Palomino, Colombia
After the lost city hike we headed to Palomino which is further up the Caribbean coast and met Tristan and Amber. We spent a chilled afternoon unwinding after the Lost City Trek and the next day met our hiking group for tubing down the river. We stocked up with beers for Tristan and I and rum and pineapple juice for the girls and off we all went either in the back of a 4wd or on the back of a motorbike to the trailhead and then walking through the jungle with our tubes to then float down the river drinking all the way to the outlet to the Caribbean Sea. We were running slightly late due to Keoni forgetting to take her seasickness pill and having to go back for it so we arrived at where the river meets the sea right on dusk which made for a frantic dash along the beach and heaving waves back to the populated part of the beach.
It turns out Palomino is quite a sleepy town outside of the weekends or holidays and there isn’t much happening besides beach hangs and river tubing so we didn’t actually need the 4 days during the mid-week here we’d booked. We lounged by the pool eating the quite good hostel food and drinking their delicious happy hour frozen daiquiris interspersed with trips down to the beach for exploring, frisbee and swimming in the heaving surf. We also adopted a dog while there which we affectionately named Georgie. She was sleeping outside our room on the first day we arrived and we quickly made friends and she followed us everywhere we went, whether it was to the bar/pool or down to the beach or for a walk through the dusty streets of Palomino. Oh and Keoni also got her hair braided which looks fantastic!
Cartagena, Colombia
A long (but comfortable) bus ride down the coast saw us next in Cartagena where we stayed in the trendy Getsemaní suburb. Vibrant street art, lively places to eat and drink and just an all-round party atmosphere saw us enjoying a few days here. Exploring the San Felipe de Barajas Fort and learning about the battles that occurred there, sunset drinks along the wall overlooking the ocean at Café del Mar, fancy coffees and then an afternoon drinking marijuana beers which absolutely sent us to space.
Medellín, Colombia
After Cartagena, we flew inland to Medellín for our final few days in Colombia. Keoni came down with an upset stomach so she spent most of our days here tucked up in bed resting. She did brave one day out and we all went on a day trip to Guatapé where we climbed a big rock overlooking the countryside, visited a little painted town and then a boat ride on Peñol-Guatapé Reservoir where we saw an old ruined property of Pablo Escobar and other famous peoples houses. The climb up Guatapé rock was some 700 steps to look over the reservoir and surrounding countryside. The area is in the middle of a drought and the reservoir is only at 30% capacity as well as there having been significant development in the area so it definitely didn’t look like the photos but it was interesting nonetheless. The painted town seemed performative and not particularly authentic but the boat ride and seeing Pablo’s house was interesting.
We also went for drinks one night around Parque lleras and marvelled at the dozens and dozens of stunning young Colombian women dressed up looking for some fun and on the final day before leaving Colombia we did a Comuna 13 Tour. This was done by an older local who had lived in the area his whole life and we got a fascinating insight into some of the history and violence that Medellín has faced.
Overall Colombia didn’t really hit the spot. The food didn’t wow us unless we went to a very fancy restaurant, a lot of the cities and tours seemed performative and only created to draw tourists in rather than portraying an authentic part or lifestyle of Colombia and the beaches and coast were mostly a letdown. Perhaps as the world begins to learn that Colombia is moving away from its troubled past and more people begin to travel there, it will evolve into something more natural.
