Colombia

Our original plan had been to stay in Colombia for 7 days, but following our Venezuelan troubles with transport, we decided to re-shuffle our budget slightly to give us extra days in some countries in South America. As such, we extended our plan to 21 days and ended up staying 22 days in total.

Below you will find the places we visited, where we stayed and how much we spent during our time in Colombia.

Places of interest we visited:

• Santa Marta and Bahia Concha
• Cartagena
• Cali
• Popayan
• Silvia Indigenous Market
• San Agustin Archaeological Park and surrounding archaeological sites
• Ipiales and Las Lajas sanctuary

Accommodations we stayed in:

Here is a summary of where we stayed in Colombia, how long for and a rating based on 3 key criteria for us; cleanliness of rooms/bathroom, location to amenities and value for money based on the town’s/city’s price range. All of our accommodations were on a private room basis and not dorms.

The ratings below are 1 – 5, with 1 being awful and 5 being fantastic:

Town	Place	Nights	Cleanliness	Location	Value
Santa Marta	Dreamer Hostel	3	5	3.5	4
Cartagena	Hotel Marlin	1	2	4	2
	Hospedaje La Casona	7	4	4	4
Cali	Hostel Casa Blanca	2	5	3	3
Popayan	Hostel Caracol	1	5	4	4
	Hostel Trail Popayan	4	5	3.5	4
San Agustin	Hostal Diosa Lunar	2	4	3	3
Pasto	Koala Inn	1	2.5	3.5	3
	Hotel Chambu	1	4	3.5	4

Breakdown of our costs in Colombia:

We managed to leave Colombia without going over our budget and in total we spent £1,115 for both of us. This includes accommodation, food, transport (including and internal flight) and attractions. For a full breakdown of our costs see below:

Note: Under Transportation, costs include a flight from Cartagena to Cali.

Type of Expense	Total (GBP)	Daily Ave. (GBP)
Accommodation	478	21
Food (inc eating out)	261	11
Transport	324	14
Attractions	11	0
Other (souvenirs, toiletries, etc)	42	2
Total	1,115	48

For photos, view our Colombia gallery page.