Colombia - In Conclusion

I'm glad I went, happy I've seen it, but I'm not in love with it. It's true, I didn't fall in love. Some times I do, like the first time I saw Rome. Bogota was gritty, urban and edgy. Of course the Caribbean coast was beautiful and gorgeous and I did love the wonderful eco lodge we stayed at, but that love pretty much stopped at the landward gates of the property where the dust, dirt and poverty of the local town began. Cartegena was lovely and it's history part of the puzzle of the growth of the new world.




I was astounded by the expense of things in Colombia. Granted we were not staying in hostels nor strictly eating street food, but even so. The local's lunch place we ate at in Cartegena was  similar in cost to a Canadian lunch - about $15 Canadian dollars each for the set lunch with bottled water. A t-shirt bought on the street was $13 Canadian dollars and a bottle of Colombia's Ron Medellin 8 year old rum was $30 Canadian dollars. If you plan to travel to Colombia expect to carry a lot of cash. No where accepts anything but. It is almost as if their national bank hasn't really kept up with the times because the largest denomination bill appears to be the 50,000 which is around $25 Canadian dollars.

Colombia's national air carrier Avianca is excellent. Both our flights were on time, boarding was smooth and the air craft had in flight entertaintment, telephones, power plugs and seats that recline much farther than Air Canada's!

People by and large were friendly and helpful. Speaking even a little bit of Spanish was very imporant because very few people had even a little bit of English. I'm really glad I worked with DeUna, a Colombian travel company. They were really helpful and everything they suggested worked out very well. Their guides were excellent as were their drivers. Because credit cards are not popular in Colombia you may be asked to make a direct cash deposit from your bank account to the travel company or hotel. DeUna did set it up so we could pay by credit card as long as we were willing to pay the 7% credit card commission. This payment issue is another really good reason to go through a travel company. It simply isn't reasonable to carry around the amount of cash required to pay for some of the lovely hotels, and they don't take credit cards. I'd had this experience before in Sicily, so I was more prepared than most, but it still came as a surprise.

All in all, I confirmed my love of the Carribean ocean and my desire to eat exceptional food. We already have flights booked for Rome in April 2012.