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Colombia v2.0

November 2023
A 12-day adventure by Sean & Kris Read more
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  • Colombia v2.0
    Day 1

    Bogota - Day 1

    November 8, 2023 in Colombia ⋅ ⛅ 20 °C

    Yay back to latin america!

    Long travel day. Had to get up at 345am and after a 4 hour stop in fort lauderdale, arrived in Bogota at 5pm. Same time zone.

    My buddy Kris wasn't arriving until after 8pm so i made my way to the old town. Checked into my hotel and wandered around the colonial streets until i stumbled across a bbc (bogota beer company) location. There must be 50 of them in bogota.

    Met two crazy characters from tennessee at bbc who were both surprisingly very left leaning politically. I guess no book cover judging applies :) rediscovered south american honey beer. Sooo good.

    Once that closed, found my way to a bunch of bar lined pedestrian streets and found a place and eventually Kris found me to share a beer before finally getting some much needed sleep. One more flight tomorrow and can put some roots down for a bit    Read more

  • Colombia v2.0
    Day 2

    Medellin - Day 1

    November 9, 2023 in Colombia

    Got in a few hours sleep and headed back to the airport to catch a plane to Medellin. Picked up our rental car at the airport and started driving to Guatape. Gorgeous scenery winding through the mountains.

    Two hours later arrived at Piedra de el peñol. A huge rock jutting straight up several hundred feet. It has a staircase to the top built into a natural crevice of the rock but unfortunately was closed for repairs. Still the views from its base were high above Guatape and made for fantastic sights. Enjoyed a cold beer here and then drove down to Guatape

    Guatape is a small, colorful colonial town that has been beautifully preserved. Took a while to find parking and finally had our first meal of the day at 4pm. Walked around the cobblestone streets and waa repeatedly rewarded venturing down random side streets with charming buildings and murals and artwork everywhere.

    Would have loved to spend a lot more time exploring but it was getting a bit late and we still had to drive back to medellin and i really didn't want to be driving those mountain roads in the dark.

    The drive back took about 3 hours. The approach into medellin was pretty spectacular. Medellin sits in bowl completely surrounded by high mountains and our approach was high, high above the city. Completely dark at that point but the lights below and up the mountain sides was quite a sight

    Took us quite a while to navigate our way down the mountain and find our condo building. Using only a voice assisted gps is almost useless because there are so many possible splits in the road, its incredibly easy to make wrong choices. Which we did a number of times haha.

    Checked into our luxury condo and eventually got ourselves to the very busy and richy area of el poblado for some drinks and a bit more food before calling it a night. It felt like the entire city was on this one particular pedestrian street with hundreds of restaurants and bars. I found one called medellin beer company and we relexed there for a while. And hit a few other places amongst the crowds until our eyes were starting to close. We were still super tired from the journey from canada plus a very full first day.    Read more

  • Colombia v2.0
    Day 3

    Medellin - Day 2

    November 10, 2023 in Colombia ⋅ ☁️ 27 °C

    We wanted to drive to santa fe today but medellin has really strict rules for different licence plates being restricted from the road on different days. And sure enough, our licence plate ends with an 8, and friday is restricted on 8's.

    So we went to center area of medellin and walked around. Found a nice place for lunch and then found a place that would cut a copy of our condo key for us. One key for 2 people is kinda silly.

    The center area is totally chaotic and soooo many people everywhere. It was fun to walk around but after a while it was sensory overload and we had to get out of there.

    Popped by Bipolar brewery on the way back to our condo, rested for a bit and then went back to the incredibly busy el poblado restaurant area for food, drinks and an attempt at dancing haha.    Read more

  • Colombia v2.0
    Day 4

    Medellin - Day 3

    November 11, 2023 in Colombia ⋅ ☁️ 26 °C

    Today did another day trip in our rental car to the town of Santa Fe. As usual, navigating our way out of medellin was an adventure with lots of wrong turns and then trying to deal with the ramifications of those errors and get back on track. This might be the most difficult city i have i ever driven in. Rio is a close second.

    The drive to santa fe was spectacular. In one hour's drive, we descended more than 3300 feet of elevation through some of the biggest and most dramatic mountains i have seen.

    Santa fe is a really nice old colonial city with cobblestone streets, and all the buildings are whitewashed. And hot!! What a difference it makes being at a lower elevation. Kris said the temperature was over 40 with humidity. I believe it.

