From Tairona Park I took a collectivo to the little town of Palomino. I had never heard of this place before, but a German couple in Minca had strongly recommended it to me. So I stressed my finances a bit further to reach this little town east of the national park.
When you leave the bus in the city center you are immediately struck by Colombian reality. There are no clean, westernized streets, shops or tourist info points. This is a little fisher village is at least superficially completely untouched by any touristic influence. The only hostels here are some kilometers north at the beaches. I took a 1$ motor taxi though the dusty roads of the town. People are sitting on their porches. There are big gardens for vegetables and coconuts. Before you reach the coast there is no sign of gringo-style living.
local bars here usually feature salsa and pool tables, there are rarely any tourist here
economy class dinner, fried potato ball filled with egg and meat
However, once you reach the beach you find some really cool accommodations. Most of them are aligned at the beach and offer hammocks for the night. There are only 4-5 hostels on the beach so there are not many people and it is generally very calm here. More a relaxing retreat site than beach party location.
Palomino is popular for wild water rafting. You rent a big tube, hop on a motor taxi and drive up into the mountains. There you walk about 45 minutes through the mountains to reach a dry riverbed that leads you to the Rio Palomino, a very broad and shallow river that slowly runs through the maintains, rainforests and enters the ocean at the Beaches of Palomino. On the way I sometimes met some Indio's in their typical white clothing. The still live here according to their old ways but are rather shy and mind their own business. Arriving at the river bed, I jumped into the tube and started drifting along the river.
The view was just amazing. I was completely on my own as far as I could see, with the wilderness of the jungle surrounding me. Absolutely magical! The only drawback was that I forgot my sun blocker in the hostel. I had already realized that on the motorbike, but it had been already too late. The ride to the shore takes about 3-4h and there was no shelter on the river. No clouds and full sun from 10am till 14:00, that would even burn my skin terribly. Since I had no intention to suffer from severe sun burns I paddles to one of the shores and covered my whole body in mud. I hoped that would do.
Indeed, it worked pretty well. So I had an amazing trip along the river. Obviously I didn´t bring my camera. But I found some GoPro pictures online to give you some idea. I can strongly recommend it!
When I arrived the beach, I jumped off the tube and walked along the beach back to my hostel. (Still covered in mud, but hey, do I know these people :D).
After washing off my natural sun blocker in the ocean I started my journey back to Santa Marta to get the night bus Bogota. This time I precooked a hostel in the more urban upscale part in the northern city. I heard that this part is very different from the poor and unsafe old town in the south.
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