Playa Costeno: unknown jewel of the Caribbean
I thought I was going to be off grid for the next few days because I’m in a remote beachside area (it’s not a town and not even a village – its an Eco-lodge in the middle of nowhere). It’s beautiful here. Gorgeous. And there’s no one here. I was going to go to Taganga for a night and then head into Tayrona, but I met Susan and Nick and decided to come with them because this place sounded amazing. I’m glad I did.
The 15 hour bus ride from San Gil to Santa Marta was pretty torturous. We left last night at 7pm and I was surrounded by women with two or three kids each. And the mothers had only bought one seat so the kids were squished in where they could be. At 6 am all the kids decided to start screaming. I got some sleep thanks to the Dramamine I was smart enough to buy yesterday before the bus ride. Also a good idea to prevent sickness. You know there’s a good chance of being carsick when the bus driver hands out vomit bags before departing San Gil.
Once in Santa Marta, S, N and I took a cab to this place where we could get the bus to this lodge.
And now I’m here. We arrived, sweaty, hot, stinky and wearing the same clothes for 24 hours. We changed into bathing suits, went for a swim and then hung out in hammocks by the beach. I drank a coke. The first one in a long time. I tried getting a dorm bed but they were booked so I’m sleeping in a hammock. Luckily, there’s a mosquito net.
The plan tomorrow is to walk the beaches and laze around. It’s hot and humid and feels like a vacation now 
Going off the grid
I’ve been told about this super nice beach off the beaten track – Costeno Beach, just past Parque Tayrona. I’ll probably be off the grid for the next 5 days I think because I’ll go directly into Tayrona after the Beach.
I’ll save drafts!
Day trip to Barichara
Joe and I took a day trip to the nearby town of Barichara. Apparently this is the most beautiful town in Colombia and ‘Zorro’ was shot here. It’s a 45 minute drive by bus to the town so we spent a few hours there poking around before coming back to San Gil.
The most amazing thing about Barichara, in my opinion, was the stonework. Everything was carved out of stone – it looked like sandstone but could have been something else. The streets, the houses, even the signs on the houses were all carved out of this stone. And then they all has these big thick old solid wood doors. The main square had the cathedral as usual and was full of trees and people.
Here are some photos from the day.
This is an artist’s depiction of the town:
We came back to San Gil and got lunch at El Mana restaurant. If you ever come to San Gil, you have to eat at this place. It’s delicious and cheap. They don’t have a menu. You walk in and they ask you whether you want chicken, beef or pork. Then you get a choice of sauce for the meat – plum, pineapple or wine. Next thing you know, they’ve brought out small garlicky pieces of toasted bread (but soft, not crispy), a spicy cilantro and onion and tomato salsa, a few pieces of papaya and a vegetable soup. Next you get your meat, with rice and potatoes, and a salad. Finally comes dessert – a rot-your-teeth-sweet dessert that I think was sugar, condensed milk, papaya juice and gelatin. You also get seemingly never-ending servings of the juice of the day – today it was lemonade. All this for about $6 cad. Best deal. The tables have table cloths and the waiters wear their white shirts/black ties so you feel like it should cost so much more.
And the food was delicious.
San Gil is a cute town as well. We went to the market this morning to get juice and walked around a bit. The main plaza is definitely the place to be. It’s so green and alive and we were told that everyone hangs out there at night, drinking beer.
I’m heading to Taganga tonight. Taking the overnight bus to Santa Marta at 7pm tonight which should get me to Santa Marta by 9am tomorrow… And then it’s a short bus ride to Taganga from there. I’ll be going with Luke, a newly-qualified lawyer from South Africa. He just finished articling as well and is traveling for 4 months before starting work. Apparently the articling process there is 2 years – split into three 8 month rotations. The bus we’re taking is supposed to be the ‘luxury’ bus with seats that recline almost totally. I sure hope so. I’m hoping to get some sleep tonight! I bought myself some type of Gravol-like medication to take so I’m hoping that’ll knock me out enough so that I get some sleep. I want to go swimming as soon as I get to the hostel in Taganga!
