Colombie - Parc Tayrona

De Cartagena, nous nous sommes rendus dans le parc nationale de Tayrona, au nord est du pays.
Un petit coin de paradis, vous en jugerez vous meme par rapport aux photos. De magnifiques plages bordees de cocotiers, une mer des Caraibes d'un bleu incroyable et en arriere plan une vegetation luxuriante, enfin un decor de reve. Un lieu d'un exotisme extraordinaire et pour logement un hamac tendu sous une paillote. Nous nous sommes sentis tres privilegies sur ces plages ou nous avons passe des journees etendus sur le sable chaud, seuls au monde. Une magnifique plage rien que pour nous. Je ne vous explique meme pas quelle a ete la difficulte de quitter un tel endroit...

Colombie - Parc Tayrona

From Cartagena, we went to Tayrona, an amazing national park in the north east of Colombia. How can I describe such a beauty, an idyllic spot, a piece of heaven on earth. You will appreciate it through the pictures. Wonderful beaches edged with coconut trees, a beautiful Caribbean sea and in the background an abundant vegetation, we felt so privileged to be in such a place. It was very exotic there, we slept in a hammock under a hut near the beach, so cool. Everyday, we used to go and lay down on a beautiful beach, a huge one just for ourselves. It was very hard for us to leave such a place, as you can probably imagine.

Colombie - Cartagena

Cartagena est une ville incroyablement belle. Il y fait tres chaud et humide (38°). Nous y resterons finallement plus longtemps que prevu, il faut dire qu'il y a ici une ambiance tres particuliere. On adore se promener dans les ruelles de la vieille ville, chaque jour on decouvre de nouveaux lieux, de nouveaux batiments, des cours interieures absolument magnifiques. Le soir on va ecouter des groupes de musique qui jouent et dansent sur des petites places publiques. L'influence afro est tres tres presente aussi bien dans les danses que la musique, ce qui nous donne une raison de plus pour adorer cet endroit.

Colombie - Cartagena

Cartagena is probably for us one of the most beautiful town in south America, we absolutely loved it. But it was very hot and humid as well, more than 38°. We finally stayed there longer than we thought first. I must admit the atmosphere was very special there. We loved to walk around the old part of the town, to get lost and discover new places, old buildings with incredible courtyards. At night we used to go to listen to music bands on a little public square. Afro style music which we enjoyed so much.

Colombie - Salento - Medellin

Salento est un village situe au coeur de la zone du cafe. Nous visiterons une plantation de cafe. Nous faisons aussi une promenade de 5 heures dans la vallee de Cocora.

Salento is a small village situated in the coffee area of Colombia. We visited a coffee plantation. We did a very nice 5 hours trek in the Cocora valley.

Colombie - Salento

De-la nous nous rendons a Medellin, la ville du fameux Pablo Escobar. Nous y resterons que 2 jours car la ville nous a moyennement attire, il faut dire que en ce moment nous recherchons d'avantage les endroits plus calmes. La ville possede une ligne de metro extremement recente et moderne. Comme c'est une ligne aerienne, nous en avons profite pour visiter la ville de cette manière.

From there we went to Medellin, the town of the famous Pablo Escobar. We stayed only 2 days because we did not like the town too much. In fact, at the moment we are more looking for quieter places. In Medellin there is a extremely recent and modern elevated rail road. It was an excellent way for us to discover the city.

Colombie - Medellin

Colombie - Popayan - San Agustin - Silvia

Apres un long silence, desoles pour cela, voici les nouvelles du front. Apres avoir passe une nuit a Tulcan a la frontiere entre l' Equateur et la Colombie afin de visiter un cimetiere un peu original (voir photos), nous avons donc traverse du cote colombien. Tres excites de decouvrir enfin le pays dont tous les voyageurs que nous croisons ne cessent de parler et de venter la beaute et la gentillesse de sa population.

There is a while that we have not updated the blog, very sorry for that (we are definitely too relax).
We spent a night in Tulcan in Ecuador, near the Colombian border, in order to visit a very special cemetery (you can see the following pictures). The next day we were ready to cross to Colombia and very excited as well to discover this beautiful country that every traveller we met loved.

