Jardin. Manizales. Colombia

  We are ready to go again. Day before leaving Medellin, we met guys from England and Canada. Even the couple travelling with the bicycles has returned to our hostel. So we had a delightful dinner that day.
Next day we had breakfast and together with the Englishman went to the bus terminal. Englishman was traveling over a year already. Before Colombia, he´s been traveling in Asia, liked India and Birma. His spending average was  $5-10 per day in Asia. I would say it is pretty cheap. Englishman told us that to get to Tibet is a different story:  you need 5 people with the same nationality to apply for the group permit to Tibet and it is very expensive.

Anyway, we reached the terminal and turned different ways: the English traveller went to Manizales, and we went to Jardin. We noticed that buses in Colombia are very punctual, at least so far. We were leaving everytime with no problems on time.

Jardin is a small town, located in the Andes mountains. To get there you will need to pass a few mountains and the road is zigzag all the way for 3.5 hours. Bus was not full, but Jotvinge felt dizzy while driving zigzag.
When we arrived, we started looking for accomodations, which was very easy to find. To look for hostels in a small town is definitely easier than in a big city. We found one for 26,000 pesos ($15) with a private bathroom - LA POSADA FAMI-HOTEL. The owner Roberto was very nice, kept offering us different tours. The hotel was in the main plaza and above the bar, so it was noisy, but survivable. It was no kitchen available, but we still enjoyed staying there overall.

After two days of relaxing, we started exploring the town and its surroundings. We went hiking to the mountains. The mountains are fully cultivated: people growing bananas, mandarins, oranges, tomatoes, beans, lulos and, of course, coffee plants.  Lulos - fruit, that tastes like kiwi, but more sour, and looks like yellow tomato (they say it is very healthy). Anyway, to hike you need to go on the path, because there are fences everythere: private property. But we had nice hikes for two days.  Nature there is very beautiful. Town name Jardin means garden and it definately suits.


The town itself is very nice, too. We noticed a lot of colorful, beatiful houses, you can see that people there live pretty well.  On the way back to town from one of our hikes, we met a woman and her son. I was wearing Lithuanian t-shirt, and she recognized that I am from Lithuania. Originally Regina is from Belarus, but lives in England for many years, so her Russian is not very good. She is 74 and still travelling. We met them couple more times, had interesting conversations. Her son had travelled a lot, all over South America, so he gave us advice where to go.

Our travelling continues and we took the bus to Manizales. Travel from small town as Jardin is difficult: we needed to wake up early and beat the bus station at 6am. There were only one bus company, so they charged everybody whatever they wanted. So it was an expensive trip to Manizales. Our bus driver was very nice, he even knew where Lithuania is located and that Bogota´s previous meyer was Lithuanian. Somehow we could understand almost everything he told us in Spanish. He showed us Antioquia University and stopped to show us citrus trees.  Its fruit are not eatable, but the trees are used as a fense from falling rocks. We saw fallen rocks on the road a few times. Driver said that couple of days cars couldn´t pass them.

Manizales. We selected hostel from our guidebook. Found it very easy: from bus terminal took a cable car to the hostel BASECAMP, which was located in the center, cost - 60,000 pesos ($33). Receptionist did not want to bargain at all, although the hostel was empty. It was only us and another couple there. It was a lot of rules and responsibilities put on the walls everywhere and it was written in a very rude manner. People who work there did not even bather to open the front door when somebody was ringing, I was openning the doors. This hostel is owned by an American. At least there were non-stick pans (first time during our travels). We were planning to visit Los Nevados mountains with elevation of 5km, but the main mountain complex was closed due to resent vulcano activity. I think that was the reason it was very empty in our hostel.

In the evening we went to the center by the main Cathedral and asked some group of girls to take the picture of us together. Then we started talking with them (all of them knew English very well).  All of them were from different Colombian cities, visiting one girl who lives in Manizales. They all were chemical engineers, studied in Bogota together. They offered us to go with them to see the city. We agreed fast!
We went to the part of the city, called Chipre, where was a famous sculpture, and you can see the whole city.
Sculpture was dedicated to the Founders of Manizales- very impressive.  And to the west you can see seven mountains, after which there is Pacific Ocean, but you can´t see it.

