Hola Amigos!
After Taganga I headed to Minca, which is a town up in the mountains. We slept at this awesome ecolodge called Oscars Place which was quite a hike to get to but well worth the view overlooking the hills and a view of the city lights at night. We had one meal cooked for us there by Oscars wife and it was utterly delicious. Lentils, a huge thing of organic chicken, soup, and salad. The other meals we ate down in town at the sweetest mans restaurant. He made the standard colombian fare but with the most incredible attitude and flavor. He was sooo welcoming and made sure we had everything we needed. These meals were $4. Sooo after Minca, the crew I was hanging with, 2 german guys, and a girl from London were heading to Taganga for a Friday night out... Since I did not have the opportunity to experience that before because of the diving I decided to join them. It was not too far from where I was headed. The party was awesome. We had some drinks on the beach and then met a huge group of Colombians who tried to teach us a little bit of salsa with their boombox music playing. Later we went into the club which is totally outside overlooking the beach.. They had a great variety of music and the fun didnt stop until early hours of the morning. The next day I had a skype session with Nichole and enjoyed some time at the beach before heading towards Medellin via an 16 hour bus ride or something like that!
Next I headed to Guatape to see the amazing lake district a few hours from Medellin and hiking up a 745 step stone to have one of the most amazing views in the world. It was nice to catch up on a lot of missed sleep and get some exercise in! That night I headed on a night bus to Bogota. I was a little bit nervous because I would have to hang out in a bus companies office for a few hours in this tiny city but they let me on an earlier bus. When I sat down, a guy behind me asked if I was from Colombia... He was from California and working in Colombia, and Chile, and heading to Bogota for a business trip. It was so lucky I met him because when we arrived in the morning it was much earlier than I thought and I didnt know where to go in a taxi and such. So he took me to the hostel where he was staying. In Bogota I met with Edith & Alfonso who I met the night out in Cartagena. They brought their sweet baby Mathias around with us on our little city tour. We went through the central park , through La Candelaria where Bogota first started and is kind of now the hippie area of the city, then to some shopping malls to see some lights, and finally had some dinner at their house. It was soo sweet of them to show me around on their day off! They are very understanding with my limited spanish and they speak very slowly and simply so I can understand everything! It s a cool feeling to understand everything but that doesnt happen often. The next day in Bogota I ventured to a waterfall which looked absolutely awesome in the picture but there was a huge cloud on the canyon. I went here with another Colombian guy I met in panama. Since we couldnt see the waterfall we wandered around the little pueblos as they call it or towns. Another night George and I went to see a movie... eeek I don{t remember the name in 4D, sooo the seats moved. It was soo cool, had no idea they had this. A lovely group of people I met in Bogota were heading to Cali so I decided to join them.. this was kind of a lot to handle because going from solo travel to waiting for a group of 7 was a lot... BUT it{s not like I had anything else to lose.
We arrived in Cali at 1am after a much longer than expected bus journey! The hostel we were staying at was very expensive but really nice and included breakfast and had a beautiful swimming pool.. which was perfect for what I heard about Cali... not a lot to do during the day time but amazing nightlife and salsa. The hostel also included free yoga & salsa classes. Sadly two of my classes were absolutely terrible, but I still kept going to them and had a blast at the other ones. The nights we would stay out from 11 until 5am just dancing salsa, bachata, and meringue. I also knew that there was a feria going on or a festival during christmas sooo decided to stick it out and hang for a while.
