Blogs from San Agustin, Colombia, South America

It may have only been a week since we ( that is myself, Carly & Mark) signed off the Toucan Trip and ventured forth into the superlative countryside of Colombia but it has been packed with laughs and adventure – lots of horse-riding, a near miss with bandits, spine-juddering roads complete with landslides , coffee plantations and pre-Colombian statues galore. As the taxi took us to Bogota airport, all three of us breathed a collective sigh of relief that we were leaving the Group behind and on the cusp of exploring a country that we were not ready to leave. Quite why anyone would continue with Toucan at this stage is beyond me….a further 3 days in Bogota, a fairly charmless capital city to then pay at their own expense to fly to Quito and simply ... read more

We finally made it out of Medellin! A little less alive but one more person stronger. We picked up a South African, Jonathon, and headed to Salento, in La Zona Cafetera of Colombia. Salento was quite a nice change from the chaotic party part of Medellin we got stuck in. It is a small, typical, Colombian, colonial, farm town. Yes, all of those things. We spent one day hiking in the Valle del Cocora. This is a beautiful valley of farm land were we got to see the national tree of Colombia, la palma de Cera del Quindío. The palm can reach up to 70 meters. Which is quite impressive due to the width of the trunk. On our hike we crossed some sketchy little ¨au naturale¨ bridges to get to a humming bird sanctuary. Holy ... read more

Like many of our bus ride experiences in Colombia, so far our "direct bus“ from Armenia to Popayan turned out not to be. The bus said Cali on the front and everyone in the bus company assured us it was only stopping for a few minutes in Cali before going on to Popayan, so we could stay on the same bus. It seemed likely, since on the back of the plastic Cali sign displayed on the bus was written Popayan - so of course in Cali the driver would swap the sign over and we'd be off in a few minutes. When we got to Cali about 2 hours after leaving Armenia, we discovered the "few minutes“ were actually an hour and a half. But there was another bus leaving in 10 minutes for Popayan. We ... read more

On the road between San Augustin and Popoyan the bus stopped at what we thought was another army roadblock. There were several that day. This time, however, a scowling man wearing a hat that said F.A.R.C appeared. He aimed a machine gun through the window. A ripple of anxious murmurs passed through the bus. We realised that we had been stopped by the Fuerzas Armadas Revolucionarias de Colombia - Colombia's most dominant and infamous guerilla group. We got off the bus and the joined the crowd stood waiting outside the other five or six buses that had already been stopped. The area was perfect for an ambush. Steep muddy banks and dense vegetation loomed over the winding dirt road. A few FARC soldiers sauntered past but paid us little attention. I, along with my travelling companions ... read more

Amazing, we have already spent over 2 months in this country, more than we spent in China! Yes, we like it here. However, soon we are leaving, but till then: The number 1 archeological site of Colombia - San Agustin So from Cali airport we quickly went back to the hostel where we left quite some stuff of ours before the dive trip. Wrapped up and took a bus to Popayan, reducing this way the time we had to spend on the bumpy road next day towards San Agustin. In Popayan the hostel owner was very happy to see us again. Next morning we were lucky enough to get a direct bus to San Agustin. Okay, 5 hours on unpaved roads, but in a beautiful environment. Our road went on the ridges of the West and ... read more

Getting to San Agustin was not very easy. Usually it is not very easy because it takes a 6 hours bus ride on an extremely bumpy dirt road to get there. But in my case it was not very easy because the road was closed down due to some guerrilla action. The area between Popayan and San Agustin used to be one of the guerrilla hot-spots, but during the last few years the area was rather peaceful which made the development of tourism to and from San Agustin possible. But whenever elections are coming up in Colombia, the remaining guerillas are ready again for some rebellious action. And this is the reason why the government decided to close down the road from Popayan to San Agustin on Saturday morning when I was supposed to take the ... read more

Hola a todos!!!! Hello to everyone!!!! After a longer period I am publishing again. I wanted to make some kind of an end to my Latin American trip. That's right - the end! I came back to Slovenia suddenly. Unfortunately I wasn't planning my return, but things are happening when you least expect them...and I had to accept them. I spent last 9 months in San Agustin, Colombia (still my favourite country) and I'm already missing it a lot. A lot has happened in the past few months and if I am honest I don't even know where to start...so I won't even begin :) :) :) Although I was on the road for the past 1,5 year, time flew by so fast that you can't even imagine. Well, even I can't believe it. With one ... read more