It's almost time to leave beautiful Colombia after three weeks of chill and relaxation. The Caribbean coast of Colombia has offered a lot of beauty and opportunities to have a vacation from my travels, because we all need that sometimes.

After Cartagena, I went to Santa Marta which is another city along the coast, but way less beautiful. Santa Marta is more a base from where you can go to a lot of nice places around. I met up with Simona again and we went for a short, but sweaty, hike in Tyrona national park. Tyrona was beautiful but a bit overrated, there are nicer beaches around and there are nicer hikes around as well. I would say it was worth a day trip though and maybe even one night at any of the campsites.

Neither of us wanted to stay in Santa Marta, because it is really ugly and unwelcoming, so I decided to go with Simona to Palomino. Good decision! We stayed directly on the beach and just hung around for three days. We basically didn't even leave the hostel area at all because we had everything we needed there. The food in the hostel restaurant was good, that is of course the most important thing with a beach hostel, even though they didn't usually have a lot of options. I think I spent more money on food, when I was traveling with Simona, than I've ever done. We are worth it though!

The last "must do" on our list, that a friend of Simona gave her, was Minca. So we went, without knowing what to expect. We should have expected a 30 minute motorbike ride up a muddy mountain road, thousands of bugs and a wonderful view. For us, it wasn't really worth it. We stayed two nights and then went strait back to Santa Marta for a last day together in the pool.

It's so sad to say goodbye to someone you've been traveling with for so long. But we did it and I'm looking forward to hear about the rest of her adventures!