This last part of my Colombian photo stories is a short flashback. In general, I was surprised how many people spoke English, especially on the Caribbean coast. I expected less people to do so, as I have experienced it that way in Ecuador, Perú and Bolivia earlier. However, it might still be quite hard to get around the country without speaking any Spanish.

People are very nice, helpful, communicative and loving. There’s a big gap between rich and poor and hence a quite small middle class – and a lot of poverty. Nightlife mainly consists of dancing. Dancing to all kinds of latin music, like salsa, Cumbia, Merengue or Bambuco, depending on the region.

Recycling of trash is very popular! There are bins for plastic bottles and other recyclable things almost everywhere, even on remote islands. Many people don’t care, though, and throw garbage on the floor.

I often booked better buses than I ended up riding on – or was moved to other buses throughout the night. This was a bit annoying, however, premium buses are usually only a couple of thousand peso more expensive than the normal ones. A slightly higher bus fare in order to get a better bus (maybe even with Wi-Fi) every now and then still doesn’t seem all that bad.

I’ve heard many stories about buses getting stopped and people getting robbed (especially during the night). I neved had any problems of this kind, even though I’d taken night buses sometimes. There are some routes, that are still supposed to be quite dangerous, which I didn’t do by night. Lonely Planet informs quite well about those, and I think it’s generally been getting safer and safer the last 20 years or so.