Colombia: the North Coast
- ionaweir
- 2 days ago
- 10 min read
We got off the boat to a rather hot and humid (but quite grey) Cartagena. Yasemin and I were staying at the same hostel in the Getsemani neighbourhood, and quite a few people from the boat were gonna be in Cartagena for a few days which was nice. We were able to have a very much needed shower at the hostel but couldn't check in yet so wandered the city for a bit, got some food, and met Harvey after getting his tattoos. The captain still had our passports so we went to get them back and went for a few drinks with everyone from the boat which was fun. People seemed a lot more relaxed now that we weren't all stuck together on a 50 foot monohull. The crew included... unfortunately (for him) I declined the captain's offer of working on a boat alone with him in the San Blas islands for two months. Very cool job. Very weird vibes. No thanks.
We'd decided to do a walking tour the next day and managed to complete the old town which was interesting, but then as we went into Getsemani it REALLY started raining. Like crazy. My birkenstocks were slipping off my feet so it was all seeming rather dangerous. We thought it might be best to dip away and head to a coffee shop for shelter instead, which ended up being a really cool cafe that apparently turned into a club at night. The rain cleared up a bit so Yasemin and I thought we'd be safe to head back to the hostel but ended up getting caught in another rainstorm. I decided to give up on shoes and walked barefoot through the streets with grey/brown water almost up to my knees. Luckily I have all my vaccinations up to date. The rain actually did clear up a bit later so we went to a few museums and art galleries which I enjoyed and headed out to the infamous cocktail street in the evening, which is basically just this long narrow street in Getsemani full of tables and different bars, reggaeton and cheap drinks and is super fun.
We were off early the next day with our packed breakfasts and juice boxes to do a tour of the Totumo mud volcano, which is a small 15 meter high volcano a couple hours from Cartagena where you basically dunk yourself in the mud and then get given weird half-arsed massages from local men also in the mud with you. I'm sure they love their job. We stayed in the mud for around 15 minutes before heading down to the river where we got washed very thoroughly by some local women (full hands in bikini - both top and bottoms) and got taken to a nearby pool for lunch and a swim. That evening we headed back to cocktail street with the german girls from the boat, which was defo needed after a day full of mud and mild groping (but my skin did feel quite good!).
I had one more day in Cartagena, so planned on just having a wander around the markets and potentially going to the mall. I never really like the mall at home but the prospect of a massive building with shops, food and air con when you're facing Colombian heat is quite exciting. However as I was walking around the Old Town, one of my beloved six year old birkenstocks finally broke, so I was walking around with one shoe on for a little bit before I found the closest shop selling flip flops. This put me in a bit of a pickle but I found a random man at a kiosk fixing shoes and he told me he could fix them in four days time. I was going away for a couple days and then spending one more night in Cartagena so this was kinda perfect. However, the flip flops were cutting up my feet so I decided I needed another pair of shoes in the meantime and bought some (probs knock off) sambas. And that's how I've now ended up with five pairs of shoes whilst travelling. Some may say that it's a bit excessive but I beg to differ giving my reasonings.
My following destination was Casa en el Agua, a hostel which was built on sticks on the water (shock) of the sea in the San Bernardo archipelago near Cartagena. I'd seen it online and it looked kinda fun, and kinda interesting as it's right next to the most densley populated island in the world - Santa Cruz del Islote - which you can see right from the hostel. I got a two hour boat there from Cartagena and the water was absolutely stunning - so so blue and clear. Our arrival was a bit strange as all the staff and current guests are forced to give you a welcome dance, which felt very love island meets cult leader, but the place was super friendly and chill and a great place to sunbathe, snorkel and swim. Also as it's a small hostel which you're kinda stuck on for your whole duration, it's super sociable and they have family meals so it's really easy to meet people. There was a weird amount of British medical students when I went there. And some Spanish cops. So super safe place to be stuck on I suppose. The dorms were kinda expensive so instead I booked to sleep in a hammock outside for half the price, which was actually surprisingly nice. I honestly just love hammocks. They had lots of evening activities, although unfortunately one of them was karaoke which I did not enjoy, and the volunteers there were so so nice. As I spent two nights there, they did force us to do the welcome dance for the next load of guests, which was mortifying and weird but I've kinda blocked it out now. We also got caught in a hailstorm on the very bumpy boat ride to Cartagena which was rather amusing. All in all, a pretty fun time I'd say.
I had one night back in Cartagena, where I could pick up my fixed birkenstocks yay, before heading along the North Coast to Minca, a town in the Sierra Nevada mountains of Santa Marta with lots of hikes, waterfalls and birdwatching. I ended up meeting a girl going to the same hostel as me on the bus there which was super convenient as we were able to share a taxi from Santa Marta to Minca together, also with a french canadian couple of whom I was awkwardly squished inbetween. Once we arrived, we had a 20 minute hike through the jungle to get to our hostel, which had a stunning view of the mountains, trees and Santa Marta, and a delightful sunset. Plus the hostel even had a gym and yoga mats. Much needed I can't lie.
