Dueling Backpacks

Colombia is one of the world’s best kept travel secrets. We’ve traveled fairly extensively over the years and Colombia remains one of our all-time favorite countries to visit. During a one-week vacation in 2017 we traveled to Colombia’s Caribbean coast, visiting Cartagena, Santa Marta, and Tayrona National Park. It was only a week, but as soon as we got back home I already knew that I wanted to return one day. When thinking about where we wanted to go on this year-long trip, we thought of many places, but the one place that I knew for sure we needed to go back to was Colombia.

Day 86 (September 22, 2018) - Pereira, Colombia Pereira is probably the biggest city in the coffee region of Colombia, but it is seldom visited by tourists. Our guide book said it's not really a tourist destination at all, but it's a good place to visit if you're looking for a fast-paced, friendly city with a throbbing nightlife that is off the tourist trail. While many tourists pass through the bus station on their way to Salento or other towns, not many stop. We decided to visit Pereira for six nights, mostly to relax after our somewhat tiring visit to Salento, but also because our flight to Quito, Ecuador was departing from Pereira. We did test out the offerings of Pereira and can certainly attest to its lack of tourists, throbbing nightlife, and cosmopolitan feel.