Colombia guide – Caribbean Islands & Cartagena

Colombia Guide – Coffee Plantation Visit

This is the last of my posts about Colombia – I could happily write about our trip for weeks but new season is approaching so I know we need to get onto that soon. Just now though it’s still to soon to be thinking about new clothes, the best is yet to arrive in the shops so let me give a different Colombia guide – the Caribbean Islands & Cartagena. You see after Bogotá and Medellin we had more complete culture shocks ahead, it really was like visiting different continents, all in the space of an hour’s travel here and there.

But first I must just add our last day in Medellin when we went up into the Andes to visit a small, family run coffee plantation with another couple we’d met on our salsa course. The taxi driver took us as far as he could and then told us to follow a dirt track until we reached the farm. We laughed nervously together as we passed goats and donkeys…

…wondering out loud if we’d been conscripted to a coca leaf pharma camp… but then we came to a sweet little homestead where the family’s eldest son Cristian was waiting to greet us.

He took us to a platform that had a spectacular view down the mountainside and we waited there, watching vultures and condors whirling above us, not sure what was going to happen next. But then his mum appeared with packages wrapped in plantain leaves telling us to eat. She’d prepared bandeja paisa which is Colombia’s national dish – stewed pork, beans, coconut rice, fried plantain, arepa and chicharon sausage with slices of freshly picked avocado and it was the most delicious version of it that we had in our three weeks there.

I look very serious here but I remember I was marvelling at the fact that instead of my usual Saturday morning at the gym I was sitting in a homestead high in the Andes – it was one of those very special travel moments that you know will stay with you forever.

When we’d finished eating our tour began – to my alarm they appeared with traditional coffee farming uniforms which delighted the others… me less so. I compromised on the scarf and the machete and carried the sombrero.

(Wearing White Company jersey jacket 2009, Boden racer vest 2020, M&S jeans 2023, Boden silver belt 2010)

And so we climbed down the slopes to help with picking ripe coffee cherries…

… they then taught us about the cultivation process (I had to give in to the stupid hat to go handsfree).

This was dehusking the beans – the remains of the cherry are used for making parchment – yes really – old fashioned paper. It’s amazing how manual every process still is on a small farm like this.

It wasn’t a roasting day so we couldn’t see that in action but we had a go at grinding the end product which was a workout as good as going to the gym.

Behind me as I’m grinding you can see some of the huge collection of coffee makers that the family’s collected from around the world so that they can test their beans and give advice for the perfect grind and method for each one. Cristian invited us to select four different ones so that we could compare the output from each and it was fascinating. I enjoyed watching the process of this very delicate Belgian contraption the most…

… but all four of us agreed that the very best tasting result came from a classic Italian Bialetti – so it’s been bad news to read that they’re on the brink of bankruptcy this week.

Anyway I could bore on about how to make coffee properly for hours now – and if you ever meet Mal he probably will because he’s taken it all very seriously. The one fact that blew my mind that I want to share with you though is about flavour notes. You know when you read the back of a pack of coffee it will often say ‘notes of vanilla and honeysuckle’ or some such thing? Well I’ve always assumed that it was either marketing-ese or that perhaps they spray the beans with something… but no. Cristian’s family are very proud of the cocoa notes in their coffee and do you know how they get them? They plant lots of cocoa bean trees alongside the coffee trees – the bees then buzz about transferring pollen and the result is that the coffee beans taste of cocoa. So if you want almond flavours you plant almond trees and so on… isn’t nature wonderful?!

So with this on top of the salsa school, the trip to Commune 13 and the whole Escobar story we had the most wonderful week in Medellin and I’m delighted by how many of you have said you’d be interested in a week out there next year. There’s enough interest for me to pursue it further with David from Somoloco so leave it with me for now and I’ll bring you more information when we’ve built a trip together – there are a couple of adjustments that I’d like to make just to be sure it’s as perfect as possible for you.

Colombia guide – the Caribbean Islands & Cartagena

Now though, it was time to move on from our city of eternal spring to somewhere quite different. Here we were before dawn, ready to go.

(wearing Boden blouse 2022. M&S jeans 2023, White Company jacket 2009, cross body phone case)

Colombia is a huge country, the size of France and Spain put together but the Andes run through the middle of it in three separate chains that spread out like three fingers. That means it’s difficult to get around by public transport – there was a national railway but during the 1980s and 90s so much of the funding for it was siphoned off illegally that it fell into complete disrepair. That means that you have to fly if you want to go from one part of the country to the other. We were amazed by how efficient the airports and airlines were, there were absolutely no delays and it made the whole trip so much easier.

