6 weeks Colombia

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Reisens start
14. mai 2015
6 weeks Colombia annalovestraveling
Vor dem Abflug
14. mai 2015, Mexico ⋅ ⛅ 15 °C
The trip has started, I'm sitting on Benito Juárez International Airport in Mexico City, waiting for my plane to Bogotá. This is nothing special so far, just an interesting insight on how it works here at night. The people obviously don't like to answer any questions at 6am and they can't see any reason why to some foreign passengers it might not be so clear why they have to fill in their destination in Mexico when leaving this country. Also, I didn't feel that save when I saw how the security lady fell asleep twice while checking my luggage. Buen viaje :DLes mer
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Bogotá - first impressions
14. mai 2015, Colombia ⋅ ⛅ 13 °C
Big, loud and loads of traffic - that's what I already expected. Moreover, Bogotá seems rather Industrial and actually (I know, people warned me before), pretty cold. It feels a little like Germany in autumn. My hostel is on the city center, La Candelaria, which is the most historical and cultural part of the city. Taxis here are not as cheap as I expected - for a little less than half an hour I paid $27,000 COP (=10€).
In thee plane I sat next to a girl from here, that told me about different sights, explained me how things work in Bogotá and helped me to get a cab. Getting close to my destination, I tried to get used to the order of the streets: there are carreras (north to south) and calles (east to west), and ALL OF THEM have numbers, as well as the houses. So for example my friend Daniel, where I arrived first to leave some of my luggage, lives in “Calle 127c #46-20“... Not confusing at all right :D.
Later, Daniel went with me to the center, to help me find my hostel and show be around a little bit.Les mer
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Bogotá - graffiti tour
15. mai 2015, Colombia ⋅ ⛅ 15 °C
Yesterday a guy in the hostel told me about a tour he had done. It was all about graffiti in La Candelaria, but they also have you some tips about that part of the city, so me and some other people decided to go.
I never imagined that there was such a lot of graffitis all over the town, it's literally everywhere! That's because in Bogotá many landowners allow the street artists to do there art on their walls, some even hire them, and even if artists get catched doing illegal graffiti, they only get a ticket worth the one for illegal parking. For those reasons, street artists from all over the world come to the city to paint.
The tour was really good and we saw a lot of the city center. It could only have been better if it wouldn't have rained all the time :D
For lunch we went to a “Mexican“ restaurant... But apart from the names of the dishes, the food had nothing to do with the Mexican one. In my Pico de Gallo wasn't even chili!
In the afternoon we visited the Gold Museum and a gallery of Colombia's most famous artist Botero, which tends to paint a lot of really fat people and "espacios muertos" (dead spaces) - with or without melon.Les mer
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Fiesta Colombiana
15. mai 2015, Colombia ⋅ ⛅ 12 °C
Obviously we also had to try the Colombian party. We started in a club named Candelario, one of the most famous clubs in La Candelaria. The long queue seemed like hours of waiting, but a little talk to the doorman and we got in not only directly, but for free.
After some time we also wanted to try or other spots, so we popped into some bars in the area. On our way, the Colombian stereotype was sadly proofed (at least for Bogotá): we were just walking by, when a guy offered us small bags with a white powder “bueno de Medellín". We stayed a while im a like Salsa Bar, then we danced some more in Candelario before going back to the hostel.Les mer
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Cerro de Montserrate
16. mai 2015, Colombia ⋅ ⛅ 16 °C
Montserrate is a hill in the heart of Bogotá and simultaneously one of its most important symbols. You can hike up there or take a sort of cable car to reach the 3152m peak with a church and an amazing view over the whole city.
Afterwards I wanted to go to the Museum of Police History, but over walking about one hour and still not finding it, I concluded that it might not exist anymore. Therefore, I only went to Casa de Monedas and relaxed the rest of the afternoon in the hostel, to be fit for the party of s colleague of ruf which is doing his exchange in Bogotá.Les mer
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“This is Colombia“
17. mai 2015, Colombia ⋅ ⛅ 11 °C
Colombian parties are definitely more intense than the German ones. This one was in the house of Jonas, a guy I knew from my work with ruf, who studies half of his career in Bogotá. He is already really colombian: when I arrived (I was the first one, because people told me not to use the Transmilenio during or after rush hour), he offered me a rice-dinner and aguapanela.
