Posts labeled with Country ' Colombia'
On the morning of January 22, 2022 , TotalAdventure left US territory for the first time in almost 2 years on a 3.5 hour flight from Miami to Medellín .
After a great weekend – it’s time to head south to Cali and the Colombian Pacific.
Columbia’s shoreline in the Pacific Ocean runs hundreds of miles from Panama to Ecuador, yet is only accessible by two roads. The coastline consists of sheer cliffs overgrown with dense jungle. It’s hardly a place for vacationers – the third rainiest place on Earth with over 300 inches per year.
An overnight in the desolate and rainy port of Buenaventura, in the District of Choco, in order to catch a ferry to a coastal ecolodge the next morning.
Narco Armies ,smuggling cocaine to American drug consumers, operate heavily in the region. Therefore it is heavily militarized. Here, a soldier standing guard at a fishing village checks his phone,
Low tide from my room. Tides are about 8 to 12 feet in the zone.
TotalAdventure flew from Cali to Santa Marta – from the Pacific to the Atlantic in one day. Arriving in Santa Marta at night I had a swim in the pool, then off to the Old City for supper. Now a laid back tourist town – where the barren brown Andes meet the Caribbean – Santa Marta was the main trans shipment point for cocaine to Miami back in the late 1970s and early 1980s.
In Santa Marta, I attempted to rent a 4X4 pickup tuck, but all that was available was a little eggbeater of some Kia sort of car. I then set off for the wilds of La Guajira.
Rafael Ortiz Art.
After 11 Days in Colombia, TotalAdventure returned to Miami on the 2hour, 45 minute flight. flight – around the same time as to go to New York from Miami. Note the plane boards from both front and back – 15 minutes total as opposed to 45 minutes in the States.
On the morning of 10/28/11 I travelled from São Paulo to Bogotá on my way home to Miami. The flight takes off from the second biggest city in the world, and within a couple of hours is flying over one of the most remote areas on the world.
Avianca’s twice daily A 340 flight is about 6 hours.
Vegans who want to save the world – guess what ? Soya farms are eating up the jungle !
Western Amazon.
Down below, Lost Tribes gaze up at the Big SIlver BIrd – too high for their poison arrows to hit.
The cloud cover thickened over the rain forest and we did not see anything the last two hours – missing views of the Colombian Andes until we landed at El Dorado Internacional.
Time to connect for Miami !
“Wheels Up ” for the three hour commuter flight from Medellín to Miami. It’s a quick hop across the Caribbean, passing Jamaica and Cuba along the way.
On Saturday morning a local friend took me for a drive through the countryside to her family’s finca – a dairy farm in La Unión , about 35 miles outside of Medellín. In the city , at 5000 feet, the temperature was near 80, at 9500 feet in the tierra fria, it was in the 50’s, but very sunny. Our first stop was in San Antonio at this church.
Mass in Colombia is the real thing, not the bland “lite” version so common in the United States.
The air is cool, but the hot equatorial sun has people on the shady side of the street.
A potato farmer carrying his goods. Andean potatoes are the best – hundreds of varieties.
Medellín – Flower Captial of the World
The finca was beautiful. Milking the old fashioned way makes a much better tasting product.
Afterwards we went for a great lunch – with some of the best bean soup I had ever tasted,chorizo,steak,rice,potatoes,and eggs and sodas – total price 14000 pesos – about $7.
Medellín on Google Earth @ 6 17 24.00 N 75 32 23.98 W
A little free time this afternoon to take a tour of downtown Medellín. Here is the work of the great native sculptor Fernando Botero. There will be more shots this weekend as I tour the Antioquia countryside.
Nearby Church.
I’m here in Colombia on a Trade Mission to promote ArcticTropic as a vehicle for promoting ecotourism and adventure travel here.
Colombia is one of the most beautiful countries in the world, with almost every terrain and climate imaginable. Already, Europeans are visiting, and now its’ time for upscale,educated Americans to travel here – anywhere between three and five hours from most parts of the United States. I was in Bogotá earlier this week , and now in Medellin till next Monday. More pictures to come.
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