Minca is kinda known for its magic mushrooms but unfortunately this time I didn't partake in the local delicacies, and instead three of us from the hostel decided to do a hike up to a big viewpoint in the area, stopping at waterfalls en route. The day started out pretty successfully - we went to a bakery and stopped at our first waterfall, which was so nice it's got me considering taking up cold water swimming. However the second waterfall wasn't quite as good, still pretty but so so crowded, and then it was after that that the hike began to get really quite intense. We were properly trekking and clambering through the jungle with a very minimal path, and went the wrong way quite a few times. I was really quite exhausted. But after many hours and many wrong turns we finally made it to the beautiful view of nothing but grey clouds. Like we literally couldn't see anything which was funny. It's about the journey not the destination I suppose. I did see my first wild snake and some fun plants. We decided to head back down a different way, passing by a hostel with a restaurant and a nice view, but halfway to the hostel the rain started and we had to find shelter for a while. Luckily I had my chocolate bread from the bakery, my vape and a lollipop to get me through the tough times. We ended up braving the rain when it got a bit lighter to try and make it the hostel, where we just decided to get a jeep to take us the way back down. Brilliant decision.
Our second day in Minca was a bit more chill - we got motorbikes up to a coffee farm for a tour (and tasting) and then did a chocolate tour (and more tasting) as well. The coffee tour was decent but I really loved the chocolate one. We got to try the chocolate at every step of the process and got given a chocolate face mask as well. Which you could eat off your face. The roads down were really muddy so there was no chance I was going down that on a motorbike, so we decided to go a different route through a different waterfall which was also super nice, although my shoes were still so slippy I ended up doing the whole trek barefoot. We spent the rest of the evening pondering conspiracy theories which got us nowhere, then also decided to book a birdwatching tour for early the next morning, as Minca's known for having so many different bird species. I must say birds don't massively intrigue me but one of the girls was really keen so I thought why not. Queue us getting up at 5am for the bird tour, hiking down to the meeting point, then her turning round to me and saying she's gonna head back to the hostel as she didn't feel well. I mean fair enough on her part but I did feel a bit ridiculous left alone with all those old couples and bird enthusiasts, and obviously I wasn't going to miss out. Luckily birdman Robin ended up joining as well, and he didn't shut up the whole tour so that gave me some good entertainment. Everyone was getting quite excited about all the birds and I didn't really get the hype, until I realised halfway through that I could actually adjust my binoculaurs to see things properly which was obviously quite useful. My favourite part of the bird tour was when our guide paused halfway through to buy a zoot off a man in a field and at the end when we saw a giant iguana right at the top of a tree. Maybe birds aren't my thing.
The same day around five of us from the hostel were all headed to Journey hostel, near Tayrona national park, a beautiful protected area covering the foothills of the Sierra Nevada where they meet the Caribbean coast. You can camp overnight there, which we planned on doing, but I wanted a couple nights to relax at the hostel first as it had a very nice pool area and I really wanted to finish my book and get a good tan.
The hostel was super social and over the two nights before Tayrona we managed to get a group of around twelve us to hike and camp together which was fun. The hike really wasn't too difficult, just a bit humid, and the coconut ice lollies and monkey sightings en route really helped. It only took a few hours and then we arrived at our campsire, which were a group of hammocks on top of this big viewpoint over the beach and the park. It was so so pretty and I thought it kinda felt like Jurassic Park like a giant t-rex was about to come out of the jungle or something. We did see crocodiles to be fair. The only issue was how far it was from there to the toilets eek. Me and my small bladder struggled at night. We spent the afternoon drinking beer, swimming and sunbathing, whilst some people smoked a ginormous zoot and struggled to walk to a different beach which was funny. We watched sunset at the mirador and then headed down to shower where everyone got bit to death by mosquitos before dinner.
I slept pretty well in the hammock and woke up to a slightly disappointing sunrise, before breakfast with the group and the hike back through the jungle and back to the hostel. I stayed one more night at the hostel before getting the bus to Santa Marta, where I had an eighteen hour night bus to Medellin ! Although I only had minor issues beforehand as I stupidly told my motorbike taxi to the bus station I didn't know how much the ride would cost, to which he told me that it cost £50. I said that's very expensive, realising what I'd done, and he just said yes that's correct. I did manage to get him down a bit even though once we arrived he asked for my carabiner off my rucksack. Absolutely not. I also had to translate to some german girls at the station that their seats on the bus were cancelled as the chairs had broken, which they weren't too happy with me about. Don't shoot the messenger please. I was super excited about going to Medellin as I'd heard such good things and I was gonna be there for a while as I was doing Spanish school so all very good things.
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