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Hello, and welcome to Western sev
I recently completed a trip to Columbia's the

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first major trip that I've experienced really
since covid Hammer went down a couple of

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years ago, when things just got
massively off the rails. So I wanted

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to put a supplemental out there just
kind of with my thoughts of the experience

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and some historical sites that you might
consider visiting if you're interested in traveling there.

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There's a lot of interesting quirks about
traveling to Columbia that I thought I

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would pass along to anybody who's interested. Now I'm recording this both as a

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podcast and as a YouTube channel,
offering if you're interested in seeing the images

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that I'm going to be talking about, and you're listening to this on the

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podcast right now, you might want
to click the link in the show notes

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and watch it on YouTube, because
that's where the pictures are going to be.

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If not, it's no big deal, and I'm putting all the links

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from the show notes for anything important
that I'm talking about. So with that

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caveat, let me just go on
here. I'm going to give you some

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basics. So, first of all, there is an online document that you

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need to complete when you get into
Columbia. Is very difficult to find information

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about a lot of this stuff online. I googled it and still some of

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it wound up surprising me at the
time. And I will say, in

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general, I think that Columbia is
going to change a lot in the next

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five to ten years as more and
more people, especially from North America,

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start to travel down there. A
lot of the things that I'm going to

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mention are probably going to be altered. The name of the forum is called

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Checkmate. Takes like two minutes to
fill it out. The reason that I

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know that it takes two minutes to
fill it out and by the way,

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they might not ask you for it. They did not ask me for it

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when I arrived in Columbia. They
didn't ask the person ahead of me,

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and they didn't ask the person behind
me. But that doesn't mean that they

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won't ask for it at some point, so it's worth filling it out.

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The problem that I ran into was
that we're having a very difficult time finding

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flights that would work to get into
Medain, which is one of the cities

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that we went to, and so
it took a chance on Spirit which turned

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out to be a huge, huge
mistake. Unfortunately, the employees wouldn't let

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me board my flight in Chicago,
which was going to Florida and then from

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Florida to Medain because they said I
needed the Checkmate customs form filled out for

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Columbia, even though I was just
flying from Chicago to Florida and Florida is

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not part of Columbia for those of
you who are not aware. And unfortunately,

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in this case, it was just
an employee who had the wrong information

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and didn't understand and wouldn't let me
get on the plane. So I wound

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up essentially losing a day of travel. So don't go with that airline.

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It's terrible experience. Sure, whether
happens, mechanical issues happen, but if

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the employees are so poorly educated about
the necessity of what you need to travel

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that they won't let you get on
a domestic flight without having something needed for

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international, then I strongly recommend going
somewhere else. Also, when I came

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back for the subsequent flight on the
same airline, no one asked for the

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form, and no one ever asked
for the form, so go figure.

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Another piece of advice that I received
going into the trip was that you don't

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need cash everywhere it takes credit cards. That was about the worst piece of

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travel advice I've ever received in my
entire life. You need to bring cash.

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Bring cash, change it at the
airport, or just change it before

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you leave. The fact of the
matter is, well, a lot of

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places do take credit cards. It
is not everywhere by any stretch of the

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imagination, and most people will take
it with a lot of grumble. So

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I don't recommend trying to get by
with credit cards. You can in most

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big restaurants and things like that,
but you're going to want some cash and

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it's just way easier. I recommend
you, know, if you're going to

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go for let's say five to six
days, changing maybe three hundred dollars worth

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of you as cash, the exchange
rate is phenomenal. It is a very

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very very cheap trip, as I'll
get into a little bit more in a

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moment. So if you're looking to
budget, this is the place to go.

