Some people have asked me why we decided to go to Colombia. One of my current travel goals is to visit all seven continents. So when I was reviewing South America, I realized I wanted to go somewhere with a beach. I narrowed down my search to Peru and Colombia. Colombia's beaches were considered to be better so that decided it! I started looking around for tour groups going to Colombia and I found Gate 1. So we booked it for the weekend of my birthday. While I was looking at tickets to Miami, I noticed that we would have to get into Miami the day before as none of the arriving flights came in before our flight to Colombia left. With that in mind, we decided to spend a couple days in Miami as well. Here's what we did!
Day 1: Our flight left for Miami at 1:14 am and got in around 10 am (we had a layover). So we were exhausted. We got into Miami, bought some bus passes, and made our way to Miami Beach, which is where we had booked an airbnb stay. We were a bit early so we stopped for lunch. We then walked to our airbnb place and we both got a little sunburnt from the little bit of walking we did. We checked in and then decided to take a leisurely bus ride to South Beach. We had a food tour set up at 5 so we were going to take our time getting down there and then walking around. Unfortunately, we didn't realize the bus was planning on going the opposite direction of where we needed to go. So we got off the bus and used uber to get back to where we needed to be.
Our food tour went to six different restaurants! We had a caramel filled churro, ceviche, empanadas, cream soda and beer, picadillo, mojito, plantanes, vegetarian pita, and gelato. We were stuffed by the end!
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| Empanada and ceviche. |
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| Mojitos and plantanes. |
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| Vegetarian pita. |
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| Our gelato. I got oreo and Lars got pistachio. |
The food tour was awesome! We really enjoyed it! Our guide was really great and as part of the tour, we walked along Ocean Drive and she told us about some of the history of different buildings. It was so pretty!
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| Ocean Drive |
After our food tour, we went to a bar recommended by our tour guide and ordered mojitos. It was good but not as good as the mojito we had on our tour. Afterwards, we headed back to our airbnb.
Day 2: We were so tired from not getting a lot of sleep the night before so we slept in and then decided to go to the beach. It was very nice and relaxing!
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| Loving being at the beach! |
After spending about an hour and a half at the beach, we went out to lunch at this place called Burgers and Shakes. And oh man, was it good! We thought it was super delicious! Lars said it was the best BBQ burger he's had.
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| Lunch at Burger and Shakes |
Then we decided to wander around South Beach some more. So we took the bus down, and started walking. We stopped for some happy hour drink specials along the way. We then went to this Cuban restaurant that our food tour guide recommended. I ordered a beef dish and Lars ordered a chicken dish. Mine was delicious! Lars' dish was good, but we both agreed that mine was definitely better.
After dinner, we headed back and decided to walk along the beach at sunset. :)
Day 3: Today was the day our Gate 1 Tour left for Colombia! We were nervous about the security lines so we arrived at the airport early. We quickly went through security and had lunch in the airport while we waited for our flight to leave. We got to Colombia in the evening. We met our tour guide, Leon, and a couple of other people in the tour group. I found out that someone in our tour group did the exact same China trip we did, exactly a year after us! So it was fun to talk to him about China and reminisce. We got to our hotel and had a welcome dinner that included an orange cinnamon shot, wine, soup, and chicken. We needed to get cash out for our tours the next day so we walked with some people from our group to the nearby ATM and then went to bed.
Day 4: Best day ever because this day was my birthday!! We started out the day with breakfast and a tour orientation. Our tour group then went to the Gold Museum. At the gold museum we also had some of the best Colombian coffee.
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| This was made from one piece of gold. |
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| Delicious Colombian coffee. |
We then walked down La Candelaria, which is a famous street in Bogota where we also visited the Botero Museum. Fernando Botero is the most famous Colombian artist. While continuing to walk down the street, Leon bought some ants for us to eat.
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| The ants |
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| My reaction to trying one. |
After the ants we continued on La Candelaria to the square at the end of the street.
