This morning we'd set our alarm to get up at 5.30am so we'd get to Tayrona for around 7.30am. People at the hostel told us that this Friday, the day we happened to be going, was a national holiday in Colombia so it was going to be really busy. We had been warned off going, but as we'd booked out of the Dreamer and it was likely to be fully booked as it's so popular, we had no other choice but to hike to Tayrona today. We checked out and paid our tab for the few days we'd been staying and went off to catch the bus. Things don't always run smoothly, and as we got up so early to get the bus, we thought we'd need to draw out some more money as there wouldn't be a cash point at Tayrona. We had come across many ATMs in the big shopping mall and just took it for granted that the doors would be open to draw some money out. But when we got there it was all locked up and couldn't draw any out. You'd think there would be a hole in the wall outside the mall, but no luck. So we had to go back to the hostel to ask them if there was another cash point around anywhere as we couldn't find any. Luckily, they were really helpful, and pointed us in the direction of a cash point that we'd walked straight past. In our defense, it was a like going into a shop, as you have to go inside a private booth right next to some nearby restaurants, so it wasn't something that we were looking for to be honest. 

So once we had our money, we set off to Tayrona and caught a local bus from the bus stop next to the closed shopping mall . The park is around an hour and a half from the Dreamer Hostel, Santa Marta by bus, and there were plenty of buses coming along to pick you up. We didn't get a bus until around 8am after the whole mis-hap with getting cash, so we wouldn't get there until 9.30am. Basically the main reason you'd need to get there early is if you want to camp at the park overnight. We thought we'd do this so it would give us more time to spend there. You can sleep in a tent, and can either hire the tents from your hostel, which means you have to carry this with you while hiking to get there, or hire a tent at Tayrona. We'd heard its too hot to sleep in a tent so decided not to do that. The other option you can do is to hire a hammock and sleep in the campsite within the park also. We decided to do this, as thought it would be fun to sleep in a hammock as neither of us had ever slept in one before. 
 
The driver shouted where to get off for Tayrona, so we got off and walked to the main entrance. For some reason, local Colombian people only need to pay around 10-12,000 pesos for the park entrance fees, whereas, us foreigners have to pay 37,000 pesos per person . We hadn't really been told that we'd need to take our passports to get into Tayrona, so didn't bring them. When we tried to pay to get in, they asked us for our passports, or at least passport numbers, which neither of us had them on us, or knew the passport numbers. Doh. Silly us, I'd never even considered that you'd need this to do a trek in a national park. So if you do go there, take your passports, or at least a photocopy of it with you. We ended up luckily blagging our way in because we both had our bank cards on us for ID. It was a bit of an extra hassle we didn't need, as my Spanish is only basic and they couldn't speak much English, but all worked out ok so far. 
 
When you've paid the entrance fees and checked in, you are asked if you'd like to take a collectivo to get to the main entrance of Tayrona. We said yes, and got in a van. Once we were on, they said that will be dos mil pesos. I was surprised you had to pay more money once you've paid to get in, but once you leave to go, it's actually a long way, so the money is definitely worth paying . If you decide to walk, bear in mind, that this will add an extra hour on your journey, on top of the 2.5 hour trek to get to the best beaches. If only I knew this before we departed, it would have come in handy for us.... Upon our return journey. More on that later. 
 
We all hopped off the bus at the main entrance and got our bearings. Basically Tayrona National Park is a huge area surrounded by lots of flora and fauna, so it's like a trek through the jungle first, then you are basically trekking to get to some of Colombia's best beaches on the Caribbean coast. There's lots of wildlife species to see on route, including monkeys, birds, lizards, snakes, exotic butterfly's, crabs, plenty of wild dogs and lots of horses if you decide to take a horse ride to the beach instead of hiking. There were probably so many more species of animals living there, but you probably won't get to see all of them. There are 2 main big campsites that you need to walk to if to want to hire a hammock. We'd heard that the nicest beach was the one furthest away at a 2 .5 hour trek, this was called Cabo San Juan. There was a campsite at the beach, so this is where we headed for. One of the first beaches you come to is Arricefe, but the currents are so strong here, you're not allowed to swim in the sea. Many people have died as they've drowned swimming in waters. We didn't fancy stopping at that one, so decided to make the effort to visit the Cabo San Juan beach and campsite. 
 
