If you are a digital nomad or you fantasize about being one, come in, welcome, because I am going to tell you what it is like to live a week working in the Tayrona Natural Park in Colombia. A unique, warm, surprising place, with a summer atmosphere and, of course, good wi-fi.
The arrival at Tayrona is done through the Santa Marta airport , the closest major city that if you feel like visiting, is worth a walk. But let's go to the jungle first . From the airport you can arrive by bus or by private transport, as you prefer because it is safe to do so in both cases, although no one takes away the comfort of the taxi.
The Tayrona Natural Park is one of the best known national parks in Colombia. Shakira sang it, we all got the bug and we wanted to ride a bike everywhere. Spoiler alert: that's not exactly that simple. . The Park has 15,000 hectares and hundreds of animal species inhabit it in total freedom. Its paradisiacal beaches and leafy greenery will be the postcards that you breathe and take home.
If we return to our goal: digital nomadism in the Tayrona it can be practiced as long as one does not get inside the park . The park is pure jungle and there are accommodations in tents or hammocks, but no cover. Now, just outside, on a winding road, full of motorcycles, street vendors and some exorbitantly large trucks, you will find your own little corner of heaven.
Cabins The Traveler.
Dozens of hotels and cabins that, immersed in nature, are fully prepared so that you can work barefoot and end up going to a yoga class in the morning or bachata when you have finished the day.
I decide on El Viajero, an accommodation designed for those who travel alone or want to meet people. A common dining room, shared rooms or dream cabins with showers towards the open sky that are only interrupted by the silhouettes of the palm trees.
El Viajero is a hospitable place where you are greeted with a hug and a smile . So did Carlos, who always gave them to all the guests. It is when you have been there for a few days that you realize why.
My first morning at El Viajero starts at sunrise. If you want to do things in the afternoon, dear nomad, you better start your day with energy . Papaya, watermelon, cereals and scrambled eggs with arepa help to visualize Google Calendar from another perspective. Knowing oneself lucky for doing what one wants where one wants. Is that the real success?
It is important to emphasize that they have a coworking area here with bookcase, tables, plugs and a few adventurers in flip flops, laptop and headphones that serve as companions. In video calls you will lack the coconut!
River Foundation.
THE FIRST INCURSION IN THE RIO FOUNDATION
The taxi driver who brought me to the Traveler told me that he had to know the River Foundation , and there I went directly. Joyce and Ben, Colombian and British respectively, are behind the Foundation , a project started by Ben when he founded the River Hostel , another accommodation located towards the interior of the coast, on one of the rivers in the area that in 2018 received an award for the best hostel in Latin America. From the beginning it was clear to them that they had to contribute to the community of which they were a part and today, with the money they raise, they are able to pay a teacher to teach classes from Monday to Friday at a school in the jungle area.
Currently, about 13 children attend but they have had up to 20. Children who would not be in school without that help.
From the hostel they also organize volunteer activities for all those who stay and want to have a good time inventing sports games, English classes... And now they have also begun to introduce environmental education in the classes. “ It is very important that the children who live here understand the value of the place they live in and that they learn to throw garbage in the indicated places, to recycle…” Joyce tells me, who is currently in charge of the day-to-day activities of the Foundation.
To move around the area the best is the moto-taxi, carry a backpack and cash . The distances are short but walking along the road or inside the mountain is not the safest idea. So my moto-taxi and I marched to the next stop.
I end the day sending the last emails from the Niuwi Hostel , which has the best sunset in the area. The slope to climb will make it even more beautiful when you arrive . Order a coffee and enjoy the ocean of green and the sun setting in the distance in the sea.
I walk through the Tayrona Natural Park.
VISIT TAYRONA
Here is my vital advice: leave a full morning (about 6 hours in total) to visit the natural park. It is worth sacrificing the subsequent hours working. Plus, you'll love having your legs up while you type.
The Tayrona Natural Park has a closed entrance that is paid at the beginning of the walk . They'll put several festival-worthy paper wristbands on you and you're good to go. The heat of eight in the morning is a good sign of what time to start walking. We follow the recommendation of taking a van that shortens you, more or less, an hour of walking and leaves you in the jungle part. do it. Then it's quite a show. You walk between trees so tall that you can't see the sky.
The roar of the ocean can only be sensed, the birds sing and the ants transport small pieces of leaves along millimeter paths. Mushrooms come out of fallen logs, and in the middle of the road, the indigenous population offers you coconut water that they prepare at the same time . Just fallen from the tree.
The coconut water that will give you life.
When you see the sea you are already in another dimension. The beaches, some where you cannot swim due to dangerous currents, imperials rest at the end of a jungle that plays to never end . The first stop is the swimming pools, an area where bathing is allowed. The next, the famous Cape of San Juan . There are the cabins to stay, that's why the visitors accumulate. At this point on the path, you will have been walking for two and a half hours. Rest what you want and come back, but don't delay it's getting dark soon.
After the adventure, the mud, the stones, the climbs and the baths… it is time to return. Coworking will be at its point. From four o'clock it empties.
Tayrona beaches.
BACK
The rest of the days pass between live music in the evening, volleyball games in the afternoon, computer hours and conversations in the dining room.
Dinner time and breakfast first thing in the morning are key : a Mexican comes to tell me about the music groups that I have to meet, another girl from Medellín tells me about her work in the city, an Austrian is back in Latin America and asks me for help to choose the next country, I agree with some organizers of experiential trips that invite me to the next adventure in Asia…
The sun threatens to go down when I close the laptop and put it in the backpack. I don't know if I will come back, but there are many ways to stay.
I don't know if I will come back, but there are many ways to stay...
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