The UNESCO World Heritage city of Arequipa is Peru’s second biggest city, but a mere 1/10th the size of Lima. However, it’s very competitive and packs a big punch in terms of architectural splendor, historical significance and culinary gifts. In fact, it's a culinary powerhouse on par with Lima. All types of Peruvian cuisine are represented here, as well as…
We sometimes feel a bit overdosed on visiting churches, mosques, shrines and temples despite the fact there are so many beautiful ones in the world. This is why we debated if we were going to visit The Monastery of Santa Catalina (S40 or $10/ticket.) However, Lonely Planet promised it shouldn’t be missed “even if you’re overdosed on colonial edifices.” This…
To be honest, we had kinda written off Bogota after our visit in 2014. It was kind of a two-days-and-done sorta of place…check out Plaza Bolivar, sweat your way to the top of Monserrate (10,000 foot/3100 meter city viewpoint), and have an amble through El Museo de Oro. (Museum of Gold). We learned quickly that the plethora of small towns…
Zipaquirá is a town that not many visitors to Colombia take time to embrace. They simply pile onto a day bus from Bogotá, take a quick spin through the town and head straight for the cathedral of salt, which is one of the biggest tourist draws in the country (and we thought, well worth it). To get there, we were coming…
Barichara is without a doubt one of our favorite places on earth. Not only charming…., but utterly dreamy…. quixotic …. a starry-eyed hamlet. Its Spanish colonial architecture, uniform red-tile roofs, undulating wide cobble-stone streets, and white-washed homes with perfect peekaboo windows…all emanating the aura from the pages of a romance novel. And, for this good reason, Barichara is often the…
Folded amongst the rolling Andes and undulating countryside of Colombia’s Santander region, Guane is a colonial Colombian pueblo utterly lost in time. When we took our first steps into the village, it was eerily quiet. Soundless. No children. No dogs. No chickens. Few people. The narrow, cobbled streets were all all lumpy and lovely and the white-washed houses seem sublimely…
Salento is one of those Colombian towns that you’ll find in nearly every “must see” list for the country. It’s actually bewildering how many people head nine hours south of Medellin just to include it in their two week itineraries, totally bypassing wonders like Filandia and Jardin. But alas, we see why it’s attractive. It’s colorful, it’s happy, it’s tourist…
Filandia is a sleepy little treasure 50 minutes from Armenia dropped tenderly in the middle of Colombia’s coffee country. Despite its colorful facades, colonial architecture, fantastic shopping opportunities, rolling cafetera hills, warm locals and great restaurants, it is often upstaged by its touristic coffee sister of Salento and mostly undiscovered by travelers. It felt like a true local’s town…a bit…