    We walked around for a bit and had some fantastic food at a beautiful restaurant my travel book recommended. After about 2 hours, made the drive back to medellin.

    Rested up for a bit and then headed back to the el poblado area for some good beer and food. Starting at our usual spot Medellin Beer Factory. Waitress recognized us right away with huge smiles and enthusiastically took care of us. Colombians are such great hosts and very naturally caring and always aiming to please. Very salt of the earth. We have already had a number of acts of kindness that were very surprising. But less so while driving where every inch of road is a battle haha    Read more

  • Colombia v2.0
    Day 5

    Medellin - Day 4

    November 12, 2023 in Colombia

    Kris and i both slept in, which nullified a few ideas i had for today like parasailing and repelling down a waterfall.

    Instead, we signed up for a very popular grafitti and history tour. This tour takes place in the barrios (slums) of medellin but has now become a massive tourist attraction. The history of how commune 13 was established on the side of a mountain is equally fascinating and tragic. It used to be one of the most dangerous places in the world but that has been mostly cleaned up and is now a vibrant community with an immense amount of culture.

    Our walking tour climbed high up through the jungle of makeshift structures, learning about its history and the deeper meaning of many of the murals. We were also treated to a performance of professional break dancers, who were some of the most athletic and coordinated people I've ever witnessed.

    We went into galleries, treated to a local dessert, and even created some of our own graffiti with a spray can. And the views of the city were quite amazing too

    Our tour had 9 people, and 7 of us were canadians. 3 others were also from ottawa. Too funny. Got to know Sam and his girlfriend a bit and shared an uber on the long drive back to the richy area of el poblado.

    Went to a rooftop bar for snacks and beverages before heading out for one last meal in medellin. In bed relatively early for the travel day tomorrow    Read more

  • Colombia v2.0
    Day 6

    Leticia

    November 13, 2023 in Colombia ⋅ ⛅ 33 °C

    A mostly unexciting travel day. However, what lay ahead left us with soaring anticipation.

    Had to fly back to Bogota with a 3 hour layover and then catch a plane to Leticia, which is the gateway to the Amazon where we will start a 3 day tour with our guide i pre-hired.

    Didn't arrive in Leticia until 8pm. Sergio and his father greeted us at the airport and drove us to their office in town where they outfitted us with some rubber boots, and gave us a rundown about the start of our tour the next morning. It was nice to meet Sergio finally because i had been talking to him for quite a while arranging this tour. After that, sergio's father drove us to our nearby hotel.

    Wandered out to find some food at an arepa place and another spot for a few cold beers before getting to bed. Wow was it humid and thats at 10pm. I cant imagine how it will be midday in the jungle the next few days.

    Then off to bed because 530am was going to come quickly the next morning!    Read more

  • Colombia v2.0
    Day 7

    Puerto Nariño (Amazon) Day 1

    November 14, 2023 in Colombia ⋅ ☁️ 31 °C

    Had a 630am pickup to catch our 7am public transportation river boat from leticia to puerto nariña. 2 hour boat ride down the amazon and then greeted by Brehiner who will be our dedicated tour guide the next few days.

    This part of the amazon is interesting because the borders of cokombia, peru and brazil are all a few kilometers from each other. In puerto nariño, colombia is on one side of the amazon river. and peru is on the orher side of the river.

    Shortly after arriving, we got onto a smaller boat with our guide and a couple from germany/austria and headed to the peru side of the river where we would spend the next 5 hours in the peruvian jungle.

    Right away our guides found sloths in the trees. Most were really high up and hard to see but they found some much closer. Plus a number of vultures, exotic frogs, toucan, and some really strange looking bugs and plants. Plus crazy jungle trees. I can't describe how hot and humid that walk was. We were completely drenched just walking around.

    Had lunch in a remote tiny village and then back to our boat and back to colombia where Ramona and Tobias departed back to leticia. We had 90 minutes to lie down and try to cool off. I have never enjoyed a cold shower so much in my life! I actually took one cold shower, lay down for a bit and then took a second cold shower before our next excursion.

    Around 4pm, we were back in the boat, outfitted with rain gear and heading down the amazon to find a good spot for piranha fishing!

