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6 weeks Colombia annalovestraveling
Pueblitos de Boyacá
June 3, 2015 in Colombia ⋅ ☀️ 30 °C
I went with Alicia to two of the small villages: Iza and Monguí. Iza didn't really have anything to offer (later we were told that people just came on Sundays to eat desserts), but Monguí is really nice. Even though there isn't much activity either, it is reasonable that it was voted the most beautiful village in Boyacá (the departamento, which is similar to a state).
In the evening I prepared some nice Bratkartoffeln mit Spinat und Spiegelei.Read more
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6 weeks Colombia annalovestraveling
Way too short reunion
June 4, 2015 in Colombia ⋅ 🌙 18 °C
Today I could finally spend some actual time with my “feo“ (= uggly) Chris, since it was the only day this week without exams. We did had a present trip (even enough it kept raining) to Playa Blanca at the Laguna de Tota. We had a lot of fun and at the same time it was really weird to remember that we had only known each other for around 1 1/2 days we had spend together with friends in Cancun. It rather felt as if we had been friends for years.
Before we left in the morning and also the evening before, I could proof that the German frase “Liebe get durch den Magen“ (=“love comes through your stomach“) is actually true. Like I mentioned in the post before, I prepared some German food together with Chris' grandma. When he came back from his exam, we still sat on the table after dinner, together with his aunt, talking and laughing a lot. He finally thought that he had been exchanged, when he wanted to drink some of the juice and his grandma told him that he couldn't because she had prepared it for me :D
It was really sad leaving after such a short time, but I'm also looking forward to arriving at the house of my flatmate Damaris in just a few hours.Read more
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6 weeks Colombia annalovestraveling
(Colombian) Christian Church
June 5, 2015 in Colombia ⋅ ☀️ 26 °C
Since the bus last night was fairly delayed and consequently none of us slept before 2.30, it took pretty long in the morning for everyone to get up. Therefore, after our really late breakfast we just did a little trip to the central point of Colombia, which is just 10 minutes by motorbike from Damaris' house, and saw where some of the boats stop on the rivers. Since right now it's wet season, you can't even see where the river is supposed to be - it overflowed its banks everywhere in the surroundings. Even the cattle had to stand inside the water.
Damaris' parents both are pastors at an Christian church, so in the evening everyone went to "culto" (=worship). I didn't want to be rude, so I went with them. Besides, I was curious about the differences between Christian (a type of protestant) and Catholic church.
At first it seemed pretty much like a mixture of poetry slam and a concert, only with religious texts. Apparently it was important to be the loudest and most passionate of all, using a facial expression of suffering, while the other people where in a kind of global hypnosis. Up to this moment I only thought “well, it's still not my thing, but they seem to like it“. But after around one hour came the turning point, when the guy at the front started to shout even more an half of the people had a mental breakdown, crying, lying on the floor, not able to do anything else but screaming. It was one of the worst things ever, and I still wander why anyone should go to such a service.Read more
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6 weeks Colombia annalovestraveling
Villavicencio
June 7, 2015 in Colombia ⋅ ⛅ 27 °C
Yesterday after breakfast, Damaris and I went together to Villavicencio, the town where she studies. Besides, here a living two friends of mine: Daniela, my flatmate from the first semester in Mexico, and Vanessa, the one from the second one. Damaris had to meet up with some classmates (and later went back to Puerto López), while I went with Daniela for lunch.
Afterwards, I left my stuff in Daniela's house and we waited for some friends to pick us up, because we wanted to go to a swimming pool at a hotel. But obviously nothing here works according to “german time“: they guys had problems with their car, so it took them eternal to arrive, plus they drove a wrong way, for which it took another hour from the house to the hotel. When we finally arrived, it was already getting dark (remember: sunset in Colombia is at 6pm all year) and we just relaxed there a bit, drinking aguardiente (the typical colombian licuor). Besides two other girls, all of them were on a weekend trip from Bogotá, most of them guys (which ment we paid only our taxi home and the entrance for the club).
