Colombia: Zipline Zeniths, Waterfall Wonders, Graffiti, & Coffee

See city tours in Bogota & ecotours around Medellin! We’ll ride the highest zipline in Colombia, drink coffee, and enjoy art from graffiti to Botero

In this story:

• Video of riding Colombia’s highest zipline (16 seconds)
• Insight into Botero’s art
• Video of El Poblado in the rain (Medellin’s famous coffee neighborhood)
• Bogota’s world-famous graffiti — photos, & how it involves Justin Bieber

The Fantasy

As a child, my daydreams turned most to the lands of the Arabian Nights stories. But after reading “The Reptile Room” by Lemony Snicket in middle school, I began to conceive of the existence of South America. I tapped right into a foreigner’s fantasy version of it: a continent filled with jungle and cities alike. Lush yet modern civilizations, striped by mists, nestled in soaked-green ranges, and touching coastlines. A land where anybody could hide out successfully from governments, bill collectors, even Count Olaf.

And so, yet another item appeared on my ever-morphing bucket list.

“South America is a continent of extremes. It is home to the world’s largest river (the Amazon) as well as the world’s driest place (the Atacama Desert). … One of the continent’s river basins (the Amazon) is defined by dense, tropical rain forest, while the other (Paraná) is made up of vast grasslands.”

— National Geographic

Sixteen years later and two months ago, I crossed the equator due south of home and, in so doing, crossed it off my list!

How? It all happened very fast.

The pilot of a flight to Bogota turned to me and asked, “Do you want to go to Colombia?”

The universe once again conspired to help me satisfy the demands of my wanderlust. There were going to be a lot of empty seats to catch for free on a buddy pass, he explained.

One day I was sitting in my apartment with no plans other than my habits. The next, I was somewhere in the back of his Boeing 737, descending into the Andes.

Final Approach, First Night in Colombia

Colombia looked every bit the part of my foreigner’s fantasy during the landing.

Video by Author

The Andes Mountains are majestic like a young god: full height, so strong, so verdant. They wear glorious cloaks of cloud. Later on, I would discover some of those are kicked up by the crash of waterfalls.

I’ve been on a lot of flights at this point. But the cloudscape and landscape were both distinct enough to merit video of the approach and landing.

Gold-themed space dividers hung in the upscale crew hotel lobby. The air smelled like luxurious perfume. Wide and tall hallways divided the rooms above.

It took a lot of phone calls and playing with dicey internet. But at last, I successfully purchased some solo tours and my airfare home. A graffiti walk around Bogota. A zipline and waterfall adventure outside of Medellin. A giant rock with a staircase called La Piedra del Penol.

Once that was accomplished, our starving stomachs set forth for dinner.

Note to readers: I now dive into Uber drama/the best dinner of my life in Bogota. If you’re more interested ecotourism adventures or fascinating city tours than food, scroll down to the section titled, “Solo Travel in Colombia Begins.”

Ubers (grr)

We agreed on a touristy restaurant of good rapport. But, well, a little thing about Colombia is the Ubers don’t always come on time. If at all.

For some reason, of all the Ubers ordered during this trip, only one appeared at the projected time on the app! More than half canceled once they’d dilly-dallied around the city for about 30 minutes. Taxis may be the better option for folks in Bogota.

I texted an El Salvadoran friend about it. “I bet they stop and talk to their friends en route. I bet it’s cultural!”

Whatever the case may be — we were very hungry by the time we got to the mountain top tourist restaurant only to discover them closed due to Covid!

(Note to travelers: if you call ahead and get the voice message machine, it may be a sign their hours are adjusted… Live and learn!).

The quest for fine dining continues

A swarm of taxi cab drivers hung around out front in the dark. One took us back down into the city.

We asked for him to drop us off somewhere nice to eat. Time went by. Cell service was too slow to figure out if we were getting nearer or further from the hotel.

“Do you have any idea where we are going?” I asked my companion in the back.

“None!”

A while later, we turned the corner into a block of restaurants. “This one will be good,” the driver said.

I guess, despite having dressed up, the most noticeable thing about us was still that we are American! One thing was for certain: the restaurant had a neon cheeseburger on top.

Our starving stomachs conferred and decided, No, something more Colombian, please!

The driver pondered, took us to the other side of the block, parked in a valet spot, went inside the restaurant. We sat in the back of the cab, shifting around as the rain poured down. It was a little weird-feeling.

Then maître d came out and showed us the menu in the car.

“Is it take-out only?” I asked, thinking this was some Covid measure.

“No, it is that our restaurant is not a normal one. I want to be sure you understand.”

