d be no ATMs in the park and had intended to get cash before leaving town but after a few poor decisions and assuming that there MUST be an ATM outside the park for morons like us, we arrived to be told that no, there was nowhere to withdraw money. If I paid to enter the park with the cash I had left I wouldn’t even have enough to get the bus back to Santa Marta the next day so I jumped on the bus back to town (50 minutes away) to get some cash. While I was waiting on the side of the road post ATM-visit for the next bus out to Tayrona a local woman came over and asked me where I was going. She explained that I needed a big white bus and not the blue buses that I kept shouting “Tayrona?” at as they passed. She then stood with me for about 10 minutes – I assumed she was also waiting for a bus. Every now again she spoke to me in Spanish and I tried to use my hands to speak back but mostly I just smiled and nodded. Eventually she re-iterated her instructions for getting the correct bus, told me to be careful and jumped in a taxi! After she left a security guard from the supermarket behind me came out also to enquire where I was trying to go, just as my big white bus arrived. Colombians are so far proving themselves to be incredibly kind. 

So I get back to Tayrona and start the hike to Cabo San Juan at 12.20, so it is HOT. The walk is gorgeous and I embrace the sweat and power on, enjoying the exertion after not doing any exercise since Rio. I get to the campsite at 1.30 and Peter has been queuing to check in since he arrived an hour earlier. We eventually get assigned a tent as all of the hammocks are already taken and we dump our stuff and head for the beach where we spent the rest of the day. 

The place is pretty busy with tourists but because it’s so far away from anything else it still feels remote. The restaurant and shop only open at certain hours of the day and there’s no WiFi or TV. Sleeping in the tent wasn’t the most comfortable as it was so hot. I woke up at 7am drenched in sweat and headed staight for the sea. After that I spent all day in the sun and completely toasted myself. By 1pm I couldn’t handle anymore and hid in the shade until Peter was ready to leave at 2pm. 

We walked for an hour back to where shuttles take you out to the main road. When we got there a van had just left so there was a 15 minute wait for the next one. I was a bit pumped after our very brisk walk through the park and didn’t fancy sitting just yet so decided to jog the 4km out to the main road and meet Peter there. By the time I got to the main road I was so sweaty that my clothes were soaked through. I couldn’t sit on a seat on the bus as I’d have drenched it so I sat on the floor and dozed for most of the hour back into town. 

After a shower and a small rest in the cold-ish dorm we went back to Lulo for fruit smoothies and nice healthy food with a German girl from our hostel. I fell asleep even earlier than usual due to my potential heat stroke and over exertion but was very content as I was dozing off!

Friday morning we took a Marsol van from Santa Marta to Cartagena. It’s a door to door service which is recommended because the bus stations in both towns are quite out of the way and can end up being a massive pain to get in and out of. Once I’d dropped my bags off I went for a wander around the Old Town which was once a walled city and later on did a free walking tour. 

Cartagena is really very beautiful which I wasn’t expecting, simply because I never researched it. The colonial architecture is pretty special and it’s bright and clean and colourful. It’s hotter than Tayrona here and pretty humid so although I’ll be sad to leave Colombia, my sweaty, dehydrated self will be glad to board the plane to colder Quito, Ecuador later today!