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You get anything that you could want
to throughout the Caribbean or South and

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Central America for a fraction of the
price. So I do recommend it from

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that extent, but you do want
to have some cash. Do not consider

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renting a car under any circumstances.
People drive lake It's Mario Kart. It's

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very it'd be very dangerous if you
didn't know what you were doing. It's

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very normal for taxi cabs to cross
into the opposing lane of traffic to go

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around something, and so on and
so for you don't want to engage in

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that, trust me. The last
thing I'm going to say is that you

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probably do need some Spanish in order
to get by. There is I mentioned

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before. I think five to ten
years this is going to change to a

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large extent is more people from North
America come on vacation. But it's not

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there yet, so most of the
people who are on vacation there are people

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from other Central and South American countries. There's some Americans, some Europeans,

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but that percentage isn't high enough yet
so that a lot of people speak English.

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You need some intermediate Spanish to be
able to get around. What I

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do recommend for flying is to fly
Avianca, especially when you're in Columbia itself.

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The flights are like one hundred bucks. They're extremely cheap. It's very

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easy to get around. You can
take a bus, but it's going to

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take you eight times the amount of
travel time and it's not going to save

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you that much money. So check
out Avianka to get around when you're there.

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One of the first two cities that
we went to was Mediine. I

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definitely recommend this. I did not
go to Bogata. I talked to a

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number of individuals who did. They
didn't recommend it necessarily. If you want

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that mountain experience, Medine and Cali
are much more appropriate. You can use

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ubers to get around everywhere in Medine. It was fantastic. I don't recommend

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buying souvenirs within the city itself.
I'll explain why in a minute. The

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neighborhood that we stayed in, and
this is in the show notes, is

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El Pablando, which is you know, definitely like a tourist more party places,

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but there's lots of restaurants, there's
lots of bars. It's extremely walkable

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if you stay in that area,
so I do recommend it. It's a

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city, though, just like parts
of Chicago or Philadelphia, and certainly New

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York City or San Francisco, it
can be very gratty at times, so

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it's not cancoon and that's to be
expected. I'm in terms of medicine restaurants

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Lakausa, I highly recommend Al Embique. These are both in the show notes.

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It's their beautiful restaurants and they do
a wonderful culinary scene. But here's

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where I really want to come back
to. One of the big benefits of

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going to Columbia is that you can
get what would probably be a hundred and

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eighty to two hundred dollar dinner there
for about seventy bucks US because of the

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exchange rate. So it's really a
place where if you are looking to hit

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some of the more top tier restaurants
in a region, it's very doable there,

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and so I recommend it. But
those are two of my favorites while

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we were there. Very popular.
You don't necessarily have to have reservations,

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but it can be very useful at
times. A couple of things I recommend

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doing while you're in Medain. One
is a coffee tour. We did one

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that was just outside the city.
I think you can go to more picturesque

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locations that are further away, but
if you want a half a day experience,

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they certainly have that there, and
that's what I would recommend These are

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easily discoverable on trip Advisor. I
also recommend going to Quatape. Quatape is

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kind of a giant rock. It's
actually, I believe, the third biggest

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rock in the world. It's maybe
about an hour and a half from outside

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of Medine. The tour that we
did included a visit to Guatape itself,

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which is a nearby village. That's
where I recommend buying the souvenirs. There's

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excellent artisanal crafts there. If you
go with a tour group, everything's very

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reasonably priced and it's easy to find
things that you would like. We loaded

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up on stuff for family members there. It was wonderful and you can also

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couple it with a boat tour.
Guatape is kind of based in what is

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today we would call large reservoirs man
made actually, and so you could take

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a boat tour if you're interested in
sort of seeing some of the sites.

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If you're watching on YouTube, the
bottom right hand picture, it's actually a

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picture of one of Pablo Escobar's old
encampments, which you can see from the

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boat. It was bombed by a
rival group in the government simply never rebuilt

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it. They're going to do something
with it apparently at some point, which

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is another point that I wanted to
bring up, which is Pablo Escobar.

