The tour is split into riding time on sealed roads and on either gravel trails or more intense off-road type paths through the mountains and jungle. The off-road sections contain river crossings, muddy sections, loose sand, rocky climbs, and grassy fields.
Itinerary
Day 1: Santa Marta to Buritaca, 100 kilometers / 62 miles
Adrenaline Addicts and you meet at their office at 09:00 and get everyone set up on their motorcycles, complete the safety briefing, finish the paperwork, and get everything strapped down on the bikes. Then, around 10:00, you set off down the coast. Today starts with some basic-intermediate riding around the Bonda, where you will have a quick stop off at a swimming hole before pushing on down the highway to Palomino for lunch.
After lunch, you move further up the coast to El Rio Hostel, your accommodation for the night. At the hostel, Adrenaline Addicts provides drinks for an all-you-can-drink tubing ride through the jungle, which is the perfect way to get to know everybody in the group on the evening of the first day.
Day 2: Buritaca to Los Naranjos, 160 kilometers / 99 miles
You get up, have breakfast, and go on day 2, leaving your luggage behind and heading up into the Sierra Nevada mountains to tackle the Quebrada del Sol on an off-road trail. This is a four-hour loop that reaches 1,100 meters above sea level, crossing rivers, steep climbs, rocky embankments, grassy plains, and muddy stretches, as well as an indigenous village that you stop in for a short break and to have a look around.
After finishing the loop, you come back out onto the main road for lunch at a local eatery, pick up your luggage from Rancho Relaxo, then head down the road to Quebrada Valencia waterfall to wash off the dirt and sweat before a short cruise down the coast to The Journey hostel, your boutique accommodation for the night.
Day 3: Los Naranjos to Minca, 90 kilometers / 56 miles
After breakfast at The Journey Hostel, you have an optional excursion by foot into the end of Tayrona Park and Los Naranjos beach. Monkeys are often seen on this 30-minute hike, and you will be rewarded with a white sand beach, very rarely with anybody else around. You hop back on the bikes and head out the back of the Paso del Mango area where you encounter some rocky climbs, deep river crossings, and winding gravel roads on the way to Caoba Biological Reserve for lunch.
At Caoba, you will have a tour of the complex before lunch if time permits, seeing plants and animals from all over South America, before hopping on the bikes and taking the long way up to Minca, via a back road that few people know about. Then, you arrive at Casas Viejas, your accommodation for the night. It is perched up in the mountains of Minca in time for sunset and a couple of drinks before an early night to prepare for the following morning.
Day 4: Minca to Santa Marta, 80 kilometers / 50 miles
You start the final morning with a bang. Rise and shine at 03:00 for the ascent to Cerro Kennedy, perched 3,200 meters above sea level, in the middle of the night. Lighting the road with nothing but the headlights from your bikes, you slow the pace a little and climb for two hours in the darkness to arrive in San Lorenzo for a jaw-dropping view of the rising sun.
After the sun is up, you ride the final 20 minutes to Cerro Kennedy military base, the highest accessible point in Minca before turning around and heading back down to Casas Viejas for breakfast. After breakfast, some groups like to catch another hour or two of sleep, so when everybody is ready, you cruise back down the other side of the mountain, stopping in at a swimming hole and a local barbecue house for a late lunch.
You will arrive back in Santa Marta around 15:00, dirty, tired, and sweaty, but with bright eyes and wide smiles, having bared witness to a side of Colombia that few people before you ever have.
Levels
Intermediate
- can ride for 3-4 hours
- average riding experience
- little assistance required
- comfortable with extreme curves and leans
- average experience with unsurfaced roads
- steep ascents and descents
Advanced
- can ride for 5-6 hours
- extensive riding experience
- assistance on demand (if required)
- experienced with riding a variety of motorcycles
- comfortable with any terrain and weather conditions