Having decided to return to Europe earlier than planned (we had been planning on heading through Central America until the end of July before heading back to the UK for wedding season) we had spent 2 weeks in London planning our spontaneous adventure through Europe. This started with sending our amazing travel family in the South of France a message saying…”You know how we said we’d be coming in September…how about in 2 weeks instead?!” Luckily for us they are very flexible people and within no time at all we had arranged to start our journey in France. Our original plan (we know…never make a plan) was to do our usual trains and buses around Europe so we booked a very cheap flight to France and started mapping out the parts of Europe we hadn’t explored yet and still wanted to go to. However, as so often happens our plan was completely turned upside down when we stumbled across our friends Facebook posts about travelling in a Spaceship (for those of you who don’t know what this is they are a common way to travel New Zealand and Australia and are converted camping cars). This suddenly sparked an idea that as soon as it had been formed started turning into a very different trip. Some of the countries on the original itinerary went out the window for insurance reasons and places we had never seriously contemplated (Hello Andorra and Lichtenstein) were added. 4 days prior to flying to France we had to send our friends a message saying that we would be arriving a day later as we were now driving across. We picked up the Spaceship (aptly named Hamster) in the London depot and hit the road. We had booked a passage on the Eurotunnel (€120/$180.90 AUD/143.6 USD), which is actually a train you drive on to that takes you through the Channel Tunnel and arrived in Folkstone with plenty of time to take our scheduled train. The great thing about booking is that even if you arrive early they will just slot you on to the next available train instead of making you wait around. The journey is super quick and before you could even say ‘Bonjour!’ we were there. We had planned on driving as far as Orleans that night as we did not want to fight the Parisian traffic in the morning and we checked into a chain motel called F1 for €33 a night. The next morning we were up bright and early to finish the over 1000km journey to Cabrières. I can tell you turning up at Pauline and Roman’s was a welcome sight and when they came out with cold beer and more cheese than I had seen in my life within 5 minutes of arriving we knew that we wouldn’t be leaving anytime soon. The plan had been to stay 3-4 days…we stayed 6. Partially because of the wonderful hospitality and mainly to do with finally getting to spend time with our gorgeous little niece. I’m telling you it was a miracle that we even left at all and if it hadn’t have been for our now newly arranged trip to return in September I’m not sure we would have. Stop 2 in France was to go and see Uncle Nick who we had met in Bolivia. He gave us a very warm welcome, yet more cheese (sensing a theme?) and a wonderful tour of Toulouse before we headed off to Andorra. Now as a Kiwi I have a fascination with microcountries so after discovering the existence of Andorra and it’s proximity to Barcelona (which was to be our next stop), a visit here was a must! Driving to Andorra still remains to be one of the prettiest drives we’ve ever done. No one really talks about how beautiful the Pyrenees really are. Stunning mountainscapes, green fields, and quaint little villages the whole way through until you start climbing into the snow capped mountains that create the natural border of Andorra. As Andorra is a skiing destination we did notice driving through the first part that it was mainly deserted until the following winter. However, once you reach the other side of the mountain suddenly the place starts to liven up and turn into…the prettiest open-air shopping mall you’ve ever seen. Duty free stores line the streets and gas stations offering incredibly cheap petrol and diesel dot the highway. Pulling over to fill up with gas I decided to check out one of these duty free shops and, overwhelmed by excitement, I quickly left to find my wife so she could return with the credit card. Stocking up on the essentials…a fridge magnet for my mother, a pin for Dani’s mother, 2 Andorra patches, a Christmas decoration and an egg cup for fun we also filled the basket with food items that had cost a lot more in France I ‘tap-tapped’ it and we were off again. Slowly loosing hope of finding a camp ground after pulling up to one advertised, only to find out it was shut we decided to abandon the idea of staying in Andorra and started to