Let me start by saying that I had never dived before this trip. It was first of all never a priority or of big interest to me and I must admit I found it a bit scary. Luc, on the other hand, is very much an avid diver, so I was easily convinced that this was the right moment to learn, and that I couldn’t be more safe and have more fun than with two certified instructors in the water. So we looked for dive centers when we got to Taganga, and found Calipso – the only dive center allowed to dive in the Tayrona Natural Reserve becaue of its Eco engagement and coral restauration programmes. We decided to go for a three day diving safari which included diving for Luc and a NAUI Scuba Diver certification course for me. On the last day we got to dive together, which was great fun. The beach was a quiet little beach called Playa del Amor, at night time there was no other source of light other than the moon, and it was at its fullest when we were there. We slept in hammocks, had three meals per day prepared by a great man called Toto, and practiced diving.

I had been introduced to an entirely new world where one can move in all directions and where time flies by much faster than on the surface. I also spent these three days without a mobile network connection and with my mobile turned off. Survived all of it, very happy and amazed.

We decided to rent a car to get out of Medellín and visit the mountains where the majority of Colombian coffee is grown. We grabbed a last bite at that great vegetarian place and headed south to La Zona Cafetera to explore the little town of Salento and its surroundings. You’ve seen some of these photos already, but these are in far better resolution. And we prefer that, don’t we? Yay!

We hopped on a 10 hour bus from Bogotá to Medellín on Friday night, and spent quite a while of Saturday morning looking for a place to stay – Medellín is a party place, thus packed with people on weekends. We met up with my friend Camilo from that sparkling New Year’s in Warsaw two years ago, and he took us out for shopping, Mojitos and music, and for lunch and hangout with his friends the next day. Medellín was much warmer than Bogotá, and much more tropical. It was a beautiful city where we found a great Vegetarian restaurant (where they had a sad plastic giraffe) and where most people seemed to be running around in their cute little workout outfits..

On our last day in Medellín, we made our way to Piedra del Puñol a bit outside of the city, which wasn’t necessarily a great choice as it was the last day of the holiday, so on our way back we found out that all the buses were fully booked and not even able to get there. So we hopped on a random bus that was passing by instead, and that worked just fine. It always does.

The “Best view in the World” wasn’t that mindblowing either, but it was definitely a fun daytrip.