Rana and Tejo in Colombia

Hester van den Berg
Apr 23, 2019
16 min read

After a good first impression of Colombia, we were excited to explore more of this country! Driving in to Bogota, even a traffic jam and heavy rain couldn’t take our mood down. The northern part of Bogota, the Chapinero district, was our first destination in the city. Unfortunately, we arrived in the middle of the raining season, so dry moments were rare. When we arrived at our hostel, we decided to first chill a little in our dorm room, before heading out to explore the neighborhood. We shared the dorm with a Colombian guy, who was in Bogota for his work. We spend some time chatting with him, until we noticed it was dry again. We headed out for a walk around Chapinero, and noticed that it’s a very hip area. It almost felt a little like walking around Brooklyn. There were a lot of nice restaurants and bars, and hipsters walking around everywhere. Since we had a drive of 8 hours that day, we were both very tired and we decided to hang out in the bar of the hostel, and head into bed early.

The next day we joined the guided walking tour, through the Chapinero district. With only the two of us joining the tour, we had a private tour! We started at the Colombian Starbucks, Juan Valdez Cafe. This company was once started by the local coffee farmers foundation, to make sure local coffee farms were protected. Juan Valdez promotes fair trade coffee in Colombia. We then walked around the neighborhood, where the guide talked us through the history of Bogota, and Colombia. At one point we stood in front of the El Nogal Club building, where in 2003 one of the biggest bombings in Colombia happened. It caused a lot of issues between the FARC and the Government at that time. Right now, the building looks like nothing happened, there’s just a lot of security in front of it, including the well known bomb-sniffing dogs which you see through whole Bogota.

We ended the tour at a small store / bar, where there was a game room in the back. In there we drank a beer, and played a very local game called Rana. It’s basically a wooden box with a lot of boxes, and on the top there’s a frame with holes, and three iron frogs on it. You get a few metal rings, which you have to throw in the holes in the frame, or in the mouths of the frogs. Through the holes, the rings will end up in one of the boxes, which each are worth different amount of points. Very funny game, but harder than it looks! I tried to aim at the frogs, since they were worth the most points. But Timon played more tactical, aiming for the easier holes, and ended up winning three times. I know, I’m very stubborn, didn’t change my tactics and kept trying for the frogs the entire time..

The two other days in Bogota, we switched places to the historic city center, called La Candelaria. We found an AirBnB right on the edge, so we could walk there. We arrived early in the morning at the AirBnB, so we had the whole day to explore. We started at the Gold Museum, which we heard good things about. They have a large collection, but we didn’t find it too interesting to be honest. After seeing 2/3 of the museum, the last 1/3 seems just the same. If you know Timon a little, you would know he was already done after the first 1/3. One other museum Timon found, which we were interested in seeing, was the National Police Museum. They own some personal belongings of Pablo Escobar, which they gathered when they shot him in 1993. After visiting the main square, we walked to the museum. We got our personal Colombian cop, who guided us through the museum and told us about some important moments in history.

What we also wanted to do in Colombia, was visit a soccer match. When we arrived in Bogota, we heard that there was a local derby, just when we were there. So we bought tickets, and went to the local derby Santa Fe against the Millonarios. We made sure we arrived early, because we heard that it could get busy and hard to get in when you arrive just before the match. We got in to the area of first checks, and into the stadium quite easily. But when we wanted to enter the seating area (no appointed seats on the ticket), it seemed our tickets were not working. They soon found out that we had to be at the other side of the stadium, and unfortunately you can’t walk around the stadium. So we had to leave all areas we entered previously, walk around the neighborhood - since some streets were blocked and prevented us to walk directly around the stadium as well - to get to the other side. Since Timon was looking on his phone where we needed to go, one of the cops decided to be our personal escort. He ordered Timon to put away his phone, since it was not safe in that area according to him. We had to walk for about 20 minutes, before arriving at the correct entrance. By that time, the crowd had arrived and we had to wait in line. The line was perfectly formed, but by the time we arrived at the gate, we got into a funnel effect. We were pressured from all sides, but in the end we entered safely. Wow, how unorganized that was, it felt a little unsafe. A lot of people were frustrated, and it felt like a fight could have happened at any point. We entered the stadium, and while we were finding empty seats, the players kicked off at the field. Right on time. We found two empty seats, but we quickly found out that they would only be used during the break. During the match, everyone is standing while singing, jumping and shouting. The match was quite boring, the level of soccer wasn’t that high, but experiencing the local way of supporting and enjoying a match was fun. Everyone was friendly against the opposite fans, and they were so alive! I’ve never experienced something like this in the Netherlands. What’s also funny is to see some people in nice suits, cursing and making gestures like they didn’t just arrive from their fancy offices. People are all in it.