The group decided while we had so many days until christmas to check out the pacific beach. None of them had done a ton of research about where we were headed and I had asked them specifically if someone had found all the information otherwise I would find it myself... Lesson learned haha never trust someone else. The journey there was very expensive and well the beach was actually really kind of gross. We were told what we wanted to hear several times which a lot of the time ended up being a complete and utter lie... The driver of the van taxi told us he would drive us all the way to our desired hostel... some of the girls had huge packs weighing 28 pounds so they could not walk far... We were dropped off and told to walk 15 minutes... Not only was it much more than 15 minutes the "road"was completely mud and it was getting dark... and people who walked past us told us it wasn't safe for us to be out walking at night... haha. Soo we finally arrived at a shabby looking little hut and asked if they had 8 beds for us to stay in... Thankfully they did. It isn't where we wanted to stay but we didn't really care at that point. There were absolutely no stores and this road was completely deserted. The lady of the hut said she would cook us dinner, which was arepas (kind of like a fried tortilla), eggs and rice..Very simple but I really couldn't be bothered to go walk any further and really just wanted to sleep after not sleeping so well in the hostel the past few nights with so much noise and so many people in and out. A few others went out exploring and found a little more civilization.. The next day we headed out for lunch and saw the dirty dirty beach, and ate a very simple meal at a little hut restaurant. There are no cars in this village and everything is just a muddy path... so getting anywhere was adventure. Sadly while at lunch we saw a sloth tied up to a pole and little boys swinging beautiful dead iguanas around like swords. It was a very unique experience but I would definitely preferred to have just hung out in Cali! Lessons learned and information shared with other people of course.
After returning to Cali we did much of the same stuff but also made a delicious Christmas dinner. I was sad that I couldn't skype with the family because the internet at the hostel was absolutely terrible. The first night of feria, we went to check out a free concert, then some christmas lights and beer tents, and the next day a parade where there were all sorts of interesting things! Tons of salsa dancers, and characters dressed up including Hitler... Not quite sure what the message with Hitler was. Another night we went to hang out outside of another mega concert, but this one wasn't free but Enrique Iglesias and some other famous latin people there. Our plan was to hang out and if we could find cheap tickets buy them.. We almost were able to sneak in but as we finally mustered up the courage to clmb this hidden ladder they forgot to take down.. someone on the inside of the stadium was watching.. then they removed the ladders from both sides.. bummer. After that we just decided to get tickets... silly though.. we didn't make the guy who was selling us the tickets come with us to the booth.. then we bought false tickets :( . Luckily we only lost 25 dollars each. Soo it could have been worse.
Ahhhh I had soo much on my heart and mind to write about Colombia but as always when traveling sometimes you value the moments on your trip more than writing them down.. which in many cases I sort of regret because that means sometimes you forgot some of the amazing details or things that made you laugh. Playa Blanca, is incredible.. and what a fun little journey on a motobike to arrive there, sleep in a hammock for 5 dollars a night. Elena and I, one of the couch surfing girls and I brought all our own food because we heard the meals there were a bit expensive. There was not a kitchen but we just had tuna sandwiches stuffed with veggies and cheese, (cheese isnt refrigerated here) and fruits for breakfast. We made friends with the kiddos of where our hammocks were and enjoyed chatting with them and trying (for me) to dance salsa. The water was an utterly perfect light blue and white sand.
The next day I headed into the city to do a mud volcano tour which was also an experience of itself..You climb down a ladder into the mud pit. You pay a guy a dollar to take pictures of you, and another guy in the pit to give you a massage. The massage was nice but the mud was really unreal feeling because you lose gravity. So even though the mud is 15m deep, you cannot swim or go down. Trying to go from laying down to floating is a little bit difficult and so funny feeling. Like an astronaut. Got back to the city, went to watch the sunset, and got to see some street salsa dancing performances. The next day I headed into Santa Marta. Even though we left at 9 and it is supposed to be only 4 hours away, the journey took until 3pm to arrive at the next hostel. Santa Marta is really just a big city and not a beach as I thought. There I did some grocery shopping as we usually did to save on meal money and went to sleep. The next day I headed to Taganga to check out the diving scene. I decided while there to why not get my advanced certification. It was cheap and the school seemed to be pretty good. There was a little bit of confusion with the school, but that got sorted in the end and I got to do some really cool dives. A 40m deep dive where you are tested for nitrous oxide poisoning or like being a little tipsy under the water. Unfortunately I did not experience this. I also brought an egg down to 40m to see what happens to things.. The egg yolk stayed completely together and was like a little floating ball.. pretty wild. Also got to do a cave dive. In the cave there is a little hole where all of the divers oxygen bubbles go and you can take off your mask and talk in the bubble., that was also pretty unreal. The cave dive was a little bit scary because the condition of the water getting in and out of the boat were quite intense. We had to be reeled in by rope and then lifted into the boat as quickly as possibly.. THe waves were about 4 meters high but we were also next to a rock so that made it tricky to stay away from a rock and the boat... the water was also prettty chilly.The next was the night dive... which was kinda creeped me out because you don{t have much navigation and orientation. Everything looks so calm at night and the fish are quite startled when you shine the light in their eyes. I saw some awesome huge crabs, a few trumpet fish, and jelly fish. It was also very chilly. My course was over 3 days, and 2 days and overnight we stayed in Tayrona National Park. It was sooo neat to see the desert with the sea. The water color was so turquiose and the sand also mostly white. There we slept in hammocks again and had a chef. The chef did a great job with rice, salad, and meats every meal for us. It was so calm and peaceful and hanging out with the other divers was fantastic. A couple from Switzerland, Germany, Aussie girl and Chilean girl.
