While in Santa Catalina, we went scuba diving in Coiba National Park. What attracted us to diving in Coiba National Park was the opportunity to dive with schools of hammerheads.

To see hammerheads, you have to go to Isla Jicaron, one of the more remote islands in the park. Diving on Isla Jicaron is no joke. Not only do the locals force the dive shops to use small boats for the 2 hour journey to Isla Jicaron, but the dive sites there, including the “Washing Machine”, are known for their strong currents. To make matters worse, the huge swell made diving there extremely challenging. On all three dives the swell pushed us up to 30 feet back and forth in either direction, making it difficult to avoid getting impaled on the sharp volcanic rock and causing an experienced diver in our group to get seasick. Despite the fact that Leah had just gotten certified in Belize, she did an awesome job. And despite the low visibility we did see hammerheads, including some big ones. The experience of having the 7 foot giants, with their crazy flat heads, emerge suddenly from the deep blue was an experience we’ll never forget.

After Santa Catalina we moved onto the Azuero Peninsula where we camped at the Venao Cove Hostel on Playa Vanao. This hostel is owned by Leif, a friend of our friend Keith from Boulder who provided us with tons of beta on Panama. Leif moved to Panama many years ago to open a hostel and using the revenue from it to build a house in the jungle and to raise a family. Today, Playa Venoa is getting developed but the western side of the beach is still relatively undeveloped. Although Playa Venao is definitely found, it’s worth a trip, especially if you are a surfer. And if you decide it’s too developed, there are numerous alternatives on the Azuero Peninsula that have amazing surf and are relatively deserted including Cambutal.

After Cartagena, we moved south to explore the beautiful colonial towns of Santander. Perhaps our favorite colonial town was Barichara. For over 100 years many communities in Santander (and throughout Colombia) have been plagued by war. Barichara, a small colonial town in northeastern Colombia, is no exception. The ~7,000 people who live there have suffered through numerous wars over the past 100 years including the 1,000 day war and most recently the Colombian Civil War that ended in 2016. Fortunately Barichara is gradually emerging from a state of endless conflict and has become one of the most authentic and beautiful places to visit in Colombia. Frozen in time, visiting Barichara (and the tiny villages nearby) is a great way to see what colonial cities were like 300 years ago. We also loved Villa de Leyva, despite the fact that it has definitely been discovered and is on the beaten path for Colombians and other tourists.

But while our rig was getting repaired (and we were waiting for parts) we had plenty of time to explore Bogota. Bogota is a huge city with over 8 million people, horrific traffic, some incredibly poor areas and some very wealthy ones. As described above, Colombia has been in a state of political and social unrest for at least the last 50 years with groups like the ELN (led by priests), FARC (led by farmers) and M-19 (led by members of the upper class) engaged in violent conflict against right wing governments and paramilitary groups. In the early 2000s, this resulted in the death of over ten thousand innocent civilians (called Falso Positivos) who were killed during the government’s civil war with the FARC. Graffiti writers and street artists use art to help articulate this resistance. Nobody knows what the future holds for Colombia, but it’s clear that there is still political and social resistance is alive and well.

After the Cocora Valley, we decided that it was finally time to boogie out of Colombia and hit Ecuador. After three days of driving through the huge mountain ranges of southern Colombia we finally crossed the Ecuador border (which was surprisingly painful) and drove the amazing, paved, two lane highway from the border to the beer garden of Finca Sommerwind.

No trip to the coffee region of Colombia is complete without a trip to the wax palm forest of Cocora Valley. Unimpressed with Salento, the gateway to the Cocora Valley, we decided to camp at the end of the valley from where we did an amazing hike through the Quindío wax palm forest. The Quindío wax palms are the tallest palm trees in the world and can grow up to 200 feet tall. Karl also did an amazing day of enduro mountain biking in the mountains above the valley.