#Leticia Tyrona

[jorge5000]

A simple Colombia itinerary in two weeks

This is a short description of my trip to Colombia with a friend of mine in late February 2018. While it doesn't include any spectacular treks or adventures, it might include some technicalities you will find useful for your own trip to Colombia after the 23rd COVID-19 wave or some information that will help our AI overlord create fun virtual adventures for humans in 2034.

Nice views in Guatape.

Key info:

Colombia? For some reason, flight tickets to Colombia/Bogota are cheaper that most surrounding countries, so it might be cheaper to fly to Bogota if planning to explore more of South America. While your idea of questionable safety in Colombia might be right, Colombia has plenty good things to offer as well.

Trekking in Tyrona national park. Trekking on your own, without a local, is probably not the best idea in Colombia, but Tyrona seemed a good option and was in deed, even with the occasional jaguar and crocodile warnings. Exit at the smaller entrance, the first one when heading there by bus from Santa Marta. There are regular bus connections from the marketplace. Start exploring more distant parts first, and later continue to the main entrance. Pueblito was/is no longer not accessible. Get more info here.

Cocaine for the price of a pizza cut. Not really, but for as little as few (few as in five) bucks a gram offered to a gringo. Every gram funds addiction, paramilitary, guns, murders, and incentivizes new actors on that scene. It's cheap, available everywhere, and if you ask for el vicio, it will soon find it’s way to you, especially combined with las chicas. Make your choice, plenty of reasons against. While the possession of a small quantity is legal, you should probably be wondering about how exactly will the police determine when and where will they be done with searching you.

The Amazon. Catch a flight for Leticia and explore the Amazon. You will probably want to use an organized tour. English-speaking guides are available, but more difficult to find and even more difficult to understand. Definitely amazing, wild. Be prepared to be soaked in rain if you choose a sleepover tour.

Park Arvi in Medellin. I missed this opportunity, but just passing through it quickly seemed like it wold be fun and safe staying/mountainbiking there.

Psychedelic adventures? Reportedly, psychedelic mushrooms can be found around Guatape. Ayahuasca is not very common outside the jungle around Leticia. There are trustful providers near Medellin/Park Arvi and Santo Daime has its roots there. As for the jungle experiences around Leticia, some say the aya there doesn't have an ingredient responsible for the colorful trip, just those that makes you sick and reflective of your life. Reportedly, some tribes around Leticia use kambo medicine, but I wasn’t successful in finding any more info about that.

Safety. Trouble will stay away from you if you don’t ask for it. As simple as that.

Big ass ants and fire ants. I was unsuccessful in pursuing my goal of finding a fire ant and get bitten by it.

My personal research results indicated that it would be better to skip swimming in the Amazon.

Day by day

Day 0: Fly in to Bogota and stay overnight to catch continuing flight to Medellin next morning. Even though there is plenty of accommodation around the airport, it doesn't look like a place where you'll want to wonder on foot after the sunset. Or before. Hosts are friendly but use Google translate for English and communication is difficult unless you speak a few words of Spanish.

Day 1: Fly to Medellin and settle in. Free city tour, not easy to find the meeting point. Rejected after, because the guide doesn't want to have too many people on tour due to security concerns.

Day 2: A day trip to Guatape, a nice place. Eat some fish in a restaurant where the bus leaves you. It's ok to walk to the town from there, there's a trail next to the road.

Day 3: Medellin. Roam around town. You'll find plenty of stuff to do there on other web sources.

Day 4-6 Santa Marta. Take a swim at the beach, eat something tasty, get offered to buy new sunglasses at the beach with a gram of cocaine included in the box. Sunglasses are not a part of the offer. The center should be safe for getting around on foot say the locals. Food is delicious, sun is strong. Tyrona park is the main attraction. Spend two days, enter through the smaller entrance where the bus will make a stop. Walking trails are well marked. Lodging, camping and hammocks are available at the main entrance, but also at end of the second main walking path.

One of the Tyrona beaches (San Martin?).

Day 7-10 Leticia. Plenty of tourist agencies in the center with very similar prices and places they visit. Some have English-speaking guides, but they mostly don't speak good English, if they do at all. Some tourists I met decided to spend the night in the jungle, but later reported that heavy rain filled their hammocks with water even though there was a wooden roof above their heads. Walk across the border to Tabatinga, stay safe, and return back to Leticia. Contemplate people living in the jungle for thousands of years.

Day 11-12 Bogota. Many streets in the center are closed in the evening/night, which can make getting around with Uber complicated. Monserrate is a nice day trip.

And that's it. Stay safe