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After 5 days on a boat we really enjoyed being on land & having lots of space and what better place to relax than beautiful sunny Cartagena. Immediately we felt the change in continent, people were so friendly, the food was different. Streets were lined with food stalls and lottery stalls. For breakfast we had 3 eggs fried in a sort of batter bun. Not our favourite but definitely different! For dinner Ade devised a stir fry with our bargain 5 for $0.50 chorizo sausages. It was quite delicious. Not by design we ended up staying in the red light district (cheap property for hostels and close to the old town), Ade even got propositioned the first night while trying to find the ATM on his own.
The old town of Cartagena is famous for its brightly coloured colonial buildings sporting balconies with potted plants spilling in the street. Walking around is like being in colonial fairyland. The ground floors are packed with jewellery shops hawking emeralds, boutique stores and street side cafes, bars and restaurants. We found one such cafe in a square serving a fantastically cheap but delicious Menu del Dia (menu of the day). Restaurants
all over South America have this, a 3 course meal, sometimes with drinks for anywhere between 3 -12 dollars. Observing the locals and soaking up the sunshine, we gobbled it up. The old town is walled in and it’s possible to walk along the top for quite a large portion of it. The views of the sea on one side, the huge fort looking down from a hill on the other and the snug town below are very reminiscent of Europe. Most of the original canons are still dotted along the ramparts, all filled with loved up couples hiding from the crowds.
As a day trip from Cartagena we visited the Volcano de Totumo. This 15mt high mud spurting mound is quite a popular tourist destination for the experience rather than the view. Everyone strips down to their swimmers, hands their cameras to one of the guys on photo duty then climbs the uneven, mud –caked stairs to the summit. Here they wait their turn to lower themselves into the warm bath of slimy hot mud and ash and get a good run down on both sides by the ‘masseuses’. Time being worked on is directly proportionate
to age and beauty. The mud is so thick it’s impossible to swim, touch the bottom or sink past your shoulders. Attempts at any of this usually ended up with bodies stuck at awkward and embarrassing angles, which in turn leads to guffaws of laughter by all involved and spectating. It was like a lunatic asylum, everyone was in hysterics throughout the experience. Getting out of the mud was another act in the comedy, bikinis and shorts wanted to stay behind in the mud much to the humiliation of their owners. Cue more hyenas screeching. The slippery walk down the mud mountain and to the lake was slightly painful but upon arriving we were sat in a about a foot of water and stripped to be washed down by ladies with little coloured buckets. All in all a day we’ll never forget!
Getting from Cartagena to Medellin we experienced our first South American overnight bus. We must admit we were excited about the prospect having only been able to do it before in Mexico. Sleeping and travelling at the same time – bonus!! We were blown away by Medellin, the 2
nd largest city in Columbia. Its red
bricked high-rises climbing up every mountain that surrounds it and filling every space in the valley. The effect of high green mountains, covered in red brick buildings is really stunning. A few cable cars operate and we took one to Santa Domingo. The views down on the neighbourhoods with all the black and white street art, basketball courts, football pitches and playgrounds at regular intervals was great. Once we got up high we had a fabulous sweeping panoramic view across the city. We stayed near Zona Rosa, the nightclub and restaurant district which always seemed to be kicking with young, well dressed locals. Everything is so much more modern than the majority of Central America.
One big tourist draw in town is the Pablo Escobar tour. We did the one that includes meeting his brother and also convicted criminal, Roberto Escobar. During the tour we visited his grave, the blown up and abandoned headquarters of the Medellin Cartel ending up at Roberto’s house. Here many of his old cars, a Harley, a boat and lots of pictures help to illustrate the life Pablo led. Roberto posed for photos and signed and fingerprinted copies of blown up photos
that he sold for his charity apparently. The whole thing was surreal. Roberto should still be in jail but was released after 11 years thanks to being the victim of an attack by the Cali Cartel whilst in prison. A letter bomb was delivered to him and detonated leaving him half blind and half deaf. He was apparently the accountant behind the Medellin Cartel, the largest cocaine traffickers of all time. An interesting documentary we watched in the van while being shuttled around was The Two Escobars about Pablo and a top footballer sharing the same name (but not related); looking at links between the cocaine money and the rise of Medellin & Columbian soccer.
We discovered Crepes and Waffles (it was across the road from our hostel!) serving mouth-watering crepes and delicious ice-cream and deserts. Apparently they only hire single mothers and provide free childcare during shifts. As a friend we met there said - as if we need another reason to love them! It would have been rude not to sample the local spirit Aguardiente, a 30% fermented liquor tasting of aniseed and served in juice boxes. Once was enough. Medellin was also home to
Ade’s great transformation – he completely shaved his head and beard. What a shock to the system!
Next stop was the adventure capital of Columbia, San Gill, up in the hills close enough to the Venezuelan border. Getting there involved an overnight bus then a connecting bus for a few hours but it was well worth the effort. The food here was immense, each Menu del Dia surpassed the last (our favourite being at Sam’s Gastro Pub) and we became addicted to Lulo juice. Lulo is a fruit that only grows in Columbia, or so we were told. The region around San Gill is also famous for its ant eating but unfortunately we were in the wrong season. Just as we were about to book on a kayak training course and a rafting day trip we realised Ade’s foot had blown up (literally swelled up and needed to be rested) so we aborted the plans and travelled close to 24hrs right down to the south of Columbia.
