IV. SA Colombia/W2, 7d: Bogotá-Medell EN

Oh Colombia - I just love this country, its landscapes and incredibly nice people :)))
Colombia is for me one of the best examples that one should never listen to people spreading their concerns of how dangerous a country is without ever having been there. Of course, it has its bad history about corruption, kidnapping, narcocism, drugs with Medellín having been the most murderous city in the world but these times are over, the country is trying its best to change and the people are so happy and friendly - music with salsa in particular is played everywhere all day long and the Caribean coast also known for vallenato based on Europe's accordeon and many African influences. The different levels of alcoholism are btw called sano, hebrio, borracho, hincho and guayabo.
Apart from the people it has a good mix of old and new with impressive pre-Colombian ruins and cute colonial towns next to progressive cities such as Bogotá and Medellín.
Other than that, Columbia is after Costa Rica the 2nd most biodiverse country and the landscapes are just amazing: in one day you can travel from snow-capped Andean peaks to crystalline Caribean beaches or from immense sand dunes to lush rainforests. It is the only South American country facing both the Pacific and Caribean coast with 3 Andean mountain ranges west, central and east; thus making it a good mix of condensed South America with a shot of Caribbean.
Financial-wise it is more expensive than expected with transport being the biggest expense and in comparison to Ecuador, Peru and Bolivia a lot dearer with longer and more mountaineous distances. Accommodation is with 6-7€ and food beginning with 3€ also a bit more expensive but in comparison to Germany for sure still a lot cheaper.
Talking about food: like most of South America it is heavily based on meat and rice (often also with beans) and fried street food such as Empanadas, Buñoles, Arepas etc but also offering tinto (black coffee) and a variety of exotic fruits such as Mamoncillo (Spanish lime), Zapote (Sapote), Lulo (little orange) and tomate de arbol (tree tomato). Typical food in the centre is often based on meat, potatoes and beans such as Bandeja paisa (large tray of sausage, ground beef, pork rind, beans, rice, egg, avocado), Ajiaco (Andean chicken soup with corn, many kinds of potatoeo, local herb known as guasca), Tamales (chopped meat with rice and vegetables folded in maize dough steamed in banana leaves) while the coast strives more fish, plaintains and rice with coconut. Moreover, Columbia is home to many Panaderías and sweet stuff such as Arequipe (similar to dulce de leche), Obleas y Salteritas (Oblates), Bocadillo (red guyava paste) and Quesadillas (Guayava with cheese).

Fr, 02.06. Bogotá/Mosquera
Bogotá is located at an altitude of 2,600m and is with 6,8mio in the city itself and 7,9mio in the surrounding areas Colombia's biggest city and capital. It is amongst the fastest growing metropolitan regions in South America and was on 39th place of the biggest meteopolitan regions in the world in 2015. It is the financial and economical centre with a good infrastructure such as the Transmillenia Buses; but still super crowded and facing too much traffic - my relaxation from Villa de Leyva was immediately gone :P The people here are very educated with the financial centre in the north and the colonial quarter La Candelaria. Due to the altitude it is also again cold and in general rainy.
My friend Daniela's home town Mosquera is with 82,000 habitants smaller but still belongs to Bogotá and Cundinamarca department. Due to the city's size the trip was also very exhausting: from Terminal de Norte I first had to catch a 40m bus to Portal 80 and from there another 1h bus through peak hour traffic to Mosquera where I got picked up by Daniela's parents. I was again surprised by Columbia's great hospitality, her parents were super nice and also immediately served me typical food with Bandeja - meat, rice and beans and chocolate as dessert. Moreover, I had my own room with private bathroom - absolute backpacker luxury :)
On Friday morning we enjoyed a delicious wrap and eggs breakfast before Daniela's dad gave us a ride to the city at 6am - a good decision as the streets were already packed :P We first walked through the quarter Candelaria and visited an interesting market where Daniela explained me a lot of exotic fruits and other specialities and then made our way to Montserrate.
Montserrate is a 3,152m high mountain in Santa Fe quarter which can be visited either by train, cable car or the classic way like the pilgrims by foot and 1,500 stairs - with me we took for sure the last option :P The ascend was also quite exhausting (especially with the altitude) but the view more than rewarding with good sights over the whole incredibly large city. On the hill itself there was a cathedral, a cross path and even an outdoor gym.
Back in the city we passed the very famous Museo del Oro/Gold Museum - with over 50,000 exponents one of the biggest in the world. However, as the weather was quite nice and I am not that interested in museums we spontaneously decided to go to the Botanical Garden instead - with super nice plants definitively the better decision :) Shortly before I also tried my first Arepa, a thick bread made off sweetcorn often served fried with cheese or filled.
In the evening I then took an 8h night bus via the music capital Ibagué to Armenia - Daniela's father negotiated a good price for me (30,000 i/o 45,000) and also bought me my first bocadillo, the typical red guyava paste. Again there were the typical vendors in the bus and refrigerating temperatures that were only bearable with sarong, rain and fleece jacket :O
Again a big thanks to Daniela and her whole family for the amazing hospitality and help - Mi Casa es Tu Casa :-*

