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| Cartagena at night |
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AROUND MEDELLIN
On July 8th, we were southbound again. We left Cartagena by 6am and were on our way to Sante Fe de Antioguia, a cute little white-washed town founded in 1541 about 70km’s West of Medellin. The trip should have taken us about 8 hours, unlucky for us all of Colombia’s road ways seemed to be under construction, this caused us to be delayed four hours. One thing we noticed about Colombians is that they seem to take a great deal of pride in their country. Unlike most of Central America, there was no garbage on the sides of the road and there were workers just about everywhere doing jobs from fixing the highways (in very good shape) to clearing brush from the road edge. The people seem to be all smiles and waves and overall they’re the friendliest and most helpful we’ve encountered so far on our trip. After driving most of the day on flat ground along the Rio Cauca the road began to climb and snake around lush, green mountains. The air became cooler and thinner the higher our little van climbed. One thing that we found quite displeasing was there were occasionally people spread out randomly on the roadside selling beautiful exotic birds and even a baby sloth. We stopped to inquire and the pretty green parrots which were being sold for the equivalent of $8. It’s sad to see such beautiful wild animals trapped and sold like this, the sight of the tiny sloth was particularly upsetting. Like many of the other countries we had passed through there were always people sitting in little huts selling everything from fruits, vegetables, palm wine, fresh milk and cheese, hammocks, candy and many other local specialties. We noticed most of the cars that had passed us were freshly washed, which made our van’s dusty exterior appear even more alien. We passed hundreds of car wash stations; many were nothing more than a hose coming out of a cliffside pouring out fresh water at rather high pressure. Semi- trucks would pull over near these water spouts and a local child would immediately run over with a sponge and soap and begin washing the large vehicles. Everywhere we looked we saw cars pulled over awaiting there turn to get clean.
Overall the Route 25 from Cartagena to Popayan offered some of the finest scenery we’ve seen while driving. The sharp mountains and deep valleys provided a grand contrast to the brilliant blue skies and puffy white clouds floating overhead. There was even the occasional waterfall cascading over the cliff side. We got to about 100km’s North of Medellin when it began to get dark, so we asked at a cute looking house with a dairy farm if we could sleep in their driveway for the night. Juan and Oscar accepted without hesitation. The next day we finally arrived in the city of Medellin. Its busy streets, extremely steep uphills and poor signage translated into more than 2 hours navigating our way out of the city. We finally found our way to Route 62 headed to Sante Fe and drove through a new 5km long tunnel. The road to Sante Fe passes through San Jeronimo and countless mini resorts, all with rooms, pools, a restaurant and sometimes a discoteca. This seems to be where some of Medellin’s almost 3 million come to escape. When we arrived in Sante Fe de Antioquia we were a little disappointed. We were expecting a sleepy colonial town where we could wander the streets and take some pictures, but we found it uninviting and not as picturesque as the guide books had said. It lacked the charm that attracted us to these old towns. We chose not to stay in Santa Fe. We did pick up some exotic fruits at a roadside stand: lulu, zapote, granadilla (passionfruit), uchuva? (gooseberries), mamey, pina (pineapple), bananas and platanos. We stayed the night at an empty lot, next to an abandoned house just outside of town. In the middle of the night we were awoken by the sound of sporadic explosions, which sounded a lot like gunfire, perhaps it was the Colombian forces fighting FARC?
