Dusty, Fishy Taganga

Our overnight bus ride from Bucaramanga wasn't fun, but it wasn't completely miserable either. We left around 10:30pm, and after several hours of twisting through the Andes, passing through a few random towns that I could never find on a map, and trying to force our way to sleep, we dropped into a huge valley just as the sun began to light the sky over the mountain ridge to the east.

The daylight exposed a different world from what we've been experiencing in the various Andean towns we've visited up to this point. Endless orchards of plantain trees, occasionally interrupted by sketchy shantytowns, dominated the remainder of the ride to the coast.

When we arrived at the Caribbean, the landscape became a dusty, dry desert with a lot of cacti and not much else. Our bus stopped at 7am at the terminal on the south end of Santa Marta, and from there we took a 20 minute cab ride to the neighboring village of Taganga. Perhaps it was the negative bias resulting from our lack of sleep, or maybe it was the extreme heat and humidity, but we weren't impressed much by this place. It was dirty and even the beach was lamer than average. We found a hostel called Bayview that looked pretty nice, and checked in to a private room, where we promptly passed out until early afternoon.

We explored the town in the afternoon and confirmed our first impression – we aren't into this place. Besides a few newer hotels and hostels, the rest of the buildings in town are run down, and the streets are overrun with trash and the gnarliest stray dogs we've seen yet. Due to its proximity to a number of scuba diving sites, the town is extremely popular with tourists; it seemed like there were more tourists than residents in Taganga.

We were also disappointed in the Bayview hostel. The people there weren't friendly, and while we were looking to chill out, we found our room that night stuck next to a dance party taking place in the hostel. We managed to stream the second half of the Blazers game online and agreed that the next morning we would find a new place to stay.

We packed our bags the next morning and got a room at the Casa Holanda, a brand new bed and breakfast with a better location than our hostel for a few dollars less per day. That afternoon we went for a hike along the cliffs that hug the bay around Taganga. The trail was rocky and went through a series of small beaches separated by steep hills and cliffs.

Some of the beaches were inhabited by fishermen, while others were completely empty. After hiking about 2 hours the heat started to get to us, so we turned back and came into town just before sunset.



We had a pleasant surprise as we stepped back onto the beach at the trailhead. Our of nowhere, a Kogi indian came into view. Before our trip we had watched a documentary about the Kogi people, whose largest village is in the hills just outside of Santa Marta, so we were really excited to see one in real life. The Kogi wear all white, and the men compulsively chew coca leaves, activated with a powder of crushed seashells that they keep in a little wooden container and eat with a little dipstick. This guy was right out of the textbook. We didn't want to be awkward but Russ managed to take the picture of him below. In his left hand you can see his seashell stick. Yes!






The next day we started planning for our trip to Parque Tayrona the following morning. We ran into a couple, Johnnie and Jackie, that we had met briefly in Bucaramanga. They wanted to go to Tayrona as well so we decided to go together. Then we went into Santa Marta to do some shopping. Santa Marta was also pretty lame, like a big city version of Taganga. The streets were chaotic. We did find a very nice mall on the outskirts of town where Russ was able to buy some flip flops that come close to fitting him, as well as a big WalMart-style store where we stocked up on water, food for Tayrona, and the first diet Red Bull that we've seen this whole trip (so much for my new low caffeine diet). While we were in that store looking at some clothes, we heard a live salsa band start playing. I walked around the corner and sure enough, right there in the middle of an aisle there was a four-piece salsa band with two dancers, who performed for about 25 minutes while handing out coupons to the crowd that gathered to watch. Strange but effective marketing effort. I don't think it would go over well in the US though – we like our grocery shopping calm and collected.

That night we hung out with Manuel and Cecilia, who were staying in Santa Marta after spending a couple days in Cartagena. We planned to meet them the next morning so we could all go together to Tayrona.

Bucaramanga: "I'm beginning to like Rancho Bucaramanga!"

Bucaramanga is a big city with 10 universities and not a lot to really see in terms of historical interests. Nonetheless, we had a great time there. Our hostel, Kasa Guane, was incredibly nice and modern, with the vibe of an upscale hipster hotel. With our group expanded now to six with the addition of Karin, we were able to take over a six bed dorm room on our own. The rooms were pretty basic, but the rest of the place was awesome, with patios everywhere, a comfortable open TV area, nice bathrooms, and an upstairs pool room with a rooftop patio. I'm still not sure where the place is located in relation to the rest of the city, but it was surrounded by a lot of upscale apartments, hotels, banks, and businesses. Up the street the vibe was more bustling, with people selling things on the streets as a ridiculous number of buses, taxis, and motorcycles crammed the streets.

