Category: Colombia

After having reached our northern most point in Cartagena, we were now heading south along the coast towards the popular beach resorts around Tolú.

Es wurde Zeit, langsam gen Süden aufzubrechen. Wir beschlossen entlang der Küste zu fahren, um noch ein wenig vom Pazifik zu geniessen.

Our route took us from Cartagena to Turbaco, then on to San Onofre, Toluviego  to the resort Tolú. We found a nice spot at Camping Casa del Mar, right across the southern beach where it is quieter than in town.

Across the camping site we could observe a school class receiving environmental education, it seemed the Colombians enjoy the nature they are endowed with.

The area teemed with Colibris, Pelicans, Cormorants and Frigate birds. Pelicans fish here by diving similar to gannets and boobies.

Every day a number of fishermen plied their trade catching fish and prawns.

The town had a special vibe -“tranquilo” as one would have expected. The day is laid-back -in the evening life starts.

For supper we strolled into town, selected a seafood restaurant and took a bicycle taxi, equipped with lively music, back.

Finally the day arrived of us continuing south, our travel companions Bernd & Marion going back north to Cartagena, from where they shipped their vehicle back to Hamburg.

Karin and I first continued along the coast to Coveñas, then on to Monteria, Planeta Rica, Caucasio to Taraza, where we stayed next to a Texaco truckstop in a hostal with aircon and proper showers -a welcome luxury at temperatures of 38 deg C. Conveniently an open air restaurant served a good meal next door.

On the following day we proceeded via Yarumal on a very scenic mountain road and where the road runs parallel to the Rio Cauca river.

There were many truck lavanderos, so we decided to have the vehicle washed. It was an extremely thorough cleanup-never before was our cruiser hand washed from the underside by 4 people!

The day ended when we reached Medellin again where we drove through Santa Rosa to stay at Albosque camping, run by the brothers David and Daniel.

They arranged for the competent refrigeration technician Rafael to finally diagnose the problem that we had with our fridge. We could confirm that the problem was the compressor on our National Luna fridge-but these spares were not available in South America -so we ordered one to be flown to Ecuador and hopefully it would arrive there without too much delay. It was rainy and cold and Dieter spent some time with Barna Tanko photographing clouds. Barna is a professional travel photographer (www.barnatanko.com) who spent an extensive time at Albosque taking pictures of the area around Medellin.

Our route from here was via Penalisa to Ruta60, then to Hispania and Andes until we reached the town Jardin, which Barna had mentioned to be worth visiting. Again the trees and landscapes in Colombia fascinated us.

We find a nice little camping spot at Hostal Selva y Café run by Alexandra, ably assisted at the time by Anja from Germany who had arrived here by bicycle a moth earlier and with whom we explored the town over the next few days.

This post covers 21st-28th October 2016.

Finally we got to the Caribbean sea and enjoyed the warm weather and ocean.

Endlich erreichten wir die Karibische Küste im Norden Kolumbiens. Der Sturm Matthew war vorüber gezogen und wir hatten immer noch sporadische Regenfälle. Vielleicht war dies der Grund, warum wir etwas enttäuscht waren, als wir zum ersten mal die Karibik sahen – nicht ganz so idyllisch wie wir es uns gewünscht hätten.

Our route from Mopox took us past the towns of Santa Ana, La Gloria,El Deficil, via Bosconia to Rodadero,  then passed the northern City of Santa Marta (where we had a look at a possible camping site-it was awful between some high rise buildings)  and decided to carry on eastwards, past Parque Nacional Tairona to our selected destination, the camping site Los Angeles.

The camping site had a lovely beach and set in a lush tropical garden with lots of birds and smaller animals. Swimming here was pleasant and safe, a few sandflies bothered us.

As per most of the days, we had some rain -this time as a thunderstorm.

