Santa Marta is about 4 hours up the coast from Cartagena. There's not a whole lot going on here so it is generally used by backpackers as a jumping off point for many places, including Tayrona. I will say that the town is clean and has a surprising number of good restaurants!
The Catedral claims to be Colombia's oldest church.
The beach is lovely but no one swims here due to the shipping industry.
Simon Bolivar died just outside of town at Quinta de San Pedro Alejandro. We joined a Spanish language tour of the property (Colombians have an accent that is very easy to follow; this would be a great country to spend time in if you're thinking of studying Spanish). We saw the bed where he died and visited his enormous tomb.
From Santa Marta it's an easy one hour bus ride to Tayrona. The 35,000 peso entry fee is steep (almost $20 US) but it looks like that money is being put to good use keeping the park clean and functioning.
As I walked the 45 minutes hike to Arrecifes, there were frequent signs telling me how much progress I had made...
...and pointing out the variety of flora and fauna that is unique to the park.
If 45 minutes is just too much for you, you can always take a horse! But Mini Bear is cheap and I was happy to walk, so we stopped to pet a horse and then carried on.
The beaches are one of the main draws. The first beach doesn't permit swimming due to the strong tide...
...but you can easily hike the trails to numerous swimming spots, each one more picturesque than the last.
We did splurge on a hammock with a mosquito net and it was worth every peso. At night, the sky was overflowing with stars. Unfortunately, the breeze was that was so welcomed and cooling during the day turned downright cold in the middle of the night. So I amused myself by writing haikus about the park in my sudoku book in the pitch black.
Before I left Santa Marta, I met a traveler who told me she had woken up in her hammock to find a monkey sitting on her head! As I was getting ready to leave, I was feeling a little disappointed to not have seen any monkeys when a monkey finally appeared. He was highly agitated, probably because some police officers were harassing it. The monkey kept hissing and baring its teeth. I tried to give the monkey a wide berth but he decided to follow me. I'm not scared of many things and my rabies shot is up to date (thanks again, Peace Corps!), but I still climbed on top of the nearest picnic table as fast as I could! The police thought it was hilarious when I kept saying, "No me gusta este mono!" All the excitement must have tired the little guy out for he was soon sleeping on top of the cabinets and let himself be petted by some brave individuals. For the record, I quite like the monkey once he was sleepy!
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