Manizales itself is higher than Medellin, located on the mountain, as Medellin is located in the valley of the mountains.  We took a lot of pictures.

After this the girls offered us to go to another point.  At first we did not understand where we were going, but we agreed. We went to a bullfight Arena. Near the entrance we saw a lot of paintings on the outside walls. The man´s and woman´s portraits were among those paintings. It was one of the girls (from Manizales)  Maria´s grandparents. Her grandfather was raising bulls for fights, he was one of the first doing that and now her father is raising bulls, who we had an honor to meet. We spoke with  Mr. Miguel and his
wife, Mrs. Luz Maria about their business. It was great experience to hear and to see everything. It made our day! Their son is studying to be a vet and will be joining family business.

We went inside the Arena for the first time. It has around 14,000 seats there, but today it was only us. We got to get in through the main entrance where only bull fighters (matadors) go through. We saw the small chapel inside the Arena, where matadors pray before the fight. Also we saw, where they keep bulls before the fight.
Bulls are brought two days before the fight, that way they can rest. Bulls are supposed to be minimum 4 years old and at least 440kg, almost half a ton! Bull fights are only happening in Mexico, Venesuela, Colombia, Ecuador and Peru in Latin America. The family we met are raising bulls for all of those countries. Spain, Portugal and France - Europe countries where bull fight are taking place.

It was one of the most interesting and exciting experience so far! Next day we needed to move on early morning to head out of rainy Manizales...

Jotvinge and I finally said goodbye to the Caribbean coast and arrived to the second largest Colombian city Medellin.  Around 2.7 million people live here, and it is  surrounded by the mountains.

Casa Kiwi, Medellin, 02-12-2013

From the airport we took the bus to the center of the city.  When we explained where we needed to go, the bus driver dropped us near the taxi. Strange?! So we finally got to El Poblado, as it was said in the guide book - one of the best parts of Medellin.  But for us, it felt just like US : a lot of tourists, very expensive restaurants, bars, stores, and hotels, and you can´t bargain there. It is a good place to party, so it was a lot of very young people. That´s not what we were looking for.

After a long search for a cheaper hostel, we decided to stay in CASA KIWI for 60,000 pesos, which had free Internet, a kitchen, and even a roof top pool. It was a very nice hostel, but we couldn´t stand the noise and the crowd. So we spent a bit more time searching for a different hostel on Internet. Finally, I found a couple of hostels, and the next day we moved to another part of the city- El Laureles.

Palm Tree Hostel, Medellin, 02-14-2013

We took two buses.  When we finally reached the address of the hostel, people said it was not a hostel, but somebody´s apartment. So we went to another hostel I found on Internet, and the house appeared to be abandoned. The neighbour said it belonged to mafia. It was crazy!! We were walking with our bags on for 4 hours and we got very tired and frustrated. It was good that didn´t reserve those rooms in advance. I believe it was some kind of scam.

Anyway, we finally found the hostel-PALM TREE HOSTEL.  The first night we paid 60,000 pesos. Then the next night they moved us to a different room with discount, so we paid 54,000 pesos afterwards.

With James from San Francisco, Medellin, 02-14-2013

After the adventures of finding accommodations, we were exhausted.  So we relaxed for couple of days. We start exploring Laureles, it was much nicer than El Poblado. The people in our hotel were much nicer and quieter. We met some interesting people there.

James and his wife are travelling from Mexico on bicycles. They are from San Francisco. It was very interesting and inspiring to us to see that people in their 50-ties can do that kind of journey! They explained us that there were bicyclist community all over the world.  You can stay in their houses, but you need to arrange this in advance and contribute by cleaning apartment or something else. The bicycles they have, weigh around 60kg (120lbs) each. They did 11,000 km so far!! It is fascinating!!

With Gustavo and Ana, Pueblito, Medellin, 02-16-2013

On Saturday we arranged the meeting with our friend Gustavo, who we met in Tayrona park. He arrived with his ex girlfriend Ana. We went to the center, where we saw beautiful buildings, famous old hotel, a lot of sculptures of fat people- that´s Medellin´s original art. It was very nice.
For lunch we went to the restaurant, we tried Medellin´s specialty - BANDEJA PAISA.  That was a big meal, which included a lot of meat (bacon, sausage, beef), rice, beans, and vegetables. By the way, the people of Medellin and whole Antiouqia call themselves Paisas.

