The Caribbean Coast

You know how when you travel, you form an image in your mind of what a place is going to look like? That is really part of the fun, imagining how places you’ve only read about will be like in person, and then seeing (despite your best efforts not to set your hopes too high) if the image you’ve created in your mind lives up to where you actually visit.

For the final leg of this trip, I think we can say that Parque Tayrona more than exceeded anything we could have imagined while daydreaming at our desks in Philadelphia. The dramatic meeting of the Caribbean with the mountains and jungles of Colombia’s coast provides some of the most breathtakingly beautiful beach settings we’ve ever seen (and more than makes up for the stifling heat). It is one of those places that photos can’t really do justice.

We're back in Bogota now, waiting for our flight to New York. We've had an amazing couple of weeks, and still really haven't scratched the surface of all Colombia has to offer. We can't wait to come back, but for now, adios!

Cartagena De Indias

We’ve spent the last four nights in Cartagena, Colombia’s famous city on the coast, wandering the maze-like streets of the walled old town, taking in the sights of the remarkably preserved colonial buildings, and drinking copious amounts of street vendor served limeade. Cartagena is a fascinating place, sometimes feeling like a romantic old world town, and sometimes feeling like a chaotic urban center, depending on where you are and the time of day. There are three main sections of Cartagena frequented by visitors: the walled old city with its colorful colonial architecture, Getsemani (where we stayed at Hostal Baluarte) directly outside of the walls, and Bocagrande with its sky scrapers and condominiums. We spent time exploring each of them, and also made a day trip to Volcan de Lodo el Totumo, the giant mud volcano. Cartagena is a very picturesque place, and a sampling of some of our shots are below:















We've now moved farther east up the coast to Santa Marta, which we'll use as base for exploring some of the beaches including those at Parque Tayrona. We'll post back soon!

Independence Day

Right now we are in the Bogota airport, delayed on our way to Cartagena, so we are taking advantage of the free wifi (in what is a pretty nice airport) to update you on our time in Salento, a tiny town in the coffee region about an hour's flight northwest of Bogota.

We awoke on the morning of July 20 happy to find out from the owner of our hotel (a very charming Hostal Ciudad de Segorbe) that Salento was celebrating Colombian Independence Day - and Colombia's Bicentennial - with a parade through town. We headed out onto the streets and witnessed a very interesting parade primarily featuring several different branches of the military, along with a Simon Bolivar reenactor, and children dressed to represent different historical figures and time periods. Much to Steve's disappointment, however, there were no fireworks.





Salento is a wonderfully restored town and in addition to being known for its very charming historical buildings, it is also known for its trout (which nearly every restaurant serves in multiple forms, almost always on a patacon - think of a giant tortilla chip made of pressed plantains) as well as its proximity to the Valle de Cocora, which we experienced in a day hike yesterday.


The Valle de Cocora is most famed for its wax palms, which are the highest palm trees in the world and very unusual. The scenery is breathtaking (and so is the walk, which was pretty strenuous in the high altitude!). One of the highlights was getting to see the multitudes of hummingbirds that gather at one of the stops - Acaime - along the trek.


Today, we are in route to Cartagena, where we will experience a change from the cool mountain air we've been enjoying. Still, we are excited to spend the next few days exploring such a historic and iconic city. We'll post back soon!

Bogota by Bike

We have arrived in Salento, a little town in the Zona Cafeteria, and are enjoying the Colombian Independence Day celebration here - more on that in a later post! Yesterday, we spent five hours biking our way through the busy streets of downtown Bogota. If you have ever biked in Philadelphia, you know how challenging it can be to negotiate both city traffic and pedestrians. Now take the worst day of biking in Philly, and it probably still does not compare to the adventure of biking in Bogota.

Now imagine riding through this crowd on a bike
Our twelve miles of city touring not only included seeing the sights but also learning the political and social history of the city through our tour guide Mike, a former American journalist who has lived in Colombia for the past five years. We visited a giant local food market, the cemetery (where plots are rented for just four years), the bull fighting ring, and many other spots of interest. We even came across two separate political demonstrations related to today´s Independence Day.

Steve surprised by the sourness of the unidentified fruit at the market
If you are ever in Bogota, we can´t recommend the Bogota Bike Tour enough. It is a great way to get a feel for the culture and history of the city.

We don´t have wifi where we are staying in Salento (maybe in the whole town itself), so we will have to wait to post about today´s celebration, but look forward to sharing our photos and videos! We are loving the town here, and despite our limited Espanol, all of the people we meet continue to be so gracious and friendly. We´ll post back when we can!

