Day 213 to 219 - Costeno Beach & Tayrona National Park, Colombia - Wednesday 16th to Tuesday 22nd May 2012

We found paradise and it is called Costeno beach. We'd heard about it from someone in San Gil but the place is difficult to get information on - there is nothing in any of the guide books and the google search throws up an under construction webpage and a few people's blogs detailing how amazing it is. From Taganga it was just over an hour, past the Tayrona National Park, in a car driven by a very cool looking older Colombian dude who had such a lovely aura about him we didn't mind paying the extra to ride with him. We arrived through a driveway of palm trees which opened up to a few huts and a series of hammocks right on the beach. Paradise found...…

The place is run by two Canadian brothers who are so laid back out they are practically horizontal; there's a mega cute boxer dog called Mario and a scatty little cat called moshy (apparently p**** in German) - at one point there was even a baby bat & killer red snake! We thought originally we'd stay for three nights in our little thatched hut, that looks out onto the ocean, but three quickly turned into six and probably would have been more had we not dragged ourselves away! Our days were spent reading books in the hammocks, chatting to the other travellers who passed by and meeting some brilliant people, eating lots of lovely food, drinking too much rum and beer and just generally chillaxing, with the exception of a few days where we managed to pack in a few activities…..

On the Friday we just about managed to drag ourselves out of Costeno and headed to the nearby Tayrona National Park. Everyone raves about the park and given that it was only 5km down the road from Costeno beach, we thought we'd give it a go. We headed to the main road with Danielle, an Aussie chick who is funny and quick witted even when completely stoned, and caught a motor bike taxi to the park entrance. Danielle's motor taxi guy, carrying just her, shot off into the distance whilst our guy, Ad and I chugged along until we abruptly came to a halt. It seemed through a series of pointing and hand gestures that the bike had a flat tyre so we'd have to walk the rest of the way! It was only about another km down the road and so soon enough we were at the park entrance being frisked and asked lots of questions, most of which we didn't understand. After our brief interrogation we looked around for Danielle but she was nowhere to be seen, however we spotted a list of people who had entered the park and there was an Australian marked a couple of people before us and so we figured that she'd got in ok. After waiting for a hideous amount of time for the bus to take us to the start of the walking path we finally got on and before we knew it were at the entrance ready for our days hike. A quick Gatorade for energy and we were off into the dense jungle - the walk was beautiful and we spotted lots of brightly coloured lizards, killer red ants carrying what looked like trees on their backs and crabs in all shapes and sizes. After a hot and sweaty 45 minutes we arrived at the first beach which unfortunately you cannot swim in - apparently over hundred people have died due to the strong currents. So we marched onto the next bay - it was beautiful, the sea calm and just the right temperature. We chilled there for a while, fooling about in the water and taking it all in before packing up and starting the walk to Cabo San Juan - this is the beach everyone talks about and is the main one where people camp the night. We arrived a little after 1pm and so headed for the shade of a palm tree to chill and take in the surrounds; we decided not to stay and instead go back to Costeno which in some ways was a bit of a shame as there was a little hut with hammocks that looked out onto the ocean which would have been pretty amazing to stay at. Come 2.30pm we decided to start our walk back, estimating it would take us a couple of hours to get to the entrance of the park and then we'd have to hitch a ride back to Costeno. As we were leaving we ran into Danielle so exchanged stories of the bike breaking down and said our goodbyes until the next day as she was staying in the park overnight. We arrived back at Costeno about 5pm, a little sticky and starving so went about the usual of showering and waiting for the dinner bell whilst drinking beer.

Saturday was another lively day for us; first up I decided to go for a surf lesson along with Katie, Daryl and Jenny. Ad took one look at the waves and opted out and I can't say I blame him! It was tough going - the sea by Costeno is a monster and crashes in at you from all angles. For starters, getting out to try and catch a wave was a mission - it was fine when you had Dillon the surf teacher, pulling you on, but on your own it was near on impossible! On two occasions I got out and walked to the part of the sea where the currents were the weakest (so technically should be easier to get out) and five minutes later found myself battered and bruised halfway along the beach but still on the shore!! I managed to stand just once and after three hours was knackered, beat up and fed up! Ad, who was sat on the beach taking pictures, found it all highly amusing!

