Thursday, October 18th

Day 2 at Merecumbe Tayrona National Park and Beach Club

Dear Obiwan,

I can’t believe I almost skipped this place! I almost went back to Minca yesterday cause I wasn’t too into Palomino and I missed the mountains. But Magella said I’ve come this far and the park is right there, so I gotta do it! She was right, so I did!

Javier had his day off today so he came up from Santa Marta to hike Tayrona with me! He also has never been so we both were so excited. Also, Ana from Palomino was going to join us!

I forgot to mention Obi that when I got to the beach hostel last night I saw the group of 3 people who I met at Casas Viejas in Minca- Nina, Charlotte, and Marc! They’re planning to go to Tayrona tomorrow too! I had dinner with them last night they’re super funny and friendly and were all traveling solo and met on a sailboat to Colombia from Panama and have been together ever since!

Anywho, to get to the park you just stand on the road the hostel is on and get on any bus going that direction. Then I got to the park and there was Javier!

We then saw Ana! And as we were in line to get our park tickets there were a bunch of sleepy cats!

We ended up heading into the park without Ana, she told us to go ahead and that she would catch up to us.

There are two paths you can take, the ocean path, about 2 hours, which takes you through the park and along many beaches, ending at Cabo San Juan. Or a path through the park that has you pass by a small village, then ending at Cabo San Juan-that’s over 4 hours. Of course we chose the beach path!

It was so beautiful! The first of three animals we saw was a wild pig sort! I spotted it walking across our path ahead. We also saw a tree frog!

At one point we took a break at a view point where a man was selling ice cream. Suddenly a woman comes running through and ANA was with her! We all cheered and we met this wild Colombian woman with so much energy and warmth. As Javier said, “she’s so Colombian,” referring to to her high energy and welcoming personality. Ana told us that her friend hurt her ankle badly in the first 10 minutes of the hike and had leave! She wore her huge hiking bag and the weight probably did it :(. This woman Ana was running with was with her whole family who soon followed behind. Her family was so nice and we ended up hiking with them! One of her daughter’s was practicing English so me and her chatted for a little!

A little bit later we were at the Arricefes beach, first beach of Tayrona. We passed by a lake with a sign that said BEWARE ALLIGATORS. And our Colombian mom told us that once or twice a year he goes swimming in the ocean and showed us a picture of him in the ocean we were about to swim in! But she also told us that he is so used to humans. (I guess that means he is friendly?!)

Well my eyes became alligator search mode and a minute later I SPOTTED AN ALLIGATOR. I wasn’t sure at first, Ana didn’t believe me. But we ran and ran and got closer and YES IT WAS! So we do what any intelligent person does and ran as close as we could. He was huge! Sadly he wasn’t too close but it was still so exciting.

After our successful alligator watching we hiked to the second beach, La Pisina, which literally translates to ‘The Pool’ because the waves are so calm. Almost every other beach (like Palomino and my current hostel) the waves are too rough to swim, but here you can! So we swam for a while and I got super sun burnt due to geniusly only putting sun block on my face and shoulders, I thought the hike was all in a forest? Didn’t realize I was going to a BEACH. 🤦 I put on some of Javier’s 90 SPF but it was probably too late.

After La Pisina we hiked another half hour to the final destination, Cabo San Juan. Wow, the pictures don’t do this place justice. It was more beautiful than the pictures! It’s one of the most beautiful beaches I have ever seen in my life.

Ana had to go, and hopefully we will meet up in ECUADOR! She will be there kinda when I am.

Javier and I stayed a while longer swimming and exploring and he decided to stay in one of the hammocks! I’m so jealous, if I had brought stuff with me I would have done the same, but oh well. At this point I was so tired. The beach drains me so much. I was interested in taking a horse back because I love horses, and my exhaustion made it happen. Javier and I said goodbye 😭and I hope we see each other again!!! But I know we’ll keep in touch :).

The horse ride back was…okay. I just ended up feeling bad for my horse. He was a good horse, similar to me, would get easily distracted, usually by food, and just start chomping away at a random bush but then the guy would WHIP HIM AND YELL. He eventually stopped whipping him, I think it was due to me getting upset and going “oh!…no!…he’s okay!..ow!…it’s okay!” And it was getting dark towards the end and bats came out! Saw so many flying around eating up all the buggies. Oh also the horse had to hike through so much mud and some parts were super steep inclines and declines on BOULDERS. Like is this okay? Are these horses loved? Do they get proper hugging and apples?!

Finally, much thigh pain later. We made it. And I get on the van, and THE PANAMA CREW was on the van! What are the odds!? They took the longer path into the forest and saw some natives to the forest! Said it was amazing! AND THEY SAW MONKEYS!!! I’m jealous but also so happy I didn’t do that hike, it was so hot 🥵.

We all traveled back to our hostel together and of course, can you guess Obiwan what happened as we walked our pitch black driveway? It started super raining, maybe not full blown monsoon? But, a heavy shower. We got back safely. I showered and felt like a new person. Ate dinner with the Panama crew, booked my hostel and plane ticket to Medellin for tomorrow and went to bed!

Goodnight my Jedi,

Love,

Carly