“What do you mean?”

“We do 24 courses of small portions, and it takes about 3 hours.”

I looked at the 737 pilot in the back with me (okay, he is my great friend; it’s just fun calling him the 737 pilot). We agreed: let’s go. Especially once the maître d explained, “We can speed up the service a little though if you have an early morning.”

El Cielo, Bogota — the best restaurant experience of my life

Immediately upon walking in, I noted:

1. A vaulted interior of wood and glass at diagonal angles with lush plants growing in artful places.
2. That they insisted we immediately wash our hands.

#1 was when I knew this was going to be good. But point #2 was to prove important.

Variety and surprises — the fancy restaurant or Colombia at large?

They set fancy gray stone bowls before us. “Put out your hands like this.” The waiter cupped his hands together in front of him.

This sort of thing had happened to me only once before while traveling! I eagerly complied, having no idea now or then what was about to happen. But, based on that last time long ago and far away, I felt confident that whatever it was, it was going to be delightful.

Then, from his teapot, the waiter poured warm chocolate over my hands.

Next, he sprinkled them with coffee grinds. It was so unexpected I uncontrollably laughed in delight for about 10 minutes.

(The idea was to give your hands a nice exfoliating scrub and moisturization but simultaneously allow you to act like a little kid and lick your fingers. All goals were met!).

Never have I ever had a restaurant be the cause of delight and laughter like that. The delicious dinner was the entertainment. (I hear there is a location in Florida, too. The restaurant’s name was El Cielo). The last course involved a dragon of dry ice fog erupting up, out, and over you and the table, for example!

The whole dinner experience was like that — every course, a surprise. Sometimes it was a plot twist or something to make you laugh. Sometimes something with visual wow-factor, or to make you search your mind for what exactly the flavor is?

I have to say, too, there turns out to be enough food diversity in Colombia to easily fill a 24-course meal with unique dishes.

This meal — its variety and its delights — proved to foreshadow the rest of my visit to Colombia. There is so much to do. The specific way things twist, turn, and often exceed your expectations, will be a delight.

Solo Travel in Colombia Begins

The next day, my friend had to pilot the return flight back to the States. My solo journey began.

The Graffiti Walking Tour of Bogota

“[The Candelaria district] is becoming something of an international mecca for street artists.

Even Justin Bieber could not resist. After a concert in Bogotá in October, the pop star set out with his police escort to scrawl on city walls that in theory are off-limits for graffiti, but police did not act.

Some local artists took this as a sign of the times and called a 24-hour graffiti-thon. Overnight, hundreds of new pieces adorned the walls of the underpass where Bieber had left his mark. When approached by police, artists challenged: “Why don’t you protect us like you did with Justin Bieber?””

- The Guardian

The Bieber cataclysm was in 2013. Now, in 2021, my guide showed me how the graffiti mecca has thrived and grown ever since.

We drove to the famous Candelaria district in a dedicated taxi. No one else signed up for the group tour that day. So, it was to be a private tour, lucky me!

We stepped out in an old-timey square and began walking. My guide showed me some of the most famous graffiti in town. He explained the artists, the cultural significance, and more. I’m excited to show you some of my photos below.

Street graffiti, Bogota. Many will have been painted over by the time of this publication. All images by the author.

At one point, the guide and I stood before a retaining wall the length of a block. Fantastical creatures bearing eight eyes apiece covered it, left to right.

“Anytime you see creatures with many eyes,” he told me, “it is an allusion to ayahuasca trips.”

I gazed up and down the dark, colorful entities, each with four pairs of eyes in their heads.

“People who receive messages during their trips usually report that it came from a being with many eyes. That is why.”

Biblical descriptions of angels flitted through my mind.

“Many people come to Bogota specifically to experience ayahuasca,” my guide continued. “What they don’t realize is that there is a long, proper procedure and preparation before a good trip. A medicine person must approve you as ready and worthy of the journey, and this, after you have been on a special, limited diet for over a month.

“People do not realize how bad an ayahuasca trip can become. There was a German tourist recently found naked in the woods. Robbed naked! But happy, because he was on ayahuasca….”

We toured more and more graffiti scenes. Some art supports the country’s hard-pressed feminist movement. Some art is nostalgic to Bogota’s lost times. My favorite nostalgic graffiti shows the days when Bogota’s public rail car route was a fine spin to take for a date.

The world can be hard

Much of the conversation with my guide became personal, perhaps because it was an unexpectedly private tour. He shared with me that he was actually from Venezuela. Colombia was his second attempt to emigrate for a better life. Venezuelans face racism throughout South America, he explained. He experienced many setbacks in Peru, including the time an employer there stole a week of his wages.

