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| our trip through colombia |
Cartagena
We arrived savely after our sailingtrip with ONE WORLD in Cartagena and the first thing we noticed was that it was incredible HOT! ( around 35 degrees) But not only very hot but also humid, so damn humid, I think they have 95% humidity. And we had in our hostel mamallena no aircondition in the room but only a fan, as usually. Unstandable! We could do leave the hostel before 4pm and having hundreds of showers, washing the liters of sweating..haha.
The next day we caught up with a volunteer friend from Granada, Nicaragua. Our good old australian amigo Nigel! He is still on his trip with his bike and just went to Cartagena to see us 2. We had a nice day together, walking around the wonderful old city of Cartagena, having coffee, juices, beers in the streets and then a nice dinner while talking about good old things and future plans. He is a great guy!
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| lots of talking to catch up... |
The funniest thing happend when we visited the gold museum. There was also a group of colombian students, well actually teenagers of around 13 years, and as we were the only "white people" there, they were staring and in the end talking to us fascinated how we look alike. But they were so friendly and interested and wanted to take hundreds of pictures with us!
To sum it up, Cartagena is a beautiful, colonial city but it was to hot and also very touristic. Not the kind of tourism we know from Europe, but this backpackertourism which has its heart in this kind of hostels we tried to avoid the last weeks. There are to many backpackers around who seem not really interested in the country, people and culture but only in having party with other backpackers around the world.
Taganga
Taganga is a little fishing village right above the hill behind Santa Marta. The village is full of foreign tourists and the beach is definitely not the best. However, there is a nice, uphill walk to the next bay, which brings you to Playa Grande. While walking you can see part of the coast line and you have a nice view of Taganga town. So, definitely worth a little trek.
Rodadero
Rodadero is another village next to Santa Marta. It is a posh, little beach town, full of Colombian tourists. The beach is nicer than the one in Santa Marta and Taganga, esp. if you go early in the morning. The water is still fresh and there are only a few people.
Bahia Concha
This is the first beach of Parque Tayrona. We went there on one of our first weekends with two Colombian students, who work for Mariposas Amarillas. To get there, we walked...1hour and 40 minutes...luckily, the sun wasnt shining that much. Usually, people need to pay 5000 pesos entry, about 2 euros. It is not much, but this is not an official entrance. It is just a couple of people who decided to build a fence...so, we negotiated and we didnt pay anything...yeahh
The beach itself is nice. You get a nice glimps of the forests of Parque Tayrona, the water is clear and there are some shady places to lie down and relax. On the way back, we took a pick-up...well deserved after the long walk.
Minca
Minca is a small, nice village, only 15km from Santa Marta but already around 600m above sealevel! So it is colder than in Santa Marta, to what we were really looking forward! We went there with our couchsurfing friend Lore because her Mum has a small house there. We arrived in the late afternoon and went straight up to the hostel Casa Loma, which is a 15 min hike up the hill. We arrived perfectly to sunset and had a cold Aguila while enjoying the beautiful view! In the evening we joined Lore and her brother + girlfriend for dinner and for a drink in a bar. We played some funny games and had a good time with them!
The night was ok, as the standard of the mothers house was very low... but it was ok. Just have a look at the pix.
The next day we hiked up 1h to a waterfall - really a nice trek with beautiful views and the 2 waterfalls were also very nice.
The beach itself is nice. You get a nice glimps of the forests of Parque Tayrona, the water is clear and there are some shady places to lie down and relax. On the way back, we took a pick-up...well deserved after the long walk.
Minca
Minca is a small, nice village, only 15km from Santa Marta but already around 600m above sealevel! So it is colder than in Santa Marta, to what we were really looking forward! We went there with our couchsurfing friend Lore because her Mum has a small house there. We arrived in the late afternoon and went straight up to the hostel Casa Loma, which is a 15 min hike up the hill. We arrived perfectly to sunset and had a cold Aguila while enjoying the beautiful view! In the evening we joined Lore and her brother + girlfriend for dinner and for a drink in a bar. We played some funny games and had a good time with them!
