Salento lies within the Coffee region of Colombia which as the name suggests is the main area for growing the famous Colombian coffee. Despite the fact that Colombia produces some of the finest Coffees in the world the coffee here is not that great as the really good stuff is exported and too expensive for the locals. Salento is another very tranquil place to hang out without too many major attractions. The town itself lies in an altitude of 2200m which means that even if the days are nice and warm (it is also very close to the equator) the nights are cold. I stayed in another backpacker hostel which is run by an English Expat. Most of the backpackers here are actually run by some European, Australian or New Zealander and are mostly really good. ... read more

Cartagena was once the most important sea port of the Spanish colonies in South America (basically the whole continent and more). Many of the gold ships of the Spanish fleet left from here towards Spain laden with the gold of the Incas and Aztecs. This obviously attracted many pirates and buccaneers of the time which led to Cartagena being plundered quite a few times. The Spanish didn’t like that a lot so they started to build a wall around the city and some forts to protect the city better. This seemed to work just fine as the pirate attacks continued but the success rate dropped drastically. Just to get an impression on how much money was involved, when Francis Drake returned home from one of his raids he brought back gold valued today over USD 118 ... read more

Ciudad Perdida - "The lost city" the city we are talking about was build by the Tyrona Indians a long time ago and was abandoned four centuries ago when the Indians got wiped out by the Spaniards looking for Eldorado. It is the biggest Pre-Colombian city ever found in South America. At the peak the city had somewhere between 2000 and 4000 inhabitants (Machu Picchu had only 1000). You might have heard of the city in 2003 as some tourists were kidnapped while doing the trek there by the local Guerillas. The big surprise is not that the city got lost it is that anyone found it again. You can believe me when I say that it is in the deep jungle after you crossed a river eight times and went up a million steps up ... read more

I guess most of you like me haven’t heard much good news from Colombia in a long time. If you ever hear anything on TV then its mostly related to Cocaine, the Medellin or Cali cartel, Colombia being the kidnapping capital of the world or the US trying to fxxk up another country. Well all good enough reasons to check it out (just kidding). The reason why I’m here is that Matt (Hi) a friend of mine brought Colombia up when I asked him where to go in South America. He seemed to be quite taken by this country. Other people that I´ve met had never anything bad to say about Colombia and I hope I won’t be the first one. If you read the Rio entry then you know that I’m capable of badmouthing a ... read more

Good news: I found a way to share videos. If you want to view them, then read this blog. There you’ll find a video of Salvador but also of other locations I have been to. A quote from someone else’s website: Salvador's Carnival got into the 2005 edition of the Guinness Book as the biggest Carnival and the biggest street party on earth. Each year, two million people crowd the streets and roads of the city during the six days of Carnival. Yes big, crowded, dirty and smelly it was but hell it was fun. I arrived safe and secure at my hostel which to my surprise really had a bed for me. I had quite a few problems with the booking and at one stage I had four beds then none and then maybe one. ... read more