A Colombian Caribbean Coast

Lauren –

Our journey to Colombia wasn’t the easiest. We had booked this part of our trip long before we left on our six month adventure whist Qantas point hacking one rainy afternoon in Canberra. It’s safe to say we made some mistakes. What should have been a simple two hour flight from Havana to Cartagena took 36 hours: three flights (one which we nearly missed), one terrible air bnb, 15 hours in Mexico City, an unintended diversion to Orlando Florida and two nights without sleep.

We didn’t waste the 15 hour layover in Mexico City, visiting our now favourite food spots!

Safe to say that when we touched down in stupidly humid and hot Cartagena at 3pm on New Years Eve we were bleary-eyed and exhausted but determined to not waste a chance to soak in the city’s atmosphere on NYE! After a quick nap we ventured out into the night. It was mental! The streets were lined with thousands of partying Colombians, firecrackers being set off everywhere and the fiery Colombian spirit in the air. We partied in the street, watched the impressive fireworks display, avoided being trampled among the party-goers and brought in the new year in style.

We made it to around 1am which was pretty good going considering our lack of sleep for two days!

We absolutely loved Cartagena, it’s vibrant streets, party atmosphere and tropical food scene were intoxicating and we were hooked! I was in tropical fruit heaven. I think I ate around three mangoes a day, many ‘jugos naturales’ and lime and coconut lemonades.

Fruits fruits and more fruits. Our favourite juice man and a refreshing limonade de coco!

We joined a free walking tour on New Years Day of the Old City (as did every single other tourist in Cartagena – there were around 50 of us!) and learnt a bit more about Cartagena’s sad slavery past and the work the Government is doing today to ensure equality for all Colombians. It was awesome to walk through the colourful streets sampling mangoes as I went.

We wandered the streets and stumbled across scenes like these!

We were staying just outside the Old City in an edgy suburb called Getsemani known for its street art, good food and colourful atmosphere. We spent nearly all our evenings in the main square watching cars trying to get through the throngs of people dancing in the streets and sipping amazing cocktails made on the side of the road.

Getsemani street parties, amazing cocktails and David’s artsy side.

After three wonderful days exploring Cartagena it was time to set off to Tayrona National Park, around 5 hours by bus. We weren’t too sad to be leaving Cartagena because we knew we were coming back for two more nights after our jungle adventure. We had booked ourselves into a beach shack with no electricity (or running water!) for three nights and were looking forward to escaping the grid for a bit.

We were pleasantly surprised on arrival. Our little beach shack was very basic but was perfect. We were no more than 5 metres from the ocean and all we could hear was wind in the palms and the sounds of waves crashing into the shore. What a perfect way to spend a few days!

The coastline was rugged and beautiful. There were hardly any people or infrastructure to ruin the scenery.

There were a few other beach shacks near us and one tiny family restaurant serving only cerviche and lobster (how terrible we thought! Lobster all day everyday! hehe). We were lulled to sleep by the crashing waves and spent the next day doing absolutely nothing.

The view from our humble abode. I spent the day writing whilst David went for a surf

The next day we got up bright and early to head to Tayrona National Park, a world renowned site famed for it’s rugged beauty. We’d read online that we needed to get there early to secure ourselves tickets. On arrival we were so disappointed. Unbeknownst to us in the last month the Government had changed the rules and you could no longer buy tickets to the park on the day and we heard from equally disappointed travellers that it was near impossible to secure tickets. So with disappointment we headed back to our beach paradise and decided to make the most of our surroundings.

Pelicans, jumps and expansive beautiful nothingness

We loved our jungle getaway. It was the perfect break from everything that we needed, and just the right amount of time too. I was getting a little over no running water! Also I found as I was packing that some little mice (or rats!) had been nibbling on some of my clothes. So by that point I was happy to be moving on to our next Colombian Caribbean coast adventure.

Certainly a place we won’t forget in a hurry

Our next stop was the town of Minca high up in the mountains. This was a bit of a last minute decision as we weren’t quite done with the beautiful mountainous Caribbean coast. We booked ourselves into an 8 person dorm (eeeek) and set off to our hostel. Well I needn’t have worried. It was magical. It had only opened up a few weeks before so didn’t have many reviews, but i’m certain this place will be fully booked forever.

How did we stumble across something so magical!

We decided on arrival that we wouldn’t leave the hostel and spend the next two days exploring our little secret slice of heaven. We were told that the hostel had access to a waterfall that was completely private. After about a 20 minute trek we stumbled across it and spent the afternoon relaxing and jumping into the deep well.

We felt pretty chuffed with ourselves for booking such amazing places surrounded by nature, amazing seafood and cool people. After 6 perfect days we set off back to Cartagena to take in the sights of this tropical jewel for a few more nights before flying to Medellin.

We spent our last few days in Cartagena visiting museums, the fort and eating our favourite food (we found an amazing Caribbean fish soup that literally made me ask the chef how it was made it was that good!)