Oh, one final note about Macondo hostel in San Gil: this is one of the ten best hostels I’ve ever stayed in. Hot water showers with more pressure than mine at home, big kitchen with really nice appliances, great lounging spots, a jacuzzi, nice courtyard, awesome staff, and good bed frames. I can’t say the beds were great because mine was hard and lumpy but it was definitely not the worst bed I’ve slept in. Last night they held their Thursday night BBQ and we each got steak, potatoes and salad. The steak was amazing. Perfectly cooked. I should have asked what they marinated it in because it tasted so good and was so tender. They have a large outdoor BBQ fire pit. Overall great experience here even though I didn’t do the whole ‘adventure’ thing. Another time
San Gil: the ‘adventure capital of Colombia’
Today was a travel day so not much to report. I left the hostel in VDL this morning around 9am. Joe, the friendly Kiwi guy, gave me a lift to the bus terminal on his motorbike. He’s driving from the tip of South America all the way up to Whitehorse. Apparently he spent some time in Whitehorse and wanted to make it back up there before winter but he’s going slower than expected. He might be coming to San Gil tonight if he makes it this far. Nice guy.
I took the same bus back to Tunja and had 45 minutes before the bus to San Gil left. I also needed cash because I didn’t have enough to cover the bus ticket. Although it was only $25,000 pesos (about $13 cad), I’m pretty sure they overcharged me. I didn’t even think about bartering with them. So up I headed up the really steep hill from the terminal to the main plaza. Got the money out and then had a coffee.
I don’t know if I mentioned it before but I has the best mochachino ever in Tunja the other day. The chocolate was dark and bitter, the coffee was top quality and the foam and whipcream were excellent.
I went to a different coffee shop today and had a cappuccino. Equally as amazing. Whatever they say about Colombia exporting its best coffee does not apply to Tunja.
Then it was back down to the terminal to get on the luxurious Benz bus. It only broke down twice on the 4 hour trip, making it into a 5 hour trip. The interesting thing about this bus is that it had a screen inside that flashed the bus’s speed so that passengers could tell how fast they were going. Since we were going up and down mountains, I expected that we’d have a driver going at breakneck speeds around the hairpin turns but he was good. I don’t think he went faster than 70km max.
This hostel that I’m in tonight is beautiful. Hammocks, a jacuzzi, nice big kitchen, strong beds, hot water, etc. Here’s a photo:
It’s really nice and hot here. Finally. Also there’s lots of water around (lakes and rivers). The two biggest things to do around here seem to be whitewater rafting and paragliding. Not sure if I’ll do either since I really do want to get to the coast and that means another 15 hour bus ride…
Here’s the only photo I could take from the bus today. It’s not great.
The good thing about this place is that it seems to be full of people. And tonight there’s a BBQ party. I’m starving already!
Thunder showers
Today’s afternoon plans were somewhat foiled by this thundershower that’s happening right now. The sun was nice and bright this morning so Katharine and Joe and I decided to take a walk up through the mountains to see the vistas. Then the plan was to come back to the hostel, go to the village for lunch and then head out to see Colombia’s ‘Stonehenge’. After lunch the rain started so we came back to the hostel.
The hike in the mountains was beautiful. It was supposed to be a two hour round trip walk but we took the wrong path somewhere near the first waterfall. I take responsibility for this because at that point, I was leading the three of us and I took malaria medication this morning which definitely has some side effects.
So there we were at this nice little waterfall. No swimming is allowed though, but it’s probably too cold anyway. VDL isn’t the warmest place.
The photo above was when we were climbing this sort of path wondering whether it was the right one. Joe led the way.
Once we got back on track and went up to the ‘rocky lookout’, this is what we saw:
We walked back to the hostel and then headed into town. Here are a few more photos of VDL. It’s beautiful.
The last photo is of the church in the main square.
This next photo is of the hostel – Renacer. I strongly recommend it to anyone coming this way.
Everyone here wears ponchos and hats. I checked out the poncho situation and thought about it briefly but decided not to buy it. I’d only wear it here…
I know I talked about how well dressed the suited men were here but the women are also very stylish. If you watch ‘Modern Family’, the Colombian wife is very much Colombian. The women here wear mile-high heels, right pants/skirts and more loosely flowing shirts. Even the women in suits will have very tight very short skirts or pants and a more ample suit jacket. And always with the heels – boots or pumps.
I think I’ll head to Barichara tomorrow – a 6-7 hour bus ride from here. It’s supposed to be beautiful and then from there I’ll head to the beaches.
