Last leg of Colombia

Día catorce, Medellin

I felt rather swish as I got a flight to Medellin from the coast and avoided a 14 hour bus and got a sweet view. The city is pretty developed for Colombia, it has a Metro! Turns out there's a football match on - Cali vs Nacional (a Medellin team). I was jealous of my family off to see Boro at Wembley (though we know how that turned out :-s ) so I was excited to see some footie. Getting into the stadium was a mish, lots of security, no bags, no flags... Yet inside it stank of weed?! No clue how people managed that. The atmosphere was brill - drums, singing, banners, dancing... Just my luck we were directly opposite this lot (season ticket holders doh). Our area was a lot more chilled, or stoned, but the match was good, 3-3, so the goals got people going. There was a crowd near us all shirtless (sadly no David Beckham lookalikes-sob) who sang and jumped non-stop and a column of police penned them in. We assumed these were away fans but chatting to a Colombian guy turns out there are no Cali away fans allowed after last time a huge fight erupted after the match and someone was murdered and also set fire to their bus and the fans either burnt or stabbed. Oh. Awkward. The shirtless guys are just the poorer Nacional fans who started fights so they moved them from the rest. I wonder how they separate them, "One ticket for the topless stabby zone please!"

Día quince, Medellin

The area my hostel is in (Poblado) feels safe and it's a nice temperature, apparently Medellin is the "City of eternal spring" (or the peak of British summer at 25 degrees). So I went for a run! I was very excited about this, so much so that I fell over and added some grazes and bruises to the mix, nice one Soph. I met two lads at the footie, Tom and Kieran, who bought motorbikes in Chile and have been driving them up South America, pretty cool and somewhat dangerous given how people drive here (no comments on my driving please). We wander Medellin and go up a metro owned cable car which you would think would take you to the top but it ended up going into dense forest for a worryingly long time. Genuinely might be going into FARC territory. Blatantly conning tourists into going into the abyss subsidies the rest of the Metro. After I went to the huge Botanical gardens and I saw an enormous iguana, jackpot! That night I freaked out as SOMEHOW I'm head to toe covered in bites (I'm on 80+). No one else has and then some bright spark tells me they're bedbugs. Oh. ARSE. Knowing they're bed bugs makes me want to scratch my own skin off with a Brillo pad. Shudder. This girl wouldn't stop banging on about bedbugs and did I want to see her scars? Oh yeah!! Because that's gonna make me feel better. How about bore off. I did laundry and told the hostel, luckily the girl on reception spoke English even though I was prepared to act out bed bugs biting me. 

Día dieciseis, Medellin to Salento

So I was meant to do a walking tour this morning but I bailed as I realised I wouldn't get to my next town before dark (a key safety factor, I'm not actually Cinderella- though I did have 2 stepsisters at one point). The tour was mainly about Pablo Escobar (politician then cocaine warlord) ruling the city. Basically Medellin became the coke capital and a war zone for most of the 80s, a lot of violence and murders. Escobar was shot down by police on a rooftop in Medellin in 1993 and a load of investment the city is now one of the safest places in Colombia. 

I know is this a blog or a free history lesson, you are welcome. I'm guessing that's the gist of the 4 hour tour anyhow. Kinda makes sense my parents were bricking it about me coming to Colombia. It's like me having kids and in a few decades them saying "Hey I'm going travelling round Afghanistan!" Not to say Colombia is safe now but I've avoided a mugging or kidnapping so far- high 5. Anyway I bussed it to my next destination Salento, well they threw me out on the middle of the highway to Armenia and showed me which bus to get to Salento (a small village) and I made it before dark. Whoop. 

Día diecisiete, Salento 

I love this place! Proper village feel, kids playing on the street and lots of animals. Still wary of the dogs don't you worry. Me and a couple I met, Becki and Chris, go for a walk to a small coffee farm, Don Elias. There's a really old guy who is so adorable I want him to be my Colombian granddad. The guy hat gives us a tour has spent most of his life in New Jersey so he says cwaaffee! I know nowt about coffee so am intrigued by the whole thing. My fave facts: 

1. Coffee isn't indigenous to Colombia! News to me. It came from Africa when the Spanish brought slaves over. 

2. You can rarely find good coffee in Colombia as government regulations mean most of it is exported at a set price though they get to keep more locally as it's organic and in a tourist area. 

3. (My fave), the crap coffee beans they still kept in another pile and sold to Nescafé! 