head for Spain. Just as we reached the other side of Andorra de Villa we saw a sign for another campground. By this stage it was 7.30 at night and we were pretty tired so we pulled in only to be told that if we waited outside for another 30 minutes it would halve the price of a night’s stay. He wasn’t budging on the 8 o’clock time limit so we parked up and waited. Pulling into the campground at 8.05 we were ready, after over a week on the road to sleep in the car for the very first time. We slept surprisingly well that night and in the morning we sat admiring the green surroundings over tea and coffee while I desperately tried to get close enough to the Wi-Fi spot for news of a new baby in the family. Well rested and ready to go we set off for Barcelona. We had found a campground 10km out of the centre of Barcelona called Camping Masnou that had a train that took you directly into the city. This turned out to be a great option as we had the luxury of being by the water in a nice space without the Barcelona weekend prices. We parked up next to a lovely German couple and set up camp. Barcelona turned very quickly into one of our favourite cities. Surprise surprise within minutes of arriving Dani had booked us onto the walking tour the next day! We started with the Barcelona old town tour, which was incredibly informative and impressed us so much that we booked on to their Gaudi tour for the following day. After a wonderful morning of learning about the old city we made our way to La Bombetta, which was a tapas restaurant that had been recommended to us by our friends in France. After what felt like a lifetime (we hadn’t eaten much in preparation to gorge on tapas) we were sat at our table and went through the menu trying to decipher what was on offer. Luckily for us our Spanish isn’t too bad these days and we wrote down a list of dishes we wanted to order. Dani had just got through the list of vegetarian dishes we were ordering when the waiter decided we could not order anymore and refused to write anything else down. Boy was he surprised when not only did we finish all that we had ordered but then had to wave him back 3 further times to order what we had not been allowed to order in the first place. This turned out to be a very good recommendation and along with Segrada Familia (you need to book in advance to be able to enter, a mistake that we had to learn the hard way) and La Bocqueria one of our favourite experiences. We spent way too much money in Barcelona…not because it’s a particularly expensive city (by European capital standards it’s not really) but because we got over excited about all the cool souvenirs we could buy.
We had been planning to travel back through the South of France to get to our next planned visit to one of our closest friends in Italy. Those of you who don’t know us won’t know that our last trip to Italy had not been very successful and we had actually vowed never to return. It is the only country (out of 44) that we had experienced any homophobia outside of our everyday existence and we had decided it was one of very few countries we weren’t willing to give a second chance. This was thrown out the window when Parsley (long story) moved to Italy. Again as plans change and we had spent longer than anticipated in France we found the option of a 20-hour ferry journey from Barcelona to just outside of Rome was going to be our best option. This ferry journey cost €150 for the car and both passengers which seemed reasonable when you add up the costs of petrol and accommodation to drive round the coast. We had read reviews about Grimaldi and they weren’t particularly promising, however we didn’t find the journey unpleasant. As long as you come prepared it’s a relatively easy crossing but if you have the car make sure you get everything you need out of it before the journey starts as you will not have access to the car until you are docked again. The process at the other end was a little disorganised but it was incredible how fast the cars were unloaded once we got moving. Now came the difficult task of finding somewhere to stay for the night. We found a lake on the map and thought…if there’s a lake, there’s likely to be a campground. Pulling up at almost 9 at night we had stumbled across the mecca of camping. Beautiful lakeside plots gorgeous sunset views, impeccable amenities and great shady spots to park the car. We took out our table and chairs, sat them outside the van and had a long needed cup of tea while watching the sunset over the lake…paradise. Unfortunately we had a deadline to make for being in Southern Italy so as soon as we were caffeinated in the morning we were out. To be continued...
