Out of all the countries
we’ve been to, Colombia is the one that had the most people react with- “why
would you go there?”, “is it safe?”, “are you mad?”. It’s a country that
developed a dangerous reputation (rightly so) but has failed to shake it fully yet.
That will continue to change. The latest Lonely Planet says “of course anything
can happen but compared with neighbouring countries, Colombia is much safer”-
so there you have it- you worried about the wrong countries!
Most people associate
Colombia with cocaine buying & selling, guerrillas, paramilitaries,
kidnappings, Pablo Escobar, general mayhem. Escobar was killed in 1993 but his
shadow certainly still hangs over parts, Medellin especially but generally
there is very little indication that all this mayhem once went on. We found the
Colombians to be lovely people, very welcoming and they are owners of an
amazing country that we were lucky to explore.
Our flight landed in
Bogota and we took a few days to explore there before moving on. It was my
least favourite stop in Colombia but to be fair, the rest of the country set
the bar really high. Two highlights of the city were a bike tour around Bogota
we did on Easter Sunday and a day trip the following day to the Salt Cathedral.
The bike tour was good fun, bringing us to areas of the city that we wouldn’t
have gone by ourselves and introducing us to lots of things locally, which is
always good. Thankfully on Sundays lots of roads are closed to cars as I’m not
sure how safe I would have felt doing it on a busy traffic day- as with most of
these countries I don’t quite trust the road users!
Bogota is one of the
first cities in the world to legalise graffiti in the city and the local
council actively encourage graffiti artists to display their works around the
city- obviously me writing “BMC woz ere” on someone’s wall doesn’t qualify. It
definitely gives the city something different around the place with large
paintings along many of the main roads.
As the last stop on our
cycle tour, they brought us to show us a local pastime called “tego”. You could
say it’s like a game of bowls except instead of a bowling ball, they throw
rocks and instead of rolling them along the ground, they throw them in the air
and instead of trying to hit a jack with the ball you are trying to hit
firecrackers to make them explode- Same same but different! The locals claim
that accuracy is improved the more beer you drink, can’t say we stayed that
long to find out but I’m sure it could be put to the test with bowls!
Our last day in Bogota
we took a trip to an hour outside the city to the Salt Cathedral- an amazing
structure built by the miners who used to operate the salt mines in the area.
Obviously all underground. Really cool to walk around with each room set up to
reflect one of the twelve Stations of the Cross and then the final room is a
huge underground cathedral. Great day out. We hired a driver to bring us there
and back. When we met him in the morning he politely explained that he couldn’t
find a babysitter so would we mind if he brought his two ten year old twin boys
with him- well we’re supposed to be leaving in 3 minutes so I don’t think we’ve
a choice! A real family day out for us- was able to impress them with my
knowledge of Colombian footballers- limited though it is, they were delighted
when I dropped Faustino Asprilla into a conversation- All about earning those
cool points with the kids!
From Bogota we took a
night bus to Medellin- a really nice city, much preferred it to Bogota. Had
great fun here, lots of nice cafes, bars, restaurants around the place and lots
to see and do. Did a good walking tour here, which again was a great way to see
the city and get an insight into its histories and the stories behind different
areas. Obviously the big thing a bunch of tourists like that want to know about
is Pablo Escobar- the world famous drug dealer who is thought to be responsible
for over 4,000 deaths and was once listed by Forbes magazine as one of the ten
richest people in the world. Our guide was happy to receive questions but asked
us to refer to him as “The Doctor” (one of his nicknames) as if locals
overheard his name being used they could get the wrong idea about the type of
tour that was being run.
The city has so much
going for it, it’s amazing that twenty years ago it was such a mess. To
demonstrate that change, in 2013, it was voted most innovative city in the
world, beating New York and Tel Aviv to the award. The city has built public
libraries, parks, and schools in poor hillside neighborhoods and constructed a
series of transportation links from there to its commercial and industrial
centers. It really is lovely! All this isn’t bad for a city that was once the
most dangerous in the world- the murder rate has dropped 80% from 1991 to 2010.
There are specific tours
you can do to learn about Escobar- one tour charges an extra $10 to meet “a
member of his family”- emm no thanks! The basic summary of what we learned on
the tours we did do was that he was a murdering megalomaniac who by giving away
pocket change (a few million dollars out of a $30 billion fortune) bought the
loyalty (and subsequent votes) of a lot of poor people in the region who turned
him into this Colombian Robin Hood type figure which is complete rubbish. I’ve
three stories that sum him up- two demonstrative and one to lighten the mood.