Our last day in Bogota we joined a bike tour. Our guide was very energetic, and after every stop he started again with a loud “Woooow let’s go!”. We stopped at a local market in La Candelaria, where he let us taste around 15 different types of typical Colombian fruits. I loved every single one of them, the maracuya, guanabana and lulo, Timon not so much. He’s more of the apple and banana types of fruit. We then biked to the more richer area of Bogota, where they build houses in the English Tudor style. We also ended up at a local shop/bar (again), where they also had a huge playing area in the back. This time, we played Tejo, another typical Colombian game. This game contains a big square, filled with clay. In the clay they place a circle of paper triangles, filled with gunpowder. You then have to throw a big, heavy metal ball at it. When you hit the center you get (if I remember correctly) 4 points, when you hit a triangle you get 2 points, and when you end up as closest to the circle in the end you will get 1 point. The most enjoyable part is when a triangle is hit, which will cause an explosion. Timon hit the triangles, which was fun. I hit the center, which made me a winner.. During the bike tour, we passed a lot of graffiti and we ended the bike tour through the local prostitute area. All and all it was a nice tour, on a bike you end up seeing a lot more in a short time compared to when you go by foot.

At the end of the afternoon we go to the Monserrate church, with the Funicular (train). From up the mountain, you have a nice view over the city and we were just in time for the sunset. Bogota is a big city, which you can see during the day, but when it’s dark and the lights turn on, you realize it even more. When we are back down, we eat at La Puerta Falsa. It’s recommended everywhere, for their typical Colombian dishes. I have a hot chocolate with cheese and sweet bread. The purpose of the cheese is to put it in the hot chocolate, and eat it almost like some sort of fondue. Surprisingly delicious. I also had some great tamales, and Timon had a typical soup called Ajiaco. It’s a soup filled with potatoes, corn and a lot more. It was all very delicious, but also a little pricey.

From Bogota, we drove a little north to visit the salt church in Zipaquira. Besides the one in Poland, you can’t find a lot of these kind of cathedrals in the world, so it’s considered a special part of the Colombian architecture. You walk into an underground mine, which has been partly rebuild to a cathedral. There’s 14 chapels, which are showing different parts of the story of Jesus last journey, carrying the cross. After passing the 14 chapels, you will reach 3 big halls, representing the birth, live and death of Jesus. The lighting is really beautiful, there’s a small replica of the Sistine Chapel by Michelangelo. It is still used for the Sunday service. A real special place to see. After visiting the cathedral, we drove towards our next stop; Guatape. Guatape itself was a little too far to drive straight to in one day, so we made a stop on the way at a local AirBnB. It was in the middle of nowhere, so we did some grocery shopping on the way. It promised to be a very nice location, with a hot tub and a view over the valley. But, we didn’t expect it to be foggy.. So no views for us. And, the hot tub didn’t get warmer than 27 degrees celsius, so Timon took a nice bath for ‘cooling down’.. But, it was just for a night, so a bed was basically all we need.

Guatape is a very lovely town, surrounded by water. We found a great camping spot, in the backyard of a hostel just outside the center. We were the only ones camping there, so it was a private campground for us. They also had private access to the lake, so first thing after we set up the tent was take a jump in to the lake! From our camp spot we had a great view over the lake, and on the other side the Peñón de Guatapé. The Peñón is a big rock of granite, towering over the surrounding area. They build a stairs, in a split on one of the sides, so you can climb to the top in 740 steps. Since it was already very warm when we arrived, we decided to climb the rock early in the morning, the next day. After we took a swim we decided to first visit the center of Guatape. Guatape is full of brightly colored houses, which makes it one of the most colorful places we’ve ever been. Even the tuk tuk’s brought out their best designs, and each one of them is an art piece on its own. After a little rain, for which we had to take cover in a restaurant (how terrible..), we went back to the campsite. We were happy to be in our tent again, since it had been a while. So the next day, after our breakfast, we went to the Peñón to climb it’s 740 steps. Since it was the weekend, there were a lot of locals. Reaching the top, we had an amazing view over the lake, and the surrounding area. Besides the view, you can drink an expensive beer on the top, or buy a local souvenir. It’s funny what they can build on a big rock. What’s also funny is that on one side, you can read the letters GI. We wondered for a long time what those letters meant, but we learned later that there was some local fight between the village of Guatape and El Peñol. The rock is on the border of both towns, so they fought about which town it belonged to. The town of Guatape thought they would fix the issue once and for all, and decided to paint the name Guatape on the side of the rock. Soon the people of El Peñol found out, and they put a stop to it. That’s why there’s only GI on the side. In the afternoon, we went back to the center of Guatape, to enjoy the wonderful colors one more time. That night we try to BBQ, but unfortunately we haven’t had any luck so far with the meat we’ve bought in Colombia. Every time we try it, even in some restaurants, it’s very tough. So it’s just grilled pineapple, bell pepper and a small sausage for us that night.

