---------------------------
Après Cartagena, on s'est dirigé vers Santa Marta, 4 heures à l'Est sur la côte des caraïbes de la Colombie.
Santa Marta elle même n'est pas une ville avec beaucoup d'attractions. Notre visite de la ville quand on y est allé s'est conclue en 30 minutes. C'est plutôt un bon point central pour visiter la région. C'est pourquoi on s'est trouvé un hébergement avec Airbnb un peu en marge de Santa Marta, à quelques minutes de El Rodadero, l'endroit par excellence pour la plage dans cette ville.
On a passé un total de 7 nuits dans la petite maison d'un couple français-colombien. Il y'a aussi un couple serbo-américain qui louait une autre chambre. On a transformé notre rythme de vie un peu dans le style des habitants de la côte. La chaleur accablante ralentit toutes les activités (la siesta quotidienne est d'ailleurs toujours en vigueur chez les gens locaux). Notre habitation était située dans un secteur très tranquille, à quelques minutes a pied d'une plage excellente mais peu achalandée. On est vraiment loin de la manne touristique qu'on a vu à Cartagena. On a passé quelques heures à la plage chaque jour, mais pas plus, le soleil semble plus fort que partout où j'ai voyagé auparavant (est-ce la proximité à l'Équateur? Aucune idée). On relax, on mange beaucoup, on boit leur jus naturel (excellent!) et comme l'Internet est assez limité partout sur la côte, ça oblige à déconnecter.
La région à aussi beaucoup d'autres attraits. À 30 minutes à l'est de Santa Marta est le village de Taganga. C'est une ancienne ville de pêcheurs transformée en oasis de backpackers avec auberges et bars directement sur la plage. Certains disent que la ville a perdue son charme initial et s'est trop transformée en ville de party pour touriste. On est allé faire un tour et ce n'était pas aussi pire que la description le faisait penser (il faut dire que c'était l'après midi). Cependant, de notre côté, on préfère quand même le confort de notre petite maison de plage proche de la campagne au gros party de Taganga.
On est aussi aller au parc national de Tayrona. À environ 1h de Santa Marta, c'est le 2ème parc national en importance en Colombie. C'était bien mais je crois que pour la première fois dans le voyage on s'est vraiment mal organisé. L'idée était d'y aller pour une journée et retourner à notre maison le soir. On avait lu beaucoup de commentaires sur internet au sujet du parc et bien que plusieurs personnes suggéraient d'y coucher une nuit (généralement dans un hamac sur le bord de la plage), plusieurs semblaient dire que c'était visitable sans y coucher. C'est effectivement visitable mais vraiment pas recommandable. Plusieurs facteurs ont rendu la visite d'une journée assez difficile: long temps de transport, 1h d'attente avant de pouvoir payer nos billets à l'entrée du parc et 90 minutes de marche en forêt dans un sentier de roches et de bouettes. Tout ça pour arriver complètement brûlé à l'attraction principale: des plages. Elles sont belles, mais faire 4h de déplacements pour se baigner dans une plage pendant 1h et ensuite refaire le chemin à sens inverse, c'est pas le meilleur des plans. Mais bon, c'était pas la fin du monde, on s'est dit que c'était une journée de randonnée en forêt au lieu d'une visite de plage.
Une autre activité qu'on a fait: monter à cheval vers le sommet d'une montagne environnante avec un guide. Comme première expérience à cheval c'était vraiment le fun, et bonus, on a pu diriger nos chevaux par nous même! Ça devait durer 3h mais finalement on a arrêté après 2h, on voulait continuer mais notre derrière pouvait difficilement supporter davantage. Je ne sais pas combien ça coûte monter à cheval au Canada mais par ici c'était 17$/heure ce qui me semblait un bon deal.
Toutes ces activités et le stress du voyage nous ont convaincu de prendre des vacances de nos vacances (oui vraiment) et on a décidé de se diriger par la suite vers un hôtel (un vrai) à Palomino, détails à suivre!
 |
| Our photos of Santa Marta |
ENGLISH - Translation by Gelaine!
After Cartagena, we were on our way to Santa Marta - 4 hours east on the Caribbean Coast of Colombia.
Santa Marta itself is not a city filled with many attractions. When we made a trip to the city, our whole visit lasted for only 30 minutes. Rather than a place for tourist attractions, it is more of a central point to visit the surrounding region. For this reason, we found a bed and breakfast through Airbnb a bit outside of Santa Marta, a few minutes away from a town called El Rodadero, renowned for its excellent beaches.
We stayed a total of 7 nights in a little house owned by a French-Colombian couple. At the same time, there was also a Serbian-American couple renting another room in the house. This transformed our rhythm of life over the past few weeks, and we began to live more like Costeños (inhabitants on the coast). The heat of the coast just hits you, and it slows down everything you do in the day to day (in fact, a daily siesta is almost mandatory for the local people). Our little house was located in a very tranquil location, just a few minutes by foot from an excellent and uncrowded beach. We really are very far from the tourist trail that we saw in Cartagena. We spend a few hours at the beach each day, though not for too long, since the sun seems stronger in this part of the world compared to other places I've visited (perhaps because we are closer to the Ecuator? No idea). We relax, eat a lot, drink freshly made natural fruit juice (excellent!) and since our internet access has been pretty limited during our travels on the coast, this forces us to disconnect from technology.
