SHOULD I VISIT COLOMBIA?

I had always heard that Colombia is a beautiful country. When I first saw it from the air on a rare daylight flight home from Bolivia, I marveled at how green and mountainous it was. It has been on my list since I first began to research South America as a travel destination in the late 70’s. I was, of course, using that old faithful travel guide – “The South American Handbook”.

The problem was that virtually every entry concerning Colombia was laced with the sternest and scariest of warnings – beware of Bogota, avoid Medellin, sew your money into your underwear, and hold on to your eyeglasses. Buenaventura, on the Pacific Coast, was reputed to be both the wettest, and the most dangerous city in the world – quite a pair of firsts. Every article I read on Colombia ended up curling my hair.  And this was all before Pablo Escobar.  I wanted to go but, try as I might, I just couldn’t get up the huevos. I just kept postponing the trip.

Sometime in 2013, my curiosity finally got the best of me. I had always been a big fan of Indigenous Andean Markets – Pisac, Chinchero, Cajamarca, Tarabuco, Otavalo, Zumbahua. Only one big market had continued to elude me – The Guambiano Market in Silvia, Colombia. The problem with Silvia was that it is located in Colombia. Furthermore, it is located in Cauca Department – one of the most dangerous areas in this dangerous country.

I finally figured – what the hell. Reports from Colombia were becoming less alarming and it was basically, now or never. In February of 2014, we arrived in Cartagena via Spirit Airlines which, in some recent surveys, had replaced Turkmenistan Airlines (another carrier I have had experience with) as the worst airline in the world.

The word I would use to describe Cartagena is “cute”. I have nothing against cuteness – to be honest, I think I like it. In fact, I believe that Raul Castro should take a good look at Cartagena before he begins the long awaited urban renewal of Havana.

I had read that street peddlers were a problem. I didn’t see it. In fact, I really enjoyed Cartagena. Every building in the Old City had been carefully restored and painted in pastels. Bougainvilleas seemed to drape every doorway, Colombian flags flapped in the breeze, and there was an unparalleled array of antique doorknobs on display.

To say that Cartagena is hot and humid is a vast understatement. But the better hotels and restaurants are air-conditioned. It is also not inexpensive. In fact, Colombia itself could not be classified as inexpensive.

My favorite part of my time in Cartagena were the Palenqueras – ladies who come in to the city every day to sell fresh fruit. These ladies were quite obviously part of the Cartagena tourism experience but they were incredibly colorful and I’ve never been one to scoff at a photo op. Also, I’ve never been an absolute purest, and western tourists were so thin on the ground in the Old City that it never degenerated into a circus. You see the same type of ladies in Havana and Bahia, Brazil – but the Palenqueras of Cartagena were by far the best.

From Cartagena we flew to Bogota on Avianca and connected to Popayan, from where we were hoping to travel to the Silvia Market – the actual raison d’etre for this entire trip. There wasn’t much to see around Popayan “The White City”, but the Hotel Convento was nice enough and had an elegant restaurant. My wife and I were the only guests. The next day, we took a mini-van to Silvia, about an hour and a half away.

The market at Silvia proved to be a lot better than I had expected. We were two of only a few tourists at the market and the people were as colorful as any I had ever seen. Some of them could be euphemistically labeled as “shy”. They had a right to be. After all, they had been basically isolated for decades. But most of them turned out to be friendly enough.

Of course, not every one of them was affable. Every Andean Market I have ever visited has had a few grumpy, old women hanging around to make one feel guilty. Otavalo, Ecuador leads the league in this category and my second visit to this tourist trap was quite sufficient for me, thank you. But Silvia was nice enough and, at the end of the day, I felt good about the experience.

We flew from Popayan to Bogota and then on to Armenia in the “Coffee Triangle”. We had previously arranged transport to Salento a small town in the middle of this coffee growing area. When we arrived in Salento, I immediately noticed that it looked familiar. In fact, it looked like a very small version of Cartagena. When I try to search for a word to describe the Colombian towns I had and would visit (even larger places such as Cartagena), I always arrive back at the same trivial-sounding adjective – cute. And that may, in fact, be the best word available. Colombians seem to have a way to make things look “cute”.

From Salento, we went to a coffee farm in the midst of the lushest countryside imaginable. The next day, we traveled to the incredible Cocora Valley – home of the world’s tallest palm trees – the Wax Palm. Visiting this valley basically requires a strenuous overland hike – mainly uphill, and involving stream crossings and other random hazards. It’s a circular hike, ending up back at the drop off point. The best scenery is reportedly at the end of the hike about 30 minutes up from the drop off point.

A dozen or so other people arrived in the valley on the same day that we did. We all arrived separately by 4-wheel drive Jeep from Salento – a long, bumpy,and uncomfortable ride. They were all younger than Joan and I and, of course, were in much better shape. Immediately upon arrival at the drop off point, I came up with a brain storm. If the best scenery on the hike is located toward the end of it, why not do the hike in reverse? Why not see the best part first – before the crowds, and before being covered with mud, sweat, blood, and mosquito bites?

I was willing to share this information with the people who had arrived with us. After all, this in Colombia, and there is safety in numbers. But they all set off immediately – before I had a chance to talk to them, so it looked like we would be on our own. We set off in the opposite direction and in less than 15 minutes we were alone in the mist, among the incredible 200 foot Wax Palms. We strolled up hill for about 45 minutes and then, when we were starting to run out of scenery, we turned around and made the easy 20 minute stroll back downhill to our waiting Jeep. By 3 o’clock, we were back in Salento drinking Chilean wine. God only knows what happened to the other people – they may still be hiking.

We finished off our trip in Medellin. Medellin, the home of Pablo Escobar, has always been a rough town. It also has a reputation for having one of the finest climates in the Western Hemisphere. Pablo is long gone, and the news coming out of Medellin had been improving. We stayed in an elegant downtown hotel with a wonderful restaurant. Our trip was drawing to a close. Instead of exploring Medellin itself, we decided to visit a couple of small towns in Antioquia Department – towns that the tourist literature had described with the over used term – “charming”. Well Guatape and Santa Fe de Antioquia turned out to be just that – charming.

A picture is worth a thousand words and this post has already surpassed that figure. So, I’ll let the pictures do the talking.

We flew to Florida on dreaded Spirit Airlines, spent the night, and then flew to San Francisco. I’ll have to say in the end, that Spirit Airlines was not as bad as I had anticipated. When you fly a low cost carrier, you need to know what you’ll be up against in advance. You need to manage your expectations. I’ve always been very good at that.

I have one word to sum up our Colombia Trip – spectacular. Suffice it to say that Colombia has joined Chile as my favorite country in South America.  And, a word of advice to anyone who might be interested in visiting Colombia – JUST GO!