After Taganga Harry and I went back to our hostel in Santa Marta, the following day we left for Tayrona National Park, we walked to the supermarket to by all our food supplies we needed for the 4 days we planned on staying in Tayrona, we then walked to the other side of Santa Marta through the big markets and past our favourite chicken shop to get to the area where you catch the bus to the National Park, it cost $6 and took one hour. Once arriving at the entrance we paid our park fees and had our bags checked for drugs. Heading off on the 2 hours hike to Carbo San Juan (the most popular camp site) was hot and humid, walking through the jungle and along the cost we made it around mid afternoon, whilst walking we meet a cool young couple from New Zealand Ellie and Rich, as soon as we got there and checked into the camp site, figured our hammocks out we were straight into the water to cool off. We could not believe where we were, the place was just paradise with no cars to noise just magical beaches with a thick jungle backdrop.
There was sections of Tayrona where you weren't aloud to swim due to strong under currents and rips, so we just stayed around the main swimming beaches, i really felt like i needed some good relaxing time like this, we hadn't really been to many beaches in the month before in Venezuela so it felt great to be back on the coast in the hot weather and back in the ocean again, we really couldn't have had a better place for it. We spent so time with Ellie and rich just chilling out of a night in the camp talking and playing cards. I also spent a lot of time cruising around with my camera enjoying the perfect weather and waking from my hammock at sunrise each morning, Tayrona was my kind of place, it was good to wake early and have some time to myself listening to my ipod just walking around the park with no one around, just embracing and appreciating exactly where i was..
On the third day Harry and i decided to go on a little adventure along some hiking trails, we seen a track that led along the ridge of a cliff along the coast, we just didn't know exactly how to get to the trail. We were walking up a steep hill in search for this trail further above, there were parts marked with pink tape but the trail basically ended, it just turned into thick jungle with vines and branches hanging in our way everywhere, we didn't give we kept making our way up, struggling more and more as we went further. We came to a point were we both said "this is ridiculous" we stood there for a while pouring sweat then turned back i had my camera hanging from my neck the whole time and it was just getting beaten by all the rocks, trees, vines and branches. The way down we got completely lost, we could not see a thing because the jungle was so dense, our sense of direction was totally out, we just made our way down, by this stage it had been hours and we were getting really frustrated, it was so had to make our way through we felt like we were getting no where, the next thing i slipped down a rock and smashed camera on it, i heard something fall down a gap between the rocks, the gap went so far down i couldn't see the bottom, i noticed the door to the SD card compartment on my camera was open, id lost my SD card down the gap in the rocks. I was furious i was screaming out to Harry, who was about 100m away, he made his way over, i had been in a frenzy digging a tunnel under this monster rocks with my hands, there were spiders and bugs everywhere but i didn't care at all i needed to find my SD card with all my photos on it, Harry was taking photos of me because i was just black from the dirt sticking to my sweaty skin, i don't remember when i was this angry last. It was basically useless the gap in the rocks went down for ever and i couldn't see a thing. we stood there for a while thinking what to do, whilst we were standing there i pushed the preview button on my camera and my photos were still there.... i was completely confused, i looked and my SD card was in the camera, but i was certain i heard something fall down between the rocks, then i noticed... it was my lens cap not my SD card, i didn't know what was worse, i could replace an SD card and loose some photos, but i wouldn't be able to find a 82mm lens cap anywhere. It was really frustrating but we had to get out of there still, we didn't have any water and had now been lost for over 3 hours, around an hour later we finally made it out completely covered in leaves, sticks and dirt with cuts all over us. As soon as we made it to the bottom and on the beach we just ran into the water and swam for about 30 minutes. We got back to camp and just chilled out for the afternoon. In the meantime i have been using a sock as my lens cap which means each time i want to used it have to clean it because it has dust and fluff all over the lens filter. I have been in search ever since for a lens cap but no luck at all, because of the rare size 82mm no one has them in stock, i spent a full day in Bogota going to every camera store and not one of them had one.
Harry and I spent the night just chilling our and admiring the view talking rubbish and listening to music on my little speaker over a few beers, it really was one of my favourite spots so far, just exactly what i like to do. It was only $10 a night to stay in the hammocks, you were able to but dinner at the camp but we were told to take our own food because it was quite pricy there, we ate tuna and bread, fruits and muesli bars, that was enough to get us by for a few days haha.
We spent three nights in Carbo San Juan and decided to head back to one of the other camps we had walked past on the way there, this camp was $15 a night but it was cleaner and way less busy, we met a really cool Colombian guy Jose who was 45 he ate dinner with us and told us his life story, he was from Bogota and on vacation for a week. Again i went along the beach early morning taking photos and enjoying our last day there.
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