Later, we went to the famous nightclub Capachos, which has different floors for electro&vallenato, salsa and one for Mexican music. Even better is, that starting from 2 am they had loads of gratis food outside. Around 4 we went back to the hotel of the guys for the after party. It wasn't as easy as it sounds: we had to climb a barbed wire and many of the girls who wore high heels couldn't walk anymore (I was really lucky I just took my flats), so the guys carried them. Two had to go all the way back, because Daniela lost her keys - but, gentleman like they are, obviously only the guys went in search for them.Read more
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6 weeks Colombia annalovestraveling
The party continues
June 8, 2015 in Colombia ⋅ ⛅ 24 °C
After a shower the day “started“ directly with lunch at the finca (=farm) of Daniela's family, which is on a little mountain. Since it rained heavily, we didn't stay there for long, but went back to the house to catch up on some sleep.
In the afternoon, we went again to the hotel. In the big group of almost 25 people we had a bonfire and later went all to the pool, where we also started the next morning.
This day - equal as many days in Colombia -was all about food: first we had a colombian breakfast (caldo, arepa, torta de plátano, pan) at the hotel and in the afternoon Vanessa, a flatmate from my second semester in Monterrey, invited us for lunch. First we had Ajíaco (a soup of potatoes and corn, served with chicken, rice, avocado and banana - I know, those Colombians are crazy) at her place, then we went to get grandma's, because she had prepared rice arepas.
We ended the day on top of the same mountain as the day before. From up there you have a nice view and can drink aguapanela con queso (if you order it without cheese, you can shock every Colombian). Besides, there is a famous monument called piedra de amor (= stone of love).Read more
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6 weeks Colombia annalovestraveling
Puerto López again
June 9, 2015 in Colombia ⋅ 🌙 15 °C
Since I had only spent one day in Puerto López before, I came back for another two days. Today didn't do a lot, we just went to one of the rivers and had a little boat trip with two fishermen. Unfortunately, the fish didn't want to swim into the net. In the afternoon, we built a swimming pool in the backyard. After church this evening (this time I didn't go), some people wanted to evangelize me, i.e. talk about Jesus and how awesome he is - fortunately they had to leave earlier.
The next day, we went to a close-by dancing school for kids, so I could see Joropo, the typical dance of the region.
Again I realized that this house is a little different from the others. Not only is it directly next to the church of Damaris' parents, but also it is open all day, so the people in town come around to talk, greet or just sit in the living room for a while.Read more
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6 weeks Colombia annalovestraveling
Colombianadas
June 10, 2015 in Colombia ⋅ ☀️ 19 °C
Weird things made in Colombia:

- Aguapanela con queso - water with cane sugar and cheese
- Using the motorbike for everything, even 4 persons, a dog and mattresses
- Even in the hottest cities, lunch always includes soup
- There is an unbelievable variance of fruits, but they never seem to eat any
- Also, in a supermarket you have to search a while to find bottled water of more than 500ml, since people almost only drink juices (fresh and delicious :P)
- Street signs warn of monkeys instead of dears
- Classes (even of most secondary schools) start at 6am
- There are no seasons: the climate only changes between rainy and dry (temperature stays almost the same all year), sun goes up at 6am and down at 6pm every single day
- Colombia is famous for its coffee (called tinto), and even the kids drink it
- No meal is complete without rice, doesn't matter if breakfast, lunch or dinner
- Everything is fried and older people that visit Germany are convinced that there is absolutely no food, because the unfried one doesn't count
- Besides, 90% is carbs: it is normal here to get a plate with rice, pasta and arepas combined, not even always complemented by meatRead more
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6 weeks Colombia annalovestraveling
Welcome to Eje Cafetero
June 11, 2015 in Colombia ⋅ ⛅ 19 °C
The Eje Cafetero (= Coffee Branch) of Colombia, lies in the central west of the country. Because of its high coffee production, it is one of the economically mist important regions and for its landscapes, part of it is an UNESCO World Heritage. One of the famous cities here is Pereira, where my flatmate Felipe lives.
After an exhausting bus ride all night on a curvy road, but nevertheless at full speed, which made it impossible to sleep, he and his dad picked me up and showed me around in the city and in Felipes university. At night, we went with his brother and his girlfriend to town, where we had some decent colombian coffee. Also, we went to a brewery and later to a bar which sells guarapo de caña (a typical colombian drink made of fermented sugar cane).Read more
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6 weeks Colombia annalovestraveling
Salento: the coffee capital
June 12, 2015 in Colombia ⋅ ⛅ 18 °C
It is a cute little village around one hour from Pereira, in the coffee state Quindío. One of the main attractions is the Cocora valley with its famous wax palm trees, the highest in the world. Since I'm going on a huge hike for the next two days, I skipped this part to save my energy. Instead, I wandered around the town and went to a little coffee farm.Read more
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6 weeks Colombia annalovestraveling
Disconnect: Laguna del Otún
June 15, 2015 in Colombia ⋅ ⛅ 10 °C
3 days, no shower nor mirror, 18km of distance, 2000m difference in altitude, 6 started the hike, 2 arrived at the top

Getting to this lake, which is located on an altitude of 3950m, takes you to your limits. Not only because of the distance and the inclination on that altitude, but also because the rocky path is really difficult to walk.
