So I am going to tidy up Colombia and Panama with a summary.
Colombia was defintiely one of my fav countries.
The last time I wrote, we were in San Gil. The Queenstown of Colombia. Rod loved his grade 5 white water rafting, but didn't find it that scary. Kinda wish I'd done it now... I spent that day doing my CV!!!
So after San Gil, we did another overnight bus to Santa Marta (12ish hours). We were like excited kids at Christmas. Rod's mate Pete had jacked up for us to stay with his Colombian wife's Mum. She was holidaying up there in a friends apartment. Our 3 days with Norah turned into one week. It was awesome relaxing in this incredible complex with 3 swimming pools right on the beach. We had some great times with Norah - we can only speak 'Spanglish' and she knows the odd english word, so there were lots of laughs, pointing and sign language. We were lucky to go on a road trip with Norah and her friends to Cabo de la Vela in La Guajira. It's not very touristy, which made it pretty special. Our hosts were Norah's friends Carlos and Yolanda, and they took us in their new Renault Koleos (the last vehicle I launched in NZ before I left!!) Cabo de la Vela is a desert on the coast which is an odd concept. Barren and dusty with branchy trees and right next door is the sea... which is as warm as a bath. Weekend highlights were; sleeping on a hammock overnight for the first time (much more comfy than we imagined), seeing Wayuu Indians in their traditional dress and environment, climbing a hill that I wish I knew the name of which had incredible views from the top, eating fresh fish from the sea every day, and discovering arepa con huevos (traditional Colombian food, which is sort of like a savoury pancake with a fried egg in it).
Our time in Santa Marta was more about R&R and spending time with our new Colombian family. When it was time to say goodbye we moved onto Taganga which is a seaside town 5km out of Santa Marta - famous for its cheap diving. The hostel in Taganga (Casa de Felipe) which was French owned, was probably the best hostel we stayed in, over our whole 5 month journey in Sth America. I'm not sure what the dorms were like, as we mostly stayed in private rooms... but it had everything you could wish for - book exchange, internet, nice rooms with comfy beds, mozzie nets and big fans, a big courtyard... and the highlight - a restaurant with the BEST steak in Colombia. Rod went for a dive in Taganga. He didn't come home raving about it, but was happy he'd done it. I wouldn't recommend Taganga for it's beach, I would say it is a cliche Colombian beach tourist town, and is probably a bit overated. But given it's proximity to Santa Marta, you've gotta check it out at least. Our hostel experience made Taganga for us, and we had a great time there.
Next stop - my highlight of Colombia - Tayrona Park. I was expecting the entire Carribean Coast to have pretty spectacular beaches but I was quite disappointed that they didn't blow my mind... that is until I got to Tayrona. WOW WOW WOW. White sand, warm turquiose water, coconut trees, hammocks - the place had everything you could ever want. But the mosquitos were hell. They were like killer bees. And there were far too many tourists. But that certainly didn't ruin our experience. We slept in luxury hammocks with mozzie nets the first night at the first beach Arricifes, and then moved along to Cabo San Juan, and slept in a tent, which is officially the worst night sleep I have had in my life, it was so HOT! This prompted us to move to a hammock on the top of a hill which got a nice breeze. So while sleep quality was low, the mozzies were biting and it was super hot and muggy, the beauty of this place was just incredible, and still managed to make it on the top of my Colombia list in terms of stunning sights. Cabo San Juan in Colombia makes my list of top 3 beaches thats for sure!
Moving on from Santa Marta region, we had a short 4 hour bus ride to Cartagena - our last stop in Colombia, which saddened both of us. Although we had mixed feelings because this was also where we were organising our trip to sail from Colombia to Panama. More about that shortly...
The old town of Cartagena was just as gorgeous as everyone said it would be. It is full of old Spanish Colonial buildings which had been restored into beautiful colourful buildings. There is also a huge concrete wall which surrounds the town, which was built to protect the town from pirates (back in the 16th century, I think?). The wall certainly added interest and character to the city, which along with La Paz in Bolivia, is one one my favourite cities, because of it's uniqueness.
I celebrated my birthday in Cartagena. There is a 15m mound which is a volcano, about an hour out of Cartagena where you can have a mud bath! This was my choice of activity for my bday! We were covered top to toe in mud - hair and face included! I have an awesome photo of us, which I will have to post up here... I think that will be one of my most memorable birthdays. We had a great night at our local pub - Media e Luna (also a hostel) which we frequented every night we were in Cartagena with our crew, who were eventually the people we went on our sailing trip to Panama with.
Back to the sailing trip - I was a bit anxious because it would be my first boat trip in open water with no land in sight, so it was important we picked a good boat. We spent 2-3 days researching, asking around, checking out flyers around the hostels, looking online at blogs etc to find our perfect boat. It costs $375 US per person for the 5 day trip, so of course we wanted to make sure we spent our money wisely! We were stoked to find "Lost Elvis" with Captain Randy and his first mate Mark. Randy had a gorgeous 51 foot yacht - check him out at http://www.lostelvis.blogspot.com/
Unfortunately not much of our trip was documented on the Lost Elvis blog as Randy's better half does the blog, and she wasn't on our trip... but we had an awesome time with Randy and Mark (the crew) and Aussies Tracey and Tim, Rob and Jennifer and an English chick Natasha and her Belgium boyf.
The highlight of the sailing trip was our 2 days in the San Blas Islands. More white sand, coconut trees and turquoise water. Reminded me a lot of the Pacific Islands... We spent 2 days diving on and off the boat, mucking around on the kayaks and swimming from island to island. It was absolute paradise. We also had a crazy drunken night which ended up with far too much nudity and some crazy guy running around the island with a flaming palm tree... say no more! Lost Elvis was good times all round where I was introduced to the Gypsy Kings and Jimmy Buffet, and every time I hear those bands I will always think of our time in the San Blas Islands.
The San Blas Islands are part of Panama and are populated by Kunas who are the local people. They are pretty much self governed and have these amazing huts on some of the islands and spend their days fishing in these little crazy skinny boats which they carve from trees. We went visiting and got a ride from island to island in the kuna boats... I nearly wet my pants watching Rodney get paddled across to the island... he nearly sunk their boat!!! Rodney did not look comfortable as the sea lapped the sides - he was so close to going for an involuntary swim!
So that pretty much sums up Colombia. I don't feel like I have done it justice in my quick attempt to get this blog up-to-date, but I have to say that I enjoyed myself the most here. I am not sure why... maybe it was my expectations - from the start I was nervous about Colombia because of its reputation, but I enjoyed every moment. Perhaps it was because we got to see a lot of it from a local perspective and got involved in the culture of it a bit more by spending time with our Colombian family. Or maybe it is because we met some new great friends in Colombia Randy, Tim and Tracey) who we hope to keep in touch with. It was also one of our last stops, so I was appreciating every moment we had left. And the locals are so lovely... more so than any other country we visited. Colombia is also a good looking country which is pretty easy on the eye, so I guess that pretty much sums up why I liked it so much! I'd like to think that we will go back there one day, to see the areas that we didn't visit.
One more thing I loved about Colombia - I found my favourite Sth American food there! Arroz con Coco! A rice and coconut dish to die for!! I need to work out how to make this for myself...
Panama to come... writing about our trip in hindsight is making me wish I was still there! More soon,
Dahlia xo