Sa, 03.06. Armenia-Salento: Pueblo y Zona Cafetera/Ejecafetero
Armenia itself is just another town - there is not so much to see but it is already located in the coffee region Zona Cafetera/Ejecafetero and belongs to the region's most important cities together with Pereira (the region's biggest city and economic hub) and Manizales (from which you can get a good view of the snow-capped glacier and active volcano Nevado del Ruiz, good weather provided). From there you can easily get to Salento, after all the city chaos a perfect place with colourful houses, friendly people and perfectly located within lush green hills. Like in all of Colombia's villages and cities the orientartion is super easy by counting calles and carreras. The hostel was also very nice and there was again a friendly Colombian who made me a breakfast consisting of papayas, eggs and arepas and then showed me a bit of the village - known for its super cute colourful streets and houses and dozens of jeeps. In the late afternoon one of Daniela's and thus also my friend Karina arrived and showed me the Mirador, a nice viewpoint with amazing views of mountain scenery.
Typical food here is btw Trucha y Patacones (Fish and green banana) as well as everywhere in Colombia Arepa de choclo con queso (sweetcorn bread with cheese) and aguapanela con queso (sugar water with cheese). In the evening we were then joined by her Taiwanese friend Rachel with whom we had a relaxed night.

Su, 04.06. Salento: Valle de Cocora
On Sunday the three of us then went to Valle de Cocora, a valley known for its 50-60m high wax palm trees Palma de cera located east of Salento within lush green hills. The ride itself was already quite adventurous in old rustical jeeps where we also met two American girls who later invited us to stay with them in Medellín.
The scenery and 6h hike through the valley were just amazing, we had a lot of fun, saw many hummingbirds around lunchtime, enjoyed chocolate con queso (hot chocolate with cheese), took a lot of pictures; just awesome :)
In the evening I then had a super delicious dinner with sopa crema de trucha (creamy fish soup) and trucha, patacón, arroz, ensalada and jugo de guava (fish, green banana, rice, salad and guyava juice) before heading to Pereira and Karina's town Santa Rosa.

Mo, 05.06. Santa Rosa: PN Los Nevados
From there I was picked up around 04:30 the next morning to visit the National Park Los Nevados and its snow-capped volcano Santa Isabel.
PN Los Nevados is a 61.420ha big park with snow-capped volcanic peaks and scenery of bosque tropical, de niebla, alto andino, subpáramo, páramo, superpáramo, lajas as well as glacial. Thanks to low season we were only 3 people, apart from me a Colombian couple and after a 2h rollercoaster ride first had a yummy breakfast with chocolate con queso, scrambled eggs, arepas, fried potatoes and bread.
For South American conditions Santa Rosa is located quite low at an altitude of 1,700m and that day we made an altitude difference of 3,000m up to 4,700m i.e. warm clothes, a lot of water and take it easy ;) Even after 4 months in South America I am still fascinated about how many different plants can still grow up to an altitude of 4,400m thanks to the tropical location - up to 2,800m and 15* you can even still see the wax palms Palma de cera, Colombia's national plant.
We also got a lot of information, i.e. that only 23 of Colombia's 59 national parks are accessible for tourists, that Colombia has with 59% the biggest part of páramos next to Ecuador and Venezuela, that it has the highest mountains on the sea with Cristobal Colón (5,776m) and Simón Bolivar (5,775m) in Tayrona NP and that it is unfortunately another good example of the climate change - 3 out of 9 glaciers have already been disappeared in the last couple of years, and the glaciers melt dramatically up to 3m/y; when walking on the ice our guide discovered a rock that could not be seen 3 months before, glacier Nevado de Ruiz was a ski region only 2 years ago - all leading to a big discussion about environmental protection and our contribution towards it.
After a very delicious meal with chicken, rice, salad we went back to Santa Rosa where I tried the typical food Chorizo (sausage) con arepa, had a Bocadillo red guyava paste) as dessert before taking a 1h bus to Pereira and then a 5h night bus to Medellín - again with fridge temperatures but also WiFi working for the first time :P