The first highlight of our time in Bucaramanga was the nightlife. Since there are so many colleges in the area, there are always a lot of people out and about. The first night we were there was a Wednesday so it was pretty quiet, but on Thursday night we headed out around 11pm with our little crew to a local club. The place was absolutely packed with people dancing and having fun and the music blasting. As usual when we are out and about, the reaction by the Colombians is crazy, like we are celebrities. Everyone wants to meet us and if they speak English, the conversation is sure to include, "What are you doing in Colombia?!?".

Friday night was more laid back, but on Saturday night the owner of the hostel, Richie, invited us to a club called "Mi Pais" (My Country), which was three floors of the same madness we had encountered on Thursday, but more upscale. It was a ton of fun. We didn't leave to go out until almost 1am, which is typical here, and as we walked back to our hostel, the sun was coming up.

The other highlight was checking out the paragliding, though once again Russ and I aren't really into doing that type of thing first hand. We like to keep our feet on the ground and our heads in the stars. Anyway, Manuel and Cecilia wanted to go so we went with them to check out the place. The same guy who owns the hostel also owns a fantastic paragliding school in the mountains outside overlooking the city. The views from up there were so great, with the city sprawling out below and huge mountains across the entire horizon.

We've never seen paragliding up close, and it is really crazy to see, with people flying all over the place in every direction and at staggering heights. Manuel and Cecilia both really enjoyed it, and we enjoyed watching it too. The sunset from up there was amazing, and as the night set in the city lights below took over the view, sparkling gold and white.

On Monday we parted ways with Manuel and Cecilia, the last remaining members of our little travel gang, and got on an overnight bus to make the nine hour trip to the city of Santa Marta and the small fishing village of Taganga on the Caribbean . We can't wait to see the beaches - after seeing so many photos online from this place, we are finally going to be experiencing it for ourselves.

View Photos from Bucaramanga

Random Observations About Colombia

Random observations about Colombia:

• The money is in thousands of pesos. The most common bill is the 20,000 peso bill, which is about $10. It is marked with the three zeros as 20,000. The 50,000 bill is only marked as 50 mil, and does not include the three zeros. I heard a story that a european traveler thought the bill was only 50 pesos because he didn't know what “mil” means, so he gave a lucky taxi driver a massive 50,000 peso tip by accident.
• No one ever has change for any bill greater than 20,000. Most of the time they don't even have change for that, so we always try to carry small bills.
• When you spend a lot of time with British and Australian people, you catch yourself talking like them and using weird phrases like, “Do you fancy we leave soon?”.
• Almost everything is on the honor system here. Even when you go to a fast food place, you don't pay until after you've eaten. If you want a soda from the fridge at the hostel, you just take it and put a little mark on a list next to your name. When you check out, they tally it all up.
• The power goes out a lot, almost every day.
• Somehow they manage to not refrigerate common perishables like eggs and milk, but they don't go bad. How do they do that?
• The pizza here is really really bad and weird. Even at the more expensive places. Most of the toppings are difficult to identify. I'm pretty sure I saw a slice of pizza yesterday that was topped with chocolate and strawberries. That won't go well with ranch.
• For some reason, about 50% of the toilet seats won't stay up.
• They don't go out here until really late. The other night we didn't leave to go out until almost 1am. Then again, we didn't get home until the sun was up and the birds were chirping.
• If you are in a hurry, don't be, because everything here takes forever. Very conducive to relaxing.
• No matter where you go, there always seems to be music playing nearby.
• I like goat meat pretty well, but I'm not a fan of a random pile of stewed goat innards. It is gamey. I'm also not really a fan of roasted ants. When the legs get stuck in your teeth it is disturbing.
• When we walk down the street, occasionally carloads of girls will wave at us and scream uncontrollably, like we are the Jonas Brothers. It is fun being famous.
• Fireflies go great with a lightning storm.
• Instead of a hot water heater, at this hostel and the last one they have these shower heads that are wired into the electricity and warm the water as it is coming out. It just doesn't seem safe, but so far so good.
• The cheese here is absolutely flavorless. It is usually mozzarella. I have yet to see cheddar, but when I do I'm gonna eat a block of it.
• 99.99% of the people on the street don't speak a word of English. It is sometimes inconvenient but also kind of fun. When we go out we usually run into a person or two that can speak English fluently. If a person here can speak English, they are always eager to talk to us.
• Whenever you think you've seen the most beautiful place in the world, Colombia will surprise you the next day with a place even more beautiful than the last.

