The adventures have begun and we are just over a week and a bit into our six month trip, and it is so good 😉
We are planning on experiencing 10 different countrys throughout our trip, making our way up from Colombia, over to Panama and up through Central America with a short week visit to las Vegas (Oh ye!), and then back down through Mexico to Costa Rica. Its a great plan and things have been falling into place perfectly so far.
Larly and I figured that we´d get straight into the thick of it and took what turned out to be a 30 hour flight(sss) to Bogota, Colombia.
I’d be lying if i told you that i wasn’t nervous heading into a Country which I knew to be rather volitile, even though i’d heard good things and met good people already from Colombia (I’m talking about you Mario ;-). What scared me most was that the difference between being safe and not, was a very fine line that we had to always be super concious of, but being from Johannesburg i figured i´d had a bit of that experience
Landing in Bogota though seemed to be a really soft landing as the airport was great, and we got a cab directly from inside the airport terminal direct to our accomodation we´d pre-booked. Tooo easy!
I got great advice on staying in what is called ´Zona T´ which is like staying in the Sandton of Johannesburg, with more famous bigname stores that i ever saw in Sydney (Gautier, Rolex, Hugo Boss etc etc etc). It was also safe enough to walk around the streets day and night which was a complete result in my books.
The Bars – I know it´s cliche´d but wow the Colombians know how to have a good time. All the bars and nightclubs which we saw were all about 3 storiues tall and there was just one after another after another for about 4 square blocks – Awsome stuff, and we were lucky enough to be there on a Friday and Saturday night so really got a good taste of it all. Abit like Rio’s Carnival though, as it kinda felt like it was there party and we were standing on the outisde staring in awe at how everybody was super well behaved but having a roaring time. The bars all selling every variety of Tequila and whiskey know to man, but not in normal shots… You could only buy them in bottles… Australia would have kittens if a bar did that! Litterally people would have a bottle of spirits in an ice bucket on a table – and yet everyboidy was still so well behaved with no agro what so  ever.
Which brings me onto the best part about Colombia that I’ve found thus far – The People. The Colombian hospitality is truly something special, as it’s clear that we are as Gringo as gringo comes yet each person almost takes you under their wing for the brief time that you are engaging with them, and then they would almost ‘hand you over’ to the next person who takes over the ‘look after the tourist’ responsibility. I’ve felt nothing but goodness and kindness from every person that we’ve encountered thus far, being it taxi drivers, hostel workers, waitresses, bartenders but mostly from people that aren’t going to gain any benefit from helping us (Ie. not being paid!)
After a week in Colombia I get the feeling that everybody is tryng really hard to change the way that Colombia is perceived from the rest of the world, and they are doing a great of convincing me that it’s a truly fantastic place to travel. Yes, you do have to have your whits about you but that continual feeling of impending danger which I thought I would have the whole time is not the case – I very pleasantly surprised.
The travel part has also been surprising easy, with no issues at all – To the point whereby everytime we turn up at a town or bus station almost immediately there is somebody there asking where you are going and ushering you in the right direction to catch the next bus which most likely will be leaving in the next 5 or 10 minutes. This has not been an unusual situation and not because we are getting the wool pulled over our eyes but more to do with the fact that their transport services are really good. It does help that we are on the Gringo trail though, and in al honesty I’m more than happy to be as I think as soon as you aren’t on the trial it will be a very different country… It’s still Colombia after all where there is always a possible risk of your bus being stopped by robbers in the night and all pasangers being ripped off (Not just gringo’s but all Colombian’s onboard apparently)
So on to some of the places we’ve been to over the past week or so:
We made our way from Bogota to a small and very beautiful town called Villa de Lyeva – An old town which has been preserverd with whitewash walls and cobblestone streets, and yes it felt completely safe walking round at night. I even got my camera (and tripod) out at night to take some pics of the local attractions. They had the most amazing courtyards filled with resturants, bars with live music and heladeria’s, it would have taken weeks for us to eat at each place (and would have cost all the money we have for our entire trip!)
After spending 2 nights we decided we’d seen everything we intended to and headed off on a 6 hour bus ride away to Barichara – Named the Most beautiful town in all of Colombia. It too had cobble stone streets and whitewashed walls, however we felt the previous town (Ville de Lyeva) trumps it – Probably due to the awesome courtyards and bars… funny that!
I am currently writing this post from the Caribean costal city named Santa Marta – There was not a lot of good things to be said in all guidebooks about Santa Marta but we’ve really enjoyed being here. I think it’s that beach side chilled vibe which it’s got going on, even though its a large bustling city. We were greeted to our first day of summer when we stepped off the 13 hour overnight bus trip, and burst into perspiration instantly. It’s good to be warm again after the cold Sydney winter and the high altitudes of Bogota and nearby towns.
Speaking of altitude, Colombia has some of the most impressive mountains I’ve ever had the pleasure of seeing. Bogota itself sits at 2400m above sea level and is the 3rd highest city in the world. It’s not like being in New Zealand where you drive around the mountains and look at them from afar, in Colombia you are always in the mountains with the majority of the population. This means Crazy single lane winedy roads built for cars now have large trucks and buses zooming past each other in the middle of the night in complete blackness… an experience very similar to the death road in Bolivia . With all big mountains come amazing views though, and where there is a good view generally there will be a good Cantina to have sundowners and gaze over the gigantic ranges in the vista while the sun disappears behind them.
We’ve started checking out a couple of the beaches however nothing hugely amazeballs to write home about from the beach perspective other than the fact that I’ve ticked off another Sea/Ocean that I’ve swum in… the Caribbean!!
Tomorrow we are heading off to Tayrona Pacque National – Colombia’s most famous national park!
P.s -Oh, and the rum’s pretty good too
Here are the pictures thus far that I wanted to show you, or you can click here for the gallery’s!!
