Advertisement
Published: October 17th 2009
Welcome to Colombia
Touristy I know, couldn't resist !Colombia - Capital, Bogotá
Famous for coffee, emeralds, plastic surgery, cocaine & the FARC
Currency - Pesos, $1 = 2355, £1 approx 3,000
Population 43 million
Now first of all the plan was to go south through Ecuador and into Peru after the Galapagos Islands, so my time in Colombia was always going to be rushed. I was very apprehensive about going to Colombia due to the general negativity and paranoia about the place, however everybody that has actually been says how wonderful the place is and the people are. My thoughts were that if I used my common sense and stayed away from areas that are clearly dodgy then all should be well. Those areas tend to be bordering the jungle where the FARC (Fuerzas Armadas Revolucionarias de Colombia) control everything, mostly cocaine growing and smuggling across Colombia and into Europe or the States.
Most Colombians are pretty normal and are some of the friendliest and most animated people you are likely to meet. They are passionate about Colombia and want you to have a great time there.
Now is the time to go to Colombia as costs are low, welcome is warm and Colombias sour reputation has kept
Bus to Colombia
Oranges anyone ? it off the gringo trail.
Im not going to go too much into the history and the politics of the place its far too complicated and am unlikely to be understand enough with my limited Spanish and such a short period of time. The most recent and publicised history involves the Mafia in the late 1970s developing trade in the powerful drug industry with plantations, laboratories, transport and protection. This led to the Medellin Cartel led by Pablo Escobar taking control, living in freedom and luxury and Colombia controlling 80 % of the worlds cocaine market.
In 1983 the government launched a campaign against the drug trade, turning into all out war and hunting down Escobar with a special unit of 1500 men for 499 days until finding and killing him in Medellin in December 1993.
Attempts since and spending billions of dollars trying to destroy the coca plant and the industry it supports seem to have done little to change the reality in Colombia, South America the States and Europe.
28th September - Not a very exciting day. Left the hostel in Quito at about 8am with Rene (The Swiss guy). Got the bus at 8.30am to Tulcan on
Slight de tour
A road block meant going off road with the bus ! the border of Ecuador, arrived about 2.30pm. Crossed the border, changed some money with a dodgy character walking round with a big wad of cash, met a nice couple who looked lost, who live in Salford. Got in a taxi to Ipailes (in Colombia) then on another bus to Popayam and arrived there at about 10.30pm. Had a few beers and bed.
29th - Up fairly early to have a wander round Popayan. It was a lovely place, lovely people, great scenery, really put a smile on your face. Maybe it was because it was a new country, who knows, either way it was starting to feel more and more like going north was the right call. Left Popayan late afternoon to head to St. Augustin. Within 20 mins of leaving the station, the bus was stopped by a load of army chaps, which was a bit intimidating as Rene and I were clearly the only non Colombians. They were actually just doing the routine checks, quick frisking, looking in the bag and on you go, just like going into a footy match. It was sort of re assuring too that there is security about, I think. Arrived in St.
Popayan
Walkabout on day 1 in Colombia Augustin about 10.30pm after a very bumpy ride. Checked into a place called Francois hostel owned by, guess who. A nice place overlooking the town, friendly people working there and a relaxed feel to the place. Stayed up for a few beers with the other travellers before crashing out after a long day.
30th - We decided to go to see the archaeological site. See, I am capable of a bit of culture. Basically a bit of jungle with a load of stones scattered about. They
e sort of burial stones from about 3000 years ago and thats about the extent of the information available (see photos). Had a walk into town and had some home made bread at the hostel, usual beers and chat in the evening.
1st October- Full day tour with a jeep and 6 other random tourists from other parts of Colombia. The tour involved the other archaeological site, waterfalls x 2, lunch and watching the guide fix the car about 4 times. The night was lets just say messy !!
2nd - A lazy day recovering and then getting on a bus to Bogotá at 8am. I actually managed to put my ipod on and
Popayan
Just off the main square wake up at 6am in Bogotá, perfect !
3rd - Had a look around the area of Bogotá we were staying in, watched United V Sunderland (nearly clouted some posh clown from London claiming to be a Liverpool fan, who was persistent in his desire to wind me up) had lunch. Then we went to the Presidential residence and the usual chatting to folk in the hostel before heading out for a night on the town. A friend had put me in touch with a girl from Bogotá, so Rene, Simon (a Dutch guy ) and myself met the girl and her friends in town. We went for a few beers in a bar and then onto a club. A fairly tame night all things considered. We went where the wealthy locals go & boy was it pricey, 10,000 pesos for a beer which is over £3, English prices, Gin and tonic in the bar was 18,000 pesos, over £6. A good night, maybe Saturday night in Bogotá is a bit hyped up ??