This region also has a lot of other attractions. Just 30 minutes east of Santa Marta is the little town of Taganga. It is an old fishing village that has been transformed into an oasis of backpackers, with hostels and bars directly on the beach. Some say that the town has lost some of its original charm and it instead has become a party town for tourists. We went there for a visit one day and it was not as bad as some people led us to believe (though we did arrive around mid-day). Despite this, we still prefer the comfort of our own little house by the beach close to the countryside over a big party in Taganga.
We also went to the Tayrona National Park. Around 1 hour away from Santa Marta, it is the second most important national park in Colombia. It was a good experience to visit, but I believe that it was the first time in our travels that we really organized things poorly. The idea was to arrive there for a day and return to our house in El Rodadero in the evening. We had read a lot of comments online about the park and many people recommended to sleep there for a night (generally in a hammock directly on the beach), though many also said that it was fine to visit the park without staying overnight. Well, from our experience, it was definitely doable in a day but I would strongly recommend against it. There were many factors that made our visit difficult: long travel time to the park, 1 hour waiting in line before we could even pay to enter the park, and 90 minutes walking in the forest along a path filled with rocks and mud. All of this to arrive to the main attraction: the beaches. They really were beautiful, but spending 4 hours just to swim in a beach for 1 hour and then have to do the 4-hour return trip directly after, it really was not the beast of plans. But oh well, it was not the end of the world. We just look at it as a day of hiking in the forest as opposed to a visit to the beach.
Another activity that we did: a guided horseback riding tour to one of the surrounding mountains! As someone who has little experience with horses, it was a lot of fun, and as a bonus, we were even able to ride our horses all by ourselves! It was initially supposed to last for 3 hours, but we stopped after 2. We had wanted to continue, but our butts hurt so much from the ride that it made it difficult to continue. I don't know how much horseback riding costs in Canada, but here we paid $17 per hour, which sounds like a good deal to me!
All of these activities and the stress of travelling have convinced us to take a small vacation from our vacation (yes, actually) and we have decided to check into a hotel (a real one) in Palomino for our next travels. Details to follow! :)
We stayed a total of 7 nights in a little house owned by a French-Colombian couple. At the same time, there was also a Serbian-American couple renting another room in the house. This transformed our rhythm of life over the past few weeks, and we began to live more like Costeños (inhabitants on the coast). The heat of the coast just hits you, and it slows down everything you do in the day to day (in fact, a daily siesta is almost mandatory for the local people). Our little house was located in a very tranquil location, just a few minutes by foot from an excellent and uncrowded beach. We really are very far from the tourist trail that we saw in Cartagena. We spend a few hours at the beach each day, though not for too long, since the sun seems stronger in this part of the world compared to other places I've visited (perhaps because we are closer to the Ecuator? No idea). We relax, eat a lot, drink freshly made natural fruit juice (excellent!) and since our internet access has been pretty limited during our travels on the coast, this forces us to disconnect from technology.
This region also has a lot of other attractions. Just 30 minutes east of Santa Marta is the little town of Taganga. It is an old fishing village that has been transformed into an oasis of backpackers, with hostels and bars directly on the beach. Some say that the town has lost some of its original charm and it instead has become a party town for tourists. We went there for a visit one day and it was not as bad as some people led us to believe (though we did arrive around mid-day). Despite this, we still prefer the comfort of our own little house by the beach close to the countryside over a big party in Taganga.
We also went to the Tayrona National Park. Around 1 hour away from Santa Marta, it is the second most important national park in Colombia. It was a good experience to visit, but I believe that it was the first time in our travels that we really organized things poorly. The idea was to arrive there for a day and return to our house in El Rodadero in the evening. We had read a lot of comments online about the park and many people recommended to sleep there for a night (generally in a hammock directly on the beach), though many also said that it was fine to visit the park without staying overnight. Well, from our experience, it was definitely doable in a day but I would strongly recommend against it. There were many factors that made our visit difficult: long travel time to the park, 1 hour waiting in line before we could even pay to enter the park, and 90 minutes walking in the forest along a path filled with rocks and mud. All of this to arrive to the main attraction: the beaches. They really were beautiful, but spending 4 hours just to swim in a beach for 1 hour and then have to do the 4-hour return trip directly after, it really was not the beast of plans. But oh well, it was not the end of the world. We just look at it as a day of hiking in the forest as opposed to a visit to the beach.
Another activity that we did: a guided horseback riding tour to one of the surrounding mountains! As someone who has little experience with horses, it was a lot of fun, and as a bonus, we were even able to ride our horses all by ourselves! It was initially supposed to last for 3 hours, but we stopped after 2. We had wanted to continue, but our butts hurt so much from the ride that it made it difficult to continue. I don't know how much horseback riding costs in Canada, but here we paid $17 per hour, which sounds like a good deal to me!
All of these activities and the stress of travelling have convinced us to take a small vacation from our vacation (yes, actually) and we have decided to check into a hotel (a real one) in Palomino for our next travels. Details to follow! :)
|
| Nos photos de la région de Santa Marta |
Aucun commentaire:
Publier un commentaire