South America

September 1st 2016 - March 22nd 2017

When we first went backpacking in 2011 we dreamed of going to South America. By the time we organised our travel itinerary including a flight to Beijing, a stop in Hong Kong, a whirlwind trip around Southeast Asia, three months in Australia, a month in Fiji and all the adrenaline activities in New Zealand we had run out of budget. Our eight month adventure cost us roughly £10,000 in total; around £4000 prepaid for flights, a 16 day tour of Laos and two months camper van hire in Australia and £6000 spending money. We managed a lot on our budget, especially considering how expensive Australia had got since I visited on the holiday of a lifetime in 2006. Much appreciated help came our way in the form of my wonderful mum and her friend Jo who visited us in Australia, putting us up in apartments for nearly three weeks, a week staying with my mums dear friend Reva in her hometown of Adelaide and a surprise visit from Craig's mum and dad who generously hired a camper van for three weeks in New Zealand where we toured both islands with them. If it weren't for our loved ones helping us out we wouldn't have been able to do everything we had done on the trip, a sky dive, a canyon swing, a glacier hike, eating food that wasn't baked beans on toast. Our trip was amazing but our adventure lacked one thing, a taste of South America. 

We met people on the road who were off to South America and I was extremely envious, the continent offered so much and we wouldn't be able to afford to get there. What followed when we returned home was years of working in a job I wasn't passionate about to save. I wasn't sure yet what I was saving for, a house deposit maybe? Another stint at university? Travelling? Craig worked very hard in his job and to further his skillset enrolled in an evening carpentry course, I had taken a break from work for a year to complete an MA in Fine Art as I desperately missed university and a daily art practice. More time passed and with South America calling our names we decided to go for it and book a one way ticket to Rio de Janeiro, it was exhilarating but scary. Another big trip, maybe even bigger than our last one. As the months rolled on the excitement built. Questions were asked, how long are you going for? Where in South America will you be going after Rio? The truth was we didn't know, and thats how I liked it. Our last trip had been so meticulously planned, flights were already bought and paid for, tours in place and an end date pencilled in. This time we were keen to keep our plans open ended, if someone recommended a place then we'd have the freedom to go there too, and if we didn't like a place then we could scoot on with our trip without issue. 

So, with £12000 each in our bank accounts we flew to Rio and over the course of six and a half months we travelled completely overland (by coach and public bus) down to Ushuaia on the most southerly tip of Argentina all the way up to Colombia's Caribbean Coast. It felt like such an achievement. Some of the journeys weren't pretty, we were sat on one coach for 34 hours in Chile/Argentina. I kept thinking how crazy far away I thought Scotland was from my home in Hampshire, eight hours in a car seemed like a lifetime but now journeys less than 20 hours were considered short. 

On our journey we visited Brazil, Paraguay, Uruguay, Argentina, Chile, Bolivia, Peru, Ecuador and Colombia. Apart from Portuguese speaking Brazil all were tied together by the Spanish language but all different in a myriad of intriguing ways. In commemoration of our wonderful tour of the continent I have listed our best moments and our not so great. 

The Best of Times

• Spying the imposing rock towers of Mount Fitz Roy shrouded in whispy cloud on our nine hour day hike in Argentine Patagonia
• Cruising downhill by bike on Bolivia's infamous 'Death Road'
• That first glimpse of Machu Picchu and Peru's Sacred Valley
• Walking through a snowy landscape to see the towers of Torres del Paine in Chile
• Gliding over the mysterious Nazca lines in a tiny plane in Peru
• Getting drenched under a waterfall at Iguazu Falls and seeing the falls from both the Brazilian and Argentinian sides
• An hours bike ride around Rio de Janeiro's Lagoa at the start of our adventure
• Seeing ice calve from the Perito Moreno Glacier in Argentina
• Hot chocolate after walking in deep snow to a lake and back near Ushuaia, Argentine Patagonia
• Every walk we took in Bariloche, Argentina's lake district
• Reaching the Punta Union Pass on our 3/4 day hike in Peru's Cordillera Blanca
• Staying with locals in Lima and experiencing Peruvian hospitality at its best

The Worst of Times

• Rushing Craig to hospital in La Paz, Bolivia with severe altitude sickness
• The theft of our camera and money in Ecuador
• The unavoidable bed bugs and mosquito bites
• Disappointingly missing out on seeing The Amazon

The best times severely outweigh the bad and now that we've had some distance from the continent I'm starting to forget the worst days and completely gush over our time there. We travelled the continent quicker than we expected to, and that was while taking our time especially in Argentina and Chile. Patagonia turned out to be our favourite region and also the most expensive while we weren't as keen on pricey Uruguay. Luckily for us, our trip hasn't ended in Colombia. While in South America we decided to go to India via all the Central American countries with a little stop in Cuba and New York for good measure too. 

