Vacation-Parque Tayrona

There are many impressive National Parks in Colombia. This one is probably the most visited by tourists, from all over the world. The Sierra Nevada Mountain Range lines the most northern coast of Colombia. While we were walking on this beach, we talked about being on the very top of South America. This is the highest seaside mountain range in the world.

Many of the people who visit Tayrona are "outdoorsy" people, who love to hike and camp. We were expecting to rough it a bit. We did not have any of our camping equipment, so we rented a little cabin to stay in. As it turns out, the cabin was very nice, and probably the fanciest place we have stayed in so far in Colombia.

In order to get into Tayrona, you have to hike in. We enjoyed this short hike immensely, noticing all the jungley flora and fauna, and relishing in the casual, but intimate conversation that happens on a hike. Abby was recovering from several days with a fever, so she was too tired to walk, and got the adventure of riding in on a burro.

We did not have easy access to a safe swimming area where we were staying, so we did a lot of walking on the beach to get to La Piscina, where we could swim. We loved that the main thing we heard the whole time we were there was the ocean. There was no loud, blaring Colombian music, no city noises, no venders on the beach trying to sell us things. What a gift to be able to simple hear the ocean and nothing more.

We also enjoyed lounging on our cabin porch, sipping coconut limeades (we had a personal lesson on how to open a coconut properly and drink the water), and watching for interesting animals: frogs, lizards, insects, leaf-cutter ants, fuzzy biting caterpillers, etc. It was so nice to connect again with the natural world in this way.