In the mountains behind the port city of Santa Marta there is the village of Minca, which attracts bare-footed youngish fun seekers, the yoga crowd, bird-watchers and the like.
The view from our (cramped) hotel room was the best thing about it. Evening version. View from our hotel room, morning version. The whole place (I mean the hotel) lacked shade — the morning sun was already quite unbearable. But it made for good lighting. We had to cross this to get to the village. It actually swayed like mad, invariably starting to do so once you reached midpoint… A distant view of Santa Marta, on the coast and only about 15km distant. But in a different world. I kept being impressed by these stands of giant bamboo. Do note the strategically placed human figure. That Christmas feeling. This owner of a kiosk by the wayside kept pets. So we walked to a coffee farm. What you see here is not a hiking trail. It is the MAIN ROAD linking Minca to the next place in the mountains. Nobody walked it, except us and three other people. EVERYBODY ELSE, including the yoga crowd, used „mototaxis“, where you ride a motorbike clutching an aboriginal from behind. They pass you at the rate of one or two every other minute. Then there are the 4-wheel drives, the lorries (yes!) and even the occasional ordinary taxi. It all looks idyllic but the road went up, up, up at a steep gradient that the photos don‘t show, and the heat was brutal. The whole trek took us some 6 1/2 hours (both ways). Back in Minca. So we walked to this waterfall. The sign says „1800 metres“, which turned out to be basically a lie. As you get close, the gradient of the path increases greatly and every 200 metres there is a sign that it‘s only 200 metres further. I counted several of those. The waterfall charges an entrance fee. But it has facilities.
