We woke up in Taganga and went and had an absolutely delicious breakfast of eggs and arepas (corn cakes) with a specialty organic cocao bar in warm milk (hot chocolate) and got stuck at the quaint little hut where an artisana displayed all her feather earrings and beautiful wire work while a rainstorm came through. It was a beautiful hard rain, and the hut started leaking, I really felt as though I was in Jamaica or something as Bob Marley played from the old school boom box they had. I was watching the rain and a dark skinned local looking guy asked me what my tatoo meant, which I then explained to him and somehow our conversation continued on, carrying lots of heavy and deep topics about what we search for in life and how we do it. It was such a beautiful time shared with him and went very well with the release of the rain from the sky. After some thirty minute chat, the clouds had cleared, we exchanged contact information and the three of us headed back the hostal to get on our way to the national park. What an adventure there too, because we bussed to the main city where the bus out to the jungle leaves from, and literally the roads were flooded like rivers, but everything went smoothly. We began a beautiful drive out through the mountainous rainforest on a road lined by eco hotels, little huts, cows roaming, and locals sitting out on their front porches of little quaint houses. It was absolutely lovely. We arrived to the park and walked in the heavy humidity for about an hour and a half until we arrived to our camp ground. There we chose a spot closest to the beach, a sweet little nook where we set up the tent and hung our hammock and could wake up to see the sun rise over the ocean waves. We arrived in the late afternoon just in time to set up and watch a beautiful sunset. The men who took care of the camp grounds were super sweet, constantly offering us coconuts that fell all over the ground there and assuring us to ask for anything we needed. Unfortunately, Nick wasn´t feeling very well the next day so Sarah and I went walking to the series of beaches there, so thrilled by the cool, clear blue water and decent size waves. Something we did get used to while there was falling asleep within the hour after the sun set (sadly, like 8 PM) and waking up soon after the sun rise (7 AM). That same day, I had spoken with a really attractive darker skinned guy in his mid twenties who came with this Roman, airbrushed looking body, with a funky beard who ended up being Israeli. I told them where we were camping and that it was the cheapest place around, but at sunset I saw them off in the distance sitting on an enormous cliff/rock out on the beach. I walked some 15 minutes to go see what they were up to, and ended up chatting with them before the Police came and yelled at us to get off the rock. Later, the police also made them pack up their make shift camp spot and go find a designated camping ground, and that´s why we woke up with some new camping neighbors the next morning! For day three, we planned on headed to El Pueblito, an old ruins of the indigenous Tayrona people, a hike that you can do on your own, but we were presented with an opportunity to have a guide, quite a funny one in fact. Even if all his stories and info about the ruins was fake, we got some 7 hours of histerical laughter out of him, and a long and spontaneous adventure. The friend I had made earlier ended up actually being a local of the area but hadn´t been to Tayrona since he was very young, so he wanted to know if he and his Israeli friend could join us. So us five and our guide began our journey, mind you that the Israeli could hardly speak spanish, the Colombia guy could only speak spanish, and obviously Sarah and nick spoke english too, so I would be trying to translate what this crazy jungle man guide was saying. He walks with no shirt, and really had a monkey like posture as he raved about a triathalon, the first one ever in the park, that he is planning in December, which he later invited me to participate in...hahaha! Before we began the hike though, we stopped to get an arepa con juevo from a little stand where a woman would plop a raw egg into a corn cake pouch and fry it until the egg was cooked! So delicious, and plus, our favorite thing to do was to drench it in salsa! So we´re walking along the windy path between the jungle and the ocean, and all of a sudden, he tells us to wait a moment as he moved ahead, then invited us to continue out to a flat rock that was bathing in the sun, where if you looked around you in all directions, there was only jungle. The most ridiculous part of all was the huge bag of marijuana he had out in the middle of the rock that he had cultivated from the jungle...The Israeli hadn´t even tapped in to what was going on as he just stared off in the distance, and finally when he looked down and saw it, he goes ¨OOHH COLOMBIA!!¨. So after that, we walked out, gave our crazy guide a minute to go stash all his goodies in a hiding spot, and we continued on up the mountain. Soon we came to a beautiful vista deeper in the jungle where you could see out the ocean. And there, we all got to try chewing on Coca leaves. It seemed like this tour was turning more into a drug exposition or something...Finally we arrived to the ruins after following the pathway of strategically placed stones and staircases laid down some three thousand years ago. It was also neat on the way up to go down into the caverns beneath the pathway where wobbly stones above would alert whoever was below that people were walking across. We began the descent and some hour or so down, and unfortunately, the Israeli had earlier sprained his ankle and the pain was worsening for him. So, the three of us walked ahead while Javier, my Colombian friend stayed behind with the Israeli. As we were approaching the ocean (we only could tell by sound) we finally came across a community of monkeys!!! But, these monkeys were nuts! The one who we soon found out to be the leader of the pack followed us the entire way through the path, and ended up, with the help of a few others, moving along the canopy right above our heads strategically shaking branches so that things would fall on us!!! I couldn´t believe it, they wanted to make sure we got the hell out of their village. Still though, it was a wonderful 10 minutes sight to see some 100 monkeys coming out of the trees. Then, it was incredible that within 10 minutes, the green cave of jungle came to an end and opened up to a deserted beach with a seemingly infinite grey sky and some waves reaching up to 6 feet at the shore! It was a sense of freedom I have felt only a few times, where the wind cooled all the moisture on my face and body that came from the humid and still jungle.
By this time, the Israeli had badly sprained his ankle and was far behind with Javier, so we waited for them on the beach, and Cesar our guide rolled up yet another joint, I just couldn't believe how much this man smoked! Once they arrived, we continued because night would soon fall, and we still had a good hour and a half to walk through the jungle back to our camping ground. But by this time, the Israeli was really hurting, and we had to find him accomodations in a campsite that was closer than ours. After some 45 minutes of debating with him about how there were no horses that could take him on the trail in the dark where it was very rocky and muddy...i guess he just didn't understand that horses don't have night vision, he agreed to pay the extra fee and stay at the site. After leaving the Israeli at camp, the five of us continued to walk back on the trail with only two flash lights, avoiding thoughts of how much horse poop we stepped in and the luck we were having to not step on the trails of ants slaving away into the night. Despite our exhaustion and desire to just finally return, Cesar insisted on taking a break after the first portion of jungle trail that we trekked to roll yet another joint... and finally, we arrived back, exhausted from the day, and ready for some rest. The next day, with bug bites all over our legs and only a small amount of food left, we decided to have our one and only cooked meal after eating sugary peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, granola, little fruit, and raisins and nuts, before leaving the park. So after our rice, lentil, celery, and potato mixture, we began packing up our sweet little home and saying our goodbyes. We headed back to the entrance and hopped on the bus back to Taganga, were we ended up finding a place to stay for some 25 dollars less! But...you live and you learn!
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