Since the beginning of September I am back in Colombia, Bogota. The country where I first "left" in 2022. Since I left Colombia about a year ago, I wished that I could return as soon as possible. My first post, after a long "summer break".
More than 2 weeks ago I landed in Bogota. Finally back in Colombia, I thought to myself. The time I spent here on my first visit was so wonderful and especially formative for me, that even now I had a bit of "fear", or "anxiety" that I have romanticized the area here too much, and that worst arrives. That I after months of anticipation here again be set before cold facts.
That is NOT the case! To my excitement, I still love it here despite a bumpy start. (Unfortunately, a cold plagued me for a week. Sweating and running outside at night after going from an artificial 36 degrees in Austria to 18 degrees in Bogota is not a good idea).
Back when I left Colombia, I was short of cash. My business was not going the way I wanted it to. With zero life experience also hardly surprising... However, I swore to myself that when I came back to Colombia, it would be in business class! After the many flights I had now behind me, this was a "must-have", for my long flight from Vienna via Madrid to Bogota.
One important book later, a lot of mental work and nerves of steel, as well as a good assertiveness, here I am. At Madrid airport, checked in, with my business class ticket to Bogota in hand. Nothing can stop me now!
During my last visit here I have already experienced all sorts of adventures (many of which are still to come, especially my trip to Palomino). However, there is still so much left to discover here! With my birthday approaching, I have a few options on where to go for my first major trip. Either I go to the beach for a bit to relax and enjoy the sun and nature, or party a bit more, for which Colombia definitely has enough to offer.
Besides pure relaxation and boundless celebration, there are still alternatives. Two trips are coming up, one to the "Wax Palms" near Pareira in Colombia, and one to the "Liquid Rainbow" river.
The former is not much of a challenge, you need good physics and endurance, the rest is quite easy. There are some guides to the palms once arrived in Pareira (~7h by bus UFF). The wax palms are the tallest living palms officially, currently known to us. They can grow up to 60m high, the leaves on top reach a diameter of up to 30m. Giants, which grow only between 2000m and 3000m. A wax palm could tell you a lot, these trees live for several hundred years, so some of them easily lived through the invasion of the conquistadors.
Despite our patchy history, written by victors, intentionally changed, it interests me a lot. In such a place as at the Palms, generally in all of Colombia, you find many places and people that can tell and teach you so much.
Which brings us to the next whimsical place where I will soon venture a trip. The "Liquid rainbows." When you first see pictures of it, you probably first think to yourself "this must be fake". It's not! A wonderful play of colors happens in a certain river in Colombia.
However, this place is not so easy to reach. It's very remote, plus I haven't really been able to find a "guide" online that can show you the spectacle. Pretty sure there is one or the other person here in town, which can easily help me here. But there my adventurous spirit will not be so satisfied. It will pretty much come down to me grabbing a local person as a companion, renting a motorcycle and then heading out on my own.
So much for my plans. Besides these little adventures, I will still visit the remaining big cities in Colombia. Still outstanding are Cali, Cartagena and Bucamaranga. Besides Colombia, I will definitely make a trip to Caracas, Venezuela. In the first half of next year, Machu-Pichuu in Peru is planned too.
As always, I wish you all the love and much success. I hope my blogposts are coming more regularly now. I had a kind of "writer's block" as I spent this summer partly in Austria.
An article about my trip with a friend to Georgia and Armenia in July, is still saved and will be "released" soon ;)
See you then,
Maurice
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