We left the Sante Fe area early and backtracked through the long tunnel leading to Medellin and again had to navigate our way through the city. It took us nearly two hours, again, to exit the city even after receiving directions from about 20 different people. We were headed to El Penol, a huge 200m-high granite monolith rising straight up from the banks of Embalse del Penol, an artificial lake about 30 km east of Marinilla. It is surrounded by a series of magnificent lakes and lush green scenery. The hike up the 649 steps to the top of the rock provided a breathtaking view of the surrounding area. After walking to the top and spending some time admiring the panoramic landscape, we gained a huge appetite and decided to order a tipico plate at one of the restaurants below. A tipico Colombian meal usually includes: chorizo, ground beef, fried pork skin, platano, arepa, aroz (rice), aguacote (avocodo), huevo (egg), and ensalada (salad). They usually serve huge portions so we always split a plate. After this delicious meal we wanted to explore some more of Antioquia. Later in the day we stopped to ask for directions. Luis invited us in for some great Colombia coffee and sent us on our way with directions and even a copy of his favorite Colombian CD. He told us a bit about Antioquia and how just a few years before it was too unsafe for him to live there as is was a hot zone with large FARC presence. He told us the sounds we heard the night before was likely combat. We drove to Guatape, an area he recommended we should see. We drove through Guatape and continued on to San Rafael deep in the valley of the Rio Guatepe. The drive offered more and more breathtaking views and we agreed we could easily spend a month exploring just this region. We found a great spot to camp by a lake and spent two nights and three days catching up on some van housekeeping, maintenance and even doing some fishing, but caught nothing.
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PARQUE NACIONAL LOS NEVADOS
Before leaving the Antiquia region we wanted to see a tiny town called Retiro, said to be one of the most picturesque in the region. It’s located about 33km southeast of Medellin. We drove through the town stopping to take a few photos and buying some more fresh produce and eggs from the market. The town was nice but, we made the decision to continue driving towards Manizales and the Parque Nacional Los Nevados, a snow-caked range of volcanic peaks in central Colombia. However, after getting stuck in more contruction delays we arrived at the road to the park too late. They had closed the road for the night. We would have to wait until morning. We asked at the catholic church for a recommendation on where to stay as accommodation options in the area were slim. Fr. Guiermo told us to follow him and we did, right to a missionary run colegio (middle school). Here we camped in a secure place and even got hot showers in the morning. We awoke bright and early the next morning and drove back to the park entrance. At this military check point we asked if there was any fighting in the area. They assured us the park was safe but, confirmed that the sounds we heard back in Santa Fe was that of a firefight with guerillas. We climbed the road up the Nevado del Ruiz mountain at a slow but steady pace to an altitude of more than 16,000 feet. The van inched along, much of the time in first gear. The Nevado del Ruiz is the largest and highest volcano in the chain, and we steadily felt the air get colder and colder the higher we climbed. We changed into our fleeces and stopped at the first ranger station (mandatory) for 20 minutes to help our bodies acclimatize. We also paid the somewhat high fee of $56 to enter the park. We drove to the snowline at the end of the road and spent a few hours exploring the area. We couldn’t sleep at that altitude so we had to drive down several thousand feet to sleep at a second ranger station. The drive was beautiful, but in our opinion it’s not worth the high admission price. After spending one night on the mountain and feeling the first signs of altitude sickness we decided to descend. We drove back through Manizales along the Medellin- Popayan road (Route 25) all day until it got dark and asked to spend the night at a nice looking gas station. After making ourselves at home the owner felt the need to show us his concealed pistol. Neither of us knows if firearms are even permitted in Colombia. Showing us a gun was a little peculiar but, we stayed anyways.
