Sometimes it can be a good idea to simply trust people and not think twice about it. Sometimes just follow the guy that approaches you at the bus station offering accomodation and you might end up staying in a comfortable, laid-back old family home turned hostel, where the same guy offers himself as both company and a city guide. You’ll get to fly kites with him and hike up to a viewpoint on a hill overlooking the beautiful mountaineous surroundings. His mother will make delicious lemonade for you. You’ll feel completely at home.
Or, you know, you might get lured to some sketchy place and experience one of the many horror stories I have heard from other travelers.
Take your chances!
The view over Villa de Leyva was so worth the one-hour climb up the hill!
Luckily only the former happened to us when we followed a recommendation and went to Villa de Leyva in the northeast of Bogota for a couple of days. It was totally worth the long and adventurous bus ride. Also very interesting was the handicrafts market in Raquira, a short bus ride away. If you’re looking for a souvenir, that’s the place to go. Expect approximately a gazillion shops selling the exact same things. It’s still pretty nice, though. In a back alley we found a little shop run by an elderly lady where I bought one of those cute bags that she makes herself and that you can see everyone in Colombia wearing.
I really wish we could have spent more time in and around Villa de Leyva because it is the perfect place to chill for a little while, but unfortunately time is something we don’t have in excess.
Even all the men wear those bags, can you imagine?
Did I or did I not get in?
Thank you, Colombian bus companies, for having free wifi on almost all your buses! Remember how I took the entrance exam for medicine three days before flying to Colombia? I spent a month alternating between feeling desperately anxious and anxiously hopeful while waiting for the test results to be announced. It was a good thing I was rather distracted by all the new impressions and experiences I had on my trip. The day the results were supposed to come in I was stuck for hours on a bus from Bogota to Salento. I had been super nervous for days in advance and now the time had finally arrived when my future would be decided. No pressure, right?
I honestly couldn’t bear the suspension. I tried to get an internet connection at the bus terminal in Bogota but it didn’t work. We then specifically looked for a bus with wifi which luckily didn’t prove to be a challenging task.On the bus I connected and promptly received the e-mail that the results were online. Naturally they couldn’t say in this e-mail whether I had been accepted or not. I had to log in to a specific site and download a document which I wasn’t able to open on my phone. Nice. I was at a point where I was dying to finally know and at the same time not to know. What if it all had been in vain? All the hours of studying, the passing on fun activities and the frustration?
Fortunately I was traveling with my friend who could open the document. I will forever remember the moment when I read the words “We are glad to inform you that you have been offered a place at the Medical…”. I couldn’t even read any further because I was already laughing and screaming and crying and freaking out. This was probably one of the happiest days of my life!
In order to celebrate we wanted to splurge on some mojitos, but much to my chagrin it turned out to be an impossible task, because at 8 pm the majority of the people in the bars were asleep on the table. I’m not kidding!
Salento, a sleepy little town in the middle of nowhere
One coffee for you, one coffee for me
Unfortunately the aforementioned road from Bogotá to Salento was one with more bends than I could stomach – literally. I thought any second now I would be rid of the remains of my lunch. Luckily I made it without that unpleasant scenario happening and we were rewarded for our endurance with some of the highlights of our trip. I mean, as usual we did a long, strenuous hike which included river crossings (or rather involuntary river baths for Vicky and her non- existent sense of balance) and pouring rain as well as hot chocolate and hundreds of cute hummingbirds at the top of the mountain.
To be honest, I’ve rarely seen something so beautiful.
Not even the rain and mud could damp our spirits – at least most of the time
And that was all pretty impressive, but it’s not the only thing I was referring to when I said highlight. Salento and the region around, the Quindio, isn’t called the coffee zone for nothing. Those of you who have spent at least a day with me know that I’m a serious coffee addict. I’ve totally tried to cut down my daily coffee intake, but I highly doubt it’s gonna happen in this lifetime. I am still amazed at how I managed to abstain from it for three months in a row. But everyone does stupid things when they’re 19, right?
In order to see where the coffee comes from and because we were tired of hiking, we visited an authentic (or so they say) finca. We heard a lot about the coffee-making process, most of which I didn’t even listen to, since I was too busy taking close-up images of leaves and beans and exotic-looking plants. I know, I’m hopeless. There’s one fact that stuck with me, though. I don’t know about other parts of the world, but in Europe Colombian coffee is ranked among the best. Unfortunately, you probably get better Colombian coffee anywhere else than where it’s actually produced. That’s because all the good, high-quality coffee is exported and shipped off to be sold at a much higher price than you could charge here, while the second-rate beans stay in the country. In my opinion, that says a lot about the world we live in.
To travel or not to travel together
At the time I’m writing this Vicky and I have been traveling together for more than five weeks now. It’s already been this long because I’m really behind on writing posts, so please forgive the time discontinuity.
As was to be expected, we faced some challenges in the beginning which I blame on the fact that my friend still had to write her bachelor thesis (on her phone – who does that?) and that I had to get used to not traveling alone anymore. But by now we’ve become pretty good at dividing tasks and responsibilities between the two of us. Mostly I am in charge of speaking Spanish to people, managing our finances and finding out how to get from A to B. She cooks and puts up with my mood swings. I find that’s a more than fair deal. And so far, it’s worked. Sometimes better, sometimes not so much, but it works.
And we’ve definitely reached some friendship milestones. We’ve taken endlessly long bus rides together, seen each other puke into plastic bags on one of the more horrible ones and cry from exhaustion and frustration, survived 24 hours together without wanting to kill each other, and we’ve certainly learned how to deal with the other’s whims. We’ve also perfected our non-verbal communication (grunting in a higher or lower pitch goes a long way when you don’t even have enough air left to breathe on a hike).
Living together and traveling together are probably the two things that are most likely to decide about the fate of a friendship. It either goes really wrong or, preferably, it strengthens the bond and makes it last a lifetime. You’ll find yourselves in uncomfortable situations, you’ll really get on each other’s nerves and sometimes you’ll rue the day you decided to undertake this adventure together. But you’ll also laugh until you cry, witness the most spectacular things and have experiences that you won’t ever forget and that you will share until the end of your days.
Don't Eat My Popcorn 