Medellin, 02-17-2013

After a nice lunch, we went to small town of Pueblito, which was located on the mountain inside Medellin. It was nice old town, it used to be a radio station there. From Pueblito we could see the whole Medellin. There was a market in Pueblito, a lot of souvenirs, so Anna decided to buy a present for Jotvinge - earrings, it was a beautiful gesture. After a nice day, we split up and in the evening Gustavo and Anna arrived for some drinks to our hostel. We spend lovely evening talking. We stayed up pretty late that night.....

Next evening we met some more interesting people. We met an Australian couple, who have already been travelling for 1.5 YEARS!!  James and Fleur are very interesting people and travelers, they gave us a lot of advice about where to go.  And we are planning to use their advice.

Talking with local kids, Medellin, 02-17-2013

Another interesting part of Medellin is their Metro system. As Gustavo told us and we saw ourselves, it is like a different culture, it is very clean there. We saw cleaning ladies were cleaning parts of the floor with the tooth brush! People in the trains were very polite. As Gustavo told us that Colombians trying to spread Metro culture all over Colombia.  There are two Metro lines and tree cable car lines. We took both Metro lines and one of the cable car lines to the mountains. We tried walking up the mountain through the poorer neighbourhood (locals later told us it was dangerous to walk there).   We enjoyed the hike, but it was very steep, so we went half way and went back. We had a chance to see how poor people live in Colombia. Jotvinge said it was like in the movies- small houses, clipped to one another. Interesting experience!

We also went to the botanic garden.  It was beautiful there.  We saw a lot of interesting animals there: turtles, colorful birds, even huge iguanas jumping on the trees, and, of course, exotic plants and flowers, which Jotvinge liked very much. After that we met a girl, who spoke a little bit of English and she was studying in the university. She let us in the University campus (although there was a security and you could not get in if you were not a student).  We wanted to buy a textbook to learn Spanish, but coudn´t get it. Anyway, the campus was very big, a lot of buildings there, even a huge outdoor pool (we wanted to swim there badly!).
On Tuesday we left to go to Jardin, Colombia. That´s the town, recommended to visit by our new friends James and Fleur. It was very nice to stay and see Medellin, very cultural city with nice gardens, universities, museums, nice buildings (they have only intelligent building in the world), and metro system (the only one in Colombia). A little more than 10 years ago it was very dangerous city ( it was hometown of  famous narcotrafficer Pablo Escobar), but now everything has changed-  I did not expect to see such a beautiful city.

Now we are looking forward for our next part of our journey to the mountains and coffee plantations - Jardin.

Last year Dangis and I took a day off work for my birthday.  We visited the museum of Contemporary Arts, had coffee at Skydeck Cafe in Hancock building, went skating in Millennium park and had fancy lunch.  I had a very special day.  This year every day is special.

We arrived at Barranquilla 1 day before my birthday and 3 days before the carnival.  The cheapest hotel we found was going to double the prices during the carnival.  So, the next morning we set out to find another hotel for a reasonable price.  We discovered one right there in the center for 60,000 pesos.  The room in hotel Alpes de Huez was clean.  It even had air conditioning and TV.  The porno channel was on the first time we turned the TV on.  Apparently, the rooms in this hotel could also be rented on hourly basis.  We stayed there for almost a week and felt very safe and comfortable.

Our hotel even offered free shots of coffee in the mornings.  Since that was not enough for us, we found a little place close by, there they served nice breakfast with coffee in slightly bigger cups than shot glasses.  One day they ran out of coffee at 9:30AM.  Searching for coffee was an adventure.  We discovered that the surrounding cafes, restaurants, bars, bakeries and stores do not serve coffee.  It seemed that beer was more popular with locals in the mornings, at least during the carnival.  Ironic that the best coffee in the world comes from Colombia, isn´t it?  Once before we asked for coffee with milk.  Instead we got milk with coffee.  From then on, we learned to drink black coffee.

