Sunday, January 11, 2015

Sabbath in Tayrona National Park, Colombia

We arrived in Tayrona on Thursday to find ourselves booked into Ecohab # 4 which means it is the fourth hut up the mountain and I have to climb 4 flights of stairs every time I want to go to my room. Not very good accommodations for me! Luckily, Ecohab#1 was going to be available on Friday and we could switch! Yeah!

After visiting the beautiful beaches, we prepare for Sabbath which is trickier here since our hut is not connected to the dining room. So we leave a pile of books at the dining room along with our tuna fish packet in a plastic bag.

The staff at the dining room was pre- warned about us by our travel agent. They received a list of what we could and could not eat and what could be prepared how. Our guide gave them new plastic dishes, cutlery and glasses for our use only. The staff was so amazingly accommodating! They made sure to have muesli and yogurt for breakfast. They made raw vegetable salads for lunch where we added tuna, but they were prepared to bake fish double wrapped. We decided not to order such fish, however, since our suitcases are so heavy with food!

After davening, we read, relaxed, had lunch, took naps- a relaxing Sabbath in a gorgeous setting. We thought it would be hard because of the rural setting, but it was special in its natural beauty.

The Tayrona National Natural Park is in the Carribean part of Colombia. The park presents a biodiversity endemic to the area, presenting a variety of climates and geography that ranges from arid sea level to 900 meters above sea level. The park covers approximately 12 sq miles of maritime area in the Carribean Sea and approximately 58 sq miles of land.

Sandy beach in the park:





Some of the dining room staff from Ecohabs:



 

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