We didn’t have cell service or WiFi in Parque Tayrona, so I wrote some stuff in Notes and will post it over the next couple days, as we make our way back to Cartagena.
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We have no Wifi and no cell service in Parque Tayrona. It’s an odd thing, to turn on WiFi in your settings and see NOTHING, not one locked network that you can’t join, just nothing. I kind of love it. (I’m typing this in notes so I can paste it into WordPress tomorrow when we get back to Santa Marta.
Thursday is our only full day in the park. Wednesday we left our little apartment in Santa Marta with half our bags and way less than half our stuff and got a cab to the bus to Tayrona. At the entrance we had to buy medical insurance coverage for $2.50 per day per person and then park entrance and stay (which ended up being $90 for 4 people for 3 days).
The hike in was rough, but the kids did great. My husband and I struggled to keep up with them with two backpacks each. About half way through our daughter picked up a backpack after a rest and insisted on carrying it. She sounded just like me as she said, Nope! Nope! every time we asked for it back. She never once complained about it for the rest of the hike.
It took us about an hour to hike to our destination, where our reservations in the nice “cabañas” suddenly made everything nicer. Someone brought out ice cold agua frescas for all of us while we checked in. Even though we got there at 1:30 they immediately took us to our cabaña (check in was at 3pm). Our place is really nice, with two single beds down stairs and a queen and single bed upstairs. There is also a hammock inside and a hammock outside, which the kids love.
The “windows” are full length shutters so when you open them, one whole wall is open to the park.
There is no AC but there are fans and honestly that was just fine on our first night. It’s hot and humid here but not excessively so.
After we dropped off our stuff, put on our suits, and ate a make-shift lunch, we headed to the beach.
It’s another 25 minutes walk to “La piscina”, the spot where it’s best to swim with kids and snorkel.
It’s also incredibly beautiful. So, so beautiful.
I immediately went out to try to find a good snorkeling spot, but all I could see was sad and sea grass. I didn’t see one fish! To say I was disappointed, and confused, would be an understatement.
My daughter was unfazed by my inability to find the amazing snorkeling I had read about. She was loving the beach and the water and having a grand time. I decided to do some investigating when we got back to “our village” (as my kids called it) that night.
When we did go back we showered (our cabin had legitimate hot water!) and ate dinner at the restaurant. We couldn’t hike in food so we basically had to eat at the place by our cabin. It was definitely expensive ($100), but for four cocktails, two aguafrescas, and four entrees (all of which were big and very good) it wasn’t excessively so (at least not by US, or maybe SF standards).
After dinner we passed out, and hard.
Wow, these photos are amazing! Just reading about day 1 makes me feel like it was totally worth it. So cool! And how nice that Isa could carry one of the packs herself. It’s a game changer when they can truck in their own stuff. 🙂