Colombia: Barranquilla, Cartagena, Minca, and Bogota

Anthea | Aug. 18, 2023, 9:24 p.m. | USA

Colombia

Doing a very quick bullet list of impressions and cool things from Colombia before I go forgetting everything! We stayed in Colombia for comparatively short a time period, but am very very glad to have gotten to see a bunch of different areas and feel lucky to have fit in seeing some of Jordi's family before heading off to Ecuador.

Cartagena

Overall: My second favorite city, after Bogota, and the first we visited. I can't say we got a totally complete experience as it's actually a rather large area and we spent most time near or just outside of the "Old Town" because we were both pretty busy with work and school and that was in easy walking distance for us in the evenings -- but it was very pretty to walk through the streets at night, or up on the wall that surrounds it. I loved the way people hung out in front of home courtyards at night with music or talking and the central squares and street food.

Stuff we did/saw:

-For my birthday jordi (and my mom) paid for us to go diving on the Rosario Islands which was incredibly beautiful, even the island we stopped at before we went on each dive was this incredibly pretty spot with ladders going straight into the ocean, and hammocks and trees and peacocks and fish, ect. Also a scuba cat who slept in all the equiptment. We saw some incredible critters while diving, tiny little squid, nudibranchs, and a million beautiful fish. 

-There was a cute coffee shop/book store we liked to hang out at

- One of the public parks has a few sloths that just live in the trees there

-One of the parks has this man who makes bubbles for the kids and another who sells bird seed to feed the pigeons and they just all sit on his head in a giant crowd which is very much like something out of a movie to see.

-This park nearby that had great Colombian artist statues where I was introduced to Sonia Bazanta Vides (Toto) and that also had like a MILLION toroises and cats and dogs

-Walking down to the water along the wall where there was a ton of cool seaweed and a small sea dog living under and overturned boat

-Arepas with cheese butter and sausages

-I liked this one painting by Enrique Grau (at the Coleccion Museo de Arte Moderno de Cartagena) called Panoramica de Cartegena which had the city and a bullfighter being carried up to heaven by angels

-Also a very pretty little museum with a smaller inner garden in the courtyard that was for a kinda cringey patron saint of slaves that you get the sense was probably not as saintly as others

-and enjoyed the electronic coin-operated ofrendas in the big cathedrals

-also a great bread shop we stopped by at on our way from the coffee shop

-painters selling Botero remakes (apparently he's known for going through on a walk and complimenting street artists on their reproductions which I think is very nice)

- the mall with the central quart yard shaped like a bullfighting ring

-Tried to learn to make arepas and only got semi-ok at it

-Bought some ants that they sell to tourists as aphrodisiacs because I thought it was funny

-Went to a church near where we stayed that had a dessert sail in the little park attached, very quant feeling to it. Reminded that I do not love tamarind deserts, but I do love rice pudding.

-Loved the door knockers associated historically as markers of different trades or statuses

-Tiny jellyfish sting I was very proud of in a perfect little line

-Went to the military fort and wandered through all the dark little tunnels

-Square that jordi liked with music playing near all the street art with the flags on lines above

-Jets chocolates to collect stickers and my introduction to el hombre caiman: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e5qQ6aj3e2g 

Barranquilla

Overall: I think in part because of where we stayed, Barranquilla was perhaps not my favorite place we visited while in Colombia. It was very suburban and not very walkable, and we didn't have a car. There was a park nearby you could walk to that looked over the city and a big green patch and was filled with parrots and hawks in CRAZY numbers flying around nearby, and that was perhaps my favorite thing there, but we didn't do too much other than walk to the corner store for alfajores.

Stuff we did/saw:

- The carnival museum and Marimonda everywhere -- really liked what we were able to learn and loved the marimonda. 

- The melecon and a food spot there themed heavily on crocodiles which I really enjoyed 

- Mostly a lot of studying and working and walking to the nearby park to watch the birds and eating obleas

Minca

Minca was only a quick day trip to see the waterfalls and jungle nearby, but it ended up being a really nice trip despite a rough start (we didn't have the right cash to get a taxi from the bus stop up to the town and spent a long time at the bus station, nearly having to give up and go home). But we made it! And it was shockingly not that expensive, and we wandered through this really beautiful jungly forest to swim in one smaller waterfall and wander around a much bigger one, then stopping for the night in town at a diner to eat before catching the same taxi back to the bus station and back to Barranquilla. 

Bogota

Overall: We were in Bogota for a very short time because we mostly flew up to see Jordi's brother Fernando and his nephew Ale, but it was a pretty incredible trip -- I think Bogota and the towns just outside are perhaps my favorite despite being there such a short time. Part of that is undoubtedly the climate, which is higher altitude and colder and drier (LOVED that feeling of the mountain air out in the countryside, it was incredibly beautiful) but also felt there was a lot more to do and see than in Barranquilla which is largely a business center, and not quite so small as old town in Cartegena. 

Stuff we did/saw:

-The gold musuem -- also about pre-hispanic indigenous culture and some really incredible craftsmanship. Really loved this one installation with light all over and the explanation of el dorado (the picture from this wikipedia article is from the gold museum in bogota: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/El_Dorado#:~:text=Originally%2C%20El%20Hombre%20Dorado%20(%22,an%20initiation%20rite%2C%20covered%20himself)

- We took a very cute little train out of bogota to little towns nearby and eventually drove up into the mountain areas. On the train were these great musicians and one was at one point playing this traditional type of string instrument made out of armadillos 

-Catedral de Sal (giant cathedral undergound in an old salt mine) and Zipaquira, the town nearby to have lunch. Very cute courtyard and jordi and I got ajiaco (a kind of soup his mom often makes). Watched a dog try very very hard to get into a cathedral before being chased out.

-Laguna del Cacique Guatavita -- up in the mountains and where supposedly there's a lake that might be the el dorado lake. Went for a nice walk and fresh air, and stopped along the way to get pizza for dinner for ale and coffee for everyone.

-Possibly my favorite (although being up in the mountains and the town square and ajiaco is a close second, was the Botero museum. LOVED IT. LOVVVVVVEDDD IT.

-We also went to a very fancy meal with Jordi's brother Fernando. Possibly the fanciest meal I've ever been to in terms of just being so so many different courses and drinks with each course and odd/interesting flavor combinations. (menu for reference)