Category Archives: 2016:Colombia

Tayrona National Park

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Tayrona National Park was one of the reasons for me to actually visit Colombia – and today was the day to go there … and I did not go disappointed. 🙂

We made it to the park entrance after a 45-minute bus ride. At the entrance we had to endure a ranger introduction around how to behave in the park, before being allowed to start queuing to actually get tickets. While the ranger introduction may sound like a great idea, it really turns out a waste of time, when it is only provided in Spanish with half the tourist not in command of enough Spanish, to actually understand the details (which were really not much beyond the normal stuff, e.g. take your garbage, do leave nothing behind, do not swim, where forbidden).

After a good hour of waiting in queue for the tickets we were finally allowed into the park; a shuttle did bring us to the trail head for the hike to the beach … the hike was first through the lush jungle with some slight ups and downs, then in parallel to the coast and finished at the beach – a great hike with some good views on the way – and a near-perfect beach on arrival.

We had lunch right at the beach in a little local restaurant; after that it was digestion time at the beach in the little shade, that was left for us. Of course there was also an opportunity for a quick, refreshing jump into the Caribbean Sea.

When we started our way back, we could already hear a thunderstorm approaching. The rain finally hit us half way back. Temperatures though were high enough, so it did not really matter – plus it added to the experience (it’s not called rain forest, because it does not rain).

It stopped raining, when we were on the bus heading back to Santa Marta; after some time to fresh up, we made it into town again for another great dinner – there is no better way to finish a superb day.

 

Santa Marta

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With our delayed arrival, this evening’s schedule turned out a slightly compressed. We met just after sunset (literally 20 minutes after arrival from the airport) for a quick orientation tour of town, a glimpse of the local festivities in honor of the virgen de Carmen, followed (or should I say topped off) by an excellent dinner (nicely accompanied by 2for1 mojitos) and a hello to Mr. Crabs.

As the virgen de Carmen is now showing up the second time, I should probably provide some more background. The virgin of Carmen is the patron saint of the transport drivers in Colombia. So celebrations were not limited to town centers and churches (like here or in Villa de Leyva earlier in the trip), there were also plenty of trucks, taxis and buses decorated beautifully – we even saw a processing of many trucks and buses in her honor.

To Santa Marta – via Chicamocha NP, Girón and Bogotá

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San Gil would have had plenty of further activities on offer, to keep us busy for another couple of days – however as usual with this kind of tour, we were on the move again – heading all the way to Santa Marta in the Caribbean today.

We started in the morning with a 110km drive from San Gil to the airport of Bucaramanga; en-route we passed through Chicamocha National Park with its stunning views. We also had a stop for about half an hour in the small town of Girón, to take in some more beautiful colonial architecture. A further 20 minute drive finally got us to the airport, where we boarded an on-time flight back to Bogotá.

We were using Bogotá as a connection point only this time, so just enough time for a quick lunch and change to another plane – at least that’s what we were expecting. After boarding of the second plane everything looked normal – until things turned slow on the apron and we returned back to the stand … in the end maintenance had to come and fix something and we were finally on our way to Santa Marta with a two hours delay.

San Gil – Adventure Capital of Colombia

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San Gil is often subtitled as the adventure capital of Colombia – and it seemed, really everything was on offer here … from easy stuff like hiking, to canyoning, caving, paragliding (tandem of course), rafting (various levels) and bungee jumping – so a bit like a Colombian Queenstown. 😉

I decided for the rafting on Suarez River, according to Colombia Rafting Expeditions one of the most exciting rivers in Colombia to practice whitewater rafting and kayaking,  with rapids class IV + V.
After a drive of about an hour we made it to the starting point for an introduction to actual rafting, rescue and self-rescue measures (necessary with level 5 rapids ahead of us). The actual rafting turned out major fun – with water coming from every direction. Below some evidence from our trip and our raft – courtesy of Colombia Rafting Expeditions.

San Gil and Barichara

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This morning we made it from Villa de Leyva to San Gil – a journey of approximately 175km, that technically takes 3.5 hours (we made it in well less than three hours) and one toilet break (we were given none).

Arrival in San Gil was in time for a short orientation walk and lunch in the food court of the local mall (ceviche anyone?). It was also here, where we reviewed and discussed our adventure for the following day.

With San Gil itself not offering too much, we decided to jump on a local bus, to get over to Barichara. This little town is well known for its well preserved colonial center and made a nice getaway for this afternoon.

Cali on a Monday

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Today we had another drive of about 140km ahead of us … this time however mainly on good quality, toll highways – making the journey from Popayán to Cali pass by in a good two hours.