San Gil, Barichara, Guane

We headed north, making our way via a treacherous 4 hour bus ride to San Gil, a fairly small town mostly popular for its location close to rafting and other outdoor activities in which we are too scared to participate.

Our hostel there required some adjustment, since for the first time we were staying in a six bed dorm room rather than a private room. It is way less convenient since you can´t really spread out or leave your things sitting out like you can in a private room.

We arrived at night, greeted by a lot of rain and not a lot to do. After we checked into our hostel we grabbed some food then went back to the hostel for the night. It was a pretty rough night after enjoying our time in Villa De Leyva so much.

The next day Bryan went rafting, while Russ, Manuel, Cecilia, and two new friends, Karin from Holland and Valerie from Salt Lake City, and I went to explore the neighboring colonial towns of Barichara and Guane.

Barichara was a lot like Villa De Leyva, but with an even heavier dose of charm. According to our guidebook, it has been used in a lot of movies. While Villa De Leyva is mostly flat within town, all of Barichara is built on a hillside facing an awesome valley with incredible views from almost everywhere. We went to two cathedrals, the one in the main plaza, which was huge and beautiful, and another one at the top of town that must have been 500 or more years old and breathtaking.

Another massive valley lies behind the town, with an ancient stone pedestrian and livestock road running down to the town of Guane. It took us about 2 hours to walk to Guane, slowed by the need to take amazing pictures at every turn. The road twisted through countless small farms, occasionally interrupted but dried creek beds filled with massive boulders. The temperature and humidity was much higher than we had experienced in the previous towns, but it felt really good to sweat and take a long walk in such a unique place.

When the road suddenly brought us to Guane, our jaws dropped. It is tiny and beautiful. The entire population of the town is only a few hundred. We were the only tourists there. We walked around the four streets that make up the town, checked out the square and cathedral, and then got our first really odd meal of the trip.





Guane is surrounded by goat farms and the two restaurants in town feature "cabro" (goat) meat as a primary menu option. Russ, Manuel, and I all ordered the cabro. It was $4.50, and included soup, rice, potatoes, a small salad, two hunks of grilled goat meat on the bone, and a pile of what Russ and I called "goat rot". The meat was pretty good, dark red and tender with a good flavor. Unfortunately it was mostly bone, only a few bites of meat on each piece. That is where the goat rot comes into play. It looks like someone took all the leftover parts of a goat, put them in a SlapChop, and then boiled them in a crock pot for awhile. We were only able to identify about 50% of the parts, including intestines, heart, and stomach. I don't want to know the rest of them. I managed to eat a couple big bites and Russ mustered up three bites. It tasted really gamey, but not entirely bad. I think the idea of it was worse than how it tasted. Manual cleaned his plate.

We caught the last bus to come through Guane and went back to San Gil very satisfied with our day. When we got back to the hostel, a girl came up to us, said "you should try this, it is a local delicacy", and poured a few dark brown round pellets into our hands. They were crunchy and salty and bitter, like some sort of weird roasted pea. Then she dropped the bombshell. Ants. Yikes. I've never wanted to brush my teeth so bad in my entire life.

What followed was another night of nothing much going on, as we prepared to leave the following morning for the larger city of Bucaramanga.

View Photos from San Gil, Barichara, and Guane

Villa De Leyva

Our bus ride took us through the industrial town of Tunja, where we caught a tiny van at the bus station for the half hour trip to the small colonial village of Villa De Leyva. It was such a relief after the chaos of Bogotá to step into the perfectly preserved cobblestone streets lined with white stucco buildings that were all hundreds of years old. The need to constantly watch our backs and keep a hand on our wallets quickly evaporated as we walked through the town to the main plaza, one of the most beautiful in Colombia. In the nighttime air with yellow lights illuminating all of the buildings, it felt like we had descended back in time.

The center square features an amazing cathedral and a cool fountain in the middle. It is expansive. All of the streets and the plaza in Villa De Leyva are built from big, uneven round stones, so driving in town is a real headache, with a maximum speed of around 7MPH. This is a benefit though, because there are so few cars in the streets, further adding to the vibe of genuine antiquity.

After exploring for a bit and then getting puzzled by the ATM (the only one in town), we got a cab ride to our hostel, Colombian Highlands, which was on a tiny dirt road up the hill a bit from town. Surrounded by small farms with roosters, pigs, cows, and the ever present homeless dogs, the hostel suited us perfectly - a little oasis of Andean paradise, isolated and quiet. The rooms were beautiful and only $10 per night per person for a private room with a bathroom. In the outdoor kitchen attached to the patio with hammocks and tables, we made some spaghetti which we had bought while we were town. It was the second worst spaghetti I've ever eaten. The sauce tasted more like BBQ sauce than marinara, and the pasta was so starchy it was basically mush. But we were pretty hungry so we ate it anyway.

