Ipiales: the church and the border crossing

Ipiales is Colombia's border town with Ecuador.  It's not much of a sight, as most border towns aren't...If you end up in Ipiales at a decent hour, I highly recommend taking the 10 minute cab ride to Santuario de Las Lajas.  It's an amazing cathedral spanning across an enormous gorge, with a river running below it.  The entrance is free, as it is a functioning Catholic church.  The cab only costs a few bucks from Ipiales, and you can leave your bags at the bus station.  We spent about an hour checking out the church, walking around the trails to all the different view points.

After finishing up at Las Lajas, we jumped back in another cab, which cost 4 bucks for the 2 of us, back to Ipiales (bus station).  We retrieved our bags, and jumped in another cab to the actual border crossing, which was 2 bucks a piece.  

Once at the crossing, we walked to the Colombian immigration office, got our exit stamps, and began walking across the bridge to the Ecuadorian office.  The process was very simple, didn't cost anything, and we were in another cab to the bus station in Tulcan in no time.

 

The border crossing

Pasto: Last night in Colombia

We took a 6 hour bus ride the morning after Popayan.  This drive was one of the most spectacular of the entire trip.  The bus was cruising some high altitude winding roads, and the drop offs, cliffs and rivers below made for an amazing view.  I tried taking some photos, but the bus was moving too fast, and the windows were a little dirty.  If you take this route, do it during the day, and keep your eyes peeled on the views!

Pasto was nothing too special for us, as expected.  We found a cheap hostel, "Koala," checked in and left our bags, and went immediately to find dinner, as we were starving.  We found a cafeteria style restaurant down the road, and ordered a pizza, which turned out to be delicious.  It was also huge, so we had some breakfast for the next morning as well.  After dinner we walked around a little, and sort of laughed at how many cake shops there were everywhere.  Almost every window in Pasto had some fancy cakes for sale.  The ones that weren't pastry shops were selling designer clothes...A very unusual sight to see.

An overview of our Colombian adventure:

After all the talk of how dangerous Colombia is (was), and how many warnings from back home we got, we came to the conclusion that not once, in the almost month we spent in Colombia, did we feel unsafe.

It really has changed from the horror stories that used to encircle it, at least from what we hear.  Like in any big city, home or abroad, you must use good judgement.  We have heard of people getting robbed all along our trip...Costa Rica, Panama, Colombia.  Usually it happens at night, in a big city, when someone is alone, or carrying a bunch of stuff with them.  Use your judgement!  When we go out walking at night, we don't carry much.  Colombia didn't differ from anywhere else in terms of how secure we felt.  The country is gorgeous, and the people are very friendly!

Popayán: heading towards the border...

We took an overnight bus from Bogota, to Popayán.  Got there at about 9 am, and went to the Hostel Trail hostel.  The place was nice...Cheap, with a nice kitchen, and very close to the center of town and park.  Walked around for a bit, spent one night, and headed towards Pasto, to spend our last night in Colombia.

Bogotá: 3rd highest capital city

We decided to hit up Bogotá, for one, being it is really the transportation hub, and we really wanted to see it as well.  Ended up spending two nights there, at Chocolate Hostel, in La Candelaria.  We took the overnight bus from Medellin, which was fairly smooth.  After this bus ride, we came to the conclusion that in most cases, the overnight (red eye) bus, is best.  Main reason: you save money on a hostel or accommodation for the night.  It does throw you off a little, but if you can relax, and bring a blanket, you may get plenty of sleep.

We found out that a friend of mine, from back home, Tristan (T-Bone) and his girlfriend Phoebe, were going to be flying in that same day as us, and we found ourselves staying at hostels that were literally 4 blocks from each other.  Pretty amazing, of all the places one could be traveling to.

We got in touch with each other via the net, and met up that evening, right in front of our hostel.

Danica and I had done a little research, and knew that there was at least one micro brewery in town, and were set on finding it.  Too much Pilsner along the road, and not enough taste...

We found the BBC Brewery/Restaurant just down the road from us, and after a few pints, we enjoyed a delicious pizza from them as well.  I enjoyed a couple of their porters, and Danica enjoyed their red.  Delicious beers! 

We all hung out the next day as well, and cruised around the city.  We took the cable car up the mountain to the Montserrat Church, and from up top, there was an amazing view of the whole city.  We visited the gold museum, which was quite interesting, and we went out in La Candelaria to a few places.

Bogotá was cool...(Freezing actually)!

Recommend:

-BBC (Bogotá Beer Company) They have the actual brewery somewhere in the city, but a few of their own pubs, with one right in La Candelaria, with all of their beers on tap, and some decent food.  (We had the pizza).

-Mora Mora sandwich/smoothie shop, who make some great sandwiches for a decent price

-Doors Rock Bar (for those of you who crave a funky 80's metal themed hangout, where the owner entertains with only the best, and sleaziest music videos)

There was so much more we wanted to do and see, but we must move on down the road...

 

 

at the Museum of Oro

Medellín

Once the city of Drug era Escobar, and clear and present danger, Medellín was really amazing, especially coming from me, because I generally like to avoid big cities.  They have an amazing metro system that covers approximately 23km up and down the city, a massive metro cable system (teleferico) that takes you above the barrio laden hillsides and up to the top of the mountain for a spectacular view of the city.  There is also a national park up top.  When we reached the top, and were reading one of the signs about the area, we randomly ran into a couple we had met in Boquete at Hostal Palacios.  We caught up with eachother on the trip, and took the teleferico back down the mountain.  Always great, and interesting running into someone you know, in random places!

