Tyrona National Park

Tyrona National Park

After Cartagena, it was a foot hour drive up the coast, stopping for an hour at the Mud Volcano, a hot mud spring where you can float in the warm mud but it is a bit commercial and you pay for entrance, pay a man to push you about in the mud (he calls it a massage), pay to take photos and pay a woman to make sure you rinse all the mud off afterwards.

Then back on the road to Tayrona, home to an ancient civilisation that was wiped out by the Spanish conquistadors in their search for gold but also an area of outstanding natural beauty and biodiversity. It is a two hour hike from the entrance to the cam site but you get to see more of the park and it helps to keep the area unspoilt by development. A view of the beach and the lookout.

 A view of the beach on the other side of the lookout.

 The main hammock building with open sides for ventilation where those with hammocks sleep. The alternative is to pitch a tent.

 The outside of the hammock building.

 And it was another long hike to get out of the park and best to avoid the heat of the day so I set off before dawn and watched the sunrise from the beach as I made my way back to the main entrance.

 Another picture of the sun rise.

 And then a five hour bus journey back to Cartagena. I had been here before but it was where the boat was leaving from for the six day sail from Cartagena in Colombia to Panama via the San Blas islands. But on this visit, I took tie to see some of the more than fifty murals around the city such as this one overlooking a marina.