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…
Armenia, Colombia is probably not a place you'll find as a top tourist attraction in any guidebook. It's primarily a utilitarian city, amongst three major cities in Colombia's Eje Cafetera, or coffee region. Due in part to a disastrous earthquake in 1999, the city center is unfortunately a bit gritty and it's not loaded with colonial charm. However, one thing…
We live with the motto that, one can choose to be blind to the world, or to be an adventurer in search of its treasure. And, although we do believe in taking all necessary and proper safety precautions during this pandemic, we were not going to let COVID keep us from living and experiencing our nomadic lives. So we adapted. We…
Salamina, population 20,000, is one of those little woodsy wonders that is completely off the radar for most tourists, which is exactly the reason we went on an overnight trip from Manizales. We call it a woodsy wonder because its streets are accessorized with the legacy of woodcarver Tangarife Elisha, who in the mid-19th century promoted a woodworking school that…