Tunja and arrival in Villa de Leyva
I’m sitting in a hammock watching the sunset from the mountainside in a hostel/ecological reserve as I write this. I’m in Villa de Leyva, a city about 5 hours north of Bogota. I have to admit that I’m really really happy to be out of Bogota. It finally feels like I’m in South America. Bogota, with the grey skies and chilly climate, simply felt like it could be in Canada or Europe. I do have to say that the people in Bogota are super stylish. Actually, everyone is really stylish here. But you should have seen the men in suits in Bogota. They were wearing slim-fitting suits with nice leather shoes that were just so – you could tell they took pride in what they wore to work.
We left Bogota and took a bus to Tunja. Did I say already how much traffic there is? So much traffic the entire way. Everywhere in fact. Colombia is very big and very developed.
We woke up slowly and headed out to explore Tunja. Here are some photos of the main square, Plaza Bolivar:
And a few more from around the town:
We visited two old mansions built in the 1500′s which are now museums. They each had beautifully painted ceilings. One even had a floor that had animal vertebrae built into it. Of course I had to take a picture of it
While we (Katharine and I) were at the second mansion, there was a group of university students who were there as well. We got a guided tour with them through the house. At one point, the guide was talking about this mirror that had a message written in it. She got all the students to try to read what was written there – you couldn’t really see it. Then she looked at me and asked me to read it. Thing is, by this time I had lost interest in the mirror and had turned my attention to something else and was lost in thought. I felt like I was in school again and the teacher caught me not paying attention! Anyway, we laughed it off but I still turned red.
Tunja is the highest city in Colombia and we were told that it was colder there than in Bogota. Maybe it was so, but the difference was that the sun was shining so it was nice and warm. We took an afternoon bus out to Villa de Leyva, here are some early photos of this really cute little town:
Apparently this is the city where lots of movies come to shoot because it’s so picture perfect.
This is the view of the balcony of the dorm:
Oh, and while I was in Tunja, we went to this really old church that is painted completely inside in gold paint – like real gold paint. We weren’t allowed to take photos for security purposes, but I snuck one in anyway:
The road between Tunja and VDL was through the mountains and was essentially a road full of hairpin turns that wound around each mountain like a ribbon around a very strange birthday present. There were only three places where the road was partially washed out, and only a few signs warning people about flash floods and landfalls. I wish I could have taken photos of the scenery but the bus windows were too dirty. And for all you Internet radio listeners, check out radio Tropicana in Colombia if you can – it has a good Kia of the typical Latin American ballads and fun dance songs (I finally heard Shakira’s ‘I’m addicted to you’ and liked it!)
I think I’m going to stay here for two nights then head to Bucamaranga. Apparently there’s some good hiking around here and some waterfalls with swimming holes I’d like to check out.
How the day actually went…
Although I wrote the earlier post about leaving Bogota and feeling bad that I hadnt seen much of it, it was all a lie in the end. I left the hostel at 7:30am in search of breakfast (no one had told me that the hostel offered free breakfast). I walked down to Plaza Bolivar and watched a ceremony for the firefighters.
Then I had breakfast and walked back to the hostel so that I could see if I could find the two German girls I was sharing a dorm with. They (Anja and Sabrina) were eating breakfast with Katharine (the English/Aussie) lady. We made a plan to walk around Bogota a bit more then take a bus to head to Tunja. We wanted to see some museums and the vista from a tall building – unfortunately everything was closed since it was Monday. So we knocked on a hotel’s door that seemed to have an open rooftop garden. They let us in to have a peak around – Bogota is such a sprawling city!
On our way back to the hostel we stopped in to have a cup of hot chocolate.
Once we got to the hostel, we all crammed into a small taxi (trust me, with 4 backpacks it was a very tight squeeze) and headed to the bus terminal which is kind of close to the airport. There was bumper to bumper traffic the entire way. It took forever. Once we got to the bus terminal, the bus left within minutes but the traffic was so bad it took an hour or more just to get out of the city. Then we stopped for a police checkpoint which took almost another hour. Our estimated arrival time in Tunja had been around 5:30 or 6 but we only arrived there at 7:15. We were traveling through the mountains so I was hoping to see more of the countryside but it grew dark around 6 or so.
Now I’m in a hotel in Tunja with Katharine. We’re sharing a double bed in a weird little place but at least it’s cheap (came to just over $15 for the room – the first few hotels we tried were charging us closer to $40).
The plan for today is to walk around Tunja a bit then head to Villa de Leyva. Which should be a 45 minute bus ride…. Hopefully!