(1) He wanted to kill a
Presidential candidate who opposed him and so planted a bomb on a plane which
killed 110 people- the result? The candidate never actually boarded the flight
so he killed 110 innocent people for naught. The candidate went on to become
President and one of the main men trying to bring Escobar down.
(2) He didn’t like what
a journalist and his newspaper were writing about him so he had him killed- our
tour guide referenced the “Je suis Charlie” murders in this story. To
commemorate the journalist the city built a statue in one of the parks. Escobar
didn’t like this either and had someone attach a neck bomb to it in order to
blow the head off the statue. They rebuilt the statue and he did it again. It
was rebuilt a third time after Escobar’s own death and is still there now.
(3) Escobar, with so
much money to spend, built himself a huge zoo outside of Medellin and illegally
imported loads of exotic animals. During the crackdown on him, his houses and
belongings were confiscated by the Government, the animals amongst them.
However, nobody knew what to do with the four hippopotamuses that he had so they
just left them there to die. Strangely enough hippos can happily survive by
eating grass and so began their life in the area while multiplying along the
way. There are now over forty hippos running wild in the area creating havoc
but as they are a protected species worldwide, there is nothing anybody seems
to be able to do about them. The outskirts of Medellin is the only place in the
world outside of Africa that has wild hippos- thanks Pablo!
So after discovering
that Medellin’s past reputation is no longer a reflection on the reality, our
next move was to head north to Cartagena who’s reputation as a very cool place
to visit was now up for scrutiny.
Well I’m glad to report
that it more then lived up to its reputation. The main tourist area of
Cartagena is within the walls of the city fort. All the exteriors of the
buildings inside the fort are protected and preserved as a UNESCO world heritage
site. Makes for such a lovely city as you walk along the fort wall with
cobblestoned streets everywhere and preserved buildings. The fact that the city
houses a huge amount of cafes, restaurants and bars also helps its cause in our
opinion!
The main attraction here is just to get lost amongst the streets and
enjoy what you find. Easy to pass a number of hours this way. The main tourist
site outside the fort walls is the actual fortress or castle, Castillo San Felipe
de Barajas which was built on the hill outside the walls to protect against any
invaders. It’s a huge castle and really well preserved and is another example
of us enjoying the lax regard for health and safety in these countries! No
problem with us strolling right onto the battlements to have a look, no areas
restricted access just go where you like and deal with the consequences! So
much fun. No chance you’d get such unrestricted access in a western country
which in many ways is a pity, a whole lot safer but still a pity!
The other reason
tourists and locals flock to Cartagena is the beaches and the most famous of
those being Playa Blanca (or white beach for those non-bilinguals amongst us!).
Beach is very busy, we were there at a weekend, which no doubt doubles the
amount of people watching you can do. Traders going up and down the beach, some
stationary, some moving person to person, all up to something. Our favourites
were definitely the guys who pushed wheelbarrows up and down the beach stocked
with various bottles of spirits, various fruits, mixers and of course machetes
to cut up the fruit to make that cocktail that you really need to have! Wonderful
entertainment. No chance a small sharp knife would do for these lads or perhaps
have something pre-prepared- why would you do that when you can walk around
with a wannabe sword to do the job! Love it.
So after enjoying the
creature comforts that come with such a beautiful country we decided it was
time to get down and dirty and with that headed to Santa Marta to prepare
ourselves for a 4 day trek into the jungle to visit Ciudad Perdida or The Lost
City- this is a city deep in the jungle that was lost for 350 years. The
obvious comparison for it is Machu Picchu- whereas Machu Picchu receives about
a million visitors a year, Ciudad Perdida currently gets about 9,000. Besides
Peru being more developed tourist wise there’s also the fact that a train
brings the majority of tourists to Machu Picchu while the only way to access
the Lost City is two days and fourteen hours of trekking through a hot and
humid jungle to get there.
The big thing about the
trek is the fact that you will be damp and wet with sweat for four solid days!
Nothing dries when humidity is that high and having a backpack on, it takes two
to three minutes for a new t-shirt to be drowned with sweat! Lovely I know. As
Shakira once said (I think)- the sweat don’t lie! So our tour group was left
off for lunch in the nearest village, 23km from The Lost City where we enjoyed
a cold beer and being sweat free- no ice to cool down beers or us for the next
few days I’m afraid.
The two-day trek to get
there was manageable if tough with lots of ups and downs with the humidity
being the real drain on us. Thankfully it’s set up so that we stop at places to
swim a few times a day to provide relief. Well needed. You mightn’t be clean
after the swims but at least they cooled you down!