Tu, 06.06. Medellín: Ciudad
Typical for night buses we already arrived at 4am where I then took a Uber to Mara's apartment, the American girl I met in Salento, pretty centrally located between the area San Diego and Poblado and first slept for another 3,5h. We first then had a really nice breakfast with Milo chocolate, oranges as well as toast with cheese and egg - oh it's just nice to have a good kitchen and then to relax half of the day :)
Around lunch we went to the Botanical Garden where we surprisingly saw iguanas and turtles, had a picknick with chicken-egg-cheese sandwich, salad, mango, bananas and pears and then a typical Arequipe ice cream.
After that we visited Comuna 13, Medellín's once most dangerous neighbourhood with Medellín having been one of the most dangerous cities in the world until the end 90s. Today you can hardly see that anymore, there have been many restructurings and the city and its population are in particular proud of their metro which is super new, secure and clean and one of the most important transport means next to the lifts, bus system, e-trams, city bikes and taxis. Especially here there are lifts, a lot of street art and super nice colourful pictures as well as slides and playing kids plus a superb view of the whole city. We got another good view of the city by riding the Metrocable which is directly connected to the metro system before visiting the touri quarter El Poblado in the evening and eating a tremendous portion of fast food French fries with a lot of meat between the 3 of us.

We, 07.06. Medellín: Guatapé
That day we originally wanted to visit the small town of Guatapé and the famous rock El Peñol - however, there was just such a bad weather with heavy constant rain that we had a super relaxed chill day before eating ourselves through Medellín's street food in the evening :P

Th, 08.06. Medellín: Ciudad
The next day I took part in the well-known Real City Tours Free Walking Tour (which you even have to book 2-3d in advance) but which was also very good. We were quite a big group of 21 people and got a lot of information such as: the people here are called Paisas and were isolated due to the geographical situation between mountains (oh yes, you can always feel that during the bus rides) for a long time until the railway invention. They are very proud and externally known as good businees people but also talking a lot of rubbish. Amongst others we saw the old railway station, Alpajurra administrative centre, Square of Lights, Vasquéz and Carré buildings, National Palace, Veracruz church, Botero Square, Murals and Berrio Park, Bolivar Park, Meteopolitan Cathedral as well as San Antonio Park. There were a lot of details about Colombia's past and all the drug issues; they are 3-4% of GDP, together with Peru Colombia is the largest cocaine producer with Cali and Medellín as biggest cartels. There were also again many protests as well as a teacher strike. Thanks to a lot of transformation projects (architecture and social projects/education) you can't really see that anymore; btw Papaya stands for chance and is also used to describe the level of security, especially in the many streets where they sell, amongst others, clothes (textile is Medellín's most important industry). Being polite and a smile help getting things cheaper and typical food apart from the well-known fried stuff such as Buñuelos, Empanadas and Arepas are again Bandeja paisa as well as another soup named Mondongo.
Despite their bad and still young past Columbians are happy people - they just take every small thing to move on and Parque Bolivar - as everywhere in South America named after the Venezuelian Simón Bolivar - is a good example of good and bad being close to each other (playing kids and alcohol/drug abuse plus prostitution in front of the world's biggest church made out of bricks).
All in all super interesting information about Colombia's past and history making it easier to understand the country before I continued from Medellín to the Pacific Coast around 6pm for 18h (! So far my longest bus journey but even the flights with VivaColombia were more expensive on a short notice, 120,000, expresobrasil) - with the first stop: Riohacha ;)Read more