All posts by ramblintraveler

Passionate traveler kicking back and exploring the world one country at a time:)
Colombia

Medellin: The Arrival

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I arrived after a day of traveling non-stop to the main bus terminal of Medellin (pronounced Med-eh-jean with a slight softness to the J) exhausted and ready for sleep.  Due to the poor road conditions, try as I may, there was just no way to get any sleep on that bus.  When we arrived it was already quite dark.  First thing to do… Find a hostel for the night!!!

I know, I know… one of my odd quirks about traveling is that I’m quite the procrastinator when it comes to actually booking anything ahead of time, including places to sleep!  While for the most part, it’s never actually a problem, on this particular night I was really kicking myself that I didn’t have a place already picked out!  But to give myself a teeny bit of credit, I really wasn’t expecting or planning for the trip there to be quite as long as it was to begin with.

In any event, luckily there was still an information booth open at the bus terminal, which by the way was quite large and modern.  It took up several stories in fact, and after stopping to get some cash at the ATM (since I’d spent more than I planned to on the way down, paying twice for a bus ticket and all) I went to the info center and looked through their book for hostels nearby.  I quickly found a couple and since the person at the info station said they weren’t far, I opted to walk…

It’s really quite a good thing that the reputation of Colombia isn’t at all what the reality is, since in my pursuit to find the hostels I was literally wandering around random neighborhoods in the dark by myself with very few others around except random people passing by and a few drunks…  Basically what I came to find out after wandering around was that the first hostel that I was trying to find was actually no longer where it was advertised to be.  Imagine that…. And funny quick story, at one point because I was so tired of walking in circles, trying to find the hostel that no longer existed, I went to a street that was pretty busy, hailed a cab, and when I showed him the address he said “no, no that’s just down the street, you can walk!” and refused to take me as a passenger!!  This was of course before I realized that the address was incorrect to begin with…

So there I was, randomly wandering the streets in some random area of Medellin, when I finally came across a guy that was dressed in some sort of security outfit.  He looked as if he was just getting off work so I flagged him down and asked if he knew of any hostels in the area.  Thank goodness he did!!!  And he was so happy to inform me that it was in walking distance… YAY… MORE walking!!!  I was overjoyed!  😉  But Thank Goodness he at least knew which direction to point me in.  Angels come in so many different forms:)  With his guidance I was able to finally find a hostel.  However… my night apparently wasn’t over yet as the hostel did not have ANY availability for the night!!  YAY!!!  (hopefully the sarcasm is coming through as I was SERIOUSLY done with this night!!!)

Thankfully again however, the hostel reception guy was able to contact a sister facility and they did have space available.  The only clincher was that once again, I had to walk there… At least during the time that he was calling the other hostel I was able to take off my pack for a few seconds and just chill.  Several minutes later though I was back “on the road” and walked about 20 minutes to the other hostel, which was conveniently located just a couple blocks back from the main street of Medellin!

After settling in the hostel, I joined the street for some food then passed out for some much needed rest!

On to Medellin Activities & Pictures

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San Blas Islands

Warning!!

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I thought I should put in at this point a little “warning” for those thinking to travel via sailboat from Panama to Columbia (or visa versa) via the San Blas Islands.  As romantic as it sounds, as whimsical as it sounds or as much as it seems like it would be a fantasy to sail through 380+ Caribbean islands with water so pristine and beautiful that you can’t imagine a more beautiful place and sunsets and rises that make you realize a God does exist, it really isn’t a trip for the weak!!

Why do I say that?  Well, unless you are rich enough to be able to afford your own private sailboat or yacht charter, then you are basically “stuck” on whatever sailboat you have chosen AND all the people (there were a total of 9 others on mine- all strangers) whom have chosen that particular sailboat as well.  Which means… well, you tend to have to put up with a lot of interesting things… for example, other peoples ideas of how to stay hygienic… Yes, one particular person was constantly snotting on himself, wiping their hand on their shirt (which became dirty and quite gross quickly) and then actually wore that same nasty shirt for the entire duration of the trip… And you have to put up with the potential of storms, with the reality of having zero privacy for days on end, and for your crew to turn out to be modern day pirates (as my friend so eloquently coined!!).  In addition not all the islands are as pristine as one would think.  Mainly due to the currents, while most of the islands are quite lovely, there are some that have bits that have tons of trash piled up.  This again is mainly due to the waste that boats and people in general dump into the water and the currently simply carry them to the nearest spot of land… All the more reason to take out with you what you brought in, as we did on our boat!!