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AROUND POPAYAN:
We again woke up early despite not sleeping well. We love visiting indigenous markets so we were excited that our timing worked out perfectly for the big Tuesday market in Silvia. Here traditional Indian communities in the area get together on this day to sell fruits, vegetables, handicrafts, DVDs and even electronics. We loved seeing the Indians in traditional dress of bright blue woollen ponchos and black bowler hats. This town wasn’t as touristy at Chichicastanango in Guatemala and the villagers were super friendly, some even asked to take pictures of us. They had very unique facial features unlike any people we’d seen before. We couldn’t resist buying some produce including tangy mandarins and some Colombian coffee, the blackest, finest ground coffee we have ever seen. It was a great experience. After it began to rain we left the town and drove through Popayan in search of a lake at the Parque Nacional Purace. We wanted to see Popayan, but figured we’d see it on the way back from the park in a few days. We drove along a very rough dirt road for a few hours and by the time we realized we’d missed the unmarked turn, we had driven too far to drive all the way back before dark. We passed through a small village called Melanguilla, which was not listed on our map. Right as we were passing an auto repair shop we noticed we had a flat tire, our second in 2 two days. Perfect timing. Our tire and spare were repaired in 10 minutes for $6. We were going to continue on but we were informed that the next town was an hour away, and we weren’t too keen on driving on a winding, potholed road in the dark so we knew we would have to find a place to stay in the town. We were welcomed in by the priest, Fr. Manuel and were allowed to sleep next to a little church on top of a hill. We were quite tired from the long day’s drive and were looking forward to a meal and early sleep. However, the town had other plans. Bit by bit more and more people gathered around the church and we realized there must have been some sort of celebration going on. We were completely blocked in by cars and people from every side. There was no chance to escape the unruliness. The villagers were unwelcoming to us and for the first time in Colombia we felt uncomfortable and quite displeased by their disrespect to us. For the next four hours the villagers climbed onto the van to get a view of the fireworks show. Many times Moreno got out asking them to not climb our van but, it never stopped. Parents, police and even the priests all turned a blind eye. The whole experience was very uncomfortable, the crowd was too large and their demeanour too intimidating for us to do anything but, hide out in the Westy and occasionally, politely ask people to stop scratching, climbing and banging on the van. Finally it came to a stop and the crowd dispersed. At 5am we were awakened by explosions. They were setting off more fireworks right next to the van. We hit the road moments later. We were a little upset that we had driven so off route and because of this we were hundreds of kilometres further away from the archaeological sites of Tierradentro and San Agustin. We chose to miss these now and catch them on our return trip to Colombia. We decided to head north towards Bogota not knowing we’d spend next 17 hours driving. There must have been something going on on this highway as we didn’t pass a single southbound car for 4 hours. Our pace north was slow. We finally began the climb towards Bogota and had several campsites picked out for the night. We had hoped to spend a few days relaxing to get our heads back in order, but instead could not find any place to camp. We were forced to spend another night at a skuzzy gas station this time parked on a slope making sleep hard to come by again.
PARQUE NACIONAL CHINGAZA:
We were woken up by the gas station attendant banging on our car window. He asked us for some money for his generosity, and then asked us to leave. We drove north to Bogota, the capital city of Colombia with a population of over 7 million. We were headed right into the morning congestion, and a thick layer of smog. The city proved to be just as chaotic as other Latin American cities, and it also failed to provide accurate signage. We chose not to explore the city yet as we would be back in a few days. We were headed to the northern part of the city to the Parque Nacional Chinganza for some rest and relaxation. We had driven for a couple of hours to get through the city and to the park. When we arrived at the park entrance we were told we would need special permission from the Ministry of Parks back in Bogota to enter the park. We were in no mood to turn all the way back, so after some persuasion and lying the park administrator was called to meet us. We told them about our adventure and that wed come all the way from Canada to write articles about national parks in South America. The big boss was impressed and gave us permission to enter. We were charged about $60 for entry. We were informed that most parks in Colombia would now require special permission before anyone can be allowed to enter and that this permission can only be given out by the ministry in Bogota. We were told that we could fill out a permission form online, but this form would still need to be picked up and paid for in Bogota. We’re not sure if this is just a new policy, but with this and the high admission prices of the parks we may have to be more selective in choosing what parks to visit in Colombia. The Parque Nacional Chingaza is about 2 hours east of Bogota and contains high mountain lakes and paramo, a kind of Andean alpine vegetation. The Frailejon plants are strange, almost resembling smaller Joshua trees. There is a lot of fog and misty rains throughout the day here, its eerie and beautiful all at once. We have made friends with the local deer, one in particular who likes to hang out outside of our van. We have seen more deer here than we have seen back in Canada. We have left the park and our heading back to Bogota, and going North from there
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BOGOTA AND BEYOND:
After leaving Parque Nacional Chingaza, we stopped at a restaurant with WI-FI and were befriended by the manager, Nicolas. Soon we were driving to his home to park for the night. We chatted for hours into the night and in the morning his grandmother served up some sweet bread and coffee. Later we made our way to a fellow overlander's in the northern reaches of Bogota. Santiago Montoya (cousin of race car driver Juan Pablo Montoya) and his wife Camila overlanded together to Patagonia in 2000 and in southern Africa in 2004. They host overlanders frequently. Santiago is an accomplished artist and you can see his work on our links page. The Montoya’s made excellent hosts and informed us a great deal about their wonderful country, Santiago even took us to an art exposition in Bogotá on our last night.
