Colombia

Bogota

We flew into Bogota because it was cheaper than Medellin, but our preference would have been Medellin and we will definitely return to Colombia to spend time there. Bogota was surprisingly a cool place to hang out for a few days. With the help of our friend Gladys, we were directed as to what sights to see, what foods to eat and where to eat them and what museums to explore. We stayed in the La Candelaria neighborhood and were able to walk to everything we wanted to see and do, being mindful of where we placed our feet as to not step on homeless people or in their excrement.

View of the city from...

Bogata is a huge city. It's not the cleanest city but it has nooks and crannies of radness as in street art, architecture, old buildings, cool houses, affordable restaurants, cafes, free museums and green mountains in the near distance. It will come as no surprise when I say, we are tired of cities, so this section will be cut short because it's more of the same. We did splurge on a bottle of wine and got a free hat!

Cartagena

We did go to Cartagena, another big city, but if you stay in the walled city, which we did, it feels like a small, colorful, energetic, hip town.

This is where we hung out, enjoying ceviche,

afternoon rain showers,

colorful buildings,

more colorful buildings,

and a distant view of Miami,

otherwise known as Cartagena.

We went over budget getting to an island, to hang out on a less populated beach. Would we recommend spending a day here? If you are on a budget, no. The price does includes roundtrip boat, the sitting area (pictured below), a pool, bathrooms and a delicious lunch. Ice cold beers can be purchased for a bit more. The water is garbage free but murky.

Cartagena, the walled city, would be a great honeymoon spot, just FYI. We took a bus from here to Santa Marta, you can also fly. The large van is air conditioned and comfortable, but once ours was packed with paying customers it quickly got warm and the seats suddenly felt tiny. The several hour trip quickly turned into eight as we pulled over numerous times so the driver could bang on the engine with a wrench. We arrived to Santa Marta and to save time the driver paid for us to take a taxi to Taganga as we were the only two going there.

Taganga

As soon as we got here I wanted to leave. I wanted to go home, to my bed, to my paved streets and tree filled mountains. I felt uncomfortable and figured I was being a bit of a drama queen because our days are numbered and I'm getting restless. You need cash here and we were out, so we checked in, dropped our bags and walked through town looking for an ATM. Finding one, nicely located next to the police station, we pushed in the card and was promptly informed it was out of service. The police officer informed us this is the only ATM in the town and we'd need to go back to Santa Marta. We hoped in a taxi, drove over the mountain, waited in line at one f the plentiful ATM's, got cash and returned. The round trip taxi cost $7. The ATM never did work in town and I am convinced this is a deal the taxi drivers have made with the bank, ensuring them a whole lot of business.

View from our hostel

Taganga is a nice place to relax, but it's dirty. Plastic and styrofoam garbage line the dried creek beds and various mountain sides. The first few days we enjoyed clean ocean water and relatively clean sand beaches, but the last day the plastic arrived in the water and required swimming through it for a few feet to get to cleaner water. They do have people raking the plastic off the beach in the morning, but it's simply not enough to keep up with it. It is no where near the levels in Bali, but it's a sign that plastic is taking over our oceans, our beaches, our rivers, our mountains, our trees, towns and cities. We must find alternatives to single use plastic, and quickly. We, as well as others, spend a portion of the day picking up trash. We aren't convinced that this does a bit of good, but it makes us feel better.

Taganga is a fishing village turned tourist hangout. There are a number of restaurants, cafes, street stalls and shops to stock up on your basic tourist needs. We had coffee shakes every morning at a street stall and danishes at the one bakery, Mrs. Paneria. Taganga is popular for scuba diving and is the second most inexpensive place to get certified. It's not the best diving in the world, but it gets you certified. A short walk from town, over a small mountain, is a beach (pictured below), get here early as it fills up fast. All those long roofed structures are eateries.

The path to get here is loaded with plastic garbage and feels like you are walking through the dump. There is a beautiful, high end bungalow resort here and hopefully they will start picking up the garbage because people will stop coming here, it's that disgusting.

