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Colombia

March - April 2018
Retro-actively entering the details of the Colombian trip from March/April 2018 so its captured before I forget the details Read more
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  • Colombia
    Day 17

    Panama City

    April 13, 2018 in Panama ⋅ ☀️ 31 °C

    Arrived in Panama City mid afternoon and was a bit too late to make our way to the Panama canal so we wandered around the hotel area to find a restaurant for some food. Found an interesting place and settled in for some food and drinks. Then both of us were exhausted so we wandered back to our hotel room for a nap. Unfortunately we woke up around midnight and our day was done. Clearly some late nights in Cartagena had a lssting impact. Will have to return someday and pick up where we left off.....
    -SP    Read more

  • Colombia
    Day 16

    Cartagena - Day 2

    April 12, 2018 in Colombia ⋅ ⛅ 29 °C

    Last day in Colombia :(

    With a full day in Cartagena, visiting the dominating fortress felt like a must. Have i mentioned how ridiculously hot it is in Cartagena? You are essentially a walking and talking fried egg. Which greatly impacted our enjoyment of the fortress. It was impressive, but all i could think of was not wanting to melt into the pavement.

    From there we visited the renowned covered market that stretched across a ridiculous distance. Had some.. interesting lunch there and then found our way out of the labyrinth and got ourselves to Cartagenas old town, which is really beautiful with all its pristinely kept colonial style buildings. Kristin did some shopping while i enjoyed a few beer in a hectic city square where its impossible to only people watch. The locals want to interact with you, although not always for the right reasons.

    Later on met up with our Colombian friend Alejandro who we met in providencia, for some drinks. Then we made our way back to the pub where we left off with our new cali friends from night before in the hopes they might be there. They were :) This turned into a very late night of many beers, laughs and friendships where we eventually left with several email addresses and invitations to return and stay in their homes someday down the road. Hugs were in great supply.

    And with heavy hearts, we went back to our hotel room to sleep one last time before starting the long journey home. -SP    Read more

  • Colombia
    Day 15

    Cartagena - Day 1

    April 11, 2018 in Colombia ⋅ ⛅ 29 °C

    This was a looong day.

    We made our way back to the palomino townsite via (mom, earmuffs) riding the back of two motorcycles, which we were starting to get pretty accustomed to now. And from there we stood on the side of the road until a bus came by. An hour later we were in Santa Marta again at the bus station trying to find passage to Cartagena. At this point we really hadnt dealt with bus stations and all our rides were either hired vehicles or hailing a bus passing by. As soon as we got there we were ushered into a line and into buying a ticket. What we didn't realize was that there are several different bus lines all with different prices, schedules and.. yes, speed. We chose..... poorly.

    We should have arrived in Cartagena in about 4 hours. But we did it about 7 due to our bus company choice. Saved a few pesos and lost a few hours. Arrived at the outskirts of the city and found a taxi to the old town. Our driver picked up a friend along the way which felt a bit concerning at the time but was just giving him a communal lift with us.

    Didnt arrive in old town until around 7 or 8pm. We had some places earmarked but they were all full. Settled for something pricier but felt very safe there. Kristin spotted a tavern advertising craft beer, which drew us in like flies to poo lol. Ended up meeting a Texan guy there who knew of a great restaurant nearby with great local food, so off we went. He was 100% bang on, and probably the best meal of the trip. The one thing colombians do really well is a stew-like soup. Amazing.

    The three of us headed back to the craft beer place, and this time it was far more lively with a big group of guys dominating the noise. I forget how, but we infiltrated this large group and discovered they were all in Cartagena for a brewers convention from Cali, Colombia. Before we knew it, we were best friends, taking over the bar, and pouring our own pints. They lead us to another craft pub that also made their own beer and thats where we finished the night. -SP    Read more

  • Colombia
    Day 14

    Palomino

    April 10, 2018 in Colombia

    Took a short bus ride up the coast to a town called Palomino. The town itself was nothing special but as we hiked from the townsite to the oceanside, its charm become very apparent very quickly. Miles and miles of pretty sandy beaches in both directions with hardly anyone around. In fact the hour long ride from tayrona to palomino was one massive long beach and almost no one to be seen anywhere.

    Walking along the beach there were a smattering of small rustic hostels and hotels mostly made of wood and thatch. We settled on a nice looking spot with a seaside restaurant and bar and got into our bathing suits immediately. The waves were pretty good, so i rented a boogie board and had fun for a few hours battling waves while kristin took in the rays. Later in the afternoon, it became a surfing party as mostly locals showed off their skills.