The night was ok, as the standard of the mothers house was very low... but it was ok. Just have a look at the pix.
The next day we hiked up 1h to a waterfall - really a nice trek with beautiful views and the 2 waterfalls were also very nice.
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| playing yenga |
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| Michael in our very simple room... |
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| enjoying the waterfall |
Travelling with Magdalenas family, Katharina and Achim
Minca, otra vez...
After a bumpy taxi ride, we arrived in Minca, about 20km from Santa Marta. We stayed in Hotel Minca, a nice place with a great scenery to watch the forest.
The first day we walked to Pozo Azul, a little lake. The afternoon we spent chilling in the hotel due to the rainy weatch. The second day we firstly checked out Las piedras and then walked to the waterfall, which is closeby.
The afternoon we spend watching the semifinales Spain-Portugal, however only for 60 minutes....power outage forced us to go back to Santa Marta before the end of the game:(
After a bumpy taxi ride, we arrived in Minca, about 20km from Santa Marta. We stayed in Hotel Minca, a nice place with a great scenery to watch the forest.
The first day we walked to Pozo Azul, a little lake. The afternoon we spent chilling in the hotel due to the rainy weatch. The second day we firstly checked out Las piedras and then walked to the waterfall, which is closeby.
The afternoon we spend watching the semifinales Spain-Portugal, however only for 60 minutes....power outage forced us to go back to Santa Marta before the end of the game:(
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| this dog showed us the way to the waterfall! |
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| Can you see Santa Marta? |
Parque Nacional Tayrona
Paradise on earth !
Spent there 2 days, one night (Magdalena and I in hammocs) and it was just amazing. After San Blas, we thought that we have seen the most beautiful beaches in the whole wide world, but Parque Tayrona really surprised us. The beaches and the forest behind are an amazing scenery.
We stayed in Arrecifes (about one hour walk from the entrance) and walked to Cabo de San Juan for the day. There was a good restaurant next to our "hotel", cheap and good food. The waves in Arrecifes are amazing to watch...unfortunately, you are not allowed to swim there due to the dangerous currents.
Paradise on earth !
Spent there 2 days, one night (Magdalena and I in hammocs) and it was just amazing. After San Blas, we thought that we have seen the most beautiful beaches in the whole wide world, but Parque Tayrona really surprised us. The beaches and the forest behind are an amazing scenery.
We stayed in Arrecifes (about one hour walk from the entrance) and walked to Cabo de San Juan for the day. There was a good restaurant next to our "hotel", cheap and good food. The waves in Arrecifes are amazing to watch...unfortunately, you are not allowed to swim there due to the dangerous currents.
San Gil
In San Gil we stayed in the best hostel (Posada Familiär) with the most charming and adorable owner who can imagine! Her Name is Esperanza (Hope) and she is really a wonderful Person. As magdalenas dad had Problems with his back After the 12h busride, she took care about him, offering different pills and other medicin to make him healthy again.
In San Gil we did several intersting things, such as visiting the park of the town, going to the National Park Chicamocha which has the 2nd biggest canyon in the world and we crossed it with a cable Car! amazing! The Most adventurous excursion was going into the cave"cuvea Antigua" - we had our own guide, Leo, and he took us through this cave, full of "Fledermaus", we had to "krabbeln", going through totally dark ways, and at the end, we had to climb some rocks from which are a Small-midldle waterfall was running down! We were completely wet After this trip and I finished this adventure trip with a jump from a 5m high rock into the canyon. Pure Adrenalin! ;-)
Parque Nacional Chicamocha
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This is a new National Park with the largest Canyon of the world! They built as tourist attraction a cable car from one end to the other. It is 6,3km long. We spent a nice day here and took great fotos.
