A tribute to Colombia

Dear reader,

You really must visit Colombia as soon as possible. It is a country of beauty, diversity, warm and friendly people, sensational wildlife and excellent plant life.

We landed in Bogotá and found it to be a modern, thriving and exciting city (see previous entry). We moved on to Villa de Leyva, which is a small, well-preserved, colonial city located in the hills. Its Spanish architecture is very appealing. It made for a lovely stop on the way north.

Colombia's Caribbean coast was our next stop. At first, we stayed near the beach just outside of Santa Marta. The beach was lovely although the opressive heat (approx. 42°C) meant that we did not manage much exploration. Santa Marta largely functioned as a stop off so that we could visit the jungle and gorgeous sands of the Tayrona national park. This features several pristine, beautiful and quiet beaches, only accessible by boat or foot. We trekked through the jungle for 2 hours to get there and spent the night underneath the stars in hammocks. The jungle was hot and difficult work but worth it for the many lizards and exotic birds and bugs that we managed to see. The jungle is apparently also home to cotton-top tamarins (a monkey exclusive to Colombia) but we were not fortunate enough to spot any.

Parque Tayrona

Cartagena is possibly the most beautiful city I've ever visited. The walled old town overlooks the Caribbean and contains wonderful, colourful and gorgeous old Colonial buildings. The walls of the city are majestic too. Cartagena was also too hot for our English bodies to cope with, but we managed to enjoy the incredible surroundings. We also made a trip to a nearby mud volcano, which involved climbing in to the volcano and floating in the mud before being washed by elderly Colombian women in a lake. It was much more enjoyable than it sounds. Cafe Havana is a wonderful club in which we drank amazing mojitos while the crowd danced to the live salsa band.

Cartagena

Medellín is another innovative and quite modern Colombian city. We took the cable car way above the city to a tremendous hilltop park area, where we spotted more diverse plant and animal life as well as strolling through woodland. Medellín has several quite lovely parks, including a central one which is complete with 23 bronze sculptures by Botero. The days of the cartels mean that Medellín hardly has a great reputation worldwide, but we found it to be a charming city and one that I would heartily recommend.

Botero Plaza, Medellín

We only stayed in Calí for 2 nights, so could not form a full impression of it, but it seemed quite pleasant. Next stop was San Agustín, where there are a series of statues, which were built by a mysterious people to honour their dead up to 1,500 years ago. The statues are brilliant, representing monsters, people, animals or a combination of all 3. We stayed in a wonderful place just outside the town, from where we could fully appreciate the stunning surrounding countryside.

The view from our bedroom in San Agustín

One of many statues in San Agustín

Our final stop was Ipiales, from where we journeyed to the nearby El Santuario de las Lajas; a gorgeous gothic church perched across a gorge. It looks like some sort of fairy tale castle.

El Santuario de las Lajas

This was a very brief review of the month we spent in Colombia and will not begin to do the country justice. We did not intend to spend as long as we did in Colombia. However, we found it impossible to leave and when we did, it was with great regret. There is still much more of this gem of a country that I intend to explore. We saw truly remarkable things every day and even our bus journeys were beautiful, one of which gave us a tour of the second largest canyon in the world and most took us through the Andean mountains. Colombia has some of the largest populations of birds, lizards and flowers in the entire world and they all seem to be worth seeing. It is also blessed with remarkable natural beauty. The people were lovely and welcoming to us as well as being extremely helpful. Just go to Colombia. You won't regret it. Colombia, I love you!

I now write to you from Quito, the capital of Ecuador and the early signs are that this country is going to be pretty special too...
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The following is a (probably incomplete) list of items that I have lost or broken so far during this trip:
Sun hat, walking pole, sunglasses (3 pairs!), jeans, flip-flops and a waterproof rucksack cover.