Minca, Colombia

A few days before I left Taganga, I went to a small town in the hills called Minca. I took a collectivo over the hill into Santa Marta, walked around for a while trying to find a moto-taxi without much luck. Finally a guy took me to the central commercial district where the collectivo taxis run. I waited around for awhile until we had enough people to fill the car and up the hill we went. One guy had 3 huge, maybe 50 lb, bags of coffee beans, another looked like some sort of businessman and the third guy was a direct tv installer. And me, the gringo, pretty random passengers. The car barely made it up the hill and had to stop at one point before it overheated. The driver got some water from a house on the side of the road and we were moving again.



There wasn't much to the town....a few cafes, tiendas, a pool hall, a few small hotel and some houses. Fincas, Colombian farms, filled the hills around town. Not too long ago, maybe 3-4 years ago, this area of the country was controlled by the FARC and the narco traffickers. Most of the farms were growing cocoa and it wasn't possible for tourist to come up here. The government paid the farmers to stop growing cocoa and the FARC were run off. I wasn't really sure where I was heading, but hard there were some waterfalls and trails outside of town. I, more or less, followed the river up the hill and asked a few people which way to the waterfalls. The directions, as is normally the case for me down here, were almost useless because of my lack of Spanish. I usually get the first turn and, ideally, the general direction too head, but little else.



Anyway, I was soon on a dirt road heading out of town. Passed through a few fincas, and saw a few farmers and random animals. Most of the farmers were indigenous. After I was nearly trampled by a small stampede, I walked with a native farmer for about 20 minutes. He and his family had a finca just up the road and he was moving the horses. The conversation was limited, but still fun way to pass the time. After about an hour of hiking I found a small waterfall. It was only about 20 feet, but was surrounded by huge boulders and several small pools. It felt like a river in Colorado. I hung out there for a while, climbing on rocks and wading through the river. It wasn't as cool as I had expected, but it was a nice break from the brutal heat of Taganga.




I hiked up the hill for another hour or so and found a trail leading to another waterfall. It was about 20 minutes up the trail to the falls. They were 40-50 feet, with another higher section in the trees. I couldn't really tell how high it really was. They dropped into a small pool and not a soul in sight. I chilled out there for an hour or so. I didn't really swim, the water was kind of murky and I had no idea what was swimming around in there. It was nice being back in the mountains, especially with no one around at all. The aterfalls, the jungles, the farms and the town were really beautiful.



I hiked back into town and had some coffee at one of the cafes. I ran into a girl I met in Taganga, she was the only Gringo I saw the entire day. I got a ride down the mountain from a moto-taxi, really just a 20, or so, year old kid with a motorcycle. There were a few times I thought we were definitely going to crash, but he was good and knew every pot hole and bump in the road. He got me down to the main road, then another chicken bus into Taganga. In the month I was there, the ride through the city and the morning looking for a cab were the only times I saw Santa Marta. It was certainly more of a city then Taganga. It made me excited to head out to Medellin and be in a real city.