Our top 10 (things to know when traveling in Colombia)
Based on a normal 10 point scale where #10 is the best...
1 Localized air and noise pollution. Caveat: Likely influenced by our cycling experience where travel is slow and you are hyper aware of subtlety.
By no means is air quality horrific or the worst we've experienced traveling in developing countries in both Asia and Africa. However, the smell of diesel fuel is ever-present at road level from inefficient combustion on buses and commercial trucks. This similarly impacts noise pollution. Simply put, traffic is very loud. Peace and quiet is a premium in Colombia.
2 Creature comforts (hot water/wifi/restrooms) are sporadic at best. Caveat: We spent a lot of time in the rural countryside of the Zona Cafetera.
The frequency/ease of these comforts isn't significantly different in rural Colombia than in other developing countries that we've traveled in. You can expect American standards and efficiencies when in urban areas such as Medellin, Bogota, and Santa Marta. When outside the urban centers, hot water translates to 'refreshingly cool' where there is only a touch of hot water mixed in with the ambient water temperature. Accordingly, expect only one shower knob and finding the "hot" is mostly art, not science. Wifi is generally available but often not strong enough to power social media apps. Restrooms likely won't have toilet seats, you'll probably have to buy any toilet paper or bring your own, and deposit used toilet paper in a separate bin, not the toilet bowl. In general, all of this is inconsistently applied. Expect anything and every combination thereof. Water is not potable by assumption in rural areas. With today's plethora of UV filters, pack one, use it and be safe. We avoided buying bottled water, used a Steripen multiple times a day, and never got sick.
3 Medellin airport is an hour from Medellin. Caveat: The airport itself is fine with many ATMs, money exchanges, coffee stands and quick food to grab on the go.
Medellin proper is about an hour taxi ride from the airport. The ride into town will cost $60.000-$75.000 COP ($20-$25 USD). If you use Medellin as a base to other regions, both the time and the cost will add up and is what ranks the airport so low on our list. If you have the time, there are more economical options - collectivos or buses - that can transport you for 9.000 pesos ($3 USD).
3.5 Platas tipicas and dinner. Caveat: some bandaje paisa and cazuela frijoles can be great!
Typical Colombian food consists of a light breakfast, large portion of lunch, and hand snacks (primarily empanadas) for dinner. As noted elsewhere, in urban cities, there are many more choices and cuisines available throughout the day. Outside of urban centers, you will struggle to find a restaurant open for dinner and you choice will be ready-made empanadas or ready-made fried or roasted chicken. The fried chicken is generally awesome but when that's your only choice for dinner three nights in a row...The platas ticipas are primarily served at lunch and heavy on fried items. Green things and vegetables are largely nonexistent. After a few days, the value of local cuisine to us was primarily for caloric intake.
4 Language other than Spanish is rare. Caveat: it's always preferable to know the native toungue where you're traveling.
Perhaps we didn't study up enough as we struggled to understand the speech pattern. Colombians are primarily accustomed to Spanish-seaking tourists due to the popularity of Spanish among South American countries. For those not remotely fluent, Google Translate is your friend in urban centers. We found folks very open to reading phrases and translating on phones exchanged back and forth. In the rural countryside, this didn't work as well - we speculate likely due to literacy rates in these areas.
4.5 Vehicular movement and traffic. Caveat: you'll figure it out in a week or so.
Traffic in urban areas is thick and would be hard to learn in a short timeframe - we recommend relying on locals to do the driving! Travel times by roads connecting urban areas (Medellin to Bogota, etc) is very long due to slow commercial trucks navigating steep, windy, one-lane roads and seemingly neverending road construction. Colombian drivers - by their own admission - don't pay attention to double yellow lines or speed limits, even on steep winding roads. Unless you're traveling with bikes, spend the money to fly in between urban centers.
Cyling. For the most part, driver's are cognizant of cyclists due to the high number of low speed motorbikes on the roads and a growing cycling culture in the country. Technically, cyclists are allowed the full lane and driver's must give you 1.5 meters - don't count on either in practice. In general, we were given enough space to ride although traffic rarely slowed as they passed us on bikes.
Cabs and Uber. Slamming a cab door will earn you a scornful glance. Pro tip: car doors are a lot lighter than American or European cars and do not require as much force to close. Uber exists (not Lyft) though not completely legal. If you Uber, you'll need to ride in the front seat with your driver so they'll avoid being pulled over.
