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Background: Colombia was one of the three countries that emerged from the collapse of Gran Colombia in 1830 (the others are Ecuador and Venezuela). A 40-year insurgent campaign to overthrow the Colombian Government escalated during the 1990s, undergirded in part by funds from the drug trade. Although the violence is deadly and large swaths of the countryside are under guerrilla influence, the movement lacks the military strength or popular support necessary to overthrow the government. An anti-insurgent army of paramilitaries has grown to several thousand strong in recent years, challenging the insurgents for control of territory and the drug trade, and also the government's ability to exert its dominion over rural areas. While Bogota steps up efforts to reassert government control throughout the country, neighboring countries worry about the violence spilling over their borders.

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By Travelling Sar
August 10th 2008

Colombia - Trek to the Lost City

South America » Colombia » Santa Marta » Ciudad Perdida

Greetings from the Colombian Army
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Firstly here I have to say that I am so bloody proud of myself to have made this all the way. It was tough, hard and challenging. Everything this girl loves - this trek really is the road less travelled. Even though were around 100 people doing the trek at the same time I was there I hardly noticed as we were in a small group of 9 two italians, 6 swiss and 1 australian (um that would be me!) This sounds like the start to some joke..... but it is not guys it is very real. After finally leaving Bogata [View Full Entry]

By Pendo does South America
July 20th 2008

A big city, a walled city, a lost city and the beach

South America » Colombia » Santa Marta

Colombian buddies
Fabian and Andreas, my Colombian friends who pulled out all stops to show me around Bogota. The alcoholic beverage featured here is a fermented corn delicacy called Chicha.

Well the good times have continued to roll here in Colombia - it is quickly catching up to Argentina in the race to become my favourite country in South America! After a great couple of weeks of volunteering it was back to travelling.....first stop was Bogota, the big city capital. Here I was lucky enough to have a friend introduce me to two Colombians, Andreas and Fabian, who quickly took me under their wing and put in a huge effort to make sure I had a great time in Bogota. This mostly involved feeding me every alcoholic beverage ever invented/drank/thought about [View Full Entry]

By Biggnaa20
July 3rd 2008

Ciudad Perdida

South America » Colombia » Santa Marta » Ciudad Perdida

Grenade launcher
They let me hold a grenade launcher. They REALLY must not know me...

Into the Jungle Bas talked me into taking my first trek. Well actually, I talked myself into it, but I wanted someone to blame in case I didn´t like it, so I told him it was his fault. We were joined by a reticent Englishman named Jack and a cheeky Belgian polyglot who mastered 7 languages seemingly simply to commandeer conversations in as many tongues as possible. By the end of the trip I was simultaneously wishing she would either shut up or get eaten by a jaguar. I didn´t really care which. The trip started out very easy, with a [View Full Entry]

By barrygahan
June 26th 2008

A lost city deep in the Colombian Jungle

South America » Colombia » Santa Marta » Ciudad Perdida

Ciudad Perdida
The famous Ciudad Perdida in the middle of the jungle near Santa Marta.

Finding our way to the Lost City There are many great treks in South America, but certainly nothing quite like the Ciudad Perdida trek, a 6 day round trip which takes you to the heart of the Colombian jungle and back, where seeing lost cities, fording rivers, walking in tropical downpours and learning how to make cocaine are just some of the activities covered. Though located only 40 km from Santa Marta, there is a strong sense of isolation and remoteness in the jungles around Ciudad Perdida (Lost City in English). This area is home to a number of indigenous groups, [View Full Entry]

By Ruth from Wales
June 26th 2008

The Lost City is no longer lost, but the rainforest is still very rainy...

