After my accident, I needed to quickly make some alternate plans, since going to Palomino and Minca on a motorcycle was not in the cards anymore! Minca was one of the places I was really looking forward to visiting, and luckily I was able to get a bed at Casa Loma, which some girls in Tayrona told me about.
Minca is about 30 minutes up a mountain from Santa Marta, and a world away. It's lush, green, and peaceful. Being at Casa Loma was like being back at summer camp. I was in a cabin with about 6 other people, and there were some people camping in tents there, in addition to some private rooms.
Casa Loma- my cabin is kind of in the back in the middle.
The main activities in Minca are relaxing and enjoying nature. The hostel has "happy hour" with a great view of the sunset every night. The "bartenders" were both young girls volunteering at the hostel to save some money for their travels. They were both really sweet, and I ended up hanging out with them and another woman named Abby during the two days there.
Not bad!
My first full day in Minca, I ended up doing a pretty touch hike (and my leg was totally fine, thank goodness). First we hiked about 1.5 hours to a waterfall called Las Marinkas. The water was too cold for me to want to get in, but I did pose on a rock:
From there, the girls working at the hostel turned back, because they needed to work that evening, but my new friend Abby and I continued on another hot, sweaty 1.5 hours or more to a hostel called Casa Elemento. Lots of other travelers had told me about this place and how awesome it is. They were all booked up when I tried to stay there on late notice, but for about $3 you can hang out there for the day, enjoying their giant hammock, freezing pool, lunch, and drinks. There are two routes you can take to get there, we went on one that was more trail-like vs the one that is more road-like, and there were a few times we felt a bit lost, so I recommend sticking to the road.
It was a great place to relax for a few hours after the hike. We ended up hanging out with some other girls from our hostel who are both midwives, so I got to learn a lot of things about childbirth. Bonus!
Giant hammock at Casa Elemento! The view is actually better out of the hammock, but it's a nice place to relax.
New fraaaands at the top of the mountain!
We were exhausted from hiking up the hill, so, even though I wasn't exactly thrilled about getting back on a motorcycle, we decided to take moto taxis back down (a 40 min ride vs. a 3 hour walk. No regrets!)
The next day, I went with Jana (one of the girls working at the hostel) on a much shorter, easier hike to Los Pozos waterfalls. They didn't actually seem very large or impressive, and there were a lot of people there. We kept hiking on a trail along a stream (that we may or may not have been allowed on), and found a peaceful spot to cool off about 10 minutes away from the crowds.
I didn't really take any great photos, but here is one of the peaceful stream we dipped our feet into.
After the hike, I went into the small town to use restaurant Wi-Fi, and managed to arrange to join a tour up to Alta Guajira, and area I have been wanting to see. I really wanted to spend one more night in Minca, but the tour was departing at 4:30 AM from Santa Marta, so I had to take off that afternoon for yet another layover night in Santa Marta!