Expert: Juan Carlos Valencia - 8/7/2008

Question
QUESTION: Hi Juan Carlos,
We are a family and we're leaving for Colombia this week...we have planned to spend our second week in Bogota and driving around the Bogota area(Villa de Leyva, etc.). However, we are landing in Medellin and feel that we only need a couple of days there.  Do you have any suggestions about where to stop over if we drive from Medellin to Bogota (our son doesn't do ten hours straight without complaining)??  We have a week and would love to either fly to Cali so we can see Popayan then drive to Bogota or some combination of flying and driving that isn't too grueling.  We were originally going to use that 5 night block flying to Cartagena and back but it's so expensive and so hot. So we've decided Popayan, Manizales would be better areas for us. The drive between Medellin and Popayan would be great but takes so long we would have no time once we got to Popayan. The only two books don't mention whether there are small but interesting place(s) to stay along the route between Manizales and Bogota to break up the trip. Do you have any ideas?  Are we crazy to substitue Cartagena for Popayan?? With such great distances should we skip Popayan also and just spend the whole week hanging around the area around Medellin.  I tend to get overly ambitious and greedy and then I'm sorry that we've spent the whole time in the car!

Thanks for any answer to this confusing question!


ANSWER: Dear Shelley,

you send me many questions in one, but I´ll try to answer them all anyway !

Yes, it´s crazy to substitute Popayan for Cartagena. It may be hot, the beaches at the city could not be the cleanest, but Cartagena offers you some things difficult to find elsewhere: 17th century architecture, excellent restaurants, amazing views and really beautiful, white-sand beach islands in the nearby.

Popayan is a pretty town but it does not compare to Cartagena as a tourist attraction.

You´re right in saying that 2 days is enough for Medellin. The city has some good museums, nice malls and restaurants. If you can, drive to a small town called Santa Fe de Antioquia.

When traveling from Medellin to Bogota (7 hours) you may go the Peñol area, it´s a nice region of lakes with great views, but I would say that you could make this journey in one day and the changing views would be the main attraction.

You must go to Villa de Leyva, it´s a very pleasant place, similar but nicer than Popayan, The surrounding valley is highly picturesque. Go to the town of Raquira.

The drive between Medellin and Cali could take about 7 hours and it´s not all that difficult as it´s mostly flat. That´s not the case of the drive between Popayan and Bogota. It could take 13 hours and is difficult as you have to cross two chains of mountains in a zig-zaging, dangerous road full of trucks. If you can avoid doing this by car, do it.

If you can still consider alternative routes and destinations, I would suggest the following:

Medellin (2 days)
Monteria (9 hours drive. Sleep over)
Cartagena (7 hour drive. 4 days with trip to Rosario islands)
Bogota (Fly from Cartagena. 2 days)
Villa de Leyva (4 hour drive. 2 days)


I do not understand your flying options but if you have some tickets available, I would recommend using them to fly from Cartagena to the island of San Andres, or from Bogota to the amazon port of Leticia.

Cali is nice but they are still doing big public works for a new massive transportation system and traffic is awful.

Manizales is nice, especially if you want to go some of the tallest mountains in the country (above 4500 meters) but it´s not a top destination.

Drive only in daylight and be extremely careful, we are crazy drivers here...!

Regards

JCV

---------- FOLLOW-UP ----------

QUESTION: Thank you so much for that wonderful response!  It helped with the biggest
decision about Cartagena.  Now i'm worried about dengue fever...do you hear
about cases of this in Medellin, Bogota...Villa de Leyva..Cartagena? what to
the locals do?? We don't have time to get our hepatitis A shots or yellow fever
or anything...we're so late getting this together cuz we leave on Tuesday...but
I'm assuming with people travelling back and forth it must be OK.  Do you
have any thoughts on how often these diseases show up??  (The CDC is
calling it a "dengue fever outbreak" in Medellin!

Thanks again for your help

Answer
Dear Shelley,

I would say that Dengue and other diseases are not big problems in the cities. If you are in the countryside or in islands, do take insecticides and repellents with you. If you stick to Medellin, Cartagena, Bogota and Villa de Leyva, you should not have problems with diseases...just relax, be happy and your bodies will have the energy to resist most things!

Be careful with the water in Cartagena. Only drink bottled water there !

Regards

JCV