We spent 5 nights in Taganga, just relaxing and enjoying the beach, air conditioning and indoor pool at our hostel. The power does go out often here and went out one morning at 2a.m. and did not return until about 6pm. Needless to say it was sweltering. There are a lot of large groups of Israelis traveling in Colombia and several other south american countries. An Israeli girl told me this is because most of them have just completed their three year mandatory military service and want a vacation, yet many places in the world require them to purchase expensive Visa's. They travel in large groups and are the rudest travelers we have met on this trip. We have seen several hostels post signs that large groups of Israelis are not welcomed. At first we thought this to be racist. But then, after staying in hostels with large groups of Israelis (even just three constitutes a large group in this instance) we quickly learned how displaying that sign may actually be saving your business. They have no awareness as to their surroundings, no respect for other guests and we heard time and time again from numerous other travelers that they are terribly rude to staff.

The truth about Taganga, we learned later, but now I understand why I had wanted to leave as soon as we arrived, is known for violence, drugs and prostitutes. The police force was so corrupt, not so long ago, that they were all removed and replaced with officers from Bogota. The hill we hiked over to get to the other beach (pictured above) is dangerous to walk at nightfall and many tourists have been robbed at knife point and/or beaten up. We heard that the reason large groups of Israeli men vacation here is to have easy, affordable access to prostitutes and drugs, perhaps that explains why they slept all day and talked, loudly, via Skype, all night. I thought to their moms and sisters in Israel, but who knows.

Minca

We desperately needed a break from the heat of Taganga and headed to the tiny mountain village of Minca. After being dropped int he middle of town, we hiked up hill for an hour, stopping half way at a roadside stand selling homemade treats, including lotions, coffee, chocolate, coffee, baked goods, sandwiches and fresh juices. We each had a juice and enjoyed the free entertainment in the yard below.

We arrived at our amazing hostel just as the skies opened up and began dumping rain. The manager met us on the front porch and informed us that he had sent us an e-mail telling us that there is construction going on, they may not have electricity or wi-fi during our stay and that he'd pay for a moto taxi to take us to another hostel if we preferred. We wanted to stay, I mean, look at the place, it's so tranquil, inviting and just felt like we had arrived home.

So we stayed, telling Giovanni we'd stay one night to see how it was and let him know in the morning if we'd like to move on or complete our 3-night reservation. Soon, two young French ladies arrived, soaked and without a reservation. They spoke with Giovanni, offered to work in exchange for a room, and they quickly became his helpers, serving us delicious Colombian coffee all day and into the night. Our first night together we ate Giovanni's spaghetti. I had the spaghetti with butter and herbs (fresh, delicious basil) and Jason had the homemade red sauce, which was made to order using tomatoes from the garden next door. I moaned throughout the entire meal, so simple and yet one of the most memorable meals of the trip. We enjoyed intelligent, friendly conversation well into the night.

One of the many swimming holes near our hostel

A simple ceiling fan and screened windows made our room cool enough to need a blanket half way through the night. The sounds of the jungle lulled us to sleep and welcomed us to the morning sun. There are a number of hikes to do all around Minca and there are several coffee farms to tour. The first day it rained, so we hung out, read, talked, napped and ate delicious meals, prepared by Giovanni. The following day, one of the owners was on site and drove us up the hill to the main road and we began our uphill hike to La Victoria coffee farm and brewery.

On our way to La Victoria

We wore pants because we had seen a lot of bug covered legs in Santa Marta and didn't want to risk it. We didn't get hardly any bug bites our whole time in Minca. La Victoria is an old farm, producing something like 50 tons of coffee per year. We paid $3.50 for a tour, heard about 30% of what the guide said and enjoyed a cup of gloriously smooth and rich coffee at the end of the tour. This coffee was so delicious it didn't need milk or sugar. We bought a pound of beans. We met a young couple from Norway and joined them for sandwiches, carrot cake and beer at La Victoria's cafe. Everything was delicious and the beer, hoppy and refreshing.

We walked back to our hostel with this young couple who was nearing the end of their six month journey. They had bought an apartment, sight unseen while on this trip and she was anxious to get home to start cleaning and organizing it. She was done with travel and was homesick. I could relate and for the first time missed our dishwasher and vacuum. We quickly changed and headed to the waterfall, a popular spot for locals and tourists to cool down.

