Images of Colombia

Playa Blanca

Vanessa, Playa Blanca

Cartagena

Cartagena

Cartagena

Our rooftop room in Minca

Sunset in Minca overlooking Santa Marta

Hummingbirds at Minca

Pelicans, Taganga

Tayrona National Park

Colombia....Reflections

From the picturesque Spanish colonial city of Cartagena to tropical rainforests, from stunning Caribbean beaches to cool coffee growing hills, its been a great start to the South America leg of our trip. The food and accommodation have been excellent and the people very friendly. You can feel their frustration at still being tarnished with Colombia’s notorious drugs past but things are changing rapidly as more and more people visit and return home with glowing reports.

Colombia was never part of our original itinerary but we were determined to create the time to visit and its paid off. Memorably its been incredibly hot  with wall to wall sunshine which we’ve lapped up despite us being unable to keep up with washing our disgusting clothes.   

 DAYS SPENT:   11

TRANSPORT:  1 plane, 5 taxis, 1 boat, 2 shuttle buses, 2 chicken buses,

NUMBER OF PLACES WE STAYED:  4 (1 hotel, 3 hostels)

ITEMS LOST/BROKEN:  Paul’s rucksack developed a 6 inch tear but got it repaired at the tailors within in hour for £1.50, Vanessa’s toothbrush (left behind)

FAVOURITE EATERY:  Agave Azul in Santa Marta

WILDLIFE SPOTTED: hummingbirds, mangy dogs

TOURS TAKEN:   1 (Playa Blanca Beach)

BEST VALUE FOR MONEY:  a few hours watching hundreds of tiny hummingbirds feeding for the price of two fresh Colombian coffees (60p each)  

Chocolate Greatness

Colombia is hot, very hot, so its pretty slow going in temperatures reaching 100 degrees.

Vanessa cooling off in Minca

We chicken bussed it from Santa Marta to the small fishing village of Taganga, a horseshoe shaped bay surrounded by scorched brown hills laden with cactii. Sounds picturesque, but its a dump. Its been over run by rubbish, backpackers and with it, a big drugs reputation and police roaming the streets. We  somehow lasted about two hours before heading back.

Our main objective was to visit Tayrona National Park just an hour's chicken bus ride away along the coast. Luckily the temperature dropped slightly with a bit more cloud for the four hike through tropical rainforest where it meets the sea and several wild and tranquil bays. On the way we noticed a small 'bakery' sign so we had to venture in and discovered chocolate greatness. A little old lady in her ramshackle house was churning out these freshly baked, warm chocolate loaves, so good that a pain au chocolat will be never be consumed again.

What should have been a simple chicken bus ride home from Tayrona didn't quite materialise. Along with eight or so others, we jumped on and straight away it just didn't feel right. The bus was really dark with some odd characters looking around at eachother. It just felt weird. It stopped a couple of times without picking up or dropping off any more passengers so when it stopped again, this time at a police checkpoint, we jumped off along with three others who it turned out were actually Colombians on holiday and they'd felt exactly the same.

From then on it worked out really well as they asked the local police to put us on another bus which they kindly did and instructed the driver to take us free of charge a few miles further up the road. The five of us plus a backpack and a tent, then jumped into the smallest taxi in the world back to Santa Marta which these amazingly friendly and generous Colombians insisted on paying for. The taxi driver's face lit up when he first saw us at the thought of a huge fare without realising that we'd all spent hours walking in scorching temperatures and we all stank, just like his taxi must have done for days after.

Hummingbirds by the hundred

The cooler coffee growing hills of Sierra Nevada were beckoning us so we caught a four wheel drive taxi, which some thirty years ago probably had windows, padded seats and suspension,  15km up a rough old road to the small riverside town of Minca. However, the cooler temperatures hadn’t reached down as far as Minca so by the time we’d climbed with our backpacks up steep steps for 15 minutes to our accommodation, there was a familiar smell, a bit like that Colombian taxi.

We had stunning views from our hostel room across the valley below to the shining lights of Santa Marta beyond. Just the perfect place to take it all in and watch the sunset. Our last morning in the hills was spent on the terrace drinking the local fresh Colombian coffee whilst watching hundreds of hovering hummingbirds feeding right in front of us. We’ll miss this place as we now head back to Cartagena for the night and our return flight back to Panama.......unfortunately.

