Tayrona y Playa Cabo San Juan
Friday, September 1st, evening - the next day we'd finally have a walk in the forest. 16 kilometers of it! I was excited amd looking forward to it, I've always been more into walking in forests than going to beaches, though tropical beaches are pretty nice. Amd anyway this walk through the Tayrona Nacional Parque would take us to three remote beaches so there'd be a bit of both.
But first we had some hurdles to overcome. Cristina had only brought sandals. We'd bought some simple water shoes the other day hoping they might also work for the forest but Margarita our tourism person said Cristina would certainly need trekking shoes. Additionally she told us we'd need to bring our own lunch, and that single use plastic bottles weren't allowed in the park so we'd need to get reusable water bottles.
So the evening before we walked down to where we'd seen a big super market. On the way we stopped in at two shoe stores amd bought her a pair of sporty sneakers for like 120 kCOP ($30). At the grocery store we bought bread and ham amd mustard, as well as two reusable water bottles amd water. It might sound silly but I'd often thought wistfully of grocery shopping with Cristina, just one of those basic domestic things we hadn't gotten to do together before.
We had just gotten back to our hotel (a bachelorette party seemed to be in progress by the pool), when the actual guide for the next day texted us to remember to bring about 200,000 pesos. We had already paid for the excursion and knew we'd need 80,000 for park entrance but what was the rest? He said to buy lunch and drinks. Cue ??? face.
I wrote back that we were just making sandwiches would we still need money? Amd he wrote back with a very ambiguous "okk"
Soo we headed back out to the supermarket, which had to closest ATMs, amd withdrew 80,000 to bring our current holdings to 200,000. I wanted to withdraw more since we'd need to pay our driver back to Cartagena 700,000 two days hence (am writing this during that ride actually), but it was late amd Cristina didn't want us walking across town at night with that much money. It costs $6 every time i use an ATM though. Though in her defense I guess i haven't mentioned that to her.
Saturday, September 2nd - got up at six on the misapprehension that the hotel starts serving breakfast at 6:00. Nah mate it's 6:30. But at least coffee was out already. Breakfast came at 6:30. Cristina eats about twice as fast as i do, she says it's a doctor thing. I imagine they have to scarf down their meals as fast as they can amd get back to work. Nobodies life ever depended on me finishing my omelet. Amd i eat about twice as fast as my parents!
6:48 we received the call that our ride was here. I didn't quite know what to expect but it turned out to be a charter bus already full of other tourists bound for the Tayrona forest trek. They all appeared to be from Latin America.
Around 8:00 we arrived at the turnoff for the park. Just before arriving we were told various rules including that _no outside food was allowed in the park!!!_ and we had made ourselves an arsenal of eight ham sandwiches. Well we already had them, we weren't going to throw them out. We decided to keep them in my backpack amd only throw them out if there was an inspection or something. Sandwich smugglers!
We were released into the various restaurants lining the road here, where all the better informed people had breakfast. We paid our park admission, amd being told it was mandatory to place an order now for lunch amd indicate our order, did so as well. The options were the exact same we'd already been getting tired of, some grilled meat, coconut rice, cabbage salad.
8:45 we re boarded the bus amd proceeded up to the actual trailhead, where we started around 9:00.
I immediately noted not only did a number of the other participants have the exact kind of aqua shoes we'd been told were insufficient for Cristina, one person was wearing crocs; amd EVERY single other participant had single use water bottles. I was feeling a bit annoyed, we'd been fairly stressed out about all the specific things we'd needed to get the night before. Margarita even saying, when we asked if we really _really_ needed trekking shoes that we could always go to Playa Cristal (ie another beach) instead if we couldn't get the shoes. As mentioned we were already feeling there beach excursions were all the same. We uncharitably mused Margarita, rather abundant of person, had never actually done this trek herself.
Trek began with a bit of a traffic jam on the trail as some slow people were up front amd it took some time for people to naturally string out in order of speed, but eventually Cristina amd i even found ourselves walking with no one else in sight.
The journey proceeded through various types of jungley flora. First on amd off a boardwalk as the ground was sometimes muddy, amd surrounded by banana-looking trees, then up amd over a ridge (it was this first uphill where the slow people really caused some problems, impatient folks passing others at the slightest opportunity like a pack rally.). Then it was along the coast just inland from the beaches for much of the journey. There were periodic kiosks selling snacks amd drinks. Later places offering tent accommodation (either bring your own or pre set up army style tents). Eventually there were horses going back amd forth providing rides to those who tired of walking (it was quite rather a bit warm). The horses must have a different route back to civilization as there'd been none on the first bit of the hike.