It was baking hot and the heat was intense, by the time we were walking to get to the campsite, it was nearly 10am so the suns rays were intensifying and beaming down through the forest. The terrain was like going through the jungle, so luckily you had the trees for canopy. If you were trekking in direct sunlight to get there, that would be a killer. Contrary to what we'd been told, that you could do it in flip flops, I would certainly not recommend that as you are climbing rocks and scrambling up some of them to get to the top. You are actually working your way right to the top of the mountains through the forest, and some of the way there is a designated path, but for some there is not . As I'd already lost my walking boots, I decided to wear my walking sandals to trek, and brought my flip flops for the beach when we got there. I'm glad I did, as I couldn't have trekked in flip flops! 
 
I loved walking to get to the beach as it really did feel like you were in a jungle, but on the other hand, you're just trekking to get to a lovely beach. It's not accessible, so this is the only way to get to these beaches. Some of the animals we got to see while trekking were those gigantic blue butterfly's, so awe inspiring to see them floating above your heads and one even landed on a tree right by us. I saw this as an ideal photo opportunity, but the butterfly did not. I really wanted to capture it in all it's glory and get a picture with its vivid blue wingspan, but when it perched on the tree, it closed its wings, so I was not able to get a picture to show its colourings. When the wings are closed, they are just a plain brown colour. Still, I loved seeing these butterfly's, there were also many other species of butterfly, but none as spectacular as this one . We also heard some monkeys, but couldn't see any, they must have been hiding high up in the tree tops. There were also lots of small lizards about, some blended in so well with the leafs on the floor, that you could just hear them rustling, but if you looked harder, you could see them, some were brown striped and some were the green lizards. They looked cute. We also saw loads of giant ants, which had even made their own designated highway, carrying loads of leafs to their nest.
 
Amongst the amazing wildlife that you saw, there were also some amazing views when you got to the top of each section. Some were downhill, and some uphill. I much preferred the downhill ones, as when trekking uphill in the heat, I was just a complete sweaty mess. No sooner that I'd wipe it away from my face, it was pouring down my face again. That was the hardest part about the trek, but it was worth it tho. We got to the first beach which looked nice, there was some rugged coastline with some huge rock formations. It was pretty empty, but this was the beach you're not allows to swim in, so that was probably why . We stopped to admire the views, take some photos and then plod on to reach the other campsite to get a hammock. We just hoped when we got there, we'd still be able to hire a hammock, or else, we'd have to trek another 2.5 hours back later that evening. Which we weren't really up for. We trekked for another hour or so and finally reached our destination, Cabo San Juan. 
 
Cabo San Juan is an utterly stunning beach, just like the picture perfect postcards you see. There is a big gazebo hut, raised on a platform above the beach, which has many hammocks you could sleep in, and crystal clear, blue water, white sands and loads of big rocks. Once we got there, we thought we'd ask if we can rent our hammocks for the night so went to the desk to inquire about it. Trying to order it in Spanish. Again, they asked for our passports so had to persuade them to let us stay here without them. He told us that we couldn't book a hammock until 2pm, and it was only 12pm, so we'd have to wait a few hours to get one. So much for getting there early, we could have got there a bit later than we set out . Extra time on the beach tho. 
 
So to kill a few hours, we sat on the beach, sunbathed and John went in the sea. We had our daypacks with us, including the cameras and our clothes, so I was a bit dubious about going in the sea and leaving our stuff on the beach. But John being as carefree as he is, said just come swim in the sea and leave the stuff there, it'll be ok. So after seeing him cool down loads there, I decided to go in. It was absolutely boiling hot in the beach, and I could feel myself burning just from sitting there for a few minutes. A dip in was just what I needed to cool down. This beach is the one that you are allowed to swim in,there were a few people at this beach, and in the sea too. It's quite a small cove like beach, and considering it's small, the beach wasn't packed like we thought it would be. I went in the sea and actually enjoyed swimming in there, as going in the sea is not something I'd usually do back at home. The currents are quite strong so you can't stray far from the beach, so we stayed nearby . The size of the waves crashing upon you here would make for a good surf, but we're not surfers so just swam in the sea. There were some people jumping off the big rocks which looked pretty dangerous. The beach was so pretty it was just nice to spend a few hours taking a dip in the sea and sunbathing.
 
It was now nearly 2pm so we decided to head back to order our hammock. We went back to the campsite just behind the beach and luck was on our side, as we managed to get a hammock. Once we paid, they showed us to our hammocks. Basically where you stay, you are packed in like sardines and there is about 60 people all sleeping side-by-side in these hammocks. We left some of our clothes there to show they were ours. As it was all outside and everyone was packed in tight, I didn't fancy leaving our bags here, so had to take those back to the beach with us. Now we knew we were staying for the night, we were able to go back to the beach to relax. We decided to take a walk about and wander round the small coves and found there was another beach round the corner . We sat down left our stuff and went in the sea here for a good couple of hours. I was having so much fun in the sea riding the waves, acting like a big kid who'd been to the seaside for the first time. It was so much cooler in the sea, so didn't want to be cooked on the beach, so just stayed there until we got cold. 
 
