• Choose a category
• All
• Classic-Fiction

By Root 1087 0

430 6244) offers four buses daily to Bogotá (COP$120,000, 18 hours) and Medellín (COP$122,000, 15 hours). It has departures every 30 minutes until 7:30pm to Barranquilla (COP$10,000, two hours); and hourly departures until 6:30pm to Cartagena (COP$23,000, four hours). It also heads north to Riohacha (COP$21,000, 2½ hours) every 30 minutes until 5pm, with a continuing service to Maicao (COP$28,000, four hours), the last Colombian town before the border with Venezuela. Here you can change for buses to Maracaibo (Venezuela), but don’t linger much beyond the bus station – safety has improved dramatically in Maicao, but it remains the distribution center for all sorts of contraband from Venezuela. There are also two direct buses to Tolú (COP$43,000, seven hours) and three to Bucaramanga (COP$83,000, nine hours).

Rapido Ochoa ( 430 1040) offers similar services with expanded operations to Tolú via Sincelejo (COP$40,000) four times daily (only the 1:30pm service is direct) and Riohacha (COP$15,000) hourly.

For Venezuela, you are better off catching a direct bus from Santa Marta to Maracaibo (COP$75,000, seven hours) with Expreso Amerlujo ( 430 4144) departing daily at noon, with a continuing service to Caracas (COP$165,000, 18 hours). Alternatively, if the times don’t work for you, Cootragua ( 430 1650) goes to Paraguachón (COP$25,000, 4½ hours) on the border at 10am daily, where you can change for Maracaibo. All passport formalities are done in Paraguachón. Change money here, expect a bag search and wind your clock forward one hour when crossing from Colombia to Venezuela.

Return to beginning of chapter

MINCA

Perched 600m high up in the Sierra Nevada above Santa Marta sits Minca, a small mountain village famous for organic coffee and, perhaps more importantly, much cooler temperatures. There’s not much in town itself, but there are a couple of scenic places to hide away in the fresh mountain air for a few days, and the whole place is a haven for bird-watching. There are over 300 species in the vicinity.

Sans Souci ( 310 590 9213; sanssouciminca@yahoo.com; camping s/d with tent COP$8000/15,000, without tent COP$10,000/20,000, r per person without bathroom COP$15,000, r per person COP$25,000; ) is a simple, German-run finca (farm) tucked away above town and offers spectacular views across the Sierra to Santa Marta. You can get a small discount by working on the farm.

With its prime location practically on top of the Rio Gaira and its well-appointed rooms full of the Italian-Colombian owners’ art, Sierra’s Sound ( 421 9993; sierrasound.es.tl; Calle Principal; r with/without bathroom COP$40,000/30,000) is a stylish little mountain getaway. The restaurant serves Colombian and Italian meals.

For a good bird-watching guide to the area, try Francisco Trancoso ( 316 815 9378; francisco_troncoso@hotmail.com).

Minca is reached by taxi (COP$40,000) or moto-taxi (COP$6000), the latter departing from La Y (pronounced Jay), an intersection in the suburb of El Yucol 8km west of Santa Marta’s centro on the way to Riohacha.

Return to beginning of chapter

TAGANGA

5 / pop 5000

Taganga is one of those places where the word got out too fast – Gringo Paradise! – and before you could say, ‘Ah carajo!’ there were more foreigners in this tranquil fishing village than Colombians. Still, with its location set in a beautiful, deep, horseshoe-shaped bay 5km northeast of Santa Marta, and its laid-back vibe, Taganga remains one of the Caribbean coast’s most visited destinations.

Love it or hate it, Taganga has officially arrived on the global tourism map and has a reputation as a party zone. It’s become a popular destination for Israeli travelers to unwind after completing their military service. The beach here isn’t particularly nice, but with heaps of fishing boats dotting the bay and the imposing Sierras hovering over from behind, Taganga is one of the coast’s most picturesque spots.

Most travelers use Taganga as their base for treks to Ciudad Perdida and visits to Parque Nacional Natural Tayrona, but closer still are better beaches like