The ULTIMATE COLOMBIA TRAVEL GUIDE 2025 🇨🇴 (Bogota, Medellin, Guatape, Tatacoa, Minca, Tayrona)
Good morning here from the beautiful capital city of Colombia, Bogota. This is actually one of the biggest cities in South America. And apparently if you lay over the map of Paris on top of Bogota, you see that Bogota is almost 70 times bigger. So that’s why every area here is super different. So we’re going to start off with the central area, which is right now you can see very chaotic, noisy, lively music everywhere. And after that we’re going to move to a local neighborhood which is a lot quieter and peaceful to show you what life is like where locals are living. And then after that, we’re going to show you around the surroundings of Bogota, the nature sceneries and also neighboring towns as well to show you how diverse Bogota is. But first, today we’re going to start off with a delicious breakfast. Colombian breakfast, guys. Feels like we’re in Cuba, not in Colombia. Wow. Here is a retro car retro, American cars. Anyway, this right here is already the restaurant that we’re going to go to. The name of it is called La Puerta Falsa apparently is actually the oldest restaurant, one of the oldest restaurants here in Bogota. And we’re gonna check it out. Alina is just a little bit traumatized from her bike ride just now. We actually rode almost an hour to this neighborhood. People in Bogota driving crazy. I feel like they’re driving so dangerous. My, my hands when I arrived I was shaking like this. You know, it’ like Southeast Asia, because Southeast Asia people, they’re driving scooter and they’re driving super slow. But here in Colombia, people driving motorbike and then driving between cars everywhere. We ordered the traditional soup, Ajiaco, which is a very classic Colombian soup that a lot of household, a lot of local Colombians love drinking. And also we ordered the tamal, which is kind of like a leafy thing wrapped with rice and chicken inside. So it’s going to be really delicious as well. Well, I’m sure. And one special thing about this place is that they also have hot chocolate with cheese inside and it comes with kind of like a side bread. And I love that we’re sitting here at the balcony and there is like live music, guitar performance outside. And just now it’s so weird, I saw a llama just walking on the street, which is something you won’t see in our local neighborhood. It’s only in central like this. Just so much going on. All right, so all our food has arrived cuz the portions here are so big. Hot chocolate with cheese, first time trying. Pretty sure you’re meant to melt first. Hot chocolate Is not that hot. Oh, really? It’s warm, but just nice. Now, the ajiaco tasted like a thick potato and corn soup loaded with shredded chicken. So it’s very homestyle and comforting. Especially pairing with fries and avocado on the side just works really well together. And the portion was massive too. This is like home food for me because it reminds me a lot of Hong Kong food. I also quite like the Tamal probably more than Alina did because it reminded me a bit of my home Hong Kong food, lor Mai Gai, which usually is wrapped in lotus leaves, but here they use banana leaves for steaming. The flavor was also super delicate and savory with a mashed condo texture on the outside and meat on the inside. So it’s quite an interesting dish that’s worth trying in Colombia. What’s the total damage? Total damage is 77,000 Colombian peso for so many dishes. And the food was so delicious just now. The coolest thing about this area, it is packed with very colonial style architectures, especially this square right here, which is the most popular square in Colombia, surrounding us here. They are all really important government buildings apparently. So that one behind me there, that one is the Supreme Court of Colombia. And on this side right here, this is apparently the biggest cathedral in Colombia. And on the other side over there, this is the Congress Building. And on the other side, the last corner, that is the mayor’s office. So all these architecture surround surrounding the square. It kind of reminds me of back in Europe, almost like though it seems like people’s attention not really on the architecture, but they are mostly distracted by the pigeons that are chaotically flying around the square, which feels like to be the real highlight. All right. They don’t even scare me. They. They don’t even fly away. They react to food only. It’s interesting. When you’re at this square, a lot of people will start approaching you. For example, like just now, there was this shoe shiner trying to approach me to shine my shoes. And also you can see because there’s so many pigeons here, some people actually use this as a business. They start selling seeds to feed the pigeons. And it actually worked because a lot of people are feeding pigeons right now. You see this area, La Candaria, is the cultural and historical district of Bogota. So there are lots of colonial style architecture that is still standing. So it kind of feels like we’re stepping back in time, which is so different to the rest of Bogota that we’ll show you later. The one thing that really stands out in this area Are the amount of artistic graffitis. Graffiti is actually considered legal in most areas, of course, not government buildings and all that. But most areas are actually considered decriminalized, unlike other countries. Like for example, in Hong Kong, if you paint on a subway, definitely you get arrested very soon. But in Bogota, I like that. It’s about the freedom of expression through paintings and also the creativity as well. You can see there’s so many really beautiful colorful graffitis all around the streets of Bogota, which is very impressive. In Russia, usually if you see graffiti on the wall, so it will be something like this and there will be something like bad walls. But here, graffiti, it’s a totally art. Just look at this. It just make the city even more prettier if without graffiti. Can you imagine? Well, here’s the thing. As soon as we step away from the center just a little bit, we immediately felt uneasy and so different. To be honest, guys, now we’re walking in this area and I don’t feel safe at all because a lot of homeless people, a lot of like weird people under drugs, a lot of people smoking marijuana. This area compared to the area we live in, which feels a bit more dangerous. And also they hear everywhere police patrolling around. You know, having police is a good thing, but having too many police makes it feel even more dangerous. When we arrived to Bogota immediately, our bodyguard of our building told us, don’t put your phone here, because you know, usually I like to carry my phone on my on myself. They said, don’t put for your phone here, don’t hold in your hands, otherwise someone will come. And two times they told us two different people. So feels like it’s so common in Bogota. So now we actually going to head up to the mountains of Bogota. This is the tallest mountain in Bogota. It’s called Monserrate. And to go there, there are two ways to go there. One is cable car. Another one, it’s a funicular, a mountain climbing one that we saw from a far just now. It will look super steep. And this is the ticket booth apparently called Tequila. Tequila. It’s kind of like a diagonal elevator. The first. Whoa. The weather here is so different. If there’s anything you guys know is that we love a good cinematic mountain vibe. As foggy as it is, the better. Also when you come up here, me you feel the air is much colder as well as the air is a lot thinner as well, just because we are a lot higher. And the coolest thing about this, it’s actually 3,000 meters above ground. So basically, if you stack up four tallest buildings in the world. Burj Khalifa in Dubai is basically the height of this mountain, which is super tall. If you look down at Bogota, even Bogota is actually one of the tallest city in the world. It’s 2,600 meters, which is three Burj khalifas. That’s why usually in Bogota the weather in general is very unstable because it’s mountain weather, unpredictable. You know, just now at the square it was all sunny, super hot and all of a sudden, boom. Weather change, start raining and we are wearing jackets. This place is famous for altitude. It’s so high in Bogota that you can see the entire beautiful city of Bogota supposedly. And I guess the view. Nice view, nice view. It’s like a diffuser here. It’s okay. Be patient. Maybe later the fog will go away like in Fansipan If you guys haven’t watched our video from Vietnam, Fansipan, we went to the tallest mountains in Vietnam. That was super cool and cinematic. Go to watch now. Not now after this video. Look at this. So cinematic. Looks like second time in our life. We are so lucky because the sky go away now we finally can see the city. So lucky. Who’s so lucky? So beautiful. So lucky. Yeah. So beautiful. I know. I’m so glad we waited. Yeah. Welcome to another day here in Bogota. And today our plan is actually to show you our local neighborhood because so far we’ve only showed you a lot of the touristy side of it. But I also want to show you what locals are living here like. So currently we actually stay in area called Cedrito and it’s a kind of like a family friendly middle class neighborhood where there are lots of parks and greeneries around. At one point we even consider living in here, in this neighborhood for even longer time just because everything here just feels very livable. It has all kinds of facilities you need transportation. And just the fact that it is very dog friendly in this country and there’s so many facilities built specifically for pets made Alina fall in love with this neighborhood as well. I don’t know how Justin doing this but. But he always know how to choose Good area. And I like because every single building in this area, you can see they have security guards. We feel here super, super safe. And you can see on the streets here’s not a lot of, you know, gangsters, homeless people around. Almost like empty streets. Just people walking casually with like dogs and also a lot of greeneries around. I think that’s what important to make it a very good and livable place is that there Are a lot of walking spaces as well. I think Colombia being such a pet friendly country is so surprising because no matter which area you go to in Colombia, so as you go in Bogota, you can see so many pet owners, so many different kind of dog breeds as well. Yeah. And I love it. Make me feel like I wanna, I wanna have dog here because here’s around here a lot of like dog cafe friendly dog. What? Snowball. Oh wow. Wow. Like a white fox. See and they’re all friends together. Yeah, like a group of dogs just hanging out. And this is the kind of sceneries that we’ve been seeing every day. And the coolest thing about Bogota in particular, like during weekdays you see a lot of dog walkers. They hold maybe a group of seven or eight dogs together. Maybe they pay a small amount to these dog walkers. Because I think Bogota in general is a very city city, you know. So that’s why people don’t really have a lot of time to take care of dogs during weekdays. You know, it’s always was my dream to have a dog and just go to park and spend time with dog like this. Oh, that’s so cute. I cannot every time when I walk in in Bogoto in