The North Coast, Colombia

Cartagena (26/04 - 30/04)

We flew from Denver to Cartagena on the north coast of Colombia to start our South American leg of the trip. We arrived to 35 degree weather, 90% humidity, a hostel without air conditioning and any English speaking staff. It's safe to say we were a little overwhelmed to begin with!

After stumbling our way through our Spanish phrasebook we started to explore Cartagena's Old Town, the original city surrounded by high walls and cobblestone streets. Here we found cafes, restaurants, little shops and vendors on the street, ready to sell you anything from mangos, coconuts to sunglasses and day tours. Most importantly, we found a café that made amazing coffee and ended up there every day. We also spent an afternoon at the Castillo San Felipe De Barajas, a castle fort built to protect the city with a network of underground tunnels.

We got a good taste of typical Colombian food; a lot of rice, beans, plantain, avocado, beef, chorizo and we discovered our favourite local beer, Aguila. Lani and Brodie met us after three days and we spent some time in Cartagena catching up with them after their trip through Central America. They had also come from a two week Spanish course which was a blessing, given our limited vocabulary.

Santa Marta (01/05 -2/05) - Costeño Beach (03/05 - 05/05)

From Cartagena we started travelling north-east along the Caribbean coast to Santa Marta, a five hour bus trip where we were first exposed to the crazy drivers here in Colombia. We only stayed in Santa Marta as a transit to our next location Costeño Beach.

Costeño Beach was a further hour up the coast where we stayed at an Ecolodge and Surfcamp for three nights, our first opportunity to swim in the ocean and escape the heat. We stayed in a beach bungalow right on the beach and filled our days with yoga, swimming, a little surfing, snuck in a few workouts, read our books in hammocks, ate and drank beers on the beach. This was our favourite little spot on the coast so far, thanks to Brodie for discovering this little gem.

As tempting as it was to stay longer at Costeño we decided to keep moving, headed back to Santa Marta to catch a flight south to Medellin.