So, the last two weeks I spend wandering around Colombia before I had to catch a flight out of Venezuela. I gotta say, I like Colombia. I heard good things about it while in other South American places, so I went ahead and bought a ticket down there back in January. So here is the basic review.
Feb 16-21 Bogota
21-22 Medellin
22-24 Cartagena
24-26 Santa Marta
27 Maracaibo, Venezuela
28 Fly out of Venezuela
The reason I spent longer in Bogota was that I was meeting my brother down there and I got there 3 days before him (I had the time, so I figured I might as well go earlier).
Bogota:
A very different city. Has a lot of random neighborhoods that are colonial like, then goes into really **** neighborhoods, followed by a very modern area. It seemed like there were a lot of fun neighborhoods if you knew where they were. I stayed in the "old city" called Candeleria which was were all the older buildings were, as well as the government offices and the main squares. I got there at night (around 8 pm) and caught a taxi into town. I was very surprised that they actually had a "red light" district in the town. I had never seen that in a Latin American country (or I had not been paying attention) but there were a bunch of brothel after brothel with very scantly clad women standing outside. Not the greatest impression of a town when your taxi driver takes you through that neighborhood to start out with. I got to the hostel and more or less stayed in for the night. There was a group of Aussies, Brits, and Swiss playing cards and drinking so I ended up joining in with them.
The first day in town I just wandered with another American that I had met in the hostel. The town was easy enough to walk through the old town (albeit with hills and an altitude, it slows you down). I honestly did not do much that day (I was trying to save the main toursity sightseeing for when my brother got into town). That night, I met up with someone that I knew at a bar there. I am a bit of a "beer snob" or at least a beer enthusiast so we met at a local place called the Bogota Beer Company. I had somewhat heard of it before, but it is a craft beer place that has a bunch of bars/restaurants throughout Bogota. Their beer was actually good (I am used to South American beer that tastes the exact same as every other beer). They had a bunch of styles that you normally do not get in a place like Colombia (trippels, IPAs, wheats, etc). The guy I met knew the owner of the place and he ended up drinking with us that night and taking us to some of his other locations. It was nice drinking free beer all night and getting free food whenever you walk into a bar. So...it was a good first night.
The next day, I explored another part of the city. Nothing too exhausting. I go down to the local plaza and they have a large Friday farmers market and street food. They had some interesting looking sausage and meat on sticks which usually is good from street food places. I wandered for a bit and was content for my day. The hostel was having a BBQ that night (for a measly 3 dollars) so I decided that it was probably my best choice for dinner. I have to say, they do not know how to cook steak in South America (with the exception of Argentina). They will always give you a thin cut thing that is not tender enough. Either way, for 3 dollars, who am I to complain. The BBQ turned into drinking more beers and showing some Aussie's how to shotgun beer (had to bring my old Texas college ways into it). I was not planning on it but I ended up going to some club with a Slovenian DJ playing at it with a group from the hostel. I had a good time, a little more pricey of a night than I was planning, but it is always good to get out and see the town. However, there was a lot of coke going around (which I dont do) and pot was being smoked left and right. Clubs and people in general seem really relaxed about everything like that in Colombia (actually surprised me considering all that they have been through). I left by myself a little earlier (which was probably a mistake at 3 AM) to try to get a taxi. As soon as I get to the street, 4 guys come up to me and surround me and start speaking to me in Spanish. I speak some, but knew it wasnt good. One starts patting me down looking for crap on me. I had learned not to carry anything on me at night (knew stories of people in the hostel getting robbed by machetes). So they found nothing. I had some small cash which they didnt find. I start trying to walk away and they start yelling at me. Anyways, thats when I book it when I see an empty taxi. I run and jump in and just tell the guy to go. Got away without anything happening.
The next morning, I met up with the friend I had there and he drove me around Bogota some and showed me the sights. We ended up at the brewery where the owner gave us a tour and me some free things (case of beer, some glasses, and random other things) which I could not say no to. After which, I had to go back to the hostel and change to a different one (where my brother was meeting me as he was flying in that night).
