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Blogs from Guatape, Medellin, Colombia, South America
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October 20th 2012
I slept most of the way on the plane from Atlanta to Fort Lauderdale, due to the lack of sleep that I had got in the Airport.... that goddamn floor polishing lady! The flight to Medellin was really nice, flying out over the Florida coast and across the Carribean, then crossing over Colombia on the Northern coast. The final part was the most spectacular however, flying amongst the mountains of Colombia. Looking down with good views of the smaller villages, the massive mountains and the insanely big rivers. This was when I started to get pretty excited. Even better was the two people that I got to sit next to. An amazingly friendly couple from Colombia originally that now worked in Florida, Hoorico and Sandra. We got talking on the plane and pretty soon they were ... read more
September 21st 2012
Cartagena, Colombia Ok I've given up on the idea of catching up with my blog since we were in Honduras so I'm skipping ahead to Colombia... Cartagena, a beautiful city on Colombia's Caribbean coast. Possibly the most picturesque city I've ever been to.After a somewhat blubbery farewell with John in Panama city I arrived here on a Saturday afternoon. Stayed in Hostel Mamallena. Wandered around that evening. Managed to find myself a Spanish school in the old city called centro catalina and started that Monday on an intensive beginners course. There were just four students including me! Very small school! Excellent though, glad I took the chance on them. They also organised a home stay for me so I moved to that house on Monday night. That week was the most holy awkward time I've ever ... read more
August 22nd 2012
Nun gut: Auch im Paradies gibt es Menschen. Insbesondere Backpacker. Und gegen Schnarchen und die Herr der Ringe-DVD auf Kinolautstärke im Wohnzimmer kommen die Grillen dann auch nicht an. Irgendwann wird der Film jedoch von einem Gewitter übertönt – passend dazu gibt’s Blitze überm See und den Bergen. Der anschließende Stromausfall macht das Ganze dann noch ein Stück romantischer. Der nächste Morgen wird standesgemäß mit einem Bad im See bei eitel Sonnenschein begonnen. Wieder oben am Haus steht das Frühstück auf dem Balkon – inklusive frischem Mango-Ananas-Saft. Man wähnt sich am Set eines französischen Liebesfilms. So viel convenience ruft nach Kontrast: eine körperliche Grenzerfahrung muss her. Mit dem Mountainbike 70 km durchs Umland von Guatapé? Klingt nach einem wunderbaren Plan. Der Hostelmitarbeiter mustert mich denn auch kritisch als ich ihm von meine... read more
August 21st 2012
Knapp zwei Wochen hat es gedauert: Ich habe das Paradies gefunden. Es liegt ca. 2 Stunden östlich von Medellin; eine kurvige Straße quält sich über verschiedene Pässe, bis sich schließlich die letzte Abfahrt Richtung Guatapé auftut: Ein märchenhaftes Tal, darin ein riesiger, klarer See und ein fast kitschig pittoreskes Dorf. Das Hostel liegt 10 Minuten hinter dem Ort, Idylle Hilfsausdruck. Ein Balkon, direkt über dem See. Unter meiner Hängematte schläft ein kleiner Hund, auf meinen Beinen hat sich eine Katze zusammengerollt. Myriaden von Sternen über mir müssen sich ihrer Strahlkraft nicht schämen, zirpende Grillen und eine spiegelglatte Wasserfläche unter mir, in der sich der Mond schimmernd spiegelnd. Wie ausgelutscht es auch sein mag: Das hier ist atemberaubend. Und nicht nur, weil die Luft so klar und sauber ist, dass es schon fast in der Lunge weh ... read more
Arriving in Medellin, Colombia
Published: February 15th 2012South America » Colombia » Medellin » Guatape
February 10th 2012
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
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Off to see 'The Rock' and Guatape...
Published: December 6th 2011South America » Colombia » Medellin » Guatape
December 3rd 2011
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
Latin American Johnslaught - #10, San Blas Voyage and flitting through Colombia (Cartagena and Medellin).
Published: August 28th 2011South America » Colombia » Medellin » Guatape
August 28th 2011
"Delightfully tacky yet unrefined" Hooters' motto. Me and fourteen others stepped foot on a catamaran called Fritz the Cat, captained by an obese Austrian called Fritz the Cat whom got both the name of his boat and his nickname from the infamous animated film, the first of which to receive an X rating (or 'R' to those not from the UK). Fritz greeted us with lots of jokes about girls bunking up with boys and vice versa and generally struck me, initially at least, as a bit of a twat (most people do, you'll have noticed*). He gave us a very rudimentary safety talk and we set about bonding with one and other over the gargantuan amounts of booze we'd stocked up on, bearing in mind we were potentially staring at five days on a boat ... read more
Crossing Colombia from North to South June 15 -July 24 2011
Published: July 27th 2011South America » Colombia » Medellin » Guatape
July 27th 2011
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
July 7th 2011
So I arrived and quickly went through customs around 7:30 last night. I have to say that the first thing I noticed at the airport was the women. They were, in general, ridiculously good looking and many obviously had surgical enhancements. I wouldn´t even mention this, but I feel like it would be a lie by omission if I didn´t admit that this was the first thing that caught my attention in Colombia. So anyway, I told myself to stop looking at fake boobs and get my gameface on because my Spanish is rusty to say the least and my first challenge was to get myself on a collectivo to the centro and then find way to a hostel in El Poblado (upscale safe district). Dude that drives the minivan tells me right away that my ... read more
June 9th 2011
Whent to medellin and guatape ! perfect weekend nice clima, eat chicken ad a river in guatape ! medellin really nice citty!!... read more