Since our hotel did not have a kitchen, we had to eat out every day for that week.  The good thing that all restaurants in our neighbourhood served very inexpensive meals, which included soup and meat with rise and vegetables.  We spent more on hotel, but saved on food.  Our spending average per day stayed pretty similar until the first day of carnival.

We paid the security guy 100,000 pesos each to let us in.  The carnival  was scheduled to start at 11AM.  Once the carnival finally started at 2PM, it was very colorful- filled with beautiful and famous people, dressed in elaborate and creative costumes.  It was worth seeing it for the price we paid to get in.  But a lot of people did not want to pay, so the parties surrounded the carnival.  The music played all around.  People were cooking and dancing in the streets.  There were so many people leaving the carnival, that for the first time there were no taxis available.  Buses work for us just fine.

The last day before our flight to Medellin, we went to say goodbye to the Caribbean sea.  The next day we needed a taxi to take us to the airport.  The staff in our hotel told us that the taxi should cost about 10,000 pesos.  Ron told us that 20,000 pesos was a good price.  All taxi drivers requested 50,000, and a couple of them refused to take us for 10,000 pesos.  We finally agreed on 15,000 pesos with the third driver.

The price for one hour flight from Barranquilla to Medellin with Avianca was slightly higher than the price for the 16 hour bus ride.  We price included 3 bag allowance with 10 kg limit for each bag.  The seats were roomy, and we were served free coffee.  The flight was a pleasant experience.    

Our adventure continues.  After a week in Cartagena, it was time to move.  We were goino visit Ron in Puerto Colombia, which was about 120 km away from Cartagena.  It took us 4 buses and 4 hours to reach Ron.  We first met him back in Chicago at our friend Sadia's party last year.  It was a pleasure seeing him again.  We have received a warm welcome from him and his 3 beautiful children.  The cook made us delicious lunch.  Ron had to leave soon for business.  Dangis and were left to enjoy the palace, Ron lives in.  We swam in the pool.  Then we drove Ron's scooter to the beach.  There was nobody else at the beach for awhile.  Later a couple of guys came with a motorcycle, and parked it right on the sand.  We swam in the Caribbean sea until dusk.  The unset was beautiful.  We had a magical afternoon. 

The next day we arrived at Santa Marta.  It is a nice town, the size of my hometown Siauliai.  Everything was cheaper there than in Cartagena.  Our hotel room was 40,000 pesos ($24) with a private bathroom and a nice view.   Even the windows had glass.  The beer, water and Internet were cheaper there.  The sea was only few steps away.  We spent a couple of lazy days there, before heading to the Tayrona park.  The park came highly recommended by everyone we met.  Ron said we were going to feel like in paradise, even though I already felt like I was in paradise while visiting him.

We got up early to leave for the park.  The bus left from the market, after loading the bags of vegetables.  Some of the bags were dropped off on the way.  It reminded me of the times when our parents used to send us delicious meals with bus drivers, while we were away for school.  After the 6 hour hike through the forest, we rented the hammocks for the night.  The next morning we greeted the sun swimming in the most beautiful beach, where the water was blue as the sky and very clear.  We were well rested and ready for another hike up the mountain to Pueblito, where used to be an ancient village.  We met some Colombian friends on the way.  Gustavo and his girlfriend were from Medellin (we will be there in a week).  They both speak perfect English.  Gustavo studied in Wisconsin for a year.  We had a delightful hike. 

After 2 nights in park Tayrona, we were ready to get back to civilization.  We made another English speaking friend from Medellin on the way back to Santa Marta.  Mario perfected his English while working in England.  We picked our bag from hotel storage and went to Taganga, little fishermen village.  It was very noisy and expensive- highly overrated in our opinion.  After one night there, we decided to get back to Santa Marta.  There we were shopping for groceries at the market for every meal, even bargaining for better prices.  We learned that the kitchen is essential for our budget.  Even though, Colombian food is absolutely delicious.    

Puerto Colombia, 01-29-2013

Tayrona Park, 02-02-2013

Tayrona Park, 02-02-2013

Tayrona Park, 02-02-2013

Tayrona Park, 02-02-2013

Tayrona Park, 02-03-2013

Tagana, 02-03-2013

Taganga, 02-03-2013

Taganga, 02-04-2013