Santa Marta is the Colombian Honolulu, and since this is kind of the beach party town of choice, since Cartagena is more of a kind of Santa Barbera meets Savannah meets South Beach situation, still the domain of the rich, Santa Marta is developing a reputation as the accessible beach town, with Tayrona National PArk it’s Kauai or north shore to explore, Tagonga is it’s backpacker ghetto (dinner there was enough for me..), and Minca it’s mountain outpost, and access point to the Ciudad Perdido, the lost city of the Pre-Colombian Tayrona culture that thrived for a while and was rediscovered in the 70’s, and is now a backpacker pilgrimage, complete with set pit stops and a thriving guiding business. I have not been to Minca, but supposedly you can drive to perhaps even 2000 m by road. This is definitely a safe area from FARC, and has the most foreign presence, therefore might be an easy access above tree line. What I can’t attest to is that you could get to a legitimate base camp for accessing the Pico Cristobol Colon without having to cross some tough ridges head on, which would be logistically difficult to say the least. the Ciudad Perdido, beautiful though it might be, is a 40k walk from Minca, but as far as I can tell,still pretty damn far from the peak as well, and I don’t know that there is any developed trail infrastructure beyond it.. it merits finding out, I just haven’t..
It has been rumored to me that there are guides in Minca who might take you above tree line, but I have been unable to prove this as more than speculation or confusion of trips to the Ciudad Perdido with trips to the High Peaks Area.
Verdict: Inconclusive
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