Blogs from Guatape, Medellin, Colombia, South America

Hola! We made it to Medellin, Colombia! It was a direct flight out of FLL to Medellin via Spirit Air. Customs was very easy and painless to get through. We stopped to exchange money for the cab ride to the hotel and were excited to learn that we were charged less than a $1 for the fees. Colombia uses the Colombian peso and currently we get approx 1800 pesos for $1 USD. The cab ride took us down the mountain into the city of Medellin. The views were beautiful and full of red brick buildings thoughout the city. The experience of riding in a cab was very scary and interesting. Dogs roamed freely and knew how to evade the vehicles. Motorcyclists swerved in and out of traffic and the cars were constantly watching their side view ... read more

As we only had a week left in Colombia, we decided to try and squeeze in as much of this fantastic country as possible, and opted for a night in the small town of Guatape. It was only a couple of hours away by bus, and was recommended by various travellers we had spoken to. We made our way to the North Bus terminal in Medellin, bought our tickets and were away…no hassles. The bus journey despite being short, still had it’s usual amusing quirks, this time being the vendors. Basically, they boarded the bus throughout the journey at various points, produced their sales pitch, and were then dropped off a few miles down the road. I think we had around 6 vendors board the bus in total within the 2 hour journey, all of whom ... read more

It easy to get a bad name, but it is not so easy to get rid of it. Colombia has a bad name in the world, but it is absolutely fine. We travelled here more than a month and everywhere we meet friendly people. What a difference with Venezuela, where we came from. They should have a bad name. Santa Marta Santa Marta is a nice city to take a rest. And we need that. We made a loop from Colombia, via Venezuela to Trinidad, from there to Suriname and French Guyana and via Brazil and Venezuela back to Colombia. It made us a bit tired. Here in Santa Marta we can stroll a little along the Caribbean Sea, cook for ourselves in Hotel Familiar, go to the barber next door, drink a beer at one ... read more

Whent to medellin and guatape ! perfect weekend nice clima, eat chicken ad a river in guatape ! medellin really nice citty!!... read more

I still have two more cities to catch up on in the blog, but I have to write really quickly about our day today because I fell in love with Colombia today and I'm still on a high from it. First of all, we have been in Medellin for nearly a week now and it is, hands down, the best big city we've been to yet. It's great for so many reasons, but I will go into that more when I blog about Medellin. Right now I need to write about the area that surrounds Medellin, for Medellin is in the department (which is their name for a state, province, etc.) of Antioquia. And Antioquia is definitely the most breathtakingly beautiful department of Colombia. The plants are the greenest green you'll ever see, the flowers are ... read more

I'd been told by three different people that Piedra del Peñol (a giant rock that bears a striking resemblance to Rio de Janeiro's Sugar Loaf Mountain and lies about 2 hours east of Medellín) and Guatapé (a town approximately 3km from the rock) are well worth checking out. Martha had organised a "carro particular" (not a particular car but a private car) to take me there with her family. Nice - a family outing. Travelling alone has many benefits but it's nice to have good company occasionally. Total cost for hiring the car and driver for the day was about £50 - a bit steep, but then not at all pricey when you consider what it would cost to go by taxi. Then plan was to go to the rock, then to Guatapé and then to ... read more

Bus 5491 to Medellin "‘We went through the guard rail. Everybody up top was screaming,’ the 14-year-old said in a telephone interview from his home in Vancouver, Washington. 'I had no idea what was going on until we impacted. The first 20 minutes of the trip, we're flying down a dirt road going about 75 or 80 miles per hour,' he said. ‘I opened the window to show my friend Mark, and we were both wide-eyed, going like, 'Wow!’ The teenager's spleen was removed and surgeons repaired his perforated stomach and punctured lung after the crash on a narrow, winding highway. His mother suffered more than a dozen broken bones, shattered when the seats broke free and sailed through the cabin. Her other son helped her from the wreckage." The Washington Post, April 9, 2006. ... read more

Guatape, Colombia... read more