South America

October 2015 - February 2016

A 127-day adventure by Vera Read more

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11countries
127days
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28.2kkilometers
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Vera and Tom South America
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- Nov 29, 2015, 4:09pm
- ☀️ 37 °C
- Altitude: 29 m
- Colombia Departamento del Magdalena Santa Marta Mamatoco 11.2305, -74.1705511°13’50” N 74°10’14” W
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Day 48
Santa Marta
November 29, 2015 in Colombia ⋅ ☀️ 37 °C
Got to Santa Marta 2 days ago. It took 4 hours to get here by bus. Driving is mental here, buses with open doors and hanging people out, beeping the horn and taking over the ambulance.
The hostel is a little paradise: hammocks, pool, bar, biliard, palmtrees. We were not even bothered to go out from the hostel cause it's so hot. Santa Marta is nice enough but not a lot to do anyway, seems like a typical big city. More interesting to go for little excursions a bit further.
Always easy to have a little chat with other bagpackers to gather some info about places to visit, some of them are really nice and helpful (and of course there are the big headed loud ones)
They sell gulyas beef for so cheap, need to find some paprika!!
Two out of two hostels without electricity for a day. Maybe we are cursed...
Leaving tomorrow for Minca :)Read more
Vera and Tom Showing off some sunburn
11/29/15Reply
Vera and Tom First time I've ever had my hair cut in the street! 5000 pesos/450 ft/1 pound. Cheap even for my hair!
12/1/15Reply
Vera and Tom This is not a bat, but a butterfly. An enormous, terrifying butterfly.
12/1/15Reply
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Vera and Tom South America
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- Nov 30, 2015
- ☀️ 34 °C
- Altitude: 633 m
- Colombia Departamento del Magdalena Santa Marta Minca 11.141014, -74.11788911°8’28” N 74°7’4” W
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Day 49
Minca
November 30, 2015 in Colombia ⋅ ☀️ 34 °C
We took a 'colectivo', a kind of shared taxi full of Colombians, up the mountain to a little town called Minca in the Sierra Nevada. The road was quite scary anyway, with it's sharp turns and steep drops, but the crazy driver and antique car didn't help.
Once at the town we had a very steep climb up a dirt track to reach our hostel, Casa Loma, like a big treehouse in the jungle . We were not very impressed with the hostel at first because they'd managed to give our room to somebody else. A nice discount on a different room, a big lunch, and the amazing view soon cheered us up though.
After cooling down a bit we went back down the track and for a short walk to a river where we made friends with some local kids :). Then back up top again in time to catch the sunset.Read more
Vera and Tom Sunset from the hostel
12/1/15Reply
Vera and Tom A total of 9 people in this sweat box
12/1/15Reply
Vera and Tom Las Piedras
12/1/15Reply
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Vera and Tom South America
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- Dec 1, 2015, 9:38pm
- ⛅ 30 °C
- Altitude: 952 m
- Colombia Departamento del Magdalena Santa Marta Hacienda Maria Teresa 11.128663, -74.09674311°7’43” N 74°5’48” W
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Day 50
Las Cascadas Marinka
December 1, 2015 in Colombia ⋅ ⛅ 30 °C
Woke up at the crack of dawn for a nice local breakfast and then started a hike, an 'easier' one according to the guide book. 2 hours uphill in the hot, humid jungle later, we finally arrived at the waterfall, La Cascadas Marinka. We did get to see some great views and a toucan and heard a monkey, so it was a good walk and even better to get in the water. The water is freezing cold which feels fantastic and there are some strange gold flakes in it which shine in the sun.
We had a daily menu lunch of chicken in passion fruit sauce or coffee sauce back in the town before heading back down the mountain again, very happy to have made the effort to visit Minca.Read more
Vera and Tom Best Tarzan impression
12/1/15Reply
Vera and Tom The waterfall tries to steal pants!
12/1/15Reply
Vera and Tom Gold bits in the water
12/1/15Reply
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Vera and Tom South America
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- Dec 4, 2015
- 🌫 3 °C
- Altitude: 12 m
- Colombia Departamento del Magdalena Palomino 11.25467, -73.5564111°15’17” N 73°33’23” W
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Day 53
Palomino
December 4, 2015 in Colombia ⋅ 🌫 3 °C
Palomino is a real Caribbean beach town. Took 2 hours to get there by bus with open doors. Stayed in a camping with really friendly local people. On the first day we were just hanging on the empty beach, was so nice that after a couple of minutes walk the whole beach was just ours, couldn't really swim cause the waves are massive and the rip tide is strong, the water was surprisingly warm. The sunset was just like on a cheesy postcard, beautiful.
The next day we walked for a bit further to go for a really magical place where the river flows into the sea. We could swim in the river right before the mouth, was really refreshing.
In the second morning we could see the snow topped mountains from the camping while we were having our local breakfast in our swimming costumes.