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Yes, a lot of people are
interested, especially because of the Netflix show

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Narcos, and they want to ask
questions about him and so on and so

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forth, And I would say most
people are more than willing to talk about

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his involvement in the countries and the
way that you know, the narcotics sort

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of played a role in the fracturing
of the country in the nineteen eighties and

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nineteen nineties. But you know,
it's kind of like in the United States

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if you were not from the United
States and you got off the plane and

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all you wanted to do was ask
the guide about you know, American shadow

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slavery and racism. Yeah, you
know, some people are willing to talk

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about it, but not everybody wants
to. So just be aware that there

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are individuals who may have lost family
members as a result of some of those

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conflicts, and you don't want to, you know, you want to be

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a little bit sensitive about bringing some
of those topics up. But Gatapa is

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an excellent tour. I highly recommend
it. I'm switching out to Cartagenia which

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is the other location that we went
to. The first night that we've got

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there, we spent an evening on
the main island that's directly adjacent to the

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harbor and Cartagenia. Cartagenias, on
the northernmost coast of Columbia, borders the

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Caribbean Sea. It's beautiful city.
As we'll get into. Tierra Bomba is

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the name of the island. There
is shockingly little information online about this island.

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Here's so let me give you the
basics and all the stuff that I

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wish I would have known before we
went. So, Tierra Bomba is a

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mix of private and public beaches,
but a lot of them are public,

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so nobody can stop you from walking
back and forth and so on and so

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forth. It's a big island,
so really the only ways to get around

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the island are by boat, so
sort of the boat takes you from fishing

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village to fishing village or spot to
spot. Do not expect to go there

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and be able to walk across the
island. It's simply too large for those

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sorts of things. Generally speaking,
people go in the morning, they party

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during the day, they hang out
during the day, and they go back

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at about five or six. The
island effectively shuts down between five to six

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pm because that's when the boats take
you back, all right. And speaking

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of boats, when I read about
the island, it says you go to

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the harbor and you get on a
boat and they take you across. There's

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not really a harbor, it's a
beach and the boats pull up. So

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you're going to get wet getting onto
the boat. You know you're going to

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get wet up to your shins.
Depending the times that we went, the

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seas were very calm. It was
easy. It was a ten minute ride

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back and forth, no big deal. But you're going to have to get

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in and out of the water to
get there, So be mindful of what

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you're bringing on that day if you
can avoid it. I would avoid bringing

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huge suitcases. Certainly there are guys
there who will help you with them for

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a dollar or two. But it's
a lot easier if you're going to spend

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the day there to leave your stuff
at your hotel room, or if you

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just flew in. There's a lot
of hotels that for five bucks will just

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watch your bag for you until you
get back, and so you can just

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take a backpack with whatever you need
for the day and so on and so

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forth. It's much much easier that
day. There's not really a place to

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buy a thing. There's no convenience
stores once you get to the island.

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I highly recommend buying water and bringing
water with you as you go across.

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Also, most places won't yell at
you. If you bring your own bottle

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of alcohol. It's a lot cheaper
than buying it there, so you can

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certainly do that. Essentially, when
you go to the island, you can

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book a place at what they call
beach clubs and you get to spend the

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day. They're sort of relaxing.
That's that's the essence of the island.

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You can stay overnight, but only
at a few locations. And please note

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if you stay overnight, it's it's
probably going to be you in a security

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guard there and any other families who
happened to be there at a time.

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I think this will change over the
next five years, but right now,

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Tierra Bomba is really just a daytime
location. We stayed at the resort called

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Marine Beach and they had online glamping
and I've got a picture of it there

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and it was perfect. It was
wonderful. You can actually get a view

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of this the city from the island
overnight. I've got that picture there.

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I really do recommend it, but
it's it's therefore relaxing. Just understand that

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once the sun goes down, there's
very few people around. There aren't bars

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to go to, There aren't restaurants
necessarily to go to. You have to

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go with what you've got. So
let's talk a little bit about Cartagena itself.

