Misty Mountain Minca

Santa Marta to Minca

​The tiny village of Minca is a popular side trip from Santa Marta. Its only 40mins by mini bus and gives a taste of the foothills of the Sierra Nevadas de Santa Marta. We pack a couple of small bags and set off to find the bus station, which is in a very busy part of town right near the public markets. Once the bus is full of people, and fully laden it departs - promisingly there is a huge sack of limes on the roof of our vehicle, destined for Mojitos no doubt. The bus trip takes us through the outskirts of Santa Marta, crawling through traffic before we start heading up into the hills. Our AirBnB host Luis meets us at the bus stop and drives us to our accommodation over a pretty rough, narrow and steep road. Accommodation is basic, no hot water in the showers here, actually there is not even a shower head, but we do have towel swans on the beds! It’s a 10 minute walk down to the “CBD” of Minca (ie one street with some lovely bars, restaurants and cafes) a fairly steep footpath to a small but rapidly flowing river which we need to cross via simple, 4-bamboo pole bridge. Don’t look down, don’t look down – phew made it! We become very practiced at this! The small town is a great place to chill out, not much going on at all, which is super nice after the bustle of Santa Marta.

Careful on that bridge!

In the afternoon we take a walk up to the Marinka Waterfalls, it’s about an hour, winding our way gently upwards crossing the odd creek and dodging waterlogged muddy patches. There are some huge stands of bamboo along the way (handy for rebuilding the bridge when it floods…) and quite thick forest as well. The waterfall complex is lovely, well developed and there are two areas to swim in as well as some net balconies to chill out on. We take a dip in the lower level and it is truly “refreshing” – ie really bloody cold. After drying out and warming up we walk up to the upper level of the falls.  These are more rugged and surrounded by huge boulders. Beautiful! No need for a swim here, just pose for a photo or two before heading back down the hill.

Marinka Falls

​The next day it’s another walk in the opposite direction, this time to a place called the Pozo Azul. This one is a little closer and as it is accessible by car so it’s popular and very busy. Not as nicely landscaped or maintained though. We paddle up to our ankles knowing how cold the water is and spend some time sitting on the rocks, people watching before walking back for a late lunch in town and an afternoon rest. We head out for cocktails before dinner (with some fresh limes of course!) and found a great steak restaurant for dinner. We are long overdue for a decent steak and Colombia does meat really well! We enjoy our meal under the watchful eyes of a couple of the local dogs, who will no doubt get the leftovers out the back later on.

Bird watching

​On our final morning we had an early start to do a bird watching tour. They gave us some really good binoculars and I had my camera so I was fully laden. It was about a 4km walk each way up into the hills, and we did see quite a few birds. Keith saw a Toucan in a tree and I saw it later flying. Still haven’t seen one up close though. We ended up at a banana farm that has quite a few bird feeders so got to see a few more species up close, including some hummingbirds. It was a lovely walk up in the hills and we could look down onto the coast and see Santa Marta at sunrise in the distance. All too soon it was time to leave and our host dropped us back at the bus stop for the return trip to the relative chaos of Santa Marta, and of course to ITIKI. We are feeling suitably relaxed and ready for our next side trip, to Cartagena.