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After two wonderfully peaceful days in Jardin, we made our way to Medellín where our friend Erwin had kindly arranged for us to stay with his friend as we had been concerned about where we would stay during the really religious days of Semana Santa. This turned out to be an amazing surprise indeed. Not only did Carmello pick us up from the bus station he also took us to his favourite area for dinner so that we could catch a glimpse of Medellín’s famous nightlife (a rare thing for us indeed as we are often reverse vampires who melt in the dark). We had no idea that Carmello and Erwin had arranged for Erwin to come across from Bogota to show us around for the time he was off work during Semena Santa. On our first day, we walked into the centre from the apartment in the hills and did a bit of shopping and then slowly climbed the hill back to the apartment knowing that we didn’t really want to explore too much before Erwin arrived. Taking advantage of a free apartment we caught up on some blogging and had an easy day. The next morning Erwin arrived with his friends and almost immediately we were bundled up into the car (lets not forget Bogota is an 8 hour drive which he had done through the night) to head to Guatapé. Guatapé is a man-made lake about 2 hours outside of Medellín (on a good day). We weren’t going on a good day though and due to Semana Santa this trip took us the better part of 3 1/2hrs. After a delicious lunch we made the trek up the 740 steps to the top of El Peñon de Guatapé (15,000 COP/$6.80 AUD/5.10 USD) where you get the most incredible views of the region. Exhausted we decided Dani would brave the Colombian roads and drive back to allow the 3 who had travelled through the night to sleep in the back. The next morning it was decided that we would walk through the centre of Medellín and check out both Botero’s sculpture work and the cable car that takes you up what was once Medellín’s most dangerous suburbs. Botero very much believed in his art being accessible to the public so you do not have to pay to visit his sculptures they are just dotted around a square in the middle of the city and are definitely worth a look! The cable car is part of the metro system so it only costs the price of a metro ticket (4,600 COP/$2.10 AUD/1.60 USD) and is also quite a cool experience. Overall, we had a great time in Medellín, we know there was a lot more to do there that we didn't do but it bring Semana Santa our options became severly limited! After we bid farewell to our friends we took a few extra relaxation days in Medellín before taking the night bus to Cartagena. We had looked at both the bus and plane options because believe it or not in Colombian buses are as expensive as the cheap flights provided by Viva Colombia. We decided in the end to take the bus because this would save us on accommodation but did book a flight to Bogota from Cartagena as this would save us 24 hours on the bus, not either of our ideas of a good time! Knowing that the bus station in Cartagena is actually about an hours bus journey from the old city upon our arrival, we set out in search of the promised bus. It turns out that this is super easy to find as there is a small waiting room outside the station that will let you know when the bus arrives. Hungry and tired we jumped off the bus to a street full of hot and delicious snacks. Stocking up we set off into the heat (and boy was it hot!) The first place we found for a reasonable price was on the main street of Getsemani (this is a suburb about 10 minutes away from the walled city which is slightly more run down but still pretty and much cheaper) called Hotel Cartegena Real Inn. This place was ok but the showers were aweful and the room was hot as well as noisy. We decided it would do for the night and that we would search for somewhere better for the rest of our time there. Now, Cartagena has great name worldwide for it's beautiful architecture. This is somewhat true and it really is colourful and very pretty but we did find that it lacked some of the charm of other places we had visited in Colombia. It sort of had that ruined by tourists vibe. There were some amazing experiences we had there like our fantastic walking tour with Edgar who showed us a true passion for Colombia and the need to share the changes it has undergone with people around the world. On said walking tour, we met a really nice couple and shared travel stories over a drink that evening. Having found (what turned out to be a brothel, haha Riv strikes again) a slightly better guesthouse we moved around the corner the next day and set about finding what we had been looking for over half the continent. A cooking class! We signed up for Duran Duran’s cooking class (for more about the cooking class check out our Foodie Friday post about cooking classes around the world) and made a special request to learn how to make Colombian street food. Duran Duran could not have been more helpful in accommodating our special request and on the morning of the cooking class he picked us up from the guesthouse. Already in the car were another lovely gay couple from the States. We got on really well with the guys and we had a wonderful day cooking, drinking and eating. We ended up meeting them for a drink the next evening and had a wonderful time watching the sunset and meeting some of their friends at a roof top bar that overlooks the clock tower. Having spent a glorious few days in Cartagena it was time