Colombia is an incredible country. 10 days in and I’m sure of it.
Since last writing I spent three more days in Cartagena. Those days were pleasant, most of the time spent wandering, chatting with locals and tourists and exploring a few more neighbourhoods of the city. The old town is certainly beautiful and clean, even neighbouring Getsamani is safe and well kept up, so it’s easy to forget that on the outskirts of the city are some of Colombia’s poorest citizens in sprawling slums and shanty towns. I only saw a few edges of these as I’m still sort of getting a feel for just whats safe here and what’s not. Still, it helped to remind me that not all of Colombia is like the old town of Cartagena, and that there is certainly plenty of poverty in this country.
i explored a few of the smaller beaches and met some brave local fisherman launching their boat into waves that would have had me heading home, also had some great food in little homes that turn into restaurants everyday for lunch, the families serving you set meals for 5 or 6 thousand Colombian pesos (About 3 dollars). I met lots more great people at Mama Waldy’s hostel and also got some more good writing done. IT was a productive three days, but after 6 total in Cartagena I was certainly ready to move on and see what the rest of Colombia had to offer. Here’s a few pictures of the last few days in Cartagena:
I left at about nine in the morning and caught the local bus to the bus terminal which is half an hour out of town, an hour if you take the non express local bus like me. i was glad though because I had plenty of time and it turned into something like a tour of the suburbs of cartagena. I was certainly the only foreigner on the bus and almost managed to fall off while hopping on with both bags as the bus pulled away. Either way I arrived safe and sound, if a little sweaty at the bus terminal and climbed off, quickly getting swept p and negotiating a fare of 20,000 pesos for a seat on one of the smaller more local friendly buses to Santa Marta.
We spent about 45 minutes slowly puling out of the terminal as an army of hustlers crammed the bus full of mostly Colombian people, piling bags high inside and outside the main cabin of the bus. Finally we were off, and I was feeling a whole new rush of excitement. There’s something intangibly different about land transport over the air. You see the land go by and the life you are driving through. It was my first inter city trip on this leg and certainly cemented the idea of long term travel in my head. Sure I’d been quoted 3 hours and it took 5 and a half, sure it was crowded, slow, and smelly, but it was fun too, and I made several Colombian friends on the bus who ended up splitting a taxi to my hostel in Santa Marta.
The Dreamer runs two hostels in Colombia, one in Santa Marta and one in Palomino. I recommend them both whole heartedly, though at times it is more like staying in a resort than a hostel. They both have pools, restaurants and nice gardens as well as a pool table and different sports options. Still if you find yourself in this part of Colombia and are looking for a slightly party targeted hostel experience with lots of planned activities offered check in to Dreamer in either location.
Santa Marta was just a brief stopover this time and the next morning I headed off to Palomino, hailing a bus on the main road, leaving my bigger bag and any stresses behind in Santa Marta, and enjoying a two hour ride through tiny Colombian Towns, Vast tracks of jungle and the foothills of mountains, sprawling Banana plantations, and incredible views of the Caribbean Sea. Sadly I didn’t have my camera out.
A sweaty half hour walk from the strip of main road to the beach later and I reached The Dreamer Palomino, checked in and got straight to the beach, and my goodness what a beach it was. Walk far enough in either direction and you get to a river leading up into the jungle. On clear mornings you can sit in the ocean and look back up to snow capped mountains. The water’s just cold enough to be refreshing and the surf is choppy and rough, making swimming an adventure. If you do ever get here make sure to exercise caution when swimming, the currents are rough and people have been dragged out to sea before, that said I had a great time swimming.
Apart from being one of the most chilled out and breathtakingly beautiful places I’ve ever seen Palomino also offers a charming little town with friendly locals, (a bunch of us got introduced to a kitten just six days old by one family), tubing through the jungle down a lazy river all the way to the ocean, and a few other tours including ones to indigenous tribes settlements nearby. I didn’t manage to do the tubing but everyone who did really seemed to enjoyed it. I think I’ll be back in Palomino in a week or so, and this time I’ll make sure to bring sandals.
The dreamer hostel here is perfection, just 1 minute walk from the beach , set in lush tropical gardens, airy dorms, a nice pool and beach volleyball court. The restaurant is expensive but makes good italian food and the bar is a great social place. The staff, a nice cocktail of travelling volunteers and local people, are always happy to help and constantly organizing things, like trivia, and sports stuff. The two days here were paradise save for the fact that, trying to capture the waves crashing into the beach. A wave came in stronger than I expected and boom, camera soaked. Still I got the picture and it’s pretty cool for a non waterproof camera.
I put the camera in rice kindly donated by the kitchen staff and much to my surprise two days later it now seems to work perfectly. today I hopped on the bus back to Santa Marta to watch my precious vikings triumph over the Rams. Tomorrow I think I’ll visit some waterfalls and on tuesday head up into the jungly mountains towards Minca, but I know I’ll be back in Palomina, a place now very much touched by tourism, but luckily not yet too tainted. My mind’s still there in many ways.
Sunsets on the beach were unbelievable and watching the countless pelicans, egrets and other fishing birds plummet down cutting through the choppy surface and emerging with glimmering silver fish. All in all, as it said on a sign in a little bed and breakfast on the road down to the beach: Palomino, aqui es Paraiso.
