Our first steps on the great land of Colombia were similar to those of an overweight penguin coming down from 5 days on a rollercoaster ride. Dramamine, you are not my bestfriend. We staggered about in awe as we took in the sites; a very well preserved colonial city, surrounded by a still-standing stone wall where you could look out to sea and laugh at the many teenagers who were displaying the most public forms of affection, which New Zealanders would only dream of in the backrow of a dark cinema. There were many fortresses and an immense history.
Cartagena overwhelmed us with an atmosphere which was so different to Central America. Cartagena is Colombia's, as well as Latin Americas Paris. We felt a bit out of place fluttering about with our fluoro flip flops and those souvenier singlets (you know the ones we¨ve all got in the back of our wardrobes. They´re great when travelling and your brain is firing infactuation impulses, but not so timeless!) The women were immaculately dressed at all times. Even single Mums with runny nosed children following them wore sky-high heels, super tight jeans (think Sandy in Grease Latin America-style) and exposed perky, tanned cleavages that a Mother of 3 simply could not have! It was a tad disappointing for Julien (although reassuring for me) to hear that plastic surgery is very common and cheap in Colombia (they have clinics at Bogota airport even!) Therefore Kiwi´s are still much hotter than Colombians eh Julien?! (Although will keep the Bogota plastic surgery in mind for a mid life holiday perhaps!)
In case obscene amounts of money and South America doesn´t quite fit in your minds, let´s think about the Gold Money = Cocaine, as well as emeralds which are very abundant in the Colombian mountains. Colombia is rich, and they could be so much richer if they legalised cocaine and taxed it! Imagine! Already the infrastrusture is first world, as well as the prices! Anyhow, lots of people are involved in the the cocaine buisness whether they sell gas to the Coke Planes which fly under the radar to Mexico from mysterious airports in Colombia, sell a property to a dealer or chew on coca leaves as they tend to their crops. Next to Cartagena is the New Town which is a enormous peninsula with flashy sky rises that are completely empty and dark at night... Buisness men in the cocaine industry have to get rid of their billions, so therefore invest invest invest! As I said before, tax it!
After farewelling the Mintaka Crew at our local breakfast cafe, Gato Negro we went to a clinic to get our Yellow Fever vaccination. As we hadn't originally planned on coming to South America, we didn't get this vaccine with our trusty travel Doctor back in Dunedin. Sadly, our plans to have a week on the Colombian Caribbean coast and the walk to the famous Lost City were soon no longer when our Nurse strictly prohibited us from going to that part of the coast for 7 days. Sigh. Mojito. Sigh. Tapas. Sigh. Icecream. Meh! We´d been spoiled so far on the holiday with beautiful beaches and quite a descent tan that we felt it was probably time to get stuck into some mountain business anyway.
Highlights of Cartagena were sitting in a small square in Getsamani (the slightly more local, less Gucci and Prada area) people watching as the locals drink cheap beer, eat street food, play music, salsa and socialise the sticky hot nights away. The view from our vaccination room was priceless! Loved the randomness of crazy street art and colourful hats, paintings, cigars, scarves and fruits lining the streets. Walking around sipping electrolytes from a fresh coconut to ease the heat was a very good and local idea (great alternative to Gatorade!) Cocktails, mmm. The icecream shop. The Gold Museum. Feeling Cartagena come alive in the late evening. All in all, this is a fairytale town.
The 100% humidity, 35 degree days, persistant street vendors, average room fan and pocket burning prices meant it was time to get on an overnight bus to San Gil, the adventure capital of Colombia in the mountains. This was infact the best (although freezing) overnight bus we had taken, with fully reclining seats and a jungle view at dawn included in the price. The toilet still smelt like wee though.
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| Juicy juicy mangos |
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| View from the vaccination centre whilst getting our yellow fever jab |
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| Solving world´s problems Colombian style |
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| Beautiful Cartagena |
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| Sailing boat by the ancient city wall |
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| An ode to the beautiful woman |
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| Paraiso icecream! Happy Jen. |
Sams VIP Hostel in San Gil was our saviour. Julien was sick, I was sick, a flu on the coast was apparently spreading like wild fire, and we had it. We stayed in this boutique hostel for a week in a cheap dorm room to ourselves. The hostel was right on the lively square, had a fantastic movie selection, Blue Ray, American style modern kitchen (think The OC), blenders, swimming pool and a very small, very chilled group of travellers. The staff were delightful, and became our second Mums and Spanish teachers.
