 suggestions/safety issues |
suggestions/safety issues |
suggestions/safety issuesSouth America » Colombia | |||||||||
| Planning on backpacking the Northwest part of South America, from Colombia down to Bolivia. I have a few questions about travel in Colombia, namely concerning overall safety and ease of getting from place to place via buses. | |||||||||
michwolv Philip Post Count: 5 Msg: #1 192 days ago, November 6th 2007 | Hi: | I am planning on backpacking the Northwest part of South America, from Colombia down to Bolivia. I have a few questions about travel in Colombia, namely concerning overall safety, ease of getting from place to place via buses, and would welcome any suggestions/thoughts. This is my tentative itinerary: Cartegena - Mompos - Barichara (San Gil) - Villa de Leyva (Convento del Santo Ecce Homo) - Bogota (Zipaquira) - Medellin (Santa Fe de Antioquia) - Salento - Popayan (Silvia, San Augustin) - Pasto (Laguna de la Cocha) - Ipiales/Santuario de las Cajas. The places in parentheses are one day side trips. Are there any places on the list that someone has been to that are not worth the hassle of going to? Conversely, are there must see places that are not listed? I will be getting around on local buses. I looked studied the map, and from what I can tell I can get to all these places relatively easily via bus. I have done a lot of traveling in Central America (Guatemala, Mexico and Honduras) - which has a lot of gang activity - and never really experienced any problems. I do realize, however, that this is Colombia and we are talking about a completely different animal when it comes to guerilla groups. Most of the places on my itinerary are in the northern and central part, which is supposedly safe, but there are a few places in the south, such as Popayan and Ipiales that lie supposedly in a "hot" region. Has anyone traveled to these places on local buses? Has anyone experienced any problems? The posts I have read for the most part seem to indicate that kidnappings and such are pretty rare these days and that people have felt (for most part) safe (relatively speaking) while traveling in Colombia, even in the South. I would welcome any thoughts/suggestions. Number of Users: 1 | Number of Posts: 1 | ||||||