South America » Colombia » Santa Marta » Ciudad Perdida

Colombian soldiers bathing near Ciudad Perdida, having left their guns and boots on the nearby rocks

To finish our mad treks of South America, we decided to take a 6 day trip into the Colombian jungle to visit the "Ciudad Perdida" (Lost City). Whilst it was not quite Indiana Jones, it was still pretty exciting, with us hiking through the rainforest, struggling across a raging river on multiple occasions, visiting a 'cocaine factory' and finally arriving at the Ciudad Perdida having avoided being kidnapped by FARC... Day 1 We were picked up early from our hotel in Taganga and taken by minibus and then jeep to the village of El Mamey. We took it easy there for [View Full Entry]

By zerotonine
June 25th 2008

Taganga - oder wie ich diese schiffe langsam hasse

South America » Colombia » Santa Marta » Taganga

taganga - beach

meine lieben, somit auch eigentlich schon ne weile in columbien.. (visum, visum) und auch schon einiges erlebt... hat einfach keinen bock mehr zu schreiben.. aber heut ist alles anders.. denn heut regnet es :-) also was ist passiert.. war da so in nem ollen naturpark.. war schoen.. gar fetzig.. da ich mich uberschnurren liess an einer sightseeing beach tour teilzunehmen... (idioten) auf jedenfall kam es dazu das ich in so eine nussschale eingestiegen bin, und mit der das offene meer ueberquert habe um zu diesem naturpark zu gelangen.. sagen wir mal so.. nach 5 min. hab ich realisiert das me [View Full Entry]

By Tyrone
June 15th 2008

A ship in a harbor is safe, but that’s not what ships are built for.

South America » Colombia » Santa Marta

Baracuda and I
Turns out I'm an amazing fisherman.

Last weekend we went to Barranquilla to bid farewell to the saintly Chris Davies. He will be missed, and not just by the under aged underprivileged youth of the BQ. Saturday I went to pick up the esteemed Timothy Healy from the airport, I was of course late (transportation strike or something) and had failed to give Tim any information such as local address, phone number, etc. This gave him ample time to stew over the possibility that he had flown into the wrong airport. I left my cell phone on the bus, making it like #8 I’ve lost in my [View Full Entry]

By mjist
June 14th 2008

Santa Marta and Taganga

South America » Colombia » Santa Marta » Taganga

Taganga Bay

Warning: This blog is about me doing nothing for a couple of days on the Colombian Carribean. After a pretty tiring 18 hour drive from Bogota, we arrived in Santa Marta to be greeted by heat and humidity. With the temperature in the mid 30s, and humidity pretty high, the dusty city of Santa Marta was a bit of a shock after coming from Bogota, in the mountains, and off the air conditioned bus. At least it wasn´t as bad as a story I heard from a man who had been to Venezuela, who said that he had woken up one [View Full Entry]

By Tyrone
May 31st 2008

This isn't Nam, this is bowling. There are rules

South America » Colombia » Santa Marta

Macaw and bad facial hair
This bird flew up to our carpa on the beach, I got it to crawl on my arm but couldn't prevent it from biting the crap out of me.

Almost all of the cell phones here, including my own, are prepay. Meaning that when your money runs out, and it does frequently, you hang up on who you are talking to. It makes for a quick easy exit from a conversation. Plus hanging up and claiming you ran out of money is oh so believable. The best is when you know they don’t have money to call you back. Great. Time and time again my tendency to not answer the phone is reinforced. I get punished for almost every pick up. I understand now why the elderly play at not [View Full Entry]

By Dicki
May 31st 2008

Hammocks and Haddocks (Colombia part 2)

South America » Colombia » Santa Marta

Santa Marta
This place changes when the sun goes down!

Our final 2 weeks in Colombia sees us heading 5 hours further along the Caribbean coast to Santa Marta. At least it was meant to be 5 hours, as is the way with Colombia we were sat in a jam for two hours waiting for an accident to clear. This meant we arrived about 12.30 at night, with no idea of where to stay, brilliant. Fortunately we got chatting to an English guy on the coach who just happened to be travelling with a Colombian girl, so we headed to the same hostel as them and low and behold we ended [View Full Entry]

doesnt it give you that warm fuzzy afterglow.....

Travel Blog » South America » Colombia » Santa Marta