Most days we went to the local market and made delicious food and smoothies. Lulu and Banana was a favourite flavour, as well as Passionfruit and Banana.
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| Fresh from the market in San Gil, straight into a smoothie. Sams VIP hostel balcony. |
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| Bus or tuk-tuk? |
When we got our strength back, we went to nearby colonial village,
Barichara with our new friend Jen. Here we strolled the streets, cooked,
played cards and slept in. Bliss. We then walked the El Camino walkway
to Guane. The path was filled with butterflies (should be renamed the butterfly walk - beat the pants off Dunedin Museum hot room), and we felt
as though we were in a French film! We stopped at a house
where we bought jewellery made from seeds in the canyon, and talked
with the family. They sold them to us for next to nothing. and gave us
free, woven bags. It seemed that they appreciated the company, rather
than concerned about money.
In Guane, we had a traditional
Menu of the Day meal, and met Pablo in his shop. We missed the last bus
with all the chatter with Pablo and opted for the local taxi, 1965 Renault! This day
was really like being in another era! And it confirmed that anyone called Pablo or Pancho are downright wonderful people!
Sadly we left San Gil without doing any adventure activities. We got as
far as the two crosses perched on the hill that overlooked the city, but
the days were ticking on, the sickness was wearing off, so a short
bus trip to the mountainous village, Sogomoso was on the cards. Short bus trip Colombian style means, at least several hours of waiting and delays followed by a travel time that was at least double. Drivers over here really do just get their licenses from a Weet-Bix packet too!! We were very lucky to be alive at the end of that trip!
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| Colonial Barichara |
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| Casually wheel-barrowing chickens to the slaughter |
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| Walk from Barichara to Guane. Thousands of colourful butterflies and fossils in the rocks |
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| Rock star Alejandra, beating pots and not impressed with us at all! El Camino walkway. |
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| Cow or bunny? |
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| Jen, Pablo and Julien with Pablo in his shop. |
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| Taxi - 1965 Renault |
Jen and Kamilla from San Gil came with us to Sogamoso, and we eventually made it late at night to Finca San Pedro (2569 metres above sea level) We were greeted by Juan, our Agama Yoga teacher. Instead of staying 3 nights, we stayed a week and had a phenomenal time. The Finca was Juan´s grandparents farm, and he was back from 3 years in India to open it as a yoga school. He hadn´t officially opened it yet, so we had him all to ourselves for minimal cost. We learnt such a lot about Agama Yoga, had some pretty intense moments and many laughs, not to mention the yoga farts (for some, not all of course...)! It complemented our teachings in Guatemala, and gave us drive to find a teacher in London. We had lunch at a vegetarian cafe every day together and cooked big dinners at night.
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| Sogamoso Market |
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| Juan! |
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| Finca San Pedro, Sogamoso |
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| Warming up with a delicious curry |
It was time to have a break from Yoga, get on a bus to a town in the Villa de Leyva area and participate in the annual Tomatina! Such fun! Tomato soup, pasta sauce anyone?! Ended up on the front page of Colombia´s version of the Herald the following day, we like to think anyway!
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| Tomatina Colombian Style! |
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| Walking frozen tomato salsa |
We couldn´t leave Sogomoso without doing a day walk up into the Paramo. There are very few parts of the world where Paramos exist as they require high altitude and relatively warm temperatures. Colombia, Ecuador and Bolivia are the only places with Paramos. We began the walk from Mongui, a colonial town 3000 metres up. Already slightly out of breath, we gradually ascended from the town, past the quinoa crops, horses, and fiesty dogs into the Paramo ecosystem. The hike was incredibly beautiful, challenging at 4000 metres, but overall was one of the best hikes, hands down of our lives.