Tough Day In The Office

Tough day in the office on Playa Blanca

We're not really 'sit on the beach all day kind of people' but similarly we weren't going to miss the opportunity to catch the boat from Cartagena to the amazing Playa Blanca. We were a little nervous at first when we saw streams of tourists piling onto a party boat but luckily we were ushered onto a virtually empty one.

An hour later, after avoiding all the hawkers who strangely enough seemed really pleased to see us, we'd found an empty part of the beach which was as good as they come. Brilliantly turquoise and calm warm water with 30C sunshine for good measure. It must have been perfect conditions for Vanessa to keep throwing herself back in the sea and we had to keep pinching ourselves that we were in Colombia.

Nice hat?

It was a glorious alternative for the day because despite the 16th century Spanish city being a beautiful place it does become quite hard continuously fending off the hawkers who some actually thought we'd come off the cruise shop. Surely we looked far too long haired and scruffy for that? Stop on a street corner to take a picture at your peril but a minor inconvenience though.

After four nights taking in the captivating walled city we took a shuttle bus four hours up the coast to Santa Marta. First impressions, we didn't realise that Colombia could do tacky seaside towns as well as we do at home. The only difference was the hot weather but we soon warmed to the place once we found a fantastic Mexican restaurant. Despite the amusement arcades and the Christmas lights, Santa Marta will be our base for a few days whilst we explore Tayrona National Park and the hillside village of Minca.

Cartagena, Colombia

The beatiful plazas of Cartagena

A perfect flight from Panama and we'd arrived in Cartagena, Colombia, located near the northernmost tip of South America. Colombia's notorious past is over which has opened it up to huge investment and tourism and we plan to spend a couple of weeks here on the coast on the start of a new three month leg of our trip.

Strangely we were greeted with the warmest welcome ever by the immigration official which was an unusually good sign and then within an hour we'd checked into our huge hotel room and eaten a superb meal in the wonderfully named Cafe Lunatico which proved that the appalling food in Panama City wasn't just bad luck.

We woke to blue skies and 30C temperatures and spent the day strolling around the 16th century, picture potscard, walled part of the city with its plazas, churches, and colourfully painted houses with their bougainvilla strewn balconies.

A great start to a new country and a new continent.

Images of Panama

Yacht being dwarfed on The Panama Canal locks

The Panama Hat

Starfish Beach, Bocos del Toro

Casco Viejo, Panama City

Sunday in the park, Panama City

Isla Taboga, Panama City

Storm approaching Panama City

Panama.....Reflections

A milestone reached as we end our time in Central America by completing the first third of our nine month journey. The next period is a bit confusing as we fly to South America, back to Central America, up to North America before ending back in South America for Christmas.

Nine weeks spent in Central America and Guatemala was the favourite destination by far. Panama has been a little disappointing particularly as the first week was more or less washed out but Panama City has been a strange place.

Vanessa eating ceviche in Panama City

It may have fantastic shopping plazas, an ultra modern skyline, marinas full of million pound boats but bizarrely it has the most diabolical food and we’ve been searching for something edible for six days. To say it has been shite would be paying it a compliment.  Everywhere we’ve been they’ve either run out, even in fast food joints, served us undercooked food which had to be returned or its been comically bland and tasteless. We even resorted to eating glupe, sorry, I mean Chinese food and to cap it all, on our last night after looking round the recommeneded area for food, we ended up in the Chinese again! Our philosophy...... why pay $15 for crap when we could get it for $3?

The only tasty thing was ceviche at the fish market which is raw fish in lime juice with onions and spices.

The taxis in the city are cheap, comical and challenging. Normally we have to ask where they’re going, negotiate a fare, listen to them  talk to us continously in Spanish after we’ve told them we can’t speak it and the best was when I asked to go to Hostel Mamallena and he told us that it was OK because he spoke English, so I replied, ‘’Hostel Mamallena’’, and suddenly he understood.

The Panama Canal was a huge highlight of our stay but unfortunately we have to return to the city for two nights after our visit to Colombia.

DAYS SPENT:   13

TRANSPORT:  2 buses, 3 boats, 20 taxis.

NUMBER OF PLACES WE STAYED:  3 (1 hotel, 1 tent, 1 hostel )

ITEMS LOST/BROKEN:  none

FAVOURITE EATERY:  Thanksgiving at Palmar Tent Lodge on Red Frog Beach

WILDLIFE SPOTTED:  white faced monkey

TOURS TAKEN:  none

BEST VALUE FOR MONEY:  Thanksgiving (free party with tons of food)