So we were supposed to leave the hostel at 7am as the hostel had arranged for a bus to come and pick us up and take us to the park. But being on Colombian time I was thinking around 730. But the bus had a puncture and in the end we didn’t end up leaving until around 830am – the bonus was that we managed to have the inclusive breakfast before we left. The taxi to the park took around an hour and even though we’d reserved our tickets online there was still a bit of a queue to get in. But once we were in the first thing we heard were howler monkeys. I’d heard these before in Costa Rica but had never seen one – but this time I actually saw a couple of them. The walk through the park was amazing- everything was so green and the beaches were gorgeous.

It took us about 2 hours to get to Cabo san Juan beach where I was going to be spending the night. First thing we did was swim in the sea which was lovely and refreshing after the sweaty walk.

We managed to meet up with the guys from the other hostel (Melissa, Michelle, Florian and Heiko) but they all had to leave around 3pm to get out of the park before it shut at 5pm. Luckily I met another girl, Hanna, who was staying the night too. We watched the sunset with a beer – it was a bit cloudy so it wasn’t the best but still pretty beautiful. We had dinner at the only restaurant at the camp site and met up with a couple of other girls from England and Colombia. It’s great getting tips from everyone as you travel round. Sleeping in the hammock was an interesting experience. It was a pretty windy night so was a bit colder than I was expecting so I hardly slept at all despite the hammock being really comfortable. But it meant I was awake to see the sunrise from the viewing point. We decided to do the walk to Pueblito to see the ruins and indigenous village and then out of the park via Calabazo. To be honest I had no idea how difficult this trek was and we had to scramble over rocks and climb a huge amount of steps- but it was definitely worth it. I had to get the local bus back to Santa Marta where the air con was open windows and for most of the journey I was standing as the bus was packed with the conductor literally hanging out of the door! After the most needed shower it was off for some pizza with Elissa and Onur before heading to a rooftop bar for a few rum and cokes and a bit of salsa dancing! Am looking forward to a lovely sleep and a relaxing day on the beach tomorrow