Equateur - Tulcan

Nous sommes dans ce beau pays depuis maintenant 3 semaines.

Nous avions entendu de la part des voyageurs que de bonnes choses concernant ce pays. Ce fut en effet une agreable surprise de pouvoir enfin decouvrir la Colombie: de magnifiques paysages et des colombiens fort sympatiques et tres accueillants, qui ont le soucis de montrer aux visiteurs une toute autre image que malheureusement les horribles cliches que l'on nous donne de ce pays. Un pays qui ne decoit absolument pas tout au contraire.Nous sommes remontes du sud vers le nord.

Popayan est une tres belle ville coloniale, toute blanche.

We are in Colombia since 3 weeks ago now, we absolutely love this country. We heard so much positive feedbacks about Colombia from the travellers we met on our way there.
What a pleasant country, a very nice discovery, gorgeous landscapes, Colombian people who know how to welcome the foreigners, so nice people. We were so happy to discover that Colombia is far from all these horrible stereotypes given by the media and others. We are not disappointed, on the contrary!
We went from the south to the north of the country, visiting many places on the way like Popayan which is a beautiful colonial city in white.

Colombie - Popayan

De-la nous avons rejoint San Agustin, un village situe a 135kms de Popayan. Que le trajet fut long. 135kms a priori c'est pas tres long, mais la route est tellement mauvaise que nous mettrons 7h pour y arriver. Mais nous sommes recompenses, car San Agustin est situe dans un tres bel endroit au coeur de sites pre-colombien. Il y a au total plus de 500 statues et pierres tombales. Nous ferons une journee de cheval, nous traverserons de magnifiques paysages. Nous resterons dans une hospedaje (logement chez l'habitant) tenue par Mario et Janet, des personnes tres sympas et toujours prêts a aider. Le soir, on discute avec Mario de la region et des farcs qui auparavant controlaient cette zone. Aujourd'hui l'armee est fortement presente et c'est tres frequent de croiser de tres jeunes militaires en service.

From Popayan, we went to San Agustin, a village situated 135 km. What a long and exhausting journey ! 135 km, it should not be too long, but unfortunately the road was in a such bad condition, that it took us around 7 hours to finally arrived there. Fortunately for us, the place was absolutely amazing, a beautiful village situated in the middle of a pre-colombian archaeological site.
More than 500 statues dating back as far as 4,000 to 6,000 years have been found in the surrounding valley. We did a day horse riding, it was fantastic to go through such beautiful sceneries. We were very lucky as well to have a very nice guide to come with us and show us the area and the archaeological sites. We went very well together and she invited us the same evening to a fifteen birthday party, which is very important in south America for girls (an excellent way for us to discover the custom of the country and share sometimes with the local people).
We stayed with Mario and Janet, a very nice "hospedaje" (kind of cheap B&B), very very nice couple, always here to give good advices. We enjoyed spending our evening talking with the very talkative Mario, who used to explain us about the situation of Colombia and the Farc who used to control many years ago the area.
Nowadays, the army is actively involved to keep the place clear, and it is common to see very young soldiers.

Colombie - Silvia

Puis nous sommes alles a Silvia pour le tres beau marche. Chaque mardi, les indigenes de la region viennent y vendre leurs recoltes composees essentiellement d'une variete incroyable de differentes pommes de terre, de mais, de manioc... Sur le marche nous avons participe a un reportage réalisé par une chaine de télévision colombienne.

Ils sont encore habilles dans leurs habits traditionnels.

Afterwards, we went to Silvia in order to witness the beautiful Tuesday market. Indeed, every Tuesday, the indigenous people of the area come to sell their harvest such as a big range of different potatoes, corns, and manioc, etc...
It is really nice to see them wearing the traditional clothes, especially the men with their skirts (a bit like Scottish people). When we were going around the market, we had been interviewed by the Colombian TV (we are may be famous there now).