Colombia, known for its Medellin drug cartels and violence, a place that for a long time was too dangerous for many people to want to travel through. Until the early 2000’s, when the drug wars ceased and the country reinvented itself into the one of the most innovative in the world. All through our travels everyone raved about Colombia and told us to make sure we had time up our sleeve as we wouldn’t want to leave.
For once- every single person was right!
In 2013 Medellin won the award for the most innovative city in the world beating 199 other cities including New York and Tel Aviv. And when you get there it is so easy to see why.
The city and metro stations are so amazingly clean (because the people are so happy to have it they wouldn’t dream of defacing it) but the social projects that have been put in place to better not only the city but its youth. They have created free libraries, universities and gyms for anyone who’s willing to learn and use.
They have placed memorials to remember the people lost in the cartel wars and as a reminder of what they have been through, and overcome.
While there is still violence around, we felt safe walking around and exploring the city. It has so much to see and do, we ended up spending nine days in Medellin alone which is a lot for us in one city!
After Medellin we headed to a small town 4 hours south called Jardin, which is based around a large plaza and surrounded by mountains. It was like going back 100 years, we spent the days sitting in the plaza watching the old school cowboys trot around the square on their horses and chatting with the locals in our very poor broken spanish.
The people in Jardin were among the loveliest we have met, within an hour of being there we had already been invited into three separate peoples homes to stay and the towns hospitality and kindness was truly amazing.
We took a bus through the countryside and up to Santa Marta, stayed only for one night as theres not too much to see there before heading up to Minca in the Sierra Nevada mountains.
Our hostel was called Casa Loma and it was a steep hike to reach it especially the first day with heavy packs and 35 degree heat! But once you got to the top it was awesome, our little hut had no door or electricity just a little bed with a mosquito net and a deck that had a view out to the mountains.
The staff there were awesome and we met some really cool people while we were there. Annie, one of the owners cooks amazing vegetarian feasts every lunch and dinner and the cocktails are flowing everynight! There is no wifi there either which is great as it creates a better social atmosphere. Most nights we also had a couple of Colombian bands come up and play which were absolutely incredible and a real highlight for us, we still listen to their music while on the road!
We spent nine days in Minca, hiking around the mountains, coffee plantations and visiting waterfalls. While I was there I also took some spanish lessons with a lovely local lady, Layla who lived in town and was so interesting she had lived an amazing life and just meeting her and listening to her stories was an experience in itself.
Although we could have stayed in Minca much longer we were heading to Cartagena for Christmas so jumped on another bus and arrived two days before christmas.
Cartagena reminds me of a tropical Spain, colour everywhere with colonial buildings covered in bright bougainvillea and horse and carts trotting around cobbled streets.
It has some amazing food, bars and shopping so we thought for Christmas we would treat ourselves and go out for a 3 course lunch at a fancy restaurant, and have some drinks in true orphans christmas style.
After three days in Cartagena we were saying goodbye to South America and heading for Central, after a layover in Panama our first stop- Nicaragua!