We wanted to start on Saturday early in the morning to be back in Pereira by Sunday night. The problem, though, was that Felipe's girlfriend Camila didn't have time before 10. Since the chivas, a very typical colombian vehicle for all types of ground, don't leave that often, we had to wait till 12 and started walking around 2pm.
I was sceptic about the idea to leave that late, because we would have had to walk in the darkness from the first campground La Pastora (6km, 3h) to the second one called El Jordan. The guys were optimistic and didn't see any problem, but were disabused by the owner of La Pastora, who affirmed my worries, telling them that it was impossible to continue at night. Consequently, we had to camp there, making it impossible to hike up and back down the next day.
Since not everyone could stay another day, we had to split the group: Felipe, Camila and Julian went down on Sunday and only visited the waterfalls that are close to La Pastora, while Pablo, Lucho and I continued the hike. Lucho had huge problems with the altitude, so in the end we had to leave him at Jordan, where he already prepared the tents to stay there at night. But still we lost a lot of time waiting for him on our way there. Despite the shortcut we took on the last part to the lagune, it took us another 4 hours, fighting against the exhaustion and our hurting muscles. Nevertheless, the landscapes, changing from rainforest to “normal“ forest and later to páramo, as well the view on the lake, was worth all that. It was incredibly cold, but equally beautiful.
We couldn't stay long, since it was almost 5 and there were only 1 1/2 hours of at least a little bit of light left. Even though we almost ran the way back, the last hour was of complete darkness. Our camping spot was awesome: in the middle of nowhere, there wasn't even light on the finca, but the view was amazing. We got up, while next to our tent a horse was looking for food,a few meters away a calf observed us and on the next mountain we could see a waterfallwaterfall.
Monday was even worse than the 11h marathon of the day before: we tried to take the 12 o'clock chiva to town, but going down that fast after 2 days of hiking and without breaks was like hell. We made it in 4h, but missed the chiva by 20 minutes. Finally on our way down, it was so full that many of the people had to ride on the roof of the chiva.Read more
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6 weeks Colombia annalovestraveling
“Finally“ sick
June 17, 2015 in Colombia ⋅ ☁️ 20 °C
On the hike we obviously couldn't bring water for three days, so we had to refill our bottles at the fincas. At one of them, it didn't seem really clean, but since we didn't have a choice we drank it. Since then I have had strong stomach problems, ruining a bit the last days.
Yesterday, it made our trip to the parque del café, already difficult due to my sore muscles, even harder. Still we had a lot of fun on the coffee trail and the different rollercoasters (it was Felipes first time riding one and his dad also tried all of them).
The worst was the bus ride to Medellín: 5 hours on an extremely curvy road with a driver that seemed to be on a race. But in the end it was worth it, because that way I was able to see two Mexican friends before they left the town :)Read more
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6 weeks Colombia annalovestraveling
Medellin City
June 18, 2015 in Colombia ⋅ ⛅ 20 °C
Today I explored a little bit more of the “town of endless spring“: I went to Plaza Botero (the famous artist who designs everything more voluminous) and to the Museo de Antioquia. Since I'm still but really feeling well, I had to go back to the hostel for a while, before I could had out again.
In the afternoon I met João, a Brazilian I got to know on the exchange. At the moment he is doing a social service in Medellín. We first went to Palacio de la Cultura, then we met some of his friends and went to San Antonio, to Plaza de las Luces.Read more
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6 weeks Colombia annalovestraveling
Discovering Medellín's Beauty
June 19, 2015 in Colombia ⋅ ⛅ 25 °C
Finally almost done with the sickness, this day was a whole new experience of Medellín. Not only did I get the construction workers to (almost) stop from staring at me when I was walking by, asking them if they didn't have work, but also I could enjoy everything more.