I was aghast and asked why. “Other countries view Venezuelans as stealing jobs.”

But my guide reports that when he went back to Venezuela, it was even worse economically than he remembered. After four years of saving in Venezuela, he converted his savings to the more stable U.S. dollar. His four years’ savings were worth $10.

So he set out again — this time, to Colombia, where he trained to be the tour guide before me.

You hear it a lot, growing up in the U.S.A. Everything from chastisements to jokes about being “lucky to be born in America.” Creed’s quote from The Office is probably my favorite.

But this tour was the first time I had truly felt that way personally. We do have it good in America.

Safety Advice for Traveling in Bogota

Colombian men and women alike were first confused, then concerned to see me traveling alone. I solo travel a lot, and Colombians had the strongest reaction of concern about that I’ve had in a long time. They gave me a lot of helpful safety advice.

• Don’t take out a nice camera when walking. It makes you a target.
• Do not hold your phone out to take cameras on street corners; bicyclists and motorcyclists will whiz by and snatch it.
• Do NOT go to the Egypt district. (“It is not a place you end up accidentally,” my guide added darkly.)

(Guess which district one of my long-errant Uber drivers was revealed by the app to be hanging out for 20 minutes after accepting my ride request!…)

A hint of Colombian coffee culture

At the end of the graffiti tour, my guide took me to a special coffee shop in Bogota called Cafe del Mercado. It was two stories, cute as a button, and run by internationally award-winning baristas. The guide said it was like a second home to him. I could see why! You can check out their Instagram.

The Botero Museum — National Treasure

“The Botero Museum” is a must-see on all Bogota travel listicles. I dutifully visited.

Now, to clarify, I have always loved this memified Botero art:

But overall, I’ve found Botero’s seemingly grotesque figures off-putting. I was suspicious of his work being fine art before my visit. That all said, the Museum opened my mind to two things:

The interpretation that Botero was playing with VOLUME, artistically. Not fatness.

That many Botero pieces are pleasantly emotional, after all. They aren’t all comfortable feelings. But they are worthwhile, like the feeling of prolonged romance I felt looking at this piece.

The Botero Museum also has the honor of being a very beautiful place. The courtyard is dreamy, a perfect square. Flowers and trees adorn the center. The shadowy entrances to the art chambers hint at you from all around, two stories high.

It is a worthy visit after all, even if you, too, feel uneasy about Botero’s works.

Time was limited. I saw all I could in Bogota, but had to at least see one other area of Colombia before leaving. I picked Medellin.

Medellin

How to describe Medellin? Medellin is as chic as Paris, as lush as Portland, more mountainous than Denver, and has a certain something entirely its own.

An even finer hotel! Or, Why hotel points rock!

I was so lucky. Because of points from prior hotel stays for work, I could afford a hotel in Medellin that was even nicer than the crew pick in Bogota.

By the time I went to Medellin off the clock, I had enough “loyalty” status and points. Enough to get a gorgeous suite many floors up for about $50 a night — a coveted “corner room,” no less! (Corner rooms mean more views and fewer shared walls).

$50 a night is still something to budget for, but that’s about 1/3 the price of a medium-quality hotel in the States!

So this brings me to a traveler’s tip side note for you: hotel chains’ reward programs are worth it. I didn’t bother with them when I was a flight attendant (I had a weird mental resistance to the fuss). Boy, do I regret the lost points now that I get it!

The Biggest Zipline in Colombia

Clip 14 seconds long.

The 3 things that come next were all included on Ecoventure’s “Epic Zipline and Giant Waterfall Private Tour from Medellin.” I’m name-dropping them here because they really were this great! (This is not a paid endorsement). If you’re going to Medellin, this tour is up and running and waiting for you.

On the long drive to the highest zipline in Colombia, a nearby open-air cafe atop the Central Andes, and a steep hike to a humongous waterfall, we stopped for coffee and cookies in a mountain hamlet.

I liked the way the driver sat down and started chatting with the locals with ease. I wondered if they were his friends.

The drive was long, but immersive into nature, and certainly not all.

Let’s talk about that zipline!

What is a zipline like?

First, you gear up with the help of professionals. It’s a harness much like those you wear for rock climbing.

Once your harness is on you and clipped to the zipline, they have you lift your feet up over the platform. They hold you in place at this point. This step demonstrates that the zip line does indeed hold you secure.

Your mind is a bit of a supercharged blank at this point. Then, they count down and give you a nice, fatherly shove!