We spent the rest of our time in Villa De Leyva making friends with the other people staying there, wandering the streets of the town day and night, and exploring the hills around our hostel.

A few favorite moments

- One night we hiked with flashlights up the dirt road by our hostel, which eventually turned into a small trail. We followed it up for a bit and came to an awesome waterfall, which was a bit hard to see in the dark, but impressive nonetheless. Then we sat on the rocks and watched a magical show of lightning and fireflies. It reminded me of the night scene in the Nottingham forest from the Disney cartoon "Robin Hood"

- We took an afternoon hike up the hill behind our hostel, following a trail that went through a plethora of different terrain - rock and gravel hills, pine forests, thick brush, and highland grasses. The trail was interlaced by a stream that was carved into the rocks walls along the way, forming what looked like natural waterslides. A fork took us over to an incredible waterfall, and then the main trail went up to the top of the mountain, where we could see amazing views of the town below. We returned just as the sun was setting. It was perfect.

- Another hike went up a trail out of town and into the hills where there is a really cool statue of Jesus looking over the city. The views were incredible there as well. I had read on the internet that there was a small box hidden in the rocks behind the statue. It is full of messages from others who have found it, and if you can find it you can add your own. We looked for around 15 minutes, overturning all the rocks we could manage, but to no avail. Maybe next time, hehe.

- We went out with a group of people from the hostel to hang out in town one night, which was a lot of fun. Most young locals were just hanging out in the plaza, so we joined them, and had some fun conversations with the ones that spoke English. Colombians are such nice people.

- A few days before we left, we made friends with a brother and sister from Argentina, Manuel and Cecilia. They are super nice and fun. We decided to travel together with them to San Gil, and a few other towns. So far they are the best South American friends we've made while traveling here. It definitely makes it easier traveling with Spanish speakers too.

View Photos From Villa De Leyva

Buses in Colombia

While I'm sitting on this bus hurtling through the Colombian countryside, I felt inspired to write a post of observations about riding the buses here. The only rule is that there are no rules.
In no particular order:
1) Getting on a bus here is an extremely informal affair. You show up where the buses are all parked, and a bunch of random guys are yelling city names. Some come up and ask where you are going. Some of the guys are dressed in uniforms, and some are not. I'm not sure who they work for - I assume the bus companies - but once you tell them what city you are going to, they whisk you on board. Sometimes they take your bags and either put them under, in back, or on top of the bus.
2) Ticket prices are negotiable and there isn't much rhyme or reason to where you buy the tickets. Sometimes you buy them from a little stand inside the bus station from a specific bus company. Other times you just jump on board and a guy comes around to take the money and give you your ticket after you leave. The price can drop dramatically with a little haggling. We are traveling right now with an Argentinian and he negotiated our ticket price from 30,000 pesos (about $14USD) to 18,000 pesos (about $8USD) without much effort. Of course, with our amount of spanish, we are at a distinct disadvantage. We'll still try though!
3) The buses come in all shapes, sizes, colors, and degrees of quality. It is hard to believe these are owned by actual companies, since they are so eccentrically colored and decorated. The biggest buses are huge coaches with incredibly comfortable seats, a bathroom, flat panel TVs that play movies in spanish, and awesome air conditioning (sometimes a little too awesome, so we carry jackets). From there it goes downhill, to these bizarre midsize buses that look like they could double as watercraft, and tiny little vans like the ones the terrorists drove in Back to the Future.
4) If you've ever wanted to do your own stunts, look no further than a bus ride in Colombia. As we left the station today, this woman beside me crossed her heart Catholic-style, then did the same on her infant boy. This does not instill confidence in this bus ride for me. True to form, this driver has been making some extraordinary passing maneuvers on blind corners in the heavy rain, lightening, and thunder storm. It seems impossible that there aren't more accidents but from what I've read there are surprisingly few. A couple times I've thought we were surely about to crash as we slowly passed these big trucks going uphill, sometimes a few at a time, as the oncoming traffic came blasting towards us, barely missing us as we moved back into our lane in the nick of time. And those were the successful passes. The ones where we popped out from behind a big truck to pass, only to be greeted by a speeding oncoming bus 100 feet away, and swerved back behind the big truck within an inch of disaster, produce the same feeling as being on a scary roller coaster, only without the insurance of safety.
5) Hungry? No problem. Every once in a while, these people, often children, jump on the bus with baskets of funky snacks and drinks. I have no clue what most of the things are, but most look sweet and carb loaded. After they walk down the aisle pitching their product, they jump back off the bus and then wait for the next one coming the opposite direction. Must be a weird way to spend the day.

