I´ve decided I´m going to have to go country by country and point out the highlights, as the last way of doing it was way too labour intensive! :-)
It´s funny how things can go though - at the time we were too busy actually moving forward to have the opportunity to look back and think about the many awesome things we were actually doing while we were in Colombia.
We started out in Cartagena, which is a city on the Caribbean coast of Colombia where we met up with Scott (and his fiance, Francesca), Damo´s old boss from the UK. We went on a tour of Cartagena on a Rumba bus, went to the Baranquilla Carnivale (the second largest Carnivale in South America - 2nd only to Rio!) had a humungous night partying, and spent a couple of days just mooching around the town. We also met Robbie and Ruth, a couple that Scott and Francesca had met on the boat over from Panama who were great.
The Baranquilla Carnivale was frightening, strange and surreal all at once. We made a last minute booking to get a private driver to drive us to the carnivale on Day 2 of the 4 day carnivale. When we were waiting for our drive in the foyer, a girl who had been to Day 1 came and told us the horrifying story of how every single one of the 10 or so people in her party were mugged on the first day, by having foam sprayed in their eyes and then their pockets cleaned out. Later in the day, she was also witness to a shooting, and was taken into a local´s house to get out of the ruckus that was caused. She was completely traumatised and it was not a great thing to learn when our bus was only about 5 minutes away. During this time we decided it would probably be optimal to remove all items of value, and carry only minimal cash. On our trip there we were all in a very strange mood, as we were looking forward to the party that is a carnivale, but also very wary of the trouble that likely awaited us. This wasn´t helped when the local bus driver reinforced how dangerous it was going to be. It was like we were preparing for war! Anyway, as it turned out, the festival itself was very big, but Day 2 definitely seemed like the entire town was hungover as it was really very quiet, and the carnivale itself was just people in traditional dress for hours walking and dancing past us. There certainly wasn´t anything that even resembled a problem for us, however we were on guard all day!
After Cartagena, we all headed north-east to Santa Marta where we all planned on doing the Ciudad Perdida (or Lost City) trek. Scott, Francesca, Robbie and Ruth were a day in front of us, so departed on their trek one day before us. We did however bump into them along the way. It was definitely a challenging trek, but was absolutely beautiful. The sleeping arrangements on hammocks were not exactly ideal, however we opted for the 4-day hike anyway, and only had 3 nights of it to cope with. We met heaps of great, new friends along the way too! At the very top of the hike at the lost city we got to meet a Kogi Sharman, which was very interesting. It was a little bit of a shame about how much everyone was saying how stoned he was, because we have since found out a little about the Sharman´s and it´s all a particularly fascinating thing. To become a Sharman they get ´chosen´ at birth, and handed over to the Sharman. These children then live their lives sleeping all day and learning all about the ways of the Sharman all night, until they are 17 years old and they get to watch their first sunset, and are then old enough to begin practicing.
The back of the Troop-carrier on the way out to the Ciudad Perdida trek (and some great friends we've made along the way...)
Over 1000 steps up to the Lost City!
The Lost City.
After finally completing our trek, we caught up with Robbie, Ruth, Scott and Francesca for dinner at Robbie & Ruth´s hostel for the night and had a brilliant evening. The day after this was to be Scott & Francesca´s final day of relaxing before heading back towards the UK, so we all decided to head to a beach called Taganga, and from there we caught a boat to Playa Grande around the corner which was an idyllic place to relax and just unwind from the physical exertation of the hike. It was an awesome day and a great way to say goodbye to a great friend! After the day was winding down, we ended up back at Taganga beach, drinking beers on the beach and watching an absolutely incredible sunset where we ran into one of the guys from our Lost City trek, and we washed the beer down with plenty of pizza from a street vendor back in Santa Marta.
The following day we decided to head to Parque Nacionale Tayrona with Robbie & Ruth. It requires a couple of hours of hiking in, but there are already pre-erected tents that you can rent for a night or a couple of nights if you wish along the way. We stayed in one that was about half-way along the park on the first night called Arrecifes which was pretty good. We went for an evening stroll along the beach to the next campsite, had dinner and then walked back in the dark along the beach - it sounds lovely, but on the way back we were getting absolutely swarmed by some of the park´s 70 different species of bats!!!! Very interesting and was definitely absolutely hilarious!
The following night we switched camps up to Cabo San Juan and stayed here for 2 nights. As there is not much to do of an evening, we tended to have a few drinks and played a card game that Robbie & Ruth showed us how to play called Truco (an Argentinian Card Game). It was awesome fun! We spent the days hiking, then cooling off in the ocean, and it was absolutely beautiful. Along the way we managed to see a Mantled Howler and a type of Titi monkey which I think is almost extinct! The wildlife in this park was fantastic. We also spent some time finding and opening coconuts and drinking and eating them straight from the tree. The entire trip was simply breathtaking and is something that must be done if you are in Colombia.
Outside our first night's accomodation in Parque Tayrona.
The following night we switched camps up to Cabo San Juan and stayed here for 2 nights. As there is not much to do of an evening, we tended to have a few drinks and played a card game that Robbie & Ruth showed us how to play called Truco (an Argentinian Card Game). It was awesome fun! We spent the days hiking, then cooling off in the ocean, and it was absolutely beautiful. Along the way we managed to see a Mantled Howler and a type of Titi monkey which I think is almost extinct! The wildlife in this park was fantastic. We also spent some time finding and opening coconuts and drinking and eating them straight from the tree. The entire trip was simply breathtaking and is something that must be done if you are in Colombia.
