One of the things I love about travel is that you see the most amazing things. It’s not your traveling that causes these these things to occur or to be visible. It’s being outside of your comfort zone, not taking your surroundings for granted, and seeing everything with an outsider’s eye. (These are the same reasons some people don’t like to travel.)
Continue reading
From Popayán we continue south, heading for the border town of Ipiales. Colombia seems to be a country that can be described by three words… green, vertical, and muddy. (At the coast substitute ‘humid’ for ‘vertical and muddy’.) As we head south, this seems to be increasingly true… the scenery is rich green, and mudslides are everywhere. The road we’re driving often narrows to one lane because the other lane has slid away.
Continue reading
We drive south from Manizales, stopping for a couple of days in Calí, and then continuing south to the university town of Popayán. It’s a small city with a population of approximately 250,000. While Calí is at 1,000 meters, Popayán is at 1,760 meters (5700′), making it a much more comfortable city, both in climate and size. Popayán was occupied by the Spanish in 1537, and was a frontier town during the Spanish gold rush in the mid-to-late 1700′s. The town retains the spanish colonial architecture, and is often called ‘the white city’ because of the many whitewashed walls.
Continue reading
In the previous post, I’d just discovered that our tour bus to Los Nevados National Natural Park was on the opposite side of a fresh mudslide, thick with vegetation and impassable.
We go back to the coffee plantation ranch house to get our gear for the day. While we’re there, a crew from the plantation hacks a path through the vegetation. We are once again given knee-high rubber boots. With our shoes and cameras in hand, a line of men helps us across the tangle of broken bamboo and mud. On the far side is a puddle of accumulating water to wade through, then more mud, and finally the tourist bus, where there is somewhat less mud. We change from the boots to our shoes, balancing on one foot to avoid having muddy socks for the remainder of the day, and climb aboard the bus. Our guide for the day, Milton, introduces himself and we’re off.
Continue reading
We leave Guatapé and head back to Medellín before turning south. Our truck climbs over mountains and descends into valleys gradually making our way across the amazing Colombian landscape. Our driver Izzy wears the a woolen hat she purchased on a prior trip. ”Gossip Llama knows everything”, she says ominously, and her hat stares intensely back at us as we talked about our secrets, hopes and dreams.
Continue reading
These photos were taken at a truck stop just south of Medellín…
Continue reading
We leave Medellín this morning heading east, climb winding roads up into the Andes, and finally arrive in the town of Guatapé, a small town situated alongside a huge hydroelectric reservoir. (The reservoir was created by flooding a huge area, and the low-lying town of El Peñon was relocated in the process.) The cooler climate (due to altitude) and the enormous opportunity for water sports make Guatapé a popular get-away for residents of Medellín. The town is also trying to attract foreign tourists. (Though less than ten years ago the region was considered a ‘no-go’ zone.)
Continue reading
We’re doing this trip on a Dragoman truck named Cindy, and she’s a tough old bitch.
Continue reading
Put San Francisco in a deep valley, replace the cable cars with aerial tramways (‘telefericos’), add an enormous amount of latin joie de vivre, and that’s Medellín. A cosmopolitan city of more than three million fashionable people, Medellîn’s location high in the Andes gives it a year-round temperature more pleasant than that of the coastal city of Cartagena. (‘Medellín’ is pronounced ‘May-dah-jean’ in Colombian spanish, with the accent on the last syllable.)
Continue reading
It’s dusk in Tolú. The muchachos play fútbol, running in and out of the surf as they kick the white ball between goals set up on the beach. Meanwhile younger kids boogie board using actual boards, rough pieces of planking they salvaged from a construction site.
Continue reading
So far on our trip we’ve visited three islands, each different from one another and each revealing a different aspect of Colombia.
Continue reading
Here are a few photos taken while walking around Cartagena…
Continue reading