Colombia - Kolumbien

Colombia lies in the northwest South America, between the Pacific and Caribbean Seas, the Amazon rainforest and the Andes. Bordering countries are Venezuela, Brazil, Peru, Ecuador and Panama.

The main travel destinations are the cities with their ancient colonial centers and the beaches. For nature and ecotourism, however, the country is not ideal - the tensions between the government, guerrillas and paramilitaries, which have not yet been overcome, mean that the natural attractions, apart from the main destinations, are still little developed and that your visit remains a dangerous adventure.

Regions

The Colombian territory is divided into five well-defined major regions:

• The Caribbean lowlands includes the north to the Isthnus of Darién and the area around Cartágena.
• The Andean highlands is the center of the population of Colombia and is located in the central part of the country.
• The Amazon region of Colombia occupies the southeast, is sparsely populated and tropical hot.
• The Orinoco region is located in the northeast and is also known under the name Llanos Orientales. Here there is a huge moist savannah that is very sparsely populated.
• The Pacific region of Colombia in the west is one of the rainiest areas on earth.
• Island region of Colombia Particularly noteworthy here is the archipelago known as "San Andrés and Providencia".

Cities

• Barranquilla
• Bogotá - Capital with about eight million inhabitants.
• Cartagena de Indias - one of the most beautiful cities, the old town center is a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
• Medellin - Capital of the Department of Antioquia - Capital of the Paisas
• Cali - Capital of the department of Valle del Cauca and capital of salsa

Other goals

• Tayrona - National Park on the Caribbean coast
• Ciudad Perdida - Abandoned city of the Tairona Indians in the rainforest
• San Augustine
• Desierto de la Tatacoa

background

getting there

Entry requirements

By plane

There are direct flights from Germany to Bogotá from Frankfurt am Main and Munich. Cheaper connections usually go via Caracas in Venezuela, Spain and Miami.

By train

There is no train connection to Colombia.

In the street

By boat

mobility

Colombia is actually divided into three areas: in the northwest the coast with a flat hinterland, from southwest to northeast the three Cordilleras (mountain ranges up to 5750 m high) and in the southeast almost uninhabited plains. Most of the cities are in the Cordilleras - which are not straight suitable for the construction of motorways and railway lines. Most of the roads are therefore rather meandering mountain pass roads - including the connections between the big cities.

By bus

You can take the bus anywhere in Colombia. They usually run every hour between larger cities - well, not much less often anywhere else. Most of the time, you can just drive to the bus terminal and find the right bus there, so you don't have to wait long for it to leave. Some buses just run when they are full. Bus travel is pretty cheap, especially if you bargain.

• Medellín - Barranquilla: ~ 8 hours
• Medellín - Cali: ~ 7 hours
• Medellín - Pereira: ~ 4 hours
• Medellín - Santa Fe de Antioquia (only on the other side of the mountain): ~ 3 hours
• Bogotá - Pereira: ~ 9 hours (~ 38 km / h)
• Bogotá - Medellín: 9 hours (~ 49 km / h)
• Bogotá - Barranquilla: 20 hours (~ 50 km / h)
• Bogotá - Cali: 12 hours (~ 40 km / h)
• Bogotá - Ipiales: 24 hours (~ 40 km / h)
• Bogotá - Manizales: 8 hours (~ 37 km / h)
• Bogotá - Tunja: 3 hours (~ 50 km / h)

It therefore depends fundamentally on how many and how high there are mountains between the starting point and destination.

Bus companies: Rápido Ochoa, Expreso Brasilia, Empresa Arauca and thousands more.

If the bus is too slow or too dangerous for you, you can take the plane.

In the street

Even Colombians who own a car usually only drive within 100 km of their city. Everything else is usually done by bus or plane, but you can of course also go by car. The road quality is okay. There are almost exclusively country roads - which in the Andes can naturally be quite meandering. The bus drivers have a very sporty driving style, so you won't be much faster with the car.

By plane

If the bus is too slow for you, you can take the plane - but that (at least by Colombian standards) is usually very expensive.

For the somewhat smaller travel budget, there is also a low-cost airline, Viva Colombia. When booking, however, you should be careful as there are hidden costs here. The booking is not as regulated as in the EU.

But you can actually fly anywhere where there is an airport.