After 3 days holiday at this beach we decided it is time to move closer to Cartagena. The route passed through Ciénaga, then we crossed the Rio Magdalena at Barranquilla and continued to Santa Veronica , where Bernd & Marion had found a wild camp site on the beach in front of a police holiday house, and arranged with the owners of hotel Juan Mar (N10° 53.187′ W75° 04.801′) to use their baño facilities and pool.

Although the beach was quite nice, we happened to be there at the wrong time of the year – strong rains had brought down a lot of trees and debris and the water was brown, however warm enough to swim.

This blog covers 11th -16th October 2016.

We had heard about a town in the central swamps of Colombia that has a historic centre and an annual jazz festival -and known for its rocking chairs. Sounds kind of relaxed. This prompted us to detour despite the expected bad road conditions due to rain.

Santa Cruz de Mompox hat einen Namen, welcher zu einem Besuch einlädt. Und wenn es dort auch noch Jazz Konzerte gibt, kann dies einen Besuch Wert sein -und so nahmen wir diesen Schlenker in Kauf.

We continued on Ruta 45 until we turned off to the west at El Burro. The closer we got to our destination, the swampier the surrounding area became. First we witnessed cows grazing in water, however they started making way for water buffalo. It was a pleasure seeing the huge trees and the many birds and butterflies in the region.

We crossed the Rio Magdalena, passed Margarita and San Fernando before finally reaching Santa Cruz de Mompox, which is also called Mompos.

Here we found accommodation inside the courtyard of the Hotel Santa Cruz de Mompox, it fitted a maximum of 3 vehicles. Across the hotel locals offered us parking and we could camp – however the area was not fenced in and we were a little concerned about the security during the day, when our vehicles would be left unattended. At the hotel we had access to a bathroom in one of the rooms.The hotel was a good choice indeed as we had nightly downpours of rain.

In Mompos everything was accessible on foot from the hotel. It had various plazas, each with its own old church, some dating back to 1540 AD.

The town stretched along the Rio Magdalena where boat trips were offered. It was also a good place to spot the iguanas that mainly live on the trees along the river.

The town itself had a few restaurants, quaint craft shops, especially the Joyerias (jewellery shops) that sell intricate silver jewellery handcrafted on site. This is a speciality craft in Mompox.

Note the way the streets are constructed -all shops are high above the regular flood line.

The small cemetery was a special sight.

At time of our visit preparations were under way for the annual jazz festival – unfortunately we could not stay.

When visiting this area be prepared for mozzies, high humidity and uncomfortable temperatures – it is a marshy area. Colombia is re-developing its tourist industry and the tourist police interviewed visitors to ensure they feel comfortable and feel welcomed in Mompos.

This post covers 9th-11th October 2016

We drove further north, aiming to make a detour into the swampy central part of Colombia. Getting there was a long drive and this post gives some highlights of what we saw along the way..

Von Villa de Leyva bis zur nördlichen Hafenstadt Cartagena ist ein langer Weg. Dennoch wird es nicht langweilig, denn es gibt immer wieder Neues und Überraschendes.

Along the way traditional sausages were smoked and offered.

We travelled via Arabuco to Barbosa, then to Confines where we turned off to Charalá, a quaint village with a beautiful plaza, dominated by an enormous Saman tree (Raintree or Mimosa Saman)- one of the most impressive ones we had seen to date (Colombia has many spectacular trees).

By nightfall we reached Cascadas Juan Curi Camping, basic but adequate and we took a stroll to see the falls the next morning before we continued.

The butterflies and moths kept us fascinated, not only while walking to the falls but also along the road we drove.

The road took us via Paramo to San Gil with slow progress due to many road works and the rain. We continued through San Gil on to Barichara, another beautiful little village which is also a popular holiday destination. It is high up and afforded us splendid views.

The town plaza sports a sandstone church with intricate masonry work.

We returned past San Gil to the camping site Rio Fonce where we were camping under trees covered with long old man’s beards, giving it a mystical atmosphere, especially when a whistling bird-like sound started after dark. To our amazement we discovered that it was a pond full of frogs.