However, if you are able to withstand all the potential nastiness that I personally never thought of, well then sail away!!  I absolutely never regret my trip and wouldn’t trade it for any other experience in the world!!  Even though it had a lot of squirrely downs, the ups were absolutely fabulous!!  Phosphorescent water, sleeping on a hammock in the open air from the top deck of the sailboat watching the stars (I actually kicked one of the crew out of his bed to sleep on the hammock:)), the islands themselves, the water, the sunrises and sunsets, the yummy meals, the characters met on and off board, the friends I’ve made during the trip and still have to this day.  I wouldn’t trade any of it for a minute, but thought it necessary to at least put in a little warning for others planning a similar trip:)

 

On to Catamaran Disaster

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Colombia, Travel

Travel from Capurgana to Medellin

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Ugh!!!  This was probably the most irritating portion of my trip overall.  Hence why I’m even mentioning it… So others can avoid what I had to endure!!

So I chose the boat way out of Capurgana mainly because… well, I will admit it, I’m cheap!  When it comes to traveling, every “dollar” counts so between spending about $180 for a plane to Medellin or around maybe $50 for the boat and bus to Medellin, well, the boat and bus won out.  However, looking back perhaps I should have simply taken the dang plane!!

So it all began in the morning.  My bag was packed and I had to purchase a ticket for the boat out.  I opted for the first boat out so I could have the day traveling (thank goodness I chose this!!!) Tickets could not be purchased much in advance, so I recall just being able to do so the morning of.  I got on the boat (after having my bag weighed in case it was too heavy to ride, or an extra charge would be added) with dozens of other people.  I was in the very front of the motor boat and had to endure several splashes of water hitting my face for the hour it took to get to Turbo.

Honestly the ride wasn’t THAT bad… just interesting… We arrived in Turbo, and let me tell you it’s absolutely NOT the kind of place that anyone would want to spend any sort of real time… It literally is just a pass on through town; a place where people are shipped in and out of… that’s it!  The water was dirty and oil slicked, the town was dumpy and very busy.  Just not at all like the lovely village I had just come from.

Anyway, I hoped off the motor boat and had to catch a bus to Medellin.  However, no buses actually came into the dock area of Turbo.  So I then had to hop on the back of a dirt bike/motorcycle (with my 72 liter backpack and all), hold on for dear life and get zoomed in and out of various streets until we were literally heading out of town and then dropped off on the side of the road to an unmarked area where the bus would eventually show… I would seriously have been panicking a bit more than I was  (at least in my head… I was trying to stay cool on the exterior) had it not been for a couple of other random people also standing on the side of the road waiting for the bus.

Now, perhaps it’s a good time to mention that from the start of arriving in Turbo I had what I guess you could call a travel coordinator.  This was a guy who simply asked people who arrived on the boat where they wanted to go and arranged for them to be taken there in a very loose way.  This is how I knew to get on the motorcycle and be transferred to the bus… Now when the bus actually arrived (YAY, I wasn’t being mis-lead!!) the “travel coordinator” also showed up.  I got on the bus and he followed me on saying that I needed to pay for the bus ticket… or so I thought… I understood that what I was paying was for the bus ticket, however it wasn’t.  It was apparently for his “services” in organizing everything.  So I paid him thinking it was the bus ticket, and to boot paid him too much because my brain was frazzled from the activity and couldn’t do math correctly at the time, and thought that was the end of it.  He of course got off the bus before we parted…

So then there I was on the bus to Medellin, when about a half hour later we pulled into a bus terminal… The bus driver at this point announced that those who were just joining the bus had to buy their tickets now.

Hold on a sec… buy my tickets NOW????  I’ve been on the bus for half an hour… and I’ve already paid that other guy (though stupidly I didn’t think that it was odd at the time that I wasn’t given a bus ticket in return for the money since I thought that guy worked for the bus company… stupid!!).  So…. Yea, I tried to explain to the driver that I had already bought a ticket, but with no proof I was sorta SOL… So I sucked it up and just bought another, or rather an ACTUAL bus ticket from inside the terminal for Medellin.

