After a brutal night of traveling on a series of buses for 15 hours from Medellín to the Northern Caribbean coast, we arrived at the gates of one of Colombia’s many natural jewels: Parque Nacional Tayrona. This large swath of rainforest stretches for a dozen or so miles along pristine Colombian coastline and includes 10 different bays, each with it’s own beach that you can camp on.

From the park’s gates, you can hop on a truck to drive in a couple miles towards the coast and then you hike the rest of the way into the beaches. We chose Arecifes because we had heard it was a long, beautiful beach from where we could hike into other, smaller beaches/bays, (Check out the map for a view from space).

After applying some DEET, we strapped on our packs and headed off on the trail, which winds through beautiful rainforest for a couple miles. The park’s flora and fauna are well protected so the biodiversity is amazing. The hike took us about 40 minutes and was complete with Howler Monkeys jumping overhead in the huge, tropical trees. This was our first taste of Colombian rainforest, but it wouldn’t be our last. It all seemed so harmless at the time…

When we reached the beach, we set up a tent and had some beers with some other backpackers before taking a dip.

The moment you set foot on the beach you’re greeted by signs that warn you that swimming is very dangerous due to strong undertow currents. The sign is pretty convincing, stating in Spainish “More than 280 people have died swimming here since 1990. Don’t become part of the statistics.” Hmmm…

The currents/waves at Arefices look a lot like a big day at Ocean Beach in San Francisco: powerful waves rolling in towards the beach in six different directions and breaking literally on top of each other. Many of these bays drop hundreds of feet down just a couple yards off shore so the undertow ain’t no joke. We swam at Arecifes but stayed pretty close to the beach and made sure not to test the currents. You definitely have to pay close attention to where you are in relation to the beach and staying in the safe zone requires that you swim like hell towards the beach at all times. You can feel that current trying to suck you out and I could see if you got caught snoozing you could be in some serious trouble.

After a nice challenging swim Matt and I hiked out to these rocks where huge waves come crashing into the boulders that make up the point. There were a couple boulders that were accessible and would have made all-star photos, but a fall in this area would be certain death. If you slipped into the drink here you’d get pounded against the rocks by one ten foot wave after another, so we stayed out of harm’s way. Regardless, the views are absolutely breathtaking and short of a major fuck-up, you can navigate the outcropping safely. Sitting out on the point and getting sprayed by the crashing waves was an amazing feeling that I will not soon forget. This is what we came to Colombia for.

We checked out some neighboring bays, many of which are completely safe to swim in. The sad truth, like everywhere else we’ve been in Colombia, is that we could have stayed in Parque Tayrona for a week at least—swimming, camping, drinking fresh juice smoothies and sharing laughs with other travelers. We simply didn’t have the days.

The next morning we rose early and watched the sunrise over the Caribbean and charged out of there before most of the other people were even out of their tents. It was time to check out Taganga, a not-so-sleepy fishing village just ten minutes north of Santa Marta. I could smell the cliff jumping was close…