Before arriving into Colombia, and despite our planning and good friends telling us it was a great place to visit having been there a few times, we remained concerned about safety.
Colombia is where Pablo Escobar, once the richest man in the world because of drug running, lived and died violently. He was responsible for many deaths in Colombia.
In the same country, a Marxist based rebel/terrorist group called FARC that still exists, was responsible for thousands of Colombians being killed, kidnappings, ransoms and drug running. More recently, a peace deal is trying to be brokered with FARC, resulting in a massive drop in violence by them.
And there are still paramilitary groups who also run drugs and kill people.
So with this sort of reputational background, wouldn’t you be nervous, but due to our friends’ consistent reassuring words, we decided to go.
Our complete route through Colombia is shown below and the cities we stayed in.
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| 3 cities in Colombia we visited |
Cartagena
First stop in Colombia involved flying from Quito via Bogota to Cartagena located on the coast of the Caribbean Sea.
As soon as we had cleared customs, collected our bags and stepped out onto the streets, the heat and humidity hit us along with a Caribbean style energy, and once again we found ourselves crammed into a small car for the transfer to our hotel.
Our Casa (hotel) was located on a narrow street, in the old town of Cartagena, hidden behind a wall with a small door. Immediately the colourful facades of most buildings in the street struck us, including the ornate timber colonial balconies on most.
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| Colourful interesting Cartagena |
We were back out into the streets quickly to find somewhere to eat and following directions to a supermarket to buy bottled water.
Walking down any of the streets of Cartagena was a buzz because of the colour, the energy, the activity or music to be heard and then there were the people, those very, very laid back, warm and friendly people.
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| Very lively square not far from our Casa (hotel) |
In the supermarket we bought 2 large bottles of water, no big deal you would think until you have to pay for them the first time… in millions of pesos.
Well that’s what it says on their notes, but the locals talk of thousands of pesos even though they are actually millions! Confused, don’t blame you because we were for a little while also!
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| Some more of the character and colour that is Cartagena |
To get to know the city, we used a hop on/off bus for most of the first day combined with lots of walking, including visiting the massive Castillo San Felipe de Barajas, a fortress in the city of Cartagena, built by the Spanish and the largest fortress they built in South America.
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| The Castillo San Felipe de Barajas is an impressive fortress |
The fortress is located on the Hill of San Lázaro in a strategic location, commanding approaches to the city by land or sea. Construction began in 1536, it was then expanded in 1657 and it took a very long time before it was assailed.
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| The fortress has massive walls |
We also arranged to do an island hopping day tour along the Rosario Island group which required a 6:00am collection from the hotel before then picking up 2 Argentinians, a German and another from Chile during our 1hr drive to some weird place on the coast.
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| Our Rosario Island hopping route |
Only use the word ‘weird’ because we ended up walking down a beach amongst what looked like shanty shacks acting as rustic mini resorts, no… strike the word ‘resort’.
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| The myriad of 'resorts' along the beach |
We stopped at one, our guide suggested that if we needed to use the banos (toilet), now was the time to do so but please collect your own water from the large barrels outside using the plastic containers in them to flush after yourselves.
Other hardy souls had also joined us, so with that, 15 of us waded a little way into the water to board the boat and head out to sea, not an island in sight.
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| The trusty boat that took us island hopping |
After a bit of bouncing over waves, we finally arrived at some small islands of the rich and famous where there is a large house on each small island.
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| Island and home of the rich |
After cruising past a few, it was time to go snorkelling in the warm waters of the Caribbean Sea and it was a pleasant change from being bounced around.
Then it was onto another island where we stayed briefly, then to another where we stayed for about an hour, enjoying a few swims to cool off along with watching part of a World Cup soccer game in a rustic roof only bar near the ocean.
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| Some of the islands had bars in the warm ocean |
Finally we headed back to the mainland to have lunch on the first floor of one of those shanty style ‘resorts’, which was a little better than the first ones we saw.
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| Lunch was enjoyed under the blue canopy overlooking the beach |
We had a great time with this multi-country group of young people during our day of island hopping and enjoyed our time in Cartagena but now it was time to head to our next location in Colombia… Medellin.
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| It was farewell to the warm friendly people of Cartagena |
Medellin
We had planned to fly into Medellin, the original home of Pablo Escobar, early in the day, to give us time to explore the city, BUT our plans were ruined by changed and then delayed flights… finally arriving into Medellin around 6pm.
Real pity because it’s a very interesting looking city, nestled down amongst tall mountains, lots of fairly tall apartment buildings, the only city in Colombia with a Metro and a reputation for innovation which includes using cablecars.
As we drove into it and then walked around at night, we were also impressed with how neat it was, unlike Cartagena. The other thing that immediately stood out was how friendly the people were… again.
For our only full day in Medellin, we had organised a coffee plantation and city tour of Jardin, and on time, Julio picked us up in a very small and short wheelbase van. Why mention this, as on any rough roads which there were a few, we ‘enjoyed’ more natural massages.
Getting to the plantation took 2.5hrs south west of Medellin following rivers and up and down through large green, picturesque mountains. There were many small villages to go through built close to the road, and a road team clearing the remains of an avalanche.
We also stopped briefly at a roadside café for coffee, again enjoying a game of the World Cup with very passionate locals.
Along the way, Julio, a person who likes to laugh a lot, gave us a lot of information about Pablo Escobar, who during his drug running reign, owned at least 500 homes in Colombia. He changed some furniture in them every month at a cost of US$500,000, giving the old furniture away to the poor as away of laundering money.