(wearing Boden blouse 2022, M&S jeans 2023, White Company jacket 2009, eyelet suede belt, cross body phone case)

In just over an hour we’d landed in Cartagena, jumped into an Uber and were sitting at the harbour ready to take a 20 minute speedboat journey to the Caribbean island of La Tierra Bomba. As you can see from my shiny face it was hot in Cartagena – in just an hour we’d travelled from 20 degrees C temperatures to 35 degrees C.

We’d booked to stay for three nights at the lauded Blue Apple resort. One of Conde Nast’s top places to stay it wins all kinds of awards and it was a beautiful spot with the joys of no phone signal and intermittent wifi. That meant that as soon as we’d checked in we completely relaxed. We were shattered after our week of dancing and so lying by water was exactly what we needed – and they even had a shallow reading pool so you could keep cool in the heat.

Blue Apple is one of those places that’s uber cool, they play loud music by the pool all day long which meant I couldn’t focus on a book. But it’s good music so instead I spent my time just relaxing and shazaming every great track and by the end of three days there I had a whole new playlist! The problem with uber cool places though is that they attract uber cool guests – most of the other people staying there were from London and Paris and my goodness their faces couldn’t crack a smile. From their permanently pained expressions you’d never have guessed they were in a Caribbean idyll, you’d have thought they were suffering with piles. By the way have you seen the length of the green beans there? They alone were enough to make you smile.

(New Look bikini 2024 – they do some of the best bikini cuts on the high street!)

It was nice that over dinner you were able to select your sun beds for the following day…

Boden halter top 2009; Beach skirt 2017)

…and when the music got too much we could wander down to the beach which had typical Caribbean icing sugar sand with sea as warm as a bath.

Marie-Jo bikini 2021

And we had it completely to ourselves because nobody else went down there.

New Look bikini top 2023; Aspiga skirt 2016

By the time we left we were utterly relaxed. I’m not going to recommend Blue Apple to you though because it was very expensive, especially by Colombian standards and it was one of those places that adds lots of things to your bill at the end. Every time a waiter had served us an extra service charge was added, even just for a coffee, there were strange eco taxes, development and other contributions for each day as well as dance classes and meals that we hadn’t had. By the time we’d dealt with the most outrageous additions it wasn’t worth arguing about the rest so we just paid but it came to more than £200 of small tottings up which was a lot of extra tax for three days, especially as we’d tipped the staff individually on our last night. I guess the Conde Nast crowd don’t notice that kind of thing!

Anyway we maxed our last Caribbean day to the full…

(Hush t-shirt 2023; Boden denim shorts 2023)

…and took the last boat back to the mainland.

It was another huge culture shock emerging into the busy, modern port at Cartagena. After spending two weeks in places that felt as if they were in another dimension, coming back into the reality of an urban rush hour was a bit of an unwelcome rush to the head.

And to top it all, as we arrived at the beautiful 16th century apartment we’d booked in the heart of the walled old town, we coincided with one of those colossal ‘city on the sea’ cruise ships coming in. It meant that the centre was heaving with huge groups of tourists following guides with umbrellas and the street sellers were all trying to out-shout each other to get their attention. We were relieved to retreat into our old colonial building…

(Boden linen trousers 2022; Arket halter top 2024; Boden silver ballet pumps 2023; Boden silver belt 2010, Hope cashmere wrap 2017)

… with its beautiful hallway…

… and atrium open to the sky.

After the previous couple of weeks where we’d felt as if we were really travelling, we didn’t like Cartagena at all when we first arrived. It was such a shock to be back on a very beaten tourist path – obviously it’s a short hop to the sun for a lot of Americans and a very easy port for the biggest of cruise ships so there were English speaking voices everywhere… and Starbucks and McDonalds… all the things we’d been so glad to leave behind.

On our first morning we headed to the Museum of the Inquisition. We’d already learned a lot about colonialism from the indigenous perspective when we were in Bogota, understanding the harm the Spaniards inflicted by bringing their laws, exploitation and diseases with them – as did all of the European regimes during the colonialist period of course. However the Spanish then overlaid the Inquisition’s brutality of torture and persecution for anybody not clearly following the Catholic faith on top of it.

