From the southern tip of Colombia we flew via Bogota the length of Colombia to Santa Marta on the north coast. Parque Nacionale Natural (PNN) Tayrona was our ultimate destination. Colombia is unusual for this part of the world in that it's dominant mode of transport is by plane rather than bus. The flights are well priced so Em and I had no quibble with traversing the country in an afternoon rather than two days by bus.

At this point in our travels we hadn't done a load of washing for over two weeks, so everything that we were stuffing into our packs was filthy. This coupled with five days in the Amazon in stinkingly humid conditions meant that we were rather looking forward to a touch of modern living. Our single night in Santa Marta before we headed to PNN Tayrona delivered just enough mod-cons to refresh us. We even found a nice tapas bar and savoured a drop of European vino.

By early afternoon the following day we had arrived at Finca Barlovento, the spectaculary placed and architecturally protected bungalow-mansion-treehouse lodging that we'd be staying to see the park. PNN Tayrona has strong conservation laws so there are very few places to stay inside the park itself, but Finca Barlovento was only a stone throw outside the park. Indeed, we were on the opposite side of the river that acts as the border of the park.

Mother Nature certainly got creative in this part of the world. The dense tropical jungle marches right up to meet the sandy beaches, add to this scene the impressive mountains, the house-sized boulders and the broad river and the end product is a photographer's dream. Shame I'm not a talented photographer!

Our three days were spent seeing the park, reading books and getting to know our fellow travellers. We spent over a week with a US-Colombian couple, Jeremy (US) and Laura (Colombian). We first meet up with them in the Amazon and happened to have exact travel itineraries that took us to our shared accommodation at Finca Barlovento in PNN Tayrona. Jeremy and Laura were fountains of knowledge when it came to Colombia and they generously listened and advised us on our travel plans. As is often the case when travelling unknown destinations, local knowledge is the key to unlocking memorable experiences. We are immensely thankful that we bumped into them and hit it off so well, it definately enriched our Colombian experience.

The beaches around PNN Tayrona are notoriously vicious, there are prominent signs reminding tourists that many many people drown in these turbulent waters ever year. These warnings acted to moderate our swimming but not eliminate it, alls well that ends well i suppose as we lived to tell the tale. One of the more memorable experiences was the four of us wading up the shallows of the river that feeds into the ocean. The jungle, the birdlife, the locals fishing with their nets, it was quite serene.

Our entire stay wasn't necessarily as serene. After another 4 days of limited comforts, we were getting rather frayed. Then, the last night an almighty storm blew in and our hut didn't hold up so well. We got drenched. One of those experiences we'll remember I'm sure, but we were very glad to be heading back to civilisation in Cartagena and staying somewhere with a less porous roof.