Crossing streets. Assume pedestrians don't have the right away; there are virtually no crossing lines and right of way won't be given just because you step out in the street. That said, crossing streets is possible once you learn the rhythm of traffic. Expect to go halfway and be standing in a median before planning your next act jaunt across the other lane.
5 Coffee and ordering coffee. Caveat: it's amazingly close to the source and a great cup, is freaking great!
Colombia exports it's best beans though you can find some great cups of coffee in Filandia and Jardin in particular. Ultimately, you're likely after tinto. However, that may mean slightly different things in different places. Expect a smallish cup of caffeine that's less than espresso-strength, stronger than an americano, and slightly more than slightly bitter. You are not after a "cafe" - a very large mug of weak - perhaps instant - coffee with enough sugar to make you think you're drinking hot chocolate. There are larger Starbuck's-esque coffee shops in the urban centers that offer more familiar coffee drink choices. In the Zona Cafetera, stick to the local cafes around the town squares and order tinto. If you take milk, good luck! Sometimes this can be ordered as tinto con poco leche, sometime's its a latte, and sometimes either is served as a whole lot more milk than coffee.
6 Tayrona National Park
It is simply incredible that this place exists in Colombia. The coast views are breathtaking and the jungle along the hike in is home to incredible diveristy and very large individual trees. Be ready for somewhat of a slog for a hike in. Trails are muddiest during the rainy season, October through mid-December. According to other travelers, the trails can be pretty dry at other times of the year. After the beach at Arrecifes where the horse trail joins the hiking path, the trail becomes a braided foot/hoof path through muddy flats. La Piscina ia a beautiful, swimmable beach (pictured here) more popular with Colombian families than Euro/American backpackers. Cabo de San Juan is well worth the price of admission - slog included! Expect the backpackers to have the beach and restaurant choked out.
Our suggestion: hike all the way in, spend a litte time at Cabo de San Juan gawking at the natural beauty and hen hike back to La Piscina to swim and enjoy the beach. There are also alternative lodging options just outside the park to avoid the festival atmoshpere at Cabo de San Juan. Look for options at Los Naranjos or Los Angeles 5 minutes further on the bus from the park entrance.
7 Cycling.
Caveat: bike rentals are virtually impossible and gravel/bikepacking setups are highly recommeded for touring. The primary focus of our trip was bike touring in the Zona Cafeteara.
Colombia is on the precipice of a major cycling scene. Go now to be in on the ground floor! Many Colombians ride bikes - driven by the popularity and success of professional Colombian cyclists - and urban centers shut down major rads on Sunday mornings for Cyclovia where only cyclcists are allowed on the roads for a chunk of hours.
In the Zona Cafetera there are a lot of gravel roads with virtually no traffic. The only vehicles are motorbikes or slow moving chivas. These roads can be chunk and steep in places. The cycling was slow and the landscape incredibly beautiful, connecting fincas and pueblos. Everybody we met on these roads was super friendly, simling and extremely helpful when we were trying to communicate that we wanted to verify our directions. We cannot recommend these gravel roads enough!
Riding on tarmac is required at times to connect these roads and to speed up travel in between villages. Shoulder width varies significantly and traffic doesn't generally slow to pass a cyclist (although they do generally give enough room). Most paved roads in the Zona Cafetera don't have cosistent traffic. In and around urban centers, the Colombian cyclists must have nerves of steele as traffic (see above) is much more intense.
8 The people
Whenever a decision was imminent or the least bit stressful, a Colombian always stepped in to help. The only demerit here is for relative lack of proactive engagement. Colombians by nature want to please travelers and hope they enjoy their country. This can lead to people being shy if they do not speak any English. Some - like in any culture - are extremely outgoing and will stop you and chat about you experience and interest in traveling in their country. Colombians are proud of their country, it's beautiful landscapes and it's culture. They will - almost without exception - return your buenas dias with buenas. Along our travels by bike on gravel roads, locals were extremely helpful with directions. For the most part, waitstaff was patient with our attempts to translate menu listings into food and drink orders and helpful in moments of indecision. Cab and Uber drivers are pleasant, even chatty, and bus attendants were helpful.
