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I ended my trip to Colombia with a short flight from Medellín to Bogotá, an overnight stay in an airport hotel and then my flight back to the U.S. early the next morning. I had spent three weeks and covered a fair amount of ground, a good introduction to the country. This is the wrap up of my impressions from my trip.
Colombia is a big, diverse, beautiful country. I enjoyed the small colonial towns and tropical highland regions the
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I was really looking forward to visiting Medellín after so many other travelers had told me how much they enjoyed the city. It is indeed a nice city with a lovely climate. I sense that it is a pleasant city to live in. It is definitely a great city to visit if you like eating, drinking and partying.
However, I wasn’t really interested in the drinking and partying and I didn’t find much else to do. There aren’t that many
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I took the bus from Guachaca to Cartagena via Santa Marta, about a five-hour trip along a two-lane coastal highway. The bus wasn’t comfortable and the scenery wasn’t great, so I was glad when I arrived in Cartagena. I took a taxi from the bus terminal to my small hotel within the walls of the old city.
Cartagena’s old city consists of the inner historical districts of El Centro and San Diego and an outer walled town, Getsemaní. The inner
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After my time in the mountain jungle around Minca, I headed to the beach. I chose a relatively deserted stretch of beach between Santa Marta and Palimino, just outside the Tayrona Parque Nacional and near the village of Guachaca.
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The village of Minca is located in the Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta, an isolated mountain range less than 30 miles (50 km) from the coast. The village is a popular destination for backpacker tourists, the surrounding area a biosphere reserve with great hiking and natural scenery.
I caught a bus at Santa Marta’s municipal market for the 30-minute uphill ride on the winding road to Minca. To get to my lodgings at the isolated Colores de la Sierra eco
…I only stayed in Santa Marta because I had a long day of traveling from Villa de Leyva and didn’t think I could make it to Minca up in the Sierra Nevada mountains before dark. Now that I know how to get to Minca, I would advise going straight there because I found Santa Marta to be kind of gritty and unpleasant. Minca is really nice.
My travel from Villa de Leyva involved multiple modes of transportation. It started
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After spending a few days in Bogatá, I took the bus to Villa de Leyva which sits in a mountain valley about three and a half hours to the northeast. I really enjoyed my time there, a great combination of walking around a pretty colonial town surrounded by natural beauty, relaxing at my quiet hostal in the foothills, and a bike ride to a waterfall along country roads.
Oh yeah, and eating at some really excellent restaurants.
Villa de
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I’m on a three week tour of Colombia. I flew into Bogotá about a week ago, the city at the beginning and end of my circuit through the country that includes Villa de Leyvia, Santa Marta, Minca, Guachaca, Cartagena and Medellín.
Bogotá sits on a Andean plateau at 8,660 ft altitude, surrounded by hills and mountains. The weather this time of year (late February-early March) is pleasantly cool, sometimes cold, with frequent but short periods of rain and thunderstorms.
My
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