So, for those going to Columbia: if you get on a bus from a bus stop and NOT from the terminal, either make sure you already have your proper ticket, or be prepared to buy your ticket once at the terminal, and NOT from random people!

Aside from this annoying hiccup, the trip to Medellin was, again I’m not going to lie, very LONG and EXHAUSTING!!!  It was at least another 10 hours of driving to Medellin (after the boat and motorcycle, etc) and though Columbia has very lovely country sides, their roads are absolutely exhausting!!!  They aren’t very well kept so the driver kept speeding when the roads were good, then slamming on the brakes to go over the pot-hole infested areas, then revving the engine again to speed.  The constant stop and go motion really wore on my body!

We finally arrived in Medellin around 9 or 10 at night and the sketchy adventures continued from there…

Oh, one little thing I forgot to mention… On the oh-so-fun road trip to Medellin, one thing I did find quite “interesting” was that every now and again on the top of a random hill that sloped from the road you would see stationed there a member of the Columbian military laying flat on the ground watching the road through a scope attached to whatever kind of gun that is that has scopes and can fire from long distances… Interesting and a teeny bit unsettling indeed… But it was only on this stretch of the travels that I noticed them.  Perhaps because that area was well known for people trying to smuggle themselves or items through the jungle of Columbia into Panama (remember there are no roads connecting the countries so it literally would be just through pure jungle).  But honestly I don’t know for sure, but rather can only speculate…

 

On to Medellin

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Colombia

Capurgana, Colombia

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So we made it!  “Smuggled” into Columbia through the San Blas Islands on a sailboat captained and crewed by what Nicki (my German companion on the sailboat) so eloquently named “modern day pirates”.  That they were indeed, modern day pirates!!  We actually arrived and docked in the water on the Panama side in a little inlet that had the teeniest towns nearby.  From there a local took all of our things and put them in a little motor boat, squished us all in (we finally got to get our shoes back, mind you!) and motored us around the inlet bend and into the Colombian side of land and dropped us off at the dock of Capurgana, Colombia.

Panama Inlet
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Panama Hut Town
En Route to Colombia
Capurgana Dock
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The first thing I remember thinking about this place was how colorful it was!  It was so Caribbean and the vibrant colors of each building just added to that cool Caribbean vibe of “come as you are and chill, man”!!  Just adorable and quaint and just the place that was needed to go and relax after the onboard adventures of the previous week on the sailboat.

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Welcome to Capurgana
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We all disembarked from the little motor boat on the dock and went our random ways to find hostels/hotels for the night.  I chose a place not too far from the dock and stayed the first night in a room fit for several people (though I was the only one) then moved to a smaller, better suited room on the second floor for the next week.  Now, one must remember that after being on the sailboat for 6 days certain things hold true… First and most important, I had to get my land legs back!  Even though we had been on land for little bouts throughout the week on the sailboat, my sea legs were still well intact.  Hence why I chose to stay for several days in Capurgana… Not only because it was so vibrant yet chill, but also so I could fully recover from the crazy sailboat tour we had just come from.

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Hostel
View from Capurgana
In town

After getting settled in the first afternoon of our arrival (oh and of course getting our entrance stamp from immigration, which was closed for the first several hours we were on land so had to wait a while to actually be legal in the country) Nicki and I headed around town to find a cup of coffee.  Now, honestly I’ve never really been a big coffee drinker in the States.  Maybe because all the famous blends and roasts come from places like Costa Rica and Colombia.  Or rather especially Colombia… So we thought it would be quite easy to find a place that sold coffee since we were afterall in one of the countries that was best known for their production of coffee… No.  Not at all. It literally took us the better part of an hour, plus going into dozens of stores before we actually found a place that begrudgingly made us a cup of coffee!!  And to boot, it wasn’t even anything that special.  Apparently, as we came to learn quickly, coffee in Colombia is served only at breakfast and is really not available at any other time!  Ok, now perhaps I really shouldn’t generalize for ALL of Colombia, so I will just say for sure in Capurgana:)

In Town_2
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My Hostel Room
View of Airstrip
Hiking

Anyway, all in all the time spent in Capurgana was quite nice.  One day was full of hiking through the surrounding jungle, others just wandering the small town watching and experiencing life.  The evenings were spent passing time with card games with friends from the sailboat.  Oh and one afternoon was spent watching the opening ceremonies of the Olympics in England (just to give a time stamp of when I was there:)).

