Colombia

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So we landed in Cartagena in Colombia from the boat. We docked at 11am. After eventually finding a hostel, we ate & chilled out after the hectic few last days. That night we met up with the gang & crew from the boat, as the captain had gotten our passports stamped for us. Ended having a brilliant night with everyone dancing in a salsa bar. We walked the old cobbled streets of Cartagena & along by the defensive walls of the city, that were built to keep the English out. We went to an underground museum where there was supposed to be dungeons but it was actually a 5 min history of the town. We set off for another seaside town, Santa Marta the following morning. We were looking forward to it but it turned out to be kip. The only nice thing about it was the hostel, even though it was full of muppets. We couldn’t wait to get out of there the following morning to Taganga, another beach town along the coast.

A small little village that hasn’t seemed to realise how much tourism there is & stay the way it always was. That was a big part of the charm & we grew to love it. We had planned on coming here for 2/3 days but ended up staying for 7. A very hippyish village. We found a bar that was showing the Ireland vs Wales rugby, our first rugby match to watch, very disappointing. We met people here that we knew so that made it more enjoyable. Some of them were doing the scuba diving course so after some looking into it, we decided to go for it. First thing to do was watch the 3 hours of video, so hard to keep the eyes open during it. Next day we got kitted out & went for our first dive. We started off by doing a load of exercises in shallow water, like swapping the regulator for the snorkel, taking off our mask, turning off our air etc. Bit scary at the start but the adrenaline kept us going. Then after a snack on the beach, we did our 1st dive. WOW. It was amazing. The next 2 days were followed by with more diving exercises at 12 & 18 meters deep & then just diving. Some of the life we saw was breath-taking, a whole different world. After a small but hard exam, we were now qualified PADI open water scuba divers to a depth of 18meters/60 feet. Our legs were well sore after all the swimming over 3 days, so a day of relaxing was in order. Jonathan got his hair cut, which turned out to be disastrous.

Next day, we packed a day pack & headed for Park Tayrona, a national park in north Colombia along the coast, which was basically a jungle with beaches. We bussed it there & had a two hour hike through the jungle to our camping site. We saw millions of ants carrying bits of leaves & 2-3 foot iguanas climbing trees. The campsite wasn’t anything great but it was right on the nice beach. We found our hammocks where we were to sleep & headed to the beach for swim. It gets cold & dark quickly so by 6pm, we were ready to eat but the on restaurant there doesn’t open till 7. We chilled out with two aussie girls we had met in Taganga & played cards. None of the girls slept well because of people snoring & everyone was afraid of getting bitten by mosquitos, even though we had nets on our hammocks. The smell off them was rotten, I doubt they had ever being washed. Then at 6.30am, a cock though it would be great fun to walk under our hammocks & wake us up, which started the donkey off in the corner of the field. Jonathan flipped & chased them away from our hammocks. Looking forward to breakfast, we were attacked by a swarm of flies. After the bad dinner the night before, flip all sleep, being bitten, & flies on our food, it wasn’t hard to decide that 1 night would be enough in this corner of the world. So we booked ourselves on the boat back to Taganga at 2pm, but didn’t leave till 4. The day was spent relaxing & swimming on the beach. Hard work this backpacking craic…!! Back to Taganga for one more night & play with the cute little kittens in the hostel, 3 of which were ginger, like the mother, & the 4th was jet black, presumably like the dad. There was beach party on in Taganga that night, which no-one seemed to know what for, but music & dancing were the order of the night. Another town we would be sad to see the back of. Next stop, Medillin.

We got a night bus to Medillin from Santa Marta, which only took 16 hours. We had heard that it would be freezing all the way so we wore half our rucksacks on us. Turned out that it was one if the best bus journeys we were to have so far & there was no need for most of the gear we were wearing. When we got there, we couldn’t get over how every building was red brick with red roof tiles. Medillin is the richest city in Colombia & the only city with a metro. Everything was well organised around it & it was really clean. We checked into tigerpaw hostel, in the zona rosa area. We were disappointed when we realised there is no real city centre, just an area full of bars & restaraunts. We hopped on the metro & then a cable car go to high up into the hills above the slums. We walked down through them, it was mad to see where they live & how they live. One thing we noticed in Colombia & even here in the slums is how helpful everyone is. Next day, we booked ourselves on the Pablo Escobar tour. Incredible. We were picked at our hotel in a minibus, along with 5 other tourists. We were told straight away not to mention the tour to Colombian people as they hate Pablo for what he did & the amount of people that died as a result of his work. The bus driver who organises the tour, used to be a driver for Pablo for many years. We told us how he was making so much money but how he managed to blow it all on drugs & alcohol & women but now he has no money but a wife & two daughters & has never being happier. We told us many stories about some of the work he did, people he met etc. First stop on our tour was to the grave. The Escobar family have a small plot in a private cemetery, where headstones aren’t allowed, just small plaques. When we got there, the guide started laughing. She explained that she had being here 4 hours before with another tour & there had being a fresh bunch of flowers laid on the grave. Now all that remained were two sunflowers & the rest had being damaged & thrown to one side. She told us about how all the family are buried together & how when the father died, the government wanted Pablo’s body DNA tested to make sure he was dead, as he had faked his death before. Even the family wanted to do tests as they believed the army never killed him, that he actually killed himself. He always carried a gun with him, so he could take his own life, incase he was ever caught, they could not torture him & we would die in his beloved Colombia, not be extradited to America & die there. He did commit suicide. We visited the grave of his cousin, who was his partner in the business. Also the grave of his bodyguard, who was 23 when he died. He was so good, he even had his own hit-man team. When Pablo died, he was the 7th richest man in the world. After the graveyard, we went to the house where he died. The house used to belong to his aunt, but was taking by the government after he died as they believed it had being bought with the proceeds of drugs. For 15years the house lied empty as no-one wanted to own the house where Pablo died. It was bought very cheap. The next place we visited was Roberto Escobar’s house. He is Pablo’s brother, who was a cycling champion. He got involved in the business when he was accused of cheating in racing & quit that. He, to this day swears that all he ever did was help with the money. He spent many years on the run with Pablo after they escaped from jail, through the front gate. He handed himself in in 1992 & spent 10 years in jail for his part of the crimes. While at home one day shortly after serving his time, a letter bomb exploded in his face & now he is almost blind and deaf. We were supposed to meet him at the house but was unwell and in hospital. We met his son, Nicolas, there at the house. He is 45 and was very involved in the business with his father and uncle. He told us many stories about what happened & how they did business. He showed us around his fathers house and & showed us his car collection. That was Medellin.