We stayed in El Poblado district for 3 nights, at a really nice hostel called Casa Provenza.  It might have been the nicest hostel of our trip so far.  It was spotlessly clean, private bathroom, with a huge shower, comfortable, brand new bed, and huge flatscreen tv.  It really felt as if we splurged on a fancy hotel, but instead we were only paying $70.000 pesos per night.  Breakfast was included, via the restaurant next door called "Flip Flops," owned and run by a guy named Chris, who was very friendly and informative on what to do in Medellín.

Medellín is an awesome city to visit if you have a chance!  There is a great little bar around the corner in El Poblado, called Eco Bar, where they serve their drinks outside on tree trunk stump seats, and play good music.  Also, Tres Cordilleras Brewery, just outside of El Poblado has about 8 or 9 beers on tap, and on Thursdays they charge $22.000 pesos to get in, including 5 beers of your choice and a tour.  I guess they're pretty new, but coming up.

Taganga: 10 mins from Santa Marta

We left Cartagena, and hopped on a bus towards Santa Marta.  It took about 4 hours.  We spent 3 nights of much needed rest in a little fishing town called Taganga.  Its just 10 or 15 mins outside of the much bigger and busier Santa Marta.  We stayed at a nice hostel called MorAMar, which was very pleasant.  Family run, and offering a nice kitchen and small pool, this was a great spot to relax after over a week in Cartagena.  We read about some hikes, and of course the National Park, Tayrona, but decided to skip it, due mainly in part to how much distance we still need to travel, with costs in mind.

Nonetheless, Taganga was nice.  There are several little restaurants and bars right along the waterfront, and there is an amazing sunset as well.  Last stop on the Caribbean!

We cooked some pretty damn good food at the hostel in Taganga.  First it was steak tacos, with all local ingredients from down the street, and the second dinner was lobster we purchased from a dude walking along the street with a bunch he had freshly caught.

Taganga was rather relaxing for us, after our 10 day Cartagena stint...We needed some rest, and did just that.  Taganga seemed pretty mellow, but we heard otherwise from several locals and tourists...We ran into 3 French guys we had met in Cartagena,  and they had been robbed at gunpoint by some teenagers down by the beach...Bummer...Talked to some others that also had some trouble in town.  Shame that such a beautiful place can be like that, but really, this kind of thing can happen anywhere in the world, at any time.  Caution should always be with you.

Cartagena (Bienvenidos a Colombia!)

After just over a month in Costa Rica, and a month in Panama, we arrived safely via sailboat (Gitana III) in Cartagena, Colombia.  We pulled into the enormous harbor at about 4am, and had to wait til about 8 to disembark.  That whole previous night, the sailing was fairly smooth, but there was a massive electrical storm across the sky over the Caribbean.  Pretty incredible sight to see...

About 8am, we jumped aboard the dinghy, and Guillem motored us into the dock, and we stepped foot for the first time on Colombian soil.  We were tired and pretty hungry, and the first mission was finding an ATM machine so that we could all figure out the exchange rate in Colombian Pesos...


We stayed the first 2 nights, along with the majority of the Gitana crew at Media Luna Hostel, which is on Calle Media Luna, in Cartagena.  Place was cool looking, but overpriced.  They advertised a pool, and it was a 'cesspool' that was about 2 feet deep.  Other than that, we all enjoyed a big dorm room together, that we had to ourselves, along with Johann, the German guy who showed up late that night.  Cami and Gonzalo, the Argentinians from the cruise, found a private room across the street.  We took their advice after the second night, and found Hotel Marlin, literally right across the street, that was half the price, for a private room with a private bath.  Ended up staying in Cartagena for about 10 days.  One of the nights there, James invited the two of us out for dinner, which was incredible.  Good wine, and seafood, right on the beach.

Cartagena is a gorgeous city.  It is full of color, and culture.  The street food is amazing!  There are many small restaurants that have great breakfasts, for cheap, and amazing smoothies.  Our favorite one was called "Locombia," on Calle Media Luna, where they serve a delicious breakfast, and make any kind of juice smoothie you want.  Also, the best coffee, ever.  There is a giant several-story mall full of computer and electronic products as well, where you can most likely find anything you need along the way.  (My girlfriend found an adapter for her Ipad, to upload photos from her SD card from the camera), which was impossible to find anywhere else, even in Panama City.

Best espresso I've ever had, at Locombia, Cartagena

Cartagena is full of night life, almost every night of the week.  There's always live music somewhere nearby.  Don't forget to walk around the wall of the city, there's some great lookout spots, and the old city (behind the big yellow clock) is also nice to check out.

One word of advice (warning really), is, in certain parts of the city, you will be bombarded with street vendors trying to sell you everything you DON'T WANT!  Sometimes you really need to just turn your back and walk away (or run)...It can be pretty annoying, and of all the places we've been so far, Cartagena was the worst for this!

Some tips on Spanish language differences in Colombia:

Instead of saying "de nada," or "con gusto," for "your welcome," which is very common throughout Central America, and Mexico, Colombians say "a la orden," which is kind of interesting, meaning literally, "to the order," and I had a hard time figuring it out at first...

Also, certain fruits and veggies change names from Central to South America, such as "Naranjilla," which is "Lulo" in Colombia, and other parts of South America.

Hot peppers, which I'm used to as "Chili Picante," are "Ají" in South America.

Stop signs, which usually say "alto" in Central America, now say "pare" in South...

The typical colorful Cartagena buildings...

Part of the Gitana crew...Daniel, Sarah, Me, Danica and James, at 'Demente'

The 'Demente' Staff

Hanging with Gonzalo and Cami in the square