Santa Fe de Antioquia, Colombia

Getting here was a long journey, but it is a sweet little colonial town. It is a magnet for Colombian tourists and very well preserved. The LP talks about how Colombians have been trapped in their cities by La Violencia and now that it is safe to travel they seem to be absolutely giddy with exploring their own country.



There are several town squares to walk to, some have impromptu musicians playing and others have carts of trinkets to sell to tourists.





Elaborately carved doors are typical of the region.


Earth tones prevail but there are some riotous colors as well.





We are staying at La Plaza Menor. We checked out the Plaza Mayor as commended in the LP but it was such a horrid dive we couldn't get out of there fast enough. There were men drinking hard liquor in the courtyard and the maids were bleary eyed. It was dirty and disgusting. So the tourist office helped us find another place. All inclusive types with meals and a swimming pool included in the price are popular here. It is am expensive tourist town, where Medellin city folks come to warm up. But for the kids it was a little isolated paradise, where everything was taken care of. We dont have to schlep around looking for something to eat and we can eat right by the side of the pool. Since it is during the week we have the place to ourselves.





The room isn't anything special but we aren't spending much time in there anyway.


The beautiful view from the pool.


Meals taken at these heavy wooden dining sets, each one different and there are about 10.


It certainly isn't backpacker lodging, as there are actual courses served on matching heavy white dishes. It felt good to get off the streets and into a little haven.


They had fun being birds in the hammocks.





Odd little balconies around the corners.


The big attraction is riding in a tuk tuk imported from India to the Bridge to the West, built in the 1800's and made of wood. Only motos and tuk tuks and people can use it now, no cars. We got a ride there, got dropped of on one side, walked across, and he picked us up on the other side.





On the way back we met up with these guys who make their living panning for gold.





These teeny tiny grains of gold flecks will net him about 12 usd for the days work.


We ended the day with a cold drink on the plaza. Luis says he felt like he was in a movie.

Now it's back to Medellin to catch a semi final futbol game which we are super excited about!

Getting to Santa Fe De Antioquia, Colombia

After another grueling day on the road that brought out some tears of exhaustion, we finally arrived in Santa Fe de Antioquia, about 70 km north of Medellin.

We left mid day from mompos starting with a one hour taxi ride. Hot, dusty, and bumpy...not our favorite, but it's the only way to begin and end a journey to mompos since it is so hard to reach. The taxi takes us to Bodega, a small village on the muddy banks of the river where we wait for our lancha, which is a small boat, to take us on the one hour journey to Mangangue. We waited for over an hour for the lancha to fill up, it leaves when full, s that could be anytime! There is no way to know how long you will wait for that to happen. At home, a boat like this would only allow 10 people on it by law, that's how many seats there are. But here in Colombia is doesn't matter how many seats there are, but how many people can fit on a seat that determines the fullness of the boat. In this case the boat could hold twenty people. At least there were life jackets, for half of the people anyway!


So the lancha ride was quite thrilling. But the arrival in the horrible river port town of Mangangue was wretched. The moment we docked touts surrounded us shouting offeres of rides to various cities, we had to fight them off from carrying our packs off the boat, because once they get a bag in their hands they consider you their customer. Touts are annoying ands best to ignore them and to even look at or acknowledge them.


We make our way by foot three blocks to the bus station only to find out that the overnight bus to Medellin is full. We look around and know that we absolutely positively cannot stay the night is this seedy port town and for a moment I have no idea what to do. The bus ticket counter guy suggests we take a taxi to Sincelejo, about an hour away, and get a bus in the morning.

Ok, so Sincelejo is on our map, but not in our guide book so I have no idea where the heck we would even think of staying once we reach there. But I think the guy can tell we are a bit freaked, and it's obvious to him that this family cannot be safe in this gutter of a town for the night. So on a gut feeing we take his advice and hop in a car to Sincelejo.

Upon arrival at the bus station we learn that there are seats on the 8:30 pm overnight bus to Medellin. We get tickets and spend the next few hours in the bus station exploring street food and eating candy. What a relief to know that we are getting out of the hot lowlands, which are darning our energy and making all of us in bad moods.

I start to notice that all of the southbound travelers have coats and blankets...
And I remember reading that overnight buses are famously cold. Well I feel secure I that we all have a long sleeve shirt and the two sarongs I always travel with that I got in Thailand twenty years ago. That'll be fine I think.

