One of the best things about traveling to South America from Denver is the lack of a major time zone change. All total, it’s comparable to flying to the East Coast, and – unlike flying to Europe or Asia – it’s SIGNIFICANTLY less exhausting in comparison.

Kassie and I arrived in Colombia at 10:30 pm after a ten-hour travel day and immediately found an Uber to take us to our Airbnb. Taxi drivers in Colombia will often either try to ask for more money or not immediately take you to the correct destination in an attempt to gin up more cash – hence, why we usually use Uber. A great thing about having Ubers in other countries is the set price and ability to have a third party track your location – all major pluses when conducting international travel. We ended up using Uber about 20 times and felt totally comfortable each time we did so. We arrived ready for bed and were greeted by “Charles”, the place’s resident cockroach, waiting for us on our nightstand. Needless to say, he was friendly enough, but was also promptly shown the exit via the toilet.

For our first day in Cartagena, we booked an 8-hour catamaran to the Rosario Islands. The boat itself was huge, with the capacity to hold up to 180 individuals (although our ride only ended up having 40 on board). Overall, it ended up being a diverse mix of people on the boat, ranging from a group of 6 from Maryland who had spent two years planning their trip, to a local from Bogota with his much younger sugar baby in tow – in other words, it proved to be GREAT people watching. The boat itself was extremely easy to book, with tickets available to purchase online or by walking along the river front, which features a wide array of activities, including snorkeling, lunch, and even a cash bar.

While in Cartagena, we stayed just outside the walled city. It’s one of the oldest cities in South America, and from the looks of things, would have almost certainly been a fun place to explore, had we had the time. As we walked to dinner that night to Cusco for one of my favorite cuisines, Peruvian, (I highly recommend the steak rice and Risotto, along with a Pisco Sour), I suggested that we walk around and explore a bit before dinner. As we strolled around the city, we quickly came across people wearing all different colors of dry (powdered) paint and laughing. We soon found out that it was the City of Cartagena’s Independence Day, and it was in full party mode.

Sounds fun, right? Except this is where things, unfortunately, took a turn for the worse: everyone was having a blast, laughing, and playing music, and the streets were packed with people tossing powdered paint in all directions (it almost looked like a rainbow in the dark). We saw our exit point about 50 meters ahead and decided to push through. As we approached the end of the street, the crowd began pushing even closer and tighter together, and at that moment, several extremely loud fire crackers were thrown at our feet, letting loose a mix of shaving cream and water DIRECTLY into our eyes and covering our faces. Adding to the chaos was the crowd itself, which touched and pulled us in every direction. Honestly, this is the closest I can imagine to what a military flash bang must feel like, with all of your senses overwhelmed at the same time… I had never experienced anything with so much sensory overload.

Ten steps later, we emerged into a completely open area. Out of habit, I immediately went to check both front pockets… and went numb. The wallet in the front left pocket and the phone on the front right pocket…were both gone. Full disclosure: this was the first time I had ever been robbed and honestly, the feeling took about a week to shake – it felt so violating (it did serve as a good reminder that the material objects that we place much of value into are really, at the end of the day, just things, and not what truly matter). Within 10 minutes, we were back at the hotel, where I quickly cancelled all my credit cards and marked my iPhone as “lost” while erasing all of its data. A reminder to always follow Rule #3 – break up your cards/cash – and Rule #8 – take pictures of everything, just in case.

The whole experience definitely put a damper on our next day, particularly as we tried to map out what the rest of the trip would look like without credit cards or a phone on hand. Fortunately, Kassie brought her backup burner phone iPhone 8, exactly for incidents such as this. This allowed me to download the MyColorado app for my ID and Apple Pay for tap payments, providing at least some semblance of structure to the rest of our trip.

The next day, we picked up a rental car and drive north up to Santa Marta, a beach resort town that’s known for its historic old town and beaches that stretch all the way north to the Venezuelan boarder. About halfway through our drive, we experienced another little adventure: unfortunately for us, we hadn’t realized that our settings in Google Maps had been set to “No Tolls for Best Directions.” As we began to drive through ever smaller towns and eventually, transitioned from the highway, to county roads, to dirt roads, to freaking FARMERS FIELDS, we began to realize that something was definately off. It eventually got to the point where we were literally only about 800 meters from the road connecting back to the main road and couldn’t push forward with our 4-inch clearance, 14 inch rims, VW manual rental. At that point, having already pushed our luck with several small ponds in the road – all of which threatened to push water well over the roof of the car – and after a almost-certainly-busted undercarriage, we decided to turn back.

Once we adjusted the toll setting on Google Maps, we were finally able to find the main road and eventually, our hostel. As we pulled up to the hostel in Santa Marta, two police officers on motor bike drove by once looking at us…then, just a few seconds later, passed again, now full-on staring. Sensing that something wasn’t right, I whispered to Kassie to get inside the hostel immediately. Just as she ducked inside and closed the door, the officers pulled up and immediately began aggressively asking me questions in Spanish. Still not having gotten over the pickpocketing that had happened the day prior, and in no mood to deal with what looked to be a potential shakedown, I quickly began to unload the bags and toss them inside the door, all while continually pointing to my ears and shaking my head “no.” I then quickly locked the car and walked inside. Glancing through the window I watched as the officers walked around the car in apparent frustration, then eventually drove away. All is well that ends well, I suppose: thankfully, the car had no slashed tired or any apparent damage the next day.

