Colombia - Part 3

...Cartagena, Bogota, and the return of The Mack


After leaving Tayrona we returned to Cartagena to meet up with The Mack - Tony/Anto/Amp...whatever you choose to call him.


He arrived on time and in style at Cartagena airport, and was treated to a luxury ride downtown in a sweet Cartagenan taxi - a bright yellow Suzuki Alto (Indie model of course), complete with upgraded horn for a more complete driving experience.

Cartagena Old Town

The three of us stayed five days/nights in beautiful Cartagena, and other than a day trip out to Playa Blanca - a small island with pure white sand and crystal clear water - we didn't do an awful lot. We generally just relaxed around the city.

The five excellent days went by far too quickly (as they always do) and we flew to Bogota - the big smoke - for a few days.

We didn't really know what to expect from Bogota. All we'd heard about was that it was a pretty cold place because it was so high up in the mountains, and it had a phenomenal crime rate - particularly violent crime, and a lot of this aimed at tourists/foreigners. We had read a number of reports since we'd left Australia that armed gangs were actually coming into small hotels/hostels and robbing tourists in their own rooms.

Anyway, after we landed, we got straight into a taxi and headed for our hotel. In the taxi, the first thing that struck me was the number of police and army that were on the streets on the main road into the city itself - they seemed to be everywhere. When we got into the city itself, parts of it looked like a cross between Belfast circa 1975, and Beirut circa 1982. This, added to the security presence, did little to change our initial presumption on the place.

When we arrived at the hotel and settled in, we found a city quite different to our initial thoughts.

Bogota fried ants

Just under 3,000 metres above sea-level, Bogota is an enormous city, absolutely swarming with activity. We stayed in the main university area - and although quieter than usual as most students were on holidays - the place was full of restaurants, cafes, bars, theatres, museums, street theater, music, and anything else you could want and expect from a large city.

All in all, we had a great time in Bogota. One of the highlights being going on a walking tour of the 'historic centre', and eating some local delicacies such as fried ants (good for the first couple and then rank), and local cheese in hot chocolate (rank).

And then on June 19, our Spanish speaking adventure came to an end; after 3 and a half months, we left Latin America and headed for the you-nited states of america.