On the road to Bucamaranga along the Ruta 45A we had a marvellous view into the Cañon del Chicamocha, overlooked by a super modern water amusement park. The road was fantastic with scenic mountain passes.

We continued to Floridablanca, shopped at Exito (local supermarkets with good selection), enjoyed coconut and coffee ice cream (excellent throughout Colombia), finally camped between Rio Negro and El Playón at Balneario del Bambu -not very good but it was all we could find.

We were not so happy about the passing trucks but did not realise how relatively good the night was until our next stop in the parking lot of Hotel Calle Real in Aguachica.

When we arrived we were directed to park next to the pool of the hotel and use the facilities there. As the afternoon progressed more cars arrived until the parking lot could not fit another vehicle. Fine, we thought, and went for supper in town. When we returned, the disco adjacent to the hotel started in a loudness, that we could not hear ourselves any longer. This continued until 4:00am. This sleepless night would probably remain our worst of the trip.

This post covers 6th-8th Oct 2016.

Many overlanders had advised that Villa de Leyva is a picturesque village worth visiting -so this became our next destination.

Villa de Leyva, so berichteten uns andere Reisende, sollte besucht werden. Es ist ein Städtchen, welches Dank seiner Umgebung and Läden auch beliebtes Ziel der einheimischen Touristen sei. Da es fast am Weg lag, machten wir einen kurzen Abstecher dorthin.

The route to Villa de Leyva took us through Tunja -a bigger town offering refuelling on an Esso service station and shopping of essentials. It took us some time to find suitable parking, month-end traffic made driving particularly interesting with one way streets not clearly marked.

Near Villa de Leyva we found camping at the finca Renacer which offered hot showers, a kitchen as well as Wifi. Again it was a pleasant stopover,as we could sit inside while it rained in the evenings.

Our stroll next day took us to the old plaza and to a french bakery.

The Chocolate museum & shop caught our eye and it was too inviting not to indulge.

Many high quality art and craft shops helped us to lighten our wallets.

It was here that we heard about the Clay House -a wacky house built by a local artist who is still in the process of manufacturing steel ornaments for decoration of the house.

During our stay we saw an incredibly well camouflaged moth as well as some other flying beauties.

While we visited Villa de Leyva, hurricane Matthew had visited the north of Colombia – we were wondering, whether roads would be passable as we made our way to the north. In addition, the referendum whether the Farq peace agreement should be accepted, was conducted and not accepted by the population by a narrow margin -we hoped that our continued journey would not be affected.

This post covers 30th-4th October 2016

Medellin – this city may conjure up certain thoughts about its past. Drug centre? Pablo Escobar and his drug empire? Let us go and have a look , we thought.

Kolumbien hat auf alle Fälle eine gemischte Geschichte hinter sich, nicht zuletzt wegen der berüchtigten Medellin Drogenkartelle. Gefährlich oder nicht? Auch haben wir an den Brücken noch regelmässig Militär gesichtet und die Abstimmung wegen der Friedensgespräche mit der Farq ist noch nicht abgehandelt. Ein spannender Besuch stand bevor, als wir uns auf den Weg machten.

Due to major roadworks we drove along the Ruta 29 and 25 up to the turnoff at Pintada and find our way to Santa Elena outside Medellin, where the camping site Al Bosque was situated, run by David and his brother, both Columbians with good knowledge of English. Useful Wifi and a lounge to work from were a blessing in the cold and wet weather.

From the campsite access to Medellin city centre and the Plaza with the Botero statues was convenient by taking a scenic ride on the teleferico to an intermediate station, which links a poorer area of Medellin to the centre of the city.

Main attraction for us have been the many bronze statues by the well-known Medellin-born artist, Fernando Botero.

The plaza is unfortunately also the meeting point of druggies and prostitutes which is a legacy of the past.