    Evening was pretty quiet. Enjoyed some food snd beer by the ocean as the sun went down then walked up snd down the beach checking out a few other establishments before calling it a night.

    I really loved Palomino's laid back surf town feel and felt i could have easily spent several days here learning how to surf and being a beachbum. Hopefully will find my way back here some day. But flight home was fast approaching and cartagena felt pretty far away. -SP    Read more

  • Colombia
    Day 13

    Tayrona - Day 2

    April 9, 2018 in Colombia ⋅ ⛅ 38 °C

    We had an ambitious plan for day 2 to enter a lesser known gate into the park; hike over and through some mountains, through some actual indigenous villages and finish up at the park's feature attraction: Cabo San Juan beach. Which is about as picture-postcard-perfect as it gets.

    However, my Santa Marta ice infused margarita was starting to rear its ugly head. Popped a bunch of counter-montezuma meds and headed back to do same route as yesterday but try to get much further. Far less monkeys this time but did reach idyllic cabo san juan beach and spent the bulk of our day enjoying the white sands against turquoise waters. Didnt feel so great and thoroughly enjoyed a lazy few hours in the sun instead of more intense jungle hiking.

    On the way back, another trekker spotted a sloth in a tree. I walked up to it and i scared it unintentionally. So it very slowly tried to get away. By the time circled the tree taking 25 shots of it, its arm has raised a few inches up haha. -SP    Read more

  • Colombia
    Day 12

    Tayrona - Day 1

    April 8, 2018 in Colombia ⋅ ☀️ 38 °C

    The bus ride to Tayrona National Park was only an hour. Checked into our hotel on the edge of the jungle and made our way to the park gate. Within minutes of entering the park we were startled by the bizarre sounds of howler monkees in nearby trees. They sound like ferocious monsters and not a furry primate.

    Tayrona is a mountainous jungle region that straddles the ocean and has several remote beaches but you have to hike a long ways through the jungle to reach them. With the late start we hiked about 90 mins in, enjoyed some time at a few different beaches and hiked 90 minutes back again before it got dark. And saw tons of monkeys along the way. At one point a family of monkeys were moving in the canopy above us eating something from the tree and dropping the remains on top of us.

    We also passed some indiginous people in the jungle along the way. These people had nothing and were using potato sacks for clothes, and selling homemade juices to hikers.

    Ate supper back at the hotel and had an early night. I unwisely had a drink the night before in santa marta with ice and the effects of that were starting to kick in. -SP    Read more

  • Colombia
    Day 11

    Santa Marta - Day 2

    April 7, 2018 in Colombia ⋅ ⛅ 37 °C

    We decided Santa Marta seemed like a place worth experiencing on a Saturday night so we descended the mountain back to SM, checked back into the super cool hostel from a few days prior and then took a taxi to Taganga for a day trip.

    Taganga was a nice seaside town with lots of of waterfront establishments, a small beach and nice views of mountains everywhere, but it was missing charm. Stayed for a few hours and headed back to Santa Marta. I think our taxi was about $10 each way.

    My favourite meal of the entire trip was here in the large street food market we stumbled across. I got a quart of beer, a huge soup, a chicken and potatoes dish all for about $5 total. Kristin found a poutine on steroids that was amazing. We didn't even eat half of it but wow was it good. The swarm of cats that surrounded us were in full agreement.

    From there we checked out a bunch of the local nightlife. Drinks at a rooftop lounge, street level cocktails and eventually dancing at another rooftop spot where we met a couple of nice Colombian guys that we spent the rest of the night with. They wanted to cap the night with some drinks on the beach but i was getting a weird vibe and we called it a night. Also because the next day we were heading to the famous Tayrona national park and it was already 3am. -SP    Read more

  • Colombia
    Day 10

    Minca - Day 2

    April 6, 2018 in Colombia ⋅ ⛅ 33 °C

    For our second and last day in Minca, we opted to seek out a tour company to hike to a private waterfall that was *much* bigger. We ended up with our own private tour guide Camillo who took us off road almost immediately and right into the jungle canopy. Hiked through tons of banana trees and avocado trees, eating some along the way, eventually descending down to a river cutting through it all.

    We followed the river and reached the approach to the waterfall which was in a bit of a canyon. From here to get closer you had to swim hard against a fairly strong currently to get to the base of the falls and again really hard to get in behind it. Kristin opted out for that last stretch which was pretty challenging and I barely made it.

