Christmas Lights in Colombia

Is that time of the year again and I’ve been meaning to relive one of the many special Bogotan traditions: to visit  Monserrate,  the tallest and most well known  mountain that frames the city of Bogota, by night . During December visiting Monserrate is especially beautiful because of the Christmas lights that decorate the whole mountain and the church that lies on top of the crater of our now dormant volcano that has become a

The most popular Colombia Travel Blog 2010 Entries.

Hello all!

It’s been more than a month since I last posted an entry in my Colombia Travel Blog, sorry about that! Just as it happened last December when I wrote about Christmas in Bogota,  many many things have converged during the last weeks of this year taking me momentarily away from my blogging activities… all very good things though!

One of them is that I just came back from a wonderful trip to the Galapagos Islands in Ecuador that was really breathtaking and that I’ll tell you about in more detail in a coming post. I’m also in the final stages of planning yet another round trip through Colombia during January, this time focusing in the Colombian Caribbean coast, so expect a lot of new entries about those destinations during 2011.  Also, and related to that trip, I am very happy to tell you that l will  very soon be able to  announce the Colombia project I have been so hardly working on during the last months …. And all of it thanks to this blog!

And because this Colombia Travel blog has given me that much during 2010, I wanted to list the most visited entries during the last 12 months according to Google Analytics:

5. Christmas in Bogota

Although it was published a few days after Christmas 2009 many people have googled about Colombian Christmas traditions, specially about the very Colombian Noche de las Velitas.

4. Bomba Estereo, my favorite new Colombian band.

I discovered this band thru a Belgian friend in Buenos Aires at the beginning of the year…. Now it seems that a LOT of people consider Bomba Estereo  as their new favorite Band, they even won the 2010 MTV award in that category, and I  had the chance to see Bomba Estero in Argentina live too a couple of months ago .

3. Party in Colombia

Unsurprisingly, many of you reached this blog by looking after the best joints to party at in Colombia, this posts talks about my top 5 rumba places in Bogota, my home city.

2. Safety in Colombia

My personal favorite, this little post created some buzz around travel websites and was republished in many sites and blogs alike even generating some controversy in a number of travel  forums.  Two main things to highlight about this entry:  1) Only listen to people that have actually traveled to Colombia when looking for advise on coming here and 2) Use your common sense as in any other place in the world: Colombia is not more dangerous than any other country in Latin-American.  

1. Top 5 Hidden Destinations in Colombia

Cartagena, Bogota or Santa Marta are amazing destinations, but it seems that people are also looking for more off the beaten path places to discover, here you can find my top 5 alternative Colombian Destinations 

               

Abrazos,

Marcela

Traveling Through Colombia in a month – Part 1

Have I ever told you about Lucerito? Lucerito was my best friend for a little more than a year; she was my travel partner and my gateway to freedom. With her I cruised all of Colombia, crossed rivers, raced through the jungle and witnesses the most amazing sunrises and sunsets in a variety of unbelievable natural settings, and is thanks to her that I can write this Colombia Travel Blog post.


Lucerito  (“Morning Star” in Spanish) was a 1998 4x4 Pajero truck  I bought with the specific goal of starting a year round trip throughout my country. I was raised among two brothers, one of them a car racer,  and a car fanatic dad, I started driving at 14 – which is very rare in Colombia – so I HAD to grow up as a car lover, I love motors, carburetors and speed! So our first mission was a one month journey to what, for me, are the highlights of Colombia. It was one of those things that my parents would do when they were young but my generation wouldn't have the chance because of the political situation and the fact that the guerrilla used to own most of the country, but now things were different.

"Lucerito"

Colombia's Tatacoa Desert: a weekend trekking, cycling and sleeping under the stars. (Or: get ready for a looong post)

I have to admit  I'm  a (very) heavy sleeper, so honestly I didn't feel the "bumpiness" of  the overnight bus ride from Bogota to Neiva, a small city (pop. 350, 000) well known here in Colombia for its yearly San Pedro festival  and even more popular due to its closeness to a certain Colombia destination I was dying to travel to for a long time: el Desierto de la Tatacoa (The Tatacoa Desert). There I was at Neiva's main square at 7 AM breathing pure unpolluted morning air, enjoying the morning silence while all local stores were closed on that sunny Saturday (its always sunny over there) and even at that early time, the temperature was quiet high.

After a nice local breakfast with scrumbled eggs, fresh bread and a hot chocolate at the same place were all truck drivers stop for an arepa and a hot cofee, we got on the bus and started a short drive towards Tello, the first stop on my journey to Tatacoa. 

Party in Colombia: My top 5 rumbeaderos in Bogota

Colombia is the only  place in the world in which " rumba" means much more than the musical rythm known as, well..." rumba". Lets see how can we define " rumba" ... a simple translation could be "to party" , but " rumbear"  can also mean:


1) Going out for a drink.
2) Going dancing.

3) Going to a gig.

4) Singing away in a Karaoke.

5) Going to someone's house for a party.

6) 1 + 2 
7) 5 + 4

8) 3 +1 + 2

9) 5 + 1 + 6 + waking up next day in a farm with a killer hangover.

10) 7 + ... well, I guess you get the idea.


So, in the very tough mission of recommending the best 5 places to party or " rumbear"  in Bogota, my home town, the humble writer of this Colombia Travel blog has taken the freedom to  first divide the city in 5 highly recommended night life and party areas for educational reasons, all of them in northerm Bogota where you'll find a lot of options for you to enjoy a nigh out, from salsa or electronic music through a quite glass of black beer.... bars, pubs, restaurants, and coffee shops.... the whole lot.

Christmas in Bogota: La noche de las Velitas

I know, maybe I'm a little late for a Christmas post, this one was supposed to be online before New Year's , but a trip to Florianopolis - Brazil got in the middle. By the way, if you're planning on going to Brazil you should definitely visit Ilha de Santa Catarina (or Floranopolis or Floripa for short).... we - that's my fiance and I - spent 10 really  nice days full of astonishing beaches and many many outdoor activities there. We liked the fact that Floripa is still kind of a local destination only, mostly visited by southern Brazilians and Argentineans, so you have a real sense of "immersion". As always, if you need info on that just e-mail me... but enough of my brazilian new year's break, let’s get back to Christmas in Bogota.