Caribbean Coast

and again...one of those coastal buses which lavishly blow freezing temperatures right in your face. no escape and pure bliss. at least for the first 30min. when the nose starts to get blue and your fingers get rigid, you almost yearn for the unbearable heat of the caribbean coast.

when we finally made it to santa marta, we planned our trip to parque nacional tayrona.

the hike to the national park is about 3 hours and we made it to cabo san juan del guia, were soaked and with sweat dropping off our foreheads. and it was totally worth it. it was the most breathtaking and most amazing thing I have seen in my entire life. not just the boulders rising above the turquoise water, but also the deserted beaches that just look like paradise on a postcard.

we stayed there for a night, sleeping in hammocks and woke up in the middle of the night because of a caribbean thunderstorm. try falling asleep with rain whipping in your face. not that easy.

we took the boat back to taganga and a bus further to santa marta the next morning.

besides all the wonderful little sights on the colombian coast, we also saw a lot of poverty and the terrible sight of kids sleeping on the street is just heart breaking. no matter what country you are in.. even if you put your water bottle aside of the sleeping kid, you feel helpless...and just like in other countries.. this is a city and all walk past and let it become just one of the day's memories that you try not to remember.

the next day we made it back to cartagena where we we stayed another night and then took the bus to tolú, a sleepy little fisher village right on the coast. we were pretty much the only tourists in town who weren't from colombia. we drank fresh juice, ate arepas con queso and did pretty much nothing the whole day besides being at the beach.

The next day we took a tour to the archipiélago de san bernardo... and again... the caribbean storm hit us the minute we arrived there, but just lasted a couple minutes (yes, still enough that my clothes didn't dry until the next day). but the sun came back relentlessly and we could dip in the caribbeans for another hour or so.

now we are back again in cartagena and hope we finally make our way to playa blanca tomorrow to spend the last couple days at the beach and then fly back to BOG on the 1st of october...