Saturday afternoon was the European cup final and Ad had almost given up all hope of being able to see it (Costeno has no TV's and there isn't much around); that was until, a group full of new people turned up the night before, mostly consisting of men who liked football. Adam was in his element! After a bit of asking around it seemed that a resort just 20 minutes down the beach had a TV and so the majority of Costeno started the long hike down the beach. I simply went to see the resort as we'd heard lots about it and it had a pool - brilliant! When we arrived we realised why it was such a talking point for the local area; the place was huge but completely deserted and looked like it hadn't been touched for thirty years! Some of the rooms had just been left to rot and were sanctuaries for birds and creatures and the main area had a big restaurant with two pools, one of which was empty, a pool bar which was leaking and teeming with tadpoles and the whole place had an eerie, empty feeling. We quickly renamed the place "The Shining hotel" and all frequently looked around for the little boy on the tricycle! The story of the place was something about it apparently being a big and busy resort but had constant issues with FARC and so people were now too scared to go back; the other story we heard was that it was a money scam to cover drugs - it remains to be seen if any of the stories flying around were true. When we turned up on mass the owner looked like he hadn't seen so many people for years (maybe forever) and at first was a bit unsure as to why a bunch of gringos had turned up! Finally, after a bit of explaining, we got the huge 15inch TV on and the beers flowing and with the looming idea of the boredom of having to sit through a football match Katie, Daryl and I jumped in the pool. Taking into account the football match, extra time, extra goal scoring and the cup bit, we were in the pool for near on two and a half hours!! In that time we discussed everything possible from Posh and Becs (Daryl nearly nodded off at this point) to life and relationships, and when we were talked out, we started diving - well Katie dived, Daryl half dived and I simply belly flopped! Ad meanwhile was having a whale of a time with the boys watching the footie and drinking copious amounts of beer! Come the end of the football we finally emerge from the pool looking like prawns!

If you ever see someone with one side of their head shaved and you're on the Caribbean coast of Colombia it's likely they have suffered from the "Costeno seven". When we first arrived at Costeno literally everyone there had a shaved head and strangely enough we didn't even consider why. However as time wore on we discovered that it was something that Brian, one of the owners and an original of the seven, like to give his guests. And so it turned out that on Sunday morning both Gary and Katie were given the Costeno treatment. Now you might ask why they did this, plain, cold sober on a Sunday morning. Well Katie was challenged the night before that if she didn't do it now, whilst she was travelling and free, she'd never do it and Gary, well, he was kind of dared to do it. Gary is not just travelling, he gave up everything at home and decided to create a project called "challenge me on anything" which basically entails him giving a list of options and people voting on what he should do - he got to Heathrow airport not even knowing where he would fly to and has since been challenged to climb up a mountain naked and stay in a haunted island - so, as you can imagine, the Costeno seven, was nothing in comparison! But it made for fun watching for the rest of us!

The nights at Costeno were some of the funniest. They usually contained lots of rum, beer, wine - well anything alcoholic, and lots of laughs. The good old "googles on game" came out in full force on the Sunday night and we all felt a little worse for wear the next morning for it. But I think the best night just well be our last night which largely revolved around a lucky coin, Alf Stewart impressions (I'll bite your face…….) and again, lots of booze. The lucky coin became our god and we asked it stupid, continuous questions all night long - not surprisingly by the end of the night it was lost in the sand after being tossed too much times.

Overall we loved our time at Costeno and were really sad to leave. Going was made much harder because we were leaving behind some amazing people; Katie from Perth - literally the funniest person we've ever met (I'll bite your face…….), Daryl from Northern Island - great chat and wine drinking ability with a specialist skill of attracting crabs to his swim shorts, Andrew from Adelaide - another mental and funny Australian, Noami from Canada - a softly spoken excellent coconut tree climber, Lottie from Bristol - does the most daring and unlikely adventures (just ask Santiagos wife!) - to name but a few. All in all, our time at Costeno rocked!