Parque Tayrona, and Villa de Leyva - Columbia

Parque Tayrona is a national park at the north point of Columbia, encompassing ocean and land. After scuba diving in one small area, we set off to spend a couple of nights in the national park which is accessed via 2 local buses and a near 2 hour hike to the campsite after paying the park fees. Dealing with intense humidity and an outraegous amount of Deet to protect from mosquitoes and midgie bites, plus the added bonus of carrying kilos of water and supplies, we were hoping this would be worthy adenture. It proceeded to surpass our expectations.

The jungle trails were home to scores of big blue crabs on the route in, and we saw a huge yellowish green snake scramble across the forest floor in front of us. Reaching the coast, palm trees towered all around and the deep bays were accompanied with massive boulders making the scene beautifully picturesque. It really was like stepping on the set off a film clip, something like Castaway with Tom Hanks maybe but with more class.

The days were spent tanning and drinking rum with our lovely Irish amiga Jules who we´ve travelled with for the last few weeks. We slept in hammocks in an open cabana perched on the top of a hill, looking straight out to the ocean and feeling the wind blow us to sleep. The seas were quite rough on the second night and it was a little cold but damp with so much humidity. Probably not the kind of bed you would want for more than a couple of nights, but a cool experience.

Trudging back to civilasation, Jeb and i needed to make our way south as our trip is nearing an end and we apparently have flights to catch. Reality check?!! But no stress yet, we hit the highway in another overnight bus (or 3 actually), and eventually made it to the sweepìng countryside and colonial town of Villa De Leyva. We stayed in a great guesthouse with backyards and fireplaces and more hammocks, and enjoyed the peacfulness. Yesterday we took bikes out for the day and explored the region including the El Fossil which is a reasonably complete fossil of a 120 million year old marine reptile called the Kronosaurus. Next we visited the Muisa Observatory (El Infiernito) which dates from the early centuries and is series of phallic looking structures (actually to be clear, they were simply big stone penises, no confusion there). There are 30 or so of them, spread out around the park about 9m apart, and were used by the indigeous people to tell the seasons. Cruising along on our bikes, we passed a cool Terracotta house, but with a huge storm beginning to drop down on us, we hightailed it back to town only to get caught in the downpour. We got soaked to the bone, but thankfully managed to dry off by the fireplace all night. A remarkable feat itself seeing the wood was soaked, but that has never stopped Jeb before. With many beers for a new friend in the hostels birthday and a late start this morning, we unfortunately didnt get to fully explore the architecture and cobbletsone quaintness that this place has to offer. 4 hours on the bus today and a broken down taxi, puts us in Bogota right now, the capital of Columbia and our last destination in this country before a flight to Chile in 4 days time.