Bogota: Bienvenidos a Colombia

There is no feeling like landing in a foreign country for the first time, especially at night. We arrived in Bogota, Colombia on Wednesday night with a potent mix of excitement and anxiety, fun and fear. Getting into the country was pretty easy, answering a few quick questions from immigration, getting our passports stamped, and getting a taxi to our first hostel, Destino Nomada, in the old colonial Calendaria district of Bogota. The hostel occupied a beautiful old house, with a center courtyard, bar, and a labrynth of halls going to dorm and private rooms. We met a number of other travelers right away who would quickly become friends. Most were European and Australian, with a couple of other Americans thrown into the mix. The second night we met another Oregonian from West Linn named Bryan, proving what a small world we live in.


Exploring Bogota for the first time was awe inspiring. The Calendaria district was built hundreds of years ago, and includes a massive main square, the Plaza Bolivar, flanked by a huge church and the presidential palace. The surrounding buildings are very old and mostly related to government or the church. As we walked around, we garnered some very interesting stares from almost everyone that passed us, mostly on account of Russ's height. Children were the most amusing, coming up to us to say hi followed by a bunch of rapid-fire spanish that we had no hope of understanding. It was Thursday of Easter Week, and the streets were packed with families wandering around, street vendors selling mostly unidentifiable little snacks, and an assortment of puppety oddball street performers. Throughout our first day, we were struck by the friendliness of everyone here. People are so polite and patient with us as we struggle to do simple things like buy water or ask directions. Our lack of spanish has definitely been the biggest challenge so far.


One crazy moment in the crowded streets happened when a family of Colombians stopped us to ask where we were from and talk to us for a minute. Several of them spoke english fluently. They asked to take a photo with us, and once the other Colombians walking by saw that, they all wanted pictures too. A group of 100 or so (no exaggeration) people crowded around us with cameras and camcorders, jumping in beside us to get a picture for themselves. A couple people handed Russ their children or babies so he could hold them up high in the air. We let the craziness go on for a couple minutes before we started feeling overwhelmed and made our escape, both of us in disbelief over our newfound fame.


Most of our nights in Bogota were spent hanging out in our hostel, visiting with the other travelers, hearing their experiences and getting invaluable advice on where to go and what to do. Almost everyone there had been to the Northern coast of Colombia, and had done many of the things we already had planned, so hearing their first-hand accounts helped us to formulate our specific game plan as we feel free to move about the country.


During the day, we walked around for hours, bought lunch and dinner in miscellaneous restaraunts, and went to museums. The Museo De Oro (Museum of Gold) holds the world's largest collection of Pre-Colombian gold artifacts. While the museum is a bit of a one trick pony, we really enjoyed seeing all of the various ornaments, jewelry, sacraficial objects, and everyday use items like silverware, small boxes, and armor.


We also visited the Colombian National Museum, which resides in a two or three hundred year old jail with huge thick walls and iron bar doorways. Artifacts spaned Pre-Colombian to early 1900's. The most interesting wing for us was dedicated to the Spanish Inquisition. They had a suit of armor that looked like a knight costume out of a movie, and a bunch of different weapons, maps, and other random objects from both sides of that ugly era in human history.


On Saturday night we went out on the town for the first time with a large group of people from our hostel, including one of the owners and one of the guys who works there, both Colombians. We filled three taxis and went across town to the Zona Rosa, an upscale area in Northern Bogota. It felt a world away from the old section that we had been staying and hanging out in for the previous days with really nice bars and restaurants that reminded me of the Third Street Promenade in Santa Monica and snappy dressed college-age Colombians packing every place. We settled in at an Irish bar, where we hung out on a big patio with the people from the hostel before going inside to get away from the group a bit and make conversation with some Colombians, who were all extremely friendly and excited to talk to us. After a couple hours there, our whole group went around the corner to a rooftop bar, also very nice. It was a great feeling to be standing on a rooftop in Colombia hanging out with Russ and a bunch of new friends from all over the world.


On Sunday and Monday we mostly hung out at the hostel and planned the next leg of our adventure. A Spanish punk band stayed at the hostel for the weekend and partied 24/7 for three days, which was entertaining at first but proved frustrating as they sang "Rock Around The Clock" at the top of their lungs on the patio below our window at 6am on Monday morning.


Bryan decided to join us traveling for a while, so on Tuesday morning we repacked our bags and began our first bus trip, heading for the small colonial village called Villa De Leyva.

View Photo Album of Bogota