Finally I returned to my favourite travel country: Colombia! My first stop was Medellin. I stayed at the La Playa Hostel, right in the party district El Poblado of Medellin.

Failed plans to visit Venezuela

One reason why I returned to Colombia was that I liked the country so much when I visited it 3 months earlier and another reason was that I wanted to visit the neighbouring country Venezuela. I had already made contact with small travel agencies there to join a tour. However, Venezuela was already in a miserable situation at that time and just when I arrived in Medellin, the land border to Colombia was closed.  This put a stop to my Venezuela plans, literally. And almost every Venezuelan I met advised me to save Venezuela for later. The prevailing situation with high crime and poverty is getting worse rather than better. What a pity, I would have loved to see this country, for until then the Venezuelans I met were among the friendliest people in the world.

Just like the Venezuelan bartender in my hostel who, like many of his compatriots, had fled abroad, to Panama, Colombia, Ecuador or Peru. From him I also got the book tip "The Unbearable Lightness of Being" by Milan Kundera, which inspired me a lot and was the first book I read in Spanish.

With the now failed Venezuela plans I was occupied most of my time in Medellin with making new plans where to go and I decided to go to Argentina, where I was scheduled to fly to exactly on December 31st.

Meeting funny Mexicans in Medellin

Apart from that I visited a museum in Medellin and saw everywhere the chic Christmas decoration in the streets, which looks completely different than in my country.

I also met 2 funny Mexican vets who were in Medellin with an exchange program. They came from Ciudad de Juarez, the famous Mexican city at the border to the USA. To my surprise they told me that they felt safer in their city than in Medellin. I felt anything but dangerous in Medellin. They both also amused themselves deliciously about my rolled "r" in Spanish. Words like "Guadalajara" cause me as a German with our hard "r" great difficulties.

With the two Mexicans I was just sitting in the bar when they checked their plane tickets again. And there they found out that their flight is not the next morning, but the morning coming in a few hours. They had been wrong by a day. They had just enough time left to pay. With great hurry, they managed to catch their plane.

"Irrestible" for gays

When I came back after a night out with a couple of guys from Munich, I got into conversation with the lady at the reception and suddenly her colleague came and gave me a kiss on the cheek. I was a little perplexed. Of course the colleague was gay, but he'd never done that to another guest before, the receptionist told me. My aura for gay Colombians seems irresistible.  I had a similar story with another Colombian whose number my buddy gave me because I wanted to visit the city of this Colombian next. What started with normal messages quickly led to indiscreet and sexualised requests from the Colombian. Of course, I did not meet with him then, that would have been too dangerous for me.

Visiting Bucaramanga

The next day I drove to the city of this Colombian, to Bucaramanga, a city with a good and warm climate all year round. Coincidentally , the city had a partnership with the local church I used to visit as a kid on Christmas. Bucaramanga is the capital of the state of Santander near Venezuela, where I think the nicest of all Colombians come from. In my hostel there also worked a Venezuelan and the poor soul was working - honestly - around the clock. He was the only employee, responsible for the cleaning service, reception, information, kitchen. Madness! Even if someone rang in the middle of the night, he had to answer it.

Bucaramanga is rather a good city to live in than an interesting city for tourists, because there is nothing really worth seeing. Two days later I moved on to San Gil.