Colombia and I see a lot of dogs in the park and just oh so jealous. I want. Oh my God. We just spotted our favorite dog. It’s our dream dog to have in the future when we do camper van which is the Australian shepherd. They have got a lot of them here. A lot of huskies of Australian shepherd. But Australian shepherd, this color is exactly what we want. Why so it’s nice. Why hello, hello, hello, hello. He’s so fluffy. He’s so friendly. Me. It’s not your snack. So friendly. He was like walk me. Well, this is the friendliest husky I’ve ever seen. See like hug me. In Bogota it’s so easy when you stress in life. Just come to the park, look at all these dogs, play with them. It makes you happy. This is my daily dose of caffeine. I can say that when we first arrived Bogota, one thing that really caught our attention is like a lot of attention to details of the city planning as well, especially the roads. I’m going to show you now example. This might appear to be like a normal intersection, right. But actually you can see there’s some details here like these dotted metals that is placed on the floor. I think as car is approaching this intersection you’re meant to slow down and you’ll be notified with these metal dots thingies. So that it alerts the cars to slow down for pedestrians or for intersections, just to Watch out. You know, when we walk around our neighborhood, we notice these buildings and architecture just have this really chill and cozy vibe that makes you want to stay there. There’s nothing too fancy, but everything looks very well organized. It just has its own unique aesthetic, especially with the greeneries around. There’s this beautiful laid back atmosphere to it. It’s also super clean here. We’re both very impressed by the urban planning in this area. You can hardly find any trash on the streets and everyone seemed very considerate. And there are also designated bike lanes that are built throughout the city like this one, so that people, if it’s during the weekdays, they want to exercise, they could use this Bogota Weather is so weird. Like yesterday it was so sunny and hot and all of a sudden now it’s so damn cold. And also it’s windy and it’s rainy. And that’s the thing about pagoda, the temperature here is super unpredictable. I think one thing that surprises of the most come in Bogota is the amount of international food options. Especially, you know, I’m a foodie and I come from Asia. We’re being so far away from home. Of course we missed some Asian food and we’re very surprised. In Bogota we find so many authentic Asian places to eat. We’ve been eating very well, actually. We had Korean food the other day, like Korean barbecue and also Japanese. So many other cuisines that you wouldn’t normally find in other countries. It’s all in one place in Bogota. And I think the reason why is because Bogota is such a populated city. City with over 11 million population. So that’s why it attracted a lot of foreigners coming to this city to live in. And that brings the influence of other cuisines coming to the city as well. We’ve came to one of our favorite restaurants here in Bogata. It’s called Wok. And this place, the reason why we love it so much is because it’s such an Asian fusion place with a lot of authentic Asian food. And it comes with this cute little newspaper as a menu. And in terms of the food, they actually serve a lot of Japanese, Chinese and also Thai and Vietnamese food. We came here a lot of times already, Vietnamese food wise. We tried the pho last time and it was quite authentic. And this time we want to try something different. So I choose today, Rollie, because this place is specialized on rollie. And today you can see it’s a lot of people here because it’s a Saturday and people just love this place so much because the prices is affordable and the quality is super good. But today I decided with something that is very authentic to Thailand as well, which is the pad kapow, I think that’s how it’s called, which is like stir fry minced beef with basil, which is a very classic dish in Thailand. So let’s see if it tastes authentic like Thailand, or is it going to be like a Western version of it? Hopefully not, because so far the food has been very nice. Smells authentic, looks authentic. This is why I like this restaurant. You know, I’m eating at a restaurant so far from home, but at the same time I feel like I’m tasting food from home. It’s kind of funny, but for some reason we accidentally shot everything in slow motion here. But anyway, the food was fantastic, Very authentic. We love this place a lot and probably have already come here for five to seven times during our stay in Bogota. You know, guys, in Colombia, it’s so interesting. Tip system waiter, after you finish eating, he will come to you and ask, do you want to give me tip? And if you say yes, then they will include to the bill some like 10 %. But if you say no, then they will just like remove it. So interesting. It’s like they’re not forcing you, but it’s. I don’t know. We never say no because it’s so. It feels so bad how you can say no to the stuff who, like, serve you food. So we’ll say okay. Okay. So so far we’ve explored what’s within the city of Bogota. It is very chaotic. I know. But today we’re going to do something different because you also want to check out what’s surrounding Bogota. So we’re going to go to something very unique, which is going to a city salt mine crafted into a cathedral. So what I mean is a cathedral inside a salt mine, deep underground. And we’re gonna go check it out. Today, to get to the salt cathedral, we decided to take an old retro train. Now, the ticket costs around 160,000 peso for both of us, and the journey takes about two to three hours. But the coolest thing about this train is that on the way, you’ll see a lot of beautiful greeneries, apparently, and also some live traditional music. Someone is going to perform on this train. I didn’t even know it’s two hours. Just now. Justin told me it’s two hours. I thought it’s going to be like 15 minutes drive. But this train looks super. And to be completely honest, we are not properly Caffeinated at least this morning. Alina this morning said coffeinated Yes. I Woke up today 6am and I thought we can drink coffee but it’s too early to like coffee shops all closed. Yep. So apart from looking at the view, we also need to catch up on our sleep time. This is not just any regular train because there is live music on board. Singing Spanish traditional music well, obviously we don’t understand anything, but it was really cool when the whole train starts singing together. And of course there are workers pushing trolleys selling some snacks and drinks. And the view outside the window is just awesome. You see green hills in the distance, nice nature sceneries, farmlands. And passing by all these small towns. One of the coolest thing we noticed when leaving Bogota was that since it was a Sunday, the entire road was closed off just for people to exercise, like for running, biking, roller skating. And apparently this happens every Sunday and on special public holidays. I mean when have you ever seen an entire city closing down a lane just for people to exercise? And surprisingly many people actually participate in this, no matter the age. It’s almost like a weekly opportunity for a family gathering or friends meet up during the weekend. But the coolest thing has to be that a lot of people also brought their dogs along. You can see all kinds of different breeds there running along, the owner like best friends going for a run together every weekend. I think it’s becoming one of my favorite cities around the world just because you know, there’s international food, it’s pet friendly, people are spotty, see so many dogs everywhere and yeah, just the fact that people in this country are also super friendly as well. I think Colombia people are some of the friendliest we’ve met around the world despite, you know, the bad reputation in the past. We just now went to eat lunch and we found a super interesting place here in this town. I didn’t expect expect this but it was cafe in this kind of tropical Bali vibe which is looks super unique. We order pizza and also we order macacino cappuccino and everything is cost just like a 58,000 Colombian peso for whole meal which is I think the city is super affordable and oh I love food here. Oh my God, we going to the cathedral inside the salt mine. And I want to just take a moment to appreciate this town that we’re in compared to Bogota even it’s just like an hour away. It’s completely different atmosphere going to Bogota. No tall buildings, just like this very short colonial style architecture all around. It kind of reminds me back in country town when we went to Salento. So we’re already here at the entrance of the cathedral. We get tickets. It cost 236,000 pesos for two people. And this included also the guide in English. You know what’s included in this price? Wi Fi. What a necessity. I feel like I’m going to a proper amusement park, like, you know, one of those roller coaster rides in Disneyland. And like the tunnel gets dimmer and dimmer lighting. This feels like it. So we’ve already made it inside the salt mine. And from what I did research about this place, it’s actually very interesting because this cathedral was actually built many years ago when a group of salt miners started mining the salt. And at a time they want to have a safe space to pray. So that’s why they built this mini chapel inside this cave. And over time, because, you know, erosion and everything, it became very unstable for the cave. So. So that’s why they gave and actually rebuilt this whole cathedral using the existing one and transform into a more stable structure. And just now when you walk in, you can actually see lots of reinforcement. Apparently those reinforcements use eucalyptus and also like metal steel to reinforce the mine so that it doesn’t collapse. So now it’s much safer in this cathedral. And this actually took five years for them to build. And we are currently, currently 180 meters deep underground. And instead of a small chapel, now it’s actually a big cathedral with lots of cathedral halls, sculptures. You can see big crosses like this. So it’s now way more developed than before. I got really curious just now. I was wondering, can you eat the salt inside this salt mine? And apparently you cannot. Like, technically you can, but it’s not really for that purpose of cooking. It’s more for industrial purposes. I’m thinking only about one thing. I want to try salt. I’ll try. Alina is the kind of person. Is it safe? I don’t know. Let me try first. If anything happens. No, it’s just a rock. Looks like they hide from me all salt. They already mined. Also. Also. Then no salt anymore. Just go home, go kitchen and use your salt. It’s the same. There’s no difference. Underground, tastier. No difference. This is salt. No, this is salt. It’s a salt. My girlfriend is so weird. So salty. Of course it’s salty. But what you’re tasting here is pure, 100% salt. I like it. Tonight, when Alina goes home, my stomach doesn’t feel good. I don’t know why. Aiyah we live once do you want try, try too. You should try. Yes. Say in the comments, if Justin should try, try, try, try. So salty. No need to buy salt anymore. Just come here and… would think this salt mine is a tourist