Colombia 4 : Minca, Santa Marta, Tayrona

10 February We drove 5 hours along the coast to Santa Marta. The port city of Barranquilla looked dirty and dangerous and as we drove along the causeway across the mangrove the environment just deteriorated. Conditions in the fishing communities along the way from there reminded me of Africa. We did see a sloth crossing the road!

At Santa Marta  you drive inland up the  Serra Nevada mountain pass to Minca, a small town in the foothills of the mountains. Arriving on a Sunday we had to contend with the traffic of day trippers from Santa Marta on the tiny dirt roads to get to our lodge, Minca Ecohabs. The basic bungalows are on stilts in the forest, almost like treehouses. Minca is very hot and humid at this time of year and the lodge, built on the side of a mountain, has lots and lots of stairs. Minca is on the backpacker trail, mostly hostels, cheap bars and restaurants filled with dreadlocked yoga drop-outs and gapyear travellers. We love The Lazy Cat for cheap cocktails, great salads and good WiFi. 

11 February Colombia has more birds, almost 2000 species, than any other single country and Minca and Santa Marta have about 30 endemics. Nature conservation and  ecotourism is not well developed in Colombia but we did a great bird walk with a local expert arranged by the hotel. We loved the toucans, parrots and motmots. From the Ecohabs dining room you can see about 10 species of hummingbird! This is a borrowed pic but we did see 40 or 50 Keel Billed Toucans around Minca!

12 February Santa Marta is the scruffy, non-touristy cousin to Cartegena. Some beautiful old buildings around Simon Bolivar Parque, an ugly beach and a cluster of hostels, clubs and bars. We loved our stay at the restored Hotel Casa Carolina, with the swimming pool in an inner courtyard and a pretty good restaurant, Eli's.

13 February Lonely Planet raves about the beach and diving at Taganga. We thought the place was awful, so we didn't stay long. We continued down the coast to Tayrona National Park, which was closed for a month for beach rehabilitation and tribal ceremonies. Luckily we were staying at the Los Naranjos Estate located right on the most awesome wild beach at the river mouth. Finally a gorgeous stretch of Colombian Caribbean coastline! Finca Barlovento Cabin, designed by architect Simon Velez in the 70s, is built on the boulders right on the beach. Lying in bed you just hear waves crashing below you all night.

14 February It's a five hour drive back to Cartegena and this time we are staying in the amazing Legends Sofitel Santa Clara Hotel. We pull up outside to unload our bags and Neil realises he's left his backpack back at Los Naranjos!!! I call the booking agent in Bogota who speaks English and she arranges a taxi to drive the bag to us in Cartegena for 200 USD. We have a rather nervous evening drinking cocktails at KGB bar and in the middle of our valentine's dinner at Sofitel, the bag arrives!

Colombia 3 : Cartegena

8 February Another flight and we arrived in Cartegena. We collected a rental car and got pretty stuck driving through the narrow streets of the old town looking for Casa del Curato, our hotel. We needn't have got the car until we left, but live and learn.

Cartegena is fabulous. The old walled city is a world heritage site and pretty touristy but so cool to wander through. A hint, although this is the Colombian Caribbean the beaches are lousy; grey sand and grey water, so stay within the old city, not along the coast. It will help if your hotel has a pool though, it's really hot. Our favourite drinking spot was KGB, a Soviet military themed bar with good views of the street and the church opposite.

We ate dinner at Parilla Marzola, owned  by a local artist and decorated with an eclectic array of paraphernalia.

9 February We walked and walked with lots of stops in bars and cafes for water, coffee or beer and a chance to get some shade or sit under the Aircon. 

We ended the day at Cuba 1940, a restaurant and bar with a live band performing from a stage constructed over an indoor pool.

Colombia 2: Villa Leyva and Medellin

VILLA DE LEYVA

February 3 cont. We collected a rental car and drove to Villa de Leyva, an historic Spanish settlement, now a world heritage site, three hours from Bogotá. Our hotel, Hospederia Duruelo is a beautifully restored monastery on a hill above town. 

Sunset on the square with a bottle of crisp Sav Blanc and a view of the cathedral is the way to start the evening, followed by dinner of Aleppo, a local stew. 

 February 4 We spent the morning wandering around town and the afternoon driving through the farmlands and countryside. Veggies, especially tomatoes and strawberries are grown in tunnels on a pretty large scale. There are quite a few tacky or useless attractions like dinosaur or fossil parks, pottery shops, wineries. One worthwhile stop is the clay house, Casa Terracotta, designed by local architect, Octavio Mendoza. Another bottle of Sav Blanc at sunset on the square, followed by a modern Colombian dinner at Mercado Municipale, the best restaurant in town.

MEDELLIN

February 5 A morning's drive back to Bogotá and an afternoon flight to Medellin. Our hotel, The Charlee, was really cool and trendy and situated right on Parque Lleras in the posh El Poblado area of town. 

All the nightlife is centered around the square and there's a fairly robust police presence at night. A very traditional dinner at Mondongo's followed by cocktails and live Latin music at Al Rojo.