The party, thanks to many invited Germans, was pretty normal, until the arrival of Daniel (which I had invited) and his friend. They brought a bottle of Guaro (Aguardiente, the disgusting colombian national drink) and everytime I didn't want to take a shot I was told: “Anna, THIS IS COLOMBIA. Drink!“, while all Colombians that where around supported him. Like on every colombian party, people also danced a lot of salsa, bachata, reguetón and more.
After some time, I and another girl got really tired and just wanted to go sleeping. I couldn't because it's not recommended to take a taxi to la Candelaria alone at night. My options were to sleep at Daniel's place or to take a cab with the girl and her boyfriend. Both didn't seem as if they wanted to leave, but since the girl insisted, I had more hopes on that side. The boyfriend (a French guy) went to a park to pee and didn't come back for almost one hour, so I helped the girl to look for him. She was already really desperate when all of a sudden Daniel arrived together with him, telling us that he found him buying food. Later, though, he told me that the French guy tried to buy drugs, the police stopped him and wanted to take him to jail.Les mer
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Zipaquirá
17. mai 2015, Colombia ⋅ ⛅ 12 °C
Around one hour northeast of Bogotá, lies the small, colonial village Zipaquirá, which is famous for its salt cathedral. I went today with Lindsay, a Canadian girl from the hostel.
Still really tired from the party the night before and not used to the sunday timetable, it took us first of all a while to find a Transmilenio station which was serving.
The town is really cute and actually we liked it better than the actual attraction, since all around the cathedral there is a huge tourist area, almost looking like a theme-park. Also inside the cathedral, which rather looks like a mine, there were a bunch of people, making it almost impossible to walk normally. Despite this, it is a really cool place to go.Les mer
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Extreme Sports Tobia
18. mai 2015, Colombia ⋅ ⛅ 21 °C
Another night with few sleep: I had to get up at 5.45 to be on time at the meeting point for my trip to Tobia. In this small village, about 2h north of Bogotá, there are lots of opportunities for ecotourism and extreme sports. I was going to do a whole weekend trip there, which was cancelled though because of the bad whether.
We started with a typical Colombian breakfast: caldo, huevos pericos, arepas and plátano (stock, scrambled eggs, a kind of a corn bread and plantain). I shared my table with a group of four Colombian students, further there were only the guides and a couple which didn't really talk to anyone. The first part of the activities consisted in climbing down a steep and really slippery hill to reach one of the waterfalls of Río Negro (accompanied by two dogs). From there, we did a rapel (abseiling) 75m down the Wasserfall. Afterwards, we did some trekking, which was basically 1h walking up the steep hill, which was also pretty tiring because of the height and the hot sun. After a little break we were brought to another part of Río Negro, where we did rafting. It was really cool, but since it hadn't rained enough this month, the river was really low and therefore relatively calmed.
Before heading back to Bogotá, we were served a traditional lunch: sopa de pasta, arroz con abejas, carne y papas (pasta soup, rice with peas, meat and potatoes).Les mer
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Neiva
19. mai 2015, Colombia ⋅ ☀️ 17 °C
After a long day on the road I finally arrived in Neiva. In Monterrey I got to know Carlos, a really amazing guy from there, which, as soon as I told him that I was going to his town, invited me to stay with his family, even though he is still in Mexico. His uncle picked me up at the bus terminal and brought me to the house of his parents, where I immediately got a arepa rellena (stuffed arepa) and Juanvaleria typical dish of Neiva (plantain mixed with chicharrón), accompanied by gaseosa (a typical drink).
After the meal, the whole family (mother, father, brother abd his girlfriend) went with me to terms in Rivera, a close-by village. The REALLY hot water comes from a volcano.
The enormous Colombian hospitality is not only obvious from the fact that they care so much about me and take me everywhere, but even more because they love to do that! They are amazingly happy by showing me around and already invited me and also my parents to come back. This family is really amazing :)Les mer
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Neiva II
20. mai 2015, Colombia ⋅ ☀️ 34 °C
In the morning some friends of Carlos showed me the city. We started at the old train station, stopped at the horse monument, the monument of La Gaitana, had delicious desserts and visited Parque Santander in thee city center.
Again I realized that people really enjoyed the opportunity to get to know someone who comes from that far away. Also I experienced once me the different education in Latin America: as soon as my glass of water was empty, Sebastián served me more immediately.
For lunch we went back home.Les mer
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Desierto de la Tatacoa
20. mai 2015, Colombia ⋅ ⛅ 29 °C
I went in the afternoon with Carlos' parents and Lizette, the girlfriend of his brother Camilo to this desert, which is about one and a half hours away from Neiva. The landscapes are just amazing and there were lots of cows, goats and even horses walking around free and running across the streets. It is one of the most beautiful places I have seen in this whole year!
