Bogota - Medellin - San Andres

Posted on December 13th, 2007 in Travel by Sinead
So after the football we didn´t stay long in Bogota but headed on to Medellin to the west of Bogota. This is were the famous escobar lived (big drug lord!!). We stayed in the Black sheep hostel which had a fantastic all you can eat barbie on the Sunday night - Garrett was in heaven. We went on a cable car up one of the mountains in Medellin to get a view of the city, all the kids up there had a great time surrounding us asking us questions - there was a big crowd of us so they were in their element (its kinda weird as although they´ve seen foreigners before its only recently there have been lots of people coming to Colombia).
On our first night we went to a pub called mangos (after a very funny drinking game called yee ha! at the hostel). It was a really strange night club decorated in a western theme - cowboy hats, bathrooms with horses heads as taps!!!!!!!!!!!!! Anyhow on entering we encountered a number of small people (dwarfs) dressed up as cowboys, there were nurses going around with syringes filled with drinks (tequila), there was a guy (amputee - had no arm) attached to a drip in a hospital gown, and on a stage there were dancers (no not that kind - they were dancing salsa and rumba etc). The music was good and we had a good laugh trying (emphasise trying) to salsa ourselves.
As we´d been to an international match we decided to go to a club soccer match in Medellin between Medellin nationale and a team from the south. It was good fun if not boiling hot (cheap seats faced the sun so it was really warm - is it raining at home???). So Nationale won and the place went mad pretty average game only excitement was when the lines man got nailed with a bottle from the crowd - they didn´t appreciate the corner he´d awarded the other team. The robocops just weren´t up to the job (well we named them robocop cause they seriously looked like them all dressed up in plastic armour they were supposed to protect the players and lines people for corners (cause that was the easiest point to reach people with weapons!!!).
After having some street food outside the stadium while checking out the entertainment on the stage beside the main supporter entrance to the stadium (mostly nationale songs etc.) we headed back to the hostel for a few beers. We took a trip into the centre where we walked around and checked out the statues in the square (famous colombian artist paints and sculpts large people).
We decided we could do with a mini-holiday (well my birthday was coming up) and as we were so close to the Caribbean we decided to head to some Caribbean islands.San Andres and Providencia are two islands that are part of Colombia (even though they´re actually closer to Nicaragua) so we decided to go there on a package deal (all food and drink included yipee!).
We went to providencia first (via San Andres) almost missed our flight as the taxi we got was about to fall apart - tracking was non existent axle kept rubbing off the car frame going round corners and it also had a wobbly tire at the back, all in all it didn´t go faster than 30km/hr so our 30min trip took an hour!!! Providencia is a protected island so no sky rises or big hotels, we got a really nice room with balcony overlooking the Caribbean sea, the weather was unbelievably warm so we spent the second day on a beach near the hotel - no one there except us. The first day was almost gone by the time we arrived so we had a look around and then played dominoes with the hotel owner before an early night (had a really early start).
The next day we rented a motorbike and took a spin round the island (took 20min its tiny..) we visited Catalina a small island connected to providencia by a floating bridge (its made from plastic barrels and wood - very safe) were we went snorkeling for a while. Then it was off again to a  deserted beach for the rest of the day (extremely stressful  two days).  
After three short days we were back to San Andres to a resort hotel only to be told our rooms were not available due to a maintenance problem so we got upgraded to a 4star hotel - huge room. This time instead of a deserted beach we had lounge chairs around a pool with a cocktail bar in the corner so spent a few hours lying out sipping pinacoladas…….
We happened to be in San Andreas for my birthday so we treated ourselves and went diving - amazing  reef life on the first dive with lots of fish we hadn’t seen before  which was great. The second dive was around a ship wreck which was different although there wasn´t as much marine life did get to do a swim through one of the portals  of the ship.  We topped of the day by  going for dinner ( well after i had a trip to a spa for a massage well it was my birthday!!!).
 We kept ourselves entertained  by going to some of the shows the hotels had on mostly dancing and singing but were good all the same. Most nights we were just full from all the free food and drink (it was all included in the price). So that was our Caribbean trip after only a week we had to say goodbye and fly back to Medellin.
S&G
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Santa Martha & Tyrona national park - Bogota

Posted on December 10th, 2007 in Travel by Sinead

Our main reason for heading to santa martha was a five day trek to the lost city, but i wasn’t up to the hard slog so i decided to dump Garrett for a few days and head to Tayrona national park. It felt strange heading of on my own trying to find the bus that would take me to the park entrance but everyone looked after me - the guy next to me even woke me up when the bus came to my stop (almost missed it!!). From the entrance i bought a park ticket had a chat with the local guerrilla’s!!! and then hopped in a small truck which took me and some others 20mins into the park. I needn’t have worried bout being on my own once the other people (Colombians) on the little truck realised i was on my own they invited me to walk through the park with them.

So an hour and a half later (fairly muddy and humid) finally reached the sea, got to see some monkeys and lizards along the way - oh there were donkeys and horses too (they carried food and stuff to the people living along the beach). Had a quick snack and then walked another half hour along the beach to Cabo san Juan (don´t worry i wasn´t alone two Colombian students and a french guy asked me if i wanted to walk there with them - i was well looked after). Once there i rented a hammock and went for a much needed swim. That evening i met Jenny - an Aussie i met in Cartagena so we had a few drinks to catch up.

I was truly in lazy mode and spent the next day lying on the beach, but i did practice my Spanish with the Colombian guys - i now know how to curse in Spanish!!!! The following day i headed back to Santa Martha as Garrett was due back from his trek - i´d spent a day or two just chilling around Santa Martha. When i got back into town the skies had opened and the streets weren´t just rivers they were enormous rivers coming up almost to my knees as i walked from the bus stop to my hotel - taxis were going nowhere.
The race back to Santa Martha was so we could leave the next day back to Bogota in time for an international soccer match. We thought it was on on the 21st but luckily we arrived in Bogota on the 20th to be told that the game was that evening so it was a quick taxi ride to the stadium were we bought tickets on the black market. Also ran into our friends Itay and Annabelle (from the jungle trip in Bolivia) so headed for dinner with them before heading back to the stadium to claim some seats (5hours before kickoff).
Although we had tickets it only guaranteed a seat within a specific stand and cause i´m so tall we thought we´d go early so i could hopefully get a good view off the pitch. After 3 security searches (including looking for identification we had none with us of course but we played dumb ie couldn´t speak Spanish worked a treat), we got to the ticket gate and after a few heart stopping minutes while the ticket collector and myself thought i´d a fake ticket (luckily it was genuine) we walked into the stadium. We found pretty good seats and joined in the chants and cheering which had already started there were loads there and it was only 3o´clock (game started at 8) .
Unfortunately around 5o´clock it down poured for an hour so the last 2hrs we were soaked waitin on the game to start. And then the crowds really went crazy as the Argentinian team came out on the pitch - the jeers were unreal (football is more important than religion here). Listening to the entire stadium sing their national anthem (trust me they were booming it out nearly went deaf stranding beside a Colombian guy).
The game itself was fantastic Messi (he plays for Barcelona ) scored a great goal beating four defenders and the goalie, got sent off Tevez, but the best bit was Colombia won 2-1. The crowd went mad hugging and kissing each other it was great being in the middle of it. We only sat on our seats during half time like everyone else we used them to stand on during the match. Was definitely worth the trip back to Bogota.
well that’s all for now
S&G
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