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| Local luggage, travellers luggage. Mongui. |
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| At 3000m above sea level before the ascent |
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| Local life |
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| Sticky mountain flower |
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| Paramo rock climbing |
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| Tree huggers - this tree is about 150 years old! |
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| Colour accent |
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| The leaning tree of the Paramo |
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| Light at the end of the tunnel |
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| It was freezing and raining but we made it to the top - 4000m above sea level! |
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| Looking down on Mount Cook from here |
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Quinoa
Going with the theme of our holiday, we decided to skip the metropolis
of Bogota and bus to Salento, in the Zone Cafeteria. Salento is just gorgeous; I´d go back there any day and stay for a while. It is a small town, which is close the Sierra Nevada National Park, which marks the beginning of the Andes. On a clear day, from a quaint coffee shop in the centre, the snowcapped peaks can be seen. There are fields and bush surrounding the town which are the most insane colour of green I´ve ever seen. Not to mention the famous Wax Palms, which are Colombias national tree. They are up to 60 metres tall and look like soldiers marking their territory in a TeleTubby landscape! At this point, I sound like a crazy and wish to point out that drugs were not taken in Salento. It is gorgeous! Oh yes, and the climate is spot on.
We stayed in La Serrana Hostel which was a 20 minute walk from town. We arrived at midnight, to find they had saved us a delicious meal cooked with vegetables from the garden (we were supposed to be there for dinner you see...) The next morning we were greeted with the staggering 360 degree views from our breakfast table.
We spent the day walking from the hostel along a quite road along the ridge of the hills. We looked down on coffee farms and rivers and boy did we get into the coffee! Instead of paying to do a coffee tour like we did in Guatemala, we just bought lots of coffee for those back home, and had to try it first of course!
There were sweet family run vegetarian restaurants, juice bars which also sold feather jewellery and dream catchers. In our elements!!!
We found ourselves in the town, soaking up the alternative, Latin American feel. We wondered why there were so many Colombians with football shirts on, only to discover (would you believe it) that there was game on at 5 pm. We met some great people as we watched Argentina and Colombia draw and made the most of the Colombian beer. Home for a mushroom burger. Got the recipe, it was delicious!
The following day was mostly spent doing a 5 hour walk through the Wax Palms. The Jeep ride there was great fun, and the walk is stunning. We ended the day with a walk to the busy look out to watch the sunset, win Julien some chips (I have an incredibly good aim with a gun!) and to a fancy restaurant to try the local dish of trout. We bumped into Lily and Paulina from Mintaka, salivated over the Peanut Butter Brownies as we watched a movie in a cafe.
We left Salento far too soon, however time really was ticking, with only 4 weeks left for Ecuador and Peru! I never thought 4.5 months wouldn´t be long enough, but really it isn´t! After watching Police tackle-arrest a man who was screaming for mercy, we hoped on a bus to begin a rather long few days of travel.
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| COFFEE COUNTRY! |
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| Flag the tour, we just want to drink and buy coffee please. |
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| The sacred bean... |
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| The day when Colombia tied 0-0 with Argentina in the World Cup Qualifying round (very happy nation that day!) |
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| The walk into town from the hostel. |
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| Salento´s wax palms. The tallest in the world, reaching up to 60m |
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| Lara Croft. |
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| Pretty bloody tall tree. |
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| In Colombia. We had to use a gun. |
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| Jen is the better shot |
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| Our walk into town from La Serrana Ecohostel. Heaven? |
We had a night in Popayan, again a lovely town in the South of Colombia. Thankfully a nice Scottish hostel owner informed us that the route we intended to take to Ecuador was extremely dangerous and we decided we needed to take quite a bit of time to actually plan the next part of our trip! Funny that!
We had the most spectacular bus ride from Popayan to Ipiales, the border town to Ecuador. We climbed the high mountains and cascaded across them, displaying extraordinary, nail-biting views.
We checked into a cheap hotel which was a pleasant change from hostels, ordered pizza at 10 pm for dinner and stuffed our faces as we lounged about trying to stay warm on our bed.
Then...it was time to cross into Ecuador. Colombia was fantastic in so many different ways. Our pockets were burning a little though and we looked forward to being able to afford a drink with dinner and double rooms again. Muchos gracias Colombia, hasta pronto xo
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| Colonial Popayan |
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| Llama in the town square of course, Popayan |
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| The stunning last stretch of road from Colombia to Ecuador |
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