Harvey Scholar Travel- Amy in Columbia

Amy Ackerman

Colombia

June 5^th-16^th 2014

      I traveled to Colombia with two High School friends. One of them had been studying abroad in Barranquilla for 5 months and is fluent in Spanish…mine is pretty rusty!! I flew into Barranquilla on June 5^th. We stayed at hostels throughout our entire two week trip. We booked them using hostelword.com. On June 6^th we took a bus to Tayrona National Park. From the drop-off point, we hiked for about 45 minutes through jungle covered mountains and arrived at the beach pictured below. We stayed a night in hammocks on the beach and then hiked to another beach within Tayrona. Afterwards we hiked back to the road and took a bus to Santa Marta where we stayed in another hostel.

      The next day we traveled to the town of Minca where we hiked to waterfalls and enjoyed the rich culture and scenery of the town.  Our hostel was situated on top of a hill and had amazing views of the ocean, Santa Marta and the mountainous jungle (shown below).

      From Minca we traveled by bus to Cartagena and stayed in a hostel in the “walled city” which is a 3 square mile area of town surrounded by a wall built by the conquistadors in the 1400s. There are still canons anchored in port holes and the wall is still structurally sound. The city is the oldest in all of South America and is very culturally rich with old and new existing right next to each other. There are high rises and resorts next to old Spanish forts and buildings. It’s an amazing place to see the progression of architecture and culture throughout many centuries. During our stay in Cartagena, we took a 45 minute boat ride to Playa Blanca, an island in the Caribbean sea with aqua blue waters and white sandy beaches.

      From Cartagena we traveled to Leticia, the capital of the state Amazonas. This is a border town with Brazil and Peru. We were able to move back and forth between Colombia and Brazil as we pleased and got to watch the first world cup game in Brazil which was an amazing experience. While in the amazon, we did a canopy tour, rented mopeds, took a plant tour and stayed in two hostels (one was a cabin that floated on the Amazon River!).

       From Leticia we flew to Bogota where we stayed for a couple days and experienced the big city. We were there over election day and got to experience the cultural aspect of elections in Colombia. Here we did most of our shopping and experienced the art and culture of Bogota. From Bogota we flew home on June 16^th.  Colombia is an amazing place. I only spent $100 over the $3000 enrichment grant including airfare and hostels and went to 6 cities, ate well and experienced so much! I would highly recommend Colombia!