Georgie’s Wanderlust

I spent three days in this gorgeous national park in Colombia. I met a German man, Tristan, on the bus from Cartagena to Santa Marta. We chatted almost the whole way and I told him my plan to hike unguided through Tayrona National Park. I invited him to join me and he agreed, so we met the next morning and headed off.

If you plan to go trekking solo, always let someone know where you are, and have enough water and food with you in the event of an emergency. I also highly recommend a PLB (Personal Locator Beacon). They are worth every cent and save lives every year. I use a Garmin Inreach Mini on my adventures! You can bluetooth it to your smartphone so texting is easier when communicating with authorities, or to let a loved one know you are safe!

Here are the details of this Caribbean coastal adventure!

Day one – getting there

Beginning the morning waking up in my hostel in Santa Marta. I gathered my bags and checked out, leaving my large one behind in storage for this final leg of my South American adventure.

I walk the streets at 7.30am struggling to find a cafe that is open, by 8am I find one and sit down for a coffee. Tristan meets me at the cafe and we head for the grocery store. Buying bread, mango, an extra water bottle (I already have my 750ml Grayl filter bottle), and bug spray – which we soon found out was very needed.

We arrive to the bus terminal and find our bus to Tayrona National Park. 4,000COP each takes us to the Petromil on the highway. From here there is a dirt road that winds 15km down to the coast. Tristan with, his better than my Spanish, asks a group of men on motorbikes at the highway how much they charge to take us to the Playa Neguanje. They wanted 75,000COP per person to take us. We found this too expensive so decided to start walking and in a few minutes a car pulled over with two Colombian people visiting from Medellin.

Tristan asked them where they were going (the same beach as us, Playa Neguanje) so we went with them. A bumpy ride down, we arrived in about 45 minutes. Part way down the road there is a stop to pay the entrance fee into the park. It was 73,500COP each for the entrance fee into Tayrona, and an additional 14,000COP for insurance while in the park.

They offered us beer and whisky, which we thanked them for, yet declined. The man driving must have had 5 shots of whisky by the time we arrived.. We arrived safe. We gave them 40,000COP for the ride.

Fees were adding up quickly, however I find the cost of everything to be totally worth the experience that being in Tayrona National Park offers.

Day one – the hike

Now we had arrived to Playa Neguanje, we could begin our hike to Playa Cinto.

Setting off down the trail to the east of Playa Neguanje, we immediately start sweating. The forest itself doesn’t seem to have seen much rain recently, and there are cactus and lizards everywhere. Very different to what I imagined, beautiful nonetheless.

A couple of hours later we arrive to Playa Cinto, a beautiful beach that is fully loaded with boats playing music and people enjoying the sunshine. It doesn’t seem that any other people have hiked here, only arrived by sea.

After some mango, bread and peanut butter in the shade, we filtered some water and continued on our way.

We hiked away from the beach and through the jungle to Neuevo Mexico, a teeny little village where we enjoyed ice cold coca colas in glass bottles. So satisfying! I have never ever sweat like that on a hike before, and the coke was a delightful treat to come out to.

The distance we have now covered from playa Neguanje to Neuvo Mexico is 12kms.

We hailed a taxi to take us the 3kms down the road to Colinas de Calabazo. When we were telling him where we wanted to go he asked us “estas mojado?” which translates to “are you wet?”. Gosh I laughed hard, we were saturated with sweat from our hike and he could see it.

He dropped us off at Colinas de Calabazo and we hiked the final 3kms, all uphill, to La Cima Tayrona. The sweat continued to pour off us as we pushed to reach the lookout for sunset. We missed the lowering of the sun behind the trees, but still made it in time for some final minutes of daylight. The lookout at La Cima was gorgeous, forested rolling hills stretched across the landscape.

Our total distance hiked for day one was 15kms.

We washed the sweat away in the showers consisting of a single pipe sticking out of the wall, and ate chicken and rice prepared by our host. Our one night in a tent at La Cima Tayrona cost 56,715COP.

Day two – hammocks on the beach

After a warm nights sleep in our rented tents, we ate fried arepas and eggs for breakfast (the food is very fried in Colombia).

A pleasant 5kms downhill to Playa Brava, we took a break and sat in the sand watching the waves lap the shore and the crabs run in and out of their holes.

We continued on the trail, with 300m of elevation to gain over 3kms, it was a push. Reaching the top in good time, we had a quick snack break, and made our way back down to the next beach, Playa Nudista. A nudist beach that I don’t think I saw one naked person on. On the way to Playa Nudista we did however see A LOT of monkeys!

We made our way east along the coast, walking along the beach at times, and in the jungle at times. The further along we went, the more people there were until the beaches were absolutely covered in people. People enjoying the sun and having lots of fun!

We made it our accommodation, Taquendama Playa Arrecifes Parque Tayrona on Arrecifes Beach. It was simple in hammocks, and one of the more expensive nights accommodation I paid for on my trip. Being that everything is brought in on horseback the whole park had a bit of a price bump. I surprising slept better in the hammock than I did in the tent the night before.

We swam at a nearby beach in the afternoon, the water was so warm! For dinner we ate at the buffet, the only option at the accommodation. Then tucked into our hammocks, that had no pillow or sheet, just a mosquito net.

From La Cima Tayrona to our camping hammocks it was a distance of 14kms.

Day 3 – the walk out

We woke up early and enjoyed breakfast at the accommodation before heading out. The trail forked and we took the inland option, discovering we were on the horse trail, we must have seen 100 horses over the 3kms. It is possible to pay for a horseback ride into the park, and they also use the horses to transport all of the food in and garbage out.

The trail from Arrecifes Beach to the dirt road was 3kms, and from here we caught a mini bus for 30COP each that took us the final 5kms to the main road. From the main road in a little town called Zaino, we took our bus back to Santa Marta. From Santa Marta I jumped straight onto a mini bus to head into the jungle town of Minca for the final stretch of my time in Colombia, and to round out my three months in South America.

I had an amazing time in Tayrona National Park, I was so happy I made the adventure a reality and took my German friend Tristan with me! I hope you find inspiration here and

Thanks for reading! If you liked this article, you might also like my other write ups on places in Colombia, check out the Tatacoa Desert, Bird Watching in Minca, and Los Nevados National Park – Paramillo Del Quindio!