San Agustin is famous for its stone statues dotting the lush green hillsides. It’s also quite well known for its rain, it pretty much rained non-stop while
we were there. We ran into a friendly French gentleman on our overnight bus that helped translate the instructions at 3am to get off the bus as it was refuelling. Apparently it was for our own safety but luckily only this bus company thought so as we have never had that nonsense repeated. Anyhow, as it turned out the man was Francois of Casa Francois and we ended up spending 5 days at his hostel overlooking a valley, watching hummingbirds in the garden and eating his wife’s fantastic food. We spent one day visiting some further away archaeological parks and one day on horses exploring those that were closer. Despite the rain we thoroughly enjoyed our stay in the region although it did mean that we only heard the 3rd highest waterfall in South America!
Buses in Columbia were pretty impressive complete with toilets (sometimes even one for each sex), sometimes blankets, snacks & drinks and movies however questionable. On one journey we suffered through Faith Like Potatoes. This particular gem we suggest you avoid. On most trips a person came round with a video camera filming every passenger for our safety. However, we always felt a
lot less secure after it!
After the rest we headed back to San Gill to tackle the Grade V Rio Suarez. We were not disappointed. It was by far the most challenging and exciting rafting experience we’ve had. The only drawback was that it only lasted 90 minutes. We were lucky too, the day before it was cancelled because the water was too low, earlier in the week because the water was too high. The night before we went it rained all night long, so heavily that our hotel manager came in to lay towels at our balcony door to prevent flooding. The water was as high as can be rafted safely. Wohoo!!! Our guides were brothers, Henry (in the raft) and William (safety kayak) of Columbia Rafting Expeditions, were excellent both in and out of the water. Henry kept guiding us right in to the middle of whirlpools so we could get knocked by 2-3mt waves. It was such an adrenalin rush. Luckily we didn’t flip at all although in the middle of one long technical rapid Henry pulled us in behind a rock explaining the safety and recovery moves again saying it was probable we’d
flip in that rapid. We were completely flooded with water twice though. It’s very disorientating trying to row when you feel like you’ve already sank!
One afternoon we hung out in Parque El Gallineral, a beautiful riverside park filled with the long silvery fronds of the tillandsia tree and many other trees and plants. It was a great place to spot wildlife too. W saw squirrels, turkey vultures, a blue macaw and a baby sloth! On our last day the local beer festival was kicking off for the long weekend. Streets were closed and stalls lined them, crowds filled the square listening to music from the stage set up. The town was buzzing.
Our final stop in Columbia was the capital, Bogota. We arrived early in the morning on Paddy’s Day and immediately set about finding a pub to watch the Ireland v England 6 Nations game. We succeeded in finding an Irish pub but the match was pulled off tv and we could only listen to it on the radio. It was probably for the best for Ash as Ireland got smashed. We spent the day with Ciara and Ashley, friends we’d met
along the way, trying out local bars in La Candelaria. That night we met up with Mike, an old friend of Ash’s from her uni days that now lives in Bogota and was amazing helping us plan our itinerary throughout our Columbia adventure. On the way we got lost because of the confusing road numbering system. As it turned out, the road system had recently changed but they hadn’t updated all the street signs!
While sightseeing we visited the Police Museum (Museo Historico Policia) where we had a personal English speaking guide showing us around. We also met the oldest serving policeman, a 76 year old helicopter pilot who’d visited England and loved Churchill and Caesar. While checking out the Pablo Escobar exhibit in the basement we told our guide about our trip to see Roberto. They were pretty interested to say the least. The Botero gallery was in a fantastically restored colonial building and showcased all Botero’s paintings of chubby people, chubby cats and earthquakes. We really enjoyed it. It was the only gallery we’ve ever been in that was free and allowed you to take photos of everything. The last museum on our list was
the Gold Museum (Museo del Oro) where we perused the bits and bobs made out of gold.
We spent an afternoon with Mike trying out typical Columbian dishes (dipped cheese into hot chocolate, tried Ajiaco and ate traditional soup out of a bread bowl) and strolling around La Candelaria. Local entrepreneurs had saddled some llamas and were selling rides to children. They were so cute! The first ones we saw. In Plaza Simon Bolivar we got an interesting history lesson, one not in the history books. There were so many down and out folk walking around and the weather was grim. It’s easy to see why some people don’t like Bogota. We were unlucky enough to have our wallet stolen in this area the following day. We were victim of a simple trick; Ade was squirted with foam on his head and assumed it was a bird doing its business so stopped to clean up. When Ash said it looked like foam he checked his pocket and sure enough it was gone. We did have a bit of luck on our side, our Aussie ATM card is pedantic about where it works and so we hadn’t actually
taken any money out of the ATM we were leaving.
On our last night we met Ciara and Alan, an Irish couple we spent a few days with in San Agustin, for dinner and drinks. We tried a Mongolian Bbq run by a local guy who’d spent some time working in Dublin for the News of the World and had a laugh. We stayed up later than we should and were tight on time at the airport the next morning but all was well in the end. Apart from Ade’s shock and horror at having to pay a massive $10 for a sandwich J And with that we were off after one month in Columbia, heading to Cusco in Peru!
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