attraction only, but it’s actually actively in use. And that right there is the cathedral hall. You can see people are actually doing the usual church ceremonies over there at the moment they were singing. Just then they were giving speech. And this cathedral hall is grand. So everyone here collecting salt from this hall hole. And if you put closer to the lightning, so it’ll be shiny. I need to put super close. Oh, it’s become transparent. Looks like we found here a cafe in the middle of this place. And the coolest thing is if you look closer, the workers inside, they’re wearing a helmet. That’s true. Because it’s dangerous to be here working here. Because anytime, any second can something fall down from the ceiling. This place again is very dog friendly too. They even provide little trolleys for your dogs to ride in. Where you ever seen in the country that they allowed you to go to cathedral with dogs? And inside the salt mine, you also find a lot of small salt sculptures for sale. Everything from cute animals to beautifully carved religious figures. And you could tell all these are handcrafted because they look slightly different, all of them, but they all look very delicate. A lot of people also pick up bags of local salt to take home for cooking because why not? That’s so heavy. Wow. Okay, okay, wait, wait, wait. It looks like people are built differently here. I don’t know. Online it says usually these kind of salt, you cannot really eat it. It’s usually for commercial purposes. But apparently people here actually buy whole bricks of salt like this in a bag. And after that they break it down into smaller powdery, or sometimes they would knock it on the floor and just break into bigger pieces. And for seasoning, rather than having to walk 200 meters back up to the ground on the way out, we actually instead took an express Thomas train back to civilization. Honestly guys, Bogota is such a cool place to live. And we never expect to feel so cozy like at home here in Colombia. Let’s start with our neighborhood, Envigado. What we didn’t realize is that this area in Envigado that we’re staying at is one of the most peaceful and safest middle class local neighborhood with tons of greeneries around. Some of these architecture can be very minimalistic and has a unique aesthetic to it. First day we just arrived to the city, like checking into our airbnb, we were so scared. We just like walking around, looking around. It was somewhat dangerous. We Were so scared because it was at night. But next day when we go out and we start walking on the streets, we feel, wow. Wait, why? It reminds me to Japan. I don’t know why. The buildings here and like wood architecture a little bit reminds me of Japan. Don’t know why. So aesthetic. I like it. It is a beautiful, quiet neighborhood that is also dog friendly. Because in Colombia people love pets and one of the most pet friendly countries you ever see. Almost everywhere we’re going, we see dog owners and it just make me feeling that I want a dog one day. I want dog so badly. The city is perfect to live with dogs. You’ll see all kinds of different breeds everywhere. And there are many local parks in Nepal just for dog walking. Honestly, guys, coming to this side of the world, we already prepared not being able to find food that we normally used to at home. But we so shocked. We first arrive in Colombia and find so many amazing, and I mean really good trendy cafes and restaurants. There’s this one that we always go to almost every other day. It’s called Le Brunch. And they focus a lot on the aesthetics, on the menu, on the plate, the cups. And of course the food is absolutely delicious. Like the Florentina egg and chai latte that we ordered when we came to Colombia. We didn’t know Colombia. It’s so modern. So we were completely shocked. There are so modern cafes around here. Yeah. First time when we came here, I’m like, wow, this looks like Lake Bali. I didn’t expect this, especially after Cuba and after like Morocco. So expensive. Yeah, we come here like, wow, I just look like paradise. I didn’t expect Colombia like this really cool stuff. But you also notice they have a dedicated section on the menu just for pets. When have you ever seen this anywhere at a restaurant? This area, it is so peaceful. And locals here have been some of the friendliest, more friendly than any country we have been. As soon as they see foreigners, they’re like, hi, how are you? And I start talking in English even if you didn’t know how to. Now, a big reason why we came to Medellin first, before any other city, is because I saw online that there is a huge digital nomad culture in this city and it’s fast growing. You know, if at any point you walk into any shopping malls like this, you can see a lot of people working on the laptops, sitting in cafes around the malls all day long, working behind the computers and even doing zoom calls in front of you. It’s such a Cultural shocking sight for us, which in a way also makes us easy to blend in, to do our own work without having the pressure of someone kicking us out. And I think that’s the reason why we came to Medellin. Because we’ve got tons of work to catch up, especially video editing for Alina. We’ve got a couple video, Bahamas video. We’ve got so many videos catch our phones. That’s why they decided to come here. So there’s more everyday to work. And we’ve been very productive, I think because when you’re surrounded by so many people also on the laptops, you kind of build that discipline that you also want to work hard in its environment. Yeah, it feels like digital nohead paradise. Yeah. Honestly, I’ve seen this only in Asia, because before and now we’re in Colombia. I didn’t expect this. This is kind of like the Bali of South America. And our favorite coffee shop in the city is called Pergamino. They’ve got branches all over Medellin. And to be honest, we knew Colombian coffee is gonna be good. But I’ve never had better coffee in my life than in Colombia. And that’s a really big thing to say that I don’t take it lightly, especially at Colombian Pergamino. Like holy crap. Alina just falls in love with the cold brew with different flavors. And I usually stick to my basic cappuccino, but the quality. It’s godlike here. It is also a coincident, but somehow in exactly. This neighborhood also has the biggest shopping mall in the whole of Medellin. It is a huge mega mall with modern design and tons of international shops, even Chinese brands, which is really surprising to find anything Asian related over here on the other side of the world because it’s so far away, like China. They even have Power bank rental as well. I think you just have to scan the QR code and you can get one of these. And of course also other shops that are super trendy, like this one here, the doggy pajamas and outfits bits Colombian people that much love dogs. So they even have this brand with pajama with dogs. And then inside there they’re selling so many cute pajama with cutie dogs. I bought for myself one of like this. You want one to you too? No, we already found one for Alina and one Alina got the drink here. There also access to supermarkets, international food like bubble tea, cinnabon, frozen yogurt places. But I guess in general in Colombia there are just so many food options to choose from, which for people like Me is very, indecisive and a hard one to choose. I think one of the most cultural shocking thing for me coming to Colombia is to find so big shopping malls like this. Like literally. It’s very shocking because we came from, you know, Morocco and there were not a lot of shopping malls that are quite like this. And we always thought that Colombia, it’s like such a dangerous place and maybe not so developed. Speaking of that, the coolest and shocking thing has to be the malls here are dog friendly. When have you seen another country where you can see dogs walking around like this in a shopping mall? And also in the next episode, you discover that this doesn’t just happen in mainland, but the whole of Colombia in general, where you can find dogs, but boarding airplanes like a little kid. As you guys know, we work online a lot in cafes and public spaces. That’s why the last thing we want is getting our computers hacked when we connect to public WI fi. That’s why we always use vpn because it creates a secure encrypted connection to a server in a different location. Therefore hiding your IP address and keeping you away from the hackers. Now our go to VPN is Surfshark, also the sponsor of today’s video because it has over 3200 servers in over 100 plus locations and also has a very solid live chat support. Support as well. Especially when I’m doing something that is very sensitive like logging into my bank account or checking emails, I always use Surfshark to mask out my information. And you know, because Surfshark has so many different servers around the world, I can unlock contents from another country as well. For example, if I’m watching on Netflix anime in Latin America, I only get Spanish subtitles. But if I change my server location to US and suddenly I get English subtitles back and I actually also use it to watch F1 with a subscription I have in Australia. Australia, which otherwise it wouldn’t work without vpn. Honestly guys, there’s so many hackers and scammers online these days. So that’s why getting a good VPN is so important. So if you’re interested in getting Surfshark, you can use our code “WHERE” to get 4 extra months for free at www.surfshark.com/where you can also find it in the link in the Description. Especially with Surfshark 30 day money back guarantee, you’ve got nothing to lose. Now obviously Colombia has a bad rep because of its violent past with drugs and gangs. So we decided to check out what they called the most dangerous areas in Medellin Comuna 13 we have arrived what they call the most dangerous area in Medellin. But in reality it cannot be further from the truth It’s not dangerous at all. Here’s more tourists than we ever seen in Medellin. Today is a public holiday, Good Friday. But still it is so busy. They’re selling so cool T shirts. He’s matching my style. Yeah. So cool T shirt. I actually like it. I think it’s been reformed into a rather touristy, safe area. And I think the highlight of this is how to transform a very dangerous area into a safer and warming community. You know what we found just now? We found cannabis ice cream. So I was doing a quick search whether cannabis is legal here in Colombia or not, and it actually is illegal. So I was like, why are they selling here in Comuna 13 turns out it is just that they extract the flavor of cannabis and they put it in ice cream. So technically it’s legal. Kind of like a loophole. I feel like that is something you’d only find it in Comuna 13 you know. You know, when I search about Comuna 13 the funniest thing that comes up as one of the top attractions in this area is an escalator. Escalator. You might be wondering why an escalator is a top attraction. Apparently because this is something that is newly built into the slope of comuna 13. It makes going up and down the mountains a lot easier for the locals because back in the day there are maybe like 28 sets of stairs. That allows locals to walk up the stairs all the way to the home. But now they build the escalator. Within six minutes you go all the way to