The Leaf Cutter Ant Trail
Trip Start
Aug 10, 2009
1
6
7
Trip End
Sep 05, 2009
Taganga, Magdalena, Colombia
Thursday, August 20, 2009
Vanessa and I were in the town of Santa Marta long enough to gape at the huge number of ATMs and then headed to the little fishing village of Taganga, which has a lot more tourists than fish. It looks like every other backpacker hangout ever, but I wonīt dwell on it. It WAS nice to have the comforts of vegetarian food, book exchanges, and other travelers to meet, and a REALLY fancy hostel. We spent a lovely day on the beach and then reading in the hammock as it rained all afternoon. It was so relaxing.
Our next big destination was Parque Nacional Tayrona, only about 35 kilomters away. As we prepared to leave our bags at the hostel and just take a few necessities, we were joined by Borko, a Croation microbiologist, Julian-a Southafrican nice guy, and Sarah- a belgian girl who annoyed the heck out of me because she was so slow to get moving all the time. To get to the beach, we had to take several little busses and then hike about 2 hours. Supposedly. Because getting five people groceries and on and off little busses and eating and such takes MUCH longer than two people. I think we left at 10am and didnt arrive at the campsite until 4pm... aye!
However, when we got there, it was more of AYEAYEAYEAYEAYE! QUE LINDO!!! Hereīs a link to the park, since I still canīt upload my pictures. SOOOOO GORGEOUS!
http://www.panoramio.com/photo/144728
we stayed at a campsite where we got the last three hammocks, and I stayed in the tent with my friend. The campsite was kind of a Euro-Israeli party,. and I can say that I did not get that much sleep. But the next day we were just going to lay on the beach and relax, so it was ok.
DAY 2.
After a morning of relaxing amongst the tourists, Borko, Julian, Vanessa and I decided it would be nice to go to a quieter beach, reachable by two hours of hiking. But this was some intense hiking, and of course by the time we actually got moving, it was 1pm and HOT. And julian didnt have sneakers and was carrying a huge bag in each hand which involved some crazy rock climbing type hiking, and doing the whole thing barefoot.
Along the trail, Vanessa was the cheif wildlife spotter. She found a snake that was skinny and grey and looked just like the vine it was hanging from, milipedes, butterflies, birds, and a whole stream of leaf'cutter ants. We marveled at their little green highway system for a while as we rested by a stream, but throughout the jungle, there were actually tons and tons of them, crisscrossing the path the whole way.
When we eventually arrived at the next campsite, we were so hot and tired we just ran STRAIGHT into the ocean, much to the amusement of the only other guests--3 french guys. THe place just barely had electricity enugh to last until 930, but we were so tired we fell asleep in our hammocks then anyway.
DAY 3
Im leaving out a lot of the hiking drama here. Suffice it to say, the way back to the road from the campsite was only 2.5 hours, but it was STRAIGHT over a mountain. At noon, of course. Because thats how 7 people roll... It was so hot, just like hiking in tucson, until we got to the jungle where there was a little shade. however, everyone was a good sport and it is kind of a bonding experience for strangers to sweat their shirts off together. We had lunch at a tiny restaurant before hopping a bus back to Taganga, where lovely showers awaited.
Somehow, we found the energy to go out dancing last night, leaving us pretty tired for the bus ride today... but that is another story. We are in Cartagena now, which is a big colonial city, which we know nothing about yet. More updates when we actually do something ;)
Comments
Title
Awesome--sounds amazing!