After Taganga I headed to Minca, which is a town up in the mountains. We slept at this awesome ecolodge called Oscars Place which was quite a hike to get to but well worth the view overlooking the hills and a view of the city lights at night. We had one meal cooked for us there by Oscars wife and it was utterly delicious. Lentils, a huge thing of organic chicken, soup, and salad. The other meals we ate down in town at the sweetest mans restaurant. He made the standard colombian fare but with the most incredible attitude and flavor. He was sooo welcoming and made sure we had everything we needed. These meals were $4. Sooo after Minca, the crew I was hanging with, 2 german guys, and a girl from London were heading to Taganga for a Friday night out... Since I did not have the opportunity to experience that before because of the diving I decided to join them. It was not too far from where I was headed. The party was awesome. We had some drinks on the beach and then met a huge group of Colombians who tried to teach us a little bit of salsa with their boombox music playing. Later we went into the club which is totally outside overlooking the beach.. They had a great variety of music and the fun didnt stop until early hours of the morning. The next day I had a skype session with Nichole and enjoyed some time at the beach before heading towards Medellin via an 16 hour bus ride or something like that!
I would have continued along the coast but I wanted to meet up with my friend Donovan from Korea. Donnie and I literally only had this one chance because we were heading in opposite and different directions. And it literally happened perfectly that I decided to message him and see where abouts he was.. we had talked months before about meeting in Ecuador but he traveled faster, I traveled slower than planned. In Medellin we went to a soccer game. It was such a cool experience.. I cannot imagine what the world cup is like because they were going crazy despite the rain and rather slow game. I did a free walking tour in Medellin which was the most incredible tour I have ever been on.. I wish I could remember all of the details because there were soo many things he shared with us. Medellin was one of the most dangerous cities in the world about 12 years ago.. and today is fine. There are still sketchy parts like any big city but the things the city has done to turn around what a difficult and hardships in the past was amazing to me. The tour guide was also the first person to honestly discuss Colombian history and why the people are the way they are.. Many people think.. how can people from Colombia be so happy yet your lives are so hard, or have been so hard in the past. 6 MILLION... yes 6 million innocent people have been killed because of drug trade. We walked through many parts of the city not recommended to go to by Colombians but witnessed the real Medellin. One of the subway stops we chatted under was where the tour guides best childhood friend was killed when a carbomb exploded. He definitely put us into a Colombians shoes. The last part of the tour was left on definitely an intense note.. It was a statue by Botero, a Colombian artist which had been bombed at a public concert.. The mayor of the city at the time asked the artist to remake the statue which was crumbled and the cat was kind of shattered.. The artist did agree to make a new one but asked that the current one remain there exactly as is, after the bomb hit it to remind people of the past and have the new one next to it and to have hope for the future. He helped me to understand that Colombians hold onto the good things that have happened.. They forget about the millions of people killed for no reason, and all the hard times but hold onto the one cyclist they had enter the final four of the Tour De France, or a few years back when they did a great job at the World Cup... these are clips played on tv all the time and people still go crazy for them. My words dont do the tour justice, but this was kind of the tipping point for my love of Colombia. The next day... I did another intense tour. The Pablo Escobar tour where we drove around many sites of the city important to Pablo Escobar or somehow related to drug cartels. Many of the buildings sadly are completely empty and huge.. like the apartment building with a rooftop pool is sitting empty and a guard is paid to watch the building, we went to his grave which is the most visited grave in South AMerica, the home where he was apparently killed.. including the exact sidewalk block. We also drove along a very very scary looking street in the city. Many of the people on the street are related to the drug trade and addicted to Bazuko... Bazuko is the first by product pf cocoa leaves in making cocaine.. The looks on peoples faces was so intense and horrifying. Pablo Escobar paid off all of Colombias debt at one point in time and did a lot for poor people including giving them places to live so they would like him... I honestly had no idea who he was until this tour and so glad I learned even more about things this country has faced. Some cool things I tried eating and drinking were guaraba juice I believe which is sugar cane juice, and lime juice and ohhh so refreshing.
