Traveling Colombia´s biggest cities

Bogota

The capital of Colombia with its roughly 9mio inhabitants is a vibrant and metropolitan city Latin Americas. It is the first capital on my travel that I could actually live in. It has a very beautiful city center with a mixture of colonial and historic buildings and modern skyscrapers in the financial area. It is also the first city in which I can actually get everything I would be able to consume in Europe, most importantly books. In most streets in the city center you can find at least a book shop which shows the education level of Colombia which is way higher than in all Central American cities. Reason for that is that Colombia has actually a middle class like in all western European countries and a very good school system. During my time here I was for the first time during my trip not confronted with poverty, which is not to say that it doesn’t exist. Apparently, Colombia is one of the worst countries in the world in terms of redistribution of wealth and protection of human. My friend James, a specialist on this subject, told me that union members fighting for labor rights disappear or get executed. Nevertheless, thanks to my friend Luis, who I met 4 years ago in London, my experience in Bogota will go down as one of the best times of my travel.

I haven’t spoke to Luis since I left London and frankly speaking I didn’t know much about him and his life when I got in touch with him a few month ago telling him that I will come to Colombia. Still he welcomed me as if we knew each other for ever and introduced me to his family and friends. I spent a week in his José Luis´ apartment, one of the closest friends of Luis. Since Luis´ family moved in the suburbs of Bogota he asked his friend to put me up so that I can stay closer to the city center in order to have shorter travels. Despite not knowing me, José Luis hospitality surpasses everything I have ever experienced in my life and makes my stay in Bogota unforgettable. Luis and his friends look perfectly after me, tell me which places to visit, what food to try and take me out partying. The only little downturn to my time in Bogota is the weather. Being located on 2600m the temperature in Bogota is the worst that I have had since leaving Europe. When the day was cloudy or rainy the temperature dropped under 10 degrees and during my stay I had not one sunny day J This alone would be reason enough not to live there after my 3 depressing years (in terms of weather) in Dublin.

Medellin

When I leave Bogota I already know that after that great experience everything after that will not be able to match that. For the first time I have heard about Medellin when I was in Nicaragua. James told me that this city, with 4mio inhabitants the second biggest in Colombia, is known for having the most beautiful women Colombia´s. At first I obviously get all excited about that and cannot wait to be there. But the more I heard about Medellin the less attractive the whole story became for me. My friends in Bogota tell me finally that all the beauty there id fake and 90% of the women have some kind of plastic surgery. This is when I totally lose my last bit of excitement. Plastic surgery, I am told, is very huge in Colombia so that even Americans come down here to get their boob job done or to improve other area of their ugly bodies. Most travelers come here either in the hope to meet the girls of their dreams or just to fuck prostitutes and get fucked up on coke. Most of them do both and an infamous hostel for that is "The Pit Stop". James stayed there for a couple of days and told me about the negative atmosphere created by this kind of travelers. When he came down at 10 am to the pool he would meet people who spent their night snorting and had to listen to their homophobic conversations. He also told me that 3 month ago the bar keeper in this hostel died of an overdose. Unfortunately this is the downside of Colombia and this kind of people will end up destroying the reputation of travelers amongst the Colombians.

I arrive on Thursday 28.10.10 in Medellin and stay there until Sunday. Unlike Bogota, with its broad streets and avenues, Medellin is build very tight with little space between the buildings and on the roads which reminds me of London. I don’t like the vibe of the city from the moment I arrive at the terminal and my feeling doesn’t change in the following days. The best thing I do is a trip to Guatape, a little town north of Medellin which is famous for its huge rock "La Piedra" from which you have an amazing view on the breathtaking lake district. Not knowing how long the trip would be I start a bit late and reach "La Piedra" – a 200m high rock – around 2pm just when the clouds start to cover the sun. I run up the stairs only to totally lose my breath before I reach the top. Still, when I stay on the top platform I get a view that is one of best that I had on my journey through Latin America. Wherever I look I can see lakes and land or islands that break them up. After that I go to Guatape to discover that it is a very pretty little town, a bit cheesy, but with its own charm. Every building in the center has a colorful stucco. I would have loved to eat a fish fresh from the lake but I since I was running late I end up having a haircut before I catch the bus back to Medellin. I regret not having more time to spent there and make a note on my mind to come here for a couple of days on my return to Colombia.

Cali

After another night bus ride I arrive in Cali on Monday morning after Halloween. I have two reasons to be in Cali, for once I want to take salsa classes and Cali is supposed to be the best place for it in the world, and the other is to meet up with James, the Australian guy I met in Nicaragua. The time in Cali flies even though I don’t do too much there. My hope of improving my salsa skills end up in a disappointment after a private lesson in Caleño, the salsa style from Cali which is famous all over the world. It is soooo different to what I learnt in Guatemala and pretty tough to get into it that I decide not to spend any money on it. That leaves me with nothing to do in Cali since the city itself is pretty ugly to be fair. Gunther, the German hostel owner of a place I stay with James for a while, tells me that Cali had no importance in the past. For that almost all old buildings have been destroyed in order to build new ones. The oldest building in town is only 150 years. But the time I spent with James, talking about our life and our personal challenges, makes up for anything that the city is missing. At the latest when I arrived in Colombia I realized that I will not meet too many interesting people during my journey. Travelers, even though they have a different mindset to the people who stay all their life in one place, are not any different to them. This means for me that connecting with interesting and inspiring people is by no means easier on the road. That’s why I get the best out of the week with James and regain a lot of energy I lost traveling from one city to the next. Already in Medellin I realized that I had had enough of being in cities and longed to be back to nature, far far away from the civilization. My original plan was to go to the Pacific but like so many times before I change my plan and decide to go to the Amazon instead and go by boat to Peru instead of flying to Cuzco. For that I need to go back to Bogota since I can only fly from there to Leticia which is on the border to Peru.