up. So just now we came across this neon light art gallery that we went into and it was amazing. Yeah, I didn’t know it’s going to be that fun. So for entrance you pay only 30,000 Colombian peso. And inside everything was so neon. I like how they built up the atmosphere into it. So the start they give you eye mask for you to walk into the museum. And then I think think the purpose of that is so that when your eyes become completely dark and when you open your eyes seeing all these neon light, it’s like. It’s like a space. Everything becomes super bright. And also I feel like because they speak on the Spanish there. So it’s so funny how she always keep giving us translator to like read in English and like, aha. Understand. It was so fun. My favorite part was the room with a lot of bubbles. It was my dream since my young age to go like A jump into these bubbles and just enjoy like a swimming pool. Oh, it was my dream to do like this. Nice. I can’t even see where your body is. Jump down. Where is Alina? Your teeth are so bright. It’s like you put toothpaste on your teeth. I hide myself. I don’t know why. Just now I felt like I was in a spiritual place. Everywhere you go, it’s like meditation music. And then they’ll just neon lights everywhere. It’s like some. You’re in some kind of effect, you know? Yeah, I know. I want to say drugs, but it’s kind of bad. Around 20 years ago, this was one of the most dangerous neighborhoods in the city. Heavily affected by cartel violence, gang activities and armed conflict. I think one of the coolest thing here in this district is that you can see there are lots of different vendors and street vendors previously. They could also be ex gang members or just, you know, someone who was born in this dangerous neighborhood before. But you can see the last 20 years, they’re really trying their best to transform this neighborhood into a safer space. You know, creating arts like that, graffitis, paintings everywhere. And also you can see lots of street performance trying to earn a living the legitimate way and just welcoming more tourists so that it transforms Colombia as a whole. Making the reputation a little bit better than before. Colombia is so much more than just city life in Mdellin. It’s actually one of the most, most biodiverse countries in the world. So we want to check out what they call the most colorful town in Colombia. Just a couple hours by bus from me to see what life in the countryside is really like. The interesting thing about this town is that it’s not just because it’s colorful, but there also a lot of these very artistic panels at the lower half of the wall in every single store. It usually represents the common beliefs or the traditions or some kind of history or culture or even sometimes it’s just, you know, in modern world it’s just art. Oh, look at this. This is Mona Lisa. She looks so cute. You paint this? No, no. Other people so good. Oh, pineapple. Because she’s drink pina colada. So you can see behind me it’s a tuk tuk. Look. Local tuk tuk. And it’s super colorful. And you can see every tuk tuk is different colors. It looks like they’re just taking the art from the heart and painting how they want. You know, usually in other country they intentionally paint the whole street super colorful to attract so many tourists. But this is actually Just an ordinary street in a normal everyday life. In Guatape. Even you just now mentioned that here’s a lot of tourists, but it’s actually only Colombian local tourists, not foreigners. It’s so rare to find here foreigners. Feels like not a lot of people know about this town. And maybe it’s not popular destination for foreigners only like local Colombian travel to Guatape. I feel like that’s the thing with usually Colombia. Just no one knows about this country that much. It’s such a hidden gem. You’ve got so many bad comments about, like about Colombia or the bad reputation about, you know, Pablo the drugs and everything. But no one has ever actually talked about a colorful towns of Colombia. You know, I never knew that Colombia is. Feels so safe, feels so friendly, feels like that colorful. I guess if you look at this, you might think we’re in Europe, but we’re actually not. We’re in Colombia. And this church has the colonial design, the white and the red paintings that matches with the overall aesthetics of the whole town. So it blends in really well. Speaking of restaurant, now we’re going to have lunch. I just want to say I’m so surprised that in Guatape there are so many good restaurants. Like yesterday we went to eat paella and after we went to an Asian restaurant to eat sashimi. And it actually tasted good. But today we actually having lunch at a place where we’re facing the lake. Alina ordered the classic beef burger with a side of chips. And for me, I ordered the crusted seared tuna with a side of salad. And looks it comes with an orange sauce Now if you’re new here, Alina and I have a little tradition of buying souvenir Christmas decoration from every country we go. We just randomly came to souvenir shop to look for souvenirs and I thought like, wow, so cute. Duck. And I like. And I start pressing and I press and it’s punch me for electro shock. I’m scared. You press just said it’s an electric shocker. Press, press. See, that’s the thing about Colombia. The nightlife is often even more exciting than the day. And just to point out, Colombians are amazing at desserts. So we’re totally spoiled here. Alina’s got what she caught, the best Cinnabon ever. And I’ve got my ice cream just next door. Now, we didn’t walk too far today because tomorrow we’ve got a big adventure coming up. Good morning here from a peaceful, quiet morning in Guatape. So today we are gonna go to a neighboring town to climb the El penol, which means the rock. The one has been standing out here in the middle of nowhere in the town. It’s super obvious and we’re gonna climb up there. But first we’re gonna get breakfast as usual and every morning and we’re starting the day with some Venezuelan food. Apparently this is called Reina pepiada, something like that. I’m not sure if I’m pronouncing it right, but it’s basically an arepas, a conversation bread inside with avocado and chicken. And we’ve got coffee and Alina actually got a croissant with some scrambled egg and spinach as well. So after breakfast we’re going to go to the hike. Okay, so now we’re taking tuk tuk and we’re going to our adventure. I love Tuk tuks. The mountain fresh air. Early in the morning, it just hits differently. You know, in is this kind of moment that reminds me that I’m so grateful that we have this kind of experience traveling around the world. You know, this could be a normal day to day commute for the locals. But for us this is like a whole interesting experience because we don’t see this kind of transportation in our countries. Bye. Gracias. Bye. You know, just now the road is so steep that this Tuk Tuk was struggling to go up and it looks very exhausting. Now seeing this rock in person, I’m a bit nervous knowing that I have to climb 740 steps. I don’t know how many staircases there are. It’s been a while since I’ve done leg day. So today is the day. Yeah, I see they have cable car. Why we don’t taking cable car? It’s not for human. Looks like they’re transporting stuff up the mountain. Can they transfer me? Yeah, just walk la. No need to cable car. Justin decided to fly drones first to show the beautiful view. And Alina will be like fly drone enough, let’s go. I know Alina too well. I know they will think I don’t like adventure. I like adventure. So we will climb there. It’s gonna be tough, but it’s okay. Here’s already beautiful. Why do we need to go there? I love adventure. I love adventure. Just look on Google photo. It’s enough. I think actually when you get closer to the rock it doesn’t look that intimidating. Maybe because perspectives, you know, it looks like all the staircase are just like squeezing together. So that’s why it doesn’t look like There are so many steps. So this is the entrance already. It says welcome to La Piedra. This rock cost 30k per ticket. And now we’re at the entrance already. So as we climb up the stairs, we actually keep seeing these yellow number painted on the staircases. I think actually represents how many steps we are in on this journey. So in total appearance of 740 steps, it means we have walked a tenth of the journey already. So it doesn’t seem that hard. We’re only at the beginning now it’s 100 already. To be honest, it feels so scary because the steps are so steep. So I’m falling, I’m worried to fall down. Here’s so many people and so narrow stairs. That’s why it’s a kind of like become a traffic. Cannot imagine if we go a little bit late here, be like completely like need to wait for everyone to go up. You know how they painted the white numbers on every staircase now I feel like it’s kind of a motivation. Motivation to let people keep track of how many steps that are left. You know that’s true. Otherwise you’ll never know. At least you know you’re halfway there already. 300. Oh, I guess we’re here. That was really easy. That was so easy. Easy. I feel like we go to like 15th floor up another building. Clearly you’ve never run up a staircase. When the lifts are not working in Hong Kong. We’ve got 20 floor, you know. proud of you. Thank you. Thank you. Wow, the view. This is. So we actually said that this year we’re gonna go to Patagonia and we’re gonna hike for like four or five days in camp. I guess this is a warm up round for Alina. Good job. I mean compared to when we’re in Ninh Binh, we walk up the mountain. Yeah, this is easier, I feel like. And maybe your cardio has gone better optimistically. You’re so sweaty. You just now make me wet. No, it just shows how much I love you. Wow. So beautiful here. Worth it. This is what I call a hike. That is worth it. Sometimes when you hike up you don’t see nothing. And you’re like why did I, why did I hike up? But this worth it. We’re seeing Turquoise Lake, dense greenery, still clean like a forest or jungle. And you’ve got settlements everywhere with roads connecting all these small islands. Ish. And keep in mind there’s not a lake like I said yesterday, it’s actually a reservoir. There’s a QR code there that’s so smart. Where? There. Oh, that’s true. Imagine people up in the mountain. Just scan that. I wonder what it says. Scan. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. We want to scan now so see what’s what, what is there. So it’s too far. It’s. So it’s too far. They need to make it bigger. See, I can’t, I can’t focus. Oh no. Yeah, that doesn’t work. They thought it’s smart, but it’s not. So this rock is actually claim ownership by both towns. The Guatape town and also the El Penol town. And at one point they were kind of fighting against each other to claim ownership of this rock. So the people from Guatape actually came to this rock and start marking down Guatape. But then they got stopped halfway and it got stuck at G and then U halfway. But it looks like a GL right now. So that’s why in most stores when you buy a magnet of the rock you’ll see it says GL only. And on the side of this rock it also says gl. So it’s kind of funny story. But now these days there’s no more beef. I think they are quite chill. They just take as a joke. And speaking of souvenirs, there’s actually a square more shops selling them at the top of the rock. And we finally found something special for our Christmas tree. So we can always remember this day. So after the rock just now we actually took a tuk tuk back to Guatape. And from Guatape we took a local bus for around 40 minutes to this very local area. It just feels like we’re the only tourists here. And we’re going to go and check out an animal farm. At the entrance there is selling some so many cute Alpaka souvenirs. Look at this. So fluffy. Wow. So cute. Alpaca is my spirit animal. Cuz I’m that person. Golden retriever, your spiritual animal? I don’t know. Yeah, both Maybe so for 10,000 pesos it includes a ticket, entry cost and two buckets of carrots for feeding the animals. But you’ve got to be careful because these alpacas are. And llamas can get quite pushy when they see food. Wait. Oh my goodness. Oh my goodness. Hello. It’s so beautiful. Are you alaka or llama? It’s llama. Llama. Wait, wait, wait. I’ll give you, I’ll give you. Behind you baby, behind you. They so scared. They’re attacking me. No, no, he just followed me. I know, I know. I know, I know. Where did you put it here? Need to hide, guys. Otherwise they’re gonna attack. I like that one. Oh, so many there. Okay. Looks like he’s not interested. Looks like he is full already. He’s a fluffy, though. Wow. Like a sofa. Wow. He’s so soft. I know. It reminds me of Japanese airy cheesecake. Like, that’s sponge, you know. Wow. Can I join in? Looks like they’re having fun too. So here in this animal farm, there’s so many llamas and alpacas everywhere. And they were so cute and friendly too. These are like the ones that run away, but these can actually run towards you because there are lots of food. You can feed them with carrots. They’re so cute. They’re just everywhere. And they’re super cooper. We already walked around all these areas and they have not buckets. They also have pigs, donkeys, goats, sheep, emu. So many. It’s like a cool zoo here. Unlike many other zoos or farms that we’ve been in the past, the animals here actually look happy. They’re well fed and. And maintain and, you know, full of spirits in general. You can even feed the fishes from a baby bottle also. Maybe because they’re used to having human around. That’s why alpacas and llamas generally are so chill and can just randomly sit next to you. It is definitely one of the most adorable interactions with animals we’ve ever done. And they’re so fluffy. Oh, looks like they don’t. They cannot bite. See, they don’t biting. They just like, Oh, that’s so cute. They’re selling T shirts. Eating the t shirt. 2. Choose. Choose one, choose one. Good job. We are honestly so in love with this place. Who would have thought in Colombia you could just sit and hang out with alpacas and llamas like this, for example, this alpaca just came right up to us and sit next to. To me. So we became best friends. I can say this is one of our happiest memories in our travels, for sure. Spending quality time with my spirit animals. So up close, like, just, wow. When will I ever get another experience like this? It is seriously incredible. Also, we cannot pass up this opportunity to get another souvenir to remember this exact moment. We spent time with the cutest alpacas and llamas in Colombia. Behind you. See? Yeah. No more. Oh, that’s so cute. Lost control. Good morning. Here from the beautiful northern coastline of Colombia, facing the Caribbean ocean, we in a town called Santa Marta. Which is a small town along the coastline of Caribbean. And today we actually going on an adventure to one of the most underrated region called Minca. With a lot of underrated waterfalls that a lot of people don’t know about. But actually we’ve arrived this town two days ago already. And when we first came came here, we were genuinely shocked that here in Colombia when you fly domestic, your dogs are allowed to walk onto the flight. It’s like, you know, usually in other country, right? Like you need to put in a small bag and a dog cannot be come out of a small bag. People cannot see your dog. You always need to hide your dog. But in Colombia it’s so different and first time seeing that. So dog friendly country. I love it. Anyway, this morning we woke up and we have to drop our luggage at the Airbnb. Just because today’s adventure actually requires bit of transportation, that luggage might not be that suitable. So that’s why we switch to our mini backpacks here inside is probably like 10-15 kg. We are proper backpackers now and we’re going to go on a proper adventure. So we just got off the van and that was quite zigzaggy. I swear there was like a hundred turns of zigzagi. So we got pretty really busy. But nevertheless, we have arrived this jungle region and I feel like the climate here is slightly cooler than when in town just now. But now we’re just gonna walk to accommodation. Everything I want to know, it’s go eat, go home, Eat, drink and sleep. This time. Justin booked for us Airbnb for two days in this town. I don’t even know how it’s gonna look look because he didn’t show me. So it’s gonna be surprise not only for you guys, but also for me. It’s gonna be outdoor camping. We’re gonna sleep on a tent on someone’s backyard. And I saw the reviews, they said, they said there are not a lot of insects, just a lot of mosquitoes. Wait, what? I’m just kidding you. I trust you. And this one, wow. Looks like abandoned house. Oh no, this one. Oh wow. Okay then, never mind. This looks good. So just now we leave our things in our Airbnb and turns out it was really good. Airbnb looks so nice, like a Bali vibe. But around here you can see it’s almost like nothing. So now we’re gonna go get our lunch. On the way to cafe, we just suddenly saw this guy, he catching mango from this tree. He was just whacking it down. Looks like like throughout this town, there are a lot of mango trees around as well. And the locals just can just pick them up. We’ve arrived, this cafe, and it’s actually called Duni. This restaurant, from what I’m gathering is that mostly they serve vegetarian and vegan options. And we order some, like, food for lunch. Avocado toast, smoothie and just an order, falafel. It kind of reminds me of Bali in a way. Like the design and everything is very aesthetic. We bought a couple greeneries surrounding the We already finished our dinner and just now we’re walking in the town back to our iron bnb and suddenly we saw a lot of bees. Turns out this is mango tree on top of me. And this is a lot of mango just lying down here. Crazy. First time seeing so many free mango there. So many of them already become kind of bad. But see, this one is. This one is still good. Free mango. Amazing. It’s a mango town. Mango paradise town. Should we try it? Bring it home? Okay. In Airbnb, they collect a bunch of mangoes as well. Apparently in the garden, there’s mango tree. Wow. Super soft, super sweet. Tastes like normal mango. Yeah. Can you imagine? Just mango from the street. Guys, if you come to this town, don’t forget to pick up a lot of mango. Free mango. So today we’re gonna go to check out one of the waterfalls called Marinka Waterfalls. Some people online also say you can walk there for one hour, which in this weather I don’t think is feasible. So I think we’re gonna take a motorbike taxi. Let’s go. Let’s go. Oh, you’re so sticky. Oh, you’re so sweaty. You’re so sticky. See here, local people, even if they study in the school, they drive so big motorbike because the roads here is really tough. Bike to waterfall. How much? 15 each. 15 each? I’m so scared. That was so scary. That was professional. It was so scary. I think you were like, we are paying for a skilled driver driving through the very slippery mud road just then. That was crazy. It was like a roller coaster, something. Waterfall. Name? Marinka. Alinka. Marinka. Yes. Yes, yes, yes, yes. Wow. I see it. Oh, this is like a point of view. Viewpoint. I mean, point of view. Pov. POV for the waterfall. Wow. Wow. Why no one’s swimming. Wow. You know, so far, I feel like I’m very impressed with Colombia just because the landscape here is so diverse. You have all different kinds of nature sceneries. You know, in Colombia, it looks like Bali. I thought like only this kind of nature, this kind of jungle you can find only in Asia. But it’s so surprising, so nice, so peaceful here. So nice city in the middle of jungle. And the waterfall is that loud, so you don’t even hear other people. It’s like you, you’re completely alone here. I’m just glad that I get to spend time with you, that’s all. Because sometimes I feel like, you know, when we live in the city, it’s all about hustle and bustle, the speed and also like how we work hard, focus on editing and everything. But the fact that we get to just sit here for one day and enjoy sceneries and have these peacefulness to ourselves. It’s a good memory. Guys, we arrived to our second waterfall. It’s just 100 meters from the first waterfall. And I feel like this is looks much beautiful. And also here’s no one, no one at all. You know, this is the kind of nature when you look at it and you’re just like, wow, Mother Nature. Colombia, so underrated. That’s why he’s not a lot of tourists and nature like this without tourists at all. Justin love Colombia, but Colombia obviously don’t love Justin at all. Every time when we go to forest, you get a lot of bites. Now apart from the waterfall, there’s actually a small nature cafe in the middle of the jungle. So this cafe is actually on the side of waterfall on the left side. Here we are actually looking at the waterfall directly. And there are some hammocks on the side as well. Some people are just sipping on their drink at the same time, also enjoying the view. The special thing here is this kind of hamak that you can sit or lie down and enjoy the sunset. Nice sleepy time to sleep. You can leave me here. Leave you here. Okay, bye bye. Good morning. Today we sleep really bad because this room don’t have aircons. So it was super hot when we arrived. But after that we on fan and at the morning it’s become cold. So wearing jacket or blanket. So now our plan is to wake up and go to drink coffee. And after that go to beautiful place, nature place. And finally Alina got ready. We left the house and started walking. This happened guys, just now we walk and some bird poop on just what the. I see this bird. She’s there. You know what to do. Well, I need to go home and wash now. Go to cafe. Wash in cafe. No, not showing up, just to cafe. In Russia we’re always saying if bird poopoo new means it’s for luck. That’s an optimistic way of saying it. No thank you. I’d rather have bad luck. I think sometimes it happens, you know. It’s okay. It’s not okay. Lucky. Not on me. Racist. So we’ve arrived our breakfast place today it’s called Amora Cocina Cafe. It’s a very local cafe just on the side of the road here. And we are having some. Is it called acai or Acai bowl which is a very healthy fruit bowl, like a smoothie bowl. And inside apparently there’s a fruit bringing from Brazil. We’ve never tried this fruit but it’s kind of tastes like a healthy yogurt mix ice cream. You can see Justin clean already. He’s lucky. Morning. Today bird poop is really for luck. So you’re going to get super lucky today. Just now the rose was more bumpy than yesterday. I was so scared. I. I hold like this driver like this. You