Seems like they are obsessed with fresh juices mostly made out of weird tropical fruits. Most of the times we have no idea what we would get just like with food. Really need some more Spanish!

And some other interesting things:

Tobacco is expensive as we heard 40-50.000 pesos (around 4500 ft/10pounds) and not even good quality but we have never even seen it in shops. Cigarette is cheap tho 2700 pesos (250 ft/ 50 penny) so no complaining :)

Still difficult to get used to putting the toilet paper into the bin.

Water is not drinkable from the tap, need to buy it in the shop, cheapest way is to buy a big 6 litre bag of it.

Haven't had any hot shower yet, again, no complaining it's actually not needed, so hot here.

Renegotiate the price, even for long distance buses. Easy to get a discount.

Colombian coffee IS amazing, they drink it without milk.Read more
Vera and Tom Lunch time in a little palm thatched hut, you can see more like it in the background.
12/7/15Reply
Vera and Tom Celebrating after an epic swim across the river, so brave. Unfortunately the birds I wanted to see heard my frantic splashes and flew away.
12/7/15Reply
Vera and Tom The snow on top of Mount Bolivar in the distance over our little tent.
12/7/15Reply
Vera and Tom A little strip of beach between the Palomino River on the left and the sea on the right.
12/7/15Reply
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Vera and Tom South America
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- Dec 7, 2015
- ⛅ 25 °C
- Altitude: 1,497 m
- Colombia Antioquia Medellín Villa Nueva Plaza Botero 6.253041, -75.5645746°15’11” N 75°33’52” W
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Day 56
Medellin
December 7, 2015 in Colombia ⋅ ⛅ 25 °C
Santa Marta to Medellin was our first really long bus journey, almost 20 hours door to door. It wasn't a lot of fun but actually wasn't as terrible as it sounds. We chatted to a couple of people, watched Mission Impossible in Spanish and slept quite well through the night. The worst part was the cold. The air-con was set to freezing and even trousers, jumpers, blankets and scarves weren't enough to keep us warm. Apparently this is normal here, haven't found out why yet.
Coming into Medellin we saw some great views over the city as the road comes around the mountain. We arrived at a busy and modern bus terminal / metro station, quite a contrast to our previous couple of weeks.
Next morning we were up early and out into the city. We found some funny little parks, some excellent statues of fat people and animals, and a lot of very friendly people. This city is definitely not the scary, dangerous murder capital it once was. The two things we noticed were how happy the city seems and how every street is a market, all the time.
We seem to have picked a good week to be here. There are a few events all happening at once, the big switching on of millions of Christmas lights, a national holiday to celebrate the Immaculate Conception, and the Parade of Myths and Legends (more on that later).
An area of the city called El Poblado seemed the best place to be in the evening. Some of the best (and strangest) Christmas lights, a nice park with lots of people sitting around with beers, and a great atmosphere.Read more
Vera and Tom Fat statues by Botero
12/9/15Reply
Vera and Tom The park in El Poblado
12/9/15Reply
Julie Boyle A drink in each hand = very happy Vera
12/10/15Reply
Vera and Tom Exactly :)
12/11/15Reply
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Vera and Tom South America
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- Dec 8, 2015
- ⛅ 26 °C
- Altitude: 1,475 m
- Colombia Antioquia Medellín San Ignacio 6.257058, -75.5826446°15’25” N 75°34’58” W
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Day 57
Desfile de Mitos y Leyendas
December 8, 2015 in Colombia ⋅ ⛅ 26 °C
The Parade of Myths and Legends.
Julie Boyle Naughty Boy!
12/10/15Reply
