San Andres & Providencia

Let's start with the drama in getting to the island paradise of San Andres & Providencia... we showed up at the Manizales airport at 7am to catch our flight to Bogota, and then onwards to the islands from Bogota that afternoon. However, because of bad weather, the entire Manizales airport was closed! We then needed to catch a 2 hour bus to Pereira. From here we flew to Bogota, however because of this delay, we missed our flight to San Andres. We were told in Pereira that because we booked the flights on two separate airlines, we had to pay an extra $400 to change our flight to the next day. Luckily Ben was able to work some charm at the Bogota airport and we were able to get our flights changed for free!

Our travel insurance was able to cover our delay, which meant we could spend a reasonable amount on accommodation for one night (in their words - "between $200-$250"). Not bad given the place we stayed the previous night was $25! So we checked in to the 5 star hotel of our choice and had a great night ordering room service and enjoying the spa and gym!

The next day we finally arrived in San Andres and stayed 1 night before taking the boat to the smaller and more underdeveloped island of Providencia. San Andres was beautiful, but Providencia was a really special place - completely unspoilt by tourism, full of Carribean charm and surrounded by incredible, deserted white-sand beaches. We rented a scooter during our stay and drove around the island, swimming, relaxing and stopping in at small cafes. It was the perfect way to spend our last week together before Elise headed off to Spain!

After 5 nights on Providencia, we flew back to San Andres on a small plane because the boat was having mechanical problems and had one night there before flying back to Bogota.

Being posers on the beach : )

Manizales

Manizales was the perfect base to explore the Colombian coffee region and enjoy the outdoors. It is a small, clean, university city that is surrounded by mountains and known as the water capital of Colombia because of it's pure drinking water.

We managed to squeeze in many activities during our 5 night stay... there were just too many things to see and do!

We visited an award winning coffee farm called Hacienda Venecia where we had a tour to learn about the types of coffee, processes etc. The coffee was absolutely delicious and we loved the green mountain setting and traditional, brightly coloured farm houses. Needless to say, it was a little difficult to sleep after our crazy coffee consumption from the day!

Although the weather was terrible, we headed out to an eco reserve called Recinto del Pensamiento. A guide walked us through the reserve, explaining the different medicinal plants and after a short break at a hummingbird lookout, we continued on to a butterfly farm, orchard forest and Japanese gardens.

Los Nevados National Park was a little disappointing because of the horrendous weather, but there were glimpses of its beautiful landscapes between the pouring rain, wind and snow. After the day driving through the park, we finished the day back in Manizales at the thermal pools. It was soooo nice to warm up and relax after a wet, freezing day in the park!

From one disaster to another, we were again disappointed by terrible weather on our day trip to the bird reserve, Rio Blanco. Because of the heavy rain, we saw one bird in total (from a distance) in what is supposed to be one the best bird watching destinations in the world. And to top it all off, we hiked through the forest, up hill in the pouring rain for 2 hours to reach the closest shelter. A day we'd rather forget. One positive, we were able to meet one of the Andean bears that lives on the site up close and personal. It was pretty special being so close to it as our guide fed it a carrot by hand!

All in all, despite really bad rain during our trip, we still had an amazing time in Manizales. There aren't many places in the world where you can reach tropical coffee farms, snow-capped volcanos and many beautiful parks and reserves all within 2 hours of the city.

Medellin

After a bus from Villa de Leyva to Bogota we literally just made our flight to Medellin! 

Medellin is the fastest growing city in Colombia and probably the most cosmopolitan too. It's surprising how modern and safe everything was given its extremely violent past (the home of the now dead Pablo Escobar). The city has obviously come a long way since the 90s and is now full of modern restaurants, parks and shopping centres.

We spent our time enjoying the variety of places to eat, museums, markets and managed to squeeze in a bit of shopping too. We had a fantastic day in a lakeside town around 2 hours away called Guatape where the buildings are decorated with beautiful, hand painted motifs. The town is also famous for a giant rock, a short tuk tuk ride away, where you can climb up and enjoy the incredible views of the many lakes and greenery. Well worth the hundreds of stairs to the top!

Villa de Leyva

Although we only had two nights in the Villa de Leyva, we could have easily spent more time there enjoying one of the most peaceful and picturesque towns we have visited so far. We didn't have the greatest weather, but there were enough patches of clear sky to visit the famous town square (the largest in Colombia), enjoy some great coffee and sweets and even a scenic horse ride around the town to a nearby dinosaur fossil (for Elise).

The horse ride was about as authentic as it gets, and Elise was cursing Ben when the guide pulled out leather riding pants (with tassels, studs and all). Ben had the camera ready to shoot, but unfortunately (for Ben) and fortunately (for Elise) the pants didn't fit. Phew.

San Gil

After our time on the coast, we headed inland to the "adventure capital" of Colombia, San Gil. The town itself was quite beautiful with hilly streets, green surroundings and small enough to walk to everything we needed. Rather than booking lots of small adventure activities during our stay, we decided to stick to one unique experience - thermal paragliding in the Chichamocha Canyon.

It was a crazy, exhilarating and unique experience in that we took off and landed in exactly the same location, but the thermal air pockets carry you 2,000m high - a very unusual feeling! The canyon views were spectacular and it was so peaceful in the sky on a perfect, sunny day with only the two of us (and our tandem partners) in the sky for most of the 45 minutes that we spent up there.

We also took the bus to a nearby town called Barichara. It was incredibly beautiful with white houses, cobblestone streets and the usual church and town square. We walked up the hill to a little chapel and viewing point of the surrounding areas and after lunch and a nice coffee, headed back to San Gil.