Oct 12, 2009
Parque Nacional Tayrona
Yesterday a strange foursome of travelers head into Parque Nacional Tayrona, some are wanting to layout on the beach while others are looking to do a little trekking and escape the Colombians on holiday.
Not knowing exactly what we would be getting ourselves into and assuming that all food and water would be expensive and perhaps hard to come by in the park, Caps and I pack 3 liters of water each in addition to snacks in anticipation of a day of isolation and trekking. All the while, Victoria and Klas have pack minimal water and a bag of saltines. We walk into the park on an easy trail for about 50 minutes before we arrived at the first beach site, Arrecifes. It is a beautiful sight to behold. The sea is luscious and the sand pristine, but the currents are strong and swimming is not advisable here. There is also 3 large campsites here and all of them are fill to the brim with people. We move on to the next stop, La Piscina, 20 minutes away and its a beautiful blue cove perfect for swimming but of course, it is filled with people. Victoria and Klas are wanting to stay while Caps and I are wanting to keep on going. Caps and I stay there for about an hour before we decide to head out to Cabo San Juan where we are supposed to stay the night.
Cabo San Juan looked like the site of a major music festival. There are tents pitched in every spare inch on the grass, the line waiting for food is long and exhausting and the hammocks for rent are lined up one next to the other only meters apart. I conjured an image of what night would look like with all the hammocks filled with people and that mental picture filled me with horror and expediency to get out of Cabo.
Caps and I have lunch at Cabo and we both agree that we should keep on going to Pubelito, an archaeological site high in the Sierra Nevadas and away from the beach. Our plan was to hike up to Pubelito and then back down again to Playa Breva and hope that it is not filled with Colombians and Gringos. At the beginning of the trail there is a sign that says it is 2.5 miles to Pubeltio and that you should not head out past 1pm. It is 3:45pm and Caps and I are confident that we would be able to manage 2.5 miles in an hour. After all, we are pretty quick on our feet.
The next 2.5 miles are filled with giant boulders and an elevation gain that is steep and rapid. We are out of breath every few minutes and every bit of water we consume is immediately poured out of our pores. Yet as we are soaking wet standing on top of a giant boulder looking back towards the Caribbean and the jungle spread out in front of us, we smile and think its all worth it.
The sky is darkening and we hustle on through as we still have another 2.5 miles+ before we would reach Playa Breva where we can spend the night. The guide book describes the trail to Playa Breva as junglely and not very well marked. We arrive at a fork in the road, one of them go up while the other goes down. We opt for the trail that goes down since in theory we should be losing elevation as we trek towards sea level. 10 minutes down this trail and we wonder if we are on the right trail or if it is a trail at all that we are on. Yes, it is poorly marked and its definitely junglely but to what degree are we interpreting the directions here? Caps climbs over this fallen tree and yells back at me," there is kinda a trail here." " Which way kind of?" I ask, "kinda of a trail or kinda of not a trail?" "Kinds of not having been used in a long time trail." Ok, time to turn back and try the other trail.
This trail is much better marked comparatively and we hustle our way through all the flat part at a speed that is something faster than a power walk but not quiet a run. It is getting darker by the second and I pull out 2 headlamps and we start to trek in the dark. All the mean while, we joke about having to sleep in the dark, in the woods, that we still have enough water, peanuts and cookies to get us through the night, not to mention 98% DEET to keep the bugs away. This trail is also poorly marked and it is definitely junglely but we are blessed by the fact that we can't see well enough to see the drop off on the other side of the trail or how steep of a decent we were actually doing. Got to love it when adrenaline takes over and all fears are none-existent, only the will and physical endurance to get you through the task at hand.
Every minute in the dark in the jungle feels like an hour, every fraction of a mile we hike feels like ten. We finally come to this barbed wired fence and Caps thinks that we should walk around the fence as we can hear the ocean straight ahead. But the fence goes from end of end and there is no way around it. I think I saw a path we had just missed so we give that a try. Just on the other side of the path is a hut and our destination!!! Yay! "Too bad we didn't have to sleep in the woods, we were so well prepared" Caps says to me upon our arrival.
We have some chicken for dinner and spend a night in a hammock with only one other couple around. The difference between Playa Breva and Cabo is incomparable. We wake up in the morning to an empty beach, blue sky, green hills that rolls down the cliff to meet the beach. This is paradise!
Charlie Grosso
310-592-0895
