Week 31: Colombia

We have been in Colombia just over a week now, and I honestly cannot think of a better place to have resumed our travels from. This country has such varied landscapes and has so much to offer visitors. We were also extremely fortunate to have an incredible local tour guide for most of this week!

We landed in Bogota last Sunday night, and spent the next three days exploring the city and it’s surroundings. The weather in the city was cool in the mornings and evenings, but was pretty warm during the day. We spent one morning walking the cobblestone streets of Usaquen, a quaint area of Bogota filled with trendy restaurants and shops, as well as historical buildings. We spent the afternoon navigating our way through Parque De Los Novios and Parque Metropolitano Simon Bolivar, Colombia’s version of Central Park. Both parks provided space and fresh air for a beautiful walk. The sky had darkened quite a bit by the time we left the park, and sure enough, it started pouring once we were back to our hotel. During our first attempt to go for dinner, we made it approximately one block from our hotel before we were completely drenched through and through. The rain let up after a few hours and we were able to venture out again then.

On our second day in Bogota, we decided to figure out the bus system. We had been walking or using Uber to get around, but figured we had the time to learn a new transit system! The city is massive, but it’s laid out like a grid and marked with sequential street numbers, so it’s fairly simple to navigate. Transmilenio has a lot of lines that run throughout the city, and we managed to take a bus to a few different locations, complete with transfers and all! Our first trip took us down to La Candelaria, the heart of Bogota. We spent the morning with Bogota Graffiti Tours, learning a lot about the artists, the messages behind the graffiti, and the history of graffiti in Colombia. Since graffiti is prohibited but not illegal in Colombia, Bogota is covered with incredible works of art! It was also interesting to learn that graffiti artists have an unspoken agreement that they don’t paint over other artist’s work, so people actually prefer having purposeful graffiti on their building in this area because it stops people from tagging your building. After the graffiti tour, we took a cable car to the top of Mount Montserrat (3170m) and walked around the top for a great view of this huge city. Again, we were hit with a downpour in the evening, but we were smart enough to wait it out before venturing out for a delicious dinner at Blise Restaurant.

On our final day in this area, we took a few different buses to get up to Zipaquira, a cute town north of Bogota. We went with the mission of visiting the Catedral de Sal (Salt Cathedral), which surpassed all of our expectations. This cathedral is made up of a series of large tunnels underground, which were blasted out using explosives. There are many interesting crosses created from the rock down there, and the acoustics from the choir pit are fantastic. After a couple hours taking in the cathedral, we wandered the streets of this town, stopping to sample local food and visit their town square.

The following day, we were up early to catch a bus down to Villavicencio, home to our friend Hernan. Hernan shared a house with us in Zambia, and orchestrated the school project we helped with there. When he had learned we were travelling to South America, he insisted we add his beloved country to our list. When we told him we were coming, he eagerly welcomed us to join his family and friends who would be visiting from France at the same time. We spent four days with Hernan, his cousin Gloria, his second cousin Sebastian, and his friends Sylvain, Julie, Fanny, and Camille. Everyone was so welcoming and fun, and they were all willing to speak English to us while we struggled to catch on to some Spanish.

Hernan filled our days with great adventures and amazing cultural experiences! We spent the first afternoon zip lining in Tiuma Park, travelling through a series of six zip lines. It was certainly an interesting experience having all instructions for this activity given in Spanish! While venturing through the trees, we saw monkeys and small crocodiles. In the evening, we went back to Hernan’s sister Jedny’s place, where we were welcomed to stay for two nights. We swam in the pool at her apartment, ate delicious crepes made by the French experts, and enjoyed a latin dance party.

The following day was packed full of activity! We spent the day at Gramalote Eco Ranch, participating in Un Dia Como Llanero (A Day as a Rancher). We learned about catching cows by their tail (top regional sport), how to lasso a cow, and how to saddle up a horse. We were split into two teams and battled against each other throughout the day. We played tons of games, including a leg wrestling game (Will won his match against Hernan, but I lost to Camille). We raced down a river and hiked through grass and mud. We were fueled by a typical Colombian lunch of soup, chicken, potato, rice, yucca, plantain, and avocado. We finished off our day with a great horseback ride through the fields and river. Everyone returned to the apartment so dirty and so wet… and so happy. We quickly cleaned up and set off for a local dance studio, where we participated in a Joropo dance class. The dancing was so much fun! One girl in the class quickly took me under her wing and reminded me of the steps whenever I forgot (or felt tired). After the dancing, we went as a group of 11 for delicious arepas, and then returned to the apartment for more dancing and games.

My beautiful dance instructor

After two days in Villavicencio, we drove to San Luis De Cubarral to stay with Hernan’s mom. She graciously opened her home to all of us, and we relished in her natural oasis, complete with beautiful outdoor sitting spaces, chickens, and a fishpond. The yard was also filled with avocado, mandarin, and lemon trees! His mom is an excellent cook, and spoiled us with foods from her region. After a hearty lunch, we hiked up to a beautiful waterfall, where we all went for a refreshing swim. We then walked back on the trail and over to a beach, where we all passed the Cubarral initiation of swimming across the fast flowing river. We then returned to the house for a BBQ, followed by a few games of tejo next door. Tejo is the national sport of Colombia, a game where you throw an iron puck towards an angled board covered in clay, aiming for the centre of the board. Both above and below the centre of the board are small triangles filled with gunpowder, and Will and I each managed to get one to explode! Of course, I also managed to roll many pucks across the ground and throw a few towards the lights. It’s all about balance! Later on that evening, a group of us headed over to the small discoteque in town and had a great time dancing away.

