Backpacking South America

We spent months in the mountains, often in chillier than expected temperatures. The promise was always that we will thaw out with good beach time in Colombia. Fortunately, we found the beach a bit sooner in Ecuador and Peru. But we knowingly saved the best for last – Tayrona National Park.

All along, it was our plan to end our trip at the beaches of Colombia – take some time to relax and enjoy our final days of travel in South America. All our expectations and hopes were totally fulfilled by our 3 day trip to Tayrona National Park.

We set off from La Casa de Felipe (recommended) in Taganga early in the morning. Unfortunately, our taxi kept breaking down, so the hour trip was about 30 minutes longer than it should have been. But we made it and we were soon walking on the trail to El Cabo, where we would spend the night in hammocks perched on top of a rock in a small bay.

After hiking 1.5 hours, we made it, but were slightly bummed that there was no room in the hammocks on the rock – only down below. Oh well, it was still nice to be so close to the beach. Plus, you can’t complain about comfortably sleeping in an open-air hut in hammocks.

At first, sleeping in hammocks was a bit strange. But we caught the hang of it and by the second night, it felt quite natural. We may not actually need to get our bed out of storage anytime soon…

The following day we hiked a short distance through the jungle to the next beach along the coast. With only a few other beach bums, we spent the entire morning in peace and felt like we had the whole place to ourselves. It was a day of supreme leisure.

Not so long ago, our adventure in Tayrona would not have been possible. It was a hideout for drug traffickers and guerillas. The deep sandy bays and thick jungle provided shelter for these below-the-law types. But as with most of Colombia, the last 5-10 years has been a period of drastic improvements in security and formerly dangerous areas like Tayrona are now open to local and foreign travelers.

For our final day, we hiked a short way back to the beach at La Piscina, which is also a beautiful beach with great swimming conditions. Of all the days, the sun seemed most intense on our final day. It was so hot, about the only place to feel comfortable was in the crystal water or to sit in the sand and have the waves roll up on you. We soaked it all in and baked for a few hours. Eventually though, it was time to make our way back to the entrance to catch our 5pm ride back to Taganga – which actually never showed. We did some waiting and finally found a ride around 6pm.

This was our final adventure of our travels in South America. It was more relaxation than anything else, but it was amazing to explore the beautiful coastline of Colombia.