Los pinos — Hotel in Magdalena

Perhaps it's because my hostel has a similar view of the mountain range overlooking Santa Marta, I found the view at Los Pinos quite underwhelming. I personally find being this high up in the mountain isn't as scenic as being at a lower point where everything looks bigger and closer. The actual spot has no markings - it's simply a seemingly random spot right next to the door road. Had I not been dropped off and had it not been a few more people there, I wouldn't have presumed this to be Los Pinos. It costs 25K COP each way to/from Minca by motorbike. I think it's totally worth saving 3 hours or more hiking up hill from Minca. There are prettier hikes in the Santa Marta area. Even the motorbike took about...

The view itself is not too impressive, but the hike makes this an really nice day trip (if you take the trail trough the forest (short route) instead of the longer “road route”.

What I would recommend: Walk from Minka all the way to the entrance of the Marinka waterfalls Don’t visit the waterfalls yet, but at the entrance turn right and continue with the ascent. This will lead you to the forest trail, all the way up to Los Pinos. Go back from Los Pinos with THE SAME route, as this is way nicer than the road route (here is were all the motors/cars drive). After the Los Pinos hike, you’ll arrive back at the waterfalls and it’s nice refresh here now...

I can only review the hike as we didn’t see the viewpoint or stay at the hotel. We took the harder route up past the Marinka waterfall. It’s a decent 2+ hours so take plenty of water and snacks. It’s well signposted by at one point the signs only show ‘7 peridas’. You go through a small coffee and banana plantation and up past someone’s house on the left before re-joining the road. The views on the way up were fantastic. In total it took us around 7 hours to trek from Minca to the top then back...