Colombia, the land of colors
Colombia was something else! Starting from the airport, we met some friendliest and happiest people on earth – locals AND expats from around the world, very helpful cops and a one that asked for a payout (story for another time), cabbies who would go any length to help us even with our very limited Spanish skills.
Colombia was unforgettable, abundant wild life / night life, food and is full of life. On top of all that, it’s super affordable. Come find out for yourselves.
Wild Colombia
With two coastlines on different oceans, Andes Mountain range and the Amazon rainforest, it is home for diverse wildlife populations. We were lucky enough to see a primate that is in the most endangered primates list: Cotton-top tamarin.
Getting around
Being a big country, inter-city travel by land can be time consuming. When we first arrived, we had falsely assumed that the bus ride from Borgata to Medellin was only 4 hours, but it turned out it is a 9-10 hour bus ride and is true for most inter-city travels. Having Only 3 weeks in Colombia, this is where we switched our plans from bus to plane.
Once in the city, we exclusively used taxis to get from A to B. We needed the fastest mode of transportation, taxi fitted that bill. I had read about how you need to be careful with taxies, ask for the fair first, they don’t have taxi meters etc.. All of this turned out to be untrue or we just got extremely lucky. It turns out that, although there is no visible meter in the taxies, they use a mobile app. We had some super honest drivers and most memorable rides in Colombia.
We had one taxi driver, whom we asked to take to a place that we didn’t know was not safe, once we got there, the driver refused to let us out and told us, “this is where you wanted to go, but I cant let you out here, this is not a safe area. I should have told you before, I will take you back for no extra.” and we laughed about possible bad things that could happen to us (in our brocken Spanish) all the way back.
Travel Costs..
Colombia is pretty affordable, it can also get pretty pricy if you are in search of finer things. Accommodation: for us, it was 30 – 60 $CDN per day, for mid range hotels, with attached, AC and balcony etc. Hostels cost about 12 – 20 CDN per day.
Restaurant scene in Colombia is getting big and Bogotá is considered culinary capital of South America. For us, an average dinner (for 2) would cost around 30 CDN at a popular restaurant with few beers / cocktails. For lunches we went to local eateries – super tasty such as Paella or whole fried fish, for about 10-15 CDN with tip, for 2.
Take Uber instead of Taxis. Uber is illegal in Colombia, but you still can use the Uber app. You need to sit in the front seat to avoid detection. Or Walk.
Take free walking tours – Most major cities in Colombia have free walking tours with a guide, ask about them at the tourist information center. Please tip the guide: that is the bread and the butter.
Download “GPSmyCity” app, this app turns your mobile into a personal tour guide and with its GPS navigation, guides you from one tour stop to the next.
Read below of our, short but sweet, experience in Colombia. Mucho Gusto
Bogotá
The heart of Colombia...
We landed in Bogota around 5am, By 8am we were at our hotel, unload and ready to go. We hit the road to the unknown world of Colombia. Visited Usaquén market, had some food and drinks, by 5pm we were in love with Bogota and Colombia in general.
It is a clean, modern city with metro subway and plenty of sky-scrapers. As in any large city, traffic here was awful, but we didn’t mind since everything was new to us. We explored this city for 6 days staying at ICON 48 and we plan to return here, may be even for a longer stay (year or two), some day.
Things to do in a short stay
Bogotá is a large city with 9m people, there is never shortage of things to do here. Unfortunately we only had 5 nights here, here are some of the tings we did in that short time.
Usaquen Flea Market
Usaquén Flea Market is a large street market and fair taking place every Sunday in the Usaquén neighborhood of Bogotá. It spreads for almost 2 Bogota size (L) blocks. Lot’s of vendors come out and sell quality handicrafts, street performers, as well as cheap souvenirs. There is lots of foodies to explore here also. We spent almost 6 hours walking around, exploring and had much needed dinner here (after 17 hours that we spent to get here).
It wasn’t that long ago that graffiti was thought of in the same vein as cocaine in Bogotá. Police cracked down on graffiti artists hard killing 16-yo artist Diego Felipe Becerra, better known then as Tripido while he was spray-painting his signature Felix the Cat image on a wall near Avenida Boyaca. It was a turning point. Today Bogotá is one of the most street-art-friendly cities on Earth, with walls as high as seven stories on major streets being used as canvases. Police now protect the rights of artists and the city frequently supports street art culture through incentives and city-sponsored projects. – nymag.com
Food scene here is big, from awesome street food to high-end restaurants where they serve wine only by the bottle. Bogotá is fast becoming the culinary capital of South America, read more here.. Here are some of the places we visited:
Barra Marina
Eat seafood bar-side and choose from nine types of ceviche, prepared Ecuadorian- Peruvian- or Caribbean-style. The restaurant’s menu is 64 pages long.
For all your seafood needs, Ceviche, Paella and awesome collection of cocktails. Highly recommend the Mango Ceviche.
Medellín
Coming soon.