    We used sausage as bait and the piranha were incredibly adept at taking the bait off the hook without being able to feel. After a while i got a good system of slowly moving my hook so i could feel a bit of resistance and then pull hard if so. 7 different times i pulled a piranha out of the water but they fell off my hook each time. No one actually caught one but it was a really fun experience.

    Back in town, met up with our guide for some beers and eventually a very sound sleep to the sound of very loud frogs and bugs chirping away.    Read more

  • Colombia v2.0
    Day 8

    Puerto Nariño (Amazon) - Day 2

    November 15, 2023 in Colombia ⋅ ☁️ 31 °C

    Edit: re uploading vids and pics.. something went wrong on the first try

    Three more people joined our tour in the morning. Charlie and Mike from Belgium and Jack from Australia.

    Started the day looking for dolphins. Strangely enough, the amazon river has 2 types of dolphins, grey and pink. We got really lucky and saw so many grey dolphins jumping out of the water. And a bunch of pink ones breaching the surface of the water

    After that, boated over to a sandbar, and swam in the amazon for 30 minutes or so. Just enough to scorch everyone's shoulders but the water was so warm and refreshing that it was hard to think of anything else - like sunscreen apparently!

    Spent the early afternoon having lunch and getting to know the guys over some beers. Then started our colombia side jungle hike. First half of the hike was around dusk, in a much denser jungle than the peru side. The second half of the hike was completely in the dark with our headlamps and flashlights.

    Our guide was amazing at finding all sorts of massive insects, including tarantulas. Plus some poison dart frogs and of course jack the Australian found a snake haha. So cliché. Most of the insects were the size of my hand.

    Once we got back, had a quick supper at the hotel and then off to a place for some beers together.    Read more

  • Colombia v2.0
    Day 9

    Puerto Nariño - Day 3 / Bogota

    November 16, 2023 in Colombia ⋅ ☀️ 33 °C

    Started the morning walking 20 minutes to a large property to see the wild monkeys. Unfortunately the monkeys were somewhere else that day. But we did have fun feeding the macaws there and enjoying the beautiful estate overlooking the amazon river. For some reason the macaws didn't like Kris much cuz one bit him pretty good haha.

    After that went to the local museum which had great examples of all the wildlife in the area

    Our boat back to leticia was at 3, so we all had lunch and then sat at a bar near the river and had a few laughs until our boat came around. Pretty sure i will be visiting Mike and Charlie in belgium within the next year. Awesome guys.. we all got along famously right away. Jack was awesome too but australia is a fair wee bit further to reach. Hugs all around on departure.

    Had to wait 3 hours in leticia for our flight to bogota, so kris and i found a spot downtown for food and beer to kill a few hours

    We still had no hotel bookes yet for bogota and unfortunately we couldn't get our internet to work so we scrambled to book something at 10:30pm as we left the bogota airport. The place we booked with didn't allow checkins after 10pm, so we had a really difficult conversation on arrival at the hotel but eventually figured out an arrangement and we were no longer homeless yay

    Bounced around some nearby bars until we found 2 good ones that had great latin music that had everyone up and dancing (except us). And eventually headed home for the night. We were pretty tired.    Read more

  • Colombia v2.0
    Day 10

    Bogota - Day 3

    November 17, 2023 in Colombia ⋅ ☁️ 21 °C

    After Kris found some much needed sunburn cream for himself, we ventured off to hike to the summit of monserrate. The walk is a traditional el camino for residents of bogota to the church atop the mountain

    Its a fairly steep climb and exhausting under normal circumstances. But with Bogotá's already lofty elevation, adding 500 more meters contributed significantly to my lack of climitization. For most of the walk, i was struggling to get enough oxygen and the last 100m, i was a bit dizzy and disoriented. But we did it! And with fabulous views above the massive sprawling city.

    There are two very nice restaurants at the summit. We chose to eat at the traditional colombian restaurant over the french one. Prices were significantly greater than any other place we had been but wow was the food good. We feasted like kings and also enjoyed a few beers on the terrace. When we left the restaurant, we had to ascend 20+ stairs and we nearly keeled over. I guess the altitude plus beers were a strange combination.

    Later, went to one of the many bogota beer company locations. While enjoying some yummy craft beers, a bunch of locals invited me to join their table and share their massive beer tower with them. And after that, they took Kris and i to some dance clubs which ended up being a really fun night.    Read more

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