In the morning I went with João to Parque Explora, a really cool interactive museum on many different topics. I could have stayed there all day, if there wouldn't have been large groups of children. For this reason, I also went to places that are more in the center, like Parque de Pies Descalzos (= barefoot park), Museo del agua and Parque de la Libertad, which are some of the nicest places in the city. After that, I also finally wasn't too tired to hang out with the other people of the hostel.Read more
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6 weeks Colombia annalovestraveling
Guatapé & Piedra de Peñol
June 21, 2015 in Colombia ⋅ ⛅ 24 °C
In the middle of antioquian mountains, two hours from Medellín, there is a huge stone “lying“ around: Piedra de Peñol. To reach the top, you have to climb 740 stairs - but the view on the numerous lagunes is worth it! Afterwards, we (a Danish girl, a Brazilian and a guy from Venezuela) relaxed and had some really good lunch in the nearby village Guatapé.
In the evening, we went to rumba (= dancing) in El Poblado, the barrio we are staying at in Medellín.Read more
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6 weeks Colombia annalovestraveling
Welcome to paradise
June 22, 2015 in Colombia ⋅ 🌧 37 °C
Yesterday I finally arrived to the caribbean cost, in Santa Marta. I already felt the flair inside the plane, since the margin of the airport is the sea. I took a bus to town (45 minutes for only 1500$ = 0.50€ !!) and luckily met a local guy who showed me how to get to the hostel. I would never had expected it to be in such a dead neighborhood, but when I went through the door it was like entering into a different world: a pool, a restaurant, billiard, a chill out area, a bunch of people and great atmosphere - this hostel is amazing!! In the same moment I decided to stay as many nights here as possible.
Today, I met the guys from the hostel in Medellín and we went to Concha bay, a beautiful beach in Parque Tayrona, the famous National Park here. At 4pm sharp, everyone left and we had it all for ourselves, because we had told our driver to pick us up at 5.

P.S.: if you should wonder about the last picture - I haven't mentioned yet that in Colombia there are not only a lot of street dogs, there are also street horses.Read more
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6 weeks Colombia annalovestraveling
Parque Nacional Natural Tayrona
June 23, 2015 in Colombia ⋅ ⛅ 39 °C
The park offers a lot of hikes, which guide you through tropical forest to the countless beaches. The walks are not difficult, but because of the hot and humid climate, you sweat a lot.
It was really worth going, already because I finally saw the typical little monkeys, Micos Titi, that I was looking for all the time. I couldn't have left Colombia if I hadn't :D. Besides, the beaches are divine - it's just impossible to describe their beauty. However, you can't swim on many of them have dangerous streams and high waves.
The only a little bit annoying thing was buying the ticket: you first had to watch a video and then wait in a line of only 20 persons for more than half an hour.Read more
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6 weeks Colombia annalovestraveling
Deutsche Bahn Colombia
June 24, 2015 in Colombia ⋅ 🌬 40 °C
Reading all the Spiegel-Online stories about the strikes of Deutsche Bahn (sure, this isn't new), I was really happy to be at the other end of the world - until strikes reached me here as well, here by the bus drivers of Santa Marta. It wasn't the first one I had seen in the small caribbean town, but the first that affected me, because today I wanted to go to the fishers' village Taganga, around 30 minutes away.
Actually there were still a few buses running, but besides the fact that I didn't want to rely on the hope to find one back to the hostel in the evening, I didn't think they were safe either: police had to escort each of those few buses, since the striking drivers tried to stop them. Therefore, I preferred to stay at the hostel pool.Read more
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6 weeks Colombia annalovestraveling
Cartagena de indias
June 26, 2015 in Colombia ⋅ 🌙 26 °C
My last stop in Colombia was the colonial town Cartagena. I arrived there yesterday afternoon by bus and spent the rest of the day wandering through the cute little streets and eating coconut (here they first open it for you, so you can drink the coconut water, then they Resource the rest of the coverings so you can eat the rest, all that for only 4,000 COP = 1.40€).
Today at breakfast I met a nice American couple and joint their boat trip. We first stopped at Isla del Rosario to snorkel at its coral reefs, then we continued to Isla de Barú to enjoy the beautiful Playa Blanca. On our way, we were seriously begged money by a little guy paddling on a surf board. How would he have even transported the money?!?
In the evening, I went to see the football game (Colombia vs. Argentina, Copa America) with some people of the hostel. Afterwards, I met up with the Medellín guys to go out - a perfect last day.Read more
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Trip end
June 27, 2015