The Tourist Train

Have you ever been on the Wilmington & Western Railroad in Delaware? Well today we went on the Colombian version of that train ride, from Bogota out to Zipaquira.

Called the Tren Turistico, this old-fashioned steam engine (today ours was diesel powered) makes the three-hour journey from Sabana station in Bogota (maxing out at about 17km per hour) on the weekends. Though called the tourist train, the majority of passengers on the train were Colombian families & couples out enjoying the leisurely Sunday morning ride.

The train ends up in Zipaquira, which is best known for its underground salt cathedral featuring the stations of the cross carved into the salt of the former mine. While the salt cathedral is pretty incredible, the journey getting there might be the highlight of the day trip.

The Salt Cathedral
From the tamales and hot chocolate sold on the train, to the live music from a five-piece band that moves from car to car, the Tren Turistico is more than just a means of transportation, but really is a case where getting there is more than half of the fun. Everyone outside stops and waves as the red train rattles through Bogota, also stopping in Usaquen, and then heads out into the country, winding past fields of cattle and horses with the mountains in the distance. Being about six-hours round trip, the train is definitely not the quickest way to get out to see the salt cathedral, but from our experience is guaranteed to be the most unique.

The band during Steve's ill-advised attempt at a nap
Tomorrow, we take a bike tour of the city in the morning and then fly out to Armenia for our stay in Salento in the Zona Cafeteria (or coffee region). As long as we have internet, we’ll post back soon!

Bienvenidos a Colombia!

Our two week trip through Colombia has just begun, and we’ve already have an eventful first couple of days. We awoke from our nap in the cab ride from the airport yesterday morning to find ourselves in the middle of the Candelaria, the historic neighborhood in downtown Bogota. Think of Old City in Philly, except more than 200 years older, and founded by the Spanish instead of the Quakers. Plus, it’s a little edgier, but beautiful and charming nonetheless.

Highlights so far:

Yellow Fever Vaccine = Great Success! We aren’t going to any particularly high risk areas (so don’t worry) but Parque Tayrona (where we go at the end of our trip) requires all visitors to show their yellow card supposedly, so we didn’t want to risk it. It turns out that here in Bogota at the airport you can get vaccines for 100% free (vs the $120 per person it would have cost us in the States). A friendly police officer showed us where to go.

There are delicious street snacks on almost every corner (Steve really enjoyed trying the fried pig anus. No joke.). From grilled corn on the cob to churros to plantain chips to empanadas, everything is delicious and cheap. Hot chocolate is also extremely popular here (particularly with a piece of cheese in it) so we are drinking that whenever possible. Of course, the coffee goes without saying.


Steve trying his new favorite delicacy

The city itself really is a highlight on its own. The people are so friendly and while English is not commonly spoken, everyone is more than willing to suffer through our attempts at Spanish. We’ve only met one other set of American travelers, and while there are tourists here, you definitely can tell that tourism has not been a defining part of Bogota in the past (although it is on the rise, and it somewhere we’d recommend to put on your radar). Our hostel – Alegria’s – is lovely and a great bargain. Also, the cost of cabs here is amazingly cheap.

The courtyard at Alegria's
And some lowlights:

Thursday into Friday proved to be a bit of a long travel day, since we decided to save on airfare and get the bonus of an overnight direct flight by leaving from JFK. Our scheduled Megabus broke down on the way to pick us up at 30th Street, so we got off to a late start that led us right into rush hour traffic, but for $5 a person what can you really expect? We’d do it again.

Definitely the lowest point was when we realized that our bank does not allow us to make ATM transactions – anywhere in the entire country! Our credit cards were fine, and we could use our debit card at stores, restaurants, etc that actually take cards, but the majority of places simply take cash – un problema since we did not bring a 16 day supply. Of course, this would not have been an issue if someone had not forgotten to call the bank ahead of time (and shockingly it was not Steve). For about 24 hours we scrounged around trying to figure out how to access our bank account without any ATMs. When our call to Western Union proved futile, we seriously thought we might have to come home (apparently, in case you need to know one day, it is not that easy to wire your own money to yourself in a foreign country)! However, thanks to our new best friends at the one Bancolombia that is open on a Saturday, we were able to access our bank account without an ATM and are happy to report we will be continuing with our travels! Let’s just say we can laugh about it now. ☺

Up on Monserrate
Tomorrow, we will be taking the Turistren to an underground salt cathedral outside of Bogota and continuing to enjoy the good food and culture of Colombia. We’ll post back soon!