In Peru at the check in desk, our goal is flying to Colombia.
Check in lady: “Can you show us an onward ticket out of Colombia?”
We: “No, we don’t have one.”
Check in lady: “One moment. I have to talk to my superior.”
We are a bit nervous. We knew we need proof, that we will be leaving Colombia. But we don’t have it since we don’t even know yet exactly when we want to move on. We had hoped that we will make it into Colombia somehow without it.
Check in lady comes back.
Check in lady: “Do you have any other confirmation, that you will leave Colombia?”
We: “No.”
Check in lady: “Don’t you have a return ticket to your home country?”
We: “Neither.”
Loss of control of facial expression on her part
Check in lady: “Do you have sufficient resources, should migration in Colombia require it, to buy an onward ticket?”
We: “Yes.”
Check in lady: “Okay, here are your boarding passes.”
Wow that worked out just fine.
We arrive in the Colombian capital Bogota and take a Taxi to the hostel. It is recommended to acquire a licensed Taxi inside the airport, the yellow cabs outside sometimes kidnap tourists and hold them hostage to press for credit card PINs. The price should be agreed upon upfront, the taxi meters are quite often manipulated. And the drivers like to cruice extra rounds. The newspaper in the back should not be touched, it could contain knockout drops. The travel and safety advice for Colombia is another league altogether. But that’s not how I remember Colombia. Nine years ago when the FARC rebels were still keeping the country in havoc, the Colombians were incredibly happy about every single tourist. They were so kind and accommodating and did everything to get rid of the international image.
We chose the Caribbean cost as our first destination to be able to swim which supposedly is good for my injured foot. We end up in a hippie village by the name of Palomino. Wild camping is not a good idea in Colombia. Our accommodation offers sleeping in a tent in a part of the village which is closer to the mountains than to the beach. The tent is huge. We can stand inside, there is a real mattress, a fan, air conditioning and we have our own bathroom. Breakfast is freshly prepared for us each morning. Sounds fancy and it’s called like that: glamping – glamorous camping. If that’s something for us?
The first few days we are knocked out. For two months we have been in mountains at 3000 meters (9850ft). The heat and humidity kill us. In the morning the sun is burning, in the afternoon thunderstorms appear and rain is hitting our tent hard. We feel like in the zoo where the amphibians are housed. We try to cool down with the air conditioning which works well and also removes the humidity out of the tent. Great! Now it becomes obvious why the table tennis table and the beach ball field are so small here. It’s best not to move at all. You sweat just by standing or sitting.
Puff. Power outage! Let’s go outside where there is at least a bit of wind. In the morning we go to the sea with its dangerous rip currents. The red flag is waving. Very carefully we swim close to the beach. In the afternoon we relax and read. Outside the water bubbles on our tent and drips on the grass. At night we listen to a concert by the countless frogs with a variety of funny croak sounds. In the morning it’s the turn of singing birds. The rooster next door has my sympathy because he sounds like someone is pulling his tail while crowing.
We go for walks, do river tubing and visit nearby waterfalls. Since my foot still hurts with every step, I allow myself to ride a horse. We observe turquoise lizards running and the hard work of ants that radically diminish the tree next to our tent. At night we go out for dinner, always at a different restaurant. We conclude that there must be a Chef school nearby. How else can it be explained that there is such a high density of delicious and well-reviewed restaurants. In any case Matthias is very happy about the many seafood dishes. Since dancing is not an option yet we go back home early to our tent and go on reading or watching movies that we have on our hard drive. Or we research where to go next… puff. Power outage. In the blackness we only hear the nature around us.
