We have finally reached Colombia on the blog! It’s almost a year since I set out on this trip and I’m still enjoying writing about it so much. It’s a great chance to look back on some of the incredible places I’ve been and things I’ve done. I feel like I’m experiencing them all over again!

It’s not possible to travel from Panama to Colombia by land because of the fearsome Darien Gap so we took our first flight since arriving in Honduras a month earlier. Being on a budget, we had gone for a very early flight and we hadn’t made things easier for ourselves by having a big night out in the city with some friends who were parting ways. The early morning and a bit of a hangover meant that arriving in Colombia was a bit anticlimactic. It was also one of the most humid places I’ve ever been and I really struggled with that. We had some time to kill before we could check into our hostel so we dropped our bags off there and then went out in search of food and air conditioning! The only time I set foot in a Starbucks on this trip was that afternoon, purely because I could feel the cool air blasting out as I walked past in the street!

Even just wandering around was amazing though. Cartagena is a beautiful city, interesting just to walk around and one of the most colonial cities that I’ve seen in Latin America. To end our first day, we went on a late night stroll in search of arepas. An arepa is a very popular dish in Colombia (and Venezuela, although it’s a bit different) made of corn dough filled with pretty much whatever you want!

Now, we didn’t have that long in Cartagena, just one full day, although we would be back later for another night after spending about two weeks exploring the Caribbean coast of Colombia. With the heat and the humidity, we had decided that we wanted to do something that would get us out of it. If you’ve been following along, I’m sure you can guess what Hannah and I chose… scuba diving! We had spent some time the previous day messaging a bunch of dive shops to see if anyone could squeeze us in at the last minute and the amazing Paraiso Dive were able to! They are actually based on Tierra Bomba, an island sitting in the bay in front of Cartagena about a 20 minute boat ride away. We can now say we dived in each country on this trip! Jota, the owner, and Andrés, our dive guide, were great, they kept us safe and comfortable, showed us some really cool things, all on top of squeezing us in in the first place!

We went to two dive sites, the first at a site called the Underwater Museum where there are three shipwrecks and then some sculptures installed by the Navy for training purposes. We got to swim through one of the wrecks and it was cool to see the sculptures. We saw some lionfish, scorpionfish, lots of juvenile fish and two squid. After some juice, a fresh passion fruit and a little break on the beach during our surface interval, it was back out for our second dive. We went back to the same area, off a peninsula of the mainland called Barú, to a dive site called La Torreta. It’s called that after a tower there that came off a wrecked warship. We saw lots more of the same amazing fish on this dive but were a bit preoccupied with avoiding some of the other divers! There was an older couple who were the definition of ‘all the gear, no idea’ – they had rocked up with all their own kit but were incredibly annoying to dive with. The woman went GoPro first into everything, the man had no buoyancy control so would rise up or sink down into people or coral and neither had any self-awareness! Regardless, we had two amazing dives and once we finished, we were able to hang out in the resort where Paraiso has their dive shop!

In need of some relaxation, we headed back to our hostel in the bustling district of El Centro. We stayed in República Hostel both times we were in Cartagena. They had air conditioned dorms (definitely a necessity!), nice common areas and a great pool! They also had baggage storage which was important for us when we were back for the second time, as we went off on a side quest for a few days and wanted to leave our big bags there. It’s in a good location in El Centro, the old town of Cartagena, just a short walk from Getsemani, where most of the nightlife is. Along with a few people we had met at our hostel, we headed there in the evening. We had heard Plaza Trinidad was the place to be, a very lively spot with lots of street food options. There are also lots of streets with bars up and down the pavement. We met up with two French snorkelers that had been on our dive boat that morning and had a drink together while getting serenaded by a roaming singer!

We were leaving Cartagena the next morning to head a little further along the coast. Our bus was at 11am so we were at the bus station a little early to make sure we got tickets. This sounds like a very mundane part of my travels to be writing about but I do so for good reason. It was in this bus station that I got an email from Chrissi at GVI, offering me an interview for the Education Coordinator position in Costa Rica! That moment led me to where I am now, almost a year later.

Fast forward 11 days and we were back in Cartagena after visiting Tayrona, Minca, Punta Gallinas for me, Ciudad Perdida for Hannah and Santa Marta. We had one more night in Cartagena before staying in one of the coolest places ever. But before we get there, we chose to do a walking tour to find out a bit more about the city for our last day in Cartagena. Even after already having spent a few days there, we felt like we didn’t know that much about it. Thankfully the weather was actually pretty bad, raining a little with thunderstorms in the background. You wouldn’t think that’s ideal for a walking tour but it took away some of the humidity.

We booked a tour with Nexperience Colombia and had a great tour guide called Liss who took us through some of the old town and then ended in Getsemani. We learnt some cool facts about Cartagena’s flag which is red, green and yellow rectangles with a white star in the middle. The red represents the blood of Colombians, yellow for the sun , green for hope and the star for the 8 municipalities that make up Cartagena. It was the flag of Colombia at first but the current Colombian flag has a yellow stripe for the riches of the country, a blue stripe for the sky, sea and rivers and a red stripe for the blood spilled fighting for Colombia’s independence. It is so similar to Venezuela and Ecuador because at one point they were in a coalition.

Cartagena was our introduction to Colombia and while it wasn’t my favourite place that we went, it was a great start. Once you get over the heat, Cartagena is a lively, vibrant city. It has a lot of history to dive into and I feel that I only scratched the surface of it. Coming back for an extra night was a good bonus but I had so much fun in the time in between our stays. Coming next – one of the most beautiful national parks I’ve ever been to!