The Interior of Colombia

The red lines show where we traveled in Colombia

Wow, what an 11 day adventure we just had traveling around beautiful Colombia.  I first need to say, not once did we feel afraid, uncomfortable or uneasy about anything.  The people are so friendly and gracious throughout the country.   There are an abundance of military and police on every corner in the cities and even in Leticia.  That also gave us a feeling of security. We flew from Cartagena to Medellin, which is a very old but beautiful city and we have been told also very wealthy.  Once it was the center of the drug tradingbusiness.  Quoting from Glen Tuttle’s story:

When one speaks of Medellin, Colombia most Americans think of Pablo Escobar and the Medellin Drug Cartel of the 1980s.  During that time, Medellin was the center of

Escobar’s drug organization which was controlling 80% of the world’s cocaine market, and taking in an estimated 30 billion dollars annually.  Corruption and intimidation characterized the Colombian system during Escobar's heyday. He had an effective, inescapable strategy that was referred to as plata o plomo; Spanish or silver or lead, meaning "accept a bribe or face assassination."  Through a joint effort with the U.S., Escobar was finally located and eventually killed in a shootout with Colombian police in 1992, and the Medellin Cartel began to disintegrate.

They have cleaned up the city and I mean cleaned up in every way.  We watched people sweeping the streets and sidewalks continuously.  They have built and outstanding metro train system including a unique tram and cable car that takes you to the top of a mountain.  On top is a nature preserve where people come to hike, bike and study the nature also multiple vendors with fresh fruit and crafts.  It was a “Do not miss” on our trip.  We loved the city and the old architecture seen in  the churches and buildings.  80% of Colombia is catholic and it shows with the ornate churches (more like cathedrals) throughout Medellin and Bogota. 

Basilica Nuestra Senora de la Candelaria:
the most important church there, dating to 1776

We couldn't believe we were seeing a 1940's NYC taxi mounted on the top of a building in a remote area

Man hanging from a tree doing arobatics.  This is typical all over the city. They stop at red traffic lights also and put on a performance

Plaza de las Luces:  300 lit from within metal masts, floodlit at night

Monumento a la Raza: 125 ft tall dramatically
twisted metal sculpture tells the history of Antioquia

Up close view of the sculpture.  It really was quite dramatic

Birds of peace by Botero.  Story has it in 1995 a bomb was set off in the square during a concert where 27 young people were killed.  The Bird on the left was the only one there at the time and it was torn apart.  Botero was so moved by what happen that he donated the bird on the left in 2000.  Really an interesting story.

Medellin's idea of a shopping mall

Our fruit for the day.  Yum!!!  Only $1.25 US

Plaza Botero named after the famous sculpturer who did 23 bronze statues in the square.  He is also a famous painter.  All his figures are very large.  I added a few below for you to see what he does

He loves to do naked women in unflattering poses

Love this one standing on someone head

Her head is to the left under the woman. She must have been really mad

Then we rented a car (quite a dialogue with one girl there and no English) but we got a new car fully equipped and off we went to the mountains to the Hacienda Venecia which is a coffee farm.  We had no idea what we were getting into.  We were told it was a 4 hour trip which turned into a 6 hour nightmare of extremely curving mountains 1 lane roads with 5000 semi- trucks, construction everywhere and small villages at the very top with people walking everywhere including from of your car.  Talk about stress.  On top of it all, it was a manual transmission which literally wore Harry out shifting up and down on all the curves going up and then down the mountains. I was chicken and he did the driving.  Can’t tell you how happy we were to get to the end and then a 3 kilometer drive on an old dirt and stone road up and down before we actually reached the hacienda.  We had met up with a young German couple at the place we stopped to get directions into the hacienda.  They had just been delivered by a 6 hour bus drive.  So they piled in with us and we drove in together.  We had a wonderful time at the hacienda and would highly recommend it to anyone who wants a real taste of the coffee country. It was a group of about 14 of us who sat by the pool, all ate together and then played games in the evening.

