Santa Marta, Tartagena and Minca

Let’s make it easy this time and just hop in a tourist shuttle for the 4 hours ride to Santa Marta. This Caribbean town was as sizzling as Cartagena but close to our next stop in the mountains. At the small, cute hostel with very friendly stuff we booked into a dorm.

We wandered around old town and got into a rain shower. Just in time we jumped under a roof where we had to wait for a little while. Sleeping was hard since this city is sticky and hot but after a daytrip to Tartagena - a small fisher village which is very popular for backpackers and a lot of dive schools - we continued into the mountains to Minca.

The hostel Casa Loma we chose is situated on a hill so the walk up there was pretty tough but it is worth every single step. Up there you got rewarded with this amazing view. The sunsets were stunning and the food was excellent. Kim, the German part owner had a nature like Heike Makatsch (a German actor). The ones who doesn’t know Heike Makatsch just let me say, she has this extremely positive and funny nature and her laughs are infectious.

We came for the mountains and we saw the mountains. On a 6 hours track to Los Pinos with our hostel dogs Lola and Boludo we had an amazing time. The dogs followed us like they were ours and it was so much fun. Especially Boludo, he was in love with Michael. Seems to be that Michael turns into a dog person.

For such a small town they had a huge variety of good restaurants and we found a beautiful property to buy. Already thinking things through and falling in love with this fantastic place we did some research but the property had been just sold. Maybe this was a sign and we continued our trip to the big city of Medellin.

But not without this extraordinary food of the Restaurant Bururake in our belly.  So don’t miss it in case you stay in Minca.

Accommodation: Casa Candela y Chocolate, old town Santa Marta

Price: COP 16 000 per person, 8 bed dorm, shared bathroom, WiFi, kitchen

Comment: nice and quiet, family atmosphere

Accommodation: Casa Loma, Minca

Price: COP 65 000 per person, double bed, shared bathroom, WiFi free zone

Comment: beautiful view, nicely arranged on top of the hill. Nice hike up to the Casa and the food is
                   also yummy