The next day, after we’ve packed all our camping gear, we’re off to Medellin. The city is well known, for one obvious reason, and we’re looking forward to explore it. We sleep in a hostel, in the hippest area of Medellin; El Poblado. It’s an area full of nice, trendy restaurants and bars. We decided not to do any Pablo Escobar tours, since we already heard some stories in the National Police Museum of Bogota, and it also feels like idolizing him a little bit. We went on a guided walking tour through the historic city center, which was very interesting as well. Our guide was a very enthusiastic story teller, and she showed us some interesting parts of Medellin. One thing the city is going through at the moment, is positive change. You can see it everywhere, through artworks and graffiti. But you can also notice it when you see people walking around happy, and without any care. Medellin once used to known as the most dangerous city of the world, but they want to change that. We walked around the politic area, the market area, and we saw the artwork of Colombia's most famous artist; Botero. At Plaza Botero you can see around 23 of his sculptures. His art is known by his way of exaggerating volume, it makes some sculptures very funny, and sometimes a little weird. The one thing we learned from our tour guide, is when walking around in sketchy neighborhoods (or maybe anywhere), is “to not give them papaya”. It basically means you should not leave any item of value in sight to take. If you have a camera, hang it around your neck, so they can’t just take it out of your hand.

Our second day in Medellin, we take it a little easier. We don’t do a lot in the morning, and in the afternoon we have to get some papers signed at a local notary. We decided to change our license plates, we now officially ‘live’ in Washington State. It makes it easier for us to sell the car in the end, because of some difference in state rules, and it also saves us insurance money.

Our last day in Medellin we did another tour, in Comuna 13. Comuna 13 is one of the barrios in the north of Medellin, which was the most unsafe area in Medellin. And thinking Medellin was already the most dangerous city of the world, you can only imagine.. It has a rich history of drug and gang wars, but it has reinvented itself to an artful and more safe area. They still don’t recommend you to go and walk around on your own, because besides the very popular graffiti area, there’s still some sketchy areas. In 2012 the area was updated with escalators, which improved transportation time from 30 minutes to 6 minutes going up into the neighborhood. It was in that same year that they installed multiple cable cars in Medellin, to make it more easier to commute to far neighborhoods that otherwise were hard, or not at all, to reach. It improved the area a lot. They are now focusing on art, and everywhere you walk you can find great graffiti expressing hope and optimism. It was really interesting to walk around in this area, knowing that before 2002 this was still a very unsafe neighborhood, and to see how they changed that. And they still are changing that, by helping the kids explore through art and hip hop. During our tour, we even got to experience a local hip hop act. Another thing, they have a very nice metro system going from north to south through Medellin, and they’re very proud of it. And with reason; compared to the metro in New York, everything is brand new and very neat. I almost want to say that to go that far to clean the floor right after you walked on it, but that might be a slight exaggeration.

That night we meet with two people Timon met during the importation process of the car, Carlos and Vicky. We coincidentally saw them driving past our hostel, so we contacted them. We had some beers at a bar, and were later joined by a girl who they knew from Spanish classes. We decided to go for dinner as well, in a popular fancy spot with local dishes. Since the place was packed Timon decided to use the pregnancy excuse. No I ain't pregnant, but one of the girls was, so we soon were seated at a great table. At the end, I even ended up dancing some salsa with Carlos. As a true Colombian, he knew a few tricks to get me dancing, but I’m sure I looked like a fool with my stiff movements haha.

And then it was time to camp again! We found a nice campsite, just outside of Salento. Salento is a popular destination in the coffee area of Colombia, and close to the Cocora Valley, where we want to do a hike. The drive to Salento from Medellin was supposed to be short, just a bit less than 5 hours or so. Unfortunately we ended up driving for around 8 hours, because we had a lot of road blocks due to road works on the way. At one point we were standing still for almost an hour. We asked a truck driver if he knew what the hold up was, and it was because they were painting the new lines on the road, which had to dry first.. Really?? Annoying, but since there’s not a lot of other options to drive, we had to deal with it. We did see some funny ways to move forward faster on a bike though.. See picture later on. We arrived in the dark, and we immediately put up our tent. We already stopped along the way for some groceries, so we cooked our meal right after it. The campsite was again at a hostel, and there were a lot of international guests. It was really nice to talk to all the different people there, and share some travel experiences. When we woke up the next morning, we found out that we had a great view again from our spot; right into the valley. The temperature was great, and we decided to hang around the campsite for a while to do some work, and Skype with our family. In the afternoon we explored the center of Salento, where we had some coffee and lunch.

