Colombia: Taganga

Taganga used to be a sleepy fishing village outside of Santa Marta, Colombia. But it has arrived on the backpacker map because of its beautiful bay and easy access to Parque Nacional Tayrona. It also boasts a pretty wild party scene. We are spending our last week in South America in and around Taganga.

SCUBA Diving in Tayrona National Park.

Taganga Bay lined with fishing boats.

The beach in Taganga. Not the nicest beach you will ever see, but it will do in the scorching heat.

Sunset over the bay.

Favorite photo in Colombia so far.

Sunset photo.

Colombia: Cartagena, Tuesday

Our second day in Cartagena was focused on seeing the entire old town. We chose one museum to visit, the Palacio de Inquisicion. It was worth seeing for the architecture and exhibit on torture devices from the Inquisition. However the greatest weapons of torture that remain are the mosquitos. We tried to go souvenir shopping after the museum but were overwhelmed with tourist buses and well, not so great artisan work. Good thing we already bought our standard souvenir magnet the night before.

After taking a break in our AC hotel room to watch a Manchester United soccer game, we ventured out again to walk the length of the wall along the sea. We finally ended the evening with a nice dinner and horse and carriage ride. A good two days, but it was time to explore more of Colombia. 

One of the many flowered balconies that lines the main Plaza Bolivar.

Palacio de Inquisicion - now the site of a museum that houses much of the Punishment Tribunal instruments and exhibits on Cartagena's history.

This instrument was used as part of the trial process in which the accused were questioned and examined. While I am no legal expert, I thought the first question was a little leading: "Since when have you been a witch?" The scale pictured was used to weigh the witches. If you weighed less, the more witch you were - which obviously makes sense because how else would you fly?

The museum was full of nasty torture instruments such as this one...a head crusher. By this point in the museum, I was so focused on the numerous mosquitos torturing my legs, that I could hardly focus. Why this museum was the only place in all of Cartagena that we encountered mosquitos, I have no idea.

The colonial architecture of the museum may have been more worthwhile than the museum.

Colonial architecture in El Centro, Cartagena.

View through the old city wall out towards the Caribbean. These windows were also a popular high school make out spot.

The sky finally cleared to a beautiful blue from its hazy heat on our second afternoon.

Cathedral in the background.

Old city wall.

Enjoying our Cartagena paseo.

Botero sculpture. We posted some of his artwork after visiting his museum in Bogota.

Another classic horse and carriage view of Cartagena.

Yes, we splurged for the tourist ride...only after a bit of negotiation.

Plaza Bolivar at night.

This is the window at the Palacio de Inquisicion where residents could report to the authorities witch-like activity by fellow citizens - the "compliant" window. Drew told me I was the only person that would smile while likely condemning a Cartagena resident to torture and death...aka I am a bad actress.

Colombia: Cartagena, Monday

We flew from the rainy highlands of Bogota to arrive in the scorching heat of the Caribe Colombian Coast in Cartagena. Although Boca Grande is very popular among Colombian tourists for its beaches and high rise resorts, we chose to spend two days in El Centro, Cartagena to experience the old town feel rather than its beaches. Thank god we splurged the extra $10 for AC in our hotel or we would have died of heat!

We spent the first afternoon visiting the Castillo de San Felipe de Barajas, just outside of the walled-in old town city. The fort was one of the only sites that we chose to see in the city, among its many churches and museums. It was worth listening to the audio tour and seeing the construction of the fort and its many tunnels. Unfortunately, we were a bit preoccupied with how hot it was by the end of our one hour tour!

The rest of the day was spent pasearing through old town. Although Cartagena is over 1 million people, the old town is quite a small area. I think after two days we saw every plaza and street, and walked the entire circumference of the wall. The architecture and colonial feel are unique and beautiful. Despite its beauty, Cartagena is also quite touristy and probably one of the few locations in Colombia frequented by American tours (or cruise ships). This also means the city is a bit overpriced and overly touristy at times. All in all, it definitely was worth two days of our vacation.

Plaza de Bolivar in Cartagena...I think every town in Colombia has a Plaza Bolivar!

Colonial street in "Old City" Cartagena. The architecture, craftsmanship and colors are amazing in this city.

Castillo de San Felipe de Barajas. This fort was constructed by the Spaniards in the 1600s on a hill behind Cartagena. It is a bit hard to understand why the walled city of Cartagena sits between the sea and this castle. How did they possibly defend the city?! It was also so hot while we were walking around this cement structure, that it was difficult to concentrate on the audio tour...

