Colombia

Solo traveller in the home of Pablo Escobar

Have left Panama and my Intrepid travel buddies and headed to Colombia for 2 weeks as everyone has raved about it and my god they were right. I can now see why Colombia wins the Miss Universe competitions so often, the girls here are some of the most beautiful women I've seen in the world. Colombia also has a very bad reputation for its drug problems as well but in the areas I have travelled in it has not been evident whatsoever. 

 

Harley Davidson given by Pablo Escobar to his cousin - later seized by the police

 

My time here started in the capital Bogota, and had I arrived 2 days earlier I could have found myself on a Colombian TV show. Apparently at the hostel I was staying at a film group came around looking for tall foreigners to do 1 days work for their show. I could have been a star. Only 2 days in Bogota before I flew up to Cartagena and getting there was half the fun. Upon arrival at the airport I go to check in with Viva Colombia, their version of Tiger Airways over here. Of course the 8:30am flight I booked on the internet was not booked because it rejected my credit card but they failed to send me an email telling me that. Not the end of the world, I walk over to the LAN airlines desk to book a flight. We have 1 at 10:30. OK I'll take that, how mu...... Oh wait that's full, you'll have to go on the 6pm flight. OK, 10 hour wait at the airport, good news is I can check in my large bag now. Get to check in desk and suddenly they have room on the 10:30 flight, more good news. Wait until 10:00 to find out this flight is now cancelled, back to check in gate, put on some new 11:30 flight. Ahhhh South American transport, you have your own unique way of getting from A to B. 

 

Bike riding around Cartagena

 

 Old Spanish fort in Cartagena

 

Doing some hard yards at Boca Grande, Cartagena

 

 

The good thing to come out of all that trouble was that Cartagena was magnificent. If Colombia has the most beautiful women in the world, the best of the best resided in Cartagena. This is also where I met up with Javier, my tour leader from Central America who was also travelling solo between tours. Now Javier didn't have the most luck throughout our time together. Firstly in Boca del Toro after quite a big night out at a nightclub on an island Javier jumps into our water taxi only to go straight out the other side, ruining his iPhone in his pocket, a bit of a disaster for a tour guide. In Cartagena he manages to lose his wallet, apparently for the 5th time, and in Santa Marta the flight I booked for him was not recorded, similar to the story above, so he had a hectic last minute run around to make sure he could get to Bogota. All of these are the qualities you would expect from a tour leader. Mishaps aside we had an awesome time running around Northern Colombia.

Still have 4 days in Colombia before flying to Miami on the 7th, looks like my time there is going to be pretty good based on the first hostel I booked the other day right on Miami beach, check it out. www.bikinihostel.com

Myself & Javier playing pool in Santa Marta

 

How Javier & I were seeing the ball in Santa Marta

 

At the inquisition museum where strangely enough not a single person was found innocent

 

Final drinks with our fearless leader

 

 

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