On our way back we stopped by Villavieja, thee place where Neiva was founded initially, to have some empanadas and gaseosa. Besides, I bought some bizcochos de achira, a typical snack of the village Fortalecillas.Les mer
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Cali city tour
21. mai 2015, Colombia ⋅ ⛅ 19 °C
And another day of feeding me up: when I arrived in the morning in Cali and in the house of Diana's family and of her husband William, I had some eggs with lots of bread. After only 3 hours, it was already lunchtime and Diana's mum served a enormous portion of sancocho: a huge plate with rice, chicken, yuca and potatoes, accompanied by a soup (same size) with yuca, plantain, potatoes, auyama and arracacha. I couldn't even eat half of it, which was pretty sad because this food is delicious!!!
Then, William and I headed out to do some sightseeing. Using the motorbike, we already saw most of the city in one day: the center, the cat monument, Cristo del Rey (a monument on a hill with a spectacular view), San Antonio (a romantic little neighborhood) and Loma de la Cruz, where people sell handicraft and today there were lessons of Afro-Colombian dances of an indigenous group from Valle del Cauca.
During the afternoon I tried more Colombians specialties: aguapanela con queso (water of cane sugar with cheese...how expected really weird), maduro con queso (grilled plantain with cheese) and cholados (fruits and crushed ice with a sweet sauce and condensed milk) - a literally “FULL“ day.Les mer
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Lago Calima
22. mai 2015, Colombia ⋅ ⛅ 17 °C
Today the motorbike took us to Lago Calima, a usually pretty touristic lake 3h from Cali. Unfortunately I didn't see any tropical animals, even though instead of street signs warning of crossing dears, here they warn of monkeys.
When we arrived though, there was nobody else, neither all the usual attractions like jet-ski, banana-boat, kite-surf and many more. Therefore, we just swam a little in the lake, but didn't last that long either because it got pretty cold. Consequently, we had plenty of time left, so we took another road back, saw the dam and had a desert. Then we went to “kilómetro 18“ on the road which leaves Cali, where the calenses come because it's way colder than in the city and to have some hot chocolate or aguapanela con queso. We first had a little adventure, exploring a track I had read of to Dapa. It Is like an ecological walk between different fincas (=cottages), but on this day we also were the only ones there. On our way back, we had a hot Milo (a really famous hot chocolate) at km 18 - which was also served with a piece of cheese :o
Back in the city we met some of Williams friends to have cholaos and go to an arepería, where they sell stuffed arepas like subs.Les mer
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Lost in Cali
23. mai 2015, Colombia ⋅ 🌙 22 °C
In the morning I went to a salsa class in the city. It was a lot of fun, but also difficult, since it was a really fast type if salsa and the instructor didn't explain a lot.
Afterwards, plans changed because of my search for a new SIM card, which made me walk for more than one hour without any results, until I was so annoyed that I stayed in the library using the WiFi there for the next hour. Anyways there wasn't much more to do, since my old SIM refused to make any calls or connect with the mobile internet, so I couldn't even call a cab to get home.
Later, one of Dianas friends texted me that he and a friend would show me around, picking me up wherever I was, so problem solved.
After having seen their university, we went to a mall either way, so I could by a new SIM. But still I have to hope that the internet connects soon... For dinner we had empanadas with different salsa - finally something with at least a little but of chili!Les mer
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Pico de paz y amor
24. mai 2015, Colombia ⋅ ⛅ 20 °C
Since I had already seen almost everything in the city, today was hiking day. With Robinson, a friend of William, I started at 5 in the morning direction Pance, to hike Pico de paz y amor (= peak of peace and love).
It is a pretty short hike of only 2 hours, but steep, with a landscape that makes you feel walking through Jurassic Park. When we arrived at the top, we stayed some time, talking to the people who lived in a hut up there and on the way down we stopped by the river for a while.Les mer
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Popayán
25. mai 2015, Colombia ⋅ ☀️ 18 °C
I'm now adopting the Colombian habit of “madrugar“ (= getting up really early) every day, since with all the distances between the places I am visiting I would lose way too much time otherwise, as well because it's getting dark really early in Colombia. Therefore, my usual time for waking up has become between 5 and 6am.
Since in Cali nevertheless I used to stay up until midnight, Popayán was rather a relaxing point. When I arrived around 11am, I first bought some food to cook in the hostel. Only after lunch I explored the little colonial town.