It’s insane how much pain has been inflicted in the name of different religions over the centuries isn’t it? It just doesn’t align with the concept of spirituality and yet it still continues today in so many places around the world. It’s always astounding to be in a beautiful place that holds the memory of such anguish in its walls.

(Boden halter top 2017; Boden shorts 2023, Nike Vapormax trainers 2018)

We booked a walking tour that took us all over the city and helped us to work out how to avoid the crowds. There’s just so much fascinating stuff I could share with you but there isn’t time here. Can you see the spike on the corner of the roof in the right hand side of this picture though? All of the colonial buildings have them – they were requirements of the inquisition’s colonial building period, implemented so that witches couldn’t land on rooftops!

The walk included a lot of information about the history of slavery because Cartagena was one of the key ports involved. Our guide Dina told stories from the Africans’ perspective, giving us fascinating insights such as showing that the patterns of braiding in black women’s hair were often woven as secret route maps to show those hoping to escape which way to go to find safe towns. The braids were also used to store seeds so that if people managed to get away, they would be able to plant crops when they established a new home.

There’s a tradition in Colombia of touching the bronze statues that you find everywhere to bring good fortune and as you can see here, that wears away the patina. So in Bogota and Medellin, Botero’s voluptuous statues of women often have golden breasts – not from men coming to fondle them but from women who are hoping to have children. It’s the same with the male statues and penises – men who are hoping for a baby or experiencing erectile difficulties pay homage in the same way. Dina explained that here Catholics have touched the hands of this priest (who played a big part in the emancipation of slaves) and the the descendants of the slaves have paid tribute to their ancestor.

We spent our last few days just walking and appreciating the quiet outer reaches of the beautiful old UNESCO city, enjoying the architecture by day…

(John Lewis racer vest 2023; Boden shorts 2022; Sandals)

… stopping off in cool courtyards here and there…

… tracking down good places to eat by night…

(Mara Hoffman dress 2017; Sandals)

… and then ending our evenings in fabulous salsa clubs where we were too busy dancing to take any good photos.

On our final day there I was very moved to find Gabriel Garcia-Marquez’s ashes at the University of Cartagena. He rests there because he said he felt he completed his education in the city.

Dress; Sandals

His magical realism was a big part of my university days as he was such a world-leading contemporary novelist in the 80s and so it was great to experience Cartagena by trying to see it through his eyes. Apparently he used to sit in the squares people-watching to find inspiration for his characters and stories.

Dress; Sandals

We found his house which is just a walled building from the road but the original intercom is still there so I had my fan girl moment… probably a bit of a geeky one I know but by midlife I don’t think we need to be ashamed of our passions do we? (However weird they may seem to other people… including the ever patient Mal!).

Dress; Sandals

As you can see it was really hot at 42 degrees C and so I’d resorted to a loose beach dress, there was no other way I’d have survived walking around in the heat. We decided to spend our very last afternoon beyond the walls of the old town, in the area that had become our favourite discovery – Getsemani.

That was where we’d finally found the Colombia that Mal had been imagining before we left. It has a very Caribbean identity, full of music and colour.

Dress; Sandals

Unlike the walled town which has been primped for tourism, it’s where you could see everyday life going on around you…

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… the street art was spectacular and Gabriel Garcia-Marquez was at the heart of it.

Dress; Sandals

As the sun set on our last day we decided to squeeze in one last salsa class there, on a rooftop, with the joy of Getsemani going on all around us.

Wandering back through the joy and the laughter of the warm Caribbean night we both agreed that we didn’t want to go home, we just wanted to keep on travelling. Colombia was so many things – enlightening, inspiring, exhausting, stimulating, foreign, extraordinary and just so diverse in so many ways.

It’s felt very, very hard to come back to our desks… but work hard we must… until the next time.

Midlifechic reader salsa trip to Medellin – next steps

As soon as I’ve pulled everything together with David I’ll be inviting anyone who’s interested to join a Midlifechic Zoom meeting. That way David, Mal and I can talk more about what’s involved and you can ask us all any questions you have. If you think you might like to join us please give me your email address here so that I can send you an invitation when the time comes. There’s absolutely no obligation to book the trip and as always I promise not to use it for any kind of marketing purposes – your full GDPR rights are respected.