After hanging in the desert for a couple nights the plan today was to head to the rain forest. Kirby woke up at 6am and played guitar on the balcony of our former hotel which overlooked the beach. Around 7:30 she was back and we packed up our gear before heading out to breakfast. Eggs, arepa, coffee or hot chocolate, and fresh fruit juice was starting to be our standard breakfast in Santa Marta. I’ll never understand why they drink hot chocolate with breakfast; it comes with the eggs and arepa. After eating breakfast while overlooking the beach we walked the two blocks back to the hotel. We packed up our day packs for an overnight trip and gave our big packs to Dr Juan the hotel owner.
There was an intersection on the other side of downtown that was the pick up point for trips out to Parque Nacional Tayrona. Tayrona is a large national park with about 22 miles of sandy beaches to the north and consists of a rain forest that rises 2000 feet in the south. The park boasts some fascinating wildlife including black howler and titi monkeys, red woodpeckers, iguanas, a variety of lizards, tropical marine life, and jaguars. During the walk to the bus we experienced an odd precipitation. The sun was out and there were no clouds above us but there was definitely water falling from the sky. It was more than a mist. It was similar to a light rain but you didn’t get soaking wet (pic and video). There were dark clouds in the mountains outside of town but we were standing in the sun. We found our bus when we walked up to a street corner and someone out of the blue told me that the bus parked a few feet away was going to Tayrona. How did he know I was going there? It wasn’t a big charter bus, which wouldn’t fit on the roads in town, this was a buseta no different than those used for city transport. A few other tourists sat down and we were off ten minutes later.
Driving out of town and in to the mountains we started to understand where the rain was coming from. There was a constant rain in the mountains and as mentioned previously there can be a serious wind on the Caribbean coast. I think the wind was blowing the rain from the mountains in to town. It has been 85 degrees and sunny everyday I’ve been there and the thought of looking at the weather for planning purposes never crossed our minds. Now we were driving in to rain with plans to spend the night in a rain forest. The trip was probably about 45 minutes for $1.60 each. They dropped us off at a park entrance which looked like many park entrances in the US. A normal road led in to the park with a gate across the road and a small building for park employees to collect the fee. It was almost $13 for foreigners ($3.70 for Colombians) which is quite expensive in Colombia. They give you a wrist band which made me feel like I was walking in to a weekend festival. Apparently a yellow fever vaccination is required to enter the park but it is not usually enforced. I didn’t learn this until after the fact.
You can walk along the road or pay for a ride to the first establishment that has a campground, cabins, restaurant, and small museum. We decided to walk, the other tourists that came with us all took the jeep. The first thing we came up on was a campground that, even though it was half\-maintained, it was quite slick. There was a grassy clearing with coconut trees. Grass is something you rarely see in Colombia. A path lead you around the campground to a full but dirty and unmaintained pool, the beach, and camping spots for tents. There were bathrooms and showers. One tent was set up and one park employee was doing some work. The surf was rough. Most beaches in the park are too dangerous to swim in because of the rough surf, rocks, and currents. The waves are relatively large with short intervals. It is a great sight to look at but not inviting for a swim.
We saw a ton of ant colonies. You will often come across their big nests built off the ground in the trees or you will accidently step on an ant highway. We saw their nests and came across their marching colonies constantly. They cut paths right through the forest. They find a source of leaves, cut a path to the source, chop it all down, and carry it all back to their nest. In the campgrounds which had grass you could see their paths coming from some unfortunate tree and leading off in the distance as far as you could see. It was quite an example of dedicated group work. You could see the big solider ants and the smaller worker ants. Half of them were lugging large pieces of leaf in one direction and the other half were racing back in the other direction to get more. I was hoping to see them devour some large insect or beetle that came across their path but I missed out on that fun.
Other than the ant colonies which we came across every few minutes we also saw large spiders, two types of monkeys, and a large rodent type thing called chiguiros. I was happy to see the monkeys and ant colonies, I was also hoping to see some outrageously large spiders and beetles but (fortunately?) we never came across any. I’ve always been fond of jaguars and was keeping my eye open but we didn’t see any of those either. Toucans were another animal we hoped to see but didn’t. We had to wait till we stayed at the Santa Clara hotel to play with those. The palm leaves on the trees in the rain forest were a good 10 feet long. The coconut trees were deadly. I’ve heard of a few tourists getting seriously injured by falling coconuts. Getting hit in the noggin with a heavy coconut falling 25 feet does some damage. The vines were different than I’m used to in the seasonal forests of North America. They appeared to have seed pods or something in them which gave them a flat ribbon appearance with the pods in the middle.
Our route went from a paved road, to a dirt road, to a muddy trail. While Kirby and I avoided the mud as much as we could we’d pass people coming from the opposite direction with mud up to their ankles. On occasion a mule or horse caravan would go by with supplies or tourists. Those mules and horses went through some slippery and steep terrain with inexperienced and uneasy foreigners on their backs. I was very much enjoying the rain forest and gazed up in the tree canopy while hiking as much as I could. Kirby wasn’t enjoying the mud so much; she was missing the desert beach.
After a few hours we came up on Arrecifes which is the main spot to sleep in the area. It was quite the nice set up. It was a little opening in the forest with a few cabins, an open air building for hammocks, a restaurant and café. All of this was overlooking the beautiful beach. The surf at this beach was just as dangerous as the last one. There were a few establishments along the beach. Walking another 20 minutes you came to a small protected area that was safe to swim at. Another 20 minutes took you to another area with lots of tents and hammocks. We saw more backpackers at this little location than we saw anywhere on the trip. Kirby didn’t like the vibe there so we went back to Arrecifes and hooked ourselves up with a couple hammocks. The guy who made all the reservations was sitting in this tiki hut with a computer. We were thinking he had the best office ever. It only took him about 45 minutes to make our reservation and hook us up with hammocks. Along with the hammock you get a mosquito net that the hammock fits inside.
The cafe/bar was full with backpackers from all over drinking and playing cards. We heard the service was not so attentive so we opted for the expensive outdoor restaurant they had on site. I had a seafood casserole thing that was loaded with all kinds of animals from the sea. After dinner we found an open table at the cafe/bar and had a few beers.
Once the sun goes down you discover the nocturnal crawlers of the rain forest come for the night. Small little lizards also came out and hung around by the lights waiting for small bugs. We came across a grasshopper-looking thing that was about 4 times the size of a normal grasshopper. Going to the crapper in the middle of the night in a rain forest can make you think twice. You don’t want to see two cat eyes peering at you from behind a tree that belong to some flesh eating jaguar. Fortunately I only came across an aphid-looking thing. This aphid was the same size as the gigantic grasshopper.
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