Bogotá
Just a short explanation: although Bogota is around 800km nearer to the equator than Santa Marta ( and therefore should be warmer ), it is also almost 2800m above sealevel. ( In Europe you go snowboarding at this level...;-)) So we had around 20 degrees during the day and 12-15 during the night - what sounds not that bad, but they do not have any heating... so we were freezing a lot there.
Our hostel, La Candelaria, was in the named barrio, which is located next to the city centre with all the sighst. The barrio itself is quite charming - during the day - but during the night we already felt at 9pm, coming back from dinner, not very comfortable in the streets. But it was ok, nothing happened.
The topsights in Bogota were a Salt cathedral in Zipachira, 50km north of Bogota. An amazing, huge cathedral built 80% of salt.
Another highlight was our trip to the Moserrate, a little church up in the mountain which surround Bogota. We got up with a minitrain and on top we were at 3200m !! Wonderful view and fortunately this day we had quite good weather!
We also visited the famos Gold Museum and went to the northern Part ( where live the upper class of Bogota ) . These barrios, called zona rosa and parque 93 were like a completely different world. Lots of cafés, restaurants, bars, a park, good streets, only "normal" people and you really felt save there.
The last day we took magdalenas dad to the airport as his holidays had come to an end. He definetely enjoyed Colombia and got savely back home with thousands of unforgattable impressions.
The next morning our trip continued by another 10h busride to Salento, a small village in the famous cafezone, "Cafetera".
Salento
Before getting to Salento and enjoying wax palms, coffee farms and
some artesania shopping we had to get up at 6.30am in the morning and
sit 8 hours in the bus. At that point we already had some experience
with some bad bus rides and thought that it cant get worse...but it did.
Lots of curves, lots of mountains, lots of waiting in the bus due to
closed roads...but we made it to Salento in the late afternoon. We
stayed in a nice hostel called Tralala, great place! The have a great
living room where you can watch one of the many DVDs that they have.
The first day we hiked through the forest of Salento
and enjoyed an amazing view of the area. At the end of the hike we
found ourselves surrounded by hundreds of wax palms....really cool,
besides it was really dizzy. When we almost arrived at the bus station,
it started pouring down...so, it is definitely wise to do the hike early
in the morning, because apparently, it always rains in the early
afternoon.
The second day we went to a coffee farm in the
morning. Unfortunately, that day it alreayd started to rain at 10am in
the morning. So, we were soaked when we arrived at the coffee farm,
Finca Don Elias. The owner, Don Elias, an old man, was really nice and
did a great tour. However, we werent the only ones...with us was a group
of 12 American students. Elias showed us his coffee plants, explained
us how he grows coffee, showed us how he roasts the beans and in the
end, we could taste some coffee, too. Really delicious! And we only paid
5000 pesos for the tour.
In the afternoon we went to La Aldea, a sort of
artesania village in the village of Salento. There are only a couple of
houses but all of them sell handicrafts, great quality at good price.
Katharina even made her own leather bag...with the help of one of the
artists, of course. This took her about 4 hours and all together it cost
only 40 000 pesos, so 20 Euros.
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| we had to cross some waggly bridges...;-) |
Medellin
We stayed in the Southern part of Medellin, according to our travel book the better part of Medellin, and this was definitely a good decision. The first evening we went to a theater play "El extrano de Mr. Jekyll y Mr.Clown". It was based on the book "The strange case of Mr.Jekyll and Mr.Hide" but the actors changed the content of the story a bit. Really fun! And it was great to finally enjoy some culture again...we havent been to one theater play in the last 6 months...
The next day we took the cable car, one of the must-see-attractions in Medellin. The cable car is part of the metro of Medellin, which by the way is sponsored by France. The cable car enables the metro system to connect the poorer parts of the city to the center. While sitting in the gondolas, you have not only an amazing view of the city but you can also see the poorer barrios of Medellin from top. The last part of the cable car costs extra but it enables you to go into the surrounding forests of Medellin. When we went there, we were lucky because there was a little food fair with some really tasty food...mmhh.