How everywhere in the country, the traffic is terrible, but still Popayán was relaxing, because it is small enough to walk to all the points of interest. Anyways there is not that much to see, it's rather about the flair of the “ciudad blanca“ (= white city) and the two major museums. I went to one of them, the Museum of Natural History. It was really interesting, because it showed where in the country I would have the chance to see the different animals. Besides, with some of them I didn't even know that they existed in Colombia, e.g. Pumas, leopards and a great variety of snakes and birds.Les mer
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Pasto
26. mai 2015, Colombia ⋅ ⛅ 22 °C
Even though it is a 6h-ride, I had to go from Popayán to Pasto by day, since it is one of the 3 routes that are not safe at night, so again I had to get up at 5am to make something out of the day.
When I arrived at the hostel, there was nobody except one other girl (which I thought was working here :D). She let me in and showed me around, but didn't no much about the place either, not even how to get to the city (the hostel is on Chachgüí, around 30 minutes north of Pasto). I decided to try it out and walked to where I thought might be passing buses, and immediately found a colectivo which leaves every 10 minutes for only 4500 pesos (=1.60€).
In town I walked around a lot, seeing a bunch of churches, the main plaza (Parque Nariño) and Plaza del Carnaval. I also went to Casa Taminango, a Museum about the culture and traditions of the region Nariño.Les mer
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Chilling at Chachagüí
27. mai 2015, Colombia ⋅ ☁️ 10 °C
Today was incredibly lazy. I was trying to sleep late, but, since I'm used to getting up really now, I couldn't. The whole day was basically chilling out at the hostel with the few other people (Max from Amsterdam and Sarah from California) there, with the exception of going out for breakfast and walking around the area in the afternoon.
In the evening, Max showed us his work, which consists in finding sustainable companies and writing about them. Learn more at: connectinglasamericas.com (it's pretty interesting!)Les mer
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Lago de La Cocha
28. mai 2015, Colombia ⋅ ⛅ 13 °C
At this lake, around 1h from Chachgüí, we had a real fun day trying canoe and kayak (while some of the hostel guys almost turned there boat around). Our route took us to Isla Corota, an island in that lake with the smallest ecological park in the country.
In the evening I had a really interesting talk with Max and a girl that is working in the hostel. She explained us a lot about the security and political situations in Latin America, especially about the guerrilla here in Colombia (I will collect more information on this during my trip and post something at the end). Now I have to pack for my flight tomorrow.Les mer
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Security & Guerilla
28. mai 2015, Colombia ⋅ ⛅ 25 °C
When I decided to go to Mexico and even more when I went to Colombia, everyone told me to take care because of the difficult security situation. However, my experience so far has been really positive, so I was curious to learn how the situation might look elsewhere in the country. Touching the topic last night with people in the hostel, they first explain the much more difficult situation in other countries:
- Venezuela happens to be one of the most insecure places in the world: everyone carries a gun and police is way more corrupt than in most Latin American country. To cite our hostel owner “if you have the choice between a street with police and a one with thefts, better choose the thefts“, since police will try to take you to prison for no reason. Many of the younger people that have the chance, leave Venezuela.
- Argentina has EXTREME economic regressions like every 10 years. Additionally, people there tend to have a real egoistic attitude, and no-one really knows if this is the reason for the government to close all banks during the last crisis, and to steal the money of each citizen, if it's the other way round.

Colombia itself also actually has a large history of corruption and drug cartels. Beforehand, this has changed a lot thanks to the second to last president Álvaro Uribe Vélez, who fought efficiently against the guerrilla.
Around 10 years ago, though, the situation was really hard. People couldn't go out on the street after 6pm. They couldn't even travel half an hour to the next town, because guerrilla would stop them on the road and take away good looking cars from them. Farmers would be forced to leave their land, without being able to take anything, because guerrilla sad so (they wanted to plant cocaine in those places). Since not only every type of police, but also military and government were corrupt, people could not only not count on them, but there are a bunch of different interest groups all exploiting them.

