My Overland Adventure

10th -11th January After saying goodbye to our friend and her family in Popayan, we head towards the city of Pasto, a long but amazingly scenic 245km five hour drive through impossibly green steep and jagged mountains with vertical drops to the sides. We had been...

We decide to drive a loop around San Austin following the back roads towards our first stop of La Chaquira, where we had read that there were fantastic statues carved into the rocks. On the way to the site, we turn off down a dirt road, where we are stopped by a local...

5th January Feeling slightly under the weather, we have a day of rest and plan to visit the archaeological site in the morning.  We head to town for a menu del dia of soup, meat, rice, beans, salad and a juice, all for $3!  There seem to be plenty of local tourists...

3rd January We attempt to get to San Agustin today driving on one of the two main routes; we jump in the car, type in San Agustin and press go.  The route looks about right and the distance is also correct so we head off.  The paved road winds through the mountains...

25th-28th December  Cali Located at an altitude of 1000m Cali is the 3rd largest city in Colombia and also the capital of salsa; as we are walking around, we see one salsateca (salsa club) after the other lining a busy street. On Christmas day, we leave the confines...

24th December Colombia is working on shaking off its perceived image as a dangerous and risky place to visit; to attract more visitors to its shores, it has adopted a new slogan ‘The only risk is wanting to stay’.  So far, it’s true, although we are always careful...

22nd December We decide to head west from Bogota to the Zona Cafetera (Coffee Zone) also known as the eje cafetero  (coffee axis) which is a 283km drive away.  Although it is a relatively short distance, it takes 7 and a half hours! From the high elevation in Bogota,...

14th -21st December The Colombian capital of Bogota is such a polar opposite to Villa de Leyva from where we had just come from that it is honestly a bit of a shock to the system!  The sheer amount of vehicles crammed onto the roads compete with pedestrians for every...

13th December Today we leave for the capital, Bogota, 159kms away along bumpy winding roads through the mountains at 2500m with scenic views overlooking the patchwork green fields in the valley below us.  Driving on the mountain ridge, road work dust fills the air and...

9th December Leaving Barichara, we head south back towards San Gil late where we stop for a tasty empanada and espresso coffee breakfast at a busy local café on the square. It’s...

1st December    TAGANGA It‘s a long hot four and a half hour drive to Santa Marta in the very north of the country, our base for a visit to Tayrona National Park, on good fast roads.  Driving past vast shanty towns and stopping at both police and military checkpoints,...