Colombia terrestre

It´s only 10 days since I arrived in Colombia and it seems ages ago - loads of interesting places in such a short time! So before I head off to remote Carribean beaches and islands in Tayrona (and will certainly be offline!) here´s all about my visit to mainland Colombia.

I arrived in the city of Cali after a very long trip from Baños, Ecuador, and was welcomed by my friend Isa's parents, who invited me to stay in their amazing home. I also got to spend a day with Isa's lovely friends Cata, Paulo and Gabi at a very rustic finca in the mountains.

After a few days I continued to Salento in the coffee region where I got the real stuff from Don Elias at his coffee plantation (coffee in Ecuador usually had a suspicious taste of washing-up water). The main activity in Saltento, however, is a hike up the beautiful, though somewhat misty, Valle de Cocora, where wax palm trees with a height of up to 70 m grow on surreal green hills.

At my 1-day stop in Bogotá I was hosted by Ana, Isa's sister (since she had promised me I would be passed around her whole family in Colombia :) She took me to the amazing event steak-house Andrés Carne de Res, the best food I've had so far on this trip!

People in Colombia are exceptionally nice, they sincerely try to help if you are lost or have any questions, I have hardly noticed any of the usual tourist rip-offs, kids don't beg (yet) even in the most touristy places, and you can walk around without being hassled (what a relief after my last trip to India!)

So the next stop was Villa de Leyva, a picture-book colonial town, great to visit for a day, then San Gil, the outdoor adventure sports capital of Colombia. My programm on the first day was kind of conservative though - a trip to the 180 m high waterfall Juan Curi and an afternoon in Barichara, a colonial town so perfectly preserved it has become a popular film set for Columbian telenovelas.

My second day in San Gil was more exciting - I signed up for a paragliding tandem-flight! San Gil and its surroundings are a paragliding mekka, it's possible to fly on almost all days of the year. Just on the day I went it looked as if we would not have enough wind - our only pilot accidentally crashed way down the mountain with the third person he carried, and it looked as if there would be no more flying for the rest of us. But then 3 more pilots arrived, the wind picked up and all of us went home with big grins on our faces!

Colombia

(I wanted to add a picture of my flight yesterday but just found that a vicious virus has attacked my camera card, will add it later once I restored the data - thanks, Macondo Hostel computer!)