Inside the hacienda with the other people.
 Harry working on getting some fresh espresso out of the machine

Lovely pool at the Hacienda and the grounds around it

  People from Germany, Australia, France, Japan, Netherlands and USA were staying there.  Great fun!!.  They all spoke English.  Yea!!!.  So the next morning our guide, who also spoke English, first gave us a 1.5 hours talk on coffee:  how and where it is grown, processed and roasted all over the world.  He was very knowledgeable and fun. We found out that Brazil is the largest producer of arabica coffee in the world, Vietnam is number 2 (who would have guessed that) and Colombia is number 3.  Learned more about coffee then we thought we could ever know.  As Jenny said, now we will become coffee snobs reading every package!!  We hiked through the coffee bean fields, across a stream and up into where they actually process the beans. 

This is the name of the place we stayed and their own coffee label.  They are one of the biggest exports of coffee in Colombia.

Coffee bean fields. The landscape is beautiful and
 Banana trees grow among the coffee fields

The story of Juan and how it all got started.  We have been told his coffee is absolutely the best.  We will be buying some here in Cartagena.  

Our tour guide and instructor.  He has a coffee roaster in his hands and is roasting coffee for us as he talks

Orchids grow wild all over Colombia.  You can just go along the jungle and the fields and pick them.  Amazing

The peacock was showing off for Harry.  He was quite beautiful

 Quite an adventure.  We didn’t leave til midafternoon so our drive back which was once again a nightmare proceeded into darkness coming down the mountain back into Medellin.  In the future, we would recommend you take a bus.

Next adventure:  Off to Bogota by Avianca airlines.  We can’t say enough good things about this airline.  We flew 5 flights with them and each was outstanding and extremely reasonably priced.   They are very efficient, clean, on time and friendly.  The planes are beautiful inside with bigger seats, and very fancy stuff on the back of the seats for each passenger.  Our own TV with all kinds of choices including a great selection of first run movies in English, a cup holder, cellphone holder, a place to hang up a coat or jacket and a regular phone and radio.  Plus when the seats recline, they glide back (so comfortable).  They also serve sandwiches free on long flights and all our luggage was free to check in.   

Bogota is a city of 7.1 million people. (Almost the size of NYC).  It is very modern and busy but also has an old city in the La Candelaria area which has the most outstanding old architecturally designed buildings. 

We were not allowed to take pictures in this cathedral but here is what the inside looked like.  Talk about ornate and solid gold.  It was amazing inside.  All the cathedrals are Catholic.  80% of Colombia is Catholic

Catedral de la Inmaculada Concepcion:  1823 with a chapel next door that contains the tombs of 2 of the national heros

Carts like this all over town making juice out of fresh fruit.
 People drink juice, not pop

2 alpacas (we think) sunny themselves in the plaza

Check out the foot in this fresco.

Iglesia del Carmen.  Another impressive Cathedral

The president's palace:  Casa de Narino

We wondered all over the area.  Two “must see things”  were the gold museum (Oro Museum) which was free for old folks like us.  5000  gold relics dating from 9000 years ago when the tribes first discovered the different ores in South America (and we were taught Columbus discovered Am).  Ha Ha.  These indigenous tribes have been here forever.  The museum was fascinating.

Just examples of all the gold relics that the ancient tribes made

This is how the old chiefs decorated themselves in gold

The other “must see” was the Monserrat Monastery at the top of the mountain outside of Bogota.  We took a tram to the top.  It was just magnificent and the view was outstanding.

View up the mountain from the cable car we were riding

Cable car as we took it up the  moutain

View of Bogota from the top of the mountain at the monastery

Cerro de Monserrate, 10,431 ft up.  It has been a center of worship since 1657

View of the surrounding gardens and landscape on top of the mountain

Us in our long pants on a hot day.  No shorts

So from there we flew to Leticia, a town on the Amazon sitting between Colombia, Brazil and Peru. We were very excited to be 4 degrees latitude south of the equator where all the toilets flush backward.  This is where the adventure really got interesting.  We stayed at a beautiful hotel in this very poor town the first night and then we were to move to an Eco lodge in the jungle.  Before we left we took a walk to Brazil.  I just love saying we walked to Brazil.  We saw military at the border but no one stopped us and the traffic back and forth with motorcycles was amazing with no one being stopped.  We took pictures of the street signs so we could say we were in Brazil but honestly it didn’t look any different than Leticia, other then they currency is Reales.  We looked in the grocery store and the prices were very cheap.

