After a few long and frustrating days dealing with shipping bureaucracies we were very excited to finally have our van back.

We spent another couple of days doing some sightseeing in Cartagena before departing.

We visited an old Spanish fort that was built to protect the city.

Our first stop was Tayrona National park, which much to our surprise is actually north of Panama City!

We got to see a great electrical storm over the Caribbean Sea

We spent a nice afternoon playing on the beach, but we decided it was time to get out of the heat and head to the mountains. Colombia is much bigger than Central American countries, and we had a 540km, 10 hour drive ahead of us. We broke it up by staying in a medium sized town called Aguachica part way along the route.

The next day after navigating through Colombia’s second largest city, Bucaramanga, we arrived at Chicamocha National Park.

A lunch stop near Bucaramanga

The national park wasn’t what we expected. It was more like a theme park, with bungee trampolines, ziplines, and a small zoo. They let us camp in the parking lot for $2.50 and we spent most of the next day checking out the attractions. There’s even a water park scheduled to open soon.

Quinn helps us get oriented.

The park featured a huge monument to Colombian independence from Spain.

We took a gondola across the canyon for lunch. The view was great. In this photo you can see the crazy switchback road we drove up to reach the park, which is at the top of the first ridge.

Avocado Relleno. Mmmm.

Quinn had a great time with the bungee trampoline and other “rides.”

Our campsite (in the parking lot) was a little loud since it was close to the road, but we had a great view over the canyon.