Before my brother arrived, the hostel was organizing a "party bus" that goes to the Zona Rosa (not to be confused with the red light district). The Zona Rosa is a much more modern area with a bunch of pedestrian streets and a lot of bars in one area. Think 6th street but closed off permanently and just blocks instead of one or twos streets. I sign up for it for my brother and I so when he lands, we can jump on it. However, it leaves before he gets there, which worked out in the end. We meet up with the bus at their first stop...some over the top club. To me, if you are a hostel and having a party bus, you stop off at cheap bars and work your way to the club. This one, it was just going to four straight up clubs which were completely overpriced. We decided to bail since we had yet to pay for the bus and just check out Zona Rosa. We found some outdoor bar with some tables and was just able to people watch for the night and drink some beer. We called it a night at 2 AM and headed back to the hostel (where we were lucky to have ear plugs as the party bus got back at 4, and people were drinking outside our window until 8 am).
The following day we toured the city (where I have most of my pictures from). On Sundays, Bogota closes off their main road and makes it a pedestrian and biking road only. They set up a bunch of food stands and there are street performers all along the way. It was actually really nice and unexpected. We walked a ways on it. We ended up at the bullfighting arena. It was the final fight of the season and supposedly the best one of the season. We found a scalper but the prices were a bit much (almost 100 bucks per ticket) so we decided to refrain from it.
Now it was a Monday, and we had a flight to Medellin that afternoon. Bogota has some tall mountains right on the city that have a cable car and a funicular that runs up it. We did that in the morning for the views and then headed to the airport.
Views from the Hostel
Presidential Palace
Sunday with the street closed off
Me standing in the main square
Bull Fighting Arena
A random park in Bogota
Colombian beer
A "beer candle" the bogota beer company guy gave me
Somebody had this dog trained to go around and do tricks while holding a basket in its mouth for donations.
Horse drawn carts are still relatively common
Friday Market
I dont think these birds stood a chance there.
Good street food at the market
On top of the hill after the funicularhttp://farm6.static.flickr.com/5051/5495155764_1ab1d7827d_b.jpg
A market on top of the mountain
Medellin
This city used to be what Juarez is these days. It was the murder capital of the world, Escobars homeland, and the drug heartland. These days, it is a large modern-ish city. Clean, people are friendly, and feels a lot safer than Bogota. It is in a somewhat valley surrounded by mountains.
Our flight gets in at nighttime and we make our way to our hostel (which was in the suburbs). It is a smaller hostel, but has a table tennis table and beers from a small bar..which is all we really needed. We wandered around to a local meat restaurant (with more of brazilian style cuts of meat). It was damn good and cheap. That is all we really did, we were a bit tired and called it a night after drinking some beer and watching TV in the social room with other people.
The next morning, we saw the town. There is not much more than a days worth of things to do there, so that is all we budgeted. (We know that the bar/club scene is actually good in Medellin, but we werent there for that really). To start off with, we caught their metro (was surprised to see a modern, efficient, and clean metro system). We heard about a cable car that goes up the mountain for views, so we headed there on the metro. Little did we know, that the cable cars are actually part of the metro line itself. So with our 75 cent ticket, we got to ride up the cable car to the top of the mountain (not a bad deal). This cable car went over a lot of "slums" in the mountains, sort of like you see in Brazil. I have to say that it is the safer method of seeing the slums than walking through them. We got to the end of it and realized there was another cable car line that went even further up (and costs an extra dollar). We figured it went to a better view, but we were mistaken. This car went up to the top of the mountain...and just continued. We were on it for 15 minutes over more or less forests on top of this mountain. There were no signs of life under us. It was sort of odd. And then we saw the end of it. It was just a station in the middle of nowhere. We get off and wander a bit and cant find anything out there but a booth with some drinks and this modern station. We later find out that it is just a national park up there with a lot of hiking and other things...which we didnt have time to do (but could have been a lot of fun). We go back down the mountain and buy our night bus tickets for that night (to get us to Cartagena). We get to explore the rest of the town and went back to the hostel and ate around there for dinner. Went to the station at 8 and caught our bus.
Cable Car ride (they are through glass so they look "blueish"
Going over forests to what seems like nowhere
Downtown Medellin
Cartagena
The bus was a 14 hour ride overnight. It sounds miserable, and we were expecting the worse. It was actually not bad at all. We had a stop here and there for bathrooms (there were some on the bus as well) and for snacks. But, after midnight, I slept through everything until about 7 AM. I woke up and we still had another 4 hours. I was in and out of it for that time.
