09. Colombia

Colombia – what to expect from a country with such a miserable reputation (violence, drugs, rebels)? Well, not too much!

What we experienced then was the opposite of our expectations. Colombia has to offer a lot and is far safer than we thought! We were lucky that we did not have any problems with criminals, which are despite our good experiences of course around, trying in most cases only to steal the tourists’ belongings, so we can fortunately not report any exciting stories about this, but only tell boring stories about nice places and people! ;)

We landed in the beautiful colonial city of Cartagena and headed to Santa Marta further up north. In the wonderful national park Tayrona you can stay overnight in a hammock at the beach, quite close to paradise I would say.

Cartagena

Hammock tower in Tayrona National Park

The big cities Medellin and Bogota have well developed areas with shopping malls and expensive shops and everything one could ask for, but also the “normal” life in the centers with good food (typical southamerican with meat, rice and beans) and a lot of life going on the streets! I felt very safe, probably also due to the presence of so much police and security all over the busy streets.

Snails for sale - good for your skin!

The flipside of the economically strong areas and the increasing tourism are around too, though not visible to tourists of course. In Popayan, a nice colonial city in the south of Colombia, a friend of mine is working for an organization supporting deprived parts of the society, especially in the country side. These people profit little by increasing tourism and economy in general. They are in many cases literally in the line of fire of the different “interest groups” – FARC rebels, Colombian army, paramilitary groups… It was good to get to know about this as well.

Overall, there are a lot more reasons to visit Colombia than not to visit it, the beauty of the country and the hospitality of the Colombians are definitely outstanding! Oh, one more thing - avoid the rainy season, when you visit Colombia! It was not as bad as it sounds, but it sure rains a lot once it rains... ;)

And it did not rain as much as on other days...