9 Fruit and Juices
Simply amazing! The plethora of choices of fresh fruit that is available to be blended into a juice in incredible. Jugos are generally inexpensive and often come in a liter jug! Colombians prefer to have juices con leche although you can get them mixed with water. In rural areas, go with milk as it is the safer option given the unknown level of contamination of water in most of these areas. If that sounds odd, imagine a thinner, lukewarm milkshake! Try lulo - a unique Colombian fruit with the perfect blend of tart and sweet. In the middle of the hot day during a long ride or hike, nothing is refreshing as a jugo!
10 Zona Cafetera
Love, love, love! The culture, history, landscapes, people and local pueblos are worth every minute and peso you spend in the region. Cycle it, stay at a finca, take a coffee farm tour and get to know what cafe miel is and tastes. Visit the many pueblos, have tinto on the town square, order the menu del dia for lunch and enjoy the soup, grilled meat, rice and fried plantains. Take a walk from town along a gravel road and say buenas to a local coffee farmer and his horst bringing the day's picked coffee beans to town. Stop anywhere at a roadside tienda for a jugo and empanda. Relish in being one of the few Colombians in town. Remember to laugh at yourself and your preconceived perception of safety in this country. Have another tinto and appreciate the authenticity of the place and the people around you.
1 Localized air and noise pollution. Caveat: Likely influenced by our cycling experience where travel is slow and you are hyper aware of subtlety.
By no means is air quality horrific or the worst we've experienced traveling in developing countries in both Asia and Africa. However, the smell of diesel fuel is ever-present at road level from inefficient combustion on buses and commercial trucks. This similarly impacts noise pollution. Simply put, traffic is very loud. Peace and quiet is a premium in Colombia.
2 Creature comforts (hot water/wifi/restrooms) are sporadic at best. Caveat: We spent a lot of time in the rural countryside of the Zona Cafetera.
The frequency/ease of these comforts isn't significantly different in rural Colombia than in other developing countries that we've traveled in. You can expect American standards and efficiencies when in urban areas such as Medellin, Bogota, and Santa Marta. When outside the urban centers, hot water translates to 'refreshingly cool' where there is only a touch of hot water mixed in with the ambient water temperature. Accordingly, expect only one shower knob and finding the "hot" is mostly art, not science. Wifi is generally available but often not strong enough to power social media apps. Restrooms likely won't have toilet seats, you'll probably have to buy any toilet paper or bring your own, and deposit used toilet paper in a separate bin, not the toilet bowl. In general, all of this is inconsistently applied. Expect anything and every combination thereof. Water is not potable by assumption in rural areas. With today's plethora of UV filters, pack one, use it and be safe. We avoided buying bottled water, used a Steripen multiple times a day, and never got sick.
3 Medellin airport is an hour from Medellin. Caveat: The airport itself is fine with many ATMs, money exchanges, coffee stands and quick food to grab on the go.
Medellin proper is about an hour taxi ride from the airport. The ride into town will cost $60.000-$75.000 COP ($20-$25 USD). If you use Medellin as a base to other regions, both the time and the cost will add up and is what ranks the airport so low on our list. If you have the time, there are more economical options - collectivos or buses - that can transport you for 9.000 pesos ($3 USD).
Typical Colombian food consists of a light breakfast, large portion of lunch, and hand snacks (primarily empanadas) for dinner. As noted elsewhere, in urban cities, there are many more choices and cuisines available throughout the day. Outside of urban centers, you will struggle to find a restaurant open for dinner and you choice will be ready-made empanadas or ready-made fried or roasted chicken. The fried chicken is generally awesome but when that's your only choice for dinner three nights in a row...The platas ticipas are primarily served at lunch and heavy on fried items. Green things and vegetables are largely nonexistent. After a few days, the value of local cuisine to us was primarily for caloric intake.
4 Language other than Spanish is rare. Caveat: it's always preferable to know the native toungue where you're traveling.
Perhaps we didn't study up enough as we struggled to understand the speech pattern. Colombians are primarily accustomed to Spanish-seaking tourists due to the popularity of Spanish among South American countries. For those not remotely fluent, Google Translate is your friend in urban centers. We found folks very open to reading phrases and translating on phones exchanged back and forth. In the rural countryside, this didn't work as well - we speculate likely due to literacy rates in these areas.