After leaving Bogota we headed north to Zipaquira and to its famous salt cathedral. The original one, we were told, is no longer safe to enter. The new one; however is open and incredible, minus the smell of sulfur. It is built in the hollowed out caverns left behind after salt has been mined out of the mountain. The caverns are huge, some 100m long 25m wide and tall. It gave the feeling of being in the Temple of Doom from the Indiana Jones movies.
Further north lies the tiny colonial hamlet of Villa de Leyva. The wonderful white washed town has been impeccably maintained and is centered around its oversized main plaza. The town is a weekend getaway for locals from Bogota, but we found it to be tranquil enough to enjoy. We stayed at the Colombian Highlands Guesthouse. Friendly and english speaking Oscar runs a very clean and affordable hostel. They offer camping on their grounds, use of showers, kitchen and social lounge. They also can arrange tours of the area. The town's cobbled streets were perfect for early morning or late evening strolls. We caught the towns open air market on Saturday and loaded up on veggies and tropical fruits. We actually got one of the best meals we've yet had at the market. Tender beef steaks with yucca and potato, two plates for less than $6, wow.
We gave a Dutch couple, Hertz and Margerie, a lift to the bus terminal in Tunja on our way north. We had met them in Villa de Leyva. They are on an emotional journey to Cali to meet the families of their adopted children. As we slowly made our way along the Colombian highway we saw something that looked very familiar, too familiar. We had just passed another Volkswagen Westfalia. In my side view mirror I saw a Canadian flag sticker on the back of their van, we pulled a U-turn immediately and it wasn’t long before we found Dom and Dianne pulled over waiting for us. They have been touring about the Americas for more than 2 years. They offered us some good advice for what to expect and we exchanged some stories and email addresses before heading our separate ways. They told us of a camp site with a pool a few hours north, so we made haste.
We arrived at a resort in the making just outside of San Gil. We were expecting a nice few days of relaxing next to one of the two pools. What we got was some sort of summer camp for teenagers. They were pleasant enough, but peace and quiet was not to be found there. The children and their counselors were quite kind in offering us some of their lunch. They made us sancocho, a typical Colombia soup with meat, corn, yucca and other veggies. We left after two nights and drove to San Gil, but found no reason to stay. We drove all day ending up at a truck stop for the night. The next day we pulled into Santa Marta looking for a mechanic and a tour agency to the Lost City. We found both at the Turcol office. They arranged for their mechanic Henri to have a problem with our suspension fixed while we did the trek. We were a little nervous about handing over the keys to our home, but Dimitreo, the owner of Turcol assured us he would have our Westy parked at his house once the work was completed. We paid for the tour and checked into a hotel for the night.
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CIUDAD PERDIDA (The Lost City Trek)
The Lost City of the Tyronas thrived between the 4th and 11th centuries. By the time the Spanish conquistadors arrived in the mid 1500s the city was used as a refuge for those infected with western diseases. The city which used to be home to many thousands of families was abandoned and the jungle soon reclaimed it. It was not until the 1970s that it was discovered when grave robbers found the site rich with gold idols. The site is still partly uncovered but many of the 200 terraces are well preserved.