Finally we arrived at a pair of beautiful beaches amd had an hour to swim, which by this point was a welcome amd refreshing change of pace. Listened to a British fellow telling an American woman he worked in a surgery, which amused me because a simple doctor's office is called a surgery in England (i assume. It is in Ireland anyway. In fact the school nurses office was called a surgery amd they had at best a nurse) but i think he was counting on the American woman not knowing that amd thinking he was a surgeon. It turned out later he was only a medical student.
From here we returned to another beach for lunch. It was accompanied by delicious freshly made lemonade. We sat next to a fellow who is a tourism person from Bolivia out researching excursions. What a job!
Quick dip in this beach (me: "we only have fifteen minutes to!" Cristina: "yes but i want to make pee" ajajaja)
Then hiked back. Got back to the bus right at 16:00. Got back to our hotel around 17:40. Cristina feeling she could barely walk anymore due mainly to sand amd salt water chafing, from which i wasn't immune either. But after a quick shower (my one complaint with this hotel, shower doesn't have hot water. A hot shower would have felt so nice. After two hours wet in an air conditioned bus!), i had to go down to the grocery store again to get 800 kilopesos. Went a little bit further first to photograph the street scene. Back at the hotel (another?) bachelorette party was happening in the pool area.
Ordered a margarita amd mojito from the hotel bar amd took them back to the room, where we spent our last evening relaxing.
Margarita asked us to write her a Google review, which we both did giving her five stars because she was very likeable, but i messaged her: "I gave you five stars ☺️ though as Cristina may have mentioned there was some confusion about what was needed for the excursion today. We were stressing, bought trekking shoes, and reusable water bottles, and made lunch? And then we arrive to find some people are doing it in the kind of beach shoes Cristina already had, everyone else on the tour had single use bottles of water 🤦🏻♂️ and we were required to buy lunch there and officially couldn't bring the food we prepared in. Just so you know for your next clients.
Amd she wrote back: the walking shoes are for safety, the sandwich is because sometimes there are a lot of lunch orders and they waste time, regarding the bottles it is better for sustainability, some people are not aware but we try to make our clients sustainable
Which i found to be disappointingly disingenuous. Just thank us for not complaining in our review amd giving you the correct information not to make the mistakes again, don't give me BS in response. 😒
But first we had some hurdles to overcome. Cristina had only brought sandals. We'd bought some simple water shoes the other day hoping they might also work for the forest but Margarita our tourism person said Cristina would certainly need trekking shoes. Additionally she told us we'd need to bring our own lunch, and that single use plastic bottles weren't allowed in the park so we'd need to get reusable water bottles.
So the evening before we walked down to where we'd seen a big super market. On the way we stopped in at two shoe stores amd bought her a pair of sporty sneakers for like 120 kCOP ($30). At the grocery store we bought bread and ham amd mustard, as well as two reusable water bottles amd water. It might sound silly but I'd often thought wistfully of grocery shopping with Cristina, just one of those basic domestic things we hadn't gotten to do together before.
We had just gotten back to our hotel (a bachelorette party seemed to be in progress by the pool), when the actual guide for the next day texted us to remember to bring about 200,000 pesos. We had already paid for the excursion and knew we'd need 80,000 for park entrance but what was the rest? He said to buy lunch and drinks. Cue ??? face.
I wrote back that we were just making sandwiches would we still need money? Amd he wrote back with a very ambiguous "okk"
Soo we headed back out to the supermarket, which had to closest ATMs, amd withdrew 80,000 to bring our current holdings to 200,000. I wanted to withdraw more since we'd need to pay our driver back to Cartagena 700,000 two days hence (am writing this during that ride actually), but it was late amd Cristina didn't want us walking across town at night with that much money. It costs $6 every time i use an ATM though. Though in her defense I guess i haven't mentioned that to her.
Saturday, September 2nd - got up at six on the misapprehension that the hotel starts serving breakfast at 6:00. Nah mate it's 6:30. But at least coffee was out already. Breakfast came at 6:30. Cristina eats about twice as fast as i do, she says it's a doctor thing. I imagine they have to scarf down their meals as fast as they can amd get back to work. Nobodies life ever depended on me finishing my omelet. Amd i eat about twice as fast as my parents!
