You want to go to here: Parque Tayrona

April 7th, 2010

These Eco Habs are only steps from the beach

Not far from the beach town of Santa Marta is the most beautifulnational park you don’t know about:  Parque Tayrona.  Hogging 30 km of some of Colombia’s most breath taking beaches and 150 square km of virgin jungle and rivers, it’s definitely a place to spend a day or two or nine.  Unfortunately we were only able to spend half a day in Tayrona and barely scratched the surface of what the national park has to offer.

We started lunch at a restaurant overlooking Cañaveral Beach.  The restaurant was an open air grass roofed structure which made for views that were more impressive than the food.  Not that the food was anything to get mad about (I very much enjoyed my lobster and prawn salad) but for the prices it was clear we were paying for the location, location, location.

One-hour rule be damned, we took a 5 minute stroll to the nearby piscinita (beach for swimming) and took a dip in one of the most gorgeous, picturesque beaches I’ve ever seen.  Only Phra Nang Beach in Thailand compares to the “whoa factor” of this beach.  Complimented by lush trees with the most beautiful shade of green you could never dream of and waves crashing on gorgeous rock formations, we felt like we were in an untainted, never-been-touched paradise (if we chose to overlook the beach chairs, tables, umbrellas, and bar.)

Click to view a video of the beach at Parque Tayrona

If you look closely at the beginning of the video, you can see a grass hut or “Ecohab” perched on a hill with a postcard view of the piscinita and the ocean; I have made it my personal goal to stay in one of these Ecohabs.  Goal part b: spend a day chilling out on this outdoor bed swing contraption.  How cool is this?

For more of Noah’s awesome pictures of Tayrona, click here.

For more pictures of Parque Tayrona, the Ecohabs, and the nearby area click here.

Night Bus (waaa-aaaah!)

March 29th, 2010

[Title of the blog post sung to the tune of Night Man]

Santa Marta Sunset

Currently it is Semana Santa in Colombia, similar to our version of Spring Break, so we have migrated north to the beaches of the Atlantic Coast with the family.  While our aunt and uncle took an hour flight from Medellin to Santa Marta, we opted for the more economical route and took a night bus for $40 and 15 hours of transit.  15 hours to cover the same distance that a plane can in an hour.  There has got to be something wrong with that.

All in all, the ride wasn’t that bad; the seats were comfortable and the bus was (surprisingly) VERY well air-conditioned…bring two sweatshirts and a blanket style.  Things didn’t get uncomfortable until the co-captain put on one of the most random movies you could ever think of.  Go ahead, think of the most random movie you can, you’ll never guess.  If you guessed Center Stage, the late 90’s chick flick about the drama of a NYC ballet school, you are a wizard genius.  About 5 minutes into the movie the picture on the TV went out so we were forced to listen to the audio version (all in dubbed-over Spanish.)

We were able to sleep through the majority of the movie, but the fun didn’t stop there.  After the movie was over they continued to blare Mariachi music throughout the bus, in the words of Lionel Richie:  All. Night. Long. It made for interesting dreams, I’ll tell you what.  The good news is we get to enjoy the beach for another week before we get on another bus, and this time we’ll bring earplugs!