Before we get to Colombia, let me summarise the few days in between. With a draining hike to the takeoff in Jacò, a wrong move when getting up from a park bench, and a 17-hour bus ride, I managed to overwhelm my lower back and was barely able to walk when reaching Panamà City. I went to a doctor and got an injection and some further medication. It helped but I still needed to rest for a few days (and unfortunately still haven’t fully recovered now two weeks later). One thing I need to mention here is the heroic act of Katy carrying both our backpacks, i.e. all of our luggage, from the bus station to the taxi — very impressive 💪.

At the same time, we got the message that our sailboat trip to Colombia got canceled because of strong winds in the region which made a safe passage impossible. Exciting news after having planned our first month around this passage and spending an awfully long time on a bus to get back to Panamà. But that’s how it goes. Because of the lack of other alternatives, we now needed to break our self-imposed rule of avoiding flights during our journey and book a flight to Medellín, Colombia.

Until our flight, we still enjoyed a few days in the city. By chance, we heard that the Carnaval de Panamá is taking place in the city. But since we missed the parade as well as the water fun in the morning and skipped the party in the evening, it was actually pretty uneventful. Our only excuse: it was surprisingly difficult to find any official schedule. The only notable thing was that we ended up in an Instagram reel with happy tourists at the Carnaval 🙈.

Last step before Colombia: leaving Panamà. And that turned out surprisingly difficult. I was aware of the requirement that you need proof of onward travel when entering Colombia. Many countries got that. But so far (also during my Africa trip) I was always able to convince the guards at the border to let me enter without it. This time, they wouldn’t even let us board the plane 😳. After more than an hour of research, our time was slowly running out. We found services specifically for this situation that, for a fee, make a reservation for you and automatically cancel the ticket 24 hours later. Unfortunately, none of them turned up flights out of Colombia.

In the meantime, we also didn’t just need to figure out a solution for ourselves but also for a British tourist who was stuck with the same problem. He wasn’t very tech-savvy but made this up by being all the more nervous about not getting on the flight. 10 minutes before check-in closed we found a blog post that explained that expedia.com offers a free 24-hour cancellation window (required by law in the US). We frantically filled out the form to book a flight and afterward did the same for our new friend. After getting through I asked the brit if he did the required pre-registration for entering Colombia. Of course, he didn’t, so I also entered all his personal information into this shitty web form that kicked me out repeatedly. In the end, everything worked out, we entered Colombia and made sure to cancel our “fake” flights. Welcome to Colombia 🙂

We quickly realized that Medellín was a city of stark contrasts. On the hand, it is a massive city with lots of traffic, wrecked people on the streets, and police guarding the center. But as soon as you step away from the main streets, you find parks, charming little restaurants, and a nice vibe. Very unique are the cablecars that connect the (poor) outer parts of the city up the hill with the center. We didn’t get to ride one but it’s an amazing piece of public infrastructure and they felt a bit out of place without skiing infrastructure around it.

Some highlights for us included a crepe restaurant near our accommodation, a swiss cafe called bread factory, and the Naturpark Cerro El Volador which is like a nature retreat in the middle of the city featuring a great view over the city. The latter one Katy, unfortunately, needed to visit alone while I stayed in the hostel to rest my back. Because of that, she got told by someone at the park that it is irresponsible of me to let her walk around alone. We both think that was exaggerated, though.

After two nights in Medellín, we wanted to move on to our first paragliding destination in Colombia, Jardín. The evening before, though, we got a message from our host that starting the next morning a taxi strike was going to happen and that it wouldn’t be safe to travel because strikebreaker or Uber drivers might get attacked and roadblocks out of the city were planned. The strike was called Taxista and they were basically upset about the unregulated market, i.e. Uber drivers depriving them of their income. In general, it is ridiculous how many taxis are driving around in the city at any given moment.

For us, it meant that we stayed another night and took a bus the next morning. To get to the bus terminal, we took an Uber. Because, honestly, the experience is just so much better with rated drivers and knowing the price upfront. Our driver this time was very friendly in particular and also drove us to the correct terminal instead of the one that we asked to get taken to (oops ;-)).