All in all Medellin today seems to be a thriving city and many modern buildings bear testimony to this. We did not feel unsafe but remained cautious while shopping .

Interesting was a jeans shop with inserts for ladies to ensure your behind would have the roundness so typical for South America.

We drove to embalse El Peñol via Marinilla to see the Réplica Antiguo Peñol (a replica of the ancient church).

Then our journey continued south towards Bogotá and onwards to Cocorna and to Rio Claro, where we camped at Zona del Camping on a hacienda, a very quiet place along the Rio Claro river under a canopy of large trees. With cows grazing all around us it felt like a real farm holiday.

The next day’s journey was interrupted by a road accident and subsequent traffic jam which prompted us to take a small back road through the mountains from Honda to Utica after talking to some local truckers.

Here we found Camping Rio Negro ( aptly named as the river was a brown/black run of water) and we had consistent rain during the night like most nights before.

However, the many birds in this area made up for the inconvenience and a swim in the pool was most welcomed.

We proceeded from Tobia on Highway 50 , turned off at El Rosal and took highway 55 Norte to Laguna Guatavita.

Finally we decided to call it a day after we reached  Camping La Huerta just short of Guatavita -it continued raining and we were fortunate to be able to sit inside until 10:00pm, warm and dry as the restaurant was closed.  Our ladies spoiled us with a cheese fondue followed by a desert of chocolate fondue. What a treat in this remote location.

After a quiet night we were ready to tackle the town Villa de Leyva the next day.

This post covers 26th -30th September 2016

The village Filandia was even more colourful and laid back. We enjoyed the vibe before we departed to one of the important destinations: an excellent bio producer of coffee for which Colombia is so well known for.

Kaffee aus Kolumbien – ist er wirklich so gut wie allgemein angenommen wird? So beschlossen wir mal eine Plantage zu besuchen und eine Pflück- und Verarbeitungstour mitzumachen. Zwischendrin lag Marsella mit dem Alexander v.Humboldt botanischen Garten.

We found the coveniently situated camping site El Santuario within walking distance to the Filandia town centre.

Filandia did not disappoint with its brightly coloured buildings, gift shops and restaurants.

It could be called Jeep city -all taxis based on various models of Jeeps and transporting locals and freight into the mountains.

We proceeded via Pereira towards Marsella, where we wanted to visit the Alexander von Humboldt botanical gardens. No problem, our GPS said, a normal road would take us there. This was not the only time that the OSM maps in our Garmin took us on a route one would better not travel on. The road became smaller and smaller, directly into the jungle, fully overgrown to the extend there was no turn around. So we had fun moving and cutting tree stumps and rebuilding bad sections. It became obvious that it was only used by motorcycles nowadays.

The botanical gardens in Marsella were reasonable kept and offered a glimpse into the flora of Colombia. We spent a pleasant 2-3 hours there.

Our route to the coffee farm Finca Guayabal went via Chinchina. Here we had a camping spot next to a large roofed area in the gardens of the finca, which also has an excellent restaurant. The shed also offered a covered area where we could disassemble and troubleshoot our fridge/freezer, which had packed up two weeks prior. Unfortunately our efforts where inconclusive and we could not repair the unit or find what seemed to be an intermittent fault.

A very knowledgeable young guide, Felipe, was punctual the next day to introduce us to the art of coffee growing and processing as well as the right way to make a good cup of Colombian coffee.

He took us into the plantations armed with the right headgear and baskets to sample the effort of handpicked coffee beans. Here all coffee is picked by hand to ensure that only ripe and full flavoured beans are picked -which we learned is not done in other countries where coffee is harvested (often by machine) ignoring the ripeness of the fruit.

Interesting to us was also the bio control of the small beetle that penetrates the beans -fermented rice juice is sprayed and the farm is almost completely free of it.

