Colombia
27th Feb - 12th Mar 2025
Barranquilla
With carnival in South America due to be in full swing the coming weekend, we were flying to the city of Barranquilla, on the Caribbean coast to join in with the festivities. Or so we thought! Flying from Galápagos, we had made a stop in Guayaquil in Ecuador before flying to Bogota in Colombia. Checking in for our Wingo flight we were told they had overbooked the flight and the three of us, amongst a few others had been placed on standby tickets. Waiting at the gate it’s not looking promising, with the last call for the flight, more passengers coming running down the hall further reducing our odds of getting aboard. Contemplating where to stay for the night, we’re suddenly beckoned forward. Down the boarding ramp we’re handed glow sticks.
Not long after a settling at cruising altitude, there’s some commotion in Spanish and we’re told to drop the window blinds. In darkness glow sticks are cracked, and a live band erupts into show. Parading down the aisle the passengers getting increasingly involving singing along and dancing in what little space remains! Cabin crew dish out free shots of whisky on ice and the wilds of Galápagos suddenly feels very distant.
On landing in Barranquilla, we’re offered free cervesas left, right and center, the city is really ready to party, with a carnival building in momentum second in size only to Rio. We find our high rise Airbnb and scout out options for joining in with the celebrations. This is where it starts to go a bit pear shaped. Mid afternoon on Saturday, the main parade is progressing along Via 40, we stroll the edge of the crowd, loud music and crowds making it barely possible to converse. We meet a crush point in the crowd and I’m suddenly blinded. Thankfully, it’s just by a foam cannon at point blank range, but it that split second it takes to clear my eyes, another individual reaches into my pocket and my phone is gone. I know it in an instant, but these guys are good and have disappeared into the crowd before I have a chance to lash out and retaliate. A gringo such as I was clearly a prime target, and in the days following I hear of many other similar tales, some involving knives being drawn and more aggression than I got away with. Filing the police report at the station in a dodgy downtown part of the city, the first question an officer asks is if I was held at gun point. Take me back to nature.
So, no colourful photos to accompany this paragraph. The joke is the theif’s though, my phone charging port was broken through salty sailing damage and it would only wirelessly charge. Only one lens of 4 on the camera still worked, sometimes. Time for an upgrade...
Minca
After a bus ride and a tedious taxi ride up the winding hillside that could barely make progress in first gear with a burnt out clutch, we arrived in the small colourful town of Minca. We instantly felt more at ease than Barranquilla surrounding by jungle as we slowly trudged up the steep hill to Casa Loma hostel, which looked out over the rolling hills towards sunset just as we reached the top.
This was the start of the next Colombia kicker, Ben was fast becoming unwell and just one night into our stay in a hot jungle surrounded by screeching insects, he opted to book into a hotel with air-con back down in the town, We didn’t know it at the time but this would become his makeshift hospital room for over a week.
Cascadas Marinka
A gentle hike up the Minca valley took us to Marinka waterfalls, which provided the perfect opportunity to cool down and drink in the peace of the jungle and forget all about our recent city experience.
Toucans
If you’ve followed this blog at all, you may have noticed a trend of wildlife becoming increasingly prominent. Capturing wildlife provides a compelling creative challenge, and it had been energizing to see the range of biodiversity between the Central American countries on our past track. Colombia holds the title of one of the world ‘megadiverse’ countries, with more than 10% of the planet’s biodiversity. It felt apt to learn a little more about the species that would more than likely go unnoticed or appreciated to the untrained eye.
Meeting before sunrise at the local church, our local guide Otto is soon reeling the names of bird species he can hear and supposedly see in the darkness as we try tune our eyesight. As the sunrises we can start to appreciate the sharpness of Otto’s eyes and ears. He’ll go on to identify close to 30 species in just a few hours. Naturally the most charismatic are the Keel-billed Toucans, who chatter to each other with bills that look as if they’d been expertly painted. On the trail we meet musician and part time passionate filmmaker Frank Luna, with a monster telephoto lens in hand. He’s in the process of filming a documentary with local ‘Jungle Joe’. It’s now available to watch on YouTube here!
‘Real Human Limitless Tour’
With Alex unfortunately going down with symptoms similar to Ben’s, I join a tour to visit a local family farm with Kogi heritage to learn more about their origins and traditions. The Kogi are an indigenous group that originated and still reside in the Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta mountains and thrived in the time before the Spanish conquest. Still with spiritual beliefs they have maintained traditional ways of life, living in harmony with nature centered around ‘Aluna’, ‘the Great Mother.’ This family was no longer purely Kogi, but the mother of the house was, and her descents proudly educated us of their traditions.
We tour the surrounding farm and are shown the cocoa harvesting and processing method before donning chocolate face faces ans bathing in the nearby waterfall.
Mirador 360
With Ben and Alex slowly recuperating, I took a hike to a nearby viewpoint to get some training in ahead our planned trek to Machu Picchu in the coming weeks. What I may have slightly under estimated was the severity of the elevation in the midday 30 degree heat. Not taking a moto taxi most of the way there like most on the trail do, with over 700m of total elevation gain and carrying just 2 liters of water was a serious oversight. The view was pretty neat though. A viper beside one of the river crossings was a friendly reminder not to sit just anywhere in the brush when taking breather.
Tayrona
With Ben and Alex back on their feet it was time to move to new digs, further east on the outskirts of the Tayrona National Park. ‘The Valley’ hostel was amusingly accessed by wading through a river, and hiking up, you guessed it, a steep valley. This excursion took it out of both Alex and Ben, and Colombia strike 3, I was now unwell with an upset stomach. I had done well avoiding one for 6 months of travel. Reluctantly, it was time to just rest in a jungle hut and slow the pace down for a few days.
I couldn’t lay idle for long and with a stunning Roufous-Tailed Jacamar seemingly teasing me on a branch outside my hut, I set off for a hike and swim in the nearby river.
With our time in Colombia fast coming to a close, we left Santa Marta bound for Peru having only sampled a small taste of a vibrant and brilliant country (minus the mugging). I’ll be back someday…
Desert biking, assault courses and penguins.