Airlines: Avianca, Copa Airlines, LAN, Satena, Viva Colombia and many smaller ones that only offer short trips

By train

A bit of freight traffic in Cali, a metro in Medellín and a pleasure train that goes from Bogotá to a suburb. That's it.

language

Rule of thumb (throughout Latin America):

"When you speak English, all doors open. When you speak Spanish, hearts open too".

to buy

kitchen

Colombia is 51% covered by rainforest. This enables a very large biodiversity of the animal world, which in turn is reflected in the Colombian cuisine. Colombia's cuisine is very regional and has many differences. Extraordinary specialties such as roasted ants or guinea pigs are considered delicacies in some regions - but cause the same head-shaking in other regions, such as in Germany. But soups and sauces based on aji amarillo (a type of pepper) are also often found whether steamed or fried, as well as chicken are popular dishes, and fish is also available in the regions around the sea. This is usually prepared in coconut milk and served with coconut rice.In Europe, people tend to associate Colombia with coffee - and the Colombians themselves tell you that the coffee they drink in Colombia is not that good because the good coffee is completely exported.

The range of fresh fruits is overwhelming: in the supermarket there are five different types of mango (very small and green with lemon and salt as a snack, small for juice, up to shoe size), six different types of bananas (small, large, sweet, for cooking, for roasting, also sorted by degree of ripeness (green, yellow, black)) and seven different types of potatoes (yellow, pink, table tennis ball-sized and also like ours). Well, there is also a bunch of fruits that I have never seen in Germany. Fresh fruit juices are made from all these fruits - either with water or with milk. Delicious!

The most important foods are arepas (made from cornmeal with water, topped with cheese, sweet or not, with egg in it, yellow or white, deep-fried or baked, etc.) and rice (which is a side dish with almost everything).

nightlife

accommodation

Learn

Work

nightlife

Carnivals and festivals

• Feria de las Flores - Medellin
• Desfile de Silleteros - Medellin
• Colombiamoda - Medellin
• Exposición Internacional de Orquídeas - Medellín
• Fiestas de La Cosecha - Pereira
• Carnaval de Barranquilla
• Carnaval de Blancos y Negros - Pasto
• Feria Taurina de la Candelaria - Medellin
• Feria Taurina - Cartagena
• Temporada Taurina - Bogotá
• Fiesta de las Corralejas - Sincelejo
• Feria Taurina Bogotá
• Temporada Taurina - Medellin
• Festival internacional de cine - Cartagena
• Festival Iberoamericano de Teatro - Bogotá
• Exposición Internacional de Orquídeas - Medellín
• Semana Santa - Popayan
• Festival Internacional de la Leyenda Vallenata - Valledupar
• Festival de Cine Eurocine - Bogotá
• Fiestas del San Pedro y Festival del Bunde Tolimense - Espinal
• Feria Ganadera - Socorro - Santader
• Feria Internacional del Libro - Bogotá
• Festival de la Cultura Wayuú - Guajira
• Reinado Nacional del Bambuco - Neiva - Huila
• Reinado Nacional del Cafe - Calarca - Quindio
• Festival de la Cumbia - El Banco - Magdalena
• Torneo Internacional del Joropo - Villavicencio
• Opera al Parque - Bogotá
• Fiesta del Petróleo - Barrancabermeja-Santander
• Festival de Verano - Bogotá
• Festival de Tiple y la Guabina - Veléz - Santander
• Festival de Cometas - Villa De Leyva
• Festival de la Bahía - Bahía Solano
• Festival Folclórico del Litoral Pacifico - Buenaventura
• Feria Bonita - Bucaramanga
• Festival Latinoamericano de Teatro - Manizales - Caldas
• Festival de la Talla en Piedra - Barichara
• Festival de Música Folclórica - Socorro - Santander
• Cuna de Acordeones Festival - Villa Nueva - Guajira
• Green Moon Festival - San Andrés Islas
• Festival de la Trova - Medellin
• Jazz al Parque - Bogotá
• Festival Internacional del Jazz del Teatro Libre - Bogotá
• Feria Internacional de Bogotá
• Festival de Cine - Bogotá
• Rock al Parque
• Concurso Nacional de Belleza - Cartagena
• Reinado Internacional de Coco - San Andres
• Festival Internacional Folclórico y Turístico del Llano - San Martin - Meta
• Fiesta Nacional de la Agricultura - Palmira - Valle
• Expoartesanias - Bogotá - CORFERIAS
• Festival de Luces - Villa De Leyva
• Miss Tanga - Cartagena
• Feria de Cali
• Feria de Manizales

public holidays

A nice minister of economics once decided that all holidays (except Christmas) will always be postponed to the next Monday.

After Christmas, the Semana Santa (holy week, the week before Easter) is most important and in many companies completely, but at least for the most part, free.

security

In general, the situation in Colombia is that there are normal nice people, guerrillas and paramilitaries. The last two now live from racketeering, kidnapping and drugs. Drug cartels (Calikartell, Pablo Escobar) no longer exist. The normal nice people are clearly in the majority :-)

The situation has improved dramatically since the current President Álvaro Uribe took office. The current strategy is to fight the guerrillas everywhere (military actions) and to induce the paramilitares to voluntarily surrender their weapons.