In this case of the biggest zipline in Colombia, out you fly from the treehouse. To the right is a panoramic view of the Andes. To the left, far below, are giant waterfalls. Straight down, under your feet, treetops wiggle. The leaves are so distant that this, more than the other sights, brings home to you just how high you are.

Somehow, despite how high the ride across is, the ride back is even higher! It’s even better for that!

(Riding twice surprised more than one of us, but how else is one going to get back to the car across the canyon, hm?)

The return ride is even higher because, when you land, you hike up a short trail. You need altitude anew to be able to zip down to the other side to the base camp treehouse — one cannot very well fly uphill!

It was just so amazing. It is thrilling. It is scary. Yet, I think ziplining feels much more secure and do-able than parachute jumping.

The open-air, mountain-top cafe

Nearby the zipline’s base camp treehouse, there is an open-air café and bar. You sit on the wooden patio and gaze all-around at steep drops and distant vales. You are on a peak in the Central Andes.

Sipping coffee overlooking it all was the most relaxed I had felt in a very, very long time.

Traveling, you have troubles and delights. You learn about the world, and you learn about yourself through all that. I’ve been questioning something hard in my life for a few years now — what is home? How do you find it? How do you make it?

I felt such deep serenity on the mountain top café in the middle of the Andes that I found one piece of the puzzle. For me, at least, high altitude is a key ingredient to feeling at home. This makes sense. I am from Denver, the mile-high city. That’s where I grew up.

I became a flight attendant, now fly airplanes, and a zipline tour drew me most out of all the tours in Medellin.

It seems that altitude is something in my spirit… that altitude is an element of home for me, just like the ocean is for others.

Altitude itself makes me feel at home. It must be the natural environment for my spirit.

Under arbors, over ridges, & down the stairwell to the waterfall

The Ecoventure guide took us along a hike through flower trellises. Each flower arbor had a color theme — one, all orange flowers, another, all red, and so on. A couple of us stopped for snaps at these perfect selfie points.

The path then traced a ridge of the mountains. This 16-second video will give you some idea.

Then, past the ridge, we descended down the depths of a mountain wall.

The trail to the waterfall base is a concrete staircase. Each step has scrollwork. Another woman and I commented on the insane hours of labor behind all that carving!

But a man in the group explained it would not have been that hard. The builders just used a press to make the designs, like a stamp.

This conversation stands out to me. It’s an example of how wonders can overwhelm outsiders’ imagination, but experts/creators live in a different reality. It’s also an example of how many perspectives it can take to correctly parse a simple observation.

The roar of the waterfall grew louder and louder. The descent was very challenging. Yet, having bad knees or extra bodyweight did not stop any member of our tour group from completing it. Some of that is in thanks to our hospitable, thoughtful, calm tour guide.

At the bottom, the giant waterfall thundered! Mist was everywhere.

This experience made the day complete. Realistically, the zip line might not be worth the hours of driving to get there alone. I’m not sure the mountain top café would affect everybody the way it affected me, either (I’m a heights-loving soul, after all, as it helped me discover).

There needed to be something more to do. That something was the waterfall hike.

When we got to the bottom, the air felt different. Magic was present. Pleasant yet demanding energy was all around; you felt your skin and lungs relax. But the roar of the water and the ineffable vibes taxed your body at the same time.

This experience has a scientific reason. The force of the waterfall crashing ionizes the air. It’s good for human beings, and palpable!

I wore a waterproof jacket and pants. I even held an umbrella. But it was all for naught. The water flying around from the base of a crashing waterfall is multidirectional. You’ll get soaked to your underwear no matter what!

Yet, you won’t mind that much.

This was the most physically impactful waterfall I have ever visited. Oh, the roar, and the rush of wind off the falls, forcing your eyes nearly shut!

Plumes of mist cast off the river. They float up and away, out of the canyon beyond, becoming pieces of the god’s cloak of clouds.

You get chilled (soaked to the bone!) and there is the lovely effect of breathing ionized air.

I am a big fan of Iceland’s Gullfoss Falls. Niagara Falls is wonderful, as well. Lastly, Mingo Falls holds a special place in my heart. But for sheer impact, this waterfall in Colombia gets top marks.

Guatape Tour, Piedra del Peñol Including a Boat Tour

How does one top a day like that — the waterfall, the café, the mountain hamlet, the trail, the zipline? I wasn’t sure, but I had to try.

The next day I took a different company’s day tour out a different direction from Medellin. (Again, not a paid endorsement, but it was a good time). I’ll let my pictures do most of the talking for this jaunt.