 February 6 Medellin is infamous as as the drug and crime capital of Colombia. We haven't watched Narcos and we didn't do the Pablo Escobar tour of the city. We spent the morning exploring El Poblado, with a few coffee stops and then went to the MAMM ( Modern Art Museum Medellin ) 

Next stop, Centro. The area around the cathedral is pedestrianised but felt pretty dangerous as we walked about so after a visit to another Botero museum, we found a corner cafe with a pavement table to enjoy some beer while clutching our bags and watching office workers, school kids, street vendors and prostitutes going about their daily lives. We barely made it out of there and into our Uber before dark. 

 Cafe Botanika opposite the hotel had live music and good burgers that night.

February 7 We ubered to the Botanical Gardens and enjoyed a great morning birdwatching. In Situ is a great restaurant in the gardens. 

Medellin has a modern metro system. It's a very hilly city so there are a few commuter cable car routes linking to the trains. We rode up to Arvi Park enjoying great views of the neighborhoods below as we went.

We had dinner, a food and wine pairing, at Carmen, one of Medellin's top restaurants. Well worth the splurge, as The Guardian travel writers say.

Colombia 1 : Bogota

This two month trip in South and Central America has been a long time in the making. Our dislike of anything packaged or groupy or too touristy means a lot more planning on my part but I think we nailed it this time. We did do a few too many flights for my liking - 15 legs in all - but largely driven by the fact that it's not that simple to get from Colombia to the Caribbean, as I found out. South Africans do need a visa to visit Colombia and in the big cities some neighbourhoods are no-go areas, especially at night.

On January 30, we flew from Johannesburg to Sao Paulo, overnighting near the airport and continuing on to Bogotá, Colombia the next day.
January 31 We stayed at Hotel Estrelar in Parque 93. This is an upmarket, residential neighborhood of mostly apartments and popular with ex-pats and Embassy staff. There's a fairly lively restaurant and bar scene around the park and it's safe to walk at night in the area. Just nearby is Zona Rosa with malls, office blocks and more nightlife. We ended up at a Cuban bar and bistro called Havana 93, happy to have found live music on our first night.

February 1  Uber works wonderfully in Bogota and rides are really cheap, so it's the only way to get around. We made our way to the old city. Our first stop was the very worthwhile Gold Museum and nearby tourist shopping street.

We had heard it can be pretty unsafe in Bogota but in the tourist areas there is a heavy police and security presence, all armed and many with dogs. Around the Plaza de Bolivar are quite impressive government buildings but we loved walking the streets of La Candelaria, the old neighbourhood with the crumbling facades, beautiful churches and street art.

We were on a coffee quest as well, so our wanderings involved a few coffee shop stops a day. Jaun Valdez is a chain, with good coffee but the independent places like the hipster Contraste Coffee Lab in the basement of the Continental Hotel have better coffee and more street cred.

The surprise of the day had to be the Botero Museum. He's the guy who paints or sculpts round, fat people and he's Colombian. He donated many of his own works to the museum but he was also an art collector, so there's  some great modern art by everyone from Picasso to Dali. It's housed in a restored colonial palace, it's free and it has decent loos.

Back in Zona Rosa, we ate dinner at the trendy and super popular Italian restaurant, Casio and Pepe. We were quite surprised to find quite a lot of Italian influence in Colombia. Of course, Spanish is the Lingua Franca and we were really surprised at how little English is spoken or understood. Apart from hotel staff very few people understand any English at all. I procured a sim card using Google translate in the Claro store. We tried our best "por favors" and "gratias" wherever we went. "Dos coppa vino blanco. Dos cafe con leche. Uno agua con gas." What else do you need? I carry a card in my wallet explaining my seafood allergy in a couple of languages. Uber gets you where you want to go without having to talk to the driver at all! It's more fun than frustrating.

February 2 We started out at the Mercado Municipal Paloquemao.

 It's a huge fresh produce and meat market but there's also a plant section filled with nursery and florist stalls. You can also eat at local stalls where 2 small beers cost a dollar. Our Uber driver back to Centro was a crazy woman who had no petrol in her car and needed a cash rider. It's not possible to change your mode of payment after your journey begins so she prattled on and begged in Spanish the whole way while we just hoped the car didn't run out before she dropped us off. I gave her a hefty tip in cash but I'm sure it wasn't enough for even a litre of fuel.

We walked for hours and dodged the rain in coffee shops. For dinner we were back in Zona Rosa at the famous Andres DC. It's a massive five storey BBQ palace with crazy, bright decor, cocktails by the jug, live entertainment and lots of drunken dancing parties on a Saturday night. We had fun.

February 3 On Sundays in Bogota from 7am to 2pm, 90kms of city roads are closed to traffic for Ciclovia. Everybody takes to the streets on bicycles, whole families are out riding. It's healthy and fun. In Parque 93 all the restaurants are open for brunch, there's live music and plenty of food and fresh juice carts.