I can’t remember Indiana
Jones ever having this trouble in his movies. I suppose the scene where he
discusses what to do about his profuse sweating and choice of deodorant might
have been in the directors cut!
Besides seeing lots of
jungle, rivers as mentioned were all over the place- there was one day where we
had to cross the same river nine times! They don’t do direct routes around
here. One of the other things we saw quite a lot of on the trek were indigenous
tribes. Lots of them around. They lead such a simple life it’s incredible.
Really are from a different time and judging by the plain beige/ brown clothes
they all wear, fashion certainly isn’t their thing! Incredible to think that
the ones we came across were the sociable ones who didn’t mind tourists/
foreigners coming onto their land. There are plenty of others who hide away in
deep jungle and don’t want anything to do with it. A real life of isolation.
The standard family size we were told is between 8 and 15 children- first group
in the world that makes the McCarthy clan below average! As such their numbers
seem to be increasing if anything, which surely goes against what you’d expect
of these tribes in the wilderness. I would have thought that there’d be an
exodus to villages, towns or cities but apparently not. Interesting.
Ciudad Perdida, was
built in 800 AD, 650 years before Machu Picchu, and was the main city of the
Tayronas, the native tribe of Colombia. When the Spanish invaded they chose to
abandon their city rather then let them take it. After the Spanish killed all
of the Tayronas, the location of the city and its treasures were lost and it
was reclaimed by the jungle. It lay hidden for almost 350 years.
After two days and about
14 hours of trekking, on the third morning we arrived to Ciudad Perdida. When I
say arrived, what I actually mean is we got to the steps that lead up to it.
These are the steps that in the early 1970’s grave robbers found and followed
all 1,200 of them to discover the Lost City. We followed in their footsteps up
the stairs but not in robbing the graves as all the gold and valuables that the
Tayronas buried their dead with are long gone.
It’s a really fantastic
site once you get there, made all the more special by the fact that you haven’t
seen anything resembling civilisation in the two days beforehand. It really is
in no mans land.
The city itself is large
at 12,000 square metres and they think at one stage between 4,000 and 10,000
people lived there. So there is a huge amount to see but on top of that there’s
another 9,000 square metres of buildings that the Indigenous have refused the
Government permission to excavate so they don’t really know where the whole
thing might end. Watch this space. We had a lovely morning there exploring the
buildings, staring in wonderment at the views and getting a history lesson from
our guide. After all that was done, the trek all the way back began (yes,
another two days trekking to get back)! The reward for these Lost City discoverers
was nothing more then a swim and at some stage hopefully clean clothes and a
shower. Living the dream!
So after four days of
sweaty adventure we got back to where we started and rewarded ourselves with
the novelty of beer cooled using ice. Score. The reward of a nice hot shower
would have to wait as northern Colombian hostels don’t have hot and cold taps.
The temperature you get in the shower is whatever the sun has heated it to! Who
says you can’t clean yourself in cold water?
One of the things that we especially loved
about Northern Colombia was the efficiency of the bus service. In most
countries, potential passengers go looking for their bus. Here, the buses seem
to go out of their way to find you! You’d walk down the road, with a backpack on
and next thing at the top of the road, we heard the hollering from a bus driver’s
assistant of “Tayrona! Tayrona!”- with a thumbs up from 50m away the bus pulls
in and waits for us. These guys know how to fill their bus! Of course this
system is great to get you onto the bus but be warned, this routine happens
every few metres as they try and get anyone within shouting distance onto their
buses. Estimated travel times are very much an estimate!
With all that said and
done, our final stop was to head to Tayrona National Park (by bus as I’ve
explained!) to do some camping and time on their beaches. Still pretty rustic but
when you’re no more then 50m from the beach, you get over it pretty fast! A
gorgeous part of Colombia that came highly recommended for good reason. Any
place where you can see sand, beach and sunset from the door of your tent is
well worth a trip.
Just another of
Colombia’s greatest hits. They put in a great audition to get themselves very
high on our rankings of favourite countries to visit. The competition is
heating up- Guatemala, what have you got to show for yourself?
Our route:
Fly to Bogota, bus to
Medellin, bus to Cartagena, bus to Santa Marta, 4 day trip to the Lost City
(“Ciudad Perdida”), 2 day trip to Tayrona National Park, Palomino, back to
Santa Marta, fly Santa Marta-Bogota, Guatemala City
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