Travel summary: Colombia

I was counting on really liking Colombia, but I was still surprised at how much I ended up loving it. I had a few "sure you wanna go there, isn't that awfully dangerous" from people back home when I said I wanted to spend a month in Colombia, but I am now happy to say that the country proved them all wrong. As long as you use your common sense and don't wander into neighbourhoods that are known to be unsafe or take unnecessary risks after dark, Colombia feels just as safe as any European country I've been to. I did in fact skip both Bogota and Cali, which were the cities most locals warned me about, but I've also met people who went to both places and loved it. Colombia has come a long way from what you see on "Narcos" on Netflix, and if you ask me it should be added to any bucket list sooner rather than later. Colombia is amazing.

Colombia was great for starting my solo travels, as I found it incredibly safe and easy to get around. It is a big country with great distances, but apart from when taking the uncomfortable minibuses, I found the bus trips really comfortable. It does, however need to be mentioned that I sleep better than the average person while on the road. Apparently the roads can get extremely curvy and bumpy on most of the stretches, which I've heard is horrible. I was sleeping so I wouldn't know. I was impressed by the security on the buses in Colombia. As long as you go with the big buses of companies such as Bolivariano or Expreso Brasilia, it is perfectly fine to leave your luggage on the floor or on the shelves above your head, something that is not recommended in most other South American countries. I would also recommend buying bus tickets at the terminals rather than online. I bought my ticket for my first long bus ride online, and I'm quite sure I paid more than I should have. After that I stuck to buying tickets either when I arrived to a new city, if I knew when I'd be leaving, or just right before getting on the bus. I was lucky and never experienced full buses and rarely had to wait for long at the terminals, and I also found the buses reasonably priced.

I found Colombia to be very cheap, so cheap that it took me ages to get used to the currency of Colombian pesos because I found it tricky converting it to Norwegian kroner. I rarely paid more than 50 NOK for a meal, and these usually had at least two courses and a drink included. Alcohol is fairly cheap in stores and restaurants, but prices obviously increases in clubs and bars. As mentioned I also found transportation to be very affordable. Altogether I spent about 1500 NOK (190 USD) on transport in Colombia, and that includes every bus trip, metro trip and taxi ride I took during my five weeks there. In Colombia it felt like most activities could be done on my own instead of going on organised trips, which also brought the costs down.

I've only made a rough budget for travelling, and it isn't adjusted for which country I'm in. In Colombia I ended up quite far below this budget, although that was also what I expected.

I wanted to add this point as this was something I was curious about myself before going away. I found it both easy and difficult being vegetarian in Colombia, but in general it is not that hard. I had some great vegetarian food in Colombia, and especially the bigger cities have good options. When eating by myself it was particularly easy as I could pick restaurants that I knew would provide me with good, vegetarian food. Grabbing something quick with a group of people proved to be more difficult, as the popular "menu del dia" usually comes with a meat based soup and a main dish consisting of meat. I've had meals of plain rice or just salad leaves, just to avoid being difficult. Colombians love their meat and cheese, and as I don't eat either I've had quite a few street food vendors laughing at me when asking for options without the two. I've usually had to settle for fruit or an empanada dulce (filled with jam) instead. Delicious, only not as filling. Some restaurants, for example in Medellin or Salento, on the other hand, even have their own vegetarian menus, which I obviously appreciated. All in all I would say Colombia is quite alright for vegetarians (especially now that I've also been to Ecuador), and as with most other countries I guess it is only getting easier.