Hotel Santorini Resort Santa Marta

Getting here from Maracaibo was an experience to say the least. Had to get a por puesto, which is basically a battered car with as many people crammed into to it and shifts to the frontera. Got in it with my new friend Mana, a very interesting Kiwi who has done a hell of a lot of travelling at the tender age of 19, and Angelica the crazy Columbian hairdresser.<br><br>I am in Columbia!!! <br><br>Santa Marta is ...

... down the bike. He had just washed our car! Devin tried not to pay him, as we didn't want the service and we were a little fed-up with people being pushy and obliging us to services that we didn&#8217;t ask for, but we couldn&#8217;t stop laughing. The guy was hilarious, running around frantically, wiping everything down. So we gave him $1 and drove off in our clean car ...

... in them. I guess we are obviously in the Aussies in the group.<br><br>The first 2 days are about 4 hours hiking each - the terrain is very hilly, constantly going up or down. We are lucky and it hasnt rained too much so the going is not too muddy. Day 3 gets much harder - steeper uphills, rocky ledges on cliff faces and 9 river crossings through waist deep water with strong currents. Our guides all prove to be experts at shoe retreival - leaping in ...

... We had the middle row section of seats and in front of us was a wall so there was no place to put our bags or stretch out our feet. We were directly next to the bathroom and the TV was too close and so bright it made it more difficult to sleep.<br><br>We eventually made it, got our bags, and met the Aviatur person at the airport to take us to the hotel (about a 4 hour drive). There must have been 15 check points on the way to the hotel.<br><br>The hotel is nice but a bit ...

... that we had left ourselves too little time to get back to Jose&#8217;s camper van for 5pm. He was expecting to meet up with other backpackers there at 5pm. Jose ushered us back along the path we had come and said he would catch up. At a breakneck speed we walked back along the path we had come. We came to a split in the path and we weren&#8217;t sure which path to take. We took the right hand path and followed fresh horse poo which indicated a route back to the ...

... which was ours. From the bar you could see the bay.<br><br>We dropped off our gear, checked in and headed for the bay front to check out the restaurants. There were heaps of restaurants and kiosks. We picked a place serving Pizza, and opted for an extra large Pizza, half spinach and cheese, half pepperoni and cheese. We were so hungry we easily consumed the lot and still had room for smoothies from one of the kiosks.<br><br>We got back to the hostel as dusk fell, had a dip in the pool and retired.

This is not the kind of adventure story where Indiana Jones belongs. There were no highspeed chases, no broken bones, no monkeys running off with passports, run ins with cartels, or poison-arrow shootings. This is the kind of adventure story with a happy ending. And a happy beginning and middle as well.<br><br>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 ...

We took a bus from the market in Santa Marta to the entrance of Tayrona National Park. From the entrance, it is over an hour to the first beach. While walking on the paved road towards the park, a young Colombian couple offered to give us a ride to the parking lot. We gladly accepted. From the parking lot, it was at least a 30 min walk down a dirt path through forest to the first beach, which they escorted us to. When the forest finally thinned, and ...

... they are a disgusting muddy brown mess.<br>Step two: Casually add a lot of petrol. Siphon off the mixture below the petrol. Filter mixture through dirty cloth.<br>Step three: Add a touch of sulphuric acid and let it settle.<br>Step four: Add a touch of pottasium permanganate which you bought at the local hospital and filter through another dirty cloth.<br>Step five: To counter the acid add caustic soda and ...

... I did buy one a drink (chump...) and we got talking. Nice girl, perfect body. She was off to get plastic surgery done next Monday(!) What the hell. More money than sense. <br><br>The next day we hit the beach. When pre-drinking on the beach later on, a local got talking and told us he knew a bar that we would like. Apparently it was a bit edgy and dangerous and we would be better off if we had a local...like ...