Day 5
We attended church with Jackiee's family.
Mateo, Cesar, Jackiee, me, Cesar Alejandro (aka Cesar Jr.), Ana Paulina
After church I went to Jackiee's home for lunch. Joseph stayed at the hotel to continue recovering from some minor stomach issues.
Jackiee made a delicious meal of patacones, rice, tuna salad, an avocado/onion/tomato mixture, and lulo juice (another fruit we don't have in the US).
I read a short story to Maria Isabel (Jackiee's niece).
Oliva and Armando (Jackiee's parents). Oh, how I loved catching up with my old friends.
Joseph got a picture of the sunset while I was out visiting my friends.
Day 6 - Joseph, Jackiee and I went to Parque Tayrona, a beautiful national park near Santa Marta. When I was on my mission 20+ years ago, Parque Tayrona was not yet a national park and it was not well known. Now it is a popular tourist destination. On a Monday morning (a school and work day), we had to wait in line (mostly foreigners) over an hour just to get inside the park. Once inside, we were shuttled on a small bus to the area where we started hiking.
This is the kind of vegetation we walked through to get to our final beach destination. There were lots of ups and downs as we hiked.
On the way to the beach. We could have stopped at one of the earlier beaches, but we wanted to get to one beach in particular where I took pictures 23 years ago.
We saw quite a few monkeys on our way in.
February 22nd, 2022 - We arrived at the spot where I took a picture almost exactly 23 years ago.
March 1st, 1999 - no tourists, no food shacks, no camping areas.
Two more pictures from 23 years ago. We couldn't find this rock to re-create this particular photo, but as you can see, Parque Tayrona was isolated from most of the world back then.
I have thoroughly enjoyed having my brother with me on this trip. Joseph and I have laughed and talked the entire time.
Goofing off - I think we were doing the YMCA song.
Jackiee - our most gracious friend, host, and tour guide.
Sunset on our way out of the national park.
We were exhausted, sore (we hiked for over five hours), sweaty, and sticky (we lathered on the sunblock!), but wow, what an awesome day.
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