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| The square at the end of La Candelaria |
At this point we had some free time for lunch. Lars and I went to a restaurant on La Candelaria and we got empanadas, drinks, a dessert, and two huge tamales, all for $10. It was so delicious!
After lunch we played tejo. It's a traditional sport in Colombia. It's like horseshoes except you're aiming for the white squares that have black powder in them with a special rock. If you hit them, it makes a sound like a hand gun.
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| Lars and I playing tejo. |
After tejo, we took a cable car to the top of the nearby Monserrate mountain. On one side was jungle and on the other city, a beautiful view of the city! At this point we were about 10,000 feet above sea level so I started feeling some altitude sickness. Coco tea helps with altitude sickness so I tried some of that.
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| The people from our group that went up the mountain. |
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| We're ready to go!! |
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| Us at the top of the mountain. |
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| View from the top of the mountain. |
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| View of Bogota from the top of Monserrate mountain. |
Next on our agenda was a nightlife tour. We went out with Leon to the Zona Rosa area. At this point we went out with a few new friends to a restaurant where we learned about Colombian time. We didn't get a menu for two hours and it took another hour for our food to arrive and another hour to get our bill figured out. Despite all the trouble, we still had a lot of fun! The people at the restaurant sang to me for my birthday and even gave me a sash and tiara!
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| Cheers! |
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| With our cute drinks and friends! |
Day 5: Today we flew to Cartagena, which is a city right by the ocean on the Caribbean side. We got off the plane and were just hit with how much humidity there is there! It was so hot and so humid that I felt like I was constantly sweating! We went straight to our hotel, where a welcome drink was waiting for us. Then we checked in and (after a quick bite at a local fast food restaurant) were ready to go on a walking tour of Cartagena! I wore jeans on the way to the hotel from the airport but it was so hot I changed into a dress as soon as I could! The first stop on our walking tour was the fortress.
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| The fortress protected the city. |
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| Us at the top of the fortress. |
Afterwards, we were able to walk around the Old City of Cartagena. I loved this part! The old city was so beautiful and vibrant! I loved all the colors and how gorgeous it was!
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| Look at those colors! |
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| I loved the blue balcony. |
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| This walk was so beautiful! |
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| Gorgeous! |
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| I love the cathedral in the background. |
We were then able to stop and take a few pictures by the ocean right as the sun was setting. Now keep in mind, it was super humid so if we look sweaty, it's because we are.
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| Cartagena was so beautiful! |
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| Sunset by the ocean. |
Once we got back we went out to eat with some friends from the tour group. This was where Lars had the best steak ever. He was loving it so much! My meal was really good too, I had a steak and pasta dish. Then we took a cab to the party district and went bar hopping as it was someone else's from the tour group's birthday.
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| Cheers! |
We had a lot of fun even though Lars and I were both offered coke, which of course we denied. We went to a couple bars and walked around the party district a bit. Around midnight, we decided to head back to our hotel.
After lunch we played in the ocean, which we both had so so so much fun doing!
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| The ocean was so warm, it made it fun to play in. |
After the ocean, we got back to our hotel and cleaned up. We then went souvenir shopping. Next, we decided it was time to eat dinner! Lars wanted to go back to the restaurant with the delicious steak but I thought we should try something new. So we went to a new restaurant. I thought my meal was oh so delicious but Lars was not impressed with his meal. At the end of our meal, our friends from the group walked in! So we joined them while they ate dinner and we had some cocktails.
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| The guys. |
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The ladies.
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Next we went back to our hotel and drank wine by the side of the pool.
Day 7: We had to get up early for our flights back to the US. On the way to the lobby after breakfast I saw a baby sloth in the middle of the pathway! It was so cute!
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| Just cruisin' along to get to the other side of the path. |
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| I photobombed Rey's selfie to get in on a selfie with the sloth. |
Then we went to the airport and headed out. It was so much fun meeting and getting to know new people and seeing new places. We had a great time!!
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| Traveling friends are friends you'll have forever! Miss these guys already! |
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| Bye Colombia! |