Light beams of hope in Medellin
Medellin Soccer Match
Next I headed to Guatape to see the amazing lake district a few hours from Medellin and hiking up a 745 step stone to have one of the most amazing views in the world. It was nice to catch up on a lot of missed sleep and get some exercise in! That night I headed on a night bus to Bogota. I was a little bit nervous because I would have to hang out in a bus companies office for a few hours in this tiny city but they let me on an earlier bus. When I sat down, a guy behind me asked if I was from Colombia... He was from California and working in Colombia, and Chile, and heading to Bogota for a business trip. It was so lucky I met him because when we arrived in the morning it was much earlier than I thought and I didnt know where to go in a taxi and such. So he took me to the hostel where he was staying. In Bogota I met with Edith & Alfonso who I met the night out in Cartagena. They brought their sweet baby Mathias around with us on our little city tour. We went through the central park , through La Candelaria where Bogota first started and is kind of now the hippie area of the city, then to some shopping malls to see some lights, and finally had some dinner at their house. It was soo sweet of them to show me around on their day off! They are very understanding with my limited spanish and they speak very slowly and simply so I can understand everything! It s a cool feeling to understand everything but that doesnt happen often. The next day in Bogota I ventured to a waterfall which looked absolutely awesome in the picture but there was a huge cloud on the canyon. I went here with another Colombian guy I met in panama. Since we couldnt see the waterfall we wandered around the little pueblos as they call it or towns. Another night George and I went to see a movie... eeek I don{t remember the name in 4D, sooo the seats moved. It was soo cool, had no idea they had this. A lovely group of people I met in Bogota were heading to Cali so I decided to join them.. this was kind of a lot to handle because going from solo travel to waiting for a group of 7 was a lot... BUT it{s not like I had anything else to lose. We arrived in Cali at 1am after a much longer than expected bus journey! The hostel we were staying at was very expensive but really nice and included breakfast and had a beautiful swimming pool.. which was perfect for what I heard about Cali... not a lot to do during the day time but amazing nightlife and salsa. The hostel also included free yoga & salsa classes. Sadly two of my classes were absolutely terrible, but I still kept going to them and had a blast at the other ones. The nights we would stay out from 11 until 5am just dancing salsa, bachata, and meringue. I also knew that there was a feria going on or a festival during christmas sooo decided to stick it out and hang for a while.
