Long live Colombia

Colombia. The gateway to South America. Finally, we were there. Many people we had met along our journey, as well as numerous friends back home in Germany, had told us that Colombia, and also Peru, were the absolute highlights of their travels. So, our expectations were high. Above all, we were thinking of fantastic weather, friendly people, spectacular landscapes, and Sascha, a little bit, also of the beautiful women in the country. However, upon our arrival on Sunday morning at 8 o'clock in Bogota, we immediately realized that at least the weather would let us down. As Bogota is situated at an altitude of almost 2500 meters, the temperatures during our time there ranged between 15 and 20 degrees Celsius, and it was mostly cloudy. So, our long clothes, which we had already thought to be useless to carry around all the time, would ultimately prove to be useful. 😊
We went to our hotel, which was located in the city center of Bogota, and treated ourselves to some rest, as the flight from San Jose, Costa Rica, and our layover in Panama City were very long and exhausting. On our way there, we got a first taste of what it means to be in a country with one of the largest wealth gaps. The city itself shines with its tall buildings reaching into the sky, while on the streets, you can see numerous homeless people. Despite all this, we liked Bogota at first sight.
In the afternoon, we ventured out onto the streets for the first time to get a more detailed picture of the city. However, on the first day, we didn't have much to say, except that there are too many people in Bogota.
The following Monday, we decided to participate in a 4-hour guided bike tour through the center of Bogota. Our 'travel group' this time consisted solely of Europeans. In addition to other Germans, there were French, English, Dutch, and one Swiss among them. We visited the historical origins of Colombia's capital and learned a lot about history, culture, and typical Colombian food (especially fruits) along the way. When the highly recommended tour was over after 4 hours, we had a little snack and went back to the hotel. Shortly afterwards, we were already in the next taxi heading to the tattoo artist. This was something we had planned for these 3 months, and we couldn't wait to get it done. When we were finished there, it was late in the evening, and feeling extremely satisfied with the results on our arms, we fell exhausted into bed a little while later.
Tuesday didn't have much planned, except for a night out with lots of alcohol, loud music in a club, and my old Colombian friend Lina, who I knew because she had done a student exchange year at my high school years ago. So, during the day, we more or less did nothing. Sascha, as always, slept a lot when he had nothing to do (he would also make a great sloth in Costa Rica 🤔), and I passed the time in one of the many casinos in the city. Luckily, I had some luck and was able to win some money, which we could use for the evening. In the evening, we met up with Lina and her cousin and went together to one of their friends. After consuming what felt like 16 liters of Aguardiente, the national drink of Colombia, which tastes like a mix of Ouzo and Sambuca, and a bottle of Hendricks, the first guests of the party said goodnight and went to sleep. However, we went with a few Spaniards and Lina to a club in the north of the city. The music was good, but just like everywhere else, the nightclubs close at 2 in the morning, so we went to the apartment of the Spaniards afterwards. There, we continued the evening until the early morning hours with even more Aguardiente, and then each went our separate ways. All in all, it was an extremely successful and very fun evening.
The next morning, however, was not the most relaxing, as we had to check out early, had little sleep, and I still felt like I was still drunk. However, we had a flight to Cartagena that we couldn't miss. Despite everything, we almost missed it because, as usual, we left everything to the last minute and still had to print our flight tickets. However, the hotel's printing technology seemed to be not designed for fast work, and so the printing took forever, which left us with no time, and we got into a taxi without tickets. In addition, the traffic in South America consists mostly of one-way streets, which often leads to long, time-consuming traffic jams, and of course, this happened to us. We were very tense because we didn't want to miss the flight under any circumstances, but in the end, everything worked out, and we were on our way to Cartagena.

