Our group split in Cartagena with one person heading home and three of us going on to Santa Marta, which is like a cut price version of Cartagena but with an excellent museum. I spent a night in a hot dorm while the others opted for private and in the morning they were off to the Lost City trek, which I don't have time to do.
Instead I went to Finca Entre Rios a guesthouse owned by the same people as the Santa Marta hotel and located in an area called Paso de Mango.
To get there I took a bus to a place called Bonda, which was hot and dusty with ugly breeze bloc buildings. From there it was a motorbike taxi up a dirt road. As we climbed it got greener and cooler but also more humid till the place itself which was deep in forest.
The guesthouse turned out to be two buildings. I was put in the one by the river, which was a self contained little house. I had an ensuite bedroom, sitting room and a terrace overlooking the swimming hole in the river. There was also a kitchen but that was locked to me and used by the staff, who provided lunch, dinner and breakfast.
I swam a bit in the river but it was mostly full of locals. Including a young boy who rode his bike deep into the water doing a wheelie until the seat was submerged then turning and pedalling back out and a group of old ladies who walked in fully clothed till the water was up to their shoulders and stood chatting.
I walked up the hill to see a pre Colombian stone staircase and terrace and in the morning it was time to leave.
Back in Santa Marta now at a hostel that has a pool and aircon in the dorms.
From here it is basically moving all the way. One night Santa Marta, one Cartagena, one Bogota, one Miami and one on a plane.
Instead I went to Finca Entre Rios a guesthouse owned by the same people as the Santa Marta hotel and located in an area called Paso de Mango.
To get there I took a bus to a place called Bonda, which was hot and dusty with ugly breeze bloc buildings. From there it was a motorbike taxi up a dirt road. As we climbed it got greener and cooler but also more humid till the place itself which was deep in forest.
The guesthouse turned out to be two buildings. I was put in the one by the river, which was a self contained little house. I had an ensuite bedroom, sitting room and a terrace overlooking the swimming hole in the river. There was also a kitchen but that was locked to me and used by the staff, who provided lunch, dinner and breakfast.
I swam a bit in the river but it was mostly full of locals. Including a young boy who rode his bike deep into the water doing a wheelie until the seat was submerged then turning and pedalling back out and a group of old ladies who walked in fully clothed till the water was up to their shoulders and stood chatting.
I walked up the hill to see a pre Colombian stone staircase and terrace and in the morning it was time to leave.
Back in Santa Marta now at a hostel that has a pool and aircon in the dorms.
From here it is basically moving all the way. One night Santa Marta, one Cartagena, one Bogota, one Miami and one on a plane.
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