Thomas Deri: June 2017

Another year and another trip to Colombia. By now I would have thought I know something about the country, but I guess we are still only just scratching the surface. It is a large country offering tremendous variety of cultures and endless beauty in landscapes from high mountains to rain forests and tropical beaches. I will try to describe our trip for those of you who are interested, but mostly for myself so I could relive again the fantastic times we were gifted by Emilia, Julia and Hernando and his family.

Transportation in Colombia:

You can fly, you can drive – not that I advise that - you can have somebody local drive you, you can take a cab, a bike, ride a horse or a motor bike, or take the bus. Taking boats – not so much.

We flew to Bogotá arriving around 11 pm. Took a cab, with the comforting knowledge that Emilia knows the ropes and we will not be ripped off. Well, she was so excited to see us that she forgot to check if the driver turned on the meter – in Bogotá they actually have meters in the taxis. In a couple of minutes into our trip she realized her lack of vigilance and asked the driver how much the ride would be. He jovially told us a price that was about double of the normal fare. That was the point where my almost nonexistent Spanish knowledge proved to be useless on the one hand and on the other; totally unnecessary. From the rising volume of the conversation I gathered that a serious argument was unfolding in which the word “police” was frequently mentioned.

Driver: Tranquila, this is the fare because I picked you up at the international terminal. (He had a point, it was about 10 feet further than the domestic!)

Emilia: It makes no difference, I have taken cabs from the airport a million times and the fare was about half of this. I am not paying this are you taking me for a gringo?

Driver: Tranquila Señora, I will not call the police!

Emilia: But I will!!!

We did end up paying a bit more than the normal fare, but she did win a major battle. Day one lesson, do not get in the cab without checking the meter or negotiating the price first.

And the actual traffic: It’s like nobody cares about his or her own life or for anybody else’s for that matter.

Cars won’t stop for each other, whoever is pushing the hardest will win. Cars won’t stop for pedestrians, neither will the pedestrians for the cars. Cars expect the pedestrians to jump out of the way the pedestrians expect the cars to stop. And the miracle, nobody gets hurt.

There are motorbikes and cabs everywhere.




Buses in all colors, all sizes. They come all the time! 

Flag them down,ask them to stop wherever you want to get off!

Buses come in all sizes and colors. Plus the chivas!

And horses and donkeys. That is in a nutshell.

Chiva in real life at Julia’s finka.

and the chiva we did not see

We tried this one-man-cab last time, and I felt bad all the time while the poor man had to peddle and pull the weight of my slender body!

Ah the motos! Scary and scary! Did I say scary? Well they are! And fearless. Once I saw five people riding on one tiny moto. They think they own the road!

Horses were everywhere in Solento!

And now the trip:

Bogotá and the hotel was kind of a coming home for us. Emilia took on the impossible task of trying to teach us Spanish. It was a lot of fun - not so sure if we gave her any feeling of accomplishment though. But in truth it did help us to navigate around tremendously! So with the little we picked up we got out of Dodge and found our way to Medellin!

I have known for a long time that you can learn about and get to know a country and enjoy your stay there a million times more if you have locals to show you around. And we did have fantastic guides and hosts, a "transplant", Emilia and a native, Julia and her family.

Our first meal in Medellin with Julia's parents at a restaurant! Only a native can find a place like this. It was beautiful, rustic and the food was fantastic. Only the company was better.

The plate mat at the restaurant.

Those of you who speak Spanish can enjoy a joke with the words on top. (I wont even attempt to translate), but the rest roughly reads:

The man who eats a lot must be a good person because in order to eat a lot a good digestion system is needed, and good digestion depends on having a good consciousness.

We stayed with a wonderful family that took us in like we belonged to them!

We went and stayed at their finka! And we have a real feel for the beauty of the mountains that surround Medellin. Or rather that covers most of the terrain of the country!

This is what you see when you walk around the finka or when you drive around in Colombia!

Of course these are only IPhone pictures and it is only a poor teaser of the real beauty and tranquility of the countryside that surrounds you for miles and miles.

Except when you see a large potato field in the middle of the forests on the hillside. A soar to the eye. Then you find out, that it used to be the hiding place of the paramilitary and there was no other way to smoke them out of there than actually destroying the woods in which they were hiding.

And the hardships of the people that had to be endured is unthinkable! And it is always the poor who suffers the most!

On our way back to Medellin we enjoyed the view!

We stopped for the best Limonade de Coco. Well, come to think of it, the Limonade was on our way to the finka, but who cares.