One things for sure, I'm so glad we decided to put our hard earned money towards this adventure. It has come with so many challenges, difficulties and a few disappointments but the places we've seen, some of so much outstanding beauty will be etched in my mind forever. 

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Cartagena and the Caribbean Coast, Colombia

I'd been looking forward to Cartagena. In all honesty mostly due to my love of the eighties film Romancing The Stone with Kathleen Turner and Michael Douglas which is based in the colourful Colombian town but also because it marked an achievement, that we'd managed to travel South America, from Rio completely overland. We arrived on a hot and sunny morning after a sleepless overnight coach journey. Our public bus to the old town seemed to take a lifetime in the excessive heat but eventually we arrived at the town wall and jumped off to walk the ten minutes to our hostel. The streets of old town Cartagena were bursting with colour, bougainvillea in bright shades of pink and purple tumbled down walls of yellow and blue. Countless pots filled with every type of tropical plant were dotted along every street. Cute tables and chairs lined the sliver of shade outside cafés while tourists and locals alike chatted exuberantly. In fact the area we were staying in was an Instagrammers dream and I felt a pang of sadness that our camera was gone and all I had to record the colourful walls was an iPhone. After walking through a pretty park to the harbour, around the historic centre and along the city walls we found a shaded table in a square and enjoyed a refreshing drink, I was reminded of childhood holidays in the sun. 

All the Plants in Cartagena, Colombia

I Have This Thing With Pink, Cartagena in Colombia

The following day we decided to walk to the fort that we had passed on the bus. I had imagined that it would have been where they filmed some of Romancing the Stone as the end portion of the film takes place in a fort on the water. This fort wasn't on the water, you could see the sea but several roads and buildings were in the way so I was slightly confused. We paid the 25,000 peso entrance fee and climbed up the slope to the top of the fort where a welcome breeze provided respite from the intense heat. A huge Colombian flag flapped around and in the distance we could see the walled old town and high rises in the wealthy part of the city. Underneath the fort were torch-lit tunnels which were fun to explore, some led to areas we hadn't visited before and some were plain dead ends. After returning to the colourful old town we stopped for lunch outside, as people-watching is a favourite past time of mine I relished sitting at a table looking out as the world passed by. The table next door appeared to have some sort of problem as an argument with the waiters ensued leaving one of the party to dramatically storm off, in fairness the service at this particular café was terrible but we had all the time in the world. 

Bird on Yellow in Cartagena, Colombia

Street Art in Cartagena, Colombia

After a relaxing afternoon in the pretty hammock-filled foyer of our hostel we left for pizza. Fairy lights were strung around the garden that we sat in and the air was warm. Our pizzas were delicious and the piña coladas were an excellent price so I was able to enjoy a cocktail without being guilted by our modest budget. We watched Romancing the Stone in the evening and I couldn't recognise anything that we had seen, after a quick look on Google I found that the film although supposedly based in Cartagena was actually filmed in Mexico as Colombia in the 1980's was too dangerous a country. Mystery solved! 

Cartagena's Fort High on a Hill, Colombia

The Fort in Cartagena, Colombia

We organised a last minute minibus to take us to Palomino along the Caribbean coast, our first intention had been to travel to the bus station again and look for a local bus but the idea of being picked up from our hostel and immediately put into air conditioned transport was too appealing an option to pass up. After a six hour journey we arrived in dusty Palomino and walked to our characterful accommodation. Up some creaky old handmade stairs was a mezzanine with chairs and a hammock, off the mezzanine was a little room with two bunk beds and a door leading to our room. Inside was a four poster bed covered in a mosquito net, the roof was made from thatched palm and the walls didn't reach the ceiling so though it was a private room it wasn't completely sealed off from the next room or the dorm space. The nearest spot for food was a newly built shack selling 'pizza pies' an interesting take on the Italian favourite. With dough made up like an open calzone inside was a delicious mix of tomato sauce, creamy mozzarella and fresh basil which was oozing out onto the wooden platter it was served on. The quality of the ingredients was second to none and it felt really authentic, I remember thinking that the dish was like something that would be served in a fashionable eatery in Shoreditch except there it would cost £10 a portion and here on this street lamp lit dusty track surrounded by friendly stray dogs it cost next to nothing. 