The situation today is way better: you can travel independently and without fear almost everywhere in the country, since guerrilla has moved to some really small parts on the coast and military is now paid enough so they don't need additional incomes. As long as you avoid the very insecure parts and especially as a tourist, you don't have to worry about anything but your travel budget ;)Les mer
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Half of the country in one day
29. mai 2015, Colombia ⋅ ⛅ 13 °C
A day of pure travelling: I started in the morning with a flight from Pasto to Bogotá, where I went to fetch some stuff at Daniel's house. From there, I took the transmilenio to the bus station, so I could go to Villa de Leyva, changing buses in Tunja. Even though it was a really tiring day, I enjoyed seeing the beautiful landscapes on my way. Also, in Pasto I launched from the smallest airport I have seen in all my life: it offers solely flights from and to Bogotá, has two waiting rooms and security opens only before boarding.
In the afternoon I finally arrived in the amazing colonial city of Villa de Leyva, and in the equally beautiful hostel. It is a little far to walk and not really cheap, but worth going, because it has an awesome ambient.Les mer
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Villa de Leyva
30. mai 2015, Colombia ⋅ ⛅ 10 °C
Today was reeeeaaaaally relaxed. In the morning I went to a farmer's market in town with Alicia from England. The food was by far not as cheap as we expected, but really good, so we bought fruits and vegetables for the whole stay in Villa de Leyva.
After lunch and chilling for some time in the hammocks, we did a little hike right next to the hostel. What we didn't expect was the spectacular countryside that was waiting for us within a distance of only 1h of walking!Les mer
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El Hoyo de la Romera
31. mai 2015, Colombia ⋅ 🌧 22 °C
El Hoyo de la Romera is a huge cave of originally 120m of depth. Right now, tons of rubble let you arrive on solid ground after already 30m.
The legend says that people used to throw unfaithful women into the hole. Once, a man did that, believing the rumours about his wife. She, though, was received by the arms of the tree which is growing all the way from the bottom to the top. She wandered around the hole and found a tunnel, which after one year brought her to Gachantivá (another village), exactly the day when her husband was about to get married again. Seeing her, he realized that he had been wrong and went crazy.
We were lucky and got a rope to go down to the bottom. There, our guide showed us the path, the stalagtites and the minerals they're composed of, as well as the bats. At the end, we climbed up the tree (which seems way easier than it is). A trip exactly how I like it :)Les mer
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Horseback riding
1. juni 2015, Colombia ⋅ ☀️ 16 °C
We had a nice four-hour ride to pozo de la vieja. There is also a story to it, which locals claim is true: from 1910 to 1986, once in a while people would see a woman in that part of the river, which was only covered by her golden hair. We were told the story by a woman who has a little shop over there, and according to her even her grandpa had seen the “vieja“.
It was a really nice ride through an absolutely beautiful landscape with a lot of cattle with their babies. Also, the horses were amazing and really well trained. I had one that loved galloping, but equal to the others would stop at the end of every galloping part it knows.Les mer
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Bike Tour
2. juni 2015, Colombia ⋅ ☀️ 25 °C
This time we were a group of five people: Americans, Dutch, English and me, renting bikes to explore the area. Our plan was to go to the blue holes (pozos azules), to the archeological museum El Fósil, to an astronomical site called Infiernito and to the clay house Casa de Barro.
First though, we had to stop at another bike rental to get our really shitty bikes fixed a bit. When we arrived at the blue holes, they were closed. We asked a man who told us that he knew the owners and would show us the way. It got weirder when he wanted us to buy one of his CDs so he would continue. We told him that we didn't want to go anymore (it would have been a pretty steep way back anyway), so he left us really pissed off.
The museum was nice though. They have a huge skeleton of a baby (!) dinosaur (around 6m long without the tail) and some other fossils. El Infiernito didn't seem really special (it is like some kind of Stonehenge with stones standing around). We were relatively sure we wouldn't see anything different inside than from outside, so we didn't pay the entrance.
Last we arrived at Casa de Barro, which is really cool. You see some of the outsides on the picture - the inside part is designed in the same, Gaudí-ish style, but seeming as of somebody would live. It is not only an art work, but has everything it needs to be habitable, even a kitchen, a toilet and s mosaic shower. We had a nice tortilla-guacamole-lunch on the rooftop.
When we got back to the hostel, Alicia and I already had to pack our stuff to catch the bus to Sogamoso. It took like forever to get there, so I asked more than half an hour late, what usually hadn't been a problem, but in this case Chris, the friend that was going to pick me up, had an exam at 8. We arranged to met at an ice cream parlor named Frutillar, but it resulted a bit difficult since we waited at different ones (and neither he nor anyone else in the town seemed to know there were two). Therefore, it was already really late, so I came with him to the university (where they first didn't want to let me in) and waited while he was presenting his exam. I was fairly happy when we finally got to his house.Les mer
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