Colombia Travel Tips
Where to eat, stay, and play in Medellin, Cartagena, and Bogota
Coloooooooombia! It’s hard for me to say the country’s name and not think of the very catchy song in Encanto that is an ode to a country bursting with music and colors.
Colombia is home to 48 million people and one of 12 countries with the greatest biological diversity in the world with 85 major types of ecosystems identified. It’s home to a wide range of cultures and traditions defined by a range of geographies from the Andean mountains to the eastern plains, the Pacific and Caribbean coasts, and the Amazonian forests.
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I visited Cartagena and Medellin with El Camino Travel, a startup that focuses on empowering women to travel freely and boldly through the world. I tagged on a few extra days in Bogota, the capital of Colombia, to take meetings with the startup scene and explore the food culture.
This is a country that really surprised me. It’s teeming with diversity from the nature to the ingredients, the art, and the people. And while the country has a storied reputation that has been wildly exported, one can feel that it’s undergoing a cultural renaissance eager to pave its own way into the future.
If you’re planning a trip to Colombia, feel free to reach out to me on Instagram! I’d love to hear if you end up going to any of these places. You can see the visual diary of my trip here.
Find my tips for each destination here:
Podcast Recommendations
Kaffe Bueno
Like Colombian coffee? Check out the podcast I recorded with Kaffe Bueno. The three Founders are from Colombia. They invested all their savings and moved to Denmark, a cold country 9,000 kilometers from home, to start a coffee business. Today, they upcycle coffee grounds into high value ingredeints for the cosmetic, nutraceutical, and functional food industries. It’s an incredibly inspiring story that also showcases the power of the coffee plant to be way more than a beverage that wakes us up during a slump.
Kogis
One of the first episode of the new year will be about the Kogis. Descended from the Tirona people, the Kogis escaped colonization by retreating high up into the Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta mountains of Colombia. Consequently, their ancient, indigenous culture, which dates back to the Incans and the Mayans and the Aztecs, has been preserved. They recently came down the mountain to raise awareness about climate change, biodiversity loss, and the need for a third world – one that converges indigenous wisdom with modern science and technology.