It was starting to get dark, so we decided we'd stay round by the beach to watch the sun set. As usual, I got my camera out and started to take lots of pictures. We stayed there until the sun set, and headed to the restaurant at the campsite to get some dinner. The prices were a bit more than in the main part of Santa Marta, but that was to be expected. There were so many stray cats and dogs who kept coming up to the table. Once we got the food, I suddenly had a new best friend, a cute little dog that looked so skinny. When I got my food, I felt sorry for it, so ended up giving it some of my chicken. Let's just say he wasn't very loyal, and when I'd finished, he went to another table to get fed again . 
 
Even tho it was dark, it was still early, we wondered what to do, so decided to go back to the beach to star gaze. It actually was thunder and lightening on the beach, but wasn't raining, so we sat there for a few hours and watched the electrical storm. They have them over here quite frequently, so was really good to see the fork lightening. It felt a lot later than it actually was, so at around 8pm we thought what can we do, it was too early to go to bed in the hammock, packed in like sardines. We decided to go back to the restaurant where we had a drink, there wasn't actually a proper bar, so just sat in there with a beer. We brought a pack of card with us, so started to play as we had nothing better to do. John showed me how to play black jack adding in all these little rules as we went along. We'd played a few games and were even, but to get a winner, we played another game, and I won so was the champion. After a couple of hours playing this, we retired to the hammocks. It was only about half 10, but it had been a hard days trek and we were both tired, so tried to get some sleep . I've never slept in a hammock before, so thought it would be ok to sleep in, but I found it really difficult to get comfy and to get to sleep. I put my daypack in between my legs as didn't want to leave it lying round on the floor, and put my towel over me to keep me warm. There were so many people coming and going all the time, so it was hard to get any sleep. We kept waking up with all the noise, and there were coconut palms just above our heads, we heard something heavy crash to the ground just below our heads. It was basically a coconut that fell metres from us, so we were lucky that this didn't fall on anyone's heads. 
 
After a restless nights sleep, we woke up as it was starting to get light, we knew we wouldn't get back to sleep, so John said shall we just leave early before it starts getting too hot to trek back. I said yea lets do it, so we gathered our stuff, got changed and left. When I checked the time it was only 6am, but it was better to get back early as we had to get a bus back to the Dreamer Hostel to collect our rucksacks and then get another bus to Palomino . When we left to trek back through the jungle, it seemed that it was alive with animals. So this is the best time of day to see them. We saw loads of crabs, but they saw us coming first, as they hide back in their burrows before you can get a good glimpse of them. I saw a monkey in the tree, but it was too quick to properly see what kind of monkey it was. There were even some capybaras there, which are native to South America, so it was lovely to see some of these in the wild. They scurry off tho, so I couldn't get any pictures of them unfortunately. I saw some more of the blue butterfly's, but again couldn't get a picture either. So plenty of nature on the trek home to keep us going. One compatriot we won't forget is a stray dog who kept us company pretty much most of the way, right up until we'd got to the first campsite. The only reason the dog left us here was that we stopped to get some breakfast in the restaurant and the waiter shooed the dog away. I wonder if he had not done this, would the dog still have gone all the way to the main entrance with us, I'd say it probably would have . 
 
When we finally made it back to the main entrance, they asked us if we wanted a collectivo, and at first we said yes, but there wasn't one ready to take us. So John thought it would be a good idea to walk instead. I reluctantly agreed and we set off walking back, thinking to myself that it was a long journey in the collectivo on the way there, so was going to be an even longer walk back. On top of being shattered from not having much sleep and our 2.5 hours already walked back this morning. By this time, the sun was beaming down on us and I was already so tired, and most of the walk back was an uphill journey so not much fun. We didn't really see much more wildlife here, apart from a squashed tarantula in the road. It must have been run over by a car going to the main entrance. Shame, although if I'd have saw it alive, I don't know how I would have reacted. 
 
After an hour trekking to get back to the main road to the bus stop of what felt like the road went on forever, my bit of advise would be to take the collectivo there and back so you're not tired when you get to the start of the trek, or falling over tired on the return. It was a beautiful nature reserve with plenty of wildlife to keep you occupied, and if Santa Marta is on your list of places to go in South America, I'd definitely recommend you to come here. We managed to get a bus back to Santa Marta after a well deserved jugo natural. All in all a wonderful experience was had.