We get to Cartagena at 11 AM. We go check into our hostel in the old town and start wandering. You can feel the difference immediately in temps. Both Bogota and Medellin are cooler and actually have great weather (70s and 60s). Cartagena is in the 90s and humid during the day (and pleasant at night). I like Cartagena. Definitely a colonial town that reminded me of Granada, Nicaragua, but bigger and walled. It was very clean, lots of small plazas and cafes everywhere. It is a great city to wander and get lost in and you will always find a place for a refreshing beer. That night, we cook with some people in the hostel and find out that another hostel is throwing a party on their roof bar. We head over there in a group and this thing is a bit crazy. It is absolutely packed. People are everywhere (and beers are still only a dollar). We order some drinks and hear a commotion on the other side of the roof. Apparently, someone shoved another guy off the roof of the hostel and onto the metal roof next door. He went through that roof, their attic, through the ceiling and somehow lands on a bed. That guy gets up, sort of looks around in shock and gives a thumbs up that he was ok (he ended up getting 9 stitches). The guy was shoved off because he apparently started talking to the other guys girl....The police end up coming and shutting everything down. We head back and get some street food (terrible this time, it looked good when you had been drinking, but tasted terrible).
The next day, we explore a bit more in the morning and have a "mud volcano" tour in the afternoon. (Note: I dont have pictures of this, they are on my brothers camera which I will post once I get it). I dont know if this thing was really a volcano or not, but it was a lot of fun. We bus out there and it is this 50 foot high "volcano" looking thing that is full of mud. I dont know the history there, but you climb up it and jump in. In a small area, there were at least 30 or so backpackers in it. So we had a lot of fun dunking people in and so on. It looks disgusting, but it it was a lot of fun trying to do anything in it. You had no control over where you move to and you can just start rolling and wont be able to stop it. There was a lake nearby where you clean yourself off at. You get in and local ladies start hounding you to let you clean you. After a while, you just give in. They literally rip your clothes off and wash them for you while you sit in the water (a lot of the females on the bus were not expecting this and were standing there and ended up topless due to the local ladies cleaning their bathing suits and them off). After the first couple of people had that happen, people knew it was coming.
We got back to the hostel and did a pub crawl. Nothing too exciting except that the hostel had some flame twirler/thrower do a show at the hostel. First time I had seen that at a hostel.
The next day, we toured the castle and caught a bus onto Santa Marta.
Drinking a beer on the wall at sunset
Where the guy fell through the roof at the hostel
The bad street food in Cartagena
Squares in Cartagena at night
There were a bunch of tunnels running under the fort/castle. They only had a bit of them lit but we tried exploring some.
Walking through them was a bit of a pain
Santa Marta
On the way their, our bus had a flat so I got a couple of pictures on the way...
Santa Marta does not have much going on. It is more or less there due to the neighboring beach town (Taganga). We stayed at a hostel in Santa Marta none-the-less. This hostel had a decent pool, lots of hammocks, and a good place just to chill at which we did. We drank beer at the bar, ate some local food, and called it an early night.
The next day, we headed out to Taganga and did the beach thing. It is much more of a beach town, with bars and restaurants (and lots of backpackers, but not traditional tourists). You could hike to nicer beaches which we did.
(again, my brother has the pictures of this, and I will post them when I get them).
That night, we got back to the hostel and started drinking with a Norwegian, a Dutch, and an Israeli girl. We end up going to some clubs in Santa Marta with them (actually good prices and good crowds). We had a good time with them and ended up back at the hostel at 3 AM and continued to drink. My brother and I were going to Venezuela the next day, so we decided just to stay awake and catch the early morning bus at 6 AM.
