A devil´s island of the Pacific, Isla Gorgona served between 1960 and 1984 as a prision mostly for Colombian political criminals. Today, creepers and mosses have reclaimed the ruins, and the former adminstrative quertes have metamorphosed as an eco-hotel.
The isle 22 miles offshore is named for its large number of venomous snakes that slither about the jungle and hotel grounds. For this reason rubber boots are necessity on trails and anywhere after dark. Measuring 5 miles long by 1.5 miles wide, the densely forestd island takes up only 3 percent of the park, the rest is a marine reserve. Humpback whales frequent the warm waters that surround the isle. Most visitors come for encouters whit whales, to view marine turtles nesting, or to dive the superb corals reefs.
Rising in great tidal waves to the southeast of Santa Marta, the rugged Sierra Nevada is the planet´s largest coastal massif. Reaching an altitude of 18,946 feet just 29 miles from the sea, this free-standing vertical wilderness is also one of the highest ranges in the world from base to summig. Sunlight glints on the glavier-capped peaks of Pico Cristobal Colon and Pico Simon Bolivar, wich together from Cerro Horqueta-one of Colombia´s talles mountains.
Is the closest thing to the dream of a lost paradise. An endless path of white pebbles leads you to an important indigenous tribe. And guess what they sell a delicious chocolate bread. ( OLIVER EHMIG VELES National Geographic photographer)
Begining inmediately east of Taganga, Tayrona National Park extends along 20 miles of rugged shore and rises inland to 2,950 feet in elevation stop the foothills of the Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta. Nowhere else in Colombia offer such a winning combination of accessibility, palm-fringed beaches, rain foreast teeming wiht wildlife, and major archaelogical site.
The wester Palangana sector draws locals from Santa Marta for the silvery beach at Playa Neguanje
The main eastern entrance is at El Zaino from where a hilly trail winds though rain forest full of agountis, white-faced monkeys, and scarlet macaws. The trail spills onto Playa Canaveral a beach that merges west into Playa Arrecifes. Surf pounts ashote, making swimming dangerous. To bathe, follow the trail west to Playita Arenita, a palm-fringed cove with calm waters, and beyond, Cabo San Juan de Guia, where a tombolo connnects a rocky headland to the shore. Allow eight hours for a round-trip hike from El Zaíno, where horses can be hired at the trailhead 1 mile from el Zaíno Ranger Station.