Fun facts about Bogotá
Despite what you might think, Bogota is actually cold. In fact, I think Halifax is currently warmer than Bogota! The city is about 2600 m above sea level and apparently the average temperature here year round is 14 degrees, with nighttime lows of 8 degrees. That means that I’m walking around in jeans and sweaters and am thankful I brought these warmer clothes with me!
It’s the 3rd highest capital in South America and has a population of 8 million. It’s huge.
And because it’s a huge city and so cold, I think I’m going to skip town today and head to Tunja, a small town three hours away. I know I didn’t see much of Bogota, but I’d rather spend some time exploring and not in a big city. And truth be told, I really can’t wait to get to the beaches on the Caribbean side.
I also found out why it was so busy on Sunday at Monserrate – it’s the day the pilgrims trek up.
Asleep in Bogota?
So today was an interesting day… I ended up sleeping for the majority of the time. Guess I needed that sleep! Molly and I headed up to Monserrate, the peak that overlooks all of Bogota. It was about a 15 minute walk from the hostel to get to the base, and then it takes about 90 minutes to hike to the top. At the base, there are vendors selling all sorts of Colombian sweet treats. Since it was also Sunday, there were lots of markets set up so I poked my head in a few of them on the way back down.
I’m sad to report that I didn’t actually make it to the top. The altitude got to me and I ended up turning around at about the 3/4 mark. Maybe it was the lack of breakfast, the need for sleep or the fact that I didn’t eat very well yesterday, but whatever it was, I started feeling light-headed and dizzy and had to sit down. As I descended the mountain, I felt better and better so the altitude must have been a large factor.
I wish I had taken photos of the stuff I did see, but I didn’t. There were hordes of people going up and down the mountains, old and young, extremely well dressed and those dressed in sport clothes, families and couples. It seemed that everyone was hiking up.
Molly kept on going and she said it just got tougher and tougher as you got to the top. Maybe I should have taken the gondola up. Either way, I came back to the hostel and headed out in search of food. I happened to end up at this cute little restaurant run by a non-profit to help employ people from poorer neighborhoods. The food was delicious. Apparently every city in Colombia has its typical meal that belongs to that city. Bogota’s is a chicken soup with hot chocolate and bread. So that’s what I had. The hot chocolate is apparently drunk all day long. I’m looking forward to having more tomorrow morning
After lunch (or breakfast since it was my first meal), I came back to the hostel absolutely exhausted and slept deeply for almost 4 hours. I woke up and came to the main hostel (I’m in the second house, which isn’t the main house and has no one except me and two German girls).
I met with Katharine and Molly and we went out for dinner. This Indigenous Colombian guy from the Amazon came with us as well and told us about his community and culture.
We walked back through the tight little streets, filled with the smell of wood fires, to the hostel. I think I’m going to take off from Bogota on Tuesday and head to Villa de Leyva. Katharine is headed there tomorrow so we might meet up there on Tuesday.
Tomorrow the plan is to actually see Bogota – and not sleep all day again!
Here is the only photo I took today – a bad view of Bogota from the path up to Monserrate.
Bogotá, Colombia
So this is a short one to let everyone know that I’ve arrived safely in Bogota last night. Managed to sleep for 12 hours – apparently I needed it! Headed off now with Molly, an American I met here, to go hike Monserrate. It’s chilly here!
Travel yesterday went well. Remind me never to have another layover in Orlando – I don’t think I could survive another 4 hours surrounded by so many families. I guess I was also flying on a WestJet vacation flight, which may not have helped. But either way, the Orlando airport is not very interesting.
The flight from Miami to Bogota was nice. And I was surprised at the El Dorado airport. It’s big and clean and very modern. I had a few moments of ‘uh oh’ when I was waiting for my luggage. It took a while before it came out of the plane and I was sure that it had been lost between all the flights. It wasn’t. Also an interesting side note is that it’s best to wait to get to Colombia to change money because you get a better rate. In Miami, they were going to give me a 1usd= 1500 Colombian pesos rate, plus charge me $8 as a fee. At the Bogota Airport, they gave me $1700 for $1usd, and no fee. The only catch is that they take your passport number, verify your ID, and take a thumb print before you get the money. I’m not sure why they had to take the thumb print…
Here’s a photo I took of the sunset someplace over the Caribbean side of Panama or Colombia.
