Colombia 2023

In May 2023, Justin and I made our second vacation in South America, visiting Colombia, with stops in three cities: Cartagena, Medellín and Bogotá. We planned this trip for the same two weeks in May, 2020 but ultimately had to cancel our vacation as the world went into lockdown and quarantine. 

 

Our First Stop: Cartagena, on the Caribbean Coast

Justin hanging out on the wall of the old city

We visited the local market. It was huge and very primitive. Lots of fish, meat and produce in addition to plenty of clothing, electronics and other miscellany. 

Many of the streets of Cartagena were adorned with festive and colorful decorations 

Boat ride out to our dive/snorkel site.

Justin did two dives--the first one was among sunken boats.

Dominos

We visited the Colombian National Aviary, about an hour outside of Cartagena. All of the birds are recovered from illegal trafficking and there are so many interesting species.

An Andean Condor, only 3 feet from my camera!

No idea what this is but isn't it fantastic?

After the Aviary, we headed to the beach nearby. We didn't bring much cash and didn't have a ride home arranged so we were a little nervous about running out of money and getting stranded but it all worked out fine and we made it back to town after a couple of hours at the beach.

Cartagena's beautiful sunset

We jetted off to Medellin on Wednesday in the morning and took a city tour in the afternoon. Here's a living wall built on the side of a government building.

Botero's man on horseback with a backdrop of the Ministry of Cultures's famous building. The building was designed by a famous Dutch architect and under his direction, the left side of the building was built. Then the Colombians took over the project and finished it in a quite different style (right side).

The Botero bird statue that was bombed in 1993 by the FARC, killing 30 people. The artist insisted that the bombed statue remain and become a tribute to those who were killed. Botero donated an identical statue that was sited just to the right of this one.

Justin discovered chicarrónes on this trip and decided to order a who plate of them one night...plus beautiful cocktails.

On Thursday, we took a daytrip to Guatapé, about 2 hours outside of Medellín. The big attraction is this giant rock that you can summit. Check out all those stairs zippering up the rock. It's the only way up.

But after 700+ stairs up to the top, check out this view of the reservoir.

After we summited and climbed back down, we took a moto-taxi into the town of Guatapé for lunch and a boat ride.

The colorful, terraced village of Guatapé

On Friday, we hooked up with some Seattle friends, Anna and Abner, who have a son and daughter-in-law living in Medellín. By coincidence, they were visiting at the same time we were.

The sprawling city of Medellín

We went rafting on Saturday, down the Rio Verde and found some Class IV rapids. Of course, the raft flipped on the final rapid but everyone survived!

Bogotá might have the largest mix-master in the world! This was just a block from our hotel.

We took a tour through the Candelaria neighborhood downtown with all of its outstanding street art. Turns out, Justin Bieber had a hand in legalizing street art and graffiti in Bogotá. After a concert, Bieber graffitied a wall and despite it being illegal, was celebrated. After that, the city bowed to public pressure to decriminalize the practice.

La Catedral Primada in Bogotá's Plaza de Bolivar

We took the cable car up the Cerro de Monserrate, a peak on the edge of the city. You can also summit on foot but I wasn't up for the climb that day. Check out the view of the city that goes on and on and on. 

In the City's iconic Museo de Oro (Gold Museum), there is a pre-Colombian artifact commemorating a ceremony where the new chiefs floated out to the middle of lake, coated in gold flakes, throwing large quantities of gold into the lake. The legend of El Dorado came from this story, and many gold rushers have since explored the lake bottom, looking for the riches.

On Wednesday, we took a day trip out to Zipaquira to visit the Salt Cathedral, a church that has been built into a large salt cavern. Here is the entrance, all lit up in a spooky blue.  The walls are really salty--I tasted it.

Here is one of the sanctuaries carved out of the salt.  

After the Salt Cathedral tour, we walked into town for lunch. 

On our last full day, Thursday, we checked out a few museums including the Botero museum. Afterwards, we took a cab to the large market--a much cleaner and well organized market that the one we visited in Cartagena--check out this egg stand! We found a lechona (roasted pork and rice) stall for lunch.

On our final night, we went out for a very fancy dinner and a classic Bogotá restaurant, Harry Sasson. It was a perfect way to end a lovely trip. We're so grateful we were able to finally take this trip, after a 3 year delay due to COVID. It was worth the wait!