In spent three weeks in the burning, humid heat of the North. We danced through the nights in Cartagena and went diving in Taganga, where the Sierra Nevada influences the wildlife of the underwater world. In this village, an old woman told me stories about the North and send me to a friend at Ave de Montaña, where I slept under the stars and picked fresh Mangos from the trees. With the two Germans Julia and Jonas I explored the Tayrona National Park – a place where the jungle meets the beach and giant rocks are spread like pebbles. It is a beautiful park but the amount of tourists makes you feel like walking on a street of ants. I found my favorite moment of the park, when I walked back at 6.30am. It turned out to be perfect. I saw hundreds of small blue lizards, I saw a caiman in a lagoon surrounded by vultures and I walked the remote walk of „9 Piedras“. I mean, it’s not “remote-remote” – at the entrance it goes to the right and not to the left, but apparently no one goes there. It led me through a swamp, to a stunning lookout overlooking the jungle and endless remote beaches.
Unfortunately, the photo of the caiman was the last photo my camera took on this journey. All following photos are either from my old cellphone or from very generous travel mates.
In Palomino, a few kilometers further North we refused to go to the hostel party and joined instead the local „discoteca“. Behind mama’s kitchen was the reggeaton bumping for the whole town. Going with the flow, we poured a bottle of ice cold local rum called Aguadiente. After almost 15 month in the Reggeatonlandia I thought I’ve seen many dance styles, but the doggy style moves from those kids (we increased the age average significantly)… this was TOO much from my German prudery – this night I refused to dance with locals.
In Mompox we got toured around by Maria José, a 14 years old girl with her little puppy and had a coffee with her grandfather. Even hours after we were still faszinated by this unconditioned warmness. The next day we joined a boat tour through the swamp – you could see the upper 15cm of some posts looking out of the water; apparently the water is not always that high. However, it is a beautiful area with water wherever you look and the people are fishing, so they have adapted to this water level.
To Bucaramanga I booked a boring direct bus – so thought I, but the whole street was flooded and this huge coach had to drive through multiple giant puddles, that it was not that boring anymore at all 😉.
Bucaramanga was just a stopover, the actual destination was San Gil. On the bus there I got the passenger seat next to the bus driver – jackpot. I had no idea what was waiting for me on this ride because lonely planet or the internet didn’t bother to mention it. We drove through the Chicamocha Canyon. According to some measurement, it is the second biggest canyon in the world (I don’t know how you measure a canyon – hight, length, m2…) and at some point the bus driver started laughing because I was nearly falling out of the window to get good pictures. It was stunning. I asked the bus driver what the people are selling at the side of the road – a huuge mistake!! They were selling roasted ants, and this lovely bus driver stopped that I could buy and try some. Hhhmmmmm soooo delicious – half the bus was laughing at me.
A few days later we went paragliding above this canyon – did you know that paragliding is flying up, and not down? I did not and was surprised to find myself couple 100m above the highest point of the canyon, with an amazing view. Justin enjoyed the view that much, that he took a couple of extra turns and landed 30km down the road – he had to eat waay more Obleas!
Obleas are my favorite Colombian “postre” – like no other dessert you ever experienced! Two plate-size wafers with caramel, blackberry, condensed milk and rasped cheese J
At this point I am at the first half of my time in Colombia. I will write another blog about the second part – no way of shorten it all to fit it in this one. Too many amazing things happened! Enjoy all the photos below 😊
Jutonia 
Great pictures!
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