Parque Nacional Tayrona (National Park Tayrona)

As I said, the vacation's over...so here are the rest of the pictures! After completing the trek to Ciudad Perdida, Allison and I needed some serious recuperation time and what better way to rejuvenate our souls then with some quality beach time???

The morning after we returned from the lost city we left Santa Marta for a Colombian national park called Tayrona. I had heard fabulous reviews about the park from almost everyone I knew, so I was psyched to get there. We loaded up on snacks and books, and took the 40 minute bus ride to the park's main gate. At the gate we paid the entrance fee for foreigners ($34,000 pesos) even through I tried to negotiate with the woman for the $12,000 Colombian entrance fee since I live here. She wasn't having it and $17 US dollars later we were in the park.

Dresses & backparks? Ready for a day at the Colombian beach!

Perfect.

From the entrance we embarked on what we now call Day 7 of our trek, because we walked about 2 hours just to arrive at the beach. Needless to say, we didn't think the walk would take nearly that long and by the time we arrived, we were quite irritated and ready to settle down. After about 30 minutes we located the guy in charge at the first beach, Arrecifes, and secured ourselves some $12,000 peso hammocks for the night. Lodging handled we ran to the beach and found ourselves astounded at the gorgeous atmosphere.

View from our hammocks = amazing!

Huge waves! You cannot even swim at this beach because the waves are so intense and people have actually drown in the past. :(

These huge rocks line the shore of the park as you walk from beach to beach.

After a night in our hammocks with sleeping bags (these seemed like a luxury after Ciudad Perdida!) but without mosquito nets we woke up super early and ready to explore more of this gorgeous park. We left our hammocks around 8 and headed west along the coast. From our beach, Arrecifies, we walked about 20 minutes to a small cove where you are allowed to swim.

Allison at the cove.
Enjoying the gorgeous morning walk beachside.

From here we walked about another 15 minutes to a beach called La Piscina. You cannot stay the night at this beach, but it is a great beach during the day. Calm enough for swimming, but lined with fresh fruit vendors in case you need a quick pick-me-up hydration from the equatorial sun.

On the trail, just before La Piscina.
Coconut trees overhead make for a gorgeous landscape...so long as the coconuts remain in the trees and not on your head.

We continued on our walk for another 30 minutes on a path before arriving at the last beach on our tour, Cabo San Juan de La Guia. This beach is definitely camper central with tons of tents and hammocks set up all over, and an on-site restaurant! I can definitely see why people come here as the atmosphere seemed open and welcoming. Everyone seemed to be having a great time and the beach included two separate coves for swimming. Allison and I of course took this moment to pause for one of our mutual favorite activities - jumping pictures. As you know, I love in motion photography, and she does too so we promptly headed to the beach for a long series of photos. Colombian looked on with amused grins at these two crazy white girls jumping and laughing on the beach, but we didn't really care. The pictures turned out great and we had a blast!

View of one cove at Cabo, with the other hiding in the background. Please note that the hut on top of that hill has hammocks in it where you can spend the night and truly be lulled to sleep by the sounds of the Caribbean. AMAZING!

Allison loving the beach :) I took this on the big try...no big deal.

So happy :)

While December and January are vacation months in Colombia, making the national park more crowded than usual, we truly enjoyed all of our time in Tayrona. I think it will definitely remain one of my favorite places in Colombia and I cannot wait to return for many visits in the upcoming years!

And with that...the vacation posts are over. So long sunny beachfronts, hello Algebra textbooks.