The moment we left the airport, we were almost blown away. We had just gotten used to the slightly cooler, yet pleasant climate in Bogota, when an incredible heatwave hit us. Of course, that made sense, as Cartagena is located by the sea and is not almost 2500 meters above sea level, but we hadn't expected such heat. So, we did the usual. We called an Uber and drove to the booked accommodation. When we arrived there after about 45 minutes, we thought we had gotten lost. Our accommodation was a run-down house in one of the worst areas we had ever seen. We didn't even have to get out of the car to know that we didn't want to stay there. The problem was that we didn't have any money to call a taxi, we didn't feel like walking around with our big backpacks in that area, and we didn't have any Wi-Fi to order another Uber. The original 'accommodation' also didn't want to give us free internet access after we had canceled our booking on-site. We only knew that we wanted to get away from there, that we wanted to go to the tourist area, where we would feel safe on the street. To our initial luck, the Uber driver stayed with us to help, but more so out of self-interest, because he knew we were completely helpless at the moment, and he was the only one who could help us. The next problem was that our driver didn't speak English, so all communication was done through Google Translate, and as we all know, it's not very reliable. After a lot of back and forth, the driver finally understood that we needed a bank to be able to pay the man for another trip to the tourist area where he was supposed to drop us off, so that we could look for a hotel or at least find internet. However, he raised the price for it brutally, so in the end, we had actually managed to get ripped off by an Uber driver, which is technically not even possible (you select the pick-up and destination location in advance via the app and pay a fixed price for the trip with a credit card) 😅.
In the end, we found internet in the city center and booked a hotel not far from our location, and we walked, quite upset about what had just happened, the almost 2 kilometers to the hotel. We took a shower and went to a restaurant across the street to have dinner.
The next two days, we spent exploring Cartagena. The historical part of the city impressed us the most, but in general, the mix of old and modern in Cartagena is extremely pleasant and beautiful to look at. That is probably also one of the main reasons why, for me, Cartagena was the most beautiful city on this trip. None of the big American cities with their downtowns, or any of the other cities we were able to see, could convince me as much as Cartagena.
The two aforementioned sightseeing tours were very exhausting due to the extremely humid and hot climate, but they were still worth it. On one day, it was exclusively a huge castle in the middle of the city, and on the other day, it was the entire old town, along the city wall that runs directly along the sea.
A bar, almost on the city wall with a view of the wide sea, plus a magnificent sunset. That was our ambiance for Friday evening. We sat comfortably with Lina, who was visiting her family in Cartagena, and her friends, sipping cocktails and watching the sun go down and the city transform into an illuminated metropolis. Also, this was, at least for me, one of THE moments of this trip. But as with everything we describe here, you have to see it for yourself to understand why we’re praising it so much.

However, all good things must come to an end, and so did our time in Cartagena. On Saturday morning, we boarded a bus that was supposed to take us along the coast to Santa Marta.
There, we stayed our first night in a hostel called Masaya. However, the term hostel almost no longer applies here. Yes, we slept in shared dormitories with 8 people, as is usual in hostels, but the rest of the guesthouse resembled more of a small but fine hotel. There was a pool on the ground floor and one on the rooftop terrace. In addition, there was a bar where happy hour was held every evening, and a DJ who played the finest Reggaeton sounds to create a lively atmosphere. This led us to sit at the bar and sip one Mojito after another. At some point during the evening, we got into a conversation with an Englishman who we wanted to know if Santa Marta had any nightlife to offer. Shortly later, we found ourselves in another hostel, which turns into a club once a week. As you can see, we embrace every cultural highlight of Colombia. 😀
However, since Sascha is already approaching the age of 30 and I am not getting any younger either, we spent most of the next day in the hostel. However, we had to change hostels beforehand, as we had only booked Masaya for one night and there were no more free rooms for the next day.
On Monday, we went to Bahia Concha, one of the most beautiful beaches in Colombia. However, it is a bit hidden, located in the middle of a huge national park. The cheapest way to get there was to take a public bus for part of the journey and a taxi from there. However, we were in South America, so we are not talking about a regular taxi, but rather motorcycles. Judging from the large number of these taxis, it seems to be a very popular way to get from point A to point B. We drove on unpaved roads through the national park for a while until we finally arrived at the beach. We paid the two men and arranged a pick-up time for the return journey. For the next few hours, we lay in the sun under heavy heat without sunscreen. We would pay the price for that later that evening. After we returned to the hostel and showered, our two bodies were the color of good old Mr. Krabs. For those who don't know, I can say that we could also simply be described as bright red or extremely sunburned. Despite everything, the beach and the water were just as I had imagined. However, Sascha, who now only accepted 5-star beaches (the benchmark was always Tulum or Playa del Carmen), did not find the beach entirely satisfying (he should wait until he is at Müggelsee again 😀). With burning skin, we went to bed relatively early to suppress the pain as much as possible.

The next stop for us was once again Bogota. Due to time constraints and slowly also financial reasons, we decided to fly directly from Bogota to Lima. This way, we would have enough time in Peru and at the same time save some money compared to taking bus trips. However, it also meant that we had to skip Ecuador, but unfortunately, we had no other choice. In the end, we flew from Santa Marta to the capital on Tuesday evening. The city welcomed us even colder than during our first stay, so it actually got chilly, and we had to wrap ourselves up.
On Wednesday, we went to one of the many mountains surrounding Bogota. We took a cable car to go up another 500 meters. When we reached the top, we admired the view over the entire expanse of the 8-million-inhabitant metropolis. As far as the eye could see, there was nothing but the city. It is incredible how huge the cities down there are. In addition, there was a church on top of the mountain, which many locals visit to attend services or similar events. In the evening, we planned to dive into Bogota's nightlife one last time. However, due to unforeseen difficulties in planning, we postponed it to Thursday. We bought Aguardiente once again, got somewhat drunk in our hotel room, and went to a club, this time alone. With good Spanish music, which I could now listen to 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, we enjoyed our last hours in this wonderful country because the next day, our flight to Lima would depart.

Looking back on the past 3 months, Sascha and I agree that Colombia was the absolute highlight of our trip. Breathtakingly beautiful nature, very friendly people, great cities, and the general feeling of life there, despite the huge wealth gap, made us both definitely consider living here.
But for now, we still had Peru to go to...


Until then,

Adam (Sascha) & Eva (Max)