What is the daily temperature in Santa Marta like? Santa Marta is so hot during the daytime that it’s hard to be outside (for some people). Santa Marta is hot, and I mean that in every sense of the word hot. What to pack for a trip to Santa Marta & annual climate However, getting to the park itself is more than just a five-minute ride, due to roads, stops on buses, or if you’re driving, finding parking and following directions to where you want to start your trek in Tayrona. If you are looking at Google Maps, you’ll see that Tayrona National Park covers a lot of land area that hugs the coast, and Santa Marta looks like its cozy neighbor. Tayrona has a few entrances, and if you leave on a bus from Santa Marta, it could be anywhere between 30 and 60 minutes to the park’s entrances (there is one in the east and one in the west side of the nature reserve). The question everyone wants to know the answer to is how far Santa Marta is from visiting Parque Nacional Tayrona, the big draw of the region for hikers and nature lovers (and anyone who wants to break a sweat immediately). Hacienda la VictoriaEnjoy un café at its source at this 124-year-old family-owned coffee plantation, which also offers tours and an on-site bistro.How far is Santa Marta from Tayrona National Park?

Tienda Café Fans of this classic Minca spot savor their cups of local roasts (and a brownie) outside on the porch, but head inside for a trove of handicrafts for sale. Ikaro CaféLocal organic coffee, vegan and vegetarian fare, and a bright interior make this one of the best hangouts in Santa Marta. It all works in harmony with the land, their neighbors, and modern markets, nurturing a future model not only for growing coffee but for ripening Colombian tourism itself. Their mamos (spiritual guides) perform purification ceremonies of prayer and song prior to planting and harvesting the beans. Their traditional conical headgear represents sacred snowcapped mountain peaks. They often carry their mochila (handwoven knapsack) and wear homespun cotton clothing, white to symbolize the purity of nature. The tribes live without electricity in traditional adobe huts with thatched roofs. Minca plantations may flash back a few generations, but indigenous Kogi farms (or those of the more remote Arhuaco), located deeper in the mountains, are a journey back centuries.

Other local farms promote scheduled and drop-in tours and tastings of high-end coffees-a difference from only a few years ago when Colombia had an unofficial policy of “export the best, and drink the rest.”

Tours conclude with a tasting of their blends, often accompanied by homemade apple pie. Visitors will see the same well-oiled machinery in use since the farm’s beginnings: water-powered generators, gravity-driven sorters, and hand-cranked presses. Husband-and-wife owners Micky and Claudia Weber provide a bean-to-brew education on growing, processing, and roasting coffee.

Visits to tribal lands require special permission or an organized trip from an approved local operator such as Wiwa Tour.Ī stop at Hacienda la Victoria above Minca is like traveling to 1892, when the farm was founded. Coffee aficionados will skip the tinto, as well as the ubiquitous Juan Valdez chain stores, and head to Santa Marta’s smaller shops, such as Ikaro Café.Įxploring the area’s coffee culture is best done during harvest season, from about November through February, and can be as simple as hiring a taxi for the approximately 40-minute, 15-mile bumpy ride from the sea to the hills. The gateway to the region is the sunny Caribbean seaside city of Santa Marta, where the bitter street blend of tinto (from the Spanish word for ink) black coffee is sweetened with spoonfuls of sugar.

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