Streets of Leticia where everyone drives motorcycles and scooters.  the white thing is a motortaxi

Largest lilly pads anywhere seen

Our hotel lobby in Leticia.  Quite pretty and their are pink dolphins in the Amazon

Our pool at the hotel.  All for $32.50 a night including free buffet breakfast.  Can you beat that.

The key to our room.  Won't be losing that key

Proof of our walk to Brazil

Finally we took a taxi to our Eco lodge way out in the boonies only to find the place was closed up, not a soul around.  The taxi driver finally found a person to talk to (of course all Spanish) and found out the English owner had flown back to England and was not back.  We had tried to call the place, only to find out our phone had run out of Pecos.  So the taxi driver took our phone number and some money promising to recharge our phone when he got back in town.  In the meantime Pedro, one of the employees and the guide arrived and took us through the mud to our cabin.  He and the cook only speak Spanish so he finally called a lady (Diana) who came to interpret.  In the meantime our phone got charged (thank heavens for Memo, the taxi driver) only to find out that Avianca had called and said our flight to Cartagena was cancelled.  By this time my stress level was way up.  Up til now all had gone perfect.  Diana helped us try to plan our tours but we were not feeling great about all this.  She might be able to get us a very expensive interpreter but was not sure. 

Our cabin for the night.  Slight difference from the hotel in town

 So after much to do, we ended up hiking through the jungle with Pedro, the next morning, in the rain, over what he calls a bridge (see picture) to see an indigenous tribe called Maluko.

One of the fancier bridges we crossed.  The old lady with the white hair is me. Pedro is watching out for me

Pedro and me hiking in the mud and the jungle

Another thing they call a bridge

  Very interesting people who live in a large hut and served us their food (I couldn’t eat it, it was awful).  Didn’t tell them that just smiled and said no.  We learned how they cook and live.  Watched a young man do some great carving and then the Chief (old grandma in her nightgown) pulled us aside to have us snort some coco laced tobacco.  Needless to say we declined but we watch Pedro first snort then take a spoon of stuff in his mouth and then lick some strong tobacco paste.  It was gross and it made him high.  Pedro was great though and we learned enough from him by using our dictionary and fumbling through some Spanish that we were glad we didn’t pay for an interpreter which Diana could not get.

The Grandma in her nightgown is the chief.  Pedro was demonstrating their ceremonial masks

The chief teaching us how to snort coco and chew tobacco

We decided to leave the Eco Lodge after 1 night and go back to town to our fancy hotel with a swimming pool and free breakfast for $32 a night.  Memo, our taxi driver was great and came for us.  One night in that place was enough.

Diana had arranged an Amazon tour for us the next day and it was great. It was a husband and wife and little boy, Antonio who picked us up.  We first went to their house (boathouse on the Amazon.  We saw 6 people living there and 2 beds.  Not sure how that works.

The family with the boat.  We were on their boathouse first

  Then they took us about  12 miles in a boat up the Amazon into Peru, to a village where there were lots of animals, including a sloth, large snakes, monkeys, tortoises etc.  See the pictures.  Then we traveled into the jungle tributaries to find birds and monkeys.

In Peru in a village with all the animals

Monkey taking advantage

A very lovable sloth

Harry showing off with an water anaconda

A land anaconda

A very large lizard

This anaconda is at least 6 feet long

Her pet sloth in an unflattering position

2 giant turtles caught by the man on the right

A baby monkey

Their pet parrot

  They were wonderful and again, with our elementary Spanish and our dictionary we had a wonderful day with them and no need of an interpreter.

This was the boat we rode in all day

Marta and myself enjoying the view and looking for animals

The whole trip was fantastic and we would highly recommend anyone going to Colombia to do some of the things we did.  Our young German couple found a much better deal on with a 3 day jungle trip that we would recommend over what happen to us.  It was a hostile with a guide that speaks 6 languages and really knows what he is doing.  It is called La Jangada Hospedaj and is located right in town.

