Minca

A bit farther east along the Colombian coast, and then a half-hour inland from Santa Marta--which means steeply uphill into the Sierra Nevada mountains--there's a lovely little town called Minca. It's become a backpacker haven thanks to lots of local waterfalls, coffee and cocoa plantations, and MOST IMPORTANTLY, temperatures a good ten degrees cooler than down on the coast. So we stayed for a couple nights. This involved lots of food, daily mocha frappuchinos that left me crazy wired on sugar and caffeine...

...enjoying the quiet loveliness of the town...

...and a hike to a waterfall that was really lovely to swim in and wash off the sweat from the walking.

Beautiful!