---
type: Video
title: "Colombia Waterfall Hunt 🇨🇴"
description: A hard scramble to an unmarked waterfall outside Tayrona, a shortcut across someone's land, and the nicest beach Harry finds in Colombia — reached without knowing it was there.
tags: [colombia, tayrona, jungle, hiking, waterfalls, beaches, indigenous, guides]
timestamp: 2026-08-07T11:50:00Z
resource: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4LdGNY4zQtk
video_id: 4LdGNY4zQtk
upload_date: 2022-01-31
duration: 1145
---

# Colombia Waterfall Hunt 🇨🇴

The second half of the [Tayrona](/places/tayrona-national-park.md) pair, with the
same two guides. They take Harry down into the jungle to a waterfall that isn't a
tourist attraction, isn't signposted and isn't reachable without knowing where it
is — which he says outright is the reason he couldn't have done the day alone.

The hike is the honest part of it. He calls it one of the hardest he has done and
is specific about why: it is climbing over rock rather than walking, in heat, and
you have to come back up the same way. Forty-five minutes each way.

The afternoon is a beach he didn't know existed, a hundred metres off the main
road, which he rates as the best in [Colombia](/countries/colombia.md) so far.
Bracelets made by the mountain community he had visited the day before are sold
on the sand; a 6,000-peso bracelet gets 20,000 from him.

He closes on what the two days added up to — that people living with very little
seemed happy, and that money isn't the thing. It is a sincere passage rather than
a neat one, and he checks his own phrasing twice while giving it.

## Key moments

- [00:05] Into the jungle with both guides, and a first look at the terrain.
- [00:36] Climbing down past a rock he notes could come loose; the scale of the
  boulders.
- [02:12] Giant green and yellow bamboo, strong enough to build with.
- [02:42] The pool at the end, in shade and cold.
- [03:17] Confirms they are just outside the park boundary.
- [03:52] In: perfect temperature, and a cut that stings.
- [04:54] It isn't a tourist attraction at all — the guides brought him because
  it is a local spot, and he counts that as the point.
- [05:26] A sweet snack he compares to hard jelly rolled in sugar, or to icing.
- [06:26] A language barrier with the guides that he shrugs off — he doesn't
  know where they are going next either.
- [07:00] A tree the guides put at 600–800 years old, said to live to a thousand,
  and how trees lean towards the light.
- [08:02] Why the hike is hard: physically climbing the rock, not the distance.
- [08:33] A shortcut back across private land, with permission asked at the
  house.
- [09:05] Colombia has the greatest variety of birds in the world.
- [10:46] Out to the main road and a 100-metre walk to a beach he didn't know
  was there.
- [11:16] His verdict: the nicest beach in Colombia so far — palm trees, waves,
  mountains behind.
- [11:46] Bracelets on the sand, made by the community he met yesterday.
- [12:51] Asked 6,000 pesos, he pays 20,000 — about a dollar against four or
  five.
- [14:51] The economics of it: largely self-sufficient, but electricity and some
  other things need cash.
- [15:52] Back at the hostel, having extended and changed rooms.
- [17:55] The new room — bigger bed, a bath, no indoor shower.
- [18:26] The shower turns out to be outside, in the jungle, and cold.
- [16:23] The two days summed up: people with little who seemed happy, and money
  not being the thing.

## Extracted pages

- [Colombia](/countries/colombia.md)
- [Tayrona National Park](/places/tayrona-national-park.md)
- [Travel with a local guide](/tips/travel-with-a-local-guide.md)