In the morning we took a wander down to the beach which was further away than we first thought. Across the main road and down a sandy track we arrived at the sea and walked along the golden sand. We found a couple of chairs underneath an umbrella made from bamboo opposite the sea and took a seat. We asked the resort behind if it was ok and they replied yes for an hour or so but as no-one came to move us on we ended up sitting there all day. The waves crashed breaking up the silence and the sun made the sand glow gold. We didn't have to leave our seat for lunch as local vendors passed by with snacks and drinks, we were perfectly catered for. In the evening we couldn't resist another taste of mozzarella and so headed back to the pizza shack.

Beach at Palomino in Colombia

A Day At The Beach in Palomino, Colombia

We'd only booked two nights in our accommodation and there was no further availability so we walked on to the main strip towards the beach in search of new accommodation which we found in a clean but characterless property. With no ATM's in Palomino we were slightly worried about money as we were getting a bit low, after a bit of research we found that the next town along had an ATM so we jumped in a taxi and did a cash run. 

The next day we took a bus to Tayrona National Park. I'd wanted to visit the park but wasn't sure how to go about it as everything that I had read mentioned camping overnight and we knew that we didn't have time. After a chat with the guy at our hostel we learned that it can easily be visited on a day trip and so that's what we did. We arrived, bought our tickets and took a minibus from the entrance on the main road to the trail. The path was easy to follow and not too strenuous despite the humidity. Up and down wooden stairs and along boardwalks we went until we reached the white sandy beaches that I'd hoped to see. We found a tiny little cave right by the water and sheltered from the sun while we watched the waves splash over the boulders in front of us. Craig rolled his shorts up and edged closer to the water and got splashed big time which made me chuckle. We walked further along the coast, through a field of palm trees to another beach perhaps even nicer than the one before. Time was running out so we walked back via the wide trail that horses are taken down which was a slight shortcut to the coastal path that we had taken in the morning. 

Walking Through Palms in Colombia

One of Many Beaches at Tayrona National Park in Colombia

An infuriatingly long travel day back to Cartagena followed our lovely coastal adventures and the day after that was our last full day not just in Colombia but in South America too. Our flight to Panama had been booked a while back and marked an exciting new chapter in our travels, a forty day adventure through Central America to Cancun in Mexico where our flight to New York awaited. 

We spent our last day organising our rucksacks, I had decided to leave a few things behind to lighten my pack including my alpaca jumper from Argentina which turned out not to be alpaca wool at all.  We enjoyed a delicious lunch in a café in Cartagena and then met our buddy Carl for one last time. As fate would have it he was leaving the same day as us but his journey was to be many days on board a cargo ship destined for New Zealand. As we sat on the sidewalk on a warm evening we joked that we'd wave at him as he passed through the Panama Canal, the next morning after a restless night we left Colombia. The end of an era and the beginning of a new one. 

🎥 Colombia video:

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Medellín, Colombia

We left Salento for Pereira and then jumped on a bus to Medellín. Craig and I checked into our basement room at a hostel which I couldn't help but think looked like a prison cell, there was no natural light and the room featured a solo metal bunkbed. We met Carl at Burdo for pizza, the place was full to the brim with locals beginning their night out, dressed in glitzy clothes, they put our worn and slightly dirty backpacker outfits to shame. The decor was clearly designer and the food delicious, we were out of place definitely but enjoyed a special treat dinner.

The next day we met Jorge; a proud Medellín dwelling Colombian who we first met in Foz du Iguazu in Brazil. Jorge had offered to give us a guided tour of his home city when we eventually got to it and I can't believe that after all these many months we are finally here. The first order of the day was to pay a local technology shopping mall a visit in search of a new camera, but after a little browsing we found the prices to be out of our league. Jorge's help with translation was invaluable though and the trip helped us to narrow down exactly what camera we'd like to get as an exact replacement of our Canon 750d would be far too expensive, even on Amazon the price has increased since we bought it less than a year ago.

The Lake in the Botanical Garden of Medellín, Colombia

The Orchideorama in the Medellín Botanical Garden, Colombia

After, Jorge took us to his favourite spot in Medellín, the botanical gardens. As we glided to our stop on the overground metro the clouds gathered and the rain poured. We stopped for a minute but eventually braved it, running through puddles to the garden entrance. We decided to get lunch together at the garden café, the three of us opted for a local bean soup with rice and arepa which is a Colombian corn bread. Oh my goodness, the soup was delicious. Every time I think back to it my mouth waters, on the particularly cloudy and wet day that it was the soup warmed my soul, and that may sound like an exaggeration but it's not! We chatted about Colombia's troubled history and Medellín's unfortunate past life as the centre of Pablo Escobar's drug cartel but Jorge was keen to inform us of how the city and country has changed for the better. And in all honesty it's something that we could already see from our short time there, the city felt safe and welcoming. We wandered slowly around the gardens, the rain had eased making it a pleasurable walk.