So interesting things about Colombia:

1.     There are no toilet seats or toilet paper in Colombia especially in public places so plan to carry a roll of toilet paper with you, ladies and plan to squat

2.  Almost no one speaks English so if you are coming this way, really brush up on your Spanish. We have really struggled through

3.  Everyone drives motorcycles with whole families on board, everywhere.

4.  Big breasts are desired by women.  When girls turn 15, they ask for breast enhancements as a gift.  (See picture of the manikins)

Check out the white shirt

      5.  Everything is very cheap compared to US prices

6    6. Spices are not a part of the culture.  The food here is very bland.  Their big meal is at lunch and everything is fried or bread dough or cornmeal based.
      7.   Leticia was the only place where we had to have bottled water.
       8. We have never seen anywhere so much fresh fruit and quite delicious looking all through Colombia
       9. In Bogota no one wears shorts.  We stood out so badly and got so many stares that we finally went into a store and bought long pants.  It gets chilly at night but we were very comfortable in the daytime in shorts but clearly no one else was.  They were even wearing heavy jackets.

1    10.   Fish is a huge industry here and very cheap.  We can have a very large fish dinner for $6. We are eating fish every day for dinner but I am getting sick of rice.  They pile it on.

1    11.   Cell phones are everywhere.  We have not seen a Colombian without a cellphone.

1    12.   TV is a trip.  Tons of US programs but mostly dubbed.  We have been able to get CNN in English and a few movies or sitcoms in English with Spanish subtitles in the hotels.

1    13.   Every hotel room has a double or queen bed and an extra single bed.  That is their standard.  Kind of strange

We made it to Colombia

We must have had 20 dolphins doing acrobatics, spinning in the air and diving under our boat as we sailed along

Dolphins swimming with us for hours

After almost a week in Cartagena, we can tell you if you ever get a chance, come.  The city is magnificent.  When we came in at 3 AM it was lit up like NYC.  Huge bay and lots of anchoring but very busy  harbor.  All day long excursion boats and private boats are going in and out.  By now we are used to the rocking, the Latin music and the Spanish speaking  announcers as they are bringing their passengers back and forth from the Cruise ships.  One arrives almost every day.  The area we are in called Mango  is evidently, a very wealthy area.  We hooked up with our SSCA cruising station host who just happens to own a penthouse on the 16^th floor of a beautiful building over looking the harbor. We were invited to sit on his balcony all afternoon and learn about the history of Colombia and the best places to go touring.  What a treat!!!

Typical of the excursion boats going past us night and day

Huge schooner that goes out each day with cruiseship people

Every day since we have arrived we have walked the city.  Since we are right down town, we don’t need one of the thousands of cabs driving up and down the streets.   We put in about 5 miles a day touring a different area each time. 





The “Old City” is a walled area which is the original city with cathedrals, gorgeous old Spanish villas, museums and parks.  Vendors with their carts are everywhere as you would expect.   I have never seen so much fresh fruit in my life.  The Bahamians would be so jealous.   No one speaks English so we have our trusty map, our book called Spanish for cruisers (wonderful help) and the small amount of Spanish we know.

Me with pigeons in the park in the "Old city"

Typical street with tons of flowers on every balcony

Loved this lady, she has a very loud voice and yells "Fresh fruit" in Spanish all day long as she walks along.  Every street has vendors but I loved her hat

Typical colorful houses and balconies all over the city

Another street with flowers

So far we have done fine with only 2 funny episodes.  We were to meet our agent, David in front of a marina.  Harry had gone back into the marina and a man who looked like David was standing there.  I asked if he were David and he said yes.  So I got Harry and we loaded into his car.  We start asking him about our cruising permit and customs and he starts talking about the tour he is going to take us on.  Our wheels started turning and we realized he wasn’t David at all.  We finally got the word across to take us back and he did.  Nice man, thank heavens and a good laugh afterward.  Then yesterday, we were walking through an area called Boca Grande with tons of hotels and beach front etc. (Looks like Miami).  We both really needed to use the restroom so we stopped at a hotel.  Unfortunately, we picked the wrong one.  It was an all inclusive and we were stopped by a guard, taken to the Concierge who then proceeded to give us a guided tour of the whole hotel.  We couldn’t get away and no bathrooms to be seen.  Finally escaped and had a good laugh but then on a major search for el banyos.   It cost us dos cervezas in a restaurant to accomplish our mission.  We also did a 2 hour tour of a magnificent fort with caves and all.

