COLOMBIA AND PANAMA: DAY 13 - TAYRONA NATIONAL PARK, ANOTHER DAY OF TREKKING

We were up early again, at 6:00 a.m. Yesterday, Todd and Ryan booked a trip to Tayrona National Park. At the time, I had decided to just stay back at the hostel. This morning I changed my mind and decided that I'd like to go if possible. We picked up our stuff for the day and headed to the front of the hostel to wait for the 6:30 pickup. When they arrived, we asked if it was possible for me to come. They said "no problem." We piled into the back seat of the car, the driver and the guide speaking little bits of English but that's about it, the same problem as with the Lost City trek.

It was about a 30-minute ride to the spot where we hike to the Park. We started hiking and it didn't take long to realize that this was going to be another strenuous hike, something like the Lost City, but shorter. We saw some titi monkeys, they started dropping nuts and other stuff on us as we passed underneath. Up and down, up and down, over rocks, under rocks, pretty soon we were all drenched in sweat. Ryan had told me that it was going to be a short walk through the jungle - NOT! We hiked for maybe 2.5 hours in the scorching heat. It was a clear and sunny day, but I didn't complain. However, I don't think any of us expected another hike like this. We finally did make it to the indigenous village. It was inhabited by indigenous people up until about 1600 when the Spanish arrived. It was not unlike the Lost City but much smaller in scale and not on the top of the mountain. After that, was even more crazy hiking, down an old river valley with absolutely massive boulders that we had to climb over and under. This went on for quite some time, probably another two hours - very hard hiking.

Just before noon we finally arrived at Cabo San Juan, an absolute beautiful beach and backpacker hangout. You can hike in here and sleep in tents or hammocks. There's also a restaurant. After the boys did a bit of swimming and we had lunch at the restaurant, we hiked via another trail back out of the Park, going down the coast. It was a much easier trail. This was perhaps maybe a 2-hour hike ending at the parking lot in the Park. We hopped on a mini bus for the trip outside the gate then onto a local bus to Santa Marta, then a taxi back to our hostel. We arrived back at the hostel around 5:00 p.m. We didn't do much in the evening. Ryan and Todd played a game of chess and I just got so tired that I had to hit the sack.

And that ended our day, another torturous day for me on the trail.