La Costa: Part II

Parque Tayrona
April 7, 2009

I actually slept pretty well in the hammock last night. It was a little chilly with only a light hoodie, capris and a sheet, but not too bad (nothing like the bus ride) and minus the bug bite that caused my eyelid to swell 3 times its normal size, I didn't get eaten alive either. It was hard to sleep in when the sun came up so early, but I dozed on and off for awhile. After breakfast of a fresh jugo and some granola, Pei and I traveled one beach further than we had gone yesterday. This beach, El Cabo de San Juan, also was good for swimming. There were a lot more people on the beach than the one we were at yesterday, and I can already tell the park is going to be packed by the end of the week.

We ran into Sydney, a former trainee from Medellin, who I was supposed to meet up with in the park but never made concrete plans with. The beach was actually surprisingly full of gringos but I'm glad I noticed her (recognizable from facebook creeping, haha.)
She was with two other trainees from Cali, one from Poland and one from Taiwan, so it was fun to meet them too. It actually wasn't very sunny (which I think was a good thing) but we still lounged around on the beach/in the water. While we were lying there, Ruthie, an American on the Colombian MC, found us on the beach. I had talked to her about meet up but again had made no concrete plans. Maybe Colombia is as small a world as MN....

On the walk back to Arrecifes, we stopped at this little panaderia which yesterday was sadly pan-less. Today, however, it had pan de chocolate literally right out of the oven. It was clearly sent from God, it was so good. The girls who worked at the panaderia , 5 of them, all wore these adorable matching dresses. If only they had domicilios to Bucaramanga....



Back at our place, we took another questionable shower and then ate dinner with Carla and Marek. It was fun to compare experiences with other trainees from around Colombia who have had some of the exact same issues we have. The food at the place was pretty good actually (looked a bit dodgy.) Ruthie, another trainee from Bogota and two other AIESECers met us after dinner and we sat on the beach for awhile. It was so fun to finally meet people I've talked to online for so long and see the @ network in action (sorry I'm a nerd.)

We got kicked off the beach by the park rangers who told us that the beach closed at 8 (it was 9) so unfortunately we had to go back to the campsite. They also informed us that although the sale of alcoholic beverages (all restaurants/tiendas/randos on the beach sell it) was not prohibited, the consumption of them in the park was. Go figure.