San Felipe Fort

View of the city from the fort

Fort San Felipe up on a hill.  A real sight to see and a fantastic fort

Entrance to the caves.  We had to take flashlights because they are very deep and dark

Most of the city is very modern and clear with huge malls, that put some US malls to shame.  Very large  groceries stores with good prices, tons of restaurants and a very friendly attitude from the people.  When we try to say something in Spanish, they are most helpful.  Between hand gestures, mispronounced words and attempts to put complete sentences together, we are doing fine.  It’s really lots of fun.  We are getting across what we want and we are reading a lot of Spanish we couldn’t read before.  But when the people start talking, I go into a total blank.  I am sure our expressions are priceless when they start talking real fast.

Harry wanted to show how the prices can scare you to death.  A set of wine glasses which really cost $6.00 US but look at that price tag!!!

Colombia has played the Juan Valdez up and have coffee stores that compete with Star Bucks in all the malls.

It is now a week later and I have spent the last week trying to arrange a 12 day inland tour of Colombia.  We have finally gotten most of it settled.  We will be taking 5 flights, 5 hotels, 1 rental car and 2 tours on these 12 days.  We will be visiting the 2 major cities called Medellin and Bogota (the capital) and then a tour of the café country in the mountains while staying at a hacienda (coffee plantation).  We will be looking for Juan Valdez!!
 Then we will be spending 5 days in the Amazon jungle in an eco-lodge seeing we hope a bunch of wild animals including howler monkeys, sloths, anteaters, pink dolphins, iguanas, boa constrictors, poison dart frogs, scarlet ibis, macaws etc.  I can't wait.   Trying to book all this in Spanish and on the internet has been an experience but I think we did ok.  We’ll let you know when we get back.

I finally broke down and bartered with a man selling hats.  The sun is very hot and the hat really helps.  There are tons of hats being sold in the "Old city"

We had a fantastic 4 day downwind sail from Carriacou to Bonaire.  No really rough seas and the wind behind us.  What a ride.  We were making 7-8 kn most of the time.  A few light showers from time to time and 2 big ones that gave us enhanced winds up to 30 kn but only lasted a couple of minutes.  All in all you couldn’t ask for better.

About Bonaire: what a beautiful island with pristine, crystal clear water.  Not only could you see the bottom but you could identify every fish and ripple in the sand.  They have strict laws, no anchoring so we must take and pay for a mooring which was ok but it does keep you from staying too long.  Bonaire is famous for its diving and snorkeling.  It is an island that has been elevated by tectonic plates rising up from the sea floor so it’s a fairly flat island with small hills but it is basically a giant reef so at about 100 feet off the land under water it drops like a cliff to the level of the sea floor, hundreds or thousands of feet deep.  The fish swim at the edge of that cliff and the coral is actually still alive.  It’s one of the few islands in the world that can boast about that.  Diving sites are about every half mile around the island and snorkel sites are everywhere.  Since Harry and I are not divers we snorkeled many of the sites and had a fantastic experience.  I have never seen so many fish on any island, any time.  At any site they might swim by you in large schools.  You might see thousands of all different species.  The icing on the cake was a spotted eagle stingray with a 10ft tail and a wing span of probably 6 feet.  We were very excited to be able to swim with it as he gracefully floated along.

The island itself is quite interesting as it takes on a desert appearance at the top with tons of cacti everywhere.