    On the way back stopped and had a few beers at a cool cantina literally on some rocks in the middle of the river. If that wasn't enough, we decided to seek out a third waterfall since the day was still relatively young. Hiked uphill what seemed like forever and reached a picturesque tall cascading set of falls. We probably should have enjoyed it's beauty a lot more but we were exhausted, sun was starting to go down and we were a bit waterfalled out I think. Still, incredibly pretty.

    Finally back in Minca, we sought out camillo, who was now bartending and we met his boss who took a shine to us and we ended up going out for dinner together. This guy was quite the character. He seemed to have a connection with every single person in town, like the mayor, but had everyone in his back pocket too. At the restaurant he chose, I asked what was a good local dish, so this guy asked the waiter to bring out the chef, and then asked him to prepare a special meal off menu just for me. Haha, and he agreed. He insisted on paying for the bill but had no money lol, and somehow he sweet talked our way out of there without paying a single peso. Very weird but amusing evening. Followed by 236 stairs to bed. -SP    Read more

  • Colombia
    Day 9

    Minca - Day 1

    April 5, 2018 in Colombia ⋅ ⛅ 31 °C

    Today we were off to the mountain village of Minca. We followed the lonely planet guide's directions through santa Marta's chaotic, bustling streets to where a bus could take us there. But we never found it and instead hired a van to take us. Only about an hour drive, but all of it winding up twisting mountain roads through dense jungle high above the urban center of Santa Marta.

    The night before we booked a really cool looking tree house hostel, but we didn't realize there was no road to get us to it. Our driver dropped us off at the bottom of a trail going up the mountain. So with backpacks on (this is where you truly realize you packed too much), we tredged up and up and up like mules with supplies.

    After checking in, we found some recommended hiking trails to waterfalls, picked one and headed off. You'd think hiking to a waterfall would be downhill towards water, but you'd be very wrong in Colombia. We were on a dirt road most of the way, but the thick jungle all around and exotic bird calls felt more like the Colombian adventure we were looking for.

    Along the way, a local who owned an organic coffee plantation invited us to join him for a cup. Never had coffee like that before - black and zero bitterness. Amazing.

    The waterfall itself was ok, but perhaps a bit underwhelming. But the trek was a good start to future treks in northern Colombia. We hiked back to Minca, and back up to our treehouse in time for a fantastic sunset. Then back into town for some food and back up the 236 stairs again to bed. -SP    Read more

  • Colombia
    Day 8

    Travel day (to Santa Marta)

    April 4, 2018 in Colombia ⋅ ☀️ 39 °C

    After a late night hanging out with other backpackers at Roland's rustic, yet stunning beach bar, we got up at 5:45am to get a taxi to the ferry port. Ferry left around 7am and got us back to San Andres island at 11am. Had 4 hours to kill before the flight back to mainland Colombia so grabbed some lounging chairs at nearby beach bar and enjoyed some cold ones. Pretty sweet way to kill a few hours before flying. The beach bar was literally a 10 minute walk from the airport.

    Unfortunately we had to fly all the way back to Bogota and switch planes to Santa Marta which meant we'd be flying past our destination on the way to Bogota. Booo.

    With two hours layover, it should have been loads of time, but our flight was a bit delayed and then eventually we figured out we had to switch terminals.. but how? There was no signage and everyone we asked gave us a different answer. Literally 8 different answers. Once we found the bus and switched terminals we didn't expect to have issues finding the gate but once again nothing was marked for us to go upstairs for that particular gate so we ran all over the place looking for clues like we were on the amazing race. Seriously, it was pretty frantic.

    On the second flight, Kristin was sitting next to an incredibly friendly and chatty Colombian guy .. while I caught up on sleep :). On arrival, we had nothing booked and our plan was to get downtown and ask the taxi driver for a safe area to stay, near or in the old town.

    Appropriately for our day, our driver spoke zero English.. but he was incredibly kind hearted and spent a ton of time driving us around to find something and understand what we wanted. I think we walked into the hostel around 10pm? Looong day. 1 boat, 3 taxis, 1 bus and 2 planes later, we were finally there. Btw super cool hostel with cabanas on 4 levels and a pool and bar on top level. Ventured out for a bit of food and some beer to unwind after a somewhat stressful series of transportation switches. Probably doesn't sound like much fun but I swear it's days like this that sometimes puts the bigger smile on your face later on. All part of the adventure. -SP    Read more

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