Hammock and pool at hostel
Venezuela
This bus took us to the border with Venezuela where we would have to catch another bus. It was a good 5 hours or so, and we got off somewhat miserable. We got to the border and crossed through it. We brought US dollars for a reason on this leg of the trip. The exchange rate (or what we thought was the official exchange rate was 2 to 1, but now is closer to 4 to 1 US) but the unofficial one can be as high as 9 to 1 on the black market. We knew this ahead of time, and knew we had to exchange money "illegally". If you withdraw money from an ATM, you get the official rate, or if you use your card. If you do the US dollar to Venezuela one on the black market, you get the good exchange rate. So there were a bunch of people offering us 7 to 1...I thought it was good enough and my brother thought he could do better in the city. So he exchanged some to get us there and figured hed find people in the city to do it. We catch a local bus (probably a mistake, if we had spend 3 more dollars, we could have been on a direct taxi). As soon as you cross the border, the roads go to ****. Literally ****. Cars are everywhere, trash is everywhere, it is just general chaos. Every taxi there is something like an 80s caprice classic or cars like that. All oversized American 80s sedans. The bus we were on was quite ****ty, and was picking up everyone and dropping people off at random spots. Every minute, he would stop and do so, so it took f'n forever. We eventually got to Maracaibo at 4 PM or so. We go an find a hotel (since there are no hostels, it is not a touristy town, we just have a flight out of there) and they require us to pay in Venezuelan and wont exchange our dollars for anything but the official rate. So we have to go find the unofficial one. The receptionists tell us to go to a mall and there is a place there. We go..and the change place is closed. We ask a taxi driver who tells us to try this casino/hotel place. We go there, and they say they dont have anyone anymore who does it. My brother ends up asking the bouncer outside the casino and the bouncer turns and gives a random guy a hand motion. A minute later he comes up to us and my brother and him make a deal (6.5 to 1, so we should have just traded all at the border). But the guy says he will not do the trade there and he can meet us at our hotel. We tell him that wont work since we cant get a room until we pay which we dont have cash. So he tells us to get into the taxi and "ride" with him and make the exchange. He takes us to a sports book where we hand him the money, he goes inside and comes back out with Venezuelan. Hands it to us, and takes us back to our hotel. Along the way, he offers us drugs and "chicas"...we both decline.
That night was not that exciting, I literally have 3 pictures of Venezuela. One on the road, one of the only square near us, and one of a hooters that just seemed out of place in this town (for the record, it was across the street from a Tony Romas. I didnt even know those still existed).
We flew out the next day.
FWIW, I recommend Colombia. Venezuela (at least the part I was in) can be skipped.
Feb 16-21 Bogota
21-22 Medellin
22-24 Cartagena
24-26 Santa Marta
27 Maracaibo, Venezuela
28 Fly out of Venezuela
The reason I spent longer in Bogota was that I was meeting my brother down there and I got there 3 days before him (I had the time, so I figured I might as well go earlier).
Bogota:
A very different city. Has a lot of random neighborhoods that are colonial like, then goes into really **** neighborhoods, followed by a very modern area. It seemed like there were a lot of fun neighborhoods if you knew where they were. I stayed in the "old city" called Candeleria which was were all the older buildings were, as well as the government offices and the main squares. I got there at night (around 8 pm) and caught a taxi into town. I was very surprised that they actually had a "red light" district in the town. I had never seen that in a Latin American country (or I had not been paying attention) but there were a bunch of brothel after brothel with very scantly clad women standing outside. Not the greatest impression of a town when your taxi driver takes you through that neighborhood to start out with. I got to the hostel and more or less stayed in for the night. There was a group of Aussies, Brits, and Swiss playing cards and drinking so I ended up joining in with them.
The first day in town I just wandered with another American that I had met in the hostel. The town was easy enough to walk through the old town (albeit with hills and an altitude, it slows you down). I honestly did not do much that day (I was trying to save the main toursity sightseeing for when my brother got into town). That night, I met up with someone that I knew at a bar there. I am a bit of a "beer snob" or at least a beer enthusiast so we met at a local place called the Bogota Beer Company. I had somewhat heard of it before, but it is a craft beer place that has a bunch of bars/restaurants throughout Bogota. Their beer was actually good (I am used to South American beer that tastes the exact same as every other beer). They had a bunch of styles that you normally do not get in a place like Colombia (trippels, IPAs, wheats, etc). The guy I met knew the owner of the place and he ended up drinking with us that night and taking us to some of his other locations. It was nice drinking free beer all night and getting free food whenever you walk into a bar. So...it was a good first night.