On the 63ha land Guayabal produces Arabica coffee and Colombia is the third largest producer of coffee, but in outstanding quality. They harvest twice annually due to the high rainfall and excellent soil conditions on the steep slopes, where the pickers very often have to be secured by ropes.

Coffee is dried and skinned and then exported -roasting generally happens in the country where the coffee is consumed. Only the largest beans are exported, smaller ones are consumed in the country.

The OMA brand of coffee is very good, we learned, and only coffee from Colombia has the “Arabica” type trademark – not Arabicas, which often is not from this country.

After the tour within the beautiful setting of the finca we had a coffee tasting, prepared at different temperatures and durations – we realised that these two factor play a significant role in the taste of the cup that you drink.

The gardens presented very good opportunities to photograph various species of birds.

After such a good time in the remote areas we were ready to face Medellin – a city so well-known due to the Medellin drug cartels of the past. What would such a city look like today?

A beautiful road awaited us getting to Medellin.

This post covers 22nd-25th September 2016

Palms, so hard a chainsaw cannot cut them down? This seems to be the reason that there are so many Cocora palms left. We wanted to see for ourselves.

Wir hatten von den Cocora Palmen gehört und dass es davon einen ganzen Wald gäbe. Auch dass in der unmittelbaren Nähe schmucke Dörfer lägen, welche durch ihre bunte Bemalung einen einzigartigen Charakter hätten. So beschlossen wir, dieses Gebiet ein wenig näher zu betrachten.

Our route took us back via El Espinal, as we had decided not to visit Bogotá itself at this stage. As we were travelling on the highway towards Ibagué, a loud whistling noise disturbed the air -we could at first not make out what it was. Suddenly a vehicle passed us with girls in the back, waving and whistling.

We decided to stop and find out more. It was a girls’ basket ball team on the way to Ibagué, that found it soo cool to spot an overlanding vehicle and heartily welcomed us to Colombia -again we were surprised by the friendliness of the people welcoming strangers into their country – the inevitable photo session and selfies followed.

In Ibagué we found a camping spot at the Altamira hostal/camping and at first it took some calling to get the gate to be opened what seemed to be out of season as we were the only guests and campers.

We enjoyed the pool, the view over Ibagué and the amount of birds in the gardens.

Sadly the tariff we had to pay next morning ended in some arguments as the sum was twice that we had discussed the night before. A misunderstanding? With our rudimentary knowledge of Spanish this could be the case although we had the feeling the owner instructed his personnel to ask for double the amount which meant R150 per Person ipo R75 (Peso 15000) which would have been quite reasonable.

In Ibagué we looked for a supermarket to do some shopping of essentials – a taxi driver saw us and promptly offered to drive in front of us so we could get there without problems and did not ask anything for the service. Colombian friendliness.

From Ibagué we had heavy truck and bus traffic up to Cajamarca where we turned on a small back road towards Toche. We were told that the Valle de Corcora is touristic and that this backroad offered a much more scenic route with more Cocora palms on the way.

Butterflies fluttered around in abundance.

The road was wonderful and the number of palms in the area were in the thousands.

Along the way we found ourselves a wonderful wild camp site next to the road in a curve and with a marvellous view into the valley. Since it was rainy and cold, we erected our awning and tent walls.

Towards evenings we had multiple vehicles and motorcycles stopping to chat and find out more -among them Irvin, the young teacher of a rural school just 2 km ahead and we were invited to visit there the next day. During late afternoon and the next morning we could observe humming birds close by and were fascinated by the flora.

We ensured that we stopped at the tiny school next morning and our visit was an occasion where teacher and scholars could demonstrate their activities which included planting and art. We left them a soccer ball and art material as well as some sweets which was most welcome in such a remote area.

Next we reached Salento -a village full of colourful buildings, eating places and art shops.

A short visit into the Vallé de Corcora followed -pretty busy and we decided not to camp there. We rather pressed on to reach Filandia, an equally colourful town with a good camping opportunity at El Santuario.

This post cover 20th-22nd September 2016