A special encounter in Cabo de la Vela

Travel Guide La Guajira, Travel Stories

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During our trip along Colombia’s northern coast, we traveled -through the “desert”- to the village of Cabo de la Vela in La Guajira.

Through the desert to the “middle of nowhere”

As we slowly wake up, a little boy around 8 years old with an intellectual disability approaches us shyly. He sits down a few chairs away from us but slowly seeks contact by occasionally moving up a chair.

That Colombia has much to offer is widely known. However, what we did not expect was that Colombia also has a desert area: La Guajira. Before our trip we never thought we would make this trip, but as always everything turns out differently than planned in advance 😉

Bumpy ride
We left Santa Marta for a few days to the northernmost part of Colombia. From Santa Marta we took a bus to Cuatro Vías (COP25.000) and then changed to a bus to Uribia (COP8.000). The last part of the trip we drove on dirt roads in a jeep (with very hard seats) to our final destination Cabo de la Vela (COP15,000). Cabo de la Vela is a small village located on the coast, with a few huts and restaurants. Many people come to Cabo de la Vela as a stopover to Punta Gallinas in the desert area. However, we didn’t.

Being in Cabo de la Vela feels like going back in time. There is not much to do and experience in this small village with three streets, yet it made a big impression on us.

Minimalist bars
After the long trek, we decided to treat ourselves to a drink at one of the minimalist bars in the village. Soon we started talking to the owner of the bar. He said that if we could teach him some English, he would brush up our Spanish in the evening. As everywhere in Colombia, everyone is incredibly friendly and helpful, but in a village where there is fairly little to do and you rely more on each other, it creates more of a bond.

Want to dance?
After the necessary drinks, he asked if we wanted to join him at a pub to do dance. As we felt like dancing and were very curious where we would end up to dance in this small village, we accepted the offer. A hundred meters away was then THE pub: a container with some disco lights and a CD player with no one on the dance floor. So, who wants to dance?

Special meeting
The next morning, we woke up with a slight headache. We realized that we had a bit too much too drink and that the alcohol didn’t quite leave our bodies yet. As we slowly woke up, a little boy of around 8 years old with a mental disability approached us carefully. He sat down a few chairs away from us, but was slowly seeking contact by occasionally moving up a chair. He started pointing to my camera that was on the table and i asked him to come closer.

A beautiful smile from ear to ear appeared on his face. I took pictures of him which I then showed him, he started blushing and giggling. I give my camera to him and showed him how to take pictures of us. He jumped for joy and for an hour we took pictures of each other, showing them to each other, while communicating with gestures and smiles.

These are the encounters that make travelinf so incredibly special! How a visit to a simple village turned into a trip with special memories for us……

Written by Mellijn
Travel date December 2017, updated September 2025

Would you like to go on an organized tour to Cabo de la Vela (and Punta Gallinas), check out the options here. Look here if you want to know more about la Guajira.

We do not accept direct payments from touroperators or hotels for our reviews and we pay for our own stay and tours. Every recommendation is based solely on our own experiences and honest opinions. However, some of our links are affiliate links, which means we earn a small commission if you book through them. This commission comes at no extra cost to you and helps us maintain our website.

Jeanette and Shelly

Writers and Travelers, Colombia My Way

Bike tour in the coffee triangle

Travel guide Coffee Triangle, Travel Stories

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The story behind the scenes

A bike tour in the coffee triangle, the famous coffee region of Colombia, is the perfect way to get to know the beautiful countryside and friendly people. Read our behind-the-scenes story here, where we tell you all about “bike crazy” entrepreneur Ivan.

We cycled through the village of Bella, drove past haciendas, stopped at a small waterfall, bought delicious Macademia nuts topped with arequipe, and on the way back we enjoyed a malt beer and ice cold Coke on a terrace.

Meeting in Bogotá
We met Ivan at the Anato in Bogotá, the most important fair for the tourism sector in Colombia. Ivan was there on behalf of RBC bicycle tours, located in Calarcá in the coffee triangle, not too far from Salento. We visited the tourism fair for inspiration, before spending a week traveling in the coffee region.