There's no gas in the village this weekend so we went out and had the classic Salento dish, Trucha! Trout fyi. In case you're interested Colombian food is pretty nondescript and bland- rice, meat/fish, fried plantain (with EVERY meal in various forms), beans if you're lucky. They seem to never eat veg though fruit is in abundance. 

Then we played the almighty Tejo!, a traditional Colombian game with a clay pit with mechas (triangles) you have to hit with a tejo (a big rock). The USP is the triangles are filled with gunpowder so if you hit it with enough force they explode! We got stupidly addicted and if it wasn't for the whole lack of health and safety and every 5 minutes you think there's a terrorist attack I'm sure it'd be huge elsewhere.  

Día dieciocho, Valle de Cocorra 

Time for a hike to see the tallest palm trees in the world! We got jeeps to the valley and I met a load more people including the lads I did my paragliding with. It's about 5 hours and the way up was so steep, by the time we reached the top of the mountain it was so high and the view was mainly, well, clouds. Still I did it! Right at the end and bottom of the route you see the palm trees. So basically you don't have to do the hike to see them. And now I'm a sweaty mess for photos. But a great walk still and the trees tower over at an average of 50m so an incredible sight. 

That night - more Trucha and tejo! Though the combo of wine and hiking meant our tejo efforts were pretty, well poor. Oh and despite me slathering on moisturiser like it's butter on a crumpet my skin is peeling off big time from sunburn last week. Yup. My body has literally turned into a CHICKEN. My hopes of going home looking healthy are at this point as likely as Kim and Kanye naming their new baby Barry. 

Día diecinueve, Salento to Popayan

Another bus day! 7 hours. Obviously the one day I wanted to follow the playoffs I had no wifi. I arrived at Popayan which is known as the "White City" nothing to do with people before anyone jumps to racism just a colonial town with lots of white buildings. 

Día veinte, Coconuco 

I woke up stupidly early with the sound of monks singing and then clicked my hostel is attached to a cathedral, phew I didn't accidentally join a nunnery. I go and visit some hot springs in Coconuco about an hour away. Once I arrive by bus in the village you have to get on a mototaxi to get there. Or otherwise known as sitting on a motorbike with some random bloke, no helmets and him checking his texts. I probably should have been more scared but it was so much fun and I felt pretty damn cool. I arrived in one piece and I see a sign saying you're not allowed to have err relations in the springs. But you can rent out cabins by the hour. Oh dear god. Have I entered some sort of 50 shades territory?!? Luckily the place was empty apart from a few other travellers I chatted to and despite stinking of egg was relaxing. It's a hard life being unemployed don't y'know. 

Día veintiuno, Popayan to Pasto 

Another fun bus journey. The roads were windy, full of potholes and the driver drove like a maniac. He drove so fast and overtook everyone including at blind corners until we reached a toll point and all the cars we almost died overtaking are right behind us anyway. Ah the adventure! 

Día veintidos, Laguna de la Cocha 

Apparently there's a pretty lake to see near Pasto, But I got to the lake, it's chucking it down and I saw diddly squat. I meet these Colombian women and next thing I'm getting in a boat to an island in the middle of the lake with them. Let's hope they're not kidnapping me as I actually have nowhere to go if so unless I suddenly become a mermaid. On the island it's basically a forest/jungle and a great view of err cloud. I ended up going for lunch with them which was hilarious, only one could speak a bit of English in her late 30s (guessing!) and then her friend and her mum. Her mum complained it was too cold and got the bloke to erect a FIRE next to us in the restaurant. She had serious standards and brazenly went into the kitchen to make sure it was clean and the fish was fresh, I'm sure if my Scottish grandma had been Colombian she'd have done this. This was my last day in Colombia as tomorrow I'm attempting to cross the border so it was a perfect end to my trip to spend the day with Colombians (who also insisted on paying for the boat trip) and were so kind to me despite me being a total stranger and my embarrassing Espanõl. 

As I haven't mentioned it yet the drug scene is obviously still huge in Colombia and worryingly evidenced by so many people in cities doing/selling coke (don't worry mam I didn't go near it!) but generally local communities it's frowned upon to go near drugs (even weed). Colombian people want to move forward and not have their country be or be seen as dangerous and drug laden. Already in 20 years it seems to have done a huge turnaround and hopefully the future will only improve for this beautiful country. 

So there you have it my Colombian experience summed up, would encourage anyone to visit here. Next stop border crossing to Ecuador and the Galápagos Islands eek! Wish me luck x