Central Colombia

Central Colombia

From Santa Marta we took a long distance bus to San Gil. San Gil is a small town in the east of Colombia and mostly known for outdoor activities.

San Gil was for us the first place located in the mountains since the highlands in Panama, about a month earlier. It was a welcoming change in climate and temperature. The first day we went for a walk around town and up the hill to enjoy the view of this town with its steep streets situated in a furthermore green valley. We gathered some information about the activities and because the prices were so cheap (compared with European prices) we decided to go for the bungee jumping and the canyoning.

The next morning we took a cab to the bungee tower.  We got into our safety belts, climbed up a first smaller tower from where we canopied to the actual tower. By that time, the hands were shaky already and the first sweat drops on Sven’s forehead had appeared. Sven was to go first, but after being attached (surprisingly around the waist, and not around the ankles) and standing at the edge, he completely froze and had to let Pam go first; what a gentlemen! Pam was less anxious, but nevertheless couldn’t make the jump herself either. Eventually the instructor held her by her safety belt while she had to lean forward and then gave her the final push. After Pam was on safe ground again, it was Sven’s turn again. With the same procedure of the instructor also Sven made the jump. Fully euphoric we gave each other a high-five and swore never to do this again! The video expresses the emotions and fears better...

After the bungee jumping, the canyoning tour would an easy one. Sven has done this a lot in Spain before, but for Pam this was the first time. We went with a group of 2 other couples of our hostel and 4 guides + a dog. The tour included a cave walk, jumps into waterpools, rappelling and climbing. During the rappelling, we figured out that only one of the guides was actually certified and the other three had apparently less experience than Sven. Also, taking the dog along appeared not to be the best idea, especially during the rappelling parts. Overall, the 6-hour tour was great fun and a very cool experience. Contrary to the bungee jumping, the canyoning would be something to do soon again.

After our adrenaline rush, we were fine with an easier day. We went to Barichara, a small scenic village an hour away from San Gil. We were lucky that it wasn’t weekend and we were one of the view tourist walking around. It was a quiet village with cute streets and small typical houses. Since Barichara was located on a mountain, we had a fantastic view over a big valley during sunset. A perfect spot to end the day. After, we left for Villa de Leyva.

Villa de Leyva is a colonial town. Located closer to Bogotá, it is a popular weekend-spot for Colombians. This was a perfect place to buy some fresh vegetables and fruit at the market, chill at the Plaza Mayor and try out horseback riding. It was Sven’s first time actual horseback riding. From the very start he felt comfortable and he picked it up very quickly. Even more enthusiastic than Pam (a skilled horseback-rider), he soon tried out trot and even a bit of counter. We did a tour through dry mountain landscape, which brought up a feeling of being in the Wild West.

Following Villa de Leyva, we were going to meet up with Juan Paulo, a Colombian friend living in Bogotá. He would be our host for the next couple of days. With him we explored the capital city, did a ‘graffiti’ walking tour and enjoyed the view of the city from Monserrate. We could stay in his brothers’ huge apartment, with luxuries like our own walk-in closet. It was for us also the first time to really realize how bad things were not even to long ago, with the Farc, paramilitaries and the drug-cartels. Furthermore, Juan Paulo took us to his families land house, a short drive away from Bogotá. It was a beautiful, well-maintained property with many exotic animals and lots of antique furniture. A very nice spot to fully come to rest. To round up our time with Juan Paulo, he took us to a massive club just outside the city, with lots of salsa, merengue, reggaeton and more Latin American music. This was also the period where we got to know to very typical Colombian drinks: Panela (warm sugary drink, comparable with tea) and Aguardiente (firewater, Colombians most popular partydrink).

From Bogotá we moved to the second biggest city of Colombia, Pablo Escobar’s hometown: Medellín. We had planned our arrival during Feria de las Flores, or flower festival. We stayed in the Yellow House Hostel, just a couple of metro stops out of town. It has been a long time since we last used a metro, also it is the only city in South America to find a metro. At arrival, the hostel appeared horrible due to problems with the reservation and even bedbugs running over our matrasses. However, they dealt with the bedbugs directly and very thoroughly after mentioning it and the employees were super nice. We even went out with them that night and for the first time had a whole evening with Spanish talk.

The flower festival was ok, with a few music stages and some other activities, but not by far what we expected. The city centre was discovered within an afternoon and soon we started to look forward to national parks and nature again. We left Medellín after 3 days and headed towards new adventures in the south of Colombia!