Bonaire is all cactus top and bottom, alot like Arizona

 The south end of the island is almost completely salt flats with many flamingos swimming in the ponds.  Salt production is the major industry for Bonaire.  Sea water floods the salt flats and is then left for the water to evaporate, leaving salt.  As the water evaporates it becomes red (due to bacteria in the water) and foam forms all along the sides of the salt flats.  It is quite fascinating to see.

Thouands of flamingos everywhere (my friend Kathy would be in heaven)

Salt flats with the red water (their version of snow)

We were anchored right downtown in the capitol, Kralendijk (the island is Dutch).  The town is small but very cute with brightly colored buildings and especially clean.  There are some upscale stores for the visitors coming off the cruise ships and really cutesy restaurants.  We stayed 7 days and almost every day at least 1 or 2 cruise ships came in.

Picture from our boat, with cruise ship 500 ft from us

We are anchored about 100 ft from Karl's Bar and the really cute downtown.  This was taken from our boat

Distillery that makes liquors out of cactus.   They were so delicious, I bought one

The fancy car we rented to drive around Bonaire.  None of the windows close and the inside was falling apart.  Cheap though

We happened to moor right next to 3 boats that we had met back in Puerto Rico.  2 guys and 1 lady, all single handed sailors.  They are party people so we had a great time.  We spent Christmas on John’s 65 ft Gulfstar and partied hardy.  Then the last night we were there, they felt they needed to throw another party for us.  So the party continued.  We do hope to see them down the road in Columbia or Panama.

John's boat for the party with Inga and her son.  They are Dutch and live in Bonaire

Party time on Christmas.  Bev who is in the middle standing is the single handler.  She is amazing and lots of fun

These little guys just wonder all over the island

We had just finished snorkeling on this gorgeous beach.  Unbelievable amt of fish

Slave house used back in the 1800's.  Thee poor people could barely stand up and almost no room to sleep

Slave house from outside.  The Dutch were huge slave owners.  We never realized that

Donkeys everywhere.  They were brought to the island as work animals, then multiplied, then cars and trucks came so no one wanted a donkey and they were left to roam around and starve

So leaving Bonaire was sort of a mixed bag of feelings.  We loved the island but time to go to get moving on.  We did a fantastic downwind day sail to Curacao, which some people say: “Why would you want to go there. “  Well, clearly they have their heads on backward because it is a fantastic island.  This island is very upscale with million dollar homes and a downtown city that is one of the prettiest cities that we have ever been in.  Willemstad is a very Dutch city with brightly colored buildings and couldn’t be cleaner.  A very old pontoon pedestrian  bridge  is the highlight of the downtown.  We happen to be there when 3 cruise ships had come in so there were hundreds of people all over.  Lots of outdoor cafes on the waterfront and you could shop til you drop.  Unbelievable the amount of stores and outside activities on the streets.

Picture of downtown building and how clean the city is

Pontoon bridge, you can't see well but look down in the water to the right and you can see the pontoons holding it up

Just another picture of the Dutch buildings

  Bonaire and Curacao are both Dutch but most everyone speaks English.  The fun part is in the grocery.  Huge supermarkets, equivalent to anything you see in the US, except Walmart.  The fun part is everything is in Dutch.  Luckily, you can see through most jars, packages etc so you know what it is but spices were fun.  I needed Tarragon and could not find it.  It is dragon in Dutch, so now I have a bottle of Dragon!   The people are super friendly, bus is $1 to go anywhere and there is a free bus for the sailors who want to go to the grocery.  You can’t beat that.  The anchorage is very windy but free (Bonaire was $10 a night).  Last night one of the local restaurants offers a super discount for the sailors so about 30 of us showed up.  We partied and ate and had grand old time.

Our weather man has told us that the weather is good for us to head to Columbia so tomorrow (Sat) is the big day.  We will stop in Aruba for about 4 hours to take a nap and then off we go.  So unfortunately, we won’t be visiting Aruba.  I do feel badly about that since our friends back in Florida love it so much they go every year but we can’t take the time.  The sooner we get around the extremely windy capes of the Columbia coast the better it will be.  I will post this while I have good internet.  The next time will be February when we can tell you all about the trip and Columbia.