Colombia

My friend and I started the two-week trip in Cartagena.  We ate ceviche and paella outdoors, danced salsa to a live big band, danced bachata on the beach, surfed in the Caribbean, and took sunset walks on the fortified wall of the old city that's stuffed with colorful quaint houses.  What Cartagena most seems to lack is actual locals.

Acro at the Castillo San Felipe

Santuario de San Pedro Claver

Salinas de Galerazamba,
where the salinity is so high, there's salt instead of sand,
and sometimes the water turns pink

Volcan de Lodo el Totumo,
touristy but fun to float on mud at the mouth of a bottomless volcano,
then be rinsed off in the stream

We took a ferry to spend a couple nights on a remote island in Islas del Rosario.

Next stop was Minca in the mountains, where we hiked to a waterfall swim and rode motorcycles to a coffee and cacao farm.

All day hike in Tayrona Park

All day hike in Tayrona Park, I loved swimming in the waves and bright sun

Bogotá reminded me of Spain, with cobblestone streets, old buildings, grungy cafes, university neighborhoods, and overall more livability compared to Cartagena.

Plaza de Bolivar

Santuario Nuestra Señora del Carmen

Museo de Oro

Museo de Botero, loved!

Stations of the cross overlooking Bogotá from Monserrate sanctuary
We rode the gondola up the hill, but some people climb the steps on their knees

Stations of the cross and cathedral carved into a salt mine at Zipaquirá
They have to use sea water in the baptismal font so it doesn't disintegrate

Hiked to the Laguna de Guatavita, important for local indigenous culture 

Sailing nearby

Our final destination was Medellín.  A highlight was joining a local acro jam in a riverside park that comes alive at night--reminding me of Taipei.  The botanical gardens of the city reminded me of Singapore.  There's a lively nightlife scene, dominated by expats in some areas, but we also discovered a fantastic underground salsa club.

Parques del Río

Plaza Botero

Cementerio Museo San Pedro

We took a local tour of Comuna 13, a neighborhood that embodies Medellín's shedding its 1991 title of most dangerous city in the world in 1991.  What used to be a highway for drug trafficking was transformed by education, tourism, hip hop culture, and community infrastructure--most famously the escalators of Comuna 13 but also public transit cable cars connecting slums to the city center.

On a final day trip, we climbed up the Peñón de Guatape for gorgeous views of the waterways, then enjoyed a coffee in the town of Guatape before running off the side of a cliff to go paragliding.

Plaza de los Zócalos (the colorful baseboards around the town of Guatape)