Winners

PC210796, originally uploaded by stangroomm.

So, the following morning, I woke up at 7am, precisely an hour and a half after going to bed. The plan was to go to Parque Tayrona for the day and spend some time chillaxing on the beaches there, which you have to hike through forest for 45 minutes to reach. It costs $15 to get in, about 9 pounds roughly. I heard a rumour that you could walk down the beach for 45 minutes and get in for free, always looking for a cheaper alternative I set off with 4 others whilst the rest if the group took the bus, the schmucks!

We walked along the beach for an hour, obviously this is tougher than walking on a road but we pushed on, the landscape was stunning and we stopped to pilfer some coconuts and broke them open to drink from them. We reached a point where the beach was broken by a deep and very fast flowing river feeding into the ocean. As we were carrying bags swimming was out of the question, luckily one point was crossable by foot, although the water was over waist height and the current perilous. We carried on walking, for another 2 hours until we reached some huts on the beach, inhabited by fishermen. We asked how much further to the Park, hoping it was just round the corner. Another 3 hours they said, and impossible to reach because of the cliffs ahead.

Great.

Rather deflated we held an emergency meeting. Everyone but me wanted to turn back. Fine by me, but I was determeined to get to the park, I was now high on exhaustion and running on emergency energy, light headed and determined. Fortunately one of my colleagues, Chris from Canada, the guy in the photo, changed his mind and said he too wanted to reach the park. Chris and I had been partying together the night before so it felt right that we should carry on this epic journey. We left the quitters behind and walked through a banana plantation to reach the main road where we walked into town a further half hour, got on a bus for 10 minutes and eventually reached the outskirts of the park. We then walked another 45 minutes through forest, up and down the tracks, and then a further 45 minutes until we finally met some of our group, who were now heading back to their bus as it was time to leave!

Elated, exhausted and triumphant Chris and I posed for photos, rested for 10 minutes, told the story of our adventure to anyone who listened (which we greatly embelished with stories of dinosaurs and bear attacks), before walking back an hour and a half back to the bus, for a lift home.

That night the party was a little bit more subdued funnily enough.