Driving Miss Karen

A blog about our travel

First Visit to South America

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Machu Picchu was not the start point of our trip but was so cool we put it first

Our travels have taken us to Europe, Asia, Africa, Australia, New Zealand, and the Pacific but not our own back yard (Colombia is a 2 hour 30 minute flight from Miami). We finally got down to business and hit it hard with an almost 7 week trip covering a total of five countries. This trip started off rough with half our crew (my mom, Raul, and our friend Cat) not being able to make the trip due to health problems. We endeavored to perservere and went anyway, with Cat’s husband Tom joining us in Colombia and Peru, and my aunt Maria (I call her Nani) and her husband Lon (I call him Lon) joining us in Chile, Argentina, and Brazil.

Colombia: More Than Pablo Escobar and Cocaine

Colombia was not high on our must-do countries but with the recent improvements in tourism safety and the fact that it is “on the way” to the other contries (at least from Florida), we decided to check it out. While there are no blockbuster sites (IMO), it is interesting, colorful, and has good food and we are glad we visited. We spent time in Cartagena; a beachy resort town with a walled colonial center, Medellin; Pablo Escobar’s old stomping ground, and Bogota; Capital city at 8000 ft elevation with 8 million plus residents

Cartagena

Cartagena could be almost any carribian colonial walled city with a historic old center, lots of nightlife, beaches, and resort inslands. Since it was only about a 2.5 hour flight from Miami, it was a convenient starting point. Since we have beaches, humidity, and hot weather, there were only a few attractions that interested us

Our Airbnb overlooked the pretty colonial center
Getsemani is the place for nightlife in Cartagena
You never know who you might meet

One unique thing to do (maybe it exists elsewhere?) was the Totumo Mud Volcano which only I opted to do. They sell it as this great health benefit but it just sounded cool to me. The volcano is a natural geothermal feature but the luxurious upgrades were done by the locals

First you climb a rickety ladder and later climb down a rickety AND muddy ladder but that is part of the charm
Then you get into a mud pit with strangers and later go to the local lagoon to try and get clean-ish. All that said, it was pretty cool to float in warm volcano mud

Medellin

In the 1990s, Medellin was the most dangerous city in the world, between gangs, then drug cartels, and finally right wing militias trying to destroy the drug cartels, thousands of civilians were killed. Today it is a much safer, livable city with Colombia’s only subway system. There is a palpable sense of pride from the Paisas (people from the region) about the rebirth. Comuna 13 was one of the worst neighborhoods but is now a tourist destination for people (like me) interested in their story. We also toured the countryside a bit to visit the Guatape are with its beautiful lake and big rock

Comuna 13: No one really knows why Comuna 13 was able to stop the cycle of violence and in the span of less than 20 years, become a livable and lively neighborhood. Maybe parents and grandparents got tired of seeing their kids die. Maybe the escalators allowed businesses to flourish. Maybe art and commerce lead to tourism dollars. In any case, it is a truly fascinating and inspiring place

Why an escalator? It is part of why Comuna 13 changed. Adding escalators made the hillside more accesible and is one of the many reasons for the change
This used to be an execution ground but is now something much better
Mural with PachaMama (sort of earthmother). Art was part of the turnaround as well
Scooters are everywhere in Comuna 13. I mean everywhere. Sometimes entire families are riding. That is our tour guide on the right
There is no one reason for Comuna 13 turning things around . The important thing is they were able to do it

Medellin Walking Tour: We took a walking tour of Medellin on Halloween. It was so nice to see kids in costume getting candy. Our tour guide gave us all candy so we could reward our favorite costumes. Medellin itself is moving forward from a violent past. I always ask myself, could I be happy living here, and in Medellin the answer was yes.

Palacio de Cultura next to Plaza Botero is the cultural center of Medellin. The art museum is free
The largest vertical ecosystem in South America with 57 types of plants is part of Medellin’s Green Corridors project to combat urban pollution and cool down the city
Plaza Botero holds 23 original sculptures by Medellin born Fernando Botero including this one called “Perro”
On June 10th 1995 a bomb detonated near the “Dove” sculpture by Fernando Botero in Parque de San Antionio killing 23 people including several children. As a memorial the statue was preserved and a plaque with the victims names was added

Guatape: We toured Penol de Guatape (a big rock), Guatape Reservoir (a big lake), and Guatape (a small town) on a long day tour from Medellin. We saw some of the very pretty countryside around Medellin which was a nice change

Guatape Reservoir from the top of El Peñol de Guatape (the big damn rock)
Peñol (or big damn rock) de Guatape and its 740 steps. They are numbered
Pablo Escobar’s abandoned Lake House on the reservoir
Very cute woman in a cute old church in Guatape town
Moto-Chivas (Motor-Goats) we toured Guatape town in. Fun!
Most buildings had bottom panels called zocalos
The zocalos relate to the building and usually tell a story

Bogota

We stopped in Bogota even though it is not really a tourist destination to see how most Colombians live (it is the largest city by far) and because it is at 8000 ft elevation, it would let us accimate for Cusco Peru (11500 ft). We arrived too late to see the Gold Museum so we really only visited Zipaquira Salt Cathedral where the miners had carved chapels, galleries, and sculptures into the rock salt. We stayed two nights which gave us a feel for the Chapinero area

The dramaticly lit entrance to the abandoned salt mine
Small chapel carved into the salt
Large gallery carved into the salt. They love their lights
Mostly there were a lot of boring carved crosses but this was truly a salt masterpiece and my favorite in the entire cathedral

Jose

AKA Alfred

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