One of the most beautiful places I´ve ever seen

As we spent the first few months of our trip wearing Alpaca sweaters, climbing cold mountain tops and generally not getting the chance to bust out our flip flops we started really looking forward to the day when we´d reach the Caribbean coast. Well we finally made it and its just as sweet as we´d hoped.

Taganga is a sunny backpackers paradise with great nightlife. Its cheap and sits right on a beautiful fishing boat filled bay which reminded me a bit of the bay in Acapulco. We laid on the beach all day and then ate tasty arepas by night. (Side note- one of my favorite restaurants in NYC is Caracas, a small venezuelan arepa joint which has made me look forward to Venezuela since our trip began. I was thrilled to find out I wouldn´t have to wait that long.)

After spending a few nights in Taganga we headed for Parque Nacional Tayrona. It is just hour and a half away and is located on the jungle covered coast. The parks beaches emerge out of the jungle and are mostly filled with coconut palm trees. Its one of the most beautiful places I´ve ever been.

Once we arrived in the park we had a two and half hour hike through the jungle before we arrived at Cabo San Juan de la Guia. Some pics of the hike below.

If you saw the pics of the terrible place we had to stay in our last post, then this place was just about as heavenly as we could imagine on our backpacker budget. For $10 a night we got to stay in hammocks in the hut you see on the top of this hill below.

The two hammocks below were Gemma and I´s and looked right out onto one of the bays. There also was a massive deck providing 360 degree views of the ocean, bays, and jungle behind.

There were two bays which were split by the little hill which our hut rested on top of. We stayed here for four nights and it was like heaven.

There were lots of little creatures running about including red squirrels, iguanas and tons and tons of these little crabs that scuirred away in waves as you approached.

I was really impressed with some of the rock formations around the park. And with Gemma on top of them it made it hard not to snap away.

This donkey with two gas tanks strapped to him reminded me of a Wile E Coyote cartoon where he has rockets strapped to him.

A turtle shaped piece of driftwood.

We kicked back, read alot and relaxed. The palm trees provided a nice background to my book as I laid on my back on the beach.

Gemma started working on a tan and we have hope that one might develop someday.

Our next stop is Cartagena.