Bucaramanga and the Rhythm of Colombia

During most of my travels, I was busy with preparations: comparing prices, researching connections, booking, checking, packing, checking in... I spent a lot of time optimizing my travel plans. Because Colombia was big and my time here was limited, unfortunately. My goal was to always know about a week in advance where I was, how to get there, and where I could stay. My last change of plans resulted in flying to Medellin on Friday. But first, I had to get to the airport.

So, I took a minibus from Barichara to San Gil at 11:30 am, then a taxi within the town to another bus station, from there I continued to Bucaramanga, where I arrived with a significant delay at 4:15 pm. Again in a taxi, this time to the airport, my generously allocated buffer time had melted down to 90 minutes. The plane took off at 6:15 pm.

The road to Bucaramanga ran along the famous Chicamocha Canyon, 227 km long and up to 2000 m deep, according to Wikipedia, the second largest canyon in the world. Fortunately, I had my seat on the valley side, with the best views and a feeling of dizziness included.

Unfortunately, in Bucaramanga I only saw the bus station and the airport. The melodic name 'Bu-ca-ra-manga' had immediately caught my attention. Comparable to the rhythm of the name of the Indian metropolis 'Au-ran-ga-bad'.

I landed in Medellin around 7:30 pm, took a bus and metro to the hostel, and was relieved to have successfully completed this tour through four cities, with taxis, buses, and airplanes. As planned for the weekend.

The hostel was located near a party street that was no less than Ballermann in Mallorca... at least that's how I imagined Ballermann. With my hostel roommates, we went to the bars on both evenings. After all, it was carnival time and the crowd was celebrating with great enthusiasm. Balloons, liquor, reggaeton, salsa rhythms. Attempts to teach me salsa failed miserably. It reminded me of my yoga class.

During this weekend in Medellin, I didn't see much, so I extended my stay until Tuesday.

Update/Correction:

In my post about yoga, I mistakenly attributed a quote about hippies and punks to the musician Wolfgang Wendland. However, the quote actually comes from He-Man (see picture).