This week I got back from a 5 day stint in Santa Marta. I have nothing but good stuff to write about the place, people and food. I stayed a few nights en un apartamento de mi suegra que queda por la playa cerca del aeropuerto. On Saturday we took off for a little adventure into Parque Tairona. We hitched a ride on a chiva that drove us right up to the entrance of the park. After hiking about an hour we arrived to the beach Arrecifes. Arrecifes has a spot where you can camp, flop into una jamaca or stay in a cabaña. The beach is beautiful, but you can't really swim there. There are big warning signs all over telling people NOT to swim. Apparently Arrecifes has taken over 200 lives in the last decade and that the undertow/rip current is "non-negociable." It is kind of deceiving because it doesn't look like anything too crazy, but all the locals emphasized that many victims that drowned were expert swimmers. I took their word for it and kept trekking. Another hour into the hike we arrived to another beach spot. I think it was called San Lucas. This place was more of what I had in mind. It has two really nice beaches and a small restaurant. We decided to shack up in the cabaña. It was located on a small hill overlooking the water. It had a 300 degree view of the ocean. It was pretty rustic with a double bed and no electricity, but just what we were looking for. We spent 2 days and 1 night there and I got my fill of fried fish, patacones, arroz con coco and fresh squeezed juice. On the second day we stumbled on a nude beach about 15 minutes from the cabaña. We arrived early in the morning and I didn't know it was nude until others showed up and stripped. We spent the morning laying out and then headed back for breakfast. After breakfast we sat around chattin it up with some other travelers. I always love the people I meet in these types of places and it always reminds me how important it is to venture out. After getting out of the big city and being in nature, I re-focused on my goal of going to brazil for a couple months to travel around and improve my Portuguese. I am stating in this blog that "IT WILL HAPPEN!"