to head to our last stop in South America...Bogotá (Our flight to Bogotá was leaving early in the morning so we grabbed a cab to the airport and checked in. It turned out we could have slept a little longer that morning because all flights to Bogota were delayed (this had been a constant problem since we arrived in the Americas). We sent a quick message to our friend Erwin to say we were going to be late and eventually boarded the plane. Erwin met us at the airport and took us back to his apartment. We were so fortunate having Erwin to welcome us to Bogota and we had an amazing time just hanging out with him and his friends. We had one day where Erwin was going to be working so we decided this was when we would do the Bogota walking tour. This turned out to be a great decision because our guide Laura was absolutely fantastic and would go down as one of the best walking tours we had ever done. True to form on all Colombian walking tours she was more interested in showing us how Colombia had developed and how its reputation is no longer deserved than the money she earned from the tour. If you were only going to do one walking tour in Colombia this one would have to be it. We left with a new love for Colombia’s capital city and still very much in love with the country. On the day Erwin was not working he took us to the Salt Cathedral (50,000 COP/$21.17 AUD/16.74 USD) in a town about an hour away from Bogotá. It’s in an active salt mine and has the most incredible acoustics that on a Sunday can be truly appreciated when the choir is singing for Sunday services. If you have had the fortune of visiting the salt mines in Poland this is very different and is a modern church but still worth the visit. It was with heavy hearts that we bid farewell to Erwin and Colombia early the next morning. We were flying back to the UK to do some travelling around Europe before the summer wedding season that will see us attending 3 sets of friends weddings but, Colombia, we are not done with you! We have left a piece of our hearts with you forever and that crush has turned in to a full on love affair. It’s not goodbye it is see you soon. Budget Time $$$Budgeting in Colombia was an interesting task. While it was by no means the most expensive of our South American destinations, it certainly did not fit into the cheap category either. What made it different from almost every other country we had visited before was the fact that there was not one particular part of travelling around that was significantly more expensive or cheaper than another. What I mean by this is that often you find if transport around a country is a major expense then accommodation or food or entertainment is really cheap, so over the course of a couple of weeks it balances out. In Colombia, I noticed that everything is pretty middle of the road. Nothing feels like it is extortionately pricey but nothing is surprisingly cheap either. It is pretty much a country of value for money. In some ways during our trip we were incredibly lucky because having Erwin meant we escaped the possibility of unfeasibly high accommodation costs during a public holiday and the expense of transport to some of Colombia's highlight tourist spots!! Over the course of our three week stay in Colombia we managed to just squeeze in under our $70AUD/day budget which did include an internal flight, a cooking course and a chocolate making course but we would absolutely not have been able to have done this had it not been for the seven nights of free accommodation arranged for us by Erwin. Overall, it seems fair to say that Colombia is not a cheap destination in South America but it is also not an expensive one and if there was one country in the whole of the region that we visited that I would have been more than happy to blow the budget in then this would be it! From a savvy budgeter’s point of view a few things to really bare in mind are that: 1) Unlike most other countries internal flights are often as cheap if not cheaper than buses and given the size of the country and much more preferable alternative 2) Widespread international tourism is still a relatively new thing in Colombia so if you are willing to look and willing to ask you can often find yourself a good deal - they are very lovely and accommodating people, but don't take them for a ride! 3) Colombian produce is Colombia is often more expensive than it is outside of the country as the majority of it is exported, so if you are looking for authentic Colombian gifts for you or your family it might actually be more worth while to seek out locally made handicrafts than your expected coffee and chocolate idea! Budget Breakdown in AUD: Transport: $402.81 Entertainment: $327.10 Food: $251.29 Accomodation: $224.07 Souvenirs: $138.21 Drinks: $76.90 Miscellaneous: $20.56 Total: $1440.94 This is a daily budget of $32.75 per person per day. LGBT: Colombia is a very religious country however they take a very liberal view of their religious beliefs. We were welcomed everywhere we went and the gay men we met had nothing negative to say about being gay in Colombia. Our marriage was valid in Colombia and gay couples have the right to adopt here. Colombians are warm, accepting and open minded for the most part. As for trans rights there is legal recognition of changing your gender identity on legal paperwork and there is no need for psychiatric or physical examination to do so. There is also protection from discrimination and all LGBT people are allowed to join the military.
