Being Vegetarian in Colombia

Like everywhere else in South America, vegetarianism isn't particular popular in Colombia and most traditional fare involves some kind of meat or fish. However, with a little shopping around, you can find vegetarian friendly Colombian food. And of course, in the bigger cities of Bogotá, Medellín and Cartagena there are also a range of international options.

Here's what we ate:

Colombian food
1. Arepas: An ubiquitous lunchtime snack or side dish in Colombia, arepas are a type flatbread, made with a pre-cooked cornflour. They come with different types of filling and topping, some with and some without meat. I particularly enjoyed the arepas de choclo, made with sweetcorn, giving them a creamy taste. 

Favourite arepa stand in Cartagena

Where we stayed - Colombia

Bogotá: We'd advise booking ahead for hostels in Bogotá. We booked through hostelworld 4 days in advance and really struggled to find vacancies in those places we'd been recommended or which had the best online reviews.

The 'ultimate' guide to getting a sail-boat from Cartagena to Panama

Sunset on the boat

Overview

On a map it looks like it would be relatively straightforward to get from Colombia to Panama. The two are linked by land and so you’d think that there must be regular transport between the two.  But you’d be wrong! The Darién Gap is an area of dense jungle and swampland of 160 kilometres in length that links the two countries together and there is no road that goes through it.

Photo Friday: The mud volcano

About 30 miles outside of Cartagena lies the Volcan de Totumbo, where you can bathe in a mud pool inside the crater of a small volcano, while getting yourself a massage. We were intrigued.

On arrival at the volcano, we were a little surprised at what it looked like. We'd expected it to be much larger and to look more like a volcano, rather than

Highlights of Cartagena

The famous clock tower entrance into the old town

We visited the beautiful colonial city of Cartagena de Indias twice during our time in Colombia. The main reason for our second visit was to catch a sailboat out of South America to Panama on our way home, but we were also pleased to get more time in the town.

On both visits, we enjoyed wandering the colourful streets, eating and drinking, 'walling'

Nine South American Sunsets

A paddle in the Pacific

1. Lima: Our first South American sunset was in Peru's capital Lima, where on day one of our 6 month trip, I enjoyed my first ever paddle in the Pacific Ocean as the sun