Because of his energetic appearance, Ivan quickly caught our eye and we started talking. When we mentioned that we were going to visit the coffee triangle after the fair, there was a complete click. We agreed to get in touch as soon as we got to Calarcá and meet up for a bike tour. Ivan’s family’s finca -where the bike tours start- is close to the hotel we had booked, so that worked out perfectly.

Family finca
When it was time for the tour, Ivan came to pick us up at the hotel and took us to his parents’ finca. There he gave us a brief tour. We were introduced to several animals, including the pig George (who, according to Ivan, thinks he is a dog -).

Coffee plantation
On the property there is a small coffee plantation and there are fruit trees. Ivan’s father used to have a large coffee plantation, but due to the coffee crisis and low payments for the beans, the plantation has thinned out considerably. Fruit trees such as oranges and lemon trees have now been planted. The modest harvest of coffee beans is for home consumption and what is left, is sold to local restaurants.

Customized tour
At the plantation we were warmly welcomed with coffee, brewed with Agua Panela (sugar water). Then it was time to choose the bikes and adjust the saddle. The tour could start! For these two island girls who don’t own a bike but do everything by car, it took some time before we were comfortable in the saddle.


    We thought that the regular tour of 4 hours was a bit much, so Ivan put together a shortened tour especially for us. We cycled through the village of Bella, drove past haciendas, stopped at a small waterfall, bought delicious Macademia nuts topped with arequipe (caramel) and on the way back enjoyed a malt beer and ice cold coke on a terrace.

    Man with a mission
    During the bike tour, we got to know Ivan as a man with a mission. Not only is he the owner and guide of RBC (Ruta Bicicleta Colombia), he is also the manager of the 8 bike routes in the Calarcá area. He is hugely committed to conservation and passionate cyclist; cycling is his lifestyle.

    Award winning entrepreneur
    In 2018, Ivan received an award from Fondo Emprender for best entrepreneur. With this cash prize, he was able to invest in new bikes and setting up a reception, to welcome cyclists. We found this very special, keeping in mind that Ivan studied to be an engineer in Bogotá. Instead of pursuing a career in the big city, he chose to follow his passion. He went to live in the countryside and was able to raise his small children in the middle of nature.

    Cultural trip
    A bicycle tour with Ivan and his team is also a cultural trip, with lots of interesting insider information. There are frequent stops to explain the coffee process, the history of the village of Calarcá, conservation and the many species of birds in this area.

    Passion
    After the bike tour, we had lunch together at our hotel. This was a good moment to cool down a bit and chat some more. As so often in Colombia, we were impressed by the passion of this entrepreneur!

    Written by Jeanette
    Travel date March 2019

    #ColombiaMyWay Tips (updated September 2025)

    If you want to know more about Ivan’s tours, take a look at his facebook page: Bike tour Colombia (Ruta Bicicleta Colombia). Ivan also offers bike tours from Salento, such as this cultural coffee/cycle tour.

    Check out our travel guide Coffee Triangle for more information on this region.

      We do not accept direct payments from touroperators or hotels for our reviews and we pay for our own stay and tours. Every recommendation is based solely on our own experiences and honest opinions. However, some of our links are affiliate links, which means we earn a small commission if you book through them. This commission comes at no extra cost to you and helps us maintain our website.

      Jeanette and Shelly

      Writers and Travelers, Colombia My Way

      Street Food Tour Cartagena

      Travel Guide Cartagena, Travel Stories

      Home 9 Author archive for J ( Page 35 )

      In search of cartagena’s best snacks

      At one of the busiest stalls, two ladies made arepa con huevo, a specialty in Cartagena. The arepa is filled with meat and an egg is added before frying.

      A tour where you taste Cartagena’s tastiest snacks -with lots of cheese- AND get introduced to the city? That seemed like a perfect idea for foodies like us!

      Chocolate Museum
      The tour with Cartagena Connections began at the Chocolate Museum at Plaza Fernandez de Madrid in San Diego. Since we were early, we were able to look around the museum and taste some chocolate. From the Chocolate Museum, the walk headed toward Getsemaní with our German guide Jan. He has lived in Cartagena for years and knew many interesting facts about the city. Along the way we stopped at stalls, where Jan bought us snacks and where we could see people at work.

      Queso, Queso y Queso
      We watched the preparation of Deditos de queso (cheese fingers) and tasted Patacones con queso, green banana “cookies” with cheese. One of our favorite snacks was the Bocadillo con queso, Guava with a piece of white cheese.

