The Caribbean Coast

Paso Fino horse and rider

After a short visit to a Paso Fino horse farm and therapeutic riding center near our hotel, our group flew from Pereira to Bogota to Santa Marta on the Caribbean coast.  From Santa Marta we crossed northeast from the dry coastal forest over mountains to wet tropical forest and our hotel, Cayena Beach Villa.  The Villa was built by two brothers and has about 11 rooms.  Next door is a hostel they own. Both are down a very bumpy dirt road off the main road. Our room had a bougainvillea covered balcony overlooking the large pool.  Past the pool is the beach, long and nearly undeveloped.  Below the rooms are open air sitting areas and the bar/kitchen.  The whole building is post and beam construction. The food was excellent.  A buffet breakfast in the mornings with arepas, scrambled eggs, bacon or ham, and fresh fruit and fruit juices.  Lots of seafood dishes with interesting salads, tender barbecued pork ribs, and packed lunches with eggplant and avocado or Cubano sandwiches.

In the morning we set off on a half hour bus ride to Tayrona National Park.  Our 9 mile hike started on private land that was charging a brand new admission fee of 2000 pesos/person (less than $1).  Once we entered the park, the path became narrower and went through a forest of large trees up and over the mountains to the sea.  It was a beautiful hike and our local guide Juan told us about how the Kogui people use some of the plants.  Some Kogui were selling handmade ocarinas, stone sculptures, and bags and bracelets made of plant fibers.  They have negotiated with the Park Service to close the park 2 months a year.  They probably would have liked it to be closed more often.  The Kogui believe that there is a balance between positive (men, water, sun, etc.) and negative (women, earth, the moon etc.) energies.  Positive and negative doesn’t refer to good or bad, just to opposites.  They kept to themselves during La Violencia, but have started to become more activist as they view their environment to be under threat by too many people.  After a steep downhill, we arrived on the nude beach (not very crowded at all) then walked east past the extremely popular beach with a hostel on it.  The hostel had a big covered pavilion with hammocks and tents for camping. Past that beach was another quieter beach where we stopped for lunch and cold drinks.  From there we went on horseback back through the forest to a different entrance.

Rocks laid by native people hundreds of years ago.

Road up to Tayrona Park

Ceiba tree

leaf cutter ants

The beach

Despite returning to the hotel exhausted and sweaty, I took a quick shower and headed to a yoga class at the hotel with a few others from our group.  It felt good to stretch out.  We had dinner at our leisure and managed to stay awake for a dance class.  We learned some basic salsa moves and the moves to a couple Latin-style line dances (think La Macarena).

The next morning we had a three mile hike to our guide Juan’s house up in the hills not far from the hotel.  Juan was born in Bogota and studied Ecology, but didn’t get his degree.  He lived with the Kogui tribe for 2 years before buying a piece of land in their area.  He is married to a German midwife and they have 4 young children.  The village on his road asked him to be mayor a few years ago as he seems to have a passion for sustainable living and sustainable development.  I think he has given up that position now.  His wife was assisting a birth as we were walking up to their house and his neighbor was watching the kids.  The neighbor is a musician who teaches music in the local schools and plays in a couple bands.  He also runs a small ecolodge. On the way up to Juan’s house we were accompanied by a “mamo”, a holy man of the Kogui.  We took a side path to the river where he performed a silent ceremony on rocks in the middle of the stream looking downstream to let our concerns and inharmonius thoughts drift down to the ocean and upstream to receive the bounty of the Earth.  Each of us then bent over a hollow in the rock to release the bounty we had received back into the Earth, turned around counterclockwise once and walked back to the bank.  Each of us received a string bracelet representing our connection to the Earth, like an umbilical cord.

mural on the school building

Juan's house

Juan’s house is built in a traditional style, round with a tall thatched roof and mud covered walls.  The walls are supported in part by wood that has calcified after being underwater for a long period of time.  Our lunch of fresh fruits and salads was served in the outdoor kitchen.  The bathroom was in a separate shelter and has to have one of the best views ever.  I noticed powerlines going part way up the river, but Juan’s house is powered by solar panels and he said the powerlines haven’t worked for the last 12 years since the wealthy drug lords that used to live up the valley stopped maintaining them.  We were also invited to chew on some coca leaves on the walk up to the house; they are supposed to provide energy.  Can’t say as I noticed any effect.  Juan and his neighbor were almost constantly chewing leaves mixed with lime that comes out of a gourd that they carry with them.  The lime helps to release extra compounds in the leaves.

the bathroom

On our last day in the area we took a short 2 mile hike along the river Don Diego passing through an area that had been a coca plantation, then a cut flower farm, and seems to now have cut flowers and many mixed fruit trees.  The hike ended at the river where we got on innertubes and had a delightful float downriver for about 20 minutes to an eco lodge.  The lodge has beautiful grounds on the river with various places to stay.  We could shower there and got a snack of patacones (fried plantain patties) with something like sour cream and a salsa, fresh fruit, juice and coffee.  From there we took a motor boat back down to the bus. 

The bus ride from Santa Marta to Cartagena should be about 5 hours. West of Santa Marta we passed by extensive wetlands with mangroves and marshes.  One large area was full of mostly dead mangroves, maybe a result of flooding from the ocean that has increased the salinity.  This must be a road that is highly susceptible to sea level rise!  It is basically constructed on a spit of built up land bisecting the coastal wetlands.  We pass through Baranquilla at the mouth of the Magdalena river.  Traffic is extremely heavy.  At one roundabout there was an accident or broken down car and once that cleared our driver had  to edge his way into a river of buses, cars, motorcyles, and even a donkey cart.