#casa elemento

[rorythomas]

Ringing In The New Year...In The Jungle

After 4 days of hiking through the Sierra Nevada mountain range, you’d think I’d be done with the jungle – but less than 24 hours after returning to the city I was ready to leave Santa Marta once again, this time for the peace and tranquility of Minca.

A 45 minute commute in a collectivo taxi brought me to the small village, situated roughly 20kms south-east of Santa Marta. However, I wasn’t planning on staying in Minca itself – on the Colombian backpacker trail, there is one place every traveller knows they must stay while on the Caribbean coast...and that is Casa Elemento – a hostel, perched on the edge of a mountain...1,200 metres above sea level.

Not only does it overlook both the village of Minca and the city of Santa Marta, but on a clear day you can even see the ocean, all from the comfort of one of its many oversized hammocks.

There are 3 ways to reach Casa Elemento from Minca – the cheapest option is to hike uphill for 3 hours...which wouldn’t be such a challenge, had I not just hiked 47kms. The most comfortable option is to hire a private jeep...but unless you have the numbers to fill it, that can be costly. The quickest and most efficient option is to jump on the back of a moto-taxi – and while it’s not exactly the safest option, it only set me back 20,000 COP ($9 Australian). Cut to me speeding up a mountain trail on the back of some Colombian guy’s bike. I’m not going to lie – I saw my life flash before my eyes a few times during the 30 minute ride, but it was hella fun. (So much so that I opted for a moto-taxi on my way back down too.)

While at Casa Elemento I stayed in one of the dorms, which happened to have its own private hammock. It’s been a while since I’ve stayed in such a social hostel – the family style dinners and lack of wifi made connecting with other travellers a whole lot easier and I met some really great people while I was there.

On New Years Eve I split a bottle of red wine with one of the girls I met there and, lounging on the giant swinging hammock, wrapped in our blankets, we watched sporadic firework displays illuminate various neighbourhoods in the lead up to midnight. It was definitely the most memorable New Years Eve of my life.

[cadmansa2015]

27-08-2015 Day 60 (Taganga - Minca) Part 2 - Casa Elemento, Minca The public bus took us back to Santa Marta at about 3, with a guy who claimed to be the owner of Casa Elemento (our hostel for the night) suggesting - slightly patronisingly - that we get off the bus as it was circling the city. We needed his advice, marching about 10 blocks to the intersection of Carrerra 13 and Calle 11 (Colombian cities helpfully number their blocks like in America making it very easy to find your way) on the other side of town where we caught a collectivo jeep for 8mil to Minca. Minca is a jungle town about 40min from Santa Marta up bumpy dilapidated roads and dirt tracks which made for a bouncy ride even in the Land Cruiser; they tried to squeeze four of us on the back of it which would have been rougher. We shared the jeep with three others, one of whom was an American guy called Zack who worked for what was essentially a tech holding company - a $6bn holding company that owns match.com, Tinder, plentyoffish and a few other notorious firms. Pretty cool! Best part of the ride was feeling the humidity drop away as drove higher and higher up the hillside. Motorbikes formed the second part of our journey, Jorgé my driver rather respectfully riding at a moderate pace as I clung onto the back with one hand whilst clutching a 6L bottle of water with the other. Not wearing a helmet made the ride scarier than it should have been, but mud pools and a bumpy terrain kept him in check. As we neared the top the sun had begun to set over the hillside, the lights of Santa Marta beginning to grow brighter in the distance. We arrived to Casa Elemento, a isolated hillside hostel 1200m up into the Sierra Nevada mountain range, as the sunset was in full bloom. A palette of purple painted the sky to our right and bright oranges and yellows streaked over the silhouetted forest canopy to our left. People hung about with cameras, chilling on a gigantic hammock, beers and cigarettes in hand. As the last of the colour faded from the sky the fire was lit and everyone flocked to shelter in its warmth. Dinner was served and followed by a quiz night, where my team came second (yet again) - gutted.

[kscourtman-blog]

MINCA

We caught a collectivo from the ghost town that was Santa Marta on Good Friday up to Minca, which was absolutely heaving with people. This was a surprise as it is tiny and everyone has said there is nothing/no one there usually. After collecting our thoughts over a beer in Minca we headed up to Casa Elemento, our hostel for the next few days. It is in a beautiful place, perched right on the side of a hill with an amazing view. They are known for having a huge hammock that looks out over the mountains and jungle. They also have two more down in jungle town which is a camping area with a zip line/climbing wall/fire pit etc. (I didn't manage to take pictures of any of the hammocks... I didn't manage to take many pictures at all throughout our time here) We were greeted by Ed, a guy Rose knows from Southampton who is currently volunteering at Casa Elemento. He informed us that they were having a jungle party that evening for one of the volunteers birthdays. The next day, after a few hours of down time, we went on a walk with Ed to a viewpoint. The walk took a few hours and the scenery was amazing. We could hear the howler monkeys and managed to spot quite a few different types of birds - including toucans. That evening everyone watched a film together on the huge projector, a welcome way to relax from the night before. The next day we joined the 'Birds & Booze' tour organised by one of the volunteers. It was a full day tour that included hiking to (and swimming in) two different waterfalls, lunch cooked by a local woman at an adventure centre and finally a visit to a microbrewery. We were very impressed by the brewery Nevada Cerveceria, which is run by one of the founders of the Bogota Brewing Company (BBC), a hugely popular brand in Colombia. After a few beers we got back in/on top of the jeep to head back up for dinner. The evening was again spent in jungle town which made our ride back down to Minca in the morning far more challenging.

[routetolioncity]

[jonchiang]

Casa Elemento, near Minca, Colombia 2014.

[jonchiang]

Casa Elemento, near Minca, Colombia 2014.