Welcome back to Curious Perro. We are going to look at the preparation and planning that this Gringo undertook before taking a three week trip to Colombia in late November through early December 2020.
This is part of a series I am calling “Planning A Trip to Colombia During Uncertain Times”. I thought it would be worthwhile to look back at previous trips as I plan for my next adventure.
I have posted a number of videos on my YouTube channel about individual segments of this trip and I consider them “travelogue videos”. These travelogue videos show a destination with very little description from me. They are almost exclusively the sights and sounds of the locations. My hope is that through these videos a viewer can come to better understand the look and feel of these places for themselves. Please check these out on my YouTube channel and let me know your thoughts.
Below I am providing you with two links. The first link is for my YouTube playlist:
The second link is for my YouTube playlist:
“Gringo Series: Planning A Trip to Colombia During Uncertain Times”
I am examining the process or logistics that are taken to prepare for the trip. As a non-Spanish speaking Gringo, it is sometimes difficult to make such arrangements. I have befriended or more a number of Colombian women who help me navigate my way. So here we go…
During my three week trip to Colombia I was able to visit a lot of places. In fact, I calculated that I flew on 13 different airplanes over 23 days. It was definitely a whirlwind trip. So how it was planned.
My Colombian travel companion, I call Mi Paisa, and I were talking all during the pandemic about where we wanted to go together in Colombia. You must understand that Colombia started to ban incoming international flights in late March 2020, in response to the coronavirus pandemic. The ban was for a period of about 6 months and on September 19th of 2020 they allowed the first international flight back into Colombia going to Cartagena.
Let me explain two things: One, I call my Colombian travel companion Mi Paisa as she was born and raised in Medellin Colombia. In many Spanish speaking countries, the term paisa is like calling someone a countrymen or an inseparable friend. In Colombia, a paisa is a native of the department or state of Antioquia of which Medellin is the capital. Paisa women in Colombia are considered the most beautiful women in the country (obviously others will debate this) and their voice and accent are also considered the most beautiful or genuine.
Two, during the main time of the coronavirus pandemic, the entire country of Colombia was placed on quarantine. People were not allowed to leave their homes. There were special arrangements for essential workers like nurses, doctors, police and military, but private business and schools were closed. During this time only one person per week from each household, between the ages of 18 and 64 could go out of the house to go to the bank, supermarket and pharmacy.
So we decided we wanted to visit three different all-inclusive resorts. The first resort is the On Vacation Wayira Hotel in a remote locale Wayira Beach near Riohacha in Guajira.
The second resort is on the island of San Andres – Decameron Aquarium.
The final resort, the Decameron PANACA is located in the coffee triangle of Colombia near Quimbaya in the department of Quindio.
Our basic plan was for me to fly into Medellin’s José María Córdova International Airport and stay a few days. Then off to the remote Hotel Wayira Beach for a few days and return to Medellin. Then off to the Hotel Decameron San Luis on San Andres Island (due to Hurricane Iota was changed to the Decameron Aquarim) and then to the Decameron PANACA and check out the coffee region for a few days. Then finally back to Medellin to return to the United States.
But you must picture this — It is currently late September 2020, Colombia just opened the international air flights after being closed for 6 months and the coronavirus protocols and travel rules and regulations are changing on a weekly basis.
So what we decided to do is wait throughout the month of October to see what transcended before I made my airline reservations from the United States to and from Medellin Colombia.
Secondly we would look to make our hotel reservations and pray that the hotels were able to remain open long enough for me to arrive in Colombia.
Lastly we were to make the transportation arrangements for our Colombian flights and other methods for getting from one destination to another. All three of the resorts were a fair distance from their respective airports with Decameron PANACA (Parque Nacional De La Cultura Agropecuaria) being a hours drive away from the airport in Armenia. Note: It was suggested to us by one of the taxi drivers that we should fly into Pereira rather than Armenia as it is a little bit closer.
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