As you travel through South America, the first thing fellow travellers will ask about your route is “have you been to Colombia?”. Those who have been want to talk about it and those who haven’t want to know if it as good as everyone says it is. They are trying to figure out a way to get it in to their plans. For us, Colombia really was the highlight country of our entire South American trip. It is newer to tourism than other South American countries and because of it’s recent violent history the locals are very grateful that you are there. It has a lot of interesting Narcos-style history but also fantastic scenery, beautiful weather and local people. If you are going off to Colombia soon, I’m jealous!
Likes: the people, the incredible scenery, beautiful fresh fruit.
Dislikes: the size (it’s big, so plan appropriately), the food (why do you need to fry everything?!)
Route (click on the links) | Cartagena | Minca | Tayrona National Park | Guadalupe | Medellin | Salento | Bogota | Cali
Including (click on the links) | Playa Blanca | Tayrona National Park | Quebrada Las Gachas | Catedral de Sal | Tejo | Cocora Valley | Don Elias Coffee Farm |
Food to try: street empanadas | tomate de arbol and grenadillas (very Colombian fruits) | fantastic fresh pineapple | micheladas | arepas | bunelos | choco con queso | Colombian coffee | trucha (trout) | patacones (fried plantain) | arequipa (sweet, sweet caramel!)
Tips: Despite the suggestions for food above, Colombian food is not fantastic. Their snacks are okay, but we got quite sick of fried food quite quickly! Also, there is very little English outside of the big hostels in the main cities so download Google translate or take advantage of the Spanish lessons which are offered everywhere!
Playa Blanca: Pure white sand, clear blue water, hundreds of sellers!
Walking in the shadows of giant… Palm trees! Cocora Valley, Salento