Adios Colombia

This is Mike...
Colombia has been the biggest surprise for us so far on this trip. We enjoyed this amazing country immensely and would recommend it to anyone without hesitation. There are some issues still with safety in certain areas but most certainly not the tourist areas which most of us would be interested in anyway. We never felt unsafe in the touristy areas and could tell the country takes great pride in presenting their best for visitors. Having said this, the roads in Colombia are a complete mess and totally inadequate for their needs. My wife would have no hesitation recommending flying between cities rather than driving, if you decide to visit. She found the roads terribly claustrophobic and lacking accurate signage. The scenery was spectacular throughout the country, we would only hope Colombia protect more of her natural beauty and become an ecotourism hot spot like Costa Rica. And finally, who could argue with the expense in Colombia? It was so cheap to visit Colombia, it was almost like fantasy-land. Hair cut for under $2, Gorgeous cottage for the night $30, delicious dinners for $4 a plate and on and on. We loved it here and hope you will too someday.       

Going into the higher Andes of Southern Colombia is a whole new world for us.

The roads were well maintained even if there were insane grades and curves along the way.

Villages tucked into the steep valleys were commonplace even if access roads weren't. 

We initially wanted to go down to Las Lajas Sanctuary but Zoe was super loopy on Dramamine and Sierra had an achy flu. As such, we could only take a picture from above as the half hour walk down would have been too daunting for us. 

Crossing incredibly steep ravines is common for us. Notice, in the upper right side of the picture, the faint image of the road we were on prior to taking this picture.

Pictured here is the construction crews blazing a new road on a nearly vertical cliff

A picture is worth a thousand words.