The next day, I explored another part of the city. Nothing too exhausting. I go down to the local plaza and they have a large Friday farmers market and street food. They had some interesting looking sausage and meat on sticks which usually is good from street food places. I wandered for a bit and was content for my day. The hostel was having a BBQ that night (for a measly 3 dollars) so I decided that it was probably my best choice for dinner. I have to say, they do not know how to cook steak in South America (with the exception of Argentina). They will always give you a thin cut thing that is not tender enough. Either way, for 3 dollars, who am I to complain. The BBQ turned into drinking more beers and showing some Aussie's how to shotgun beer (had to bring my old Texas college ways into it). I was not planning on it but I ended up going to some club with a Slovenian DJ playing at it with a group from the hostel. I had a good time, a little more pricey of a night than I was planning, but it is always good to get out and see the town. However, there was a lot of coke going around (which I dont do) and pot was being smoked left and right. Clubs and people in general seem really relaxed about everything like that in Colombia (actually surprised me considering all that they have been through). I left by myself a little earlier (which was probably a mistake at 3 AM) to try to get a taxi. As soon as I get to the street, 4 guys come up to me and surround me and start speaking to me in Spanish. I speak some, but knew it wasnt good. One starts patting me down looking for crap on me. I had learned not to carry anything on me at night (knew stories of people in the hostel getting robbed by machetes). So they found nothing. I had some small cash which they didnt find. I start trying to walk away and they start yelling at me. Anyways, thats when I book it when I see an empty taxi. I run and jump in and just tell the guy to go. Got away without anything happening.
The next morning, I met up with the friend I had there and he drove me around Bogota some and showed me the sights. We ended up at the brewery where the owner gave us a tour and me some free things (case of beer, some glasses, and random other things) which I could not say no to. After which, I had to go back to the hostel and change to a different one (where my brother was meeting me as he was flying in that night).
Before my brother arrived, the hostel was organizing a "party bus" that goes to the Zona Rosa (not to be confused with the red light district). The Zona Rosa is a much more modern area with a bunch of pedestrian streets and a lot of bars in one area. Think 6th street but closed off permanently and just blocks instead of one or twos streets. I sign up for it for my brother and I so when he lands, we can jump on it. However, it leaves before he gets there, which worked out in the end. We meet up with the bus at their first stop...some over the top club. To me, if you are a hostel and having a party bus, you stop off at cheap bars and work your way to the club. This one, it was just going to four straight up clubs which were completely overpriced. We decided to bail since we had yet to pay for the bus and just check out Zona Rosa. We found some outdoor bar with some tables and was just able to people watch for the night and drink some beer. We called it a night at 2 AM and headed back to the hostel (where we were lucky to have ear plugs as the party bus got back at 4, and people were drinking outside our window until 8 am).
The following day we toured the city (where I have most of my pictures from). On Sundays, Bogota closes off their main road and makes it a pedestrian and biking road only. They set up a bunch of food stands and there are street performers all along the way. It was actually really nice and unexpected. We walked a ways on it. We ended up at the bullfighting arena. It was the final fight of the season and supposedly the best one of the season. We found a scalper but the prices were a bit much (almost 100 bucks per ticket) so we decided to refrain from it.
Now it was a Monday, and we had a flight to Medellin that afternoon. Bogota has some tall mountains right on the city that have a cable car and a funicular that runs up it. We did that in the morning for the views and then headed to the airport.
Views from the Hostel
Presidential Palace
Sunday with the street closed off
Me standing in the main square
Bull Fighting Arena
A random park in Bogota
Colombian beer
A "beer candle" the bogota beer company guy gave me
Somebody had this dog trained to go around and do tricks while holding a basket in its mouth for donations.
Horse drawn carts are still relatively common
Friday Market
I dont think these birds stood a chance there.
Good street food at the market
On top of the hill after the funicularhttp://farm6.static.flickr.com/5051/5495155764_1ab1d7827d_b.jpg
A market on top of the mountain
Medellin
This city used to be what Juarez is these days. It was the murder capital of the world, Escobars homeland, and the drug heartland. These days, it is a large modern-ish city. Clean, people are friendly, and feels a lot safer than Bogota. It is in a somewhat valley surrounded by mountains.
