The Spaniard & I had planned to go to Parque Tayrona together, and we had agreed to meet at the lobby of the hostel at 7 am sharp. For some reason, he said it was very important to leave so early and he could not afford to leave any later than 7:30 am. I had told him not to rely on me, and to just get going if I don’t show up by 7:15 am. That was good thinking on my part because it was 9:00 am by the time I awoke. By the time I got ready and got to the reception, I was told that the Spaniard had waited for me for a while, and then left. I told the friendly man at the reception that I would also be going to Tayrona National Park and would be back the next day. He told me that I would need to walk a bit to reach the coast which would be hard with my entire backpack. He offered to store my backpack safely at the hostel so I wouldn’t need to carry it all the way and back. I was grateful for that and took some bare essentials in my small backpack and got on my way.

It was already 11:00 am by the time I finally reached the entrance to Tayrona National Park. I paid the entrance fee of 34000 Colombian pesos for non-Colombians after which a mini-bus drove me further into the park and dropped me off after about 15 minutes near a path that went into the jungle. It was a little unnerving in the beginning to walk into a forest all by myself, even if it was a sunny morning and the weather was perfect. But after walking for a bit, I began to relax and enjoy the nature around me. The jungle was dense but didn’t feel intimidating from within. One couldn’t lose one’s way as the path was clear throughout, probably due to being well-trodden by other visitors. One thing, however, was slowing me down big time and turning out to be a huge pain in the neck. The pair of shorts I was wearing was extremely loose and I had to constantly keep pulling it up every few metres. I just had to do something about this or else I would lose my mind. Earlier in the morning, when I left my large backpack at the hostel, I also left my belt in it so I now needed to improvise. After some looking around, I found a suitable looking creeper, chopped off a portion of it, and tied it around my waist. That did the trick! I could finally walk normally. It must have been a weird sight as some people I saw who were headed in the opposite direction gave me strange looks.

Jerry-rigged belt

I came across several lines of leafcutter ants. It was fascinating to watch them work with different ants doing different kinds of work.

Black bushy caterpillars clustering on a tree trunk. It looked way scarier in real life than it does in this picture.

I walked for more than an hour before making it to the sea - mainly because I stopped often to check things out. When I finally made it to the coast, I was at a beach called Arrecifes. Here I went to the first place where some hammocks had been stretched outside and rented one for myself for the night. The place had a bookshelf where one could leave a book and borrow another one. I didn’t have a book to leave, so I just borrowed one called The Other Hand - I know, not exactly playing by the rules but I promised myself I would pass on that book to someone else once I was done reading it. Then I went for a stroll along the beach.

Arrecifes beach

Swimming is prohibited at Arrecifes beach as the waves are very strong and there are rocks everywhere

A crane and a couple of donkeys on the beach

I think the crane didn't appreciate me taking pictures without asking so it ran away (the donkeys didn't mind though)

Presently, I came upon a board that said “No trespassing beyond this point”. But the rocks behind the board looked absolutely beautiful so I trespassed beyond that point anyway. There was a massive boulder there, and I found myself a nice shady spot next to it and started reading my newly acquired book. I must have drifted off to a peaceful sleep, as I woke up with a start on hearing the sound of a helicopter flying at low altitude.

The large boulder in whose shade I fell asleep

The chopper was flying straight towards me and it was low enough that I could clearly see the faces of the military men within. They only stared at me as they flew past and I only stared back. They had huge machine guns, so I dared not wave lest they mistake my book for a rocket launcher. I suddenly remembered the “No trespassing” sign that I’d seen earlier and thought I might get in trouble if I stuck around here. So I hurried off back towards where I had come from, and found myself another amazing spot to sit and read. This place also had the added bonus that I could observe the crabs on the beach.

Waters of the Caribbean sea

It was fun to observe the crabs on the rocks

This little guy returned the favour and observed me for a bit before burrowing under the sand exactly at that spot

Soon after sunset, I went back to the place where I had rented the hammock. I had been foolish to not have brought any insect repellent along. The mosquitoes were already giving me a hard time now, and I knew at night it would only get much worse. There were two Dutch girls who were kind enough to let me use some of their insect repellent cream and that helped a lot. Unfortunately, its effect wore off after a couple of hours. Moreover, I wasn’t accustomed to sleeping in hammocks - up until that point, I had only spent a few minutes in one, let alone an entire night. Suffice to say, I had a terrible, terrible night.