TAYRONA NATIONAL PARK

TAYRONA NATIONAL NATURAL PARK

ABOUT

Stretching along the Colombian Caribbean coast and the foothills of Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta mountains lies the second most-visited national park in Colombia - Tayrona. The park contains several ecosystems including dry, spiny and cloud forests, coral reefs and mangrove swamps. It is also a home to more than 100 species of mammals with howler monkey, tigrillo, peccary and anteater among them as well as one of the largest rodents in the world - a capybara-like ñeque. At night, the sea turtles lay their eggs on the beaches, while the caimans hunt in the rivers and coastal lagoons. In the park, there are also ruins of a village once inhabited by the ancient Tairona people who, some time after the arrival of Spanish conquistadors moved to the higher parts of Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta. Their descendants - the Kogi Indians, still visit Tayrona beaches, which for centuries have been their sacred places. Dressed in white robes, they constantly rub their poporos and chew coca leafs. The Kogi, who see themselves as the “elder brothers” have for some time now been trying to warn us - the “younger brothers” about the consequences of our actions leading to the destruction of the planet. In 1991, English documentary filmmaker Alan Ereira, made for the first time in history a movie about them (From the Heart of the World: The Elder Brothers Warning), and in 2011 Kogi’s spiritual leaders - Mama visited London to repeat the warning. Currently they are working on a documentary film themselves, which, they hope, “will change our concept of reality.”

Read more: Getting there

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