4th - Not a very busy day. Got the cable car to the Cerro de Moserrate, which had a great view of Bogotá, late afternoon and
evening was spent doing very little and hanging out at the hostel. You certainly don go out on your own in the area of Bogotá that all the hostels are in.
5th - Had a nice brunch with a nice English couple (Vikki & Chris) before getting the bus to the airport and flying to Cartagena. Arrived about 7pm, found a hostel and dragged a French girl out for a bite to eat and a few beers. We had some cheap street food, chorizo with potato and a sort of seafood dish with a tomato salsa. Then wandered into the historic town. An overload of architecture, music and beauty, very romantic and incredibly humid.
6th - Walked to the fort for the standard bit of culture with a girl from the dorm called Jess. In the afternoon went for lunch then a stroll round the old town to see it in the day. Ended up drinking mojitos in a bar claiming to be the rum museum. In the evening myself and an Aussie guy (Campbell) Id met got collared by the police. Basically the streets are full of iffy looking characters trying to sell all sorts, we had been ignoring
them as you would in any city in the world. The difference here is that one of the drug dealers decided to tell the police that we had just bought something off him, which we hadn . So within 30 seconds of passing the guy, 2 police men appeared and asked us to go to the station. We had to empty our pockets and spent 30 mins saying that we had done nothing wrong, one of the police men even pulled out a bag claiming it to be one of ours, he then dragged the chief or commander into it. After a while one of the policemen eventually said that all they wanted was some money for a drink, I pulled out a 10,000 pesos note out of my pocket, (£3.30ish) which did the trick and off we went. We actually saw the 2 police men in the bar 20 mins later with a beer. Apparently its a very common scam and Im sure most people will happily pay a few quid to avoid the night in police custody guilty or not. It was very scary despite feeling that it was all a bit of a game.
7th - Up
early to go to the Volcan de lodo el totumo, the highest mud volcano in Columbia. It was fun but took forever to get there and back , left at 12 and got back at 7, quick shower then overnight bus to Medellin (16 hours, stopping in the middle of nowhere for 4 hours with air con on, freezing ! )
8th - Arrived in Medellin, went for lunch, 30,000 pesos for as much as you can drink in the evening, fire water and rum, messy, got back at 3ish.
9th - Woke up feeling very hung over, went to the park for drinks in the evening and then to a club called Blue. Its quite common to drink out on the streets as the weather and lack of room inside kind of encourages it.
10th - Hung over again, went to watch Colombia Vs Chile, 4-2 defeat. Colombia out, oh well, I can say that the Colombia team deserved to qualify on that performance. In the evening I went drinking in the square, Chris & Vicky, Kate & Rich and Rob ( All English) Back for 2 ish
11th - up at 8, got the bus to Armenia which
Between Popayan and St. Augustin
The view during the bumpy 7 hour journey. is in the Zona Cafetera. This is where Colombias finest coffee comes from, a beautiful region of rolling plantations and steaming volcanoes. However we went on a bank holiday Sunday and it was raining. So we decided to carry on and got the bus to Cali, getting there for 10pm, had a Mexican and a few beers ) with Campbell and Brook (Aussie couple)
12th - A bit of a nothing day, went to a shopping centre, had some lunch and caught up on the old emails before getting the night bus from Cali to Ipiales (on the border) before leaving Colombia in the morning. I have to say that I am gutted to leave Colombia, has to be done though to get to Machu Picchu for the 22nd October.
In Summary then, Colombians are used to living for the moment, having lived with decades of civil strife. Dancing, drinking and parting till dawn seems to take the edge off an otherwise precarious existence.
Its one country that Im glad I visited and would happily return to although I have a a feeling that more tourists visiting with only have a negative effect on the way of life, cost and
St. Augustin
View from the room at Francois Hostel friendliness of the place as so often is the case.
Advertisement
Tot: 0.204s; Tpl: 0.035s; cc: 12; qc: 28; dbt: 0.0638s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.1mb
Zara King
non-member comment
Amazing trip
Hi hun how are you? Your trip looks fantastic.... looking forward to hearing about Peru. Where is your favourite place so far? Hope you are well and wish I was there too!!! Take care Zara x