After getting back to Santa Marta after our time in Parque Tayrona, we decided very quickly to head to Medellin, the infamous Colombian town which was the home of Pablo Escobar and also was the murder capital of the world up until only a few short years ago. We got back from Tayrona and were packed and in a taxi to the bus station within 20 minutes, which wasn´t ideal as we absolutely stank from hiking! It was hilarious and ridiculous at the same time, but also part of the reason why it is good to have no real firm plans. It was also a 15 hour bus journey!
Medellin was particularly interesting with regards to the link to Pablo Escobar and it was fascinating to learn about some of this history. The night that we got to Medellin we got some documentaries on Escobar and watched them in the cinema of the hostel we were staying in over a few beers. He was one seriously bad-ass dude. Apparently at one point he was among the top ten richest people in the world! He offered to pay off the national debt of Colombia, and curried favour with the locals by doing humanitarian things such as installing lighting on all of the soccer pitches in the schools throughout Colombia. Sounds like a great guy, but he also offered a bounty on the head of every police officer that was killed. Anyway, while we were in Medellin, we went up a cable car called the Metrocable, went on a Pablo Escobar tour and also had a massive night in an Irish bar for St. Patricks Day, among other things. It was definitely an interesting city with a very intriguing recent history.
After Medellin, we´d decided that we´d had enough of cities for a while and headed into a town called Salento. It is a beautiful colonial town located south-east of Medellin, and was stunning. All of the buildings are painted in bright colours and have original features, and the taxi´s in the town are all old Willy´s Jeeps! We had a little trouble finding decent accommodation in Salento, and ended up moving rooms 4 times over the 5 nights that we stayed there. The last night was hilarious, as it turned out that there was probably a bit of a miscommunication with the hostel owner (likely our fault as we didn´t speak much Spanish...), and our room was double booked. There was much debate about what we could do, as the owner only let us know at about 9pm, and unfortunately it was a long weekend and the town was fully booked. We went out looking for another place to stay, but hilariously we ended up having to sleep on the floor of the hostel owner´s bedroom while she slept in the same bed with her 30 year old daughter. The things that happen in South America are sometimes hilarious! I was sick for quite a bit of the time that we were in Salento, and was also part of the reason that we were there as long as we were. During this time, Nikki went on a hike in the Valle de Cocora and had an incredible view of the amazing Wax Palms. This might sound a little boring, but WOW - they are incredible. This is the national tree of Colombia and for good reason - it´s a palm tree that can grow up to 60 Metres high, and they are beautiful. She caught a Willy´s Jeep there and met up with a couple of other girls to do the hike with and had a great day.
We also went to a Coffee Plantation called Finca Don Eduardo to see how coffee is grown, and made. It was a lovely walk out there and back (probably a 10km round trip) and the plantation itself was great.
The beans on the tree.
The beans after being roasted.
Don't suppose you've guessed that we take it pretty seriously??? :-)
The next day we decided we needed to start getting a move on and think about heading for the border. We still really wanted to see Popayan
We caught the bus down there and spent the next couple of days looking around Popayan. It was a lovely little town. We also did a day trip out to the Silvia indigenous markets. They were not at all touristic, and were very interesting - particularly the indigenous people and their native dress. It was fascinating!
We returned back to Popayan and spent the remainder of the day and the following day mooching around town, and then decided it was time to brave the south of Colombia, which we had heard was not a very good place to travel due to the Guerillas and ongoing issues in that area.
Our next stop from Popayan was to be the border town of Ipiales, which was solely to be an overnight stop before the border crossing for us. Our bus from Popayan was to take the bulk of the day, and we didn´t arrive into Ipiales until about 5:30pm, so we checked into a very cheap, dodgy hotel near the bus station, headed out for dinner and then called it a night. We wanted to get an early night anyway, as we very much wanted to have an early morning the next morning so we could go out and visit Santuario Las Lajas prior to the border crossing. After returning to Ipiales, we caught a Colectivo from Ipiales to the border, got out and walked into the Colombian side to get our Exit stamp. We then walked across a bridge spanning a small ravine, and into the Ecuadorian embassy to get out entry stamp. It was incredibly simple, and we had quitely been dreading our first South American border crossing as we had heard some interesting stories. Our story was very simple apart from a misunderstanding with a taxi driver, which resolved itself anyway! We caught a taxi to Tulcan, and then boarded a bus to Quito, where we very coincidentally ran into a guy (Mathias) we had met in Salento, and then also again bumped into in Popayan. Travelling is funny like that!
Inside the church.
We finally made it to Quito, the capital of Ecuador, around 5pm local time.
So from riding a Rumba bus and partying with friends in Cartagena, trekking in the north at both the Lost City and Parque Tayrona, fearing for our lives at the Barranquilla Carnivale, learning about Pablo Escobar, riding in Willy´s Jeeps, touring a coffee plantation in one of the best coffee producing countries in the world and visiting an incredible church built due to an apparition of the Virgin Mary appearing on some rocks, Colombia definitely offered us a great deal more than we ever dreamed.
