This post I am just focusing on images, partly because it's easier than writing long texts, and partly because after leaving the farm I just travelled for travel's sake and spent time immersed in nature with Benedikt, one of the Germans from the farm. We took a 20 hour bus ride from Medellín to Santa Marta, on the Northern, Carribean coast of Colombia, and hung out for about 10 days.
View from my posada in the hills above Tayrona National Park. Howler monkeys swung in the trees.
One day we did a walk and came across a film set of a pretty famous Colombian artist. The army and police seemed to have a pretty heavy presence there, which was surprising considering it wasn't a huge, or controversial production. I suppose they were afraid of getting robbed.
Probably my best meal of the entire trip was a guy called Diofanis we found on google maps, and walked an hour through the sand to try to find. He had incredible ratings, but didn't seem to be present while the film set was around. A boy was walking around offering snacks and drinks though, so we asked him if he knew Diofanis. It turned out the boy was his son, so we requested two plates of fish, which the boy then went and caught right in front of us. Hidden a little in the undergrowth was a barbecue of sorts where Diofanis cooked us the fish, then made us some coconut rice, fried plantain, onion, tomato, alongisde chopped lime. It, eaten in front of the sea as the sun went down, with a film set wrapping production off to our side, was a surreal and satisfying experience.
Practicing my balance. You can see how much I fell by the sand marks below.
Benedikt & a butterfly
One day we went on a walk of a "hidden waterfall" up in the hills above our Posada. The walk was a bit freaky, considering it went further and further into the hills without any sign of a path or another human for miles and miles, but the result ended up being worth it.
Benedikt on the "path".
The waterfall itself
An image from Tayrona National Park, with its deep, lush jungle. In the days after we were there the park would be closed for the indigenous communities who protect it and care for the forest to take two weeks to conduct some rituals and spend time within the forest without tourists present.
A rock being held up by some sticks for an unknown and slightly worrying reason.
On the waterfall walk we found opportunities to jump in to the pools to cool off.
Benedikt having another fresh fish dinner by Corona bottles lit by phone torches.
We later went to Taganga - a beach town primarily used by locals as a fishing hub, and by tourists as a Scuba Diving hub, which we took the opportunity to do one day. For some reason the Scuba school had started a program where people could just turn up and dive with 45 minutes of training beforehand. It resulted in one person having a bit of a panic attack under the water, which was slightly disconcerting, but a good reminder of generally how safe scuba is. Even if you're panicking, the mechanisms and tech used by divers is actually really robust. The girl couldn't actually swim, it turned out.
I write this perched on the fourth floor of an improbably slim restaurant in the La Candelaria area of Bogotá, Colombia’s capital and largest city. On my plate is Calentado, made up of beans, rice, onion, plenty of sausage, and a big fried egg.
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