Read here about the countries we have visited or where we are at the moment.
At some point we had to leave our coffee farm paradise and moved on to Medellin. The former capital of drugs and crime is now the place to go among travellers and we were curious. The city we encountered was totally different from what we had expected. more „Medellin“
After Salento and the Cocora Valley we continued our journey through the eje cafetero to Santa Rosa and its termal baths as well as Hacienda Venecia, an actual working coffee farm. more „A journey through Colombia´s coffee region (Part II)“
Colombia´s largest area of coffee production is called the Eje Cafetero or Triángulo del Café. It is located about 200 km west of Bogotá, right between Cali and Medellin. It includes three departments of Colombia: Caldas, Risaralda and Quindío with their capitals Manizales, Pereira and Armenia. The region is supposed to have one of the most beautiful landscapes in the country. We travelled through the region for one week. more „A journey through Colombia´s coffee region (Part I)“
Nobody we met on our way to Colombia really liked its capital. So our expectations were really low when we got here. Surprisingly we liked it. But we have to admit we didn´t spend the time here that a city this size deserves. We only spent two days and didn´t leave the historic and touristic center Candelaria. more „Street art and good food in Bogota“
4.000 to 5.000 years ago two indigenous cultures lived in the river valleys of Rio Magdalena and the Cauca. The rivers were their highways and the headwaters of both rivers lie near San Agustin. It was here that these cultures met for trade and to bury their dead. Today there are more than 500 statues in the region, mainly linked to tombs. There are several archaeological sites to visit. Apart from that, the area around San Agustin is full of coffee and fruit plantations as well as beautiful scenery. more „The ancient statues of San Agustin“
While travelling through South America, we met many people that are more or less doing the same thing as we are. Everyone travels either from the south to the north or vice versa. We rarely meet people that just travel one country for three weeks. And absolutely everyone told us how amazing Colombia was. So even though we hadn´t seen enough of Ecuador yet, we had to move on to have enough time for Colombia. more „On the way to Colombia“
After too many South American cities we got a big surprise – Quito! The historic center was the most idyllic and the people were great – just as every else in Ecuador. more „We love Quito!“
After two rainy beach days in Puerto Lopez with great seafood we found this beautiful village just two hours from Quito. Mindo is a paradise for hikers and bird-lovers. more „Mindo – a village in the cloud forest“
This island has the largest developed town at Galapagos. We didn´t like the town too much because it was too busy and crowdy. On the other hand, it got the cheapest hotels, restaurants and supermarkets. A visit to Santa Cruz is also obligatory due to all the beautiful tours and excursions that start from here. more „The most beautiful place on earth (Part II)“
Galapagos – one of the destinations we have been looking forward to the most on our trip. And it didn´t disappoint us. Being at Galapagos feels like going to a huge zoo – we have never been at any place in the world where we had been able to interact that closely with animals in the wild without really disturbing them. When you just saw giant tortoises and snorkeled with sharks, rays, sea turtles, sea lions and many more, and then suddenly a dolphin jumps really high out of the water, you feel like this must be a dream. It is hard to find the words to describe this place. We spent 10 days in this paradise and were more than sad to leave… more „The most beautiful place on earth (Part I)“