see the road just now they were passing rocks like this and it just like going up like that. It’s like a proper mountain bike. That was so exciting though. Anyway, we have arrived our second waterfall here in Minca. And this one looks as promising as the one yesterday. Might even be prettier. But a lot more people. Let me show you. So Justin read blog and they said that that you need to arrive to this waterfall early in the morning because here will be less people. I feel like everyone read the same blog. Our strategy is reverse psychology. People say come in the morning and we go come late morning. And then now people are actually leaving. So we came at the right time. See the sign there? It says please no book. Huh? Out of everything. I know, so weird. No? Like I sit here in poop. It’s so weird. What is this? Wow. There’s just some random chairs facing the waterfall. It’s like we’re in a full cinema watching the waterfall. Welcome to Blue Lagoon. This is doesn’t really Blue Lagoon but water looks clear. Bye bye. Just is so brave. Always Antarctica. The water here, it’s like Antarctica level. It’s like Titanic when you sink. That’s that kind of freezing temperature. There is one thing Alina is absolutely terrified of. It’s cold. She’s like a cat. It’s ice. Go swim. It’ll be better. You get better. So cold. This is so cold. I can’t breathe. We spent maybe an hour there just swimming around while enjoying the nature. And that’s the thing about Colombia that most people don’t know. One moment you can be in waterfall hopping like this in the Jungle and next second you can be in a desert in the middle of nowhere, like you’re on a different planet. So that’s why we traveled to another town in the hearts of of Colombia to show you how diverse or contrast Colombian landscape can be. Good morning here from the beautiful remote quiet town of Villavieja here in Colombia. This is a very local town with not a lot of tourists around and we’re starting our day strong spending time in nature because this time we staying at a bungalow here surrounded by nature greeneries. And what a way to start the morning, you know, just listening to the birds humming and just wake up to this greenery view. It is so, so amazing. Now obviously we’re not going to sit around here all day because we’ve got an adventure jam packed itinerary for today to see what Colombia desert looks like. We started the day by hopping on a local tricycle who took us there. So we have arrived what they call the tatacoa Desert. Apparently this desert right here, you can see it’s like an alien landscape. It doesn’t look like a traditional desert where there is sand, but rather you can see a bunch of red valleys like this with not a lot of greeneries around. This place originally was like a forest full of greeneries, but over millions of years of erosions like you know, water, wind, because the material here is clay and clay itself doesn’t absorb a lot of water. So when rain comes down, it just slides on both sides. So gradually you see a lot of triangles like this. It’s because water just slides and over the years it formed this dreamlike landscape. And the good thing about this place is there is there’s no one here. Yeah, I love that here is not a lot of tourists, almost none alone with this so beautiful background, we’re like in a Mars. Yeah, you can see like the land here is so dry, the clay, it’s so dry that it cracks up and you can actually take the whole piece out. Actually just now I’ve been inside this desert like right there and there was no air completely. So hard to breathe. Like you in sauna. So beautiful here. It’s like just like a Pinterest photo. Amazing. Just wow. When will you ever see landscapes like this? It’s so interesting because at some parts you can see closer to the bottom of these valleys, the soil itself is very soft. So that’s why I was explaining, you know, the water runs down from the top of this hill and then it forms these narrow gullies and it slides down to this floor. So it’s quite muddy here, but on top, you can see it’s so dry that it can crack up. And the craziest thing is I’m here all by myself without anyone obstructing the view. And of course, in the desert, we have cactus. And you can see even the branches are so spiky. And because of the dry climate here, you can see a lot of species like cactus has adapt the environment here, which is very suitable for growing because they trap a lot of water inside. I’m honestly first time in my life seeing this kind of cactus in real desert. Usually only in some kind of botanic garden. Oh, cactus you can eat. Really? Wow. He just picked up the cactus from this one. You can see it’s a flower here, and he eat it. You want to try? Yeah, go for it. Okay. I’m scared. Wow, it looks so juicy inside. Is it tasty? Yeah, it’s like dragon fruit. Yeah, like dragon fruit. Oh, I want to try. I want to try. I want to try. I want to try. Inside. A lot of small seeds. Tastes like a sour dragon fruit mixed passion fruit. Wow. So interesting. It’s like a pink chili. See, this looks very interesting and suspicious. This is like a kind of fruit that is gonna get you into hospital. But wow, so sour. So very appetizing. Cactus in real cactus? Yeah. In real desert in Colombia. Yeah. Bucket list ticked. Trust me, the weather here actually is way hotter than it looks like on your screen, and that really drains your energy. So we decided to head back to our bungalow and rest up a bit. And after that, we’re gonna wait, walk around the local town that we are staying at and show you what local village life looks like so that tomorrow morning we could go to the great desert with full energy. So this night today we spent in this tiny bungalow. Let’s go, I’ll show you. So we sleep here. I sleep here. Justin sleep here. It’s a super small and cozy bungalow. I usually love to spend time in bungalow. And this reminds me a lot of Bali. So this bungalow have toilet outside, and here don’t have hot shower. Super wild experience. When I’m inside this kamak, I feel like, you know, when you’re young and your mother put you to some small bed and do like this. Yeah. And you immediately feel asleep. I feel like this. No, we go. That’s it. So nice here. Oh, yes. Do like this. Ah. Why do I feel like I’m going to the doctors? Like, show me your tongue. So we actually rested up a little bit back at the hotel just because here in Tatacoa, the temperature can actually get up to 40 degrees in summer. Summertime it is really hot. And in this town right now it’s actually winter, but it’s still around 30 degrees. Anyway, we thought now the weather has slightly become colder, so we’re gonna just show you around this town and show you what it’s like to live in a village here in Colombia. Villavieja is a tiny, small village town where everyone seem to know each other. Since there are only about 1700 people who live there, there aren’t many cafes or restaurants for tourists, so the prices are surprisingly high, around 15 to $20 per person. Even more than in bigger cities, simply because the locals, they don’t normally dine out at restaurants and the tourists are left with not many options. During the day, the town feels almost like a ghost town. Everyone hides indoor from the heat and only come out in the evening when it cools down. That being said, we felt completely safe walking around, but sadly we didn’t get to chat with many locals since they don’t really speak English and we don’t speak Spanish that much and the Internet is not really working half the time for translation. But we did make a new friend, this street dog here that just kept following us around all afternoon no matter where we go. Oh, and one thing we wish we know are these tiny little insects called no see um, they’re super tiny that you won’t even notice them at all. They’re super annoying. Like, I mean, look at my legs. We got absolutely eaten alive. Like I’m some kind of international delicacy for these insects. And here we still didn’t know that their bites are super itching, even more than mosquitoes. And the worst part is that regular mosquito sprays, they don’t work. We have arrived what they call the valley of the Ghost, the Gray desert. Because I don’t know if it’s because there’s absolutely no one here, or maybe the subtle gray color that surrounds these canyons give the impression of like a ghost ghost town. So now you’re probably wondering why is this desert here? Millions of years ago, this land was under the sea. But because of climate change and water slowly disappeared, the ocean floor was left behind to dry and baked under the sun. But unlike the nearby red desert, it is not rich in iron, but instead it was made of light colored clay and limestone. Then over time, wind and rain slowly transformed the land into this strange grayish colored ghost like canyons that looks more like the surface of the moon than a desert in Colombia. You know, being here makes me feel like I’m in a movie set or something. Feels like I’m in Alice in Wonderland or even, you know, Narnia. It feels like it is a very unrealistic landscape that doesn’t exist in real life. But in reality. If you look at this, it’s actually just weathering water coming up from the top go on both sides. And that’s why you’d see all these like gullies formed and from this unique landscape. Some people even call this place the Valley of the Ghost. And honestly it makes a lot of sense when you see it in person. The canyon was actually looks like these classic Halloween ghost with. With white sheets. You can probably imagine at night it would feel a little bit trippy, like they’re all watching you. So that’s probably how it got its name. See it really looks like so many ghosts here. Like they covering with blankets and like woo. It is even prettier than yesterday. The red desert. I like the gray desert more I can say here is more calm and peaceful to walk inside. And it’s not too hot like yesterday. Apparently here somewhere in the middle should be a big huge swimming pool. And we want to find it. But we read in the Internet that people saying it’s actually super dirty. So they not recommend to SW there. But I want to see my own eyes. Maybe they clean it this time. Every time I trust Alina. We go the wrong way. If you like that way. No. Does he hear feet? No people. How do you know it’s feet? Maybe it’s just mud. I don’t know. Where are the shoe marks? You see? Well, guess what? We didn’t find the exit, but we found a goat in the middle of desert. Ah, looks like that’s a sign to the swimming pool. That’s a trick. You walk so sweaty and after that they lure you into a swimming pool. That’s true. Pay a fee. Moment of truth. Let’s see. Is it? Oh, people swimming. Actually yeah. Looks. I guess looks good. I think it’s nice place to swim. Looks super clean. Testing water. Wow. What is so nice for swimming? Oh yeah. I’m regret that we didn’t bring swimming dress. This looks super clean and I’m happy to go and swim. But we didn’t bring swimming dress. Good morning to another day here near the Caribbean. And today we’re actually doing something special because today we’re gonn head to one of the most beautiful place online. People say that the most beautiful beaches here in Colombia. And I’m super excited because we’re actually going to hike for around two hours each through the jungles. And that’s when it meets the Caribbean