The country we left a little piece of us behind inWhere do I even begin with this country? Despite warnings about the reputed travel phenomenon of the Colombian claw of needing to stay longer than planned or rerouting your travel plans to return neither Dani or I felt we would find much of interest to us here. Boy were we wrong! We fell for this country and we fell hard. Within 2 days of arriving in this wondrous place we were like giddy school girls with their first crush, when they've just been told that someone told so and so that somebody had heard that they like you too. Or for you gay girls out there, that moment when you get the definitive answer that that girl you had your eye on, but weren't sure which way she swings, plays on the same team. Big beaming grins were plastered on our faces as soon as we woke up and I (who had been suffering from some serious travel fatigue) felt the heaviness seeping out as we basked in the glow of our new crush that seemed pretty keen on us too. I grew up next door to a Colombian family and vividly remember hearing Ruth's laugh from across the street. Her warmth would grasp you from the moment you spoke to her and her smile just made you feel safe. This is the reason I had always wanted to come but due to it's reputation and other Colombian friends/students Dani and I had, it wasn't high on our priority list. It turns out Colombia had everything I had been looking for in South America. The warmth, the music, the colour, the food, the energy and above all else a feeling of comfort and safety we were not expecting. We crossed the border with some confusion over where to get our exit stamps from Ecuador. It turns out that the car drops you off near Colombian immigration so you have to head back over to Ecuador and stamp out. To avoid any confusion the entry and exit lines for Ecuador are in fact the same so just stand in the queue and wait your turn. We then headed over to Colombia and we're stamped in with no hassle. A glorious sight beheld us on the other side...a woman with our favourite type of polystyrene box filled to capacity with freshly made local snacks, right there as we opened the door into our next country. Now if you have read our Ecuador post you may already know that we had pushed through to the border straight from the airport in Quito. This had meant that we hadn't eaten anything substantial by this stage since breakfast the day before. This woman stared at us in amazement as we basically asked for one of everything she had. This was a great start to our Colombian culinary journey. Following this acquistion and very speedy consumption, with a bit of negotiation we hopped into a taxi (6,000 COP/$2.70 AUD/2.05 USD) and headed for the bus station to get to Popayan. The bus station had many friendly service providers who had buses leaving within an hour of our arrival. We went with the company that was leaving first for 30,000 COP ($13.60 AUD/10.25 USD). The scenery between the border and Popayan is incredible. Beautiful green rolling hills, dotted with plantations and the prettiest little farmhouses. There are also waterfalls that cascade down by the side of the road. We were in total awe...no one had mentioned how stunning Colombia was. We arrived at the station and weren't in the mood for finding our way into the city to find a guesthouse so after a couple of attempts at finding reasonably priced accommodation we stumbled across a sweet family run place which looked ok above a mechanics shop. As soon as we were connected to Wi-Fi Dani booked us on a walking tour of the city for the next day and then we headed out for some food. Even around the bus station there were culinary delights on every corner. Dani settled for a pastille, which are large parcels off meat, rice and beans wrapped with banana leaf. I opted for a couple of arepa con queso, which are a staple in Colombia and come with almost every meal. The city of Popayan is a gorgeous example of a colonial city and it is completely white. It dazzled in the sun as we wandered through its cobbled streets sampling every snack we came across (I'd like to say it was because we hadn't eaten by this stage properly for 2 days but it hey lezbehonest we probably would have done it anyway) our greatest discovery was on our walking tour when we were taken to a place to have Salpicón Payanés this is a common drink all over Colombia but this place does it slightly differently to the street stalls blending mora berries (South American blackberries) with lulo (for those kiwis out there it tastes surprisingly like feijoa) and orange with ice. It's delicious and perfect for a hot day. Now there was some debate as to whether we continued on to our next destination after only 2 nights but we found out that our friend Jen we'd met in Ecuador would be in Salento the next day, so our decision was made. We could catch a minivan to Almania and then a bus to Salento…easy. Salento is awash with colourful traditional houses amidst the low lying coffee plantations of the Colombian Andes. This was my dream. As I was a barista in a past life I have a huge passion for not just making and drinking coffee but also for the details around harvesting and roasting coffee. It turned out that Plantation House (one of the guesthouses set on a coffee plantation) had a tour that contained a talk about growing coffee, the history of coffee in Colombia, a tasting and a roasting demonstration. I learnt so much about coffee here and it has given me the desire to roast my own on return to New Zealand. The owner has a fabulous idea he is trying to get off the ground, which