Colombia Día 8: Parque Tayrona

Thursday we started the day with breakfast at the restaurant, which was included. We got the kids pancakes, which they ate 1/4 of and we saved the rest for their lunch (and ingenious idea if I do say so myself) and my husband and I got a typical Colombian dish. We were allowed to order anything we wanted, there was no limit! It was amazing, and another reason I loved our cabaña reservation.

After breakfast, we booked it to the beach, but not before I asked someone about the snorkeling. He told me that it was best at the beach farther down from La Piscina – Cabo San Juan. I was flummoxed. Every site I read said the snorkeling was good in La Piscina.

So when we got to La Piscina, my daughter and I immediately kept walking to get to the other beach, which was an addition half an hour away (so an hour total). When we got there I saw a sign saying there were snorkel tours at 8am, 11am and 2pm. It was 11:07am and a Guy was waking by with a group in snorkel gear. He motioned me to a spot where we paid and then the woman was nice enough to walk us out to the spot where they were starting. And guess what, we were in La Piscina, just at the far end, and only accessible from the other beach. It was all starting to come together.

The snorkeling trip was definitely a lot of fun. The coral and fish weren’t as bright as we were expecting but we say lots of both, and the fish were all sorts of different colors. The reef was right next to a spot where the waves hit some rocks that form a barrier around the bay (which is what makes it a good place to swim) so the water was choppy and the currents could be strong (evidently the water has been choppier the it is normally), but we saw a lot and had a great time. (And I was still learning to use the GoPro so the pictures really don’t do it justice.)

Cabo San Juan was a really pretty beach, it’s actually the iconic spot where most pictures of Tayrona are taken. I’m glad we saw it (though I’m bummed I only had my GoPro and not my phone to take pictures).

By the time we got back to La Piscina, it was 1:30pm and we had been gone for three hours. To say my husband was happy to see us would be an understatement.

We hung out at the beach for another two hours, and at the end, a school of fish came right up the shore and swam all around us for the longest time.

My son was obsessed with touching one, so he actually put on his snorkel gear (previously he had been uninterested or down right resistant) and swam around looking at the fish for a while.

Then a woman told us that there were a bunch more fish on the other side of a giant boulder we’d been swimming near for the past two days. So we al put on our gear and went around the giant rock and sure enough, on the other side, there were all kinds of different fish, and even some coral!

I was so excited that my son went snorkeling, and that my husband got to go as well. It was the perfect end to a great day.

Actually, the perfect end was when we went out in the one last time and the fish came back, and one actually swam up and pecked my son on the finger. He was so thrilled that not only did he get to touch a fish, but one kissed him! You should have seen his face.

We hiked home (me without my shoes, one of which broke on the way back from snorkeling), showered and ate at the restaurant again. By 8pm we were all in bed.