We arrived at Santa Marta bus terminal at 5:50am and had a bus station breakfast consisting of coffee and my second bus station food revelation this holiday: a pastry-bread cheese tube. We caught a minibus to the entrance of Tayrona National Park and left us on the side of the road... we then waited at the ticket office for 20 minutes until it opened at 8am. We then caught another minibus to Cañaveral, which is a far as the road goes inside the park. According to the Lonely Planet (or LP, as we now affectionately call it), we would need to walk 45 minutes to Arrecifes and another 45 minutes to El Cabo del San Juan Guia, our destination. What the LP fails to say is that this is a crazy idea if you have big rucksacks with you, and you should ideally leave most of your belongings in a hostel outside of the park. The good news is that there are horses on hand and a man willing to rent them! I have never ridden with a massive rucksack on before and was a little hesitant, but once we were on our way I was extremely grateful for our decision to take horses. The hike is through jungle, with lots of crabs, lizards and a line of pack mules (with a man riding one cross-legged) going in the opposite direction. It was quite an unexpected and epic ride and we arrived at the campsite a little sore. The campsite is full of gringos, but has the most amazing two beaches and clear, blue sea. It also has a resident mule and a couple of leaf-cutter ant colonies that everyone takes great care not to tread on.

It was still morning, so we plonked ourselves on the beach, bought two pastries from a vendor who had clearly walked miles to get here and sell his goods. A little later we saw another old guy who we had passed on the trail carrying two cool boxes on his shoulders, poor sod. I had to buy a couple of beers from him.

In the afternoon the weather came a bit overcast - perfect weather for Alex Williams to be outside in a swimming costume! So we went swimming. Alex said to me that she would ´sit in the shallows and exfoliate her legs with the sand´ and exactly as she said it a huge wave came and washed her away onto the beach. It was the funniest thing (for me). After the swim we got to use the showers. Although they are not totally open plan (there are curtains to the rear), the walls separating the stalls come up to my shoulder and so I can see everyone else showering (and they can see you)! For dinner we shared a fish (I had the head and Alex had the tail), which was really good. The campsite has no music and everything closes at 9:30... early night then.

Day 53 - In the night we encountered a tropical rainstorm like I have never encountered before. It woke me up, but our hammocks are well undercover so went back to sleep pretty easily. I believe the people camping in tents had a worse time though!

Breakfast at the campsite consisted of 3 pieces of bread that had been wafted near a toaster and an arepa (Colombian pancake). We then went on a walk back to Arrecifes, which consists of two campsites and a beautiful beach lined by jungle. As we arrived a local pointed out a pod of dolphins jumping out of the water - and aside from him we had the beach to ourselves. You can´t swim in the sea at Arrecifes due to an undertow, so we made our way towards La Piscina (on our way back to El Cabo), which is a natural cove safe for swimming. On the way we stopped at the panaderia (there really is nothing in Tayrona, except for a bakery and campsites) where we encountered two excellent Colombians: an elderly server with a mischievous look, and the chef, called King Arthur. We shared two delicious, dense breads - one with chocolate and the other with guava jam and cheese - plus cafe con leche served in teacups. King Arthur first wanted us to tell him the english for shoe, fire and knife. Then he waved his mobile in his hand and said ´Carlos´. After a great deal of confusion I found Carlos Perez in his phonebook and hit call. King Arthur then proceeded to have his conversation with Carlos Perez, and as this episode was occurring, two British guys (one shoeless) emerged out of the bushes and started asking who Carlos was. They were on their way out of the park, but stopped and had a good chat. They told us how yesterday they had tried to leave the park via the other exit but somehow ended up back at the campsite.... this was their second attempt at leaving. We wished them luck as they headed off in the wrong direction and went to pay King Arthur. By now he had put his chef´s shirt and hat on, and was busy making bread on his verandah. He asked if we would like to be fellow bakers there. We asked now? No. Always. We declined and after teaching him the english for bin (which apparently sounds a lot like hug in spanish) I gave him a hug and left. Amazing.

We took the coastal path towards La Piscina and on the way met a very lovely taxi driver called Pipé who was guiding a Swiss family through the park. We spent a couple of hours in the sea at La Piscina and chatting to Pipé and as soon as we weren´t any longer stuffed from breakfast no. 2, we went back to the cevicheria shack to have a delicious shrimp ceviche. We went back to El cabo in the afternoon to enjoy our beaches (the best in the park) and later had the same fish as yesterday (we know it´s safe and good)... this time I had the tail and Alex the head.

Day 54 - Alex woke up around 5am while it was dark to go to the loo and I tagged along since I was awake too. We had a really nice excursion as the stars were SO bright and we also played with our shadows a bit using Alex´s headtorch! Once it was light we went for a pre-breakfast dip in the sea, followed by our last open plan shower (not sure we´ll miss that). During breakfast we saw Anna again (from the Pantanal and Rio)!

Yesterday we had arranged to hire one horse to take our bags to Cañaveral while we went on foot. The horse-man packed up our bags in hessian sacks and then told us he´d see us at the exit! This isn´t exactly what we expected, but we left our entire belongings bar my camera and sweat rag with the stranger and made our way to Arrecifes. From Arrecifes to Cañaveral pedestrians take a different path to the horses along the coast, which was a nice surprise. We arrived at Cañaveral 1.75 hours later and ridiculously sweaty. Thankfully our belongings turned up a few minutes later! Phew! As we were making our way to the minibus area to catch one to El Zaino (the park entrance) one came our way and picked us up... we were sat in the back of the minibus with no windows and no aircon = no air. The 10 minute drive to El Zaino was too long.

At the main road we hoped to flag down a bus direct to Cartagena, and the guys at the juice shop assured us we could. An Aussie girl joined us as was planning to do the same, but Alex and I weren´t even thinking of buses until we´d had a maracuya juice to reward our hiking efforts. And by that time it was going on for lunchtime so we thought we´d better get some cheese tubes. Eventually we were ready for the bus and sat in the shade waiting for one to pass. One of the guys at the shop (who boarded the buses to Santa Marta when they stopped to sell snacks) offered to flag the bus down for us after I bought some coconut pancake things from him (also delicious). But 40 minutes came and went and no buses to Cartagena passed by. In the end we decided to catch a local bus to Santa Marta and try and transfer there. Unfortunately te local buses terminate at the mercado in the centre of town, whereas buses to Cartagena leave from the terminal outside of town! So the really nice bus conductor gave me tha address of a minibus company that could take us directly to a hostel in Cartagena. From the mercado we took a taxi to the minibus office, costing 5,000 pesos between 3 of us. The aussie made a fuss and started telling the driver it was too expensive, which was quite embarrassing as it was his minimum fare and only cost her 30 pence. We reached the office around 1:30pm and I put my spanish to the test further to ascertain the next bus to Cartagena... 3pm. We went round the corner to a bar full of locals drinking aguila for some rum and raisin ice cream, and that was about as much as we saw of Santa Marta.

The minibus was boiling despite the air con, mostly due to the inefficacy of the equipment and made worse by the sun on the windows. We spent the first hour stopping at hotels on the outskirts of the city, seemingly failing to collect other people. Everyone fell asleep because of the heat, and only woke up when we briefly stopped at the side of the road, and I rented a toilet from an old man. We later stopped in the major city of Barranquilla an industrial city midway on our journey. Here we changed minibuses and drivers, completing the journey now cold and on edge with this guy´s (lack of) speed control.