Colombia was somewhere we'd wanted to visit for a while. It'd been on our radar since 2012 when we did Peru and Bolivia and was back on our radar
as we travelled overland through most of central america towards Panama. One of our problems with Colombia was always wanting to see too much of such a large and spread
out country. We also knew overland travel long distance either wasn't safe or took way too long for any viable trip. Flying it seemed would be the only way to really
explore the country. With indirect flights from the UK and the daunting prospect of 4 to 5 more flights internally within a week we'd always said .......... not yet.
When we started looking for this trip we looked again at what we could do / wanted to do and it was then that we discovered the island gem of San Andres. After realising
that Cartagena wasn't all that good of a destination and Bogota wasn't that safe we decided on a trip to Medellin & San Andres and were shocked to find we could make
flights work and all with the same airline. We also found a brand new direct flight leg from UK to Bogota which sweetened the deal somewhat. Even if they didn't serve
any food on our first 12 hour flight claiming it was because it was their first few flights and hadn't got everything sorted and up to speed yet.
COVID 19 was very much still on the map and Colombia had only just starting opening up to tourism again. This meant masks being required in most places, especially in public
and on public transport. It was a very different feel from homes now non-existent rules.
We knew on this trip that we had cut out a lot of mainland Colombia so we set about making the most of our time in Medellin. Unlike us this meant booking two private tours ahead of time. The first was to take in the history and sights related to Pablo Escobar including the infamous Communa 13 (slum). This allowed us to see much more of Medellin and its communities and it was about as good as a tour can be. We started the morning before the tour even after a long haul night flight by exploring Medellin ourselves with a self guided walking tour of the major sites before catching the metro back to our hotel. The city was nice and for the most part safe, but we wouldn't have said there was much to do with more than a day.
The second was a full day tour of coffee plantations, Guatape and El Penol (Rock of Guatape). This tour really made our trip to Colombia and was got to meet many people and see what the real Colombia was about. Bright colours, foraging and tasting coffee, and climbing the local challenge of Guatape. We had a very fun time and even got to try local cuisine (Bandeja Paisa).
What a beautiful local feeling island in the caribbean. The only real way to get around the island is to rent
an off road style golf buggy and simply race around the island as you please abandoning it on the side of the road next too whatever
interests you. In places the cost of the parking was a cocktail made with strong spirits in cut open coconuts. With little police
presence and almost no driving laws, having a few before nipping up the quiet roads in a golf buggy was a non-issue.
The island itself had a varied selection of sites from tourist traps like the pirate cove which were a good laugh, to the cayman pond,
the blowhole, the jamaican themed bars, rustic beaches and gorgeous stretches of pristine white sand. For food options where shall we say
more limited outside of the main town. We spent 2 days here driving around the island and 2 days in the main town and beach area (on arrival
and departure days). For sight / road junkies as ourselves this was the perfect amount of time. I certainly wouldn't have spent any longer
here, even as nice a place as it was. But the same is true of most of the caribbean.
Although we hadn't seen too much of mainland Colombia we felt that this had been a really good trip. It'd also given us the ability to see a good mix of what Colombia had to offer, without either breaking the bank or requiring so many trips to the airport it'd ruined the trip.
