Rio Don Diego ¡Divino!

Rio Don Diego ¡Divino!


After a night of getting drenched, super loud techno music and mosquitoes that kept us awake, Yoyi and I eventually fell asleep in wet clothes and covers in our tent on the beach at Casa Grande. When we arose I was disappointed that the waves were no good for surfing. Fortunately, it was beautiful and sunny, and the beach was tranquil, so I took advantage of the hammock while my clothes dried.

Yoyi disappeared down the beach for a while and I’m sure he ran into multiple friends. He knows practically everyone everywhere we go in Colombia. I was getting a bit too much sun and went to find him. He had planned a day for us. We were going with his friends somewhere, (going where, and doing what, I didn’t know) and it was supposedly a surprise for me.

Five of us piled in a 4 x 4 few and headed to Rio Don Diego. This was about a 1/2 hour drive from where we’d been, up on the Caribbean coast, east of Santa Marta and Parque Tayrona. When we arrived, I still didn't know what was going on, but I saw a river and a bunch of inner tubes, so I put 2 and 2 together. It was gorgeous.

Rio Don Diego

Sweating up the trail with inner tubes in hand

Luis + inner tube herding cows

Our probably 12 year-old guide, Luis, escorted us on a trail alongside the river with inner tubes in hand.

We passed some arahuaco indigenous people.

Seriously, could that child's face be any cuter?

And there was some wildlife.

I love how roosters and chickens just wander around everywhere

Doe-eyed cows

The model iguana. I swear he posed for me.

We finally got to the entry point on the river after about 45 minutes of hiking up the trail and sweating like mad. The cool river was divino.

Ahhh!

¡Divino!

We slowly floated down the river for about an hour and a half and it was plain and simply delightful. Quiet, serene, and extremely relaxing are descriptions that come to mind. Here's some of the scenery looking up from the inner tube on the river:

Spanish moss

An amazing array of birds in flight

The canopy of trees overhead

A little house like this one already built next to the river apparently costs about $5000-$7000 USD. The Carribean sea is also less than a mile away. Not too shabby.

Cabaña del rio

It was indeed a nice surprise and very different from anything else I’ve done in Colombia so far. There were moments when I saw the ferns next to the river that reminded me of Oregon, but then I realized that it was about 90 degrees, I was sweating wearing a bikini, and it was November. This is definitely Colombia.