After a quick look at the map, we were off to the coffee region & consulting with the travel bible, lonely planet, we decided on Solent. A small quaint village set in the hillside of the coffee region in the middle of the mountains.



It was like a scene from a western film, all the men wearing their cowboy hats, ponchos and boots. We checked into a nice hostel with a giant ginger cat and hush puppy dog living in it. That night our dinner cost 1.50, our starter was a lovely bowl of soup and instead of serving bread with it we got a lovely banana, strange but nice. We had a stroll around the streets and found one tiny bar where the old men in the pub shouted and screamed for us to join them. Needless to say we sat down with them for one or two, they sang to us, hugged us and chatted away like we were there lost best friends.



Next morning we visited the coffee farm. The trail to get there was out in the mountains with the most beautiful countryside. We finally arrived at the farm house to be greeted by five dogs sniffing us to make sure we were ok. The tour was much more than we imagined, the farm surrounded by rolling hills, growing pineapples, bananas, oranges, plankton, coffee, bamboo and lots more. Alejandro our guide explained the process of growing the coffee and all the fruits. He sent us on our way with all the fruit we wanted to bring with us. From there we went to the viewing point in Salento to look over the valleys and rivers.



Following day, we set off for Cocora Valley, which was only a short jeep ride from Salento. The valley was nearly greener than Ireland and we followed the stream all the way uphill for 2 hours. All along the stream were rickety bridges made from bamboo. At the top of the valley was a sanctuary for hummingbirds. There was two little old men living in the sanctuary who put out water and food for the birds. They served us hot chocolate and a big square of cheese as we arrived, after climbing uphill this was really nice. From there, we hiked for another hour up through the forests to the mirador (viewing point) at the top of the mountain. The view was just incredible. It took two hours to hike back down and into the jeeps back to Salento.



With a lot of reluctance we left Salento the following morning. The lovely Lisa and her husband who owned the hostel came out the door to wave us goodbye. After three hours on a shuttle bus we arrived in Cali. Cali is famous for Salsa so we thought we would stay for one night to check it out. On arrival though we decided to get straight back on the bus again and head for our next destination, Popayan. Cali just seemed too much of an overheated grotty city after the peacefulness of Salento.



Popayan is a lovely white washed colonial city. We chilled out for a while here, enjoyed the nice hostel, cooked some food for ourselves which was nice. When we had recharged the batteries we decided on a two day trip to Tierredentro. The road to Tierredentro was an adventure. Firstly our bus was from the 80’s with holy statues attached to the bonnet. The seats had big holes in them but we adapted quickly to thinking this was luxury. The road is very bumpy all the way, so much so that you jump out of your chair. A nice man got on half way through with two half open cardboard boxes, each full with 25 chicks. These entertained us for a while, until the smell made us move. We stopped off in a roadside restaurant with smoked meats and fillets of fish hanging from the roof, new-born puppies out the back of the place and a calf grazing on grass that didn’t seem to notice us being there.



Six hours later with some sore behinds we arrived in Tierredentro, a small town locked away in between the biggest mountains I had ever seen. Checked into our hostel to meet our host (a lovely 80 year old woman who was about 4 ft. tall). Checked out some of the ruins and had the cheapest and tastiest dinner so far. Oh and made some friends with the military guys and got photos with them. They were more than happy for us to take their photos and even came back to us so we could take more.



After chatting with our Mexican friend, Adrian, we decided to grab the next day by the horns and get up super early. We set off to climb some of the nearby mountains and find some ruins. What we thought was going to be an easy 1 hour walk turned into 4 hours. The climbing was unreal and the scenery out of this world although with no water it proved to be quite a challenge in the roasting heat. When we returned to the village we ran straight to the shop, downed 2 bottles of water each a bottle of coke and two bottles of gatorade. Our lovely hostel host made the most amazing breakfast for us, we were never so happy. Following breakfast we set off to see the remaining ruins and then hopped on the bus for the six hour journey back to Popayan. The ruins we really impressive, especially near the museum, really old tombs that had carvings and paintings all over them. Because it was quiet, we got a private guided tour of the bet tombs, as there were over 30 there but we got to see the best ones.



After one day of planning our border crossing from Columbia to Ecuador, we sadly packed up and got ready to depart our favourite country so far. The plan was 10 hours to the border, a short stint at each border crossing and then a bus on the Ecuador side for 5 hours to bring us to Quito. The plan was slightly disrupted when the border crossing was closed for 24 hours due to the elections. We were tempted to cross illegally, even when the secret service told us we could; only problem being that Ecuador wouldn’t stamp our passport. Ah well, we stayed in the not so nice border town for the night with Adrian, it didn’t kill us. But breakfast the next day nearly did, watery soup with goat’s meat and bones, then eggs, rice, potatoes, salad and stale bread. $2 tho, so we survived.

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