ocean. And we’re going to go swim. And for tickets, we paid for 155,000 Colombian peso. not 400, 155 But before, we need to do something more important. Mosquito spray. Yep. So the. That those little ships don’t bite us. We already knew that in Colombia. A lot of this insects going to bite us almost everywhere. Is so itchy, so uncomfortable. It’s worse than mosquito. You know, I saw another YouTuber they. They posted a shot about how they got bit 72 times on the lake. We don’t want that. Yeah. Who’s trashing? Yeah. I was already holding in my palm like this. And just now they check the stickers. I’m like, oh, careful, careful. See, he has a lot of buses like this in the line. And just now this guy, he offer us transportation. No. Why? No. Because we need to hike. We need to be super sweaty and hot and then we dive into the water. You know, the most scariest part for me was when Justin told me that we’re gonna sleep this night in Hamak. In Hamak. Can you imagine? I was so worried. I couldn’t sleep even. We talked to each other and we decided to dress and sleep in a hummock. And I will sleep in a tent. Personally, I actually think it’s gonna be a really good experience. First of all, I’ve never slept in a hammock. And secondly, we’re also sleeping by the ocean. We can listen to this ocean waves at night, bit of a wind breeze blowing as you sleep in the hammock. And then you look at the stars and everything. That’s my picture of it. So I think it’s going to be a good example experience monkey. Oh, really? Wow. There are few there. W. See, that’s the thing about this trail is that on the way we’re going to see a lot of different animals. This is actually apparently called howler monkey because they are one of the loudest animals in Colombia. Because like at night, if you can’t sleep, it’s because of them. They’ll be like, basically apparently do this to say that this is my territory, don’t come. But it’s so cool. They’re so big and they’re holding the tree with their tail. We heard him for the first time. It’s like, you know, on the street, someone disgusting like that. That’s how they sound like. Well, we quickly realized that walking here might be A bad idea because it wasn’t even the start of the actual trail, but rather a long way until we get there. There. So we turn back and hop on a local bus instead, which only cost 5,000 pesos per person. Now the hike officially starts. How do you feel? Good. Excited. Not tired yet? Excited to sleep. Yes. Me too. At the entrance here, local people selling local coffee. So we want to get coffee needed. Let’s try Colombian coffee. Jesus. This is like 10 shots of espresso or something. We have a lot of energy later to hike, you know, later when we already have house and more stable life. If some cat came to us, or we like some cat, we want to take from street to home. If cat choose us like this, he gonna came to us and gonna meow, meow, meow. Oh, he’s do like this. I won’t take him. No, no. Jungle cat. Jungle cat. Wow, that was such a good coffee. It’s like, oh. And then suddenly energy. I’m ready. I’m not gonna lie. It is a little bit tough going up and down the jungles. We’re walking already around 30 minutes and just already waterfall completely. The sooner we get to the water, the better. You do it. You can do it. Support. I support you. I support you. I think why people love this place is because when you walk in a jungle, it is very hot and humid. You feel like all the humidity is trapped within the jungle. And that’s why you become so sweaty, so hot, so tired. But then when you see oceans, like suddenly seeing oasis in the desert, and then you just be like, wow, you go swimming. Honestly, guys, the jungles in Colombia are insanely beautiful. As we were hiking, we keep seeing many bright blue butterflies, trails of ants carrying tiny leaves and colorful lizards on our way. That’s when we arrive at the first beach. Even though it looks beautiful, but unfortunately we’re not allowed to swim there. It says that it’s forbidden to swim here because more than 100 people have drowned here because the waves are strong. Yep. Moving on. That didn’t stop me from getting you to the bar. I forget that we haven’t eaten lunch today yet. And I’m like, there probably no restaurants, no nothing. So how do we gonna eat today? It’s like a surviving jungle bay. Local people putting here wood so people can cross the river. And they charging a donation. And then it’s not far into the. Be careful. Okay. Yeah. We came to second river crossing and looks like people taking our shoes here already because the bridge doesn’t look like it’s Working. I guess we will have to take off shoes then. Can I pay to cross the river? Give me bridge. I’m happy Never mind. Where is that grandma who’s sitting in charging for crossing river horse. Wait me. Wait me. Okay, let’s cross. Nice. The problem is not take out shoes and go. Problem is that later how to wear back these shoes because it’s gonna be dirty. Oh no. Give up. We have made it to this super local rest stop. On the way there is actually our first beach that you can swim. But we decided to eat first and after we go swim and we actually having some really local meals. For example, we have fresh car of the day. The snapper looks like a grill snapper. And this one, it’s a local soup, seafood soup. The portion is huge. I was so hungry so that’s why we ordered two portion. But turns out if I knew that it’s going to be like this big, we should just get one. I don’t know how we can finish it. I’m genuinely surprised. In such a remote place there is actually good food. Finally time to swim. Just now we finished eating our lunch. It was pretty good for local place. I’ve been dying to get into the water already. This is not even the prettiest beach. They said this is like the. The one in the middle on your journey. Wow, it looks like Seychelles. Oh, you mean the rocks. Yeah, yeah, that’s right. Yeah. So pretty. Okay, let’s go swing. Let’s go swing. Colombia. It looks like just like that. We hike for another hour from the last beach and then we finally arrived at the final destination for today which is is Okapo San Juan Beach. And now we’re going to go and check in to accommodation which I already booked in advance. Wow, that’s a big tent. Welcome home. Really nice. Oh, so spacious. Probably Justin going to come to me at night and like can I sleep with you please? This is my storage space. Yeah, I’ll come and find you maybe at night. Wow guys. So nice. This is my home for today. Why do you need so big tent for this? You can fit the two beds here. I think this is the bed. It’s not a mattress. It’s a proper mattress. It’s hard. I like it. Little blanket and two pillows. So for this tent that Alina will be saying tonight we actually paid $30 per night. And now I’m going to show you my accommodation for tonight. I’m excited to see your accommodation too. Should be good. This is our beach and a lot of tents on this side. And now we’re going to check out Justin hostel. Not hostel. See, the reason why I think I want to stay in Hamuk was because I thought it was such an interesting experience that you live by the ocean. You can feel the breeze at night, you can look at the stars. It just sounds very ideal for me. And there are two options that comes with hanok. One of them, it’s the one I’m going to stay at another one. And it’s actually under these huts. You see there are a lot of hammocks there and those ones are with mosquito nets and apparently comes with locker as well. But the one that I chose, that is very ambitious. That one right there. Oh my God. At the top. I don’t even know how you’re going to sleep there because there are no mosquito nets. So you’re probably going to be beaten whole night. All right, moment of truth. We almost there? Justin dream about sleeping in hammock. I mean, actually it’s pretty nice. I can say exactly how I imagine it. The breeze, the wind, and now you can listen to the ocean waves. It’s like lo fi, you know? Okay, let’s test it. Is it comfortable to sleep like this or not? I’m like a bat. I feel like I’m gonna close my wings now. How is it? Not bad, not bad. You know what this face looks like? Looks like someone who is spoiled. Oh, luckily I didn’t choose this. Super uncomfortable. I feel like my back is like this. You cannot even turn to the other side because immediately your gamaka is going to move like this whole night. You need to sleep only in one position like this. That’s what sleeping means, you know? No, when I sleep, I like to sleep on this side. On that side, I’m a. A flat sleep. Alina is a side sleeper. I think that makes a big difference because tonight I’m just gonna lie down like I normally usually lie down on bed. I think it’s going to be a good experience. Alina is going to go and sleep in her tent and I’m gonna sleep in this hammock tonight and show you what the experience difference. And on the flip side, this is such a good view. Like there’s this turquoise water, the coconut trees in the background. Seriously, who would have thought Colombia looks like this? Honestly, after such a long day of hiking the rest of the day, I just want to spend time at the beach. I honestly prefer just now the beach just now that beach feels to be more quiet and it felt bigger as well and more Clear. This one here has a lot more boats. Also a lot more people. I think because it’s being a final destination. A lot of people just prioritize coming here and then swim. But then sometimes they neglect the one over there. But just now, on the way, we meet few girls and they actually told us one secret. That if you go to climb up to this rock, so there will be another same beach like this one, but with no people at all. Should we go to the secret beach? Can try like that. Go where tourists don’t go. Apparently if you keep walking down Cabo San Juan in this beach and you keep going there, there’s another beach which is more private, quiet. And there’s another one that is nude beach, apparently. So we’ll see what happens. Adventure. Justin and Alina always go where tourists don’t go. For you guys to show you the best. Oh, guys. Just now when we walk to our hotel, we saw bunch of monkeys on the trees. They keep eating mango. They keep throwing mango on the floor. And they were so cute. There was that many. I’ve never seen that many, like wild monkey in my life. And they are so cute. Super, super cute. We just stay there for like maybe 10 minutes. I want to say they’re so picky. They pick up one mango, eat one bite, and then like, watch where you going me injured 3,000 times today already. It’s okay. Soon, soon. Go swim, go swimming. Yeah, he is a roller. Bit muddy. Need to be careful. It’s gonna be challenge. What is this? Ew, ew, ew. Disgusting. Something bite me. This forest trying to kill us. My sleepers to pick up and go, why are we stuck here? Get mosquito bite. It’s Alina’s idea. By the way. I don’t want to come here at all. Why is it you said let’s check it out. That hidden beach. No, but after the first five seconds, I was like, no. Let’s turn back. This doesn’t look right. Can I turn back? We’re already here. But you don’t even know if there’s a beach there. I don’t know. Whoops. Whoops. Looks like there’s really no. Wow. Wow. Ocean. Whole beach to ourselves and no one here. Nudist beach is 10 minutes. But this, I think is the secret beach that