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Then I recommend taking a taxi or
taking an uber down and getting a

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hotel in the old city, in
the walled city. So it's it's relatively

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small, but that's where everything is
that you want to see. And once

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you're in the old city within the
walls, you can walk everywhere. Never

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take a cab. It take you
longer than if you just walk. The

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streets are extremely narrow, there's a
lot of people around, especially in the

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evening. And I will say this
also, since we're talking about people,

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you know, I kind of follow
the Chris Rock has a joke about,

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you know, neighborhood is safe if
there's you know, women out jogging alone,

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and I kind of follow that same
procedure when I'm traveling. If I

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see a young woman walking by herself. Then it's a safe spot to be.

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And everywhere that we went in Columbia
there are plenty of people around.

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Never felt the least bit unsafe at
all, So I don't think that you'll

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have a problem with it. It's
it's any liked any tourist place. Of

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course, you want to be mindful
of your longings, but that's about it.

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Once you get to the old city. There's a couple of key recommendations

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that I have. First, there
are a number of free city tours that

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you can find online that are a
couple of hours long. They'll take you

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around and show you the main points. I would do one of those now

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there's a caveat here. Sometimes they
say that they're free, and they cost

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twenty thousand pacos. It turns out
when it's all done, now that's not

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anything to worry about. Twenty thousand
pasos is about five bucks US, so

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it's not expensive, to say the
least of what you would probably give someone

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as a tip anyway. So I
recommend doing a free city tour. I

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recommend hitting the Museum of Gold.
It's free, you can go in,

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you can spend half hour to forty
five minutes. They've got some nice old

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artifacts there. Definitely, especially in
the evening close to sunset, take a

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walk. You can actually walk on
the old city walls, most of the

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ways around them. Tons of people
out there in the early evening. You

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can sit and have drink, watch
the sunset over the Caribbean Sea. In

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addition, there's an I mean,
like any old city. You know that

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Cartagenia was founded in fifteen thirty two. This is a city that's full of

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old, beautiful churches. You can
see them. There's tons of cheap sites,

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there's tons of museums that you can
go to. And again, because

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of the price differential, they're all
very inexpensive, so I recommend them wholeheartedly.

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I'm in terms of food, there's
a lot of different options here.

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Seleli is definitely my number one recommendation. If there was one place you were

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going to eat at in Columbia and
he needed to make a reservation, it

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would be there, hands down,
best meal I've had in years. And

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again, what would have cost probably
three hundred dollars in the United States wound

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up with full bottles of wine and
everything costing just under one hundred dollars.

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So I very much. Recommend making
it reservation there. You can get them

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relatively easily, as long as you're
planning far enough in advance. Another thing

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I recommend doing is walking around a
nearby neighborhood. It's just outside the walled

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city, maybe a five minute walk
called gay Simone, Hey Simone. It's

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pronounced with an h even though it
looks like get Smani. There's a series

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of neighborhood bars. Essentially, everyone
just sort of puts chairs and tables outside

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of their apartments and they serve alcohol. They're really inexpensive. There's street food

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that's available for purchasing, and every
Saturday night there's a dance competition that's one

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hundred percent free. Teams from around
the world. We saw one from Texas,

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one from Chicago, another from Mexico
who will come and they'll perform their

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customary indigenous dances. It's all free
and you can watch the whole thing.

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It's right, you can't miss it. Once you enter into the neighborhood,

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you hear it for blocks around and
you'll see all the people. You can

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go watch for a little bit,
eve, go get some food, come

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back. Highly recommended. Last few
recommendations again, bring cash because ATMs are

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there, but they're not necessarily reliable. One evening we had to go to

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three to find one that functions.
Got to enjoy the people and walk around.

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Everyone's very nice, but just be
prepared to say no good assias a

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lot, because I think I was
offered a hat at least I don't know,

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twenty seven times per day that we
were there, so that's rounding us

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out at about I don't know two
hundred times over the time period were there.

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It's fine, you just say no
goodrassias and keep walking. It's not

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a big deal. So those are
the recommendations that I have. I think

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it's a lovely trip and definitely worth
considering if you're looking to find a lot

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of history. There's a lot of
interesting things there. These were just some

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quick pieces of advice if you needed
that in advance of the trip, and

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as I said before, all the
links are in the show notes. W