is leasing plants that they grow so that the yield is yours. I can tell you after sampling their coffee I will be the first to sign up when he gets it off the ground. One surprising fact we did learn is that Colombians don’t really drink real coffee. All the amazing Colombian beans we get overseas are there finest quality while Colombians are left with the low-grade beans. This is why they’ve developed Tinto which is more like a weak coffee scented sugar drink that is available country wide. Salento is also a great base for Valle de Corcora which is a valley set with wax palms (the tallest palms in the world) where you can walk through farmland and up in to the forest to a “hummingbird sanctuary” I say this because it is more like a café that puts food out to attract the birds than a sanctuary but it’s well worth the climb for the close up experience and the hot chocolate and cheese (see Foodie Friday for it’s full description) that comes with the entry (5,000 COP/$2.25 AUD/1.70 USD). After a good catch up with Jen and a few days of drinking some fabulous coffee it was time to manoeuvre our way to Jardin. It is a tiny village in the mountains about 3 hours south of Medellín. This proved to be slightly more complicated than we had imagined. Even with Jen (who speaks fluent Spanish) we still weren’t any clearer on how to get there after asking the man at the Salento bus station. We did know we needed to get to Pereira first before continuing on our journey this stage one is only about an hour and was very easy. We arrived there and had it confirmed that we were heading the right way and that we had enough time to grab a good breakfast. We caused a bit of a stir at the bus station when the stern policeman approached Dani to examine her bag. I can’t say that given Colombia’s reputation we weren’t a little nervous but this feeling swiftly drifted away when he broke into a great big smile and simply questioned why we did not yet have a Colombia patch! Full and ready for the next, inevitably more complicated stage, we made our way to the next mini van and off we set for Bolombolo. After yet another spectacular drive we were ushered off said minivan into a dusty car park. Slightly nervous now as we had no way of knowing where our final bus was going to stop and realizing quickly that everyone around us was drunk because it was the first day of Semana Santa (Easter Holy Week) we followed a local woman who had been instructed by a fellow passenger on the last bus where we were going. Finally we found the bus station, which was about 500m up the road and enquired about a ticket. The man looked slightly confused but then nodded and showed us the waiting area. This is when it really started to look bad. There were 4 of us waiting and several buses had chugged past filled to the brim with people off to spend the holidays with family. A bus finally pulled up and after being forcefully shoved to it’s driver we were told that there was only room for 2 people. Desperation setting in as it was starting to get concerningly late we begged him to allow us travel like locals and sit in the aisle as the other 2 passengers were travelling alone (we have noticed in many countries in South America unlike Asia, bus drivers are more reluctant to let gringos sit in obscure places to fill in space). We settled into the last leg of the journey and were starting to relax into the idea that we may arrive just before the rain started in and the sun set. It turned out we relaxed a little too soon, as our bus was pulled over by the military for a random search. We were taken off the bus to be searched on the side of the road. Soldiers (complete with guns and sniffer dogs) took turns to go through belongings and pat people down. Again, like earlier in the day this should have been a slightly scary experience however the soldier leading the search had one of the warmest smiles I’ve ever seen. Having decided we were all clean and that the sniffer dogs hadn’t found anything left on board he wished everyone a happy holy week and we were on our way. We arrived in Jardin as the sun was setting having been on the road since 7.30 that morning and were again surprised by the willingness for people to help us. Dani asked a woman in broken Spanish where we could find the guesthouses and suddenly she was on the phone to her friend to get a good recommendation. Unfortunately for us we didn’t really understand her instructions so we just headed in the direction she pointed in and found a little guesthouse just off the main square. It wasn’t great (this is a bit of an understatement) but it had a room with a private bathroom and the second one even had a plug socket (that he wanted to charge us extra for). The beds were like sleeping on concrete blocks but it was warm and we were done for the day.
Up early due aforementioned beds we thought we’d start with a breakfast in the main square. We found a little spot that did an excellent breakfast complete with hot chocolate and cheese before making our way around the little town. Jardin is tiny but it is beautiful. It is the most colourful place we came across in Colombia and the square lined with old timers chatting and sipping on tinto was great. It also has a wonderful walk up to the cable car which is more like a closed basket on a wire rope that swings you over the ravine back to the city (I’m not going to lie my heart was beating more than a little fast as I climbed in) but gives you a great view of the town as you whistle down. Jardin was definitely my favourite stop. |
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