Tag: latin america

Salamina, Colombia

Charming villages of Colombia

Charming, little villages were our absolute favorite in Colombia. There is nothing better than sitting in a little bar with an old man, drinking coffee almost looking at the coffee beans growing on the bushes ahead. So sit down with your cup of coffee and let’s go through the best of the best 🙂

  1. Salamina

This little town has completely stolen our hearts. It’s close enough to Medellin to get there with just one bumpy, bus ride but far enough to get far away from the big city life. There is no traffic, rush or groups of tourists in Salamina. Instead there are lovely cafes, colorful houses and green, mountainous heaven around it. It’s truly a perfect place to just relax, read a book and enjoy nature and good weather. Close by there is a stunning valley of Samaria, (to be) famous for its very high wax palms.

In Salamina we stayed with Martin and Angelica, an extraordinary couple on Airbnb. They are not only very inspiring people who create everything around their house by themselves with love, but they also made us feel at home there 🙂 Not to mention they make the best breakfast ever with fresh juices, arepas (corn pancakes) and eggs.

  1. Filandia

When nearby Salento is attracting all the crowds with its wax palms in Cocora Valley, Filandia stays a wonderful, peaceful treat. You won’t see crowds or overpriced hotels over there. Just peaceful but very colorful town with lovely and a bit curious locals. They will ask you how you like Colombia and why you chose Filandia. It’s it obvious? Not only it’s very colorful and has a lot of character but it has the best surroundings ever! Here you will find waterfalls, ever green forests, endless coffee farms and amazing hikes. Not to mention you will see hummingbirds, toucans and even howler monkeys.

In Filandia we volunteered in a really nice hostel called Bidea which is owned by a lovely Colombian-Basque couple. It’s not only a beautiful, Colombian house but also a great atmosphere that makes it a great place to stay. Don’t forget to visit Helena Adentro for great food and a romantic, charming vibe.

  1. Villa de Leyva

Nothing can compare to the white houses or cobblestone streets of Villa de Leyva. Not to mention the one and only, massive, gorgeous Main Square. Although it’s number one on many lists of towns of Colombia, it’s not busy. Not at all. We were actually really positively surprised. All the little streets were charming, white and really clean, even outside of the center. Little markets on the corners were selling true curiosities like dried bushes of pink pepper! And we will never forget an amazing ice cream place, Santa Lucia. Although we shouldn’t, we went there every day… and every single time it was delicious and the owners were just the most cheerful people on earth.

In Villa de Leyva we stayed in a stunning hostel (Buda Hostel), just outside of the city on a hill. It was a struggle to drag the backpack up there but once there the views made everything ok again. The house itself is wonderful, with lots of terraces and open space, not to mention the huge barbecue and chill out space outside.

  1. Palomino

The town itself is not really that nice, there is no beautiful architecture and it was just build along a busy road which goes just in the middle of it. But… those beaches. If you can’t go to Providencia than that’s the second best. Kilometers of sandy paradise with not too many people. There are quite some charming, boutique hotels out there. The beauty of the place is that there is not much to see, just pure relax 🙂

  1. Santa Elena

Probably the most calm place of them all. Middle of absolute nowhere and so close to Medellin. We stayed there surrounded by green, luscious nature in a trailer made into a house (Airbnb). It was just an unforgettable experience to stay away from everyone and everything in this charming little place where all we could do was to just relax, walk around and enjoy. During the evening when it was getting chiller we could sit on our deck, start a fire and observe all of the weird bugs coming to visit us 🙂 It was our last place to visit before we ended our Latin American adventure and we wish such an end to all of you 🙂

Useful tip!

If you’re going to Colombia and you would like to get to charming, little villages that are not so well known you should visit http://www.pueblospatrimoniodecolombia.co/nuestros-pueblos. There you will find a whole list of tiny towns well worth a visit:) Enjoy!

Powerbank

The List
Our Equipment For The RTW

After the decision to leave everything and go travelling comes the most difficult part: what should you take with you? You start reading and buying all this fancy, new stuff but is it really worth it?

We had the same problem, we also didn’t know what to take and we had no idea if what we decided to bring would be handy or not. But now we know… let’s go through our list of handy, useless, and missed stuff

 

Top handy:

  1. Powerbank

We got it as a gift actually and didn’t know that it is such a life saver! We use it all the time. Our powerbank can charge a mobile phone four times and it has a light. It’s also not too scared of water which helps. Check out our powerbank the Sandberg IP54. Powerbank

  1. Backpacks

Without it there is no backpacking. The most important thing is that it’s not too big because when it is you will pack it full before you notice and then you will have to drag way more kilos than necessary! Another feature that is really handy for your big backpack is that it opens like a suitcase as well as from above.