More of the Castle.The upright cannon was positioned so that ropes and pulleys could be used to leverage heavy loads to the top of the ramp. There were also extensive underground tunnels and barracks which were used for storage, sleeping and a last line of defense.

View of Castillo from below.

Enjoying drinks and a sunset at Cafe del Mar. This restaurant is situated on a portion of the city wall that is perfectly positioned for sunset and views of the upscale resort area of Boca Grande (distant left).

Plaza San Pedro. There are many quaint plazas around the "Old City" of Cartagena. This is where we had dinner on our first night - a seafood/thai fusion restaurant recommended to us by our good friend Jose from Lima!

Horse rides are the thing to do in Cartagena. Although super touristy, the city has a special character to it, not found elsewhere in Colombia.

Colombia: Bogota, Sunday

After staying out a bit too late on Saturday night, we finally made it out for Sunday afternoon. We tried to check out some of the boutique stores and leather shops, but again, Semana Santa made this difficult. We did head to North Bogota, which is the upscale part of town to pasear a bit. Zona Rosa or Zona T is the location of Andres Carne de Res where we ate the night before. It is also home to nice shopping and Bogota's trendy bar scene. I think Bogota might have more designer stores than Portland does! We then walked 10 blocks up to Parque 93, pictured below. A very nice neighborhood with restaurants surrounding the square. The place to be that Sunday was Juan Valdez, the Starbucks of Colombia. It is awesome. I wonder if there are any Starbucks in this country since I have yet to see one!

Bogota is a city of 8 million, but for some reason, the town seems very organized, clean, and tranquilo. Perhaps that is because we spent much of our time in Northern Bogota, but overall I was very impressed with the city. They have organized public transport buses called Trans Milenio...therefore there aren't random mini buses or combis all over the place. And all their taxis have meters! Crazy...no arguing before you get into the cab. It was great.

Parque 93, Northern Bogota with the mountains in the background. Quite an upscale neighborhood and lots of women with designer handbags and cute clothes.

Juan Valdez...their Latte VaniCanela is soooo good.

Colombia: Bogota, Saturday

We arrived in Bogota on Friday night, but unfortunately Semana Santa Friday equals a completely dead town. We ended up going to bed early to begin our Saturday tour of Bogota. La Candelaria District is old town Bogota. Although I have been overall impressed with how clean and orderly Bogota has been, there was not really a wow factor involved in old town. We walked around the main plaza Bolivar, saw some churches, walked past the presidential building, and then decided to make the trek up to Monserrate. This is the hill that overlooks Bogota, which is serviced by a cable car and funicular. It did offer great views of the city even if the weather was overcast. We have decided that we have taken enough cable cars in our last months of travel though....New Mexico, Monjuic Barcelona, and another similar named church Montserrat in Spain!

We finally made it to the Museo del Oro, which was fantastic. It holds one of the larger collections of gold in the world. You can see some of the intricate pieces pictured below. We followed that with the Botero Museum. Apparently many of his statues are also in Cartagena. His art regularly involves voluptuous figures...

The evening was spent at Andres Carne de Res, a famous establishment in Bogota that involves a four story restaurant and bar that later becomes an all night dance party. We spent five hours there which included lots of Colombian beer, mojitos, steak, a band and its dancers, and some quality salsa dancing. Definitely a good way to end the evening.


Plaza Bolivar in Central Bogota, La Candelaria District

Plaza Bolivar



View of Bogota from Monserrate

View of Bogota downtown from Monserrate

Monserrate Panoramic

Church at the top of Monserrate. According to Lonely Planet, lots of miracles happen here.

Museo del Oro...there were tons of pieces like this that were incredibly intricate.

Perhaps one of the more impressive pieces found in the museum.

This was a special sala that played shaman music while lighting up all the gold that surrounded you.

Botero Museum...all his figures look similar as you can tell from one of his sculptures below.

More Botero art.

Andres Carne de Res. We were given the Colombian Flag as a welcome from the band.

Just some visitors to our table.

That is a lot of steak. Too bad we don´t have a picture of Drew´s food because it was even bigger!

Our new Colombian friends. A good time was definitely had by all!