6:48 we received the call that our ride was here. I didn't quite know what to expect but it turned out to be a charter bus already full of other tourists bound for the Tayrona forest trek. They all appeared to be from Latin America.
Around 8:00 we arrived at the turnoff for the park. Just before arriving we were told various rules including that _no outside food was allowed in the park!!!_ and we had made ourselves an arsenal of eight ham sandwiches. Well we already had them, we weren't going to throw them out. We decided to keep them in my backpack amd only throw them out if there was an inspection or something. Sandwich smugglers!
We were released into the various restaurants lining the road here, where all the better informed people had breakfast. We paid our park admission, amd being told it was mandatory to place an order now for lunch amd indicate our order, did so as well. The options were the exact same we'd already been getting tired of, some grilled meat, coconut rice, cabbage salad.
8:45 we re boarded the bus amd proceeded up to the actual trailhead, where we started around 9:00.
I immediately noted not only did a number of the other participants have the exact kind of aqua shoes we'd been told were insufficient for Cristina, one person was wearing crocs; amd EVERY single other participant had single use water bottles. I was feeling a bit annoyed, we'd been fairly stressed out about all the specific things we'd needed to get the night before. Margarita even saying, when we asked if we really _really_ needed trekking shoes that we could always go to Playa Cristal (ie another beach) instead if we couldn't get the shoes. As mentioned we were already feeling there beach excursions were all the same. We uncharitably mused Margarita, rather abundant of person, had never actually done this trek herself.
Trek began with a bit of a traffic jam on the trail as some slow people were up front amd it took some time for people to naturally string out in order of speed, but eventually Cristina amd i even found ourselves walking with no one else in sight.
The journey proceeded through various types of jungley flora. First on amd off a boardwalk as the ground was sometimes muddy, amd surrounded by banana-looking trees, then up amd over a ridge (it was this first uphill where the slow people really caused some problems, impatient folks passing others at the slightest opportunity like a pack rally.). Then it was along the coast just inland from the beaches for much of the journey. There were periodic kiosks selling snacks amd drinks. Later places offering tent accommodation (either bring your own or pre set up army style tents). Eventually there were horses going back amd forth providing rides to those who tired of walking (it was quite rather a bit warm). The horses must have a different route back to civilization as there'd been none on the first bit of the hike.
Finally we arrived at a pair of beautiful beaches amd had an hour to swim, which by this point was a welcome amd refreshing change of pace. Listened to a British fellow telling an American woman he worked in a surgery, which amused me because a simple doctor's office is called a surgery in England (i assume. It is in Ireland anyway. In fact the school nurses office was called a surgery amd they had at best a nurse) but i think he was counting on the American woman not knowing that amd thinking he was a surgeon. It turned out later he was only a medical student.
From here we returned to another beach for lunch. It was accompanied by delicious freshly made lemonade. We sat next to a fellow who is a tourism person from Bolivia out researching excursions. What a job!
Quick dip in this beach (me: "we only have fifteen minutes to!" Cristina: "yes but i want to make pee" ajajaja)
Then hiked back. Got back to the bus right at 16:00. Got back to our hotel around 17:40. Cristina feeling she could barely walk anymore due mainly to sand amd salt water chafing, from which i wasn't immune either. But after a quick shower (my one complaint with this hotel, shower doesn't have hot water. A hot shower would have felt so nice. After two hours wet in an air conditioned bus!), i had to go down to the grocery store again to get 800 kilopesos. Went a little bit further first to photograph the street scene. Back at the hotel (another?) bachelorette party was happening in the pool area.
Ordered a margarita amd mojito from the hotel bar amd took them back to the room, where we spent our last evening relaxing.
Margarita asked us to write her a Google review, which we both did giving her five stars because she was very likeable, but i messaged her: "I gave you five stars ☺️ though as Cristina may have mentioned there was some confusion about what was needed for the excursion today. We were stressing, bought trekking shoes, and reusable water bottles, and made lunch? And then we arrive to find some people are doing it in the kind of beach shoes Cristina already had, everyone else on the tour had single use bottles of water 🤦🏻♂️ and we were required to buy lunch there and officially couldn't bring the food we prepared in. Just so you know for your next clients.
Amd she wrote back: the walking shoes are for safety, the sandwich is because sometimes there are a lot of lunch orders and they waste time, regarding the bottles it is better for sustainability, some people are not aware but we try to make our clients sustainable
Which i found to be disappointingly disingenuous. Just thank us for not complaining in our review amd giving you the correct information not to make the mistakes again, don't give me BS in response. 😒