You can guess what happened after about one hour into our twelve hour journey. We were no longer traveling on a bus, but in meat locker. The bus was so damn cold it was unbelievable. I sat with maya and we had to be huddled together just to stay warm. Luis and I didn't sleep barely an hour that long miserable night.

But we finally arrived at the northern bus terminal in Medellin, cold, tired, hungry, but pleasantly surprised at the huge and modern and easy to navigate bus station. We easily found a bus company going to Santa fe de Antioquia, which would be another two hours or so away. We bought tickets and hopped on a bus thirty minutes later.

This post is getting long, but I thought it would be interesting to describe the many forms of transport, the difficulty, and the time it took (24 hours) to get to this little colonial town. More on this place in another post.

Final thoughts on mompos.

We are leaving for Medellin this afternoon, so thought I would post some final thoughts on this sleepy colonial river town.


We had a fun ride in this drivers vehicle, sort of the classic car of mototaxis.


Afternoons with cold sweet drinks makes everyone happy, even causing maya to exclaim that she loves Colombia!


Better than Starbucks.


We called this street food vendor 'the meat guy', and you can see why. His offerings were really tasty.


Jacking digging into some chicken asado, rice, and plantains at a riverside cafe.


They look happy here!


Soups start the meal, a lime gets squeezed in.


Bought some sweet mini bananas from this man and his grandsons.


I love crumbling colonial architecture.





View from the back of a mototaxis.


Market day and this vendor is filleting fish.

So all in all mompos is a laid back place. We only met 2 other backpackers here, all the rest were Colombian tourists. Casa amarilla is a terrific place to stay, right on the river. The housekeepers kept our room spotless and worked tirelessly for 12 hour days. The staff is super nice and patient with our bad Spanish. The only drawback to staying here is the thumping riverside bar, which boom booms into the we hours. But that's pretty typical of the atmosphere in Colombia, it's just damn loud all the time. Peace and quiet is really rare. This afternoon we are taking a trip to Medellin. We have 10 more days on this trip so we decided to head south. We have a long travel day ahead of us which includes a taxi, a boat, and then the dreaded overnight bus. Wish us luck!

Magdalena River, Mompos, Colombia

There isn't a whole lot to do in Mompos, but one thing that can be arranged is a tour of the river in a traditional boat called a lancha.




I am glad we did this because it made Jack really happy. He has been particularly unhappy in Colombia, with much more homesickness and grumpiness than on previous trips. Of all of us he is the most disgruntled and foul when we travel, but this time it's like a black cloud. Part of his grief comes from his experience with other kids. In Costa Rica and Peru meeting and playing with kids was the absolute highlight. It was so easy for him to walk it the door of the hotel and find a group of friendly kids eager to invite him to play futbol or tag. Kids went out of their way to try to communicate with him and were nothing short of thrilled to have him around.
Not so this time. But I don't think it's the country I think it's the age. And the culture. I think that by age 12 boys in Latin America are much less interested in connecting and playing with others than they are in developing their machismo. And so far part of nurturing the all powerful machismo is shouting cuss words at jack and flipping him the bird.
"Even the kids at my school don't act like this!" was his reaction. He was shocked and saddened by the treatment he has voiced from other boys his age. So much is his dismay that he has cried and refused to go out. For him, this problem has been the icing on the cake of dislike for Colombia. He also flat out refused to journal, saying he doesn't want to have any memory of this trip.
So we are experiencing some of the ups and downs of a middle school temperament, compounded by being mistreated and physically uncomfortable.
But this is a post of a lovely river trip we took, one that Jack really liked. So let's move on.








We had a great guide who spoke clear and simple Spanish for our benefit. I could translate everything he said to the family, so we learned a lot. This guy, Jose, knew the name of every single plant and animal that we encountered. We saw monkeys, iguanas, and a ton of different bird species.
















Kids loved dipping their toes in the warm water. Jose assured us there we no piranhas!




We watched all kinds of people using the river to sustain their lives. This guy is transporting bags of yucca.




Fishing poles jut put from muddy banks with little fish tied on the ends. The pecsadores check them hoping bigger fish will have been caught.




Folks washing clothes at the river side.




He came along to help handle the lines.
















Canoes tied up along the banks, carved from a tree trunk.








Viewes of mompos from the river. Definitely a nice trip!