My overnight bus from Medellin brought me to Bogota, the capital of Colombia. Bogota is a sprawling city of over 6 million people in the Andes mountains at 8500 feet (I’m probably one of the few visitors that lives at a higher altitude). While I didn’t love Bogota I appreciated it for what it is and really enjoyed the recreational opportunities it offered.
Yeah I went to some museums (more on that later) and saw important landmarks but the best thing I did was ride a bike with tens of thousands of my closest Colombian friends. Every Sunday in Bogota is Ciclovia. The City shuts down streets all around town to allow cyclists with a few runners, walkers and rollerbladers mixed in, free roam of these streets. I rode 35 miles, much of it on major roads, and barely scratched the surface of the available streets. The sheer number of people that were out taking advantage of the opportunity was amazing and impressive as I saw thousands and thousands of people just in my small range.
Riding was fun, getting to that point was lets just say, interesting. Knowing about Ciclovia, I debated whether to rent a bike on my own or do a free bike tour. I went into a bike shop the day before to inquire about renting a bike and got the information, but then when I asked about the explosions I heard, I got invited to join in a game of Tejo in the back room (bonus). If you don’t remember, Tejo is a game similar to cornhole except with explosions.
Ultimately, I decided on the bike tour figuring I might meet some people, so the next morning I met my guide and two fellow cyclists (a couple). After taking 30 minutes to bicycle only 5 blocks, and listening to one of the tour guests repeatedly ask questions I could care less about (is that building made of sandstone?) I knew I made a mistake. So, I left the tour (the guide at that spot could give my bike to someone) and rushed to my bike rental/Tejo shop and rented my bike.
The next day I walked up approx 1,800 feet to a church (Monserrate) at the top of a hill overlooking Bogota. It was a hard hike similar in profile to one I do at home frequently, Mt. Royal. However, this was more difficult and rather than seeing 10-20 people, there were again literally thousands of people, including families (FYI, I discovered if you want serenity, don’t do this hike on a Colombian holiday). I will say seeing this many people, young and old, hiking up those steps was amazing.
Oh and blah, blah, blah, yeah I did some walking tours, walked through markets, and went to a couple museums. Actually one museum I really liked. My new favorite artist is Botero. He’s a Colombian artist that donated all of the art for the museum, mostly his work but also works by any artist you can name Picasso, Monet, Degas, Calder (you can name more not me, that’s all I know). However, he donated it all on one condition, that the museum remain free forever because he wants art to be for everyone, not just those who can afford the price of admission.
After Bogota I was gonna head south to a desert but as I usually do, decided against it because of all the time I’ve spent in Utah and Arizona. Instead I headed to La Feria de Manizales, the Manizales Fair. Manizales is a city in the coffee region that also sits next to a large national park with an active volcano and a glacier. My intent was to also do a trek up the glacier but unfortunately I couldn’t get that to fit timing-wise. Luckily the fair did not disappoint. The fair is known around the country but Manizales is off the backpacker circuit so not many non-Colombian tourists attend. There were about 10 people obviously not Latino in my hostel and we were the only ones we saw the 4 days I was there.
The fair runs for a week and culminates with the crowning of the Coffee Queen. In between were nightly concerts, parties, and events all around town. Through the city center was a mile long market with vendors in tents or under umbrellas selling booze, food, hats, clothing, and even kitchen gadgets (with live infomercial sale pitches). Not far from one end is the Plaza de Toros where they had daily bull fights.
I saw my second parade of this trip (spoiler alert, there will be at least one more in Feb) and we all thought the parade was more fun than the bullfight (Colombians know how to throw a parade). The fair also included a number of athletic competitions such as soccer, basketball, and billiards but the one I had to see was the Red Bull Urban Downhill. Mountain bicyclists raced down through a neighborhood on a course that included flights of stairs down narrow walkways and jumps built in the streets.
I then headed deeper into coffee country to Salento, a town that is filled with tourists and horses. My first night in Salento I met up with Moritz, an Austrian friend from Manizales and spent the night drinking in the town square. We met a couple Colombian girls and one, who is a veterinarian, invited me to her horse farm to go riding if I visited her town. I didn’t go there but I guess the Spanish lessons worked (actually, she spoke English). The rest of my time was spent with other friends I met in Manizales (Tony from France) or Medellin, and a bunch of French people (I met more French people here than when I was in France), wandering around town, on a coffee plantation tour, hiking in the nearby Valle de Cocora where really really tall palm trees grow, or in the bars again playing Tejo (unfortunately the explosions don’t seem to work while I am getting filmed).
My last stop in Colombia was a small town called Jerico. I heard it was similar to one of my favorite places, Jardin, and since I still had a few days, I wanted to check it out. I decided I would head over the next day and since it would be a long travel day, my biggest priority was to get some food for the trip. I later realized my biggest priority should have been booking a hostel because when I tried to do that, I got the cold hard realization that Jerico had no room at the inn, literally. Every place in town was booked for the weekend. I guess the Hay Festival is very popular (Hay in Espanol means “there is”).
And this ladies and gentleman is where the awesomeness of backpacking comes into play. Jack, one of my friends I met earlier in Colombia, has volunteered at a Spanish school in Jerico for a few weeks and after the owner’s brother’s friend backed out, got the guest bed at the school, the only available bed in Jerico, reserved for me. While there we did a little hiking but mostly just hung out with the workers from the school, and in town enjoying the festival and the Colombian pueblo atmosphere (it’s awesome).
Colombia became a travel priority for me six years ago but got delayed because of the pandemic. I’m happy to say that after all this time, it did not disappoint. Thank you Colombia and the friends I met. Hasta Luego.
Life is good!! Fins Up!!
Now, no way you’ll guess where I’m going to next (I leave tonight).