      Cartagena specialty
      At one of the busiest stalls, two ladies made arepa con huevo, a specialty in Cartagena. The arepa is filled with meat and an egg is added before frying. What makes arepas extra tasty are the sauces, such as the sweet salsa de piña (pineapple sauce) and salsa picante.

      Mango with salt
      We tasted Buñuelos, small balls made of corn and cheese, and Mango Biche, green mango with salt. Fruit combined with salt didn’t sound very appealing at first, but it was a fresh change from all the cheese snacks.

      Corozo ice cream
      We ate Arepas de choclo, made with sweet corn and at the end of the tour we had an ice cream made from Corozo. This is a red-purple fruit that grows high on the palm trees on the coast. We never knew this fruit was edible! The fruit resembles a berry and has a deep purple color.

      Café del Mural
      The tour ended at Café del Mural in Getsemaní, a café that is located among colorful murals. With an old-fashioned jug of brewed coffee, we ended this tasty and interesting tour on our first day in Cartagena.

      Written by Jeanette
      Travel date September 2019

      #ColombiaMyWay tips
      (Updated September 2025)

      • Take the tour at the beginning of your stay in Cartagena. It’s a fun way to get acquainted with the city, and you’ll get tips for great restaurants along the way.
      • Don’t plan an big dinner on the day of the tour. If you want to sample all the snacks, it’s pretty filling
      • At the chocolate museum, say clearly that you are coming for the street food tour and not for the chocolate workshop. Apparently we were not clear because the chocolatier was already coming to pick us up for the workshop!
      • We saved over 4$ per person by paying with COP instead of US$
      • We did the tour with Cartagena Connections. Check here all street food tours in Cartagena.

      For more info check out our Cartagena travel guide and our article about the best food of Cartagena.

      We do not accept direct payments from touroperators or hotels for our reviews and we pay for our own stay and tours. Every recommendation is based solely on our own experiences and honest opinions. However, some of our links are affiliate links, which means we earn a small commission if you book through them. This commission comes at no extra cost to you and helps us maintain our website.

      Jeanette and Shelly

      Writers and Travelers, Colombia My Way

      Dine at Interno restaurant

      Travel Guide Cartagena, Travel Stories

      Dining at Restaurante Interno, Cartagena

      Because of the cozy ambiance, we almost forgot we were in a prison….until we saw the bars in front of the kitchen!

      Restaurant Interno, is a restaurant in la Cárcel de Mujeres de San Diego, Cartagena’s women’s prison. Interno’s cooks have been trained by professional chefs, and the waitresses have also received professional training. The project was created with the motto: “Segundas oportunidades.” Here the inmates are given a second chance and will soon be able to reintegrate better into society. Through training and experience gained, the cooks often have jobs even before they leave prison. With the proceeds from the restaurant, living conditions in prison are improved.

      Dinner
      From the moment we walked into Restaurante Interno, the atmosphere was nice; serene, a cozy setting and quiet Latin music. Because of this ambiance, we almost forgot we were in a prison. Until we saw the bars in front of the kitchen! It was a strange idea to eat in a prison, but it was also nice that we could make a small contribution to improving the living conditions of the women.

      Star chefs
      We chose an appetizer of Ceviche in coconut milk, a main course of -Cartagena-style steak with coconut rice and a dessert with 3 preparations of coconut. We could indeed tell that the cooks were trained by Michelin “star chefs,” because the food was beautifully prepared and tasted delicious.

      The lady in the service was friendly, but somewhat shy, so it did not come to a chat. Because the food was served quickly, we were done in an hour. Afterwards, we thought it would have been helpful to say we wanted to take it easy and allow time between the courses.

      After dinner,  we took a taxi back to Getsemaní. Here we ended the evening on the cozy Plaza de Trinidad, with a glass of wine and some people watching, while we thougt of the women in the prison and their untold stories.

