Diarios de Camioneta: Cartagena, Santa Marta and Parque Nacional Tayrona

We know it has been a while since our last update. But here it is,

We took a long bus from Medellin to Cartagena, arriving with no problems. We were pleased to see that Cartagena is able to live up to its name by being so beautiful. One of South America´s oldest cities (colonial cities), it has recently been the center of massive development and has been a focal point on Colombia´s tourism department. The Old Town is filled with narrow cobble stone street lined with buildings painted brightly and with large flower covered balconies. It is surrounded by a large wall that once protected the town from invaders of the human and weather type alike. As of about 6 months ago (so we hear) it began receiving a new type of invader... the cruise ship tourist! (We only kid if there are cruise shippers out there). Although slightly annoying to wade through the crowds of gringos in their Panama Hats and matching shirts with name tags, it seems to be a testament to the efforts toward Colombia throwing off its bad rep and wanting to show off its beauty.

We took a day trip to a small village about 4 hours southwest of Cartagena and were able to meet with a man who is conducting a project using sustainable agriculture practices to assist a village which has suffered at the hands of the civil war. Although the work is not quite far enough along to be able to host volunteers, it seems to be a great idea that looks like it will grow into a fantastic project for the community. It was nice for us to meet with Oscar and hear him discuss the project from its beginning stages and what its implementation will look like down the road.

We then headed to Santa Marta, a smaller version of Cartagena but with much of the same beauty. Santa Marta was our jumping point into the Tayrona National Park. A large, beautiful national park along the north coast where the jungle meets the shoreline. We were able to grab a little spot to sling our hammocks (we have now traded in the tent for a couple of hammocks) and spent a few days of relaxation in the national park, hiking to various beaches, swimming inh the Caribbean and watching for monkeys and tucans.

We have some extra time today, so we will try to load some photos from Bogota into the present:

Tracy enjoys what has been our favorite treat in Colombia, even up against the tough to beat fruits- Chocolate Santafereño. It is a cup of hot chocolate (real hot chocolate!) with a big hunk of cheese. Bogateños (people from Bogotá put the cheese in the chocolate and let it get nice a stringy and eat it with a spoon. Breakfast of champions. It however is not the most unhealthy breakfast we have had thanks to the deep fried fried egg Adam ordered for breakfast (not knowing exactly what it was). We missed the state fair, so this made up for it.

View of Bogota. A huge expansive city. Unfortunately it rained or was very overcast the whole time we were there, making the pictures, like this one from the top of a skyscraper, not do the slightest bit of justice to its enormity.

This is our host from our farm that didn´t quite exist. Nice guy, big dreamer.

This sky tram is linked in with the Metro system in Medellín bringing people from the hills into the city for both business and pleasure. For the 75 cents a Metro ticket cots we could ride it around checking out the city from above.

Cartagena, city of one million on the Caribbean coast. About one square kilometer exists within the big protective wall.

Old Town sits in the distance over the Caribbean. We were very proud of ourselves when we realized we had seen the Atlantic Ocean in Uruguay, the Pacific in Chile and Peru and now the Caribbean in Colombia with no use of airplanes. We still have plenty of Caribbean and Pacific coast to cover.