Santa Marta, Colombia
Next, I wanted to explore a new continent – South America. A coworker of mine has been staying there for quite a while, so I wanted to visit him and explore the area. So, my next destination was Santa Marta on the North coast of Colombia. To reach it, I had to connect via Madrid, Bogota, and Santa Marta. The flights were beautiful and very productive.
Arrived in Santa Marta I almost got a heat shock coming from cold Switzerland. But I prefer warm places and adopted quickly. My co-worker was waiting for me, we went for a walk in the city where he showed me around and finally for food. A great introduction to my new place where I will be staying for quite a while. Not only the temperature was very different, but also the culture. Very few people speaking English and very extroverted people (at least the once I met).
Taganga, Colombia
I was introduced to the culture, nature, and food, and I had a great time hanging around the Caribbean coast of Colombia. The schedule was fixed, productive work during the week and exploring during the weekend.
Sometimes in the evening, my co-worker and I would meet at a restaurant to grab food or leave the city on a motorbike. One such location is the fishing village of Taganga. It’s a short drive out of the city behind a mountain. They have beautiful beaches there and a mountain ridge to walk along for amazing sunsets. And also some nice beach bars to grab a drink.
Parque Tayrona
One weekend trip was to Tayrona National Park. There are multiple hikes of varying lengths, plus fantastic beaches and incredible nature. One such hike I did with a local friend. We hike for about 4 hours through the jungle, rarely meeting other hikers. At around 3 pm, we reached our accommodation, a small camp with bamboo cottages by the beach. The beach is not accessible by boat due to strong, dangerous currents. So goods are transported there by donkeys. So we also couldn’t go for a swim at the beach, too sad since it looks beautiful and is empty. But there was a nearby waterfall and natural pools on the backside. So we hiked up the small river to arrive there completely alone for a dip. We spent some time there and had to rush back to avoid being trapped in the jungle in the dark. I already spotted a colourful frog (yellow/black) on the way to the waterfall and don’t want to step on one in the dark – they’re very poisonous.
Another close-by place from Santa Marta is Taganga, a small fishing village with a beautiful sunset view and beaches or also the nice beaches around Palomino, which is around 2 hours by local bus in the direction of East.
Barranquilla, Colombia
Another weekend was dedicated to the next bigger city in the West of Santa Marta. It’s famous for the carnival and sports events. Other than that, I didn’t like the city much. I booked a fancy hotel and enjoyed the rooftop pool there a lot. It was a very relaxed weekend after I’ve done quite some activities.
Minca, Colombia
Another trip was up into the mountains to Cerro Kennedy in the Sierra Nevada of Santa Marta. It has a beautiful view of Santa Marta and a fantastic sunset and sunrise. We stayed in a hostel quite far up and walked to the summit (a military base) in the morning to catch the best view.
My co-worker and I also stayed for a week in a slightly elevated village in the forest, Minca. There’s a lovely hotel with a panoramic pool and great internet. So we decided to stay there for a week and work. The place is a 30 minute offroad ride through the jungle. So very quite and isolated without mobile data. They do have only good internet because they stream wifi point to point from the village further down. Sadly I got sick that week and couldn’t enjoyed much. I ate something bad and I was sick with a food poisoning. Mainly on the toilet for 4 straight days. Since our place was so remote, it was difficult to go down into civilisation, so I just had to hope to get better and get trought the situation.
Bogota, Colombia
After more than 2 months in Santa Marta, it was time to continue. Initially, I wanted to stay for only 2 weeks but kept extending because I enjoyed it that much. After using almost all my tourist visa of 90 days it was time to leave the country very soon, so I flew back to Bogota to get an international flight. But first I stayed in Bogota for 2 weeks to explore and work.
In the capital, I finally faced the issues of South America. Out in Santa Marta, things were pretty safe and local. After using the metro for the first time in Bogota, my phone was already gone. Something I wasn’t prepared for. I knew it was an issue and was careful, but it happened so fast, and I couldn’t get it back anymore. Now, I was facing the issue of recovering my Swiss phone number, getting back my pictures and chats from the cloud and being able to log into my accounts again. I had to learn a couple of things the hard way, but now I’m very prepared. I always bring a spare phone with e-sim support with me, use if possible no 2 way authentication via SMS (phone number) and backup everything into the cloud or on multiple locations.