Colombia: Colour, Coffee, Culture & Cuisine

Rachel Callus – July 2024
Specialist Consultant –  South America Travel Centre

Four words to sum up Colombia: Colour, Coffee, Culture & Cuisine

It’s such a beautiful, diverse, and fascinating country. Colombia has been on my bucket list for years.
In July 2024 I finally had the chance to visit this less frequently explored corner of South America.

Cartagena has a beautiful old walled city – a walk along it affords beautiful views as well as sea breeze.

BOGOTA  

As I have said Colombia is a diverse country, made up by several distinct regions: Andes, Amazon, Caribbean and Pacific coastal regions and the Llanos (plains) region. I spent most of my time between two regions, the Andes and the Caribbean.  This included the Andean cities of Bogota (2640 metres), Medellin (1500 metres) and the Coffee Region (1800-2400 metres), and ended on the Caribbean coast, which encompasses the town of Cartagena, Tayrona National Park and a beautiful choice of colonial villages.

My first stop was Bogota, to visit the Museo De Oro (Gold Museum) housing around 30,000 pre-Hispanic gold objects, made up of masks, figurines and jewellery.  There’s also another 30,000 objects made of precious stones, shells and bone.

My base in Bogota was the trendy and very comfortable Bioxury Hotel.  Bioxury is located in the El Retiro neighbourhood and has a very good restaurant and two roof-top lounges offering stunning views of the city.

Next stop was the Museo Botero (Botero Museum), located in the La Candelaria neighbourhood of Bogota, to see Fernando Botero’s oil paintings, drawings and sculptures.  His works are easily recognisable by the unique deliberate oversized depiction of people and animals. His personal collection of Monet, Renoir and Picasso was an unexpected highlight.

Zipaquira Salt Cathedral, located 49kms north of Bogota, and 200 metres underground was extraordinary. One of the main sections of the cathedral is the 14 Stations of the Cross.  The cathedral has massive chandeliers made of salt, a selection of gift shops selling salt ornaments of every variety and even an ice-creamery.  Sunday Mass is held here occasionally, and visitors are in the 1000’s per day.

VILLA DE LEYVA  

My next destination was the  town of Villa De Leyva.  The colourful town of Raquira provides an opportunity break the journey and to sample some of Colombia’s famed coffee as well as an opportunity to wander through various gift shops offering locally made pottery, paintings and ponchos.    Soon I reach Villa De Leyva which has the longest and widest cobblestone square in Colombia.  The square is surrounded by beautiful white-washed colonial buildings and a great selection of restaurants serving local cuisine.

Located near Villa De Leyva is the Museo El Fosil (Fossil Museum) housing the Kronosaurus (an 11 metre long marine reptile) which was discovered in 1977 along with a huge variety of ammonites (coil-shelled cephalopods) .  Nearby is the Museo de Palaeontology (Palaeontology Museum) which houses an additional 500 fossils, some dating back 130 million years.

Other places of interest near Villa De Leyva include:
Monasterio de Santo Ecce Homo founded by the Dominican fathers in 1620 has a long history and  lovely courtyard.
Pozos Azules (Blue Pools) made up of 5 small lakes which appear bright blue.
Casa Terracota, (Terracota House) which is considered to be the largest piece of pottery in the world, taking over a decade to build from nothing but clay.

The charming Hotel Casa Terra was my home whilst exploring this beautiful area of Colombia.  Casa Terra has 11 comfortable rooms.

BARICHARA 

Five hours drive north east from Bogota and I am in Barichara. Barichara operates at a much slower pace than Villa De Leyva, and well known for its local artisans.  A walking tour of this centuries old town is a great option, we stroll past many colourful old  buildings, a visit a traditional paper workshop and end the trip at a coffee shop that also has some excellent chocolate.

I decided to take a 6.2km trek from Barichara to the tiny village of Guane.  It’s a beautiful walk along an old trail, upon arrival into Guane we were welcomed with a cool, and very refreshing, glass of homemade lemonade.  Guane is a typical older Colombian village with cobblestone streets and terracotta roofed houses.  The return to Barichara was much easier as we made the trip in a tuk-tuk.

A short drive from Barichara and I’ve reached Chicamocha National Park and take a 6.3km cable car journey above the canyon.  Lunch was at Finca (farm) San Pedro for a traditional Colombian lunch (more of a feast) hosted by the farm owners.  A walk amongst their coffee plantation was much needed after our extended lunch.

