Chocolate Greatness

Colombia is hot, very hot, so its pretty slow going in temperatures reaching 100 degrees.

Vanessa cooling off in Minca

We chicken bussed it from Santa Marta to the small fishing village of Taganga, a horseshoe shaped bay surrounded by scorched brown hills laden with cactii. Sounds picturesque, but its a dump. Its been over run by rubbish, backpackers and with it, a big drugs reputation and police roaming the streets. We  somehow lasted about two hours before heading back.

Our main objective was to visit Tayrona National Park just an hour's chicken bus ride away along the coast. Luckily the temperature dropped slightly with a bit more cloud for the four hike through tropical rainforest where it meets the sea and several wild and tranquil bays. On the way we noticed a small 'bakery' sign so we had to venture in and discovered chocolate greatness. A little old lady in her ramshackle house was churning out these freshly baked, warm chocolate loaves, so good that a pain au chocolat will be never be consumed again.

What should have been a simple chicken bus ride home from Tayrona didn't quite materialise. Along with eight or so others, we jumped on and straight away it just didn't feel right. The bus was really dark with some odd characters looking around at eachother. It just felt weird. It stopped a couple of times without picking up or dropping off any more passengers so when it stopped again, this time at a police checkpoint, we jumped off along with three others who it turned out were actually Colombians on holiday and they'd felt exactly the same.

From then on it worked out really well as they asked the local police to put us on another bus which they kindly did and instructed the driver to take us free of charge a few miles further up the road. The five of us plus a backpack and a tent, then jumped into the smallest taxi in the world back to Santa Marta which these amazingly friendly and generous Colombians insisted on paying for. The taxi driver's face lit up when he first saw us at the thought of a huge fare without realising that we'd all spent hours walking in scorching temperatures and we all stank, just like his taxi must have done for days after.

Hummingbirds by the hundred

The cooler coffee growing hills of Sierra Nevada were beckoning us so we caught a four wheel drive taxi, which some thirty years ago probably had windows, padded seats and suspension,  15km up a rough old road to the small riverside town of Minca. However, the cooler temperatures hadn’t reached down as far as Minca so by the time we’d climbed with our backpacks up steep steps for 15 minutes to our accommodation, there was a familiar smell, a bit like that Colombian taxi.

We had stunning views from our hostel room across the valley below to the shining lights of Santa Marta beyond. Just the perfect place to take it all in and watch the sunset. Our last morning in the hills was spent on the terrace drinking the local fresh Colombian coffee whilst watching hundreds of hovering hummingbirds feeding right in front of us. We’ll miss this place as we now head back to Cartagena for the night and our return flight back to Panama.......unfortunately.