We made it to Cali in the late morning, dumped our stuff in the hotel and were off for a tour around town. It did not take us too long to discover, that – today being a Monday – all the main attractions were closed … so we had to come up with an alternate plan. We finally ended up doing an extensive walk around town, checking out some of the quarters neighboring the center … an antique shop – we ran into by chance – even made a good substitute for a museum. 😉

In the evening we took taxis to San Antonio church to enjoy the views over town. We soon changed location to a nice bar (again with city views) for some drinks and later on also dinner. Dinner was an eclectic mix of bar food and included another offal-tastic surprise: pieces of fried lung were part of the mix. Those pieces did not look much different than the normal pieces of meat – just imagine the unexpected surprise, when expecting meat but ending up with a piece of lung (and its – for my taste – horrible texture) in your mouth …

Popayán

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We left San Agustín in the morning for the 140km / 4 hours journey to Popayán – a bumpy and curvy ride, including a 3200m mountain pass.

We got into Popayán in the afternoon – in time for a visit in a juice bar (lulo anyone?) and a walk around town. Popayán is also known as the white city due to the color of most houses, churches and official buildings in the old city center.

As today was a Sunday, the city was fairly quiet, most shops and cafes were closed – only (obviously) churches were busy.

In the evening we went to a local fast food joint, for (based on the view of Andres) the best chicken soup. The soup turned out a proper broth – complete with the most flavorful little pieces of chicken (or menudencias per the menu … i.e. liver, hearts, kidneys etc. – no white meat though). He was right … the soup was very flavorful – though … me not being a fan of offal, I just had to eat around the one or other menudencia.

After dinner choices were between the odd dark bar on the other side of the street and the bar of the local five-star hotel a short walk away. The choice was an easy one – the drinks good (if available) – just the music selection left some questions. 😉

Around San Agustín

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We made it into San Agustín in the late afternoon of Jul 8th; it was an evening spent over mainly trout-based dishes and red wine, ultimately ending (not sure how we got there) in a discussion focused on udder recipes (cow udder eclairs anyone?) … might sound weird (and hell yes – it was), but is a clear sign of working group dynamics. 😉

We now had a full day around San Agustín; after (an udder-free) breakfast, we took taxis over to San Agustín Archaeological Park. The park is yet another UNESCO world heritage site and features a huge number of monolithic religious monuments, as well as many dolmen graves. Given the number of graves, I guess, one could technically count the place as a necropolis.
The San Agustín culture goes back to around 1000BC, it then thrived for the next two millennia with its decline kicking in around 1000AD (so well before any fun with the Spaniards). There are still many question marks around this culture; check out the wikipedia pages for a good starting point (Spanish, German, no English version unfortunately).

We had an extensive tour around the park taking in the main monuments, graves, the ceremonial spot around the river, made it up to a viewpoint and had the chance to sample the gastronomic offers of the park (yummy empanadas).

The afternoon saw us heading out to the small village of Obando to visit the small museum – to see some more graves and a compact exhibition (and summary) on the San Agustín culture. From here we continued to the Estrecho Del Magdalena (Magdalena Narrow), a spot at the Magdalena river, where the water gets pushed through a narrow channel between the rocks, resulting in high pressure and speed.

Welcome to Bogotá – Welcome to Colombia

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I have had Colombia on my bucket list for some time now; with the security situation well improving over the last couple of years – and a good offer at hand (for both tour and flight), I decided to get booked for this summer.

I made it into Bogotá in the evening of July 6th after a quick 11.5 hours flight (straight in from Frankfurt). After a good night of (jet-lag induced) sleep, I had a full day to explore the city – before the initial meeting with my group in the evening.

This morning I had a walk around the touristic center, making my way around to Plaza Bolivar, the cathedral, the presidential palace and Santa Clara museum; I also paid a visit to Bogotá’s Gold Museum. In the afternoon – after a late sandwich lunch – I walked up to the cable car station, to make the way up to Monserrate to see the church and shrine – and (certainly more important) get a view of the city.

I made it back to the hotel in time for the group meeting. It turned out, that there were only four of us (including myself, plus Andres, our tour leader) for the next ~twelve days (until Cartagena), so a fairly small group. After the usual introduction, we made our way into a nearby restaurant for dinner – followed by a first visit to the BBC and a great IPA introduction.

The next day – after a tea-based introduction to Starbucks – Colombia’s air force (or better the air force controlled airline SATENA) was happy enough to get us to the first stop of our tour itinerary – San Agustin.