But there is still Areas you shouldn't go to. Strolling through the woods somewhere or following any mountain paths is not advisable - this is where the paramilitares and guerrillas live. If you want to travel outside of a city, plan carefully where you want to go. If possible, travel with a reliable local.

In the cities Colombia is a good place to behave and take some common precautions. In the centers of most cities it is quite rare to have potential problems, but it is very important to be careful in the outer parts of a city. There are districts in the big cities where you have no business as a tourist, but it's no different in Paris or New York. However, compared to most other Latin American countries, normal street crime is not that high. If you want to order a taxi you should politely ask for a phone, it costs the same and a call is answered immediately.

One of the authors has been to Colombia three times in the past three years, including living and working in Medellín for six months without complications. There are also many other foreigners who have lived in Colombia and nothing has happened to them either. In principle, Colombians are actually nice, helpful and happy when you're happy too. You are actually almost surprised how happy and friendly the people are.

As a tourist you should actually note three things:

1. Some areas are dangerous.
   • Primeval forest near Leticia: If one of the crew strolls over the boat with a machine gun on a boat tour at night to keep bad people away, then that does not indicate a particularly high level of security.
   • Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta: There are supposedly beautiful old Indian houses here, but there is also a particularly high probability of being kidnapped. Germans have also been kidnapped here (all Colombians whom the author of this section asked about the security of this region have urgently advised against it).
   • Area between Cali and Popayan: For a long time it was considered very unsafe because the main settlement area of ​​the guerrillas is nearby. But should have improved. People should be asked about the current situation. In any case, it is definitely not the safest region in Colombia.
   • ...
2. Bad people block the street.
   • Occasionally, the guerrillas or paramilitaries block the street somewhere and stop buses and cars. The most promising inmates are kidnapped or have to leave their money or their car there. Foreigners (who hardly exist in Colombia) are not necessarily at the top of the list, because Colombians already know how to do with the ransom, etc., speak Spanish and are generally much less complicated. Well, a foreigner can of course be a big catch.
   • It has happened to the author of this section twice that his intercity bus took a different route because the shortest route was blocked by paramilitaries.
   • There is also a rumor that the more expensive bus companies are paying money to the guerrillas and paramilitaries in order to be spared.
3. General caution!
   • Well, the typical thing: don't strap your camera to your chest, put your wallet in your front pocket, leave valuables at home, stay away from bad people, don't walk around alone at night

Drugs: Most of the cocaine used in the US and Europe used to come from Colombia, now production has fallen sharply. Local consumption is low, so you will not be offered drugs there, nor will you see all kinds of drugs there unless you look for them. Colombians are so offended by jokes about drugs outside the country, especially by Europeans and Americans. Drugs and the mafia had a bad image, but now the police and the armed army are working hard to fight them. All Colombian governments have had commitments to combat drug production. The current President Alvaro Uribe Velez has, with great support from the US government, led a policy over the past four years in which drug plantations were massively destroyed with chemical strippers.

In summary it can be said that Colombia is quite dangerous compared to Europe. But it's not so bad that you can't go there at all.

• Security experience
• Security advice from the Federal Foreign OfficeIt is also interesting to read the notes on other countries in Latin America to get a comparison

health

climate

Colombia offers palm-lined Caribbean beaches, 5800 m high mountains with glaciers on top and everything in between. Due to the location on the equator, the weather is almost the same all year round. In the rainy season it rains a little more often, in the dry season it rains a little less.

Like in Germany, where it rains for two weeks in a row and then is nice again for two weeks or something like that, there is no such thing in Colombia. There are no seasons either: Instead, Colombians speak of winter when they are cold. (So ​​if it is a bit cool in the morning at 20 ° C, the Colombian says "What a winter today!", But that doesn't prevent him from complaining about the heat at noon (32 ° C).)

Much more serious than any season of the year is the difference where you are.

• Barranquilla Cartagena (on the coast, 0 m above sea level): 25 - 38 ° C, always sunshine, thunderstorms every few days (which then flood the streets)
• Medellín (in a valley surrounded by 3500 m mountains, 1500 m above sea level): 17 - 32 ° C, like midsummer in Germany, thunderstorms every few days (which only slightly flood the streets)
• Cali: a tad warmer than Medellín
• Bogotá (in a wide high valley, 2800 m above sea level): 10 - 25 ° C, roughly like autumn in Germany, rain four times a day is not uncommon, some people walk around with scarves and gloves (well, if you have come from the coast it's pretty fresh here)

respect

Post and Telecommunications

Spanish. Graduates can usually speak any level of English as well. In my experience, however, everyone is pretty nice, patient, and helpful - even if their Spanish is a little slow.

literature

Web links

• Purace - travel description southern Colombia, Popayan, San Agustin, Guatavita
• Teyuna - travel description northern Colombia, Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta
• Algem. Tips about Colombia