Location + How to get there Cocora Valley means “star of water” and is located near the city of Salento in Colombia. There are buses to Salento from Bogota and Medillin. From Bogota, you have to take a bus to Armenia (7 to 9 hrs), and...
Street food holds a special place in the whole travel experience but is often a gamble for the faint stomached. To my surprise, most of the street food vendors I came across in South America had pretty clean set up and there was rarely anything alarming. In...
To tip or not to tip??? I did not have to tip in Colombia, Peru, or Bolivia. Chile was a hit or miss, they wouldn’t say no to it but I didn’t see every passenger tip either. Now Argentina, they will “charge” a baggage fee...
Surprisingly, when I googled, I found very little information on the interweb about this topic and had to explore my options a bit all over town. A few of the local guides/travel agencies offered to make a tour out of this at the cost of...
Some time ago in the 1960’s when there were no wildlife restrictions, a Greek man brought a load of squirrel monkeys to an island he owned. Without predators on the island, the monkeys thrived and La Isla de los Micos (Monkey Island) was born. Today,...
The heat loving German bartender in Buga raved about this town, Leticia, and the Amazon. He gave hope and a way out for the travelers stranded a few towns from the border of Colombia due to protests and road blocks. I never considered Leticia. It...
I saved the museums till the very last day because I was waiting for a rainy day (never did happen, can’t complain!) Instead towards the end of my stay in Bogota, I had two muse-see museums, Botero Museum and the Gold Museum, and one collateral....
La Monserrate is a mountain in Bogota. Sitting at 3,152 metres (10,341 ft) above sea level, it overlooks the entire city. The people of Bogota believe, if a dating couple visits Monserrate, the relationship will be cursed and will not last (personally, I think that’s a brilliant...
On day 3/4, I switched from the hostel ($14/night) to another reservation from Airbnb ($25/night), a bedroom in an apartment building on the eleventh floor. The view of the city from the apartment was gorgeous. The apartment is only 30 minutes from the hostel but...
At the end of the bike trip, Gerri from Texas, one of the participants of the tour, saw a flyer for a cooking class on the shop’s door. And that is how day two happened. In the morning, I hop on the Transmilenio and jump...
Bogota, the capital and largest city of Colombia, is situated 8661 ft (2640 metres) above sea level. The climate in Bogota is consistent throughout the year (around 60-70 °F during the day and 40-60 °F at night.) The water is also drinkable straight out of the faucet....
The city is spelled Cartagena but it’s pronounced Car-ta-hen-na. My inconsistent pronunciation in pretty much everything Spanish gives me away not only as a foreigner but one that’s so prude I can’t get my g-j-h straight. Day 1 The flight to Bogota and transfer to...