So I think the only reason one would go to Taganga is to go
to Tayrona National Park. The town is
small and cute-ish but it doesn’t really have that much to offer in my
opinion. The beaches are only ok, it’s a
little dirty, and due to the high number of tourists visiting the area, the
price of everything is a little higher than it needs to be. But the people are friendly and helpful and
there are worse places one could find themselves (like North Korea, Yemen, New
Jersey).
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| Taganga |
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| Mmmm, so clean. |
Marc and I went to Taganga with Kate and her mates with the
intention of doing the lost city trek (6 days of hiking in the jungle and in
the heat) but once we did the math we realised we were running out of time
(strange to have that feeling on a nine month holiday but trust me, it
happens). So we decided instead to spend
a few days in Taganga and then head to Tayrona National Park.
Tayrona National Park covers around 12,000 hectares of land
and is fairly well untouched except for the camping sites, restaurants and
amenities set up for hordes of tourists trying to “rough it”. There are a few luxury cabins but mostly it
is camping or hammocks.
The walk into the park takes around an hour. The paths into the park were poorly maintained to the point where we didn’t really have a path to walk on. The park is owned by airline company Aviatur, who spend a lot of their time building luxury accommodation, ignoring park entrance quotas, profiting off beautiful natural environs, and ignoring any maintenance of trails or amenities.
The main reason people flock to Tayrona is for the beaches. They are beautiful and the swimming beaches are nestled into calm little bays surrounded by palm trees. We stayed at Cabo san Juan, probably the most popular with the tourists. Our accommodation was in a large hut built on a rocky outcrop where you can sleep in hammocks whilst listening to the waves crash underneath you. It really was quite lovely but I am glad we only stayed for one night.
