PBH / Colombia / Start Forums▼ (active) Travelguide Cheap hostels Pictures

Trip Report Colombia April 19th -

First off, I would like to thank all - excuse me.....some of the people on this forum for the genuine help before we left......was greatly appreciated. My friends and I had a great time in Colombia. Beautiful country, kind people, and anyone considering taking a trip there should go there - without question.
Before we left on this trip, my friends and I received a lot of non first hand bullshit about Colombia before we even boarded the plane. Although we were admittedly nervous ourselves, we all talked before we left and mutually agreed:

Knowledge is based on experience.

We / I / You are a product of your own environment.

Think negative thoughts, negative things happen.

Be smart, don't be stupid, think positive, have a good time.

Below is a brief account of our trip, some information may be right to some, wrong to others, tourist pricey, whatever - but this was the way that I remembered things.
None of us speak spanish, just the basics.

LAX to BOGOTA: $630.00USD

DEPART: Los Angeles to Houston, Houston to Bogota.
RETURN: Cartagena to Panama City, Panama City to Los Angeles.

BOGOTA:

Our flight arrived in Bogota at around 9:00 at night. When you get off the plane, you will go through customs which is pretty straight forward. After you are done with customs, you will continue walking where you will see currency exchange booths. If you do decide to change currency here, make sure you put the money in your wallet at the counter before you leave the counter. The reason being; as soon as you leave the currency booth / counter (within footsteps) there are windows that look right outside to the street where people are standing waiting to pick up family members, where taxi drivers wait, etc. They can easily see you stuffing cash, so be discreet. Follow the yellow signs to the right towards the taxi booth (make sure you have directions ahead of time). Give the people at the taxi booth your directions, where in turn they will print out a ticket for you with the price. Wait your turn in line for a taxi driver. Before I left, I had made / confirmed reservations three times with: www.suitesreal.com/es/home85.htm When we arrived....they didnt have our reservations - and were booked full. I didnt make back-up reservations, but our taxi driver suggested another place for us, which was downtown in the commercial district. For some reason, I cant remember the name of the hotel we stayed at (Park Hotel) I think. The place overall was not bad, we just drove around forever trying to find something, and everywhere we went there were many places booked up. You could say that he made a lil money of us driving us around everywhere. 2-bedroom suite, 2bathrooms, no hot water. ($130.00USD per night) I think it was the biggest room they had. Inside the hotel there was a little restaurant, bar, very helpful staff. Whenever we need anything, they were always willing to help, taxis, phone calls, etc. Streets around this hotel were safe, lots of business types and students, very close to La Candelaria. During the daytime, we would walk around everywhere downtown as well as in La Candelaria. The whole time that we were in this area, we didnt see one single tourist, not to say that we were looking for any tourists anyways. After staying at this hotel for two nights, we ended up going back to Suites Real 85, where we ended up staying for two nights. Even though when we first arrived, they lost had our reservation??!! I have to highly recommend this hotel. Front desk staff was very helpful with everything, even though there english was minimal, they seemed to want to practice. If you are a total of four people, or more then two - have them convert the two bed suite, into four beds, turning the couches into additional twin beds. Cost was ($110.00USD) a night. It took a negotiating, but they did it. Continental breakfast was included in the price and was served in our room. Nice option when you were hung over and didnt want to get up out of bed. Easy phone call phone to the kitchen, and they brought to you. Right around the corner from this hotel within easy walking distance was the supermarket, bank, and all the new restaurants, bars, clubs. We walked these streets late night, no problems - lots of tourist police around. If I was solo, I probably wouldnt have done that - but with a group of people it was fine. After four nights in Bogota, we decided it was time to leave and left on a plane to Santa Marta. One wast cost was ($100.00USD) on Avianca. If you dont speak spanish Avianca has an english only line, and they run daily specials so ask. I booked our flight less then 14hrs ahead of time with that price.

ZIPAQUIRA:

It was nice scenic drive, nice to just get out of town for the day - but overall the salt mines were too religious for me. We were interviewed there, by a red headed girl named Peace from the Fox Life channel. Overall, nice to tour once.....but I wouldnt do it again. On the way out we stopped at a local asado, was so grub I can't even tell you - worth the ($5.00USD) we paid, so full - everyone that worked there was happy to take pictures with us. Crazy gringos I bet they were thinking.

