Afro Caribbean soul, far and neglected spirit, that let seduce itself just beyond the border of the world. In the land of no one, where every man is owner of his life… the land strip that extends from Cartagena towards Playa Blanca and Islas del Rosario, is a dusty fireside of underbrushes and doggone lives, where the whole population it’s of African origin and survives of expedients in the extreme heat. The travelers who cross this border without law get transformed in victims and guilty of a cruel system, money and power. “When you left to us this desert of skeletal cows and foul ponds”. Then, the dancing girls appear from the powder, a frenetic and echoing African rhythm, a cumbia or makulele, a skillful and enchanting dance, mockingly put up in front of a cartel saying: “Don’t give money to the dancing girls who charm the tourists”.

The passage between Central America and South America is a problem that many travellers are forced to face. The Pan-American Carretera is interrupted in the region of jungle and swamps called Darien Gap, making impossible land connections between Panama and Colombia. From the experience of other travelers we have collected some information, that we publish hoping it will be useful to someone in the future. The options in order to exceed the Darien Gap, avoiding the dangerous passage by land (in the Colombian region of the Choco are present groups of guerrillas and paramilitary), are substantially three:

• sailing ship or boat from Cartagena (Colombia) directly to Panamanian territory, passing for the Islas de San Blas (cost: approximately 250$)
• flight between Panama City and Bogotá, Medellin or Cartagena (cost: variable according to the season, 150-300$)
• bus from Medellin or Cartagena to Turbo (23$), traveling by night in order to reach Turbo in the morning and to go up on lancha or boat until Capurganà (20$, 2hours) where there are economic lodgings and the Caribbean is wonderful. From Capurgana’ you can take another lancha for Puerto Obaldia (10$, 40 min), that is already in Panamanian territory and there is an immigration office. From Puerto Obaldia there are two flights every week towards Panama City (57$).

Barranquilla is a chaotic industrial port, famous in Colombia as the center of the craziest carnival of the country. A short travel takes us to Cartagena de Indias, one of the most beautiful historical cities of America… actually the old town, enclosed in the Spanish walls, is an open sky museum: the characteristic wooden balconies run out on the narrow streets, richly adorned by colourful bougainvillea. But just outside the walls, it emerges the melancholic and forgotten soul of the seaport cities, especially the Caribbean ones. Lodged in the prophetically biblical quarter of Getsemani, we perceive the feeling of living an underground world, surely neglectful, but equally authentic. Here the black spirit voices its suffocated complain…

From the entrance, a short trip by bicycle leads us to the beach of Cañaveral, along a road dipped in the jungle. Finally we are in the Parque nacional Tayrona, a natural reservoir unique for beauty, pure example of uncontaminated Caribbean coast. The first contact with the Atlantic ocean is impressive indeed: a lonely sand strip, delimited by smooth rocks and coconut palms. The tropical paradise, therefore… a long walk leads us to Arrecifes, every step a surprise, until we newly hear the waves breaking up on the coast: before our eyes another wonderful inlet, designed by a turquoise and crystalline sea. We abandon ourselves to the beauty of the landscape, impressed by such a wild ecosystem. We think about the legitimate inhabitants of this region, the indigenous people of the Tayrona, the first civilization met by the Europeans in the South American continent. From them just remain the wonderful looks of some girls who work in the park and the characteristic huts made in stone and wood, with palm leaves roofs. People perfectly adapted to an impressive nature: the open and uncontrollable sea, the peaks steep and covered by the jungle, and the covered by snow summits of the Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta. Between these mountains flowered their culture of skillful gold craftsmen, whose most meaningful expression was the Ciudad Perdida, a Tayrona pueblo forgotten and rediscovered in the 70′s.

Adiós vereda, hasta luego amigos… finally the travel resumes, after a long pause full of unforgettable moments. From Villa de Leyva, the bus goes up quickly until about the 3000 meters of the town of Tunja, from where we continue towards the North. After hours of mountain roads, exceeding foggy slopes covered by jungle, we reach San Gil and then Bucaramanga, intermediate stop of our travel, a city unexpectedly modern but with a pleasant climate. Travelling by night we finally reach Santa Marta, on the coast of the Colombian Caribbean: the popularity of the people and their unflappable peacefulness clearly indicate that we got to a new world, all to discover. At first sight, we find the same semi-desertic climate to which we survived for beyond a month, but hidden by the hills covered by cacti, the Tayrona National Park, Caribbean pearl of white beaches, wild jungle and turquoise sea.

Clouds, clouds, fast clouds; then sun, starred skies. And full moon, sparkling… The semi-desertic hills that encircle Villa de Leyva hide many surprises. The astronomical observatory of the Muiscas, indigenous people almost completely disappeared, but in the looks of some “campesinos”, is a ceremonial site (El infiernito) dipped in the green of the olive trees. In the proximities, a small museum (El fosil) guards the very well conserved fossil of a kronosaurus, prehistoric crocodile lived when in the region an ancient sea extended. Where the Andes grow in altitude and the vegetation disappear definitively, in the so-called paramo, some splendid lakes hide (Iguaque Sanctuary), encircled by a hostile environment. The Laguna de Iguaque was sacred place for the Muiscas, who believed it was the place where the goddess Bauché had awaken, sustaining with her own arms a child, destined to give origin to their people.

Here is a taste of our gastronomic regional specialties, made with Colombian ingredients and fantasy!