Then came the feared bus ride. I guess for people under 5'2" or so is impossible to understand the harsh life of tall people blessed by long legs. The shorties can curl up in the smallest little niche in the wall and feel comfortable. I, on the other hand, suffer three times; first the fear of having to spend my time in the pallets, then spending my time in the pallets and keeping quite, for nobody likes a whiner, then for the third time when I am actually let out of my confinement and try to unfold my crushed limbs and restart my blood circulation. In any case we booked our tickets on buses that were more comfortable than planes, had air conditioning, reclining chairs and some unavoidable horror movies on display with uncontrolled sound effects coupled with the constant low volume of music coming from a centralized source and occasionally from some unruly passengers' phones. So, in other words it was fun and typical of the country. On some other occasions, on local buses, we have entertainers jumping on for a couple of stops along with vendors selling goodies or fellow traveler having carton boxes on their laps with holes cut out for the chickens to stick out their heads to enjoy the view.

The trip to Solento took us about 7 hours instead of the scheduled 5 and a half, but we arrived in one piece and happy.

Our hostel is shown on the left, the room had two twin beds and a bunk bed. It was great fun, clean and quite after 10:30, no earplug necessary to sleep. And they rented boots, even had a European size 45! And we needed those as you will see!

and the streets of Solento

We were to go up the mountains in the morning donning our boots, that were not up to snuff, I mean not up Nokia standards, but I could not care less, they were boots that fit! We were supposed to take a jeep to the foot of the mountains, and of course they were trying to cram as many of us in one of the jeeps as they could. Again, tall people's misery! Well, I opted to stand on the back of the jeep, risking my life for the first but not for the last time of that day.

That is me hanging on to dear life and trying to take a selfie at the same time while the crazy driver is negotiating a curva peligrosa and I am saying a kurva anyád to the driver under my breath. (I let you all find the translations from Spanish and/or from Hungarian).

And if that had not been enough, my climbing mates gentle pushing made me agree to saddle up and go up to the mountain on the back of a horse. Mind you, I have never been on a horse before. No helmets, no instructions, no nothing. But they took our passport numbers! I guess they needed them in case they need to send back the corpses to the US. And for sure no mentioning of the steep and narrow passages, the crossing of wild mountain streams with rushing water up to the horses belly.

through the streams

in the saddle

on the way

Off we came from the horses, all without a scratch. And then we had to cross another stream!

We are now up to god knows how high and somebody sucked out all the oxygen from the air. At least from the air I was trying to breath in! I think it was only the air around me that lacked the necessary amount of oxygen because nobody else seemed to have a problem. Grasping for air I made it up to the hummingbirds sanctuary. All colors and shapes they flew around or just helicoptered in the air!

And more to go up! I had to stop just about every minute - I could have blamed the view, that it was so fantastic that I just had to stop, but in reality I could not see anything except the steep path I had to climb. But it was all worth it a thousand times. We got to see the valley of the giant palms! Majestic.

on top of the mountain

It's me holding the tree saving it from falling

On the way back Joanna took the ride on the back of the jeep. She had an even crazier driver who enjoyed speeding up at the curvas while Emilia displayed her unending repertoire of swearing in various languages. But one thing is for sure, it is good to be tall when you travel standing up on the back of the jeep and if you are short, you should just take the seat they offer you inside!

We got back to Medellin to enjoy a pizza before taking off to Santa Marta next day.

Here are a couple maps for reference. Of course the time is under google ideal conditions. Yet it worked between Santa Marta - Barranquilla and Cartagena.

Santa Marta is hot. Well maybe not as hot as Cartagena, but it is hot. But it has the highest mountain that is immediately rises next to any see. And on top of it there are coffee plantations. The regular way up there is on motocabs, which I admit looks fun but I refused to take. So we took a jeep ride up to the plantation that uses 150 year old equipment to process coffee beans. It is amazing what they need to do with those beans before they can sell them and make those undrinkable bitter black beverages. You may have guessed; I do not like coffee. I love the smell of it though!

It was another amazing mountain to marvel about. The vegetation and the natural pools in which you could swim! Joanna took a motocab, while Emilia and I braved the elements and walked through a "stream" and stony roads barefooted.

This is what we saw on our way:

Emilia and I swam in that!

And the Beach called Los Angeles. To me it is the road to paradise:

We found out that there is a street dance in Barranquilla called Rueda de Cumbia jus on the eve of my birthday, a nice welcome to the traveler, so we cut our Santa Marta stay a day short and made it to Barranquilla. What a treat!!!And we enjoyed this with Hernando!!!

I have no idea how to attach a video :(

Next day was family day, we finally met Hernando's family, and enjoyed a good homemade meal while some of us watched soccer.

We visited Hernando's old neighborhood and got mangos from the tree at their house!
And then we rushed off to Cartagena. A totally new experience, an old colonial Spanish city, a bit of a time capsule and a tourist trap at the same time. Nevertheless, it is part of the wonders of Colombia. We enjoyed cocktails not at poolside, but inside the pool, have an unbelievable seafood dinner and night walk inside the old city walls. Unfortunately Hernando had to go back to work, so only the three of us remained to explore the old city during the day.