Our flight gets in at nighttime and we make our way to our hostel (which was in the suburbs). It is a smaller hostel, but has a table tennis table and beers from a small bar..which is all we really needed. We wandered around to a local meat restaurant (with more of brazilian style cuts of meat). It was damn good and cheap. That is all we really did, we were a bit tired and called it a night after drinking some beer and watching TV in the social room with other people.
The next morning, we saw the town. There is not much more than a days worth of things to do there, so that is all we budgeted. (We know that the bar/club scene is actually good in Medellin, but we werent there for that really). To start off with, we caught their metro (was surprised to see a modern, efficient, and clean metro system). We heard about a cable car that goes up the mountain for views, so we headed there on the metro. Little did we know, that the cable cars are actually part of the metro line itself. So with our 75 cent ticket, we got to ride up the cable car to the top of the mountain (not a bad deal). This cable car went over a lot of "slums" in the mountains, sort of like you see in Brazil. I have to say that it is the safer method of seeing the slums than walking through them. We got to the end of it and realized there was another cable car line that went even further up (and costs an extra dollar). We figured it went to a better view, but we were mistaken. This car went up to the top of the mountain...and just continued. We were on it for 15 minutes over more or less forests on top of this mountain. There were no signs of life under us. It was sort of odd. And then we saw the end of it. It was just a station in the middle of nowhere. We get off and wander a bit and cant find anything out there but a booth with some drinks and this modern station. We later find out that it is just a national park up there with a lot of hiking and other things...which we didnt have time to do (but could have been a lot of fun). We go back down the mountain and buy our night bus tickets for that night (to get us to Cartagena). We get to explore the rest of the town and went back to the hostel and ate around there for dinner. Went to the station at 8 and caught our bus.
Cable Car ride (they are through glass so they look "blueish"
Going over forests to what seems like nowhere
Downtown Medellin
Cartagena
The bus was a 14 hour ride overnight. It sounds miserable, and we were expecting the worse. It was actually not bad at all. We had a stop here and there for bathrooms (there were some on the bus as well) and for snacks. But, after midnight, I slept through everything until about 7 AM. I woke up and we still had another 4 hours. I was in and out of it for that time.
We get to Cartagena at 11 AM. We go check into our hostel in the old town and start wandering. You can feel the difference immediately in temps. Both Bogota and Medellin are cooler and actually have great weather (70s and 60s). Cartagena is in the 90s and humid during the day (and pleasant at night). I like Cartagena. Definitely a colonial town that reminded me of Granada, Nicaragua, but bigger and walled. It was very clean, lots of small plazas and cafes everywhere. It is a great city to wander and get lost in and you will always find a place for a refreshing beer. That night, we cook with some people in the hostel and find out that another hostel is throwing a party on their roof bar. We head over there in a group and this thing is a bit crazy. It is absolutely packed. People are everywhere (and beers are still only a dollar). We order some drinks and hear a commotion on the other side of the roof. Apparently, someone shoved another guy off the roof of the hostel and onto the metal roof next door. He went through that roof, their attic, through the ceiling and somehow lands on a bed. That guy gets up, sort of looks around in shock and gives a thumbs up that he was ok (he ended up getting 9 stitches). The guy was shoved off because he apparently started talking to the other guys girl....The police end up coming and shutting everything down. We head back and get some street food (terrible this time, it looked good when you had been drinking, but tasted terrible).
The next day, we explore a bit more in the morning and have a "mud volcano" tour in the afternoon. (Note: I dont have pictures of this, they are on my brothers camera which I will post once I get it). I dont know if this thing was really a volcano or not, but it was a lot of fun. We bus out there and it is this 50 foot high "volcano" looking thing that is full of mud. I dont know the history there, but you climb up it and jump in. In a small area, there were at least 30 or so backpackers in it. So we had a lot of fun dunking people in and so on. It looks disgusting, but it it was a lot of fun trying to do anything in it. You had no control over where you move to and you can just start rolling and wont be able to stop it. There was a lake nearby where you clean yourself off at. You get in and local ladies start hounding you to let you clean you. After a while, you just give in. They literally rip your clothes off and wash them for you while you sit in the water (a lot of the females on the bus were not expecting this and were standing there and ended up topless due to the local ladies cleaning their bathing suits and them off). After the first couple of people had that happen, people knew it was coming.
