I was going to call this post "Eastern Colombia", but after I labelled my map (below), I realized that would be wholly inaccurate. The first leg of our trip was merely the east side of our loop. We didn't even dip a toe into the eastern regions of the country which comprise vast llanos, roadless tracts of wilderness, and even a small stretch of the Amazon River. Our route looped about a quarter of the country in the Central North-West. For comparison's sake, Colombia is somewhat larger than twice the size of France or slightly less than twice the size of of Texas. Considering the limited travel infrastructure in some regions and a few lingering pockets of "Bad Hombres", it would be impossible to see ALL its diversity and highlights in only one month.
We landed in Bogotá late one evening and got out of there early the next day. Lucy had arranged airport pick-up and then her cousin, was to be our driver and guide for the next week. Joaquin whisked us out of the capital city, unless "whisked" implies a swift exit, in that case we crawled through the metropolis never encountering any roadway resembling a straight, fast, multi-lane U.S. highway. I found it impossible to tell north, south, east, west, for most of the day, which is unusual for me. The equatorial sun seems to be high noon most of the day.
In our research we had read "Zipaquira", memorable for its delightful roll off the tongue. We had heard of the underground salt cathedral. We didn't necessarily have it on our itinerary or register where it was. As it happens, it lies between Bogotá and our first destination city, and it was a Lucy-recommended stop so Joaquin took us there and we did the tour. Leaving the planning to someone else was new, maybe we could get used to this!
Our second stop was more our style...lunch! Joaquin led us to a strip-mall diner for our first "Sopa y Seco". Literally, a soup accompanied by a "dry" plate being meat, rice, beans, salad, and another starch like plantain, potato, pasta, or yucca. This is a very cheap, typical meal that we had many times, averaging $2.50-5 per person. They are usually served for lunch and often these restaurants are closed at dinner time. Only occasionally did we remember to just order 3 meals to split between the 4 of us, or to skip soup, because 4 entire Sopas y Secos is too much!
By late afternoon, Joaquin left us in Villa De Leyva where Lucy arranged for us to stay at Hotel Villa Amira run by a friend of her brother-in-law. Villa de Leyva is a quaint, touristy, colonial town. We did a lot of walking through the cobbled streets and sampled arepas, pastries, and the fruit market. Unexpectedly, the region is a hotbed of fossil finds. You can see evidence of this in the stone walls all around town and the various paleontology museums.
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| Villa De Leyva: reportedly the largest cobbled plaza in South America. The town tourist map we had was oriented with S.E. at the top! That did not help my sense of direction. |
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After a few days on our own, Joaquin picked us up again and we headed to San Gil, one of many Colombian towns we encountered with extremely steep streets! This area is know for adventure sports. Jeff had wanted to try paragliding since it is relatively inexpensive here. Maya was brave enough to join him and we signed Joaquin up just for fun. Maya really enjoyed it. I don't think Joaquin wants to do it again, and Papa was carsick by the time the transport van wound though the mountains to the launch site. The added swirling in the thermals did not endear the sport to him.
While they were gone Genna and I walked around town in search of a market with the popular Batido drinks. Genna was a grump until we found ice cream. We didn't find the market (but were guided there a few days later. Turns out we had walked right past it, and Batido just means: fruit smoothie. One variety we had may have also had wine in it).
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One afternoon, we drove up to Balearnos Pescaderito in Curití. This was a great place to explore and swim. We only had an hour but could have enjoyed it for a couple more. A nice creek runs though a rocky little canyon flanked by green hillsides and grazing horses. I liked the many reminders and signs to keep nature clean. This has been a common theme we've noticed throughout Colombia. If they can keep their Green-mindedness as they continue to develop tourism, they can foster an eco-mecca reputation similar to Costa Rica.
Lonely Planet mentions that you can take a bus to Curití and walk 40 minutes down the road to the park. But I am glad we had our own vehicle. It would be a tiring walk back! There are some Tuk Tuk like carts in town that may offer rides. We are finding ourselves outgrowing LP-style advice.
The next day Jeff and the kids tried rafting on the Río Fonce. They enjoyed the experience of class 2-3 rapids and were amused that Papa got dumped once. Well worth the $14 per person for a half day trip. San Gil was a quick stop for us, but we wouldn't have minded spending more time there.
