Postobon Manzana & Medellins Tony Montana

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Before we start we should apologise for the lack of blogs!! we could easily write one for every place we visit, but at the moment time is essential, and we seem to have so little of it!! Since our last blog we have covered alot of ground and seen alot of places, i believe the last blog was from Taganga. Since then we have been to Cartagena, Playa Blanca (cartagena beach, but no where near the city!) Medellin, Bogota and we are currently writing this from Cali. We didnt plan to visit Cali but when we got the Bogota bus station we could not find a direct bus to San Agustin (hopefully our next destination) so ill try an pick up from where we left off from in the last blog! Since we kind of got stuck in Santa Marta and Taganga due to the fact we fell in love with the places!! We were determined to pick up our pace, theres alot more to see and do! so we left Taganga 😞 and headed to Cartagena! We had heard alot about this place, its an old colonial town and was of great importance to the spanish when they first stepped foot in South America, it was a major docking and trading point, and was attacked vigoursly by the french and the british. So we were looking forward to a bit of history and some pretty cool sights! and on our first day the place did not dissappoint. We checked out the big wall that surrounds and protects the city, we also checked out a little museum. However since we had come from a routine of getting up late and staying out all night, we were kinda hoping for a good nightlife....which we didnt find! and our hostal also closed its doors at half ten! so we only made this a brief visit, and headed to the beach again!!! 😊 In order to get the beach however we needed to get a bus, then a boat (bear grills style boat) and then me and Katie jumped on the back of some motorbikes! Although this was a fun experience! it was also pretty scary! especially when we saw a cross on the side of the road which we interpreted to be some kind of grave....not a good thing to see when your on the back of a little motorbike and the driver persists on checking his phone while on the go! However we arrived safely to what we think is the best beach we have seen so far, not for beauty but for the fact it felt like a more authentic Colombian experience! We only stayed for one night in a little tent that i could not fit my legs in! In this day and a half at the beach me and katie had three fish dinners!! not bad considering it was the first time we had tried fish that was fried straight up and served! Luckily for us we managed to get a good price for a direct boat back to Cartagena! and from there we headed to Medellin. When we arrived we were surprised! Not only did this place look like a rich american suburb, it also had hot water!!! (which was non exsistant on the coast) Our time in Medellin was pretty much spent in the hostal, and the local bars and clubs! We had the most mental weekend so far in Colombia! and needed a few chill out recovery days before we left! We did manage however to organise one tour of the city - The Pablo Escobar tour, pretty much a character simular to Tony Montana (if you have seen Scarface) we saw where he grew up, where he operated from, where he bombed, and also where he died! A pretty cool tour. From Medellin we headed to the capital, Bogotá, the first thing we noticed was that this place didn't look anything like Medellin, i guess we got used good neighborhoods, and Bogotá was the complete opposite!! However we checked into our less than glamorous hostel, and checked out what there was to do. Although we didn't do a hell of a lot o the first day or two, we then got our bearings a little and checked out the city with a walking tour, the day after we checked out the Gold museum, the Boleteli museum (now my favorite artist!) and also a museum on the history of the Spanish influence in Colombia and South America. We got plenty of photos and had a couple of good days out. On our last day we decided to head up to the church the overlooks the whole of Bogota, this was also a good day, and yet again we got some pretty cool photos! After we saw what we wanted to see we made our way to our current location, Cali. Since we have been here we have visited the zoo, and today we headed to a village about 3 hours away in the jungle called San Cipriano. This place was mad! we caught a bid to the nearest point accesable via the road, and from then on we headed there by train....but not just any train! a motorbike train, which is pretty much a motor bike attatched to some wood that is placed upon the rail track. Possibly the most scary experience to date in Colombia!! there is no way this could be classed as safe, but in order to see what we wanna see, a certain amount of risk has to be part of the package!

Anyway we've said enough, hopefully our pictures will give you a better idea of the places we have visited!

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