In an unusual turn for a Sara Somewhere blog, I’m not warning you to settle in for a long one. In fact it’s the opposite. As much as I liked Minca, I don’t expect this to be a long blog because I didn’t actually get up to much here. If you’ve read this blog about how and why I moved to Costa Rica, you’ll know that Minca is where I simultaneously prepared for my interview with GVI while also having a minor breakdown over whether I even wanted to take the job. With all of this going on, I didn’t get out into Minca and the surrounding area as I much as I would have otherwise. Thankfully, Minca is actually a pretty good place to do nothing (or prepare for a job interview).

After spending the morning leaving Tayrona national park, it wasn’t a long journey to get to Minca. Right as we exited the hostel where we had picked up our luggage, a bus going to Santa Marta pulled up. After a quick transfer, we were driving up through the mountains to the cooler climes of Minca. Because of its altitude above Santa Marta, nestled in the Sierra Nevada mountains, Minca is a lot less humid which was lovely. It did also seem to have torrential rain showers that always started right as we left our hostel! We stayed in Río Elemento on the edge of the centre of town. There are a lot of cool hostels around Minca but many have to be reached by motorbike from the bus station. One of the reasons Río Elemento was great was because it had the same secluded feel but only a five minute walk away. There were a couple of hostels that some friends had recommended to me that we wanted to stay in too, the Journey Hostel and Masaya Casa Viejas, but that were unfortunately full. Even the hostel that we did stay at was almost completely booked so we stayed in a tent which actually provided some very good night’s sleep. There was a double mattress, a fan and even a power strip inside!

I won’t bore you with the emotional turmoil that I was going through over our three night stay (although you can read about it here if you want to enjoy my suffering). Instead, I’ll tell you what I did enjoy in my respite from interview preparation. After arriving, we didn’t get up to much but in the evening we got a message from a girl we had met in Bocas del Toro, Panama saying her group of friends were in Minca as well so we went for a drink together.

The following day heralded the best discovery of the whole trip. After a relaxed morning, we decided to head into the town to have a nosy around. While on a walk the previous day, Hannah had found a cafe that she wanted to take me to. It served not just as the perfect place to shelter from one of the previously mentioned torrential rain showers but became our home-away-from-hostel while we were in Minca. It was called Waira Cafe and is an absolute must visit spot. I was there three out of four days and Hannah went every day! Among the sweet treats we sampled, the banana bread and cinnamon roll were excellent but there was a clear stand out. We chatted to the baker there the first time we went together and he told us that they’d had pistachio croissants that morning and probably would the next day. That was enough to tempt us back and while there were no croissants, the baker remembered us and brought us out a taster of something he had baked for the first time and wanted us to try. Three magical words – pistachio lava cake . Quite possibly the best thing I’ve ever put in my mouth, we went back on our final morning, expressly for one more pistachio lava cake. Waira Cafe is at the end of town in the direction of the waterfalls (a popular activity around Minca), so just keep walking (it’s not actually far!).

While out for another walk together one day, Hannah and I walked out of Minca on the other side of town from Waira Cafe and stumbled across Hostel Mirador. As the name might suggest, there was a great viewpoint from their bar (but you’ll just have to take my word for it because I didn’t take a picture!). If you’re not a guest, you can pay $5000COP (£1) as an entrance fee but $4000COP of that can be put towards a drink. We were there in the afternoon but I imagine that it would be beautiful at golden hour! We were there for a while enjoying the view and playing some cards and it was a lovely break from staring at my computer all day.

That was kind of it in terms of Minca, at least for me. Hannah went for a longer walk one day to visit the waterfalls that are (supposedly) one of highlights. They were nice, according to the intrepid explorer, but because we were in Minca over the weekend they were absolutely packed! Additionally, there’s supposed to be a nice swimming hole, Minca is a great place to learn about the coffee and cacao process and is also known for its birding. It’s a place that, if I was ever back in Colombia, I would go back to so I could enjoy it a little more. Not that I didn’t enjoy it, our hostel had a great pool, bar, restaurant and plenty of peaceful spots to read, the cool temperature was delicious and do I have to mention the pistachio lava cake again?

Finally, the day was upon us. Time to leave Minca but not before the job interview. Spoiler alert – it went well because I’m now ten months into my job with GVI in Costa Rica! After a farewell trip to Waira Cafe for a debrief (and one last pistachio lava cake), we headed back down to Santa Marta. Despite having passed through it a number of times already, this was the first time we stayed the night. I wasn’t a big fan of Santa Marta – from what we saw it was pretty dirty and I didn’t feel that safe – but we did stay in the lovely Masaya hostel – which I highly recommend! It was really clean and had a lovely rooftop terrace with a kitchen and bar. You know the hostel is cool when there’s people getting tattoos in the common area! As tempting as it was, I didn’t join them… this time! Other than venturing out for some pizza for dinner, we rested up for the big few days that were to come. Santa Marta was only really the starting point before Hannah and I actually split up for a few days. She went off to do the four day trek to the Ciudad Perdida (the lost city, a sacred indigenous site). I didn’t fancy it (four days of incredibly humid hiking doesn’t appeal to me) so instead I went off somewhere else but you’ll have to wait to find out where!