Well, what a five weeks it has been. This has been the longest we’ve spent in any country so far, but it’s felt like multiple different countries in one. The cool climate of the coffee-plantations in Eje Cafetero, the chaotic but distinctive cities of Medellin and Bogotá, the historic and also sky-scraper laden Cartagena, the paradise beaches of the Caribbean coast, and the indigenous communities within the Lost City, it’s been hugely varied and also a massive shift from the arid and cold of the Andes to the now constantly sweltering heat of the Caribbean.
It’s only now that I realise our unfortunate experience of Medellin (and spending too much time heeding warnings on blogs and tourist-hate on Reddit) really did a number on my anxiety. But I’m glad that we’ve had so many lovely encounters that by the end my mind has tipped the scales back to our own experience of largely feeling welcome and safe.
Of the two expectations I had for Colombia, for better or worse, Colombia didn’t match them. I expected an easy Gringo-trail-esque ride covering well laid tracks of backpackers gone before us, and that just wasn’t the case for us. Which is totally fine. I think I see Colombia now as more in its infancy with backpacking tourism, like Bolivia was a decade ago.
My other expectation was at just how unwelcome and liable to petty crime we would be. ‘Trust no-one’ was ostensibly the word online, which is just a really sad kind of world to live in, especially in one where the Colombian people are so friendly and kind. Outside of the couple of areas of Medellin we felt very uneasy, we’ve only had good encounters. So, to instead remember all those wonderful people, here they are:
- To our taxi driver from Armenia to Salento, who wasn’t scamming us at all, and gave us an audio-visual tour of Colombian music, “what do you mean you’ve never heard of Karol G?!”
- To the women joyfully singing along to the songs in the Willy jeep
- To all the wait and service staff we’ve had along the way
- To the taxi driver to Las Mangas and the other person in the car who chatted to us about what to do in the area
- To Luisa who gave us ample fresh fruit, helped us out with the mosquitos, and showed us all the wonderful animals with true love and care
- To all the people who tried to help us find the bus to Medellin airport (even if we never did, at least they tried)
- To everyone in Comuna 13, who seemed to welcome us (and our money) with open arms
- To our guides, Milo and Andreas who did amazing jobs of educating us about the history of their city and country
- To the guys in GruStation that, in any other setting, you would think were going to rob you, but did everything to make sure we got the best dinner
- To the mototaxis outside Santa Marta bus terminal reassuring us we were safe as we waited at the side of the road in the dead of night
- To Goyo, our taxi driver in Minca/Santa Marta, who sorted us out (and then some), in getting Lottie some new shoes and us to where we needed to be without losing the limited time we had. He was so friendly and kind and clearly a very proud parent, as he well should be.
- To the staff at Minca Glamping who stayed up to let us into our rooms in the middle of the night when their check-in policy was actually until 3pm. And then getting up early to let us out before their usual check-out time.
- To young Carlos on our Lost City Trek who reminded me how complicated the English language is!
- To Helena and Santiago and all the staff at Quetzal Dorado who made sure we had an amazing time over Christmas and recovering from the trek
- To my leg waxer who was friendly and sweet and took real time and pride in her work
- To the guys in the park who helped us find the wildlife
- To all the people who tried to find us somewhere to buy a carabiner
- To all the touts and vendors we came across who took “no gracias” as the answer once and left us alone
- To the tour guide who accompanied us on one of our walks home and told us a bit about the city with a recommendation for lunch (that we sadly couldn’t afford lol).
And of the touts in Cartagena, who you’ll find every blog complaining about, once you see the lives of the people outside the Walled City, once you recognise they are toiling away through the heat of the day, grafting and grinding, trying to just sell people things they need or a service they may want, bringing goods and services straight to you, it’s hard to begrudge their offers of drinks, sunglasses, lunch, dinner, cigars, tours, paintings, jewellery, hats, snacks, or anything else you can think of (including some less than legal substances, but always offered with humour and a wink as we laugh at the audacity of it!). So, yes, there were touts, but no, they were not pushy or aggressive or con artists or thieves, they were working hard to make a few bucks, and they deserve whatever sale they get.
The overwhelming feeling (for me at least) from this country is of gratitude. There’s something about the poverty here that has really hit harder than elsewhere (and there’s definitely poverty in the rest of South America). We’ve been reminded regularly of not just how fortunate we are to be on this trip at all, but of how fortunate we are to have the lives we do at home. Being four months into our trip, and experiencing a very different kind of Christmas, it’s also really made us appreciate what we have at home. There is so much we take for granted, and this country and this time of year has made us really appreciate all that we have.
So, whilst I’m really glad to finally make it here after so many years, and to have done so without issue, I do worry about how well the huge influx of tourists (from the USA in Cartagena to the digital nomads of Medellin), refugees from Venezuela, and the growing poverty of a widening wealth gap seen across the world can be managed.
Time will tell.
