THE DETAILS Most
THE DETAILS Most visitors will fly directly to Bogotá, but there are also direct flights to Cartagena and Medellín. I often fly the Colombian airline Avianca (avianca.com), but Delta and American also service the country. Avianca and TACA (taca.com) are best for internal flights. Driving between Santa Marta and Cartagena and on the “coffee highway” is relatively easy but not recommended for longer distances. Taxis are plentiful but should be called rather than hailed; hotel concierges will do this. I advise first-time travellers, especially without Spanish, to hire a guide, like Fabio Quiroz (fabioquiroztourg@hotmail.com), and check out the government tourism agency ProExport (colombia.travel). There are still unsafe areas, particularly to the south and east of Cali and in parts of northern Antioquia. With 4,000 hotel rooms opening in the next few years and restaurants and shops popping up regularly, I see new places on every visit. Here are some of my favourites. MO HOTELS Casa Medina Rooms start at US0; Avenida Carrera 7 69A-22, Bogotá; +57 1 217 0288; hotelcharlestoncasamedina.com The Charlee Hotel Rooms start at US0; Calle 9A 37-16, Medellín; +57 4 444 4968; thecharlee.com Hotel Sofitel Santa Clara Rooms start at US0; Calle del Torno 39-29, Cartagena; +57 5 650 4700; sofitel.com RESTAURANTS Andrés Carne de Res 1 Calle 3 11-56, Chía; +57 1 863 7880 Casa Vieja Carrera 6A 117–35. Bogotá; +57 1 213 3246 El Bandido Calle 79B 7–12, Bogotá; +57 1 212 5709 El Cielo Calle 70 4–47, Bogotá; 57-1/703-5585 La Vitrola Calle de Baloco 2-01, Cartagena; +57 5 660 0711 Rafael Calle 70 4–63, Bogotá; +57 1 255 4138; rafaelosterling.com Santa Mesa $ Calle 17 3-38, Santa Marta; +57 5 421 7399 Vera Calle del Sargento Mayor 6-21, Cartagena; +57 5 664 4445; tcherassihotels.com SHOPS & GALLERIES Atenea Carrera 11 85–62; +57 1 236 8226 Casa Chiqui Calle de la Universidad 36-127, Cartagena; +57 5 668 5429 La Cometa Galeria Carrera 10 94A– 25/31, Bogotá; +57 1 601 9494 María Camila Mesa Tesoro Local 1312, Medellín; +57 4 266 5254 Olga Piedrahita Carrera 14A 82–36, Bogotá; +57 1 622 8681 46 departures-international.com
Chiqui de Echavarria, its owner, can often be found at La Vitrola, the main venue to see and be seen. Cartagena gets more exciting each time I come, but now it’s so popular that its sleepy country cousin, Santa Marta, is also beginning to transform into a tropical hot spot. The ride, four hours north along the coast by car, really illustrates the dilemma Colombia faces as it becomes more prosperous and desirable: large pipelines from the country’s fast-expanding oil business feed into big tanker ships, and a real tug-of-war is looming to determine which side will prevail – those who want to develop this stretch of the Caribbean coast for tourism or those who want it for big oil and coal. What I like best about Santa Marta, however, is its quaintness in the face of potentially explosive growth. The sibling owners of the spacious, newish restaurant Santa Mesa used their grandfather’s piano as part of the decor and had their mother handembroider monograms on all the linen napkins. Santa Marta is known as the gateway to Tayrona National Park, a vast jungle preserve sheltering more than 300 species of birds that stretches along kilometres of mostly deserted beaches, arrived at only by foot or on horseback. The Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta is the highest coastal mountain range in the world, and the frigid streams that supply water to the Kogis and other indigenous people eventually empty into the warm sea here. Egrets, flamingos and crocodiles wander the wetlands while cotton-top tamarins swing from the twisted banyan and palm trees above. As I wandered trails, it was exciting to look up and suddenly see endangered monkeys scampering around in their natural habitat. From the Caribbean coast, I flew to the coffee country in the middle of Colombia via Bogotá, to its east. The region actually comprises parts of three departments, and to my surprise, the once quiet, medium-sized city of Pereira, where I landed in the department of Risaralda, now has a Mercedes dealership, and nearby country houses of local gentry are being converted to bed and breakfasts of varying degrees of luxe. The first afternoon, I drove with a young guide about an hour and a half northwest to the Santa Rosa de Cabal hot springs. The mineral water is piped from a short distance away into manmade pools at the base of a high waterfall privately owned for more than 60 years by the Arbelaez family, who maintain a cosy spa and restaurant there. The weather was cool and misty; the short hike in followed a path of moss and stones next to rapids with low-lying falls that shot like bullets through black stone. The yellow day lilies and purple princess flowers were an arresting juxtaposition to the dramatic tropical foliage, like colocasia (elephant’s ear plants). There were only a few Colombian visitors around at the end of the day and several hot pools in which to soak. I was even able to get a foot massage while staring at 20 shades of green and watching wisps of cappuccino-like froth flutter off the tips of the falls. It was practically a meditation. The next morning, an hour in the opposite, southwest direction, I hiked the truly spectacular Valley of Cocora in Los Nevados National Park, with its unique The Adolfo Mejía theatre in Cartagena; opposite: the waterfalls of the Santa Rosa de Cabal hot springs near Pereira departures-international.com 47