As we were walking back we heard an unfamiliar and terrifying noise. At first we thought it was a strange car, or someone blasting the dinasaur sounds from Jurassic Park. It was a bit unnerving and unconsciously we started walking faster. The sounds only became more frequent and louder as if we were being followed, hunted. We saw two little boys walking just ahead, so we picked up the pace even more and asked, in our best Spanish and charades moves, what was making that sound. "Mono" the older one says. "Grande!?" we ask. He held up his hand, hovering just over his little brother's head...these were big monkeys! "Amable? (That means kind, aren't you impressed with our Spanish?) "Si," he says, as long as you don't bother them. "Muchas gracias chicos" and we sprinted home, hiding out in our bedroom. We did see a small group of monkeys the next day, high up on the hill playing in the trees, they were a lot smaller than we had been led to believe. They really do sound like dinosaurs.

Our new French friends had gone into town and prepared a facial scrub with honey and raw sugar, followed by an avocado, banana, honey mask and us girls, the worker girl joined us, enjoyed an afternoon of beauty. Followed by a delicious homemade savory torte. We were truly spoiled and although we were living in a construction site it was luxurious. We could have stayed here for at least a week and hope to return with friends who appreciate adventure. Giovanni has a great vision for this place and we'd love to see the completed version.

After lengthy hugs, kind words and well wishes we hiked back into town, quickly got to talking with a young couple from Belgium, hoped in the back of a jeep and talked our way back to Santa Marta. He's Colombian, she's Belgian. They live in Brussels. They are visiting his parents, his mom currently loving all over their 10 month old son (we fell in love with him too, he's so cute!). He's a photographer. The indigenous people are called Tayrona, their land makes up the Tayrona National Park, the large entrance fee funds more of the government, but that's okay, the Tayrona are peaceful people and are currently praying for humanity and are optimistic that we can pull our heads out of our asses.

Santa Marta

One of the perks of living out of hotels and hostels is that you rack up a lot of points with Booking.com and hotels.com. Through Booking we get Genius perks and this came in the form of ice cold beers at our hotel in Santa Marta, which was, as it turns out, required hydration before climbing to the fourth floor, and our room, luckily with glorious a/c.

Our hotel was centrally located and from our window we could see the water. We were able to walk to everywhere we wanted and needed to go in the city. It has old city charm mixed with modern hotels and shops. There's not much more to say other than maybe you'll want to stay here and take the bus or a taxi to the beaches in Taganga...getting out before nightfall.

San Andres Island

We have been looking forward to coming to this island since meeting our Chilean friends in Mendoza. I wanted to get my hands on some cheap perfume, rumored to be half price on the island, and Jay to frolic in the seven shades of blue, Caribbean waters. Perfume is not half price, at least the name brands aren't, so I ordered my new fragrance online and it will be waiting for me in Virginia, but if you want off brands, eu de toilettes, teeny-bopper stuff, it's very inexpensive. Perfume shops are everywhere as are high end jewelry shops. Every place closes during the heat of the day from 11-3, including most of the restaurants, so finding a place to eat lunch was a bit of an effort but we did find Seaweed, a restaurant serving up some of the tastiest sandwiches ever and hot, crispy french fries. We ate here twice.

We splurged on a hotel and arrived to find out they had never received our reservation and didn't have a room for us, but they did have a two-bedroom, two-bath apartment that they'd drive us to and we'd stay two nights before returning to the original hotel (a beautiful home with 5 rooms and a swimming pool with a waterfall!). Thank you, more please!

One of the views from our apartment

We enjoyed the full kitchen, the ice cold refrigerator/freezer, the living room, made full use of both bathrooms, swam in the pool, enjoyed coffee/beers/yoga/reading/napping in hammock on the back deck and views of the ocean from every window. We didn't know what to do with so much space, it was a bit overwhelming.

By scooter, available for rent at our hotel, you can get around the island in less than an hour. The manager talked us into renting it of the whole day and pointed out what we should see and do around the island. We woke up to rain, and waited two hours for it to clear and headed out, completing the tour, including lunch at Seaweed, in less than 4 hours. We stopped at a museum showing the old way of life on the island (including a free, private dance lesson),

we pulled over for some cliff jumping,

views of the entire island from the top of the first baptist church on the island,

we saw sunken ship parts,

and more beautiful, blue water.

We were advised to spend no more than three nights on the island, because we'd get bored. We stayed four and could have easily stayed two weeks, spending some time on nearby Providencia. We will definitely return here one day with friends, because We Love San Andres!

Colombia is one of our top 5 favorite countries visited on this trip. Although we struggled with the speed at which they speak Spanish, and the accents along the Caribbean, we enjoyed the variety of landscapes a seeming adherence to a simpler way of life...which includes napping from 11-3.