they were saying. Oh, guys. It’s honestly super nice feeling and I feel like it’s super unique experience swimming in a wild beach. Where is no one around at all so far in Colombia. I can say I’m. I have been very impressed or very everything Because I feel like Colombia has some of the most diverse landscape. It would be the cities. We’ve been a greenery, it’ll be the deserts or we’ve been to like the tallest palm tree in the world. And all of a sudden we came to north side of Colombia and we are looking at the Caribbean ocean and it’s just so beautiful here. Who would have thought Colombia has some of the most beautiful beaches in the world. This is something that no one tells you. Like literally you cannot find it anywhere. Yeah. Never knew Italy have beach beaches. Yeah. And then when you people go to Colombia to swim in the beach, I love like Columbia. It’s a jungle or like gangsters. Yeah. That’s a very typical stereotypical expectation of Colombia. Now we know the truth. And now you guys know the truth too. I remember last year I told Alina I really wanted to come to this after world to really see what’s over here. Is it really that dangerous like South America or. Yeah. I’m just glad we came here. And obviously because YouTube is our full time job and our majority of the audience, I think the last three years we’ve just been in Asia the whole time. So coming here, of course there are some problems and struggles that, you know, we’re worried that our audience might not be interested in this side of the world or people over this side might not be interested in our content. But nevertheless, I think personally on a travel level, we both really enjoy Colombia. To keep might. I hope I fall asleep. The only downside of this place is that there’s only just one restaurant with no other competition and it only opens for dinner at 6:30pm we were already starving by 4:00 clock. But even after waiting for two hours for it to be opened, no one came to take our order. They weren’t in any rush, probably because they knew that people have no other choice. So they just let everyone wait while they finish resting up after their football game. So yeah, we end up waiting forever just to order the food, which also was quite pricey. And since it was cash only, we just had enough to get a bolognese for sharing. And after dinner, out of nowhere, it started raining really heavily. Like it was raining so hard, I generally thought the tent is gonna flood. As you can hear now it’s raining super heavily outside. And there’s lightning, thunder. I’m stuck in this tent right now because I can’t cross the river. I’m worried because there’s so much lightning. It’s not safety across the railway. That’s a wild Experience. This is wild. We didn’t want to close the windows because it was already insanely hot with no air inside. But going to the toilet in that kind of storm, it was crazy. It was thundering huge lightning across the sky. The paths are completely flooded. Just went for a toilet. It stopped for like a minute and then it started raining again. And if that’s not chaotic enough, it didn’t end there. At some point, while running back from the toilet, my phone must have slipped out from my pants pocket. Guys, we have so big problem because just now when we go toilet, Justin took his phone with him. But now we come back and he don’t have his phone anymore. We just never run. And the phone came up. Now it’s somewhere in. How do we gonna find it? So I literally had to search my phone in complete darkness in the middle of the thunderstorm. Probably in some muddy puddles. That is up to my ankles. But honestly, what a crazy night. And not the kind of memory I was expecting. Good news though. I actually found the phone. Oh my God. Found it. But it’s completely in water. So luckily it is not buried under the mud. Just now, I actually end up finding the phone exactly in the puddle submerged in the water. And the reason why I had to go and get the phone is because I’m worried that tomorrow, what if the water mix of the soil or the mud covers my phone and we cannot find a phone anymore. So I have to do it just now. My body’s completely so dry now. So I had a second shower. I still want to sit in the hammock though. I haven’t given up on that. No. It’s once in a nighttime experience. I have to do it. The rain eventually calmed down a bit and I was finally able to cross the river to get between my hammock. If you feel too cold, come back. Okay. Yes. If you feel too scary, come back. Okay. I think I’ll be fine. All right. Now it looks like it’s my chance to make a run for it. So I’m gonna go for it. This feels so dangerous. I can’t see nothing in front. It’s 9pm already and I am now in my tent. I’m already ready to go sleep. You can see super comfortable here. I don’t know how Justin gonna sleep in a hammock. See, I have my super comfortable mattress and also he’s become a little bit cooler. So I think today gonna be good night. See you guys tomorrow. In a sunrise time, I hope I can wake up. Bye bye. Good morning. Guys, I just came to Justin and it feels like he’s like. Last night, the whole night was pretty much like this. It was really windy. I can feel it. The hammock was just like moving around. Also because last night it was raining. There was actually water drops from the roof to my hammock. So my hammock was kind of like wet. So wet and cold was never a good combination, you know, it was okay. I slept for like four or five hours. Considering this weather, I think it’s pretty. Pretty okay. I want to go toilet because the whole night I didn’t go because the toilet, it’s all the way here to the other campsite and it’s pitch dark. There is no toilet over there. So I just stay in my hammock. Hold it in this morning. Crazy. Now I’m going to go toilet. Finally. I sleep so well. Like a baby. Did you? I did. I wake up every hour just to turn my another side. And I sleep so well. I saw a lot of colorful dreams. Just sometimes people talking, you know, in other tent. Not really consider it. And I heard when someone wake up at night and just go pee right in front of the tent, I’m like, oh, I hope not nearby mine. Yeah. Anyway, it was one night to remember. Honestly, I think both of us are very physically and mentally exhausted right now. I think that’s it for this episode, guys. Hope you’ve enjoyed it. Put like and comment and subscribe crap. And we’ll see you in the next one. In a new country that is equally exciting. Until now. We’re going to Peru. You know, this first. All right, see you guys in Peru.
Go to https://surfshark.com/where or use code WHERE at checkout to get 4 extra months of Surfshark VPN!
This is the episode we wish we had watched before coming to Colombia.
If you’re planning a trip to Colombia or even just curious what it’s REALLY like, this is the ultimate Colombia travel guide you need to watch in 2025.
Colombia honestly surprised us in every single way. From the digital nomad-friendly city life, amazing coffee and dog-friendly vibes of Medellín, to the historic charm and street art of Bogotá. We explored the vibrant town of Guatapé, hiked through Colombia’s most dramatic landscapes, from the dry, otherworldly Tatacoa Desert, to misty green jungles and hidden waterfalls, all the way to the Caribbean coastline and jungle trails of Tayrona National Park.
This 1.5-hour episode is our full, unfiltered experience of travelling across Colombia, including the beauty, the chaos, the tips, and the things we wish we had known. It’s everything you need to know about travelling to the real Colombia, not the one the media warns you about.
Whether you’re a backpacker, digital nomad, or just looking for an unforgettable South American adventure, this one’s for you.
FOLLOW US!
► Our Instagram – https://www.instagram.com/justin_and_alina
These are the products and services we actually use, your booking helps us keep going, at no extra cost to you.❤️
►Get Unlimited Data with Holafly eSIM🌎📶
🎁5% OFF – Use code JUSTINANDALINA or click here for an automatic discount: https://holafly.sjv.io/dO7bKW
► ✈️ SafetyWing – Our Insurance Provider: https://safetywing.com/nomad-insurance/?referenceID=projectwhere&utm_source=projectwhere&utm_medium=Ambassador
► Klook – For booking Tours and Activities: https://www.klook.com/?aid=0000/projectwhere
💛 Enjoying our adventures? You can support us directly and help keep the journey going:
► buymeacoffee.com/projectwhere
Thank you for being part of this adventure with us 🌍
Want to WORK with us?
► projectwhere.info@gmail.com
About us:
We are Justin and Alina, a travel couple from Hong Kong and Russia. We first met on Tinder in Bali, fell in love and began our travel adventures around the world together. Now, we are chasing our dreams as full-time travel vloggers to inspire others to chase their dreams, step out of their comfort zones, and travel more!
#ColombiaTravelGuide #colombia2025 #medellin #bogota #guatapé #tayronanationalpark #tatacoadesert #MincaColombia #ColombiaVlog #SouthAmericaTravel #TravelCouple
#DigitalNomadColombia #RealColombia #ColombiaUltimateTravelGuide #latinamericatravel
00:00 Bogotá
26:10 Medellín
36:23 Guatapé
51:16 Minca, Santa Marta
1:04:02 Tatacoa Desert & Grey Desert
1:13:28 Tayrona National Park
21 Comments
Go to https://surfshark.com/where or use code WHERE at checkout to get 4 extra months of Surfshark VPN!
wondered why this one was so long and now i realize it's a compilation. gonna keep it running anyway for the view hours
Les falro recorrer el90% del territorio nacional y sus centros turísticos , pero estuvo muy bien sus videoblogs , regresen son bienvenidos 😊
i ❤ love Colombia Medellin from France🗼
Hola soy de Colombia y los esperamos para un próximo viaje les falta más de la tercera parte del país. Cali mi ciudad, Bucaramanga, Barranquilla, San Agustín (parque arqueológico), San Andrés, Cartagena, El Guaviare, El Amazonas. 😂😂😂😂. La guia está empezando.
bogotaaaaa
Thanks for coming to Colombia! I really liked the video 🙂 Hope you enjoyed and come back to visit more places here hehe
In Argentina they have dog walkers like that.
En serio les gustó Colombia! han sacado bastantes videos de mi país, y bueno, son bienvenidos cuando quieran volver (si es que ya se fueron, ni idea jajaja). Compren apto en Cedritos, aquí nos vemos para acariciar perros en los parques 😉
You as a couple is super, is proud of you, want give baptise your baby?
It is Columbia, pigeon town. Columbia for example are very protective of its poets. Over crims and politicians.
you guys are incredible!! Keep up the awesome work !!
Very nice video guys 👏🏻👏🏻
very nice pics of Monserrate.
great great video, very interessting, I like it very much! thanks!
Thanks for share your experience in Colombia, some times the colombians don't realize the wonderful country that we have
❤❤❤
Beautiful Colombia,Thanks for showing us around.lovely couple.❤️❤️
Gracias por visitar nuestra tierrita COLOMBIA🎉🎉🎉
Hey guys, so glad you're having a good time in Bogota. PLEASE be careful with your cellphone and camera, yes they will snatch it from you. Especially if you're in Medellin. With so many tourists came the criminal element. Just like in Cuba DON'T allow any stranger to show you around….they want to take advantage of you. You may want to visit Cocora Valley in Quindío, from there you can also visit the 'zona cafetera'.
Wellcome to Colombia american bros 😊