      #ColombiaMyWay tips and information

      • By Colombian standards, Interno is an expensive restaurant. We paid COP90,000/$22.50 for a 3-course menu. If you want a bottle of wine to go with it, you pay about COP120,000/$30 extra
      • Reservations are required. We did so via WhatsApp and we quickly received confirmation
      • Restaurante Interno is easily accessible by taxi and Uber

      Click on these links for more information: Website Restaurante Interno


      Written by Jeanette
      Travel date September 2019
      Updated September 2025

      September 2020 update: Restaurant Interno closed end end 2019/beginning 2020. Update September 2025:  Restaurant Interno is permanently closed. According to information on the internet, the future of the restaurant already became uncertain in june 2019, because the San Diego prison was slated for relocation to a new facility in Turbaco. This move was mandated by a 2009 Constitutional Court ruling citing poor infrastructure and health risks within the prison, not because of problems with the restaurant itself.

      Want to know more about Cartagena? Then check out our travel guide Cartagena.

      We do not accept direct payments from touroperators or hotels for our reviews and we pay for our own stay and tours. Every recommendation is based solely on our own experiences and honest opinions. However, some of our links are affiliate links, which means we earn a small commission if you book through them. This commission comes at no extra cost to you and helps us maintain our website.

      Jeanette and Shelly

      Writers and Travelers, Colombia My Way

      Celebrating Christmas in Cartagena

      Travel Guide Cartagena, Travel Stories

      Home 9 Author archive for J ( Page 35 )

      Christmas in Cartagena

      All week we saw Colombians going to the manicure, pedicure and to the hairdresser, or having their eyebrows touched up in a chair on the street. Streets were lit up and everywhere you could hear Christmas songs coming out of the speakers.

      Christmas spirit in the tropics
      If you are normally used to Christmas in Europe or North America, the Christmas feeling in 30 degrees is at far away at first. But, fortunately, Christmas in Colombia is celebrated big, but really big. Families get together, hours are spent in the kitchen and there are many gifts. All week we saw Colombians going to the manicure, pedicure and to the hairdresser, or having their eyebrows touched up in a chair on the street. Streets are lit up and everywhere you can hear Christmas songs coming out of the speakers.

      Christmas church service
      We kicked off Christmas Eve by going to Mass at 5 p.m. at Santo Domingo Church. Although the Spanish was most of the times too fast for us, it was special to experience. Christmas in Colombia kicked off!

      Christmas Eve at hostel
      We were lucky enough to be in the Viajero hostel with many other backpackers and the hostel hosted a dinner on Christmas Eve.       After Mass, we arrived at the festively decorated patio, where there were long tables. (OK with plastic chairs, but ignore that fact for a moment) Candles and a live band completed the atmosphere. Although the food was not extraordinary, it was nice to spend Christmas together. Lots of snacks & drinks, new people and new friends!

      Christmas Day at the beach
      For Christmas Day we had arranged to meet up with some British and Australian backpackers we met before in Minca. Christmas on the beach while playing lots of games is defenitely different from Christmas in the snow (or rain). For the evening we had a reservation with the group at a chic restaurant, because the British love Christmas even more than we Dutch do and they wanted to celebrate big!

      Mashed potatoes with Colombian sausage
      Boxing Day we were slightly hungover and it was time to facetime with the home front. Then we decided to bring Holland to Colombia: it was time for a typical Dutch stew with Colombian sausage.

      Christmas ended in style with a cocktail during sunset at Café del Mar.

      Feliz Navidad!

      By Mellijn
      Travel date December 2017

      #ColombiaMyWay Tips:

      • Find a hostel where you are among people, which means you don’t have to spend Christmas alone. We stayed at Viajero hostel Cartagena
      • Visit the church service at the Santo Domingo Church. (In the old town, near Plaza Santo Domingo)
      • Book restaurants during Christmas early in advance
      • Update Sepember 2025: Café del Mar Cartagena is closed to the public. The café was officially shut down on September 2, 2024, following a court ruling that determined the venue was operating on public land that should remain accessible to all. The court found that the business had effectively privatized a section of the historic city walls, which are protected as public heritage sites.
      • Want to know more about Cartagena? Then check out our travel guide Cartagena.

      Updated september 2025

      We do not accept direct payments from touroperators or hotels for our reviews and we pay for our own stay and tours. Every recommendation is based solely on our own experiences and honest opinions. However, some of our links are affiliate links, which means we earn a small commission if you book through them. This commission comes at no extra cost to you and helps us maintain our website.

      Jeanette and Shelly

      Writers and Travelers, Colombia My Way