The Piedra del Penol is striking in real life. The view from the top, though, is the most unique. The only other place I’ve seen a view like that is in the fantasy paintings of The Abarat by Clive Barker.

The city of Guatape is colorful and unique indeed. It’s got an award as the third most colorful city in the world. One street, in particular, stands out. Guatape’s signature storyboard reliefs on the lower thirds of buildings cover it from the top of the hill to the bottom. It was fun walking down it. It’s a street on a hill, so when you’re at the top, you look down this unique lane and see, in the distance, the Andes.

Another Instagram-famous piece of Guatape is the alley covered by umbrellas. The most special thing was the way the colors of the umbrellas appear in the puddles on the cobblestone. It was a colorful tunnel but also an alley of reflections. I enjoyed eating some chocolate from a cute shop there. I also enjoyed washing it down with coffee and wine from a place on the other side of the umbrella alley.

Lastly, we went on a boat ride. This was surprisingly fun. A spontaneous dance broke out among the locals with me on the boat. (Overall, this day tour to Guatape seemed way more of a locals’ fun day out than a foreign tourist draw).

The party boat buzzed along the water, fun music blasting. The tour guide sometimes turned it down to share the history of defunct buildings on the shore. Thus I had my single biggest interaction with the country’s history of Pablo Escobar.

We passed one of his old party houses, now derelict, on the shore, you see.

I cannot speak to what it is like to have Pablo Escobar in your national history. I don’t wish to go there, either; my ignorance is too vast. It is not my story. But I can speak a bit about what complex grief is like, for me.

Cruising by the abandoned party mansion of Pablo Escobar with a bunch of Colombians, I felt the intensity even in passing remarks. Most of all, I noticed the silence of the Colombians on the matter.

A significant figure in the life of a man, a woman, or a nation, will always be noted on a tour of the past. Significant good, significant bad, or significant neutral, it doesn’t matter: relics of that past will stand. Someone may call them out and mention them as they pass by. Many may give no comment in return.

And there may be iconic memories, despite all the bad. There may be a longing for the peak moments. There may be an admiration for the heights of the times — despite how the lows of the same era ought to cancel them out.

The oddity will be that one day, you might see the “significant figure’s” party mansion rotting away on the shore while you’re cruising by it, here and now, dancing on a party boat.

I take a lot of metaphorical meaning in that. Sometimes you can’t get away from the memories and relics of your history. But sometimes, you can see that even if it’s right there on the shore, so close, you’re the one on a current going forward. Even a living past is dead. Time has made a separation even if memory and place have not.

Ending on a High Note: El Poblado Coffee Culture!

Video by Author. Click Play, Music On

In this video, we shall see the city life and the coffee neighborhood. In the end, we’ll have a delicious latte from a gorgeous South American cafe (Velvet Cafe, to be specific)!...

...I felt depressed on my last days in Colombia. This isn’t uncommon when you’ve had a good time away. It especially happens if your life back home is troubled.

One of my brothers texted, though. He asked that I bring him real Colombian coffee straight from Colombia. This country is one of the world’s top coffee exporters… And Medellin is one of the best places to enjoy Colombian coffee.

I grumbled, but I knew I was being silly. For a brother, of course, I will fetch some coffee!

So the last morning in Medellin, I went on a walk in the rain to El Poblado. El Poblado is a key location for Colombia’s coffee culture. It is Medellin’s most famous coffee neighborhood!

This walk turned my glum mood right around. It was exciting, magical, pleasant. I got to experience the city energy of Medellin itself. You feel that you are in the city-slicked, groomed Andes. The South American nature is everywhere — and it grows so tall, too! (Did you know Colombia is one of the most biodiverse places on the planet?)

Medellin belongs on a list with Paris, Portland, Rome, and Seattle.

Along the walk, I felt a shift the same way there is a shift from Denver to Boulder. It’s a shift from a standard modern city to more expressive, recently-built buildings. More nature, more color, more boutiques.

Fruit juice and sweets vendors pepper the street corners. People in cars, on mopeds, and on foot are all around, but it’s not too crowded.

The walk for coffee through Medellin was so elevated from the Normal. Even before I reached the hip, lovely El Poblado neighborhood, I began filming clips. I was so excited to make a travel video of it even as it was happening!

Colombia was my first experience of an entire continent. From the heights of the zipline to the colors of Guatape — from the chocolate hand bath in Bogota to the mountain-top sip of coffee — I cherish the whole memory.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Savanna Rain Uland is a travel writer and a dark fantasy author (see her website for fully illustrated titles).