The group decided while we had so many days until christmas to check out the pacific beach. None of them had done a ton of research about where we were headed and I had asked them specifically if someone had found all the information otherwise I would find it myself... Lesson learned haha never trust someone else. The journey there was very expensive and well the beach was actually really kind of gross. We were told what we wanted to hear several times which a lot of the time ended up being a complete and utter lie... The driver of the van taxi told us he would drive us all the way to our desired hostel... some of the girls had huge packs weighing 28 pounds so they could not walk far... We were dropped off and told to walk 15 minutes... Not only was it much more than 15 minutes the "road"was completely mud and it was getting dark... and people who walked past us told us it wasn't safe for us to be out walking at night... haha. Soo we finally arrived at a shabby looking little hut and asked if they had 8 beds for us to stay in... Thankfully they did. It isn't where we wanted to stay but we didn't really care at that point. There were absolutely no stores and this road was completely deserted. The lady of the hut said she would cook us dinner, which was arepas (kind of like a fried tortilla), eggs and rice..Very simple but I really couldn't be bothered to go walk any further and really just wanted to sleep after not sleeping so well in the hostel the past few nights with so much noise and so many people in and out. A few others went out exploring and found a little more civilization.. The next day we headed out for lunch and saw the dirty dirty beach, and ate a very simple meal at a little hut restaurant. There are no cars in this village and everything is just a muddy path... so getting anywhere was adventure. Sadly while at lunch we saw a sloth tied up to a pole and little boys swinging beautiful dead iguanas around like swords. It was a very unique experience but I would definitely preferred to have just hung out in Cali! Lessons learned and information shared with other people of course.
After returning to Cali we did much of the same stuff but also made a delicious Christmas dinner. I was sad that I couldn't skype with the family because the internet at the hostel was absolutely terrible. The first night of feria, we went to check out a free concert, then some christmas lights and beer tents, and the next day a parade where there were all sorts of interesting things! Tons of salsa dancers, and characters dressed up including Hitler... Not quite sure what the message with Hitler was. Another night we went to hang out outside of another mega concert, but this one wasn't free but Enrique Iglesias and some other famous latin people there. Our plan was to hang out and if we could find cheap tickets buy them.. We almost were able to sneak in but as we finally mustered up the courage to clmb this hidden ladder they forgot to take down.. someone on the inside of the stadium was watching.. then they removed the ladders from both sides.. bummer. After that we just decided to get tickets... silly though.. we didn't make the guy who was selling us the tickets come with us to the booth.. then we bought false tickets :( . Luckily we only lost 25 dollars each. Soo it could have been worse.
Colombian food is similar to other countries in Latin America... rice, sometimes beans or lentils, a piece of meat, arepas, plantains, and a little tiny portion of salad. It was simple but good. Meals cost around 4 to 8 dollars each. Hostels were around 12 to 15 dollars a night sometimes including simple breakfast like bread or cereal. Aguadiente is the alcohol of Colombia and is like oouzo or flavor of Aniz.. A small bottle is about 6 dollars.
Leaving Colombia was soo hard... the bus tickets were booked and I literally had to run to get on this tiny tiny bus and thought it was a sign I should stay... The bus was an adventure, 10 hours on a tiny bus during the night.. then two other buses and taxis to the border and walking across the border to Ecuador. Colombia has a huge place in my heart for soo many reaonss. Colombia is amazing because you have so many people of different colors all living together in what seems to be peace, there are so many different landscapes, temperatures, types of people, plants grown, and just overcoming such hardships... I never felt unsafe during my trip. There are so many police all over the place. People are generally minding their own business. Tourism in Colombia has grown something like 400% each year since 2011... sooo I think that will continue to grow. BUT it definietly goes on my top countries list.
Deje mi corazon en Colombia
Leaving Colombia was soo hard... the bus tickets were booked and I literally had to run to get on this tiny tiny bus and thought it was a sign I should stay... The bus was an adventure, 10 hours on a tiny bus during the night.. then two other buses and taxis to the border and walking across the border to Ecuador. Colombia has a huge place in my heart for soo many reaonss. Colombia is amazing because you have so many people of different colors all living together in what seems to be peace, there are so many different landscapes, temperatures, types of people, plants grown, and just overcoming such hardships... I never felt unsafe during my trip. There are so many police all over the place. People are generally minding their own business. Tourism in Colombia has grown something like 400% each year since 2011... sooo I think that will continue to grow. BUT it definietly goes on my top countries list.
Deje mi corazon en Colombia
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