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| Looking at the poor barrios of Medellin from the cable car |
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| The modern cable car |
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| Tasty and healthy food!! |
In the afternoon we went to Cerro Nutribada, another good place which gives you an amazing view over the city.
The second day we spent exploring the city centre. For example, we went to Plaza Boltero where you can find lots of statues of the famous artist Fernando Boltero. There are lots of places to go in Medellin, but really the best ist just walking around and watching the people...We really liked Medellin - it is a great city, with a good climate and lots of culture. And the people of Medellin speak a really clear Spanish, not like in Santa Marta.
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| Plaza Boltero |
El Cabo de la Vela
Katharina and I (Magdalena) went to Cabo de Vela for two days, one night with an organized tour. (Michael was tired after travelling for 4 weeks, so he decided to stay at home). Cabo Vela is famous for its indigenous people called Wahyuu and its landscape. However, before going, Katharina and I had to find a good tour operator. We arent used at all to go with organized tours, so we were a bit afraid to choose the wrong one. In the end, we went with Taganga Ventura and it was a great trip!
We were supposed to be picked up at 4.30am...however, the driver wasnt able to find our apartment. I believed that it isnt that hard to find an address, since the streets here are like a chess board...but, aparently it is...so we had to hurry up at 5am in the morning, get a cab as fast as possible and get to the closest biggeest supermarket, Exito, where the little van was waiting for us. It is a long ride to Cabo de la Vela, thats why we had to sit lots of hours in the car. At 7am we made our first stop to have breakfast - the real Colombian way, Arepa and if you want, soup.
We then went on to Uribia where we picked up one man from the indigenous community to guide us through the upcoming desert. I have never been in the desert...it was unbelieveable to only see sand and rarely plants around you...and not to forget the mirages...I really believed that there is a big lake in front of us, but the closer we approached it the further it went away until it finally disappeared.
After 7 hours in the van we arrived in Cabo de la Vela, a really small village. We had lunch and had some time to enjoy the beach, really beautful, almost no people...in the afternoon we went to clime Pilon de Azucar, a huge hill with some magnificent views over the desert and towards Punta Gallinas, the northern most point of South America. After this we went to another viewpoint to see the sunset - a great end to a great day.
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| Katharina collecting shells |
We spent the night in hammocks....definitely the best and nicest hammocks I have slept in, but still, I prefer my own bed with a nice mattress...
The next day we went off to the salt mines, right after breakfast. Of course, we had breakfast the Colombian way again - Arepas. Some other Colombians even had fish, rice and fried bananas for breakfast...At the salt mines, you could see huge fields of salts, and lots of little white hills, salts of course. After lunch we made a stop a Riohacha where we bought ourselves one of the traditionals Wahyuu bags for a great price! We then went back home.
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| Wahyuu bags in Riohacha |
Overall, the trip involved lots of sitting in the van, but it was definitely worth it! We had a great group, only Colombians but all from different parts of the country. It was really interesting to see this part of the northern coast, very different from what we have seen so far from this part of the country.
This "spot" ( you only can call it a spot ), is really great! It is an 1h and 15min busride from Santa Marta, after Parque Tayrona, and in the middle of nowhere. From the mainstreet, you have to walk around 20 min to reach the camp, where you find 2 big houses, 6 hammocs and 3 cabanas. Furthermore 2 showers, 2 toilets and 2 big tables to eat. That´s it. And on the beach they have some more hammocs, so the only thing you do there is relax, eat, read and walk along the biiig, looong beach with hundreds of palmtrees. AMAZING! And they do have a beachvolleyball spot... but actually it is to hot to play and the balls they have are not the best... well, but better than nothing.
We stayed there twice, once alone and once with Katharina. Both times were enjoyable and the food is also very good and cheap, but the bad thing is, that they have an annoying cat! This f*** cat is always looking for food and jumps on the chairs, tables etc... disgusting! But smart as we are, we knew how to reject her: just throwing water on her, as cats hatte that. In the end there is always one silly backpacker who starts feeding her, so she leaves the others alone.
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