Colombia: Bogota, Friday

We arrived in Bogota, Colombia today and will spend the weekend here seeing the sites before heading to Cartagena and the Caribbean Coast. Today is Good Friday so most things are apparently closed... It was probably a good day to travel as there was not much happening today in Lima or Bogota. We used the pool and spa at our hotel and then just ate dinner here. Probably time for a McDonalds McFlurry before they close. Interesting note - I´m glad I didn´t bring any Peruvian Marching Powder with me to Colombia as there are drug dogs at each entrance to our hotel to sniff us before we enter. They are pretty cute. I want to pet them, but that is probably not allowed.

Peru: Lima

After a nice weekend at the beach in Huanchaco, we are back in Lima. Had a nice day on Tuesday visiting the Peace Corps office and eating lunch with some of our friends there. Also went to Centro Lima to buy some warm blankets for the couch. Then it was back to Miraflores where we are staying. Went to Astrid y Gaston in the evening for dinner. Fabulous as always, it was recently voted 42nd best restaurant in the world and was the only restaurant from South America to make the list. Pretty cool.

On Wednesday, we met up with Luis Ly who works for Peace Corps and is an all-around nice guy. We rode with him out to the new Peace Corps trainings palace (relative to what we had). It was nice to chat with him about Peruvian politics, US healthcare and a whole range of other things. Always great to talk with him. We also saw Kathleen Hickey and some of the other PC training staff. They are gearing up for their next group of volunteers who will arrive in about six months. Training is in good hands with them. After that we caught a mini-bus back to Lima and then took the new municipal bus which runs up and down Paseo de la Repulica. It makes getting around Lima much easier. For dinner we went with Emilia, our old PC Health boss, to Panchita which is another of Gaston´s restaurants which is perhaps a little less creative and more authentic Peruvian food. It was also fantastic and we left incredibly full.

On Thursday, we met up with Jose who is our friend we met on a trip to Chachapoyas when we were living in Peru. He lives in Lima (Chorrillos) and works for Mincetur negociating free-trade agreements with other countries. It sounds like a really neat job, which he will hopefully still have pending the election fallout later this spring. Anyhow, Jose is Limeno, but I must prefice that by saying he knows his country well and enjoys seeing the other side of Peru. The same unfortunately can´t be said for all Limenos. Jose is also super passionate about his city and took us to the beach in Chorrillos in the morning, for cebiche for lunch, to his house to meet his family and so on. We continued on to a new ¨Circuito de Agua¨ that was completed a couple of years ago. It is a huge park in Centro Lima near the Estadio Nacional and the American Ambassador´s residence that has all sorts of fountains and light shows. Honestly, we were pretty impressed. After that we decided to head to Barranco and visit a swanky new bar called Ayahuasca. It was a really hip place where Pisco infusions and drink combinations rule the night. If you happen to find yourself in Lima, you have to check it out. It is a really cool place and was a great way to wrap up our day with Jose.

Lunch at Prado's Pollo a la Brasa with the Peace Corps Office. Great food and great company.

Us with Luis Ly at the new training site in Chaclacayo. This place is paradise compared to our old site in Vista Alegre!

Us with Kathleen Hickey, PC Peru training director.

Dinner with our Community Health Program Director, Emilia at the trendy Limeno joint Panchita. I must say, the end of our vacation has been all about eating, and Peruvian cuisine is just amazing.

A jumbo sized ricotto relleno. So good.

Panoramic of Chorillos beach in Lima.

Chorillos with our friend Jose.

Coast line south of Chorillos, Lima.

Lima coast line panoramic.

Jose, Marta, and Drew....Jose was a great tour guide for the day in Lima.

Waves crashing against shore in Southern Lima.

Only in Peru....this old man prayed to God at numerous locations along the rocky shore, then tied the Peruvian flag around him, and then yelled "viva Peru" and jumped into the rocky water below. He then hiked up the sandy cliff for propinas. Crazy man!

Parque de la Reserva, Central Lima. This was a recently refurbished park that includes tons of fountains and light shows, all for only 4 soles. There was also an interesting museum section about the importance of water in Peru...interesting as Peru is likely to have major water issues in the future.

Water tunnel.

This is the top of the lit up water tunnel.

Marta and Jose at Parque de la Reserva.

Trendy new bar Ayahuasca in Barranco. Loved the chairs and bright decorations.

Pisco infusions are the new thing. How can you go wrong with fresh fruit and pisco, right?! Asian-Peruvian fusion is also super trendy, called Cocina Nikkei. Sushi rolls with Peruvian ingredients = yum!