First thing in the morning we dropped the van off at the mechanic's and met at Turcol's office as we were told to by 9am. However; we didn’t leave the office until after noon. We began by ¨Chiva¨ a modified Toyota Land Cruiser and 14 of us crammed into it. The road to the starting point was in very poor condition and took almost 3 hours to get to the town of El Mamey. On one particularly rough part the ¨Chiva¨ almost tipped over and it was only the quick actions of the large driver (think Tyrone from the movie Snatch) that saved us. When we arrived we were barely fed and then began the hike. We trekked for 6 days in the Colombian jungle up into the Sierra Nevado de Santa Marta Mountains. The trek took us through about 20 river crossings, some forced us waist deep in water and it was necessary to link arms to cross safely. We also passed several native villages along the way. The native Tyrona Indians are very shy and many still believe that a photo taken of them steals part of their soul. It took 3 days to reach the city.
Day One: The first 45 minutes or so we hiked along relatively flat terrain, following the river into the jungle. Just as the flat walk became a vertical hike, the rain started to pour down. The path became a river and the going became quite slow. We walked uphill for about 3 1/2 hours until we reached the first camp, just as it was getting dark. We slept in small, mosquito net covered hammocks.
Day Two: After breakfast we hiked a short way to a local cocaine factory, but we opted not to do it as we didn’t feel the need to support the production of cocaine that is already causing so many problems for this country. We hiked on for another 5 hours, starting with a steep uphill, followed by a small stretch of flat between the jungle and a steep downhill climb to the next camp. Here we were given larger, more comfortable hammocks.
Day 3: The most nerve-racking and strenuous day. It began with us horizontally traversing a near vertical cliff side, with barely enough foot room over slippery rocks and steep falls. Then we had to cross the same river 9 times through waist deep, fast flowing water, even taking a cable car at one point to cross it. Climbing uphill in wet clothing isn't the easiest, but we pushed on for many hours. The approach to the city begins with one more rivers crossing to the foot of a long stairway. The stairs are made of small black stones and seem to go on endlessly; rising for hundreds of meters (more than 1200 steps). The Tyronas must have been tiny people because the stairs are quite narrow and the ascent was slow going and tricky. When we reached the bottom of the city and saw the first series of terraces and the wider ceremonial stairway. We felt like WE were discovering the site. We realized we weren’t the first when we passed the military checkpoint. They are there because in 2004, 15 tourists were kidnapped from their camp at the city. All were released eventually. Today things seem to be safer, the para military groups and the guerrillas are in the area but are out manned and out gunned by the army and thus don’t venture into the city. We slept on mattresses covered with mosquito netting, in a two story building that we shared with another group.
DAY 4: On our second day at the site we were given a brief tour of the area and I became the chosen translator for our group. That meant two things, one: he couldn’t venture far from the side of the tour guide and two: the group got a very basic translation of the history of the city. It rained heavily for most of the day so we weren't able to do as much exploring of photographing as we would have liked.
DAY 5: We left the city and slowly made our way down the steep steps to the river for our first crossing of the day. After the next eight crossings and becoming thoroughly soaked we worked our way across the river via the cable car and then negotiated the cliff again. One girl slipped on the cliff and I was at the right place at the right time to give her a hand back onto the cliff edge. She was really quite shaken up but, happy to be back on the trail. We ate lunch at the camp where we stayed on night number 2, then continued on to camp number one.
Day 6 and our final days in Colombia: Ash had to hike the last day with a high fever, but she toughed it out and we made it back to the ¨Chiva¨. Our van was repaired while we were on the trek so we picked it up from the house of the owner of the tour agency; it was just as we left it, only fixed. We checked into a hostel for a night, which became 4 nights due to the both of us being sick. Just as Ash was getting better I came down with a high fever and stayed in bed for 2 days. Then our computer screen went green, totally green. We weren’t sure if it was a virus or something physically wrong. Fabio, the owner of the hostel, made some calls for us and we took the computer to an electronics shop. The computer came back with a working screen but now it won’t connect to the internet.
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