All I need is a hammock and Casa Elemento

I've been slow to post these last few weeks. We've been up in the hills of the Colombian coffee farms in Minca with no internet to speak of and too much fun to be had.

A stranger we met in Cartagena (who quickly became a friend) wouldn't stop talking about this amazing place in Minca. I don't know what you would call this place - a lodge, a hostel? Maybe just a community. Casa Elemento can be found in the mountains of Minca, just south of Santa Marta, Colombia, a lodge boasting the world's biggest hammock and possibly some of the best views in the country.

In the day we would lie in hammocks, read and play cards by the pool or seek waterfalls and banana trees in the surrounding hillside. In the evenings the chef heats up the earth oven to roast a leg of beef and we would all tuck in at a big communal dining table.

It's not an easy place to get to - but is all the more rewarding for it. It involves a short taxi ride from the nearby city of Santa Marta to the town of Minca followed by a half hour motorbike or jeep ride up a very very bumpy winding dirt track - or a 2-3 hour hike if you're up to it.

There's nothing about this lodge in my Lonely Planet guidebook - and only a paragraph on the town of Minca itself. So let's keep Casa Elemento between me and the internet.

Pin it to your South America travel board:

#colombia