The next day, we walked the old town area, which – while small – was very cute and colorful. The main attraction there is Tayrona National Park, which is an absolute must-visit, thanks to its batch of amazing beaches and campsites. El Zaino is the main entrance, which we used to enter the Park; from there, the path leading us through was extremely muddy and worn down, to the point where we were often walking through 6-7 inches of pure mud and even across several streams. We stayed at hostel Viajero, which was amazing: for $100 per night, we had our own private villa. The main area itself was sprawling, complete with a pool, beach volley ball, restaurant and beach front, complete with a surf hut for private lessons. The Viajero chain represents more of a “fancy” backpacker option, but we did meet several friendly travelers and ended up having dinner with them in Medellin. The location itself is fairly remote, but they do offer daily activities on-site, with taxis readily available to take you into other nearby areas, should you wish.

We stopped in Guatape for a night and stayed at MuMu accommodations, which included a private hut and hot tub right on our patio. The area itself is beautiful, complete with a huge lake containing over 600 islands. In the center of the lake is a huge rock outcrop known as El Penol, with stairs almost sown into the large crack that leads up to a look out and a few shops – all in all, it’s a great way to see the surrounding area. Also cool is the nearby downtown area, with a walkable square that features several picture opportunities and decent views of the water front. (Pro tip: I would recommend La Fogata for a very authentic Colombian meal. Full authentic local dishes, with steak and a bottle of wine for only $26 total).

We flew out of Santa Marta to Medellin, a city that we were very much looking forward to visiting…and thankfully, it did not disappoint. From top to bottom, the city is absolutely RIFE with amazing culture, food, and fantastic public transportation. Even better: the city itself is nestled within the nooks and crannies of the surrounding mountain sides, complete with a train that travels directly through its center, as well as several trams that are all positioned up and down the mountain sides. The whole city feels extremely clean, very safe, and deeply cultural – I literally can’t say enough good things about it. We stayed in El Poblado, the main ex pat area, and on Friday night, we ate at a nearby pizza place, Bonhomia, before walking the strip across the way to people watch (all while imbibing way, WAY too much Aguardiente along the way, I’ll admit). The next day, we took the train and trams to two different overlooks: first, to Villa Sierra, and the second to the opposite side of the valley, to an overlook called Acedveo, which had a much more local feel. We were fortunate to be on the tram with a friendly local (Sebastian), who happened to be showing two friends around and offered for us to tag along. He was truly a great local tour guide and an immense help in aiding us as we navigated the metro ticket system.

(BTW: the food scene in Medellin is literally ENDLESS – no joke, every single meal that we ate was noteworthy. Restaurants that that should DEFINITELY be on your list include District 1 (Vietnamese), Taco House (Mexican), Sere (brunch), and Hija Mia (brunch / lunch)

Also well worth visiting is Communa 13, Pablo’s Escobar’s original neighborhood, which – at one time – was notorious for having one of the highest murder rates in the world. Amazingly, you wouldn’t know that looking at it today: everywhere you turn, the neighborhood is hustling and bustling with art, vendors of all kinds, escalators and walk ways. It’s amazing, and truly a testament to just how much effort the city has put into transforming itself over the decades since Escobar’s reign.

The next day, we headed up to the mountains of “coffee country” to enjoy a break from the city for a few days. We stayed in an absolutely majestic mountain region named Salento (fun fact: it actually served as the inspiration for the Disney movie “Encanto.” If you’ve seen the film, you can imagine just how beautiful it is). Brightly colored buildings line the town square, while local taxi jeeps called “Willies” are readily available to take you literally anywhere you need to go for cheap. Many of these Willies feature an option to literally stand on the open-air backside of the vehicle, which sounds exciting…until, that is, an afternoon downpour. Just FYI.

The food in Salento is surprisingly great, especially for being so remote. Additionally, the area is filled with local tours and hikes to enjoy. I would highly recommend the coffee tour Ocaso, located about an hour hike from town – it’s FANTASTIC. Consider walking out to the trailhead, then asking for a Jeep return – the road itself is scenic but very hilly, and is probably best enjoyed when traversed by vehicle.

We also spent two days hiking to Santa Rita Waterfall and Cocorra Valley to Bosque Cascada. Santa Rita holds a swimming hole located directly within the river – perfect to use to cool down – along with several smaller waterfalls. The beauty of this hike is it’s not nearly as busy as some of the other, more notable trails in the area, and from what I gathered, also happens to be owned by a local family. If you can’t make the trail work, the Cocorra Valley is a good fallback, offering some of the tallest Palm trees in the world.