Initially we took two 38 L BACH backpacks and a tiny itsy bitsy BACH. All three of them are still with us and serve us very well. Later on we bought two additional backpacks but about those you will read futher below:)

  1. Washing kit (line, universal sink plug and soap)

Another great gift we got! We didn’t even realize that we wouldn’t be able to just leave our dirty clothes by some laundry place or that in so many places it would be so expensive. It saved us from stinking so many times!Washing/Drying Kit

  1. Shoes

It’s very important to have good ones just because they should be your only ones if you want to travel light. We both trusted Scarpa and never regretted it. They are perfect for hiking, walking around cities and surviving rain. They are also not too ugly. They are our only footwear on the road except for flip-flops.

  1. Sowing kit

When your clothes break (and they will!) you will need it. We used it soooo many times.Sowing Kit

  1. Earplugs

Without those be prepared for many sleepless nights. There is always at least one snorer or drunk in the dorm!

  1. Microfiber towels

They are horrible, they give you this weird feeling that you don’t get dry. Everywhere we could, we tried to use a normal towel but it doesn’t change the fact that the microfiber ones dry way faster than the normal ones and they occupy way less space.

  1. Layered clothing

A key to pack clothes is to bring lots of layers so that you can still use seperate things depending on the weather. We each brought an underlayer, t-shirts, a fleece and a rain jacket. With all these layers we managed to survive in Patagonia in the beginning of the winter.Glaciers, El Calafate, Argentina

  1. Headphones

There is nothing more uncomfortable when the whole hostel hears your skype conversation. Headphones give you privacy and the right to listen to some music and watch a movie when everyone is sleeping

  1. E-reader

I personally love the smell of books, I like holding them, seeing how much I read but… they are heavy. When you want to have many books and some guide books it’s better to invest in an e-reader. P.S. E-books are also cheaper and you save a few trees- that’s what I tell myself to cheer myself up when missing a real book:)

  1. Hard drive

We take pictures almost every day and not every day we have internet to upload them. Besides uploading takes ages. So to have a backup we always have a hard drive.

  1. Universal plug adapter

Unless you are in the middle of a forest and you want to just enjoy the nature without any electronics...

  1. That little something for a special occasion

Every now and then it's amazing to put something on that doesn't have stains and holes. It doesn't have to be fancy but a shirt for a guy or a dress for a girl would be great. Believe me, there are times when you don't want to feel like a hobo!Astrid and Gaston, Lima, Peru

 

Things we missed and bought along the way:

  1. Good camera

Before we were traveling with two pocket size cameras- one underwater as we love diving and one normal compact camera. After some time of taking pictures every single day we missed something better. We had more and more the feeling that we couldn't capture what we were seeing so we went for the real deal and bought our precious Canon... and some lenses:)

  1. Other backpacks

For our camera we needed a separate backpack so we bought an amazing Lowpro one. It's absolutely perfect, it fits not only the camera but also the lenses and it has quite a big space for some food, water and whatever you want. It's also very safe because the openning of the compartment where the camera is, is at the back so when you have it on you can't even see it's a camera backpack.

Except for the camera backpack we also bought just a standard north face day pack. Our itsy bitsy was just really uncomfortable when taking big weight.

Bastimentos, Bocas del Toro, Panama

  1. Laptop

We though we would manage only with our smartphones and an old tablet but no way! To mantain the blog and work on our pictures we bought a very simple and light laptop.Alto Bonito, Salamina, Colombia

Things we took and were useless:

  1. Merino wool socks

So we took two pairs of socks each because we were told that those wouldn’t stink and were unbelievable for hiking. We wore them at home for one week straight and they were great but during the trip they were a total miss, they stunk like normal socks do and they were not as special as you would expect from 20 euros a pair.

  1. Sheets

We read it would be super dirty in hostels and we would need to use our own sheets. That was not true except for the Amazon and The Lost City in Colombia. Except for that they were useless. Although we will give them another chance when going to Asia.

  1. Money belts

Absolutely useless really. We wore them maybe twice and they were extremely uncomfortable, not to mention that after two times they stunk like sweat. We never regretted not wearing them. We never had any unsafe situation and no one ever robbed us. Well maybe except for a dirty pair of panties that got mysteriously stolen from me.

  1. Medication

We were prepared for everything starting from bladder infection to malaria and guess what … we didn’t use most of it and we had to drag it around. We only used diarrhea related stuff and that’s what we’re gonna bring to Asia. If something happens there are pharmacies everywhere.

 

Stuff we missed and will buy

  1. Speaker

When we finally had a private room and wanted to watch a movie we had to wear headphones cuz we couldn’t hear a thing. Going to Asia we will definitely take a speaker to enjoy our private cinema