Day Trip into the Misty Mountains

Most visitors to Santa Marta aren’t coming for the city itself, the real draw is the surrounding areas. Heading inland to the town of Minca is one of those things. Minca is a small village, six hundred meters up in the Sierra Nevada region of Colombia. The bus to get there is in the middle of a market and can be a little tricky to find. Thankfully, people realize very quickly that you are another lost gringo and will point you in the right direction. We purchased two tickets for the shuttle and were soon on our way. The air-con bus was much needed as temperatures rise quickly in Santa Marta.

Up the winding road into the cloudy hills, the air gets cooler and the view is outstanding. It’s only a short distance to Minca from Santa Marta, but takes nearly an hour. The road is filled with switchbacks and steep hills, so the driver needs to go slowly because the shuttle’s little engine is getting tired.

Once we arrive to the town, Mark and I already have our plan to hike up to Pozo Azul (The Blue Pools) to go for a refreshing swim. The hike is pretty easy, a slow incline with amazing views of misty mountains. About halfway up, we see a group of people huddled over with their cameras out. Having grown up so close to National Parks back in Canada, we know this means there’s some type of interesting animal nearby. We rush over to see what it is…

A six foot boa constrictor, just slithering slowly in the jungle. I have read about these amazing creatures but never seen one in real life. It’s intimidating seeing something so large and wild, but we also realize that it’s relatively harmless unless provoked. We got some pretty cool videos of the reptile as it was only a couple feet away from us. Just as it disappeared over the ledge, Mark reached over and let it’s tail slide through his hand. Crazy. Something that you can’t imagine saying in real life to your friends and family back home, “I touched a boa constrictor in the wild!”

The rest of the hike was quite uneventful compared to what had just happened. The pools were beautiful though, the crisp clear water with several cascading waterfalls. We head to the top, since we know that most people won’t put in the extra effort. It’s usually the best way to get a swimming hole to yourself. The few extra minutes of climbing were totally worth it. We got changed and had a little natural pool all to ourselves, it was a beautiful way to cool down, especially after a hike.

We played for a couple hours before getting hungry. Packing up, we began making our way back into the jungle. As we walked with damp skin, the sand flies started biting, and biting. By the end of the hike there were dozens of bleeding dots on our legs, and for the next few days they were the most itchy bites I have ever had.

Spending the next couple hours in the quaint little town, had a great lunch while watching the river flow away and the amazing, colourful birds in the trees. I tried really hard to find a toucan, since they were supposed to live in that part of the world, but unfortunately I didn’t get to see one. As the sun began to set, we decided to head back to Santa Marta, with the amazing memory of beautiful swimming pools and a giant boa constrictor.