Advertisement
We arrived over the border into Colombia with very little hassle at all, apart from a big queue to get over the bridge from Venezuela. I think we all felt we should be able to smell danger in the air, but it all felt pretty normal. We stayed for a night in the border town of Cucuta, at a very nice hotel indeed, with pool, internet, and bar (including very nice looking men both serving and drinking there!!!). The next morning we got dropped at the airport and had to say good bye to Euan who had been our driver since Rio, and Magalee, the truck. The airport was the quietest I have ever seen, it felt like it was our own private airport, there were so few other people.
We flew to Cartegena (on the Caribbean coast) via Bogota, and there was great excitement during our short wait at Bogota as the airport had all sorts of American junk food which we hadn´t seen for months.... Dunkin Donuts, Baskin & Robbins ice cream - we were quite literally like kids in a sweet shop! We got to Cartegena in the early evening and luckily we were right next to
one of the main squares, Plaza San Diego. Here there were loads of restaurants and lots of colourful colonial architecture.
The next morning we explored the old city, which is surrounded by a protective wall and is absolutely beautiful. I know I have said this about a lot of places I´ve visited in South America, but I think the pictures speak for themselves. We wandered the streets for a while and admired all the colonial buildings, and then visited the San Pedro Monastry, where San Pedro, "slave of slaves" lived in the 1600´s. He used to go from door to door collecting money to free the slaves brought to the city from Africa. It is an impressive building and we had an excellent english speaking guide who told us all about San Pedro´s life at the monastry.
The next day was a boat trip out to the Rosario islands in the Caribbean. The island we visited had all the expected ingredients - white sand, calm blue sea, and lots of sun! I actually slept in a hammock in the shade for a lot of the time we were there, as it was too hot! The following day was
a trip to a nearby mud "volcano" - at least volcano was what the locals called it, but it didn´t look like any volcano I´ve ever seen before, more like a mud hill! It was very relaxing but very strange floating around in the mud, (believed to be over 500m deep) - quite difficult to control movements but easy to float (in a standing or sitting position!)if you stayed still.
After Cartegena, we got a private bus to take us to Santa Marta, a little further up the coast. This was a 4 hour drive and we saw some interesting sights along the way, including a bloke riding on the back of a moped carrying a rather large TV under one arm! From Santa Marta, we drove to Tairona National Park the next day, where we spent a few nights. There were more stunning views here, of beaches and mountains, and lots of walks along the beach to do. We stayed in cabins at one site, but could walk to other sites where there was more accomodation or different cafes or restaurants. A short walk would also get us to the natural pool, where a long line of rocks
out to sea created a break for the waves, which could be quite strong otherwise. So, lots of relaxing was done here, and also lots of cards played in the evening - including poker, which I have actually won a few games of now!
After leaving the park, we had a quick stop back in Santa Marta where we had left some bags, then straight to the airport for our flight to Bogota. Flying into Bogota airport, we could see for miles around lots of greenhouses which we were assured contained cut flowers, one of Colombia´s biggest exports - well one of the biggest legal ones anyway! We arrived in the early evening, and got a bit of shock with the weather which could easily have been England! We were in the mountains now, at 2,100m. In fact, it could well be that the weather in England was warmer.... funnily enough the houses in the area around our hotel also looked quite English..
The big one to see in Bogota is the Gold Museum, so first thing the next morning we headed there. This was Sunday, and admission is free on Sundays so the queue was massive. But
this was the only day we could go there as all musuems shut on a Monday. I waited with a few others to see if the queue would improve, and we were just thinking we might not make it, but one of girls wanted to get a souvenir brochure so went inside for that, and was invited to jump the queue while there! She asked if she could go and get her 3 "amigas" and was told yes, so the 4 of us went straight to the front! Still not quite sure why this was but we weren´t asking any questions. Since it was free to get in, I paid a small amount to get a talking guide in English and this was well worth the money. I wouldn´t have had a clue what I was looking at otherwise (other than gold obviously!) There are over 35,000 pieces of pre-Colombian gold work here, ranging from jewellery to breast plates to ornaments. The guide explained what the pieces would have been used for and which different tribes would have used the different ones. There was also a section on the legend of El Dorado (the golden one), which tells the story
of the king who was coated anually with resin on which was stuck godl dust, then taken out onto a lake on a ceremonial raft. He emerged with the resin and dust washed off. Many precious items were also thrown into the lake as offerings. The lake is in Guatavita, about 75km from Bogota, and many of the items in the musuem were recovered from there, including a miniature raft with ceremonial figures on it, made from gold wire.
We saw some potential for great nightlife in Bogota, having visited the Zona Rosa (Pink Zone) on our first night there, which certainly had plenty of clubs and bars. Unfortunately, for the next 2 days, the Ley Seca (dry law) was in force which meant it was not possible to buy alcohol anywhere in the city! Apparently this is a measure often introduced by the authorites to try and keep the peace when there are demonstrations planned. Or maybe they just heard about the Tucan tour and the amount we have drunk throughout South America and decided to enforce a drying out period on us!
Just one more week of the Tucan trip now - a few more days
in Colombia, then across the border to Ecuador. Then I´ll be off on my own adventure for a couple of weeks in Mexico...
Advertisement
Tot: 0.071s; Tpl: 0.012s; cc: 7; qc: 51; dbt: 0.0453s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.1mb