The next day we started with a small earthquake. I have never experienced this before, so I didn’t realize what it was. I was in the shower, when the building started to shake. My first thought was that there was some hard wind, which caused the building to shake, it was built on poles after all. It still felt a little weird, but I didn’t give it to much thought. Then I met Timon in the breakfast area, and he asked me if I felt the earthquake? I then looked at the shower building, and realized it wasn’t build on poles at all, but right on the ground, on a thick concrete foundation.. Very weird experience. After breakfast we drove to the Cocora Valley, where we hiked along the tallest palm trees of the world. We started our walk going up along the river, and later on through the forest. It was beautiful, but the last part up was a little steep. The reward was good though, when we reached the top, we arrived at the hummingbird reserve. Here we got some coffee and cheese, and we could admire hundreds of hummingbirds. Back at the parking area, we threat ourselves with some ice cream before we head back to our campsite. We cooked, and talk to the other guests, before heading to bed early.

The drive to Cali is quite short, and we arrive at our hostel before noon. After settling down, we decide to go for a walk through the city. We’re not located far from the center, so we’re there quickly. The city center didn’t leave us with a good impression though, since it didn’t feel really safe. The whole town was closed, not a store was open, and there was no one walking around except for some homeless people or some drunks. It might have been because it was a Sunday, but still. It was very messy and dirty, and the architecture was also not that impressive. We walked around quickly, before heading to the more popular bar area, where we ended up at a real gringo bar. The next day we crashed at a small bar, with our computers, where we did some work. In the night we ended up at a very small, local restaurant close to our hostel. The owner was sincerely happy to have two gringos at his restaurant, and offered us his best recommendation. We had a really good meal, for a very good price. After dinner we went to a local salsa bar, where they provide salsa lessons from 7-8 pm. We arrived in the middle of the lesson, but we went for it. In the end we managed to handle 3 different steps. We think so at least.

Cali is in our opinion not really a recommendation, unless you really want to go there for Salsa lessons. It’s the salsa capital of the world, and they only seem to live for that in Cali.

After so many experiences in Colombia, it was time to head to Ecuador. The border is too far from Cali to manage this in one drive. We decided to drive and see how far we would get. We had read some recommendations to go to Popayán, just south of Cali. But, since it was still too close to Cali, it was too early to make this our stop. We stopped for lunch in Popayán, and walked around a bit. Then we headed back to our car, to drive further in the direction of Ecuador. In the iOverlander app we use, with a lot of tips from fellow Pan American travelers, we found a few camping options along the way. Around 5 pm we decided to stop somewhere, and tried to find one of the recommendations of the app. We first stopped at the wrong place, which looked fine, but we decided to keep looking for the one in the app. About 500 meters further up the road, we found the other spot. It looked terrible, so we decided to go back to the first place. This place was a restaurant, with a swimming pool, and some hotel rooms. They allow you to put the tent anywhere on the property, for only 5 dollar. The guy showing us where we could place the tent, recommended us to set it up under a big roof. The last few days it had been raining a lot, and he expected more rain to come that night. We followed his advice, and camped under the big roof. We took a swim, and had dinner at the restaurant. The night was a little terrifying, because there were a lot of dogs walking around, which were not just barking, but fighting each other. The next morning we had an early breakfast, and back on the road again to the border. Before crossing the border, we made one more stop. Close to the border town Ipiales, is a small called Las Lajas. In Las Lajas, we slept at the former cloisters, and we visited a special church called Santuario Virgen de Las Lajas. It is built in a canyon, above a river. It’s maintained very well, and during the day it’s beautiful. When we walked back to our cloister bed after dinner, we saw the church from above. It was lighted in extreme colors, like pink and blue. We decided to walk back down again, to come to the conclusion that during the night this beautiful church looks like the palace of Disney World.

And then it was finally time to move to the next country, Ecuador. We have spend a month in Colombia, and I think we could have spend twice the time here if we wanted. The country is huge, and there’s so much to see and do. We have experienced this country as very generous, kind, with a rich culture and beautiful, diverse nature. Of all of the countries we’ve visited so far, Colombia is definitely on top of the list for recommendations. But please, if you go here, take at least 4 weeks to travel around, and to explore this beautiful country!

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