SANTA MARTA / TAGANGA:

After you land and exit the plane, you will definitely know you are on the caribbean coast - heat hits you right away. If you take a direct flight from bogota like we did, I would suggest leaving bogota in your shorts and sandals. The airport is really small in Santa Marta, policia abound w/ K-9's looking for the coca. Taxi from here took about 30-45 minutes to get to Taganga. Cost really cheap, split four ways. We ended up staying at the: www.hotelballenaazul.com/index1.htm I can recommend this hotel as well.....staff very very helpful, looked like the nicest place to stay in Taganga. Price was cheap, $60.00USD per night for 4-people. There really isnt much to do in Taganga, very remote small lazy town, little restaurants, markets, tour operators, dive schools, fruit smoothie stands. We ended up staying there for three nights. Best thing to do was walk down the street and get a couple to go pizzas, couple bottles of rum, couple cases of beer, play music on the top balcony of the hotel, which the staff is way cool with and everyone that stays there does this. The view is incredible, the water is warm, taking a dip during the day and at night is the thing to do. There are many Israelis in Taganga, and many of the signs here are in hebrew. We had lots of drinks with them, chatted the nights away.

PARQUE TAYRONA:

Very beautiful, very remote place, I will never forget traveling here. We decided instead of paying for the boat in, that we would take a taxi from taganga (nice drive) to the parque entrance. Once you get there you pay the entrance fees ($15.00USD roughly) then take the taxi up a little bit more to the beginning of the starting trail. The hike takes roughly about 2-1/2 to 3hrs at a somewhat steady pace. For the first hour, you will be hiking through thick jungle, very hot and sticky - red ants everywhere. We did this hike in sandals, shoes are not necessary. Dont stop for long.....or you will have red ants all over you. There are signs posted telling you how far you have walked, how far you have to go. Also, very important is to bring a backpack with you, change of clothes, rain jacket, flashlight, rum, essentials. You will arrive at the first beach in a little over an hour (Arecieffes) which is amazing. You can cool off here, but dont go swimming at the first two beaches as the currents are very strong .You can only swim at the last beach. The rest of the hike you will be walking down beaches with a of more jungle. Overall, it's a relatively easy hike....but the feeling is special - and the beaches are deserted. When you arrive at the last beach, there is a restaurant, and a little store that sells beer, etc. Here you can rent a tent or a hammock, hammock were ($10.00USD) a night. You will need to pay, sign in, show your passport. Looking through there check in books two months back, we were the only ones from the states that had been there. There is a cliff with a hut on top that has hammocks for rent as well. We decided to stay the night in the hut on the cliff, nice views - until the mini hurricane came. The wind and the rain was very intense, hammocks were soaked head to toe, too small to wrap / cover up in. Worst night of my life as far as sleep goes, and the ambien was of no help. We took a boat back to taganga, I think it was like ($15.00USD) per person. They come daily, around 2:00 in the afternoon.

CARTAGENA:

We left Taganga on a shuttle bus with a nice couple from Ireland that the hotel arranged for us.

Cost was $30.00USD per person. If you want to know more about Cartagena, please let me know...

calinomadic at yahoo.com

By Calinomadic on Aug 14, 2007, 12:13 in Friendly Talkzone.

Peter (Moderator) (Trustee board) (Dev team) (☼Travelguide writer) says on Aug 14, 2007, 13:25:

That's a great tripreport, thanks for sharing!

Poor but snappy

0 funny, 0 helpful.

danronian says on Aug 14, 2007, 14:42:

Good account! I plan on visiting Santa Marta from here in Bucaramanga for a weekend soon. The $28 bus ride is the route I'm planning on taking. I wish I could go for more than a weekend, but my novia being at the university studying makes off-time limited.

There is some areas in La Candelaria in Bogota where I saw lots of internationals, but there is other sections where it's not the case. Glad you liked Bogota, and hopefully you explored the area a bit.

0 funny, 0 helpful.

margaritac says on Aug 14, 2007, 15:03:

place to stay in la candelaria is Platypus Hostel

0 funny, 0 helpful.

msaucey says on Aug 14, 2007, 15:21:

Thanks for sharing Calinomadic, I think you should elaborate on Cartagena... Everyone's experience is different...

The trouble about trying to make yourself stupider than you really are is that you very often succeed. - CS Lewis

0 funny, 0 helpful.