4.5 Vehicular movement and traffic. Caveat: you'll figure it out in a week or so.
Traffic in urban areas is thick and would be hard to learn in a short timeframe - we recommend relying on locals to do the driving! Travel times by roads connecting urban areas (Medellin to Bogota, etc) is very long due to slow commercial trucks navigating steep, windy, one-lane roads and seemingly neverending road construction. Colombian drivers - by their own admission - don't pay attention to double yellow lines or speed limits, even on steep winding roads. Unless you're traveling with bikes, spend the money to fly in between urban centers.
Cabs and Uber. Slamming a cab door will earn you a scornful glance. Pro tip: car doors are a lot lighter than American or European cars and do not require as much force to close. Uber exists (not Lyft) though not completely legal. If you Uber, you'll need to ride in the front seat with your driver so they'll avoid being pulled over.
Crossing streets. Assume pedestrians don't have the right away; there are virtually no crossing lines and right of way won't be given just because you step out in the street. That said, crossing streets is possible once you learn the rhythm of traffic. Expect to go halfway and be standing in a median before planning your next act jaunt across the other lane.
5 Coffee and ordering coffee. Caveat: it's amazingly close to the source and a great cup, is freaking great!Colombia exports it's best beans though you can find some great cups of coffee in Filandia and Jardin in particular. Ultimately, you're likely after tinto. However, that may mean slightly different things in different places. Expect a smallish cup of caffeine that's less than espresso-strength, stronger than an americano, and slightly more than slightly bitter. You are not after a "cafe" - a very large mug of weak - perhaps instant - coffee with enough sugar to make you think you're drinking hot chocolate. There are larger Starbuck's-esque coffee shops in the urban centers that offer more familiar coffee drink choices. In the Zona Cafetera, stick to the local cafes around the town squares and order tinto. If you take milk, good luck! Sometimes this can be ordered as tinto con poco leche, sometime's its a latte, and sometimes either is served as a whole lot more milk than coffee.
It is simply incredible that this place exists in Colombia. The coast views are breathtaking and the jungle along the hike in is home to incredible diveristy and very large individual trees. Be ready for somewhat of a slog for a hike in. Trails are muddiest during the rainy season, October through mid-December. According to other travelers, the trails can be pretty dry at other times of the year. After the beach at Arrecifes where the horse trail joins the hiking path, the trail becomes a braided foot/hoof path through muddy flats. La Piscina ia a beautiful, swimmable beach (pictured here) more popular with Colombian families than Euro/American backpackers. Cabo de San Juan is well worth the price of admission - slog included! Expect the backpackers to have the beach and restaurant choked out.
Our suggestion: hike all the way in, spend a litte time at Cabo de San Juan gawking at the natural beauty and hen hike back to La Piscina to swim and enjoy the beach. There are also alternative lodging options just outside the park to avoid the festival atmoshpere at Cabo de San Juan. Look for options at Los Naranjos or Los Angeles 5 minutes further on the bus from the park entrance.
7 Cycling.
Caveat: bike rentals are virtually impossible and gravel/bikepacking setups are highly recommeded for touring. The primary focus of our trip was bike touring in the Zona Cafeteara. Colombia is on the precipice of a major cycling scene. Go now to be in on the ground floor! Many Colombians ride bikes - driven by the popularity and success of professional Colombian cyclists - and urban centers shut down major rads on Sunday mornings for Cyclovia where only cyclcists are allowed on the roads for a chunk of hours.
In the Zona Cafetera there are a lot of gravel roads with virtually no traffic. The only vehicles are motorbikes or slow moving chivas. These roads can be chunk and steep in places. The cycling was slow and the landscape incredibly beautiful, connecting fincas and pueblos. Everybody we met on these roads was super friendly, simling and extremely helpful when we were trying to communicate that we wanted to verify our directions. We cannot recommend these gravel roads enough!
Riding on tarmac is required at times to connect these roads and to speed up travel in between villages. Shoulder width varies significantly and traffic doesn't generally slow to pass a cyclist (although they do generally give enough room). Most paved roads in the Zona Cafetera don't have cosistent traffic. In and around urban centers, the Colombian cyclists must have nerves of steele as traffic (see above) is much more intense.
8 The people
9 Fruit and Juices
10 Zona Cafetera
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