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| Roadside cafe to enjoy great Colombian coffee and Work Cup football |
To get to the actual plantation involved eventually having to climb into the tray top back of a 1957 Willys Jeep and bouncing our way up a steep rough rocky track to the top of a mountain.
Here the family who run the small coffee plantation greeted us at their home, overlooking a stunning valley, with tall mountains surrounding it in the distance.
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| The valley view from the coffee plantation |
They were soon preparing a cooked lunch for us and then we started learning about growing and preparing coffee, Rob being handed a basket to collect the beans from a few trees in the plantation.
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| Delicious home cooked lunch... |
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| ...then get stuck into some work |
The trees have been planted on the side of the mountains, which simply means these hardy people have to pick their crop by hand whilst also walking up and down along the sides of quite steep mountains. Hard work indeed.
Next we were shown how they extract the beans from their surrounding husks on the fruit using a machine, before then taking the beans and spreading them across a large flat surface on the roof of their home.
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| Machine which extracts 'green' coffee beans from the fruit |
Naturally we had to taste their fresh Colombian coffee and it was truly delicious, in fact, Colombian coffee is the best coffee I have tasted in the South American countries we had visited so far.
After a great visit, it was back down the rough rocky track, into our diminutive van as Julio took us to the very colourful colonial city of Jardin. But before going into the city proper, it was time for yet another cable car ride across a valley.
This ‘cable car’ was actually an enclosed box we all had to climb into, originally used for ferrying food and stores across the valley. After being pulled across the valley to a café/bar on the other side, the views back to the city were excellent, as was the Colombian beer.
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| The little 'cable car' we took across a valley overlooking Jardin |
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| One of Colombia's national treasures in Jardin |
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| Inside the very colourful and nice city of Jardin |
As we drove back to Medellin, 2 things were different, it started to rain and the amount of traffic coming out of Medellin had increased significantly. It was a long weekend and streams of people were leaving the city in cars but also a lot on motorbikes.
We had learned since arriving in South America, their driving habits on open roads, especially where double lines are involved is at times exciting if not downright dangerous. This was the situation we found ourselves in with a few near misses adding to our collective ‘excitement’, even for Julio.
Our excitement wasn’t over as the rain increased and just as we reached the site of the avalanche being cleared earlier in the day, a brand new mud avalanche occurred, splattering the side of our van as we barely made it through. Even the jovial Julio’s eyes widened!
Medellin and surrounding areas had been very enjoyable, albeit brief, but next stop was Bogota.
Bogota
A mere 5 years ago, Bogota was in the top 10 most dangerous cities in the world because of the organisations that kidnap people for money or political negotiations, drug dealers and gangs that ruled the streets.
Bogata is now a sprawling city of 10.3M people!
Bogata is now a sprawling city of 10.3M people!
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| Sprawling and dynamic Bogota |
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| Boutique brewery near our accomodation |
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| Nearby fast food |
We did 2 tours in and around Bogota, the first a city tour which taught us a lot about this citys’ colonial Spanish past, the large central square, churches naturally, the President’s Palace and the colourful guards who protect it.
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| Main square and Cathedral |
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| Some of Bogota's colonial past |
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| The Presidents guard |
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| One of the many characters you see whilst travelling |
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| More of Bogota's colonial past |
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| Famous Colombian artist - Fernando Botero's take on Mona Lisa |
We also visited the Zipaquira Salt Cathedral, a huge underground complex built within the now unused underground sections of a salt mine outside of Bogota.
As we descended deeper into the complex, a progressive religious story was told in stages through carvings made into the salt rock, until we reached the underground church with its chandeliers also made out of salt.
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| One of many examples within the Salt Cathedral |
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| The underground cathedral including salt chandelier |
Later that day, we made our way back into the city to visit Bogota’s Gold Museum which to put it simply was unbelievable, as was the fact the Spanish didn’t get their hands on the many artefacts on display, some of them thousands of years old and very beautiful.
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| Some of the smaller but very detailed and very OLD gold exhibits in Bogota's gold museum |
Whilst in Bogota, we became physically immersed in Colombia’s involvement in the World Cup, when they played England for a place in the finals.
It seemed like TVs had popped up everywhere, in Cafes, out in the streets, inside the Gold Museum, the city coming almost to a standstill, even the police were absorbed by the game.
We had found a seat in a café near our accommodation, preferring to be in the crowd to experience the passion they have and there was plenty if it! When Colombia drew level with England, forcing the game into extra time, the locals went absolutely wild.
Crowds had also formed in the streets watching TVs in many buildings, forcing traffic to a halt as the crowds yelled, cheered, screamed, hugged each other, some throwing soap suds all over themselves.
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| Just on of who knows how many excited crowds of Colombians watching THE game |
Finally the time had come to leave Colombia, a country we had very much enjoyed, and especially the people and knowing we hadn’t spent enough time here.
The people of Colombia rejected a referendum to confirm a peace deal with the FARC believing it too generous because the perpetrators of past deaths and violence wouldn’t be brought to justice.
They also very recently voted out the President who brokered that peace deal, the new President yet to come into office and who had campaigned for a different deal with the FARC.
Why share all this? It speaks a lot about the character and principles of the general Colombian population because at risk is a return to some of the hideous and unsafe past they have endured for years.
We wish them well for the future as Colombia has much to offer the world.
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| Colombia is a colourful and beautiful country |
It was time to enter yet another country in South America so until we share our new experiences… go well!
Wow, what an interesting place, brought back memories of Panama & Cuba. Keep enjoying your amazing trip, Lorna
ReplyDeleteSo glad you enjoyed Colombia as much as we did. We will definitely pass it on to Liseth.
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