I stayed at the beautiful Hotel Casa Yari for two nights in Barichara

MEDELLIN

Next stop Medellin, a 40 minute flight in a 60 seater propeller aircraft to Medellin.

The city of Medellin was once considered the most dangerous city in the world, even ahead of Chicago.  These days it is one of the friendliest in all of Colombia.  In fact the majority of the locals people have always been very friendly – it’s simply now they are free to express their very warm and accommodating ways.

Communa 13 is one of the ‘must dos’ in Medellin.  It’s a neighbourhood which used to be the most notorious and dangerous in Medellin.  Communa 13 was Pablo Escobar’s home territory.  Today it is completely different, it has been reinvented, with a real party vibe, with lots of Latin music played from every street, a huge variety of souvenir shops and eateries.  The locally made green mango ice-cream with lime and salt is absolutely delicious.  Very talented street artists have brought so much colour and life to this community.    The cable car ride across Medellin offered me a birds eye view of Medellin, to see how huge this sprawling metropolis of 2.5 million people really is. Approximately 30,000 tourists visit Medellin every week.

Patio Del Mundo has just 13 rooms and is located in the heart of Medellin.  These two villas were lovingly restored by a French family.

COFFEE REGION
PEREIRA, FILANDIA, COCORA AND ARMENIA

Next stop the Coffee Region – another quick flight from Medellin to Pereira and my first port of call was Filandia (daughter of the Andes) .  Filandia yet another town of beautifully restored and very colourful buildings, every street is filled with so much colour.

Nearby Cocora is famous for the world’s tallest wax palms, growing up to 60 metres tall.   Located a 20 minute drive away is the town of Salento, known for its coffee estates and farms and a great variety of coffee shops to sample the strong black coffee this region is famous for. There’s also a huge selection of chocolate varieties including black peppercorn, chilli chocolate, salted chocolate and, my favourite, guayaba chocolate.

TAYRONA

Flying from Armenia to Santa Marta we arrived to 35 degree temperature and 85% humidity.  Casa Bambu Tayrona situated approximately an hour away is surrounded by lush tropical plants and trees with a lovely pool that was a welcome respite from the intense heat.  Their salads and coconut lemonade were amazing!

Excursions nearby included a meeting with a spiritual leader from the Katanzama indigenous tribe that introduced us to family members and took us through his traditional village to see the community’s school children learning their traditional customs.

A 5 hour, 12km return trek in Tayrona National Park, with a seafood lunch by the Caribbean Sea and a dip in the ocean was a great reward on a 37 degree day.  The loud calls of the howler monkeys was phenomenal, and the capuchin monkeys were curious of all the trekkers.

CARTAGENA

After 4.5 hours drive south-west, with a quick stop at the huge monument of Barranquilla most famous resident – Shakira –  we arrived in Cartagena; this spectacular city has two temperatures according to  the locals: “hot and hotter”.  A favourite city to visit on anyone’s itinerary to Colombia, Cartagena is filled with delicious food, music, dance, beautiful artwork, souvenir shops and of course more coffee and chocolate shops.  A Cuban Mojito and a Pina Colada at the most famous rooftop bar, Café Del Mar with our local guide gave us the chance to catch our breath and enjoy the sea breeze.

We stayed in the old walled city of Cartagena.  First stop of course, was more coffee at Café San Alberto for a local treat, a black coffee with an almond popsicle upside down sitting in it.  The city is alive all day and all night with Colombian/African music and dancers filling the squares and plazas.

On the outside of the walled city is Getsamani much older than Cartagena and very authentic and a lot more relaxing.  It’s not as touristy as Cartagena but well worth the visit.  Some lovely markets, street stalls, cafes are what you will find in the main streets.  We met up with a French Chef to enjoy our ceviche cooking class.  Who would have thought that tilapia ceviche with mango and coriander could be so delicious!

Our last stop in Cartagena was the San Felipe Castillo (Castle) which actually isn’t a castle at all, but a fort built in the 1500’s in anticipation of the French, British and Netherland invaders.

Colombia is a wonderful country, and with its increasing popularity please book early as many of these small properties book out a long time in advance.

As I hope this article shows Colombia beautiful, colourful, diverse and the people are very welcoming/friendly.  It’s also reasonably affordable – so please take a look at what Colombia has to offer.  I’d obviously love to share my experiences with yoiu and create a journey tailored just for you.

Phone: 1300 784 794
Email: rachel@satc.com.au