I loved my first trip to Colombia. It was weeks before we all learned about COVID and our lives were all changed. I am curious to see what’s changed and what hasn’t and to share this gorgeous country with Melissa and Ali.
I planned our itinerary to avoid the regions called out by the State Department as particularly dangerous (Venezuelan border, some parts past Cali, and, of course, the Darien Gap along the border with Panama). We are sticking to pretty major tourist areas like Bogotá, Salento, Tayrona National Park, Cartagena, and the Rosario Islands.(Full disclosure: I don’t love Cartagena. It feels like being in Spain – very European and not so much South American – including the prices of things).
This is a pretty long trip for me. I’m a solid 7-8 day kind of person, but this will be over 10 days because of a flight change. Thankfully, there’s plenty to see and we will see quite a bit of it!!
When we were in Peru, I had to put my limited Spanish to the test. I expected a lot more English than we encountered, so I had to force my brain to string together the limited words that do I know into sentences to convey what we needed. I recall encountering more English in Colombia, but I am going to try my hardest to speak in Spanish. It’s funny that people are shy about using a language that they aren’t good at. I mean, I am clearly not fooling anybody into thinking I am a native speaker. If I am obviously learning and trying, that’s respectable! I wouldn’t think poorly of a tourist with broken English in the USA, so I should own my limited Spanish and use it so I can get better! Except if I encounter that same accent that I ran into off the Lorica coast last time – I don’t know what language that was, but I speak and understand none of it. 🙂
¡Vámanos!
Vacation Days 