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Vera and Tom South America
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- Dec 9, 2015, 10:00am
- ⛅ 22 °C
- Altitude: 1,885 m
- Colombia Antioquia Peñol La Pradera 6.232688, -75.2000216°13’58” N 75°12’0” W
Day 58
La Piedra
December 9, 2015 in Colombia ⋅ ⛅ 22 °C
After hearing so many good things about La Piedra and Guatape, we decided to go for them as a day trip from Medellin. The way there was fairly quick, the bus was stopped just once by police and a dog looking for some drugs, which was found.
La Piedra means 'big rock' well we would rather call it massive. So this massive rock sticks out from the lake area, takes almost 700 steps to go up but was TOTALLY worth it. The view was incredible, lakes and islands all around in 360°. After taking hundreds of photos, walked down and got a tuk-tuk to go to Guatape.Read more
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Vera and Tom South America
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- Dec 9, 2015, 2:00pm
- ⛅ 23 °C
- Altitude: 1,885 m
- Colombia Antioquia Guatapé 6.232688, -75.1550466°13’58” N 75°9’18” W
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Day 58
Guatape
December 9, 2015 in Colombia ⋅ ⛅ 23 °C
Arrived to Guatape by a little tuk-tuk, the closest town to La Piedra. Apparently that's where the Paisas (people of Medellin) come for the weekends for relaxing but we were lucky and it wasn't too packed on Wednesday. Had a bit of wander around, the houses are all colourful and have these hand-moulded decorations on. Each house has it's own designs but they all have something related to the family which lives in it. Apperantly you can swim in the lakes but the one at Guatape was a bit dirty and not particulary for swimming so we decided to wait for a better opportunity.Read more
Vera and Tom typical daily menu
12/12/15Reply
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Vera and Tom South America
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- Dec 11, 2015
- ⛅ 22 °C
- Altitude: 2,102 m
- Colombia Departamento de Caldas Manizales 5.070199, -75.5108895°4’13” N 75°30’39” W
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Day 60
Manizales
December 11, 2015 in Colombia ⋅ ⛅ 22 °C
Manizales was rather a stop over for us on the way of Salento as it's one of the three cities which makes the coffee zone triangle. Haven't seen much of it, apparently not even that nice but the surrounding areas are beautiful, it's part of the Andes, at 2000 meters high. (We even go some head and neck pain not sure if it was 'cause of the altitude.) So on our full day there decided to leave the city for a hot spring bath which was 15 minutes away. It was super relaxing there, the whole 2 pools were just ours for a while and even after just a couple of people appeared. Mountains all around, colourful flowers, interesting trees and plants and we even saw humming birds. We spent the whole day there, in the morning it was sunny and by the afternoon it started raining but it was actually cool like that 'cause the water was super warm and it just looked awesome how the big drops fall into the pool from these massive leaves above us.Read more
Vera and Tom part of the city and the cable car
12/12/15Reply
Vera and Tom don't know what's going on with my leg
12/12/15Reply
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Vera and Tom South America
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- Dec 12, 2015
- ⛅ 23 °C
- Altitude: 1,985 m
- Colombia Quindío Department Salento 4.637376, -75.5707774°38’15” N 75°34’15” W
Day 61
Salento
December 12, 2015 in Colombia ⋅ ⛅ 23 °C
Left Manizales - one of the cities of the coffee triangle - to spend some time in the real Coffee Zone in Salento. The town is just tiny but we had some fun, walking around and drinking at night time on the first day.Read more
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