Joaquin invited his friend John on the next leg of the trip to Bucaramanga so he would have company on the 7+ hour mountainous drive back to his home in Tunja. John is an experienced truck driver who navigated us through the stunning scenery of Chicamocha Canyon and knew the best roadhouse to stop for lunch. Jeff kept reminiscing that El Aleman was his favorite sopa y seco of the trip.
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| Our family with John and Joaquin overlooking Chicamocha Canyon. It is very grand and ranks 2nd largest on earth by some sources, a claim I have yet to substantiate. On a related note, I never want to get in the backseat of a car again. |
There are 2 items of note on all Colombian roadways. One: a steady stream of Venezuelans migrating through with suitcases, rolling carts, babies, and wads of worthless Venezuelan Bolivars (dollars) that they would sometimes try to sell in stacks as souvenirs. Many, we were told, were headed to other countries south, although there is a noticeable presence of refugees in all regions that we passed through. Number Two: BICYCLISTS! Now, almost every road in Colombia is a winding mountain pass filled with blind curves and large trucks and there are people on bikes going up and down ALL of them. Each time we passed one we just shook our heads and said "nope." No wonder a Colombian won the 2019 Tour de France. They have a strong and impressive bike culture.
Joaquin and John dropped us in Bucaramanga in the afternoon and drove home that night. We are so grateful for their company, guidance and interpreting! While I would give myself a 6/10 on speaking and reading Spanish, my listening and understanding is about a 3. Having chaperones on this leg of the trip allowed us to shelve that skill for now and rely on them. English is not as widely spoken here as in touristy areas of Southeast Asia and Europe. Joaquin is a thoughtful and courteous young man and I hope we can repay his hospitality in the States some day. As he is a teacher in North Carolina, that may come to pass!
Bucaramanga is a large municipal center that we used for its regional airport to link us to Cartegena. For $45/night we stayed in a 13th floor, 2 bed, 2 bath apartment with a great balcony. The best part was the WASHING MACHINE! When Jeff asked the doorman for a recommendation for a cafe, a nearby worker woman led him to a shop, showed him the packet of coffee and panela (sugar) to buy, then escorted him back to our room to MAKE the coffee in a saucepan in the kitchenette. This was just one of many examples of Colombians exhibiting helpfulness and generosity. We felt safe almost everywhere and did not encounter the phenomenon of inflated "tourist prices" or expectations of payment for favors, which are common in other places we've traveled. Colombia is truly outgrowing its sketchy reputation from previous decades.
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| We visited the Eloy Valenzuela Botanical Garden in Floridablanca. The creek flowing through this neighborhood park was unexpectedly delightful. The highlight of the garden was actually not the flora but the herds of tortoises that roam free. We saw a few orchid species and some interpretation about the fruit trees. Some areas of the park appeared to be in disuse. Overall it was a nice shady place to kill a half day. Approximately 10.000 COL ($3.30) for a one-way, 15-minute taxi to central Bucaramanga. |
The highlights for the girls are usually not the grand scenery (because their eyes are glued to video games in the car), or the markets (because I hate shopping and haggling), and definitely not history or botanical gardens. They do enjoy small luxuries, like getting a shampoo, blowout, and manicure for less than $5.
Behind the scenes of sightseeing, eating, and adventuring is the unappealing side of budget travel. Number one is staying on budget, obviously! That means not eating out every meal, having grocery dinners sometimes, or snacking through lunch. (That one really gets the kids, who think they haven't gotten enough calories if they don't sit down for a large portion of food in one sitting. We repeatedly hear, "We haven't had lunch yet!" when we have actually been snacking all day.)
Another downer is spending mental energy on onward travel. Although we travel with an itinerary, it is always tentative and flexible. I suppose it would be easier to book all lodging and transportation beforehand and enjoy the ease of having it done while we are abroad. However, this leaves no room for adjusting our plans if we do or don't like a place. We claim to fear being locked into a schedule like that, but perhaps that's just an excuse for procrastination. I usually feel a little uninvested in researching these trips so we put it off until the last minute. (But give me a National Parks trip and I will have maps, itineraries, meal plans, spreadsheets, and grocery lists made up months in advance. Hmm...telling.) There is plenty of downtime on a trip like this so some of it must be used up surfing Booking.com and TripAdvisor. So in Buca we spent nights booking the Cartegena hostel, another flight, and did more research on Medellín and the Zona Cafetera.
Off to the Caribbean in Part 2...
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