We got back to the hostel and did a pub crawl. Nothing too exciting except that the hostel had some flame twirler/thrower do a show at the hostel. First time I had seen that at a hostel.
The next day, we toured the castle and caught a bus onto Santa Marta.
Drinking a beer on the wall at sunset
Where the guy fell through the roof at the hostel
The bad street food in Cartagena
Squares in Cartagena at night
There were a bunch of tunnels running under the fort/castle. They only had a bit of them lit but we tried exploring some.
Walking through them was a bit of a pain
Santa Marta
On the way their, our bus had a flat so I got a couple of pictures on the way...
Santa Marta does not have much going on. It is more or less there due to the neighboring beach town (Taganga). We stayed at a hostel in Santa Marta none-the-less. This hostel had a decent pool, lots of hammocks, and a good place just to chill at which we did. We drank beer at the bar, ate some local food, and called it an early night.
The next day, we headed out to Taganga and did the beach thing. It is much more of a beach town, with bars and restaurants (and lots of backpackers, but not traditional tourists). You could hike to nicer beaches which we did.
(again, my brother has the pictures of this, and I will post them when I get them).
That night, we got back to the hostel and started drinking with a Norwegian, a Dutch, and an Israeli girl. We end up going to some clubs in Santa Marta with them (actually good prices and good crowds). We had a good time with them and ended up back at the hostel at 3 AM and continued to drink. My brother and I were going to Venezuela the next day, so we decided just to stay awake and catch the early morning bus at 6 AM.
Hammock and pool at hostel
Venezuela
This bus took us to the border with Venezuela where we would have to catch another bus. It was a good 5 hours or so, and we got off somewhat miserable. We got to the border and crossed through it. We brought US dollars for a reason on this leg of the trip. The exchange rate (or what we thought was the official exchange rate was 2 to 1, but now is closer to 4 to 1 US) but the unofficial one can be as high as 9 to 1 on the black market. We knew this ahead of time, and knew we had to exchange money "illegally". If you withdraw money from an ATM, you get the official rate, or if you use your card. If you do the US dollar to Venezuela one on the black market, you get the good exchange rate. So there were a bunch of people offering us 7 to 1...I thought it was good enough and my brother thought he could do better in the city. So he exchanged some to get us there and figured hed find people in the city to do it. We catch a local bus (probably a mistake, if we had spend 3 more dollars, we could have been on a direct taxi). As soon as you cross the border, the roads go to ****. Literally ****. Cars are everywhere, trash is everywhere, it is just general chaos. Every taxi there is something like an 80s caprice classic or cars like that. All oversized American 80s sedans. The bus we were on was quite ****ty, and was picking up everyone and dropping people off at random spots. Every minute, he would stop and do so, so it took f'n forever. We eventually got to Maracaibo at 4 PM or so. We go an find a hotel (since there are no hostels, it is not a touristy town, we just have a flight out of there) and they require us to pay in Venezuelan and wont exchange our dollars for anything but the official rate. So we have to go find the unofficial one. The receptionists tell us to go to a mall and there is a place there. We go..and the change place is closed. We ask a taxi driver who tells us to try this casino/hotel place. We go there, and they say they dont have anyone anymore who does it. My brother ends up asking the bouncer outside the casino and the bouncer turns and gives a random guy a hand motion. A minute later he comes up to us and my brother and him make a deal (6.5 to 1, so we should have just traded all at the border). But the guy says he will not do the trade there and he can meet us at our hotel. We tell him that wont work since we cant get a room until we pay which we dont have cash. So he tells us to get into the taxi and "ride" with him and make the exchange. He takes us to a sports book where we hand him the money, he goes inside and comes back out with Venezuelan. Hands it to us, and takes us back to our hotel. Along the way, he offers us drugs and "chicas"...we both decline.
That night was not that exciting, I literally have 3 pictures of Venezuela. One on the road, one of the only square near us, and one of a hooters that just seemed out of place in this town (for the record, it was across the street from a Tony Romas. I didnt even know those still existed).
We flew out the next day.
FWIW, I recommend Colombia. Venezuela (at least the part I was in) can be skipped.