Vibrant Flowers Doused in Rainwater at the Medellín Botanical Gardens in Colombia

We then took the metro to the cable car which is used as an everyday transport link for locals rather than just a tourist activity. The views over Medellín were fantastic and we got off to see the city from a viewpoint but this area in particular did feel a little unsafe so we hopped back on the cable car for a return ride. The bonus with local transport is that it's so incredibly cheap so a quick ride cost practically nothing. Once back on city level we walked to the Museum of Modern Art and saw lots of work; I found the delicate drawings of Jorge Marin to be particularly interesting and some of the paintings of Medellín born Débora Arango were of particularly hard hitting subject matter.

The Museum of Modern Art Medellín, Colombia

Jorge Marin at the Museum of Modern Art Medellín, Colombia

Our second to last stop of the day was to another viewpoint overlooking the city, this one we reached by bus. It was a row of local eateries serving Colombian comfort food, most of which wasn't vegetarian friendly. I had chocolate caliente con queso or hot chocolate with cheese which I was first introduced to in Salento but not brave enough to try. This time I went all in and it wasn't as strange a taste sensation as I was expecting. The heat from the drink caused the cheese to go gooey and somehow they complemented each other though I'm not sure I'll be putting cheddar in my Galaxy hot chocolate at home. The sun was setting and the distant street lamps flickered on, our hot drinks and arepa con queso (corn bread with cheese) were great company. Our final stop was at a bar inside a shopping mall where we all talked travel and hopefully convinced Jorge to plan a trip to Asia in the future. Our day had been jam packed with sights to see, local delicacies to taste and view points and art thrown in too. Without Jorge's guidance we wouldn't nearly have seen all that we did and had such a wonderful day, thank you Jorge!

Medellín's Cable Cars, Colombia

Overlooking Medellín at Night, Colombia

After our especially busy day with Jorge we spent the next day doing a whole lot of nothing. Our uneventful day allowed for some time to write for me but we also squeezed in a lovely lunch at a café a few doors down.

The following day we met Carl and took him to the botanical gardens, in all honesty I mostly wanted another taste of the delicious soup. Thankfully the weather had improved from our last visit so we were able to visit the small butterfly house and stop to watch the turtles and birds at the lake. Craig and I had tacos for dinner after spending ages looking for an Indian restaurant that turned out to be closed. Luckily all was forgotten when we visited The Chocolate House where we ate desserts to die for.

On our final day we decided to do a Pablo Escobar tour. Craig and Carl were both intent on doing one, especially as they are both fans of the series Narcos. I was a little apprehensive as I wanted our trip to Medellín to be about the city as it is now which is far removed from its cartel past. I tagged along anyway as I didn't want a day alone in the prison-like hotel room. We visited Escobar's simple grave and a building left derelict that was once under siege with Escobar's family inside. Our driver for the day was one of Escobar's drivers, a large man who spoke only Spanish. Our guide translated his words, he told us that if he were to go back in time he would live an honest life. That a life of crime wasn't worth the money that it brought to him and that he is filled with regret. The tour ended at one of Pablo Escobar's houses where we met his 71 year old brother Roberto. The house is used purely as a museum now and contains a motorbike given to Pablo by Frank Sinatra and a jet ski used in a James Bond film. A huge bulletproof car with cracked windows was in the garage next to a little blue car Pablo originally used to smuggle drugs in to Colombia. Bullet holes were present in the walls of the house, rumour has it that money is still buried there and so numerous people have turned up looking for it and failed to find anything. The tour ended with a cup of Colombian coffee and a few words from Roberto which our guide translated and we each had a photograph taken with him. As he wrapped his arm around my waist for the picture I felt torn. Here was an elderly man, polite and well mannered who smiled when I said hola, but I remembered the stories I had heard from our guide, of all the innocent people murdered on Pablo's order in his fight against the government.

I was glad that I went along on the tour. Learning about the past can help to appreciate the present, the history of Pablo Escobar is a complicated and fascinating one. Our guide informed us that the money made from the tour goes towards a charity run by Roberto to fund AIDS research which I hope is true. I left Medellín thinking about all the positives of the city and how it is now, a thriving and beautiful place full of passionate locals, an exceptional art gallery and the best bean soup I've ever tasted.

🎥 Colombia video:

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