Now, onto the chacana with a special guest addition…
Highlights (Alex): Las Mangas farm-stay, feeling finally at ease in Cartagena, finding paradise at Tayrona Park floating in glorious seas with sparkling sand (special mention: blissful outdoor massage at the Christmas lodge).
Highlights (James): The beautiful streets of Cartagena, feeling safe and relaxed in the Walled City area especially (plus La Mulata). Relaxing over Xmas with Lottie and Alex in the wonderful Quetzal lodge. The coffee tour in Salento, I haven’t been that engaged with a tour before and Tim was fantastic.
Highlights (Lottie): Completing the Lost City Trek, swimming in the river and going in real jungle rapids, seeing monkeys for the first time in the wild, motorbike down the mountain, Christmas day massage, Goyo joining us for shoe shopping
Lowlights (Alex): Feeling on edge everywhere (where it was only really justified in Medellin), missing out on all the glorious food and drink at our Christmas lodge because of my belly, trying to get the uber from Armenia
Lowlights (James): Feeling on edge in Medellin, it wasn’t the nicest city but the fear far outweighed the reality. The delayed and slow bus to Santa Marta, thinking we’d miss a night in the jungle glamping made my heart sink. Having to say goodbye to Lottie at the airport (though Hawaii is not far away!)
Lowlights (Lottie): The Bad Belly Club, shoes breaking the day before the trek
Takeaways (Alex): It’s hard to recognise the anxiety cloud when you’re in it, I’m still fitter than I think, there’s just so much poverty in the world and we’re so incredibly privileged with the lives we have
Takeaways (James): Colombia is worth the plunge! There might be the fear and the odd scary moment but as long as you don’t go looking for trouble you’re unlikely to find it. The majority of people we met we’re genuinely happy to see us and wanted to ensure we had a good time, true throughout most of our trip but especially in Colombia. The country wants to move on from the drug reputation and the infamous criminal, fair play to them, Colombia has so much more to offer!
Takeaways (Lottie): I can still do adventurous things, Colombian people are super friendly and warm, my Spanish is terrible and I need to do better, I didn’t expect Colombia to have such different climates within (i.e. mountainous Bogotá vs tropical Cartagena)
How to Describe Colombia (Alex): Varied landscapes and opportunities, hot, not as tourist-friendly/ready as you may think, but also not as dangerous either
How to Describe Colombia (James): Be brave and sensible and you’ll enjoy it. Loads to do, Salento (coffee axis) and the North coast (Cartagena, Santa Marta, Tayrona, Minca) are my favourites. Not as cheap as you might expect.
How to Describe your trip (Lottie): A mix of holiday and adventure which you can do both of in Colombia. I would highly recommend Cartagena to people and a trip into the jungle and do at least one night of camping/glamping. There are cats and dogs everywhere, and I’m delighted the ratio was 100 dogs to 2 spiders.
Entertainment
TV & Film: A Muppets Christmas Carol, The Stranger, Elemental, Slow Horses, Final Space, National Parks of the USA
Books: A Christmas Carol, The Dark Tower (I should not have waited so long to read this – James)
Podcasts: Science Vs, People Fixing the World, Criminal, This Is Love, More or Less, Adam Buxton, Talk of the Devils
Photos from the Disposable Cameras
The Lost City Trek:
Our only photo together from Christmas, doh!
Parque Tayrona:
Absolutely gross, would not recommend:
Back to Cartagena (James enjoying(?) an arepa):
Lottie trying out the mosquito bite zapper:
From the Cutting Room Floor
- Plantations like Animal Crossing.
- Giant eucalyptus.
- Begonias are back.
- Collapsed Road between Salento and Cocora making us realise we are especially lucky to be able to get there as the whole road could have collapsed!
- Serenades on the Willy from my seatmates.
- Specially designed tollbooth.
- Beautiful pink roses blooming in the middle of the road on the way from Salento to Medellin Serious bikers going up and down the ridiculously steep hills!
- Mystery fruit juices made from all the freshly picked fruit from the farm (found out one was called Nispero!). Another made with passionfruit, papaya and pink guava.
- Cheese finger containing not just cheese, but dulce de leche, an actual horrible combination. We found the only thing you can’t put dulce de leche on to make it better.
- Buses and cars being left running, presumably for the aircon, chugging out fumes, for one of our buses, a good 45 minutes!
- Colombians don’t have a specific History lesson, History is taught as part of a combined Social Studies class at school.
- Seeing two guys struggle to push their heavily laden cart along the road with wheels that weren’t round in the middle of the heat of the day
- You don’t need a toastie maker or butter to make good toasties. Just a frying pan, cheap bread, nice cheese and ham. Added bonus: fried egg
1 Comment
Great to see the old fashioned way still works 😊 (kodak) lovely pics. Glad to see that I’m not the only one who likes the sea warm before they get in 🤣. I’m glad you all had an overall positive experience of Columbia.