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To be honest, though I knew I had to move on, I really wasn’t looking forward to it.  The only way out of the town was either on a teeny tiny plane literally fit for two people and luggage (that could not weigh more than a certain amount) or to take a motor boat from Capurgana, across the bay to Turbo, then catch a bus to the next destination.  After having spent so much time in the simplicity of life, between Puerto Viejo, the San Blas Islands and now the tiny town of Capurgana I wasn’t looking forward to getting back into the “hustle” of the faster life.  Honestly, I don’t even recall vehicles in town, only horse drawn carts.  That’s how isolated and simple Capurgana was.  No roads actually lead into it, only a small airstrip and dock for boats connected this small Caribbean town to the rest of the world.

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Chickens!

Alas, I did have to get back on the road again however and booked my trip out of Capurgana via the boat.  Nicki, the Aussies and the British fellow had already or were soon also getting on with their travels too.  We each went separate ways.  Though I had wanted to go to Cartagena, Colombia, oddly enough I had gotten an email from my brother saying he was in Bogota for work.  So I altered my plans to try and catch some time with him in Bogota and opted to head first to Medellin.

 

On to Travel from Capurgana to Medellin

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San Blas Islands

Kuna Encounters

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San Blas Islands

Nuthin But Islands

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San Blas Islands

Sunrise, Sunset

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San Blas Islands

Kuna Tribe Story #2

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The second time we spent with the Kuna tribes was actually never supposed to happen…  I’ve already written about the storm that I thought would literally claim my life and that we ended up having to stay an extra day on the islands, taking shelter nearby one because of the storm.  Well, it was because of that storm that we got to have some more time with the indigenous tribe.

In the morning after the storm I remember waking and getting out onto the deck.  Circling the sailboat in canoes were tribesmen.  I went to alert one of the crew and after a chat with them, we all learned that we had been invited onto the island for a look-see.  Apparently not far from where we had docked for the night in the storm another boat had been, but sadly had suffered a different fate… For it ended up sinking and having seen this occur the Kuna people had been busy all morning going back and forth from the sinking boat collecting goods aboard it.  Since we were on the way, they stopped in to say hello!

The funny thing here is that unlike the previous island and tribe, this second island was much more advanced!  The first island only had a few shelters in the “town” which were basically just the homes of the tribe.  The second island by comparison basically had a proper town with a school, several houses with yards, shops of sorts, and even roads (albeit unpaved:))!!

We canoed our way onto the island where we were invited on by a very chatty native.  He was young, only about 20 but was already married with a couple of kids.  You could tell this guy really knew business and how to work people!  He was charming and proud of his home and his village and he knew how to get what he needed or wanted to support his family and village.  He showed us around the village and even showed us inside his own home.  Now, in order to take pictures even of the people or the village, we had to ask permission.  It is considered very rude to take pictures of the people and their homes or villages without their consent first.  So while I did ask permission to take pictures and was granted permission, I won’t include any that may have people in them to respect the tribes people.  However, I do really, REALLY with I was able to take a picture of the inside of the guys house… The outside was basic, just cane tied together to form walls and leaves as a roof… However, when you stepped inside you noticed a dirt floor, several hammocks hanging (one for each member of the family) a chest of drawers and on top of the drawers…. A 50″ flat screen TV!!!!  Not kidding either!!!  The place was absolutely basic to the bones in every respect and then there was a brand new flat screen TV…. Seriously made me laugh!!  And once again supported that the guy knew business!!  Apparently he would go onto the mainland of Panama every so often and pick up supplies for the village…

Anyway, that was that.  We wandered the island and village, had some coffee at the house of our host then got canoed back to our ship so we could travel on.

 

On to Capurgana, Columbia

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