Dear Obiwan,

After traveling in Colombia for 4 weeks I wanted to create a list for things I wish I knew before going!

1. ALWAYS haggle! The first price anyone gives you will ALWAYS be more than usual due to you obviously no being a local. If this makes you uncomfortable, bring your Spanish speaking friends to help!
2. When feeling lost with your Spanish speaking skills, always just ask for someone to speak slower- “Por favor, habla despacio”! Everyone wants to help you and is so nice so always let people know you speak a little Spanish and please to speak slower and it’s much easier! Also- Every city has a different accent, so it MAKES SENSE if you change cities and feel like you suddenly understand Spanish better…or worse.
3. Ladies- BE PREPARED for cat-calling(OBI like you! But not in a fun way) of all kinds and a machismo culture where certain treatment and flirting/hitting on of women is accepted that might make your blood boil or might make you want to go on a feministic tirade. I found the best approach to deal with the cat-calling or hitting on is to completely ignore or if approached say you have a boyfriend or husband(IN THE SAME CITY) and that he is meeting you, now :D.
4. Pack clothing for HOT, warm, and cold weather! I oh-so-intelligently only brought clothing for beach and warm weather, so when I arrived in places were it was 55 at night (or about 13 degrees Celsius)…I was freezing!
5. Bring multiple photocopies of your Passport and make sure to always have one copy with you! (Except for the border, you never need your passport on you, just the copy!)
6. Always have clean water with you, either bought from a store or from you hostel where they tell you it is clean.
7. NEVER DRINK TAP WATER. This, is, obvious, but sometimes…we forget 🤦
8. ALWAYS bring a little toilet paper with you! And hand sanitizer! AND a lot of places have someone outside of the bathroom selling toilet paper for about 5 cents, so if you wanted a stall and see no toilet paper, there might be someone holding it all somewhere, just need to find her!
9. GET READY for TONS OF SQUATTING, well more so for the ladies, most toilets don’t have toilet seats, so it’s like when the guy leaves the seat up…but-ALWAYS, so, just be aware and ready.
10. BE PREPARED to hold your bladder for long periods of time when taking any bus! Some buses don’t have toilets and they can be 6 HOURS LONG.
11. BE PREPARED- for everything taking longer than planned, whether that be bus rides, meals, HIKES, everything takes LONGER and sometimes it is actually really nice and other times (like when a hike supposedly takes 2 hours and actually is over 7 hours!) it…isn’t so nice ;).
12. BE PREPARED- for bad internet, some places it is actually great but depending on if you get a chip for your phone or only are using WiFi, if you get good WiFi, do the things you need to do (pay bills, contact people telling them you’re alive, download things, etc.) when you get good WiFi just in case it is a while until the next time you have it.
13. BRING MEDICINE- for stomach problems, meaning to stop you from going to the bathroom so much you might need a hospital or also maybe bring meds to help the opposite issue…😀.
14. BRING EAR PLUGS and a sleeping mask, some places can be pretty loud at night and if you aren’t a part of the partying it can be tough to sleep.
15. BRING a simple first aide kit or supplies, you might injure yourself and having bandaids, neosporn, ibuprofen (or for me I ended to go by sticks and tape for when I broke my pinky knuckle) can be EXTREMELY HELPFUL and important
16. BRING CASH and if you can BRING SMALL CASH, almost everything is cash and when you leave an ATM with all 20’s or 50’s sometimes NO ONE has the change for a while and you can’t buy anything.
17. BRING A RAINCOAT- I was there during rainy season but still, it rains, and man, it is intense! Probably more than you are used to at home!
18. Travel in groups if you can! I was alone sometimes due to traveling on my own(and didn’t really have any issues!) but it is SO much safer when traveling with a group!
19. Night buses are more dangerous than day busses, I was lucky and didn’t have anything dangerous or bad happen but I heard of night robberies(well that story was in Brazil) but generally, try to take day busses.
20. Make sure you are going to the correct bus terminal! Big cities might have more than one (I learned this the hard way…and I asked a tour guide 🤷🏻‍♀️)
21. If you want to meet people, stay in hostels and research the ones that host events…Some hostels organize tours of the cities and nearby places to visit, these places are SO AMAZING to stay at!
22. If you’re going on a hike or outside or anything always wear SUNBLOCK even if it looks cloudy!
23. Don’t trust the advice of fellow travelers as gospel- know that it is their opinion and that YOU need to EXPLORE IT YOURSELF. (For example, someone might say ‘ah you can skip Bogata,’ but someone else might say ‘I loved Bogata,’) Fellow travels’ info can be VITAL and incredible! BUT don’t cancel a trip somewhere over one person’s comment!
24. Saying that what I said above, ask fellow travelers and locals for advice! They can tell you things to check out that you never knew about that could be the best part of your trip!!! I also found this as my favorite way to explore a city Obi, only knowing a little with no real plans- then just ask what to do and it’s always an adventure and wonderful!
25. BE PREPARED- to meet some of the most kindest, funniest, interesting, friendly, fun, and warmest people that you may be friends with for life!