In the morning, Will helped pick avocadoes from the trees as a contribution towards the most delicious guacamole. After we all finished breakfast, we headed out for one last hike altogether. We took a cable car over a river and clambered over large rocks up to a waterfall. We all felt peace and serenity at the waterfall. While we sat soaking up the fresh air, it started to rain, so we headed down the now slippery rocks. We returned to the house for another delicious meal, and then said goodbye to Gloria and the French crew. Hernan, Will and I spent the afternoon hiking up to Hernan’s old family farm, which is one of Hernan’s favourite places. We got a gorgeous view of the Andes and the farmland. We also enjoyed a little river dip on the way back towards town. In the evening, we took a final walk around San Luis De Cubarral, and I can say for certain that this little town has a piece of my heart.

Want to know what else has a piece of us? The Colombian mosquitoes, that’s what. These tiny mosquitos first found me, and despite having sprayed my legs multiple times between the two days in San Luis De Cubarral, my legs were covered in itchy, red circles. Will got away without bites the first day, but managed quite a few the second day as well.

After saying goodbye to Hernan’s mom, we returned to Villavicencio. We spent a bit of time searching for, and booking, a flight and hotel, and then headed out on the bus back to Bogota in order to catch a flight to Cartagena. This is where our next post will begin!

We noticed something was missing from this bridge between Bogota and Villavicencio...

Upon arriving in Bogota, we realized that most people here do not speak any English. For that reason, I am very appreciative towards Megs Strachan-Garrells for her Spanish lessons last year! We have also been making great use of Google Translate, especially it’s amazing camera feature, which allows you to hold your phone camera over any words and it will translate them for you!

When we were thinking about Colombia as a potential travel destination, we had received many warnings about safety. We also read warnings put out by the Canadian and US government, and educated ourselves on the various scams reported in different cities. Even once we were in Bogota, many locals warned us about petty theft, taxi scams, and worse. However, we have felt very safe in this country, and have felt that if we exercise the normal degrees of caution, we will be just fine. There are a lot of police and security guards around the cities, and we have not felt like we were at risk of being taken advantage of at all.

We also made a few other observations upon our arrival. We noticed right away that dogs are highly valued here, as they are welcomed into many restaurants and allowed to venture on most streets off leash. We also noticed that the streets are fairly clean, despite the garbage strike that has been going on for three weeks now. The cities and towns feature beautiful, clean parks, and have some recycling options. Many of the people here are also extremely well put together, and we have felt very underdressed in comparison! Although many of the people we met in the city were not able to speak English, we found that people are very kind and want to help in any way they can. When we looked in on cafes and restaurants during our first days walking around, we noticed that there is very limited seating in most places, and that part of the way restaurants make this work is by getting customers in and out quickly.

Speaking of restaurants, it’s important that I include a little piece about the food here. I would be lying if I didn’t say I had been a little worried about the thought of eating beans and rice everyday. However, we have both been pleasantly surprised by the array of options and amazing flavours. Some of the foods we have tried this past week include: arepa (cornmeal bread with various fillings), sancocho (soup with meat, yucca, plantains, and potato), pan de bono (bread), empanadas (small pastry with various fillings), hallacas (mashed plantain with meat and vegetables inside banana leaf), tamales (plantain type starch with peas and carrots wrapped in banana leaf), and salpicon (drink made of fruit and condensed milk). We have also tried a selection of fruits, including pineapple (which tastes very different from ours), chontaduro, guayaba, mangostinas, and guama. We have managed to avoid the hormigas culonas (ants) so far, but we did both try chunchullo (small intestine of cow).

In honour of Hernan, who is so extremely proud of his country and is always trying to help us understand why Colombia is so amazing, we are listing the 10 reasons why Colombia es el major en el mundo (is the best in the world):

• Producer of the best coffee
• Occupies the first position worldwide in number of orchids and birds, and the second position worldwide in plants, amphibians, butterflies, and fresh water fish
• Home to the tallest palm in the world, found in the Cocora valley
• Home to the most latin music artists
• Only country where the Andes mountain range has been split into three
• The only country in South America that has coastlines on both the Pacific Ocean and the Caribbean Sea
• Birthplace of Shakira
• Home to largest group of graffiti artists, the APC
• All humpback whales are technically Colombian, since the females travel down here to give birth
• Ranked as one of the happiest countries in the world (most likely because of all of their amazing music and dancing)

Act of kindness: There are so many sprinkled throughout this post – Hernan’s mom and sister welcoming us into their homes, his friends and family members including us in their vacation plans, having so many delicious meals made for us.

However, Hernan takes the cake. He was an excellent guide and host, driving us all over the place, eagerly showing us the local foods and traditions, even giving us a bracelet of Colombian colours to remember our trip by. His planning and enthusiasm certainly made this a week we will never forget!