A Midweek Weekend Away Part 2 - Santa Fe De Antioquia

Santa Fe de Antioquia used to be the former colonial capital of the state of Antioquia. It was founded over 450 years ago.

We stayed here for about a week 10 years ago. Not doing a lot, as there really isn’t that much to do. It’s a weekend getaway for those stressed out souls of Medellin.

We were in need of a few days of peace and quiet. Somewhere to relax and forget about making empanadas and chutneys for a few days. As we had a big order for a delivery on Tuesday, we decided to head to Santa Fe on Thursday. Stay for 2 nights and head back and work our arse off for 3 days.

Santa Fe hasn’t changed that much since we were last here. Just more people were here. The vast majority of the buildings are still standing from the colonial era, and the local council has done an excellent job in keeping the town looking as it did several hundred years ago. Well that’s why people come here.

Santa Fe is in a valley and is a lot lower than Medellin. It is hot and humid. The area produces a lot of great fruits, and these can be brought from stalls that line the road coming into Santa Fe.

So in a hot, humid place every hotel worth its banana has a swimming pool. This is what we or Lina was craving. We felt like a splurge and stayed at the former Governors mansion. It turned out to cost half of what we thought it would. Excellent news. It had air-conditioning and a swimming pool. Sorted.

The plaza is full, and I mean full of bars, restaurants, shops and stalls selling local products like tamarind, to which they make into small sweets coated in sugar.

As we are still in Antioquia the array of eateries all had the same food on their menus. Grilled meats, fish, beans and rice. No matter how far we travel we still can’t get away from it. As with most places in the world that caters for tourists. The food was pretty bad. Colombians seem to have this thing for over cooking their meat. I was pretty scared eating some ribs as I had just had a filling. Eating tough meat on one side of your mouth equals a sore jaw.

We did find one place that did some well cooked food. Even if it did include beans and rice. I was expecting a small piece of tongue, but to get the whole thing with beans, rice, platano, egg and arepas left me feeling like a bloated cow for the rest of the night.

Even though we were kinda sick of the sight of empanadas, we did eat a few of them here. But we opted for what is known in Colombia as “Empanadas de Iglesia” They are nothing special, it’s just they are cooked by old women in front of a church. Hence the name. The old lady had 3 different ones. A cheese filling, a chicken filling and a meat filling. So we brought one of each. As I said they are nothing special, but it was nice to sit in a small plaza feeling the late afternoon sun on our faces.

On Friday and Saturday nights, Santa Fe changes from a small quiet colonial town into a full on party town with the arrival of hundreds of people from Medellin. All the locals are out and about in their best clothes flirting with the new arrivals to see if they can have an even better weekend. A lot do.

It was interesting to see the two sides of Santa Fe from Thursday night to Friday night. It’s a shame we don’t have many of these places that are within a short distance of London. A few places spring to mind but not too many. Brighton being the best of the bunch.

There are a few more towns we shall be visiting over the coming months. But Santa Fe I am sure is the best one in Antioquia.

A Midweek Weekend Away Part 1 - La Carretera Fantasma

We decided to have a couple of days off last week. We were in desperate need of getting away from it and resting. When you are dreaming of chutneys it’s time to escape for a bit. So we decided to head to the former colonial capital of Antioquia. A day of sitting around a swimming pool was in mind.

We’d been there before which was about 10 years ago. Then there was only one route. A three hour journey up, up, up, up, up the mountain and then down, down, down, down the other side.

The people who lived on this route, made some money every weekend selling drinks, food to the weary travellers who were passing by.

Several years ago, the Government of Antioquia decided to build a 4.6km tunnel through the mountain. This cut the journey time to down to just over an hour. This has made a big difference to everyone’s lives. Some good, some bad.

The people of Santa Fe and the pueblos around, and also the travellers who goto the zone for the weekend are benefiting from the tunnel for the obvious reasons.

The people, who have lost everything, are the people who live on the old route. Lost everything they did.

We decided to go the old route to Santa Fe. Mainly as we have a car, and we can stop anywhere. The views on this route are truly spectacular. You have undisturbed views of the valley below. This I remember looking out of the bus window in awe at the beauty of the landscape.

As we started out accent up this winding road. We noticed very early on the lack of traffic. No buses, no cars, no nothing. Not even really any people. It was a weird beginning.

As we proceeded upwards, the road got steadily worse. It is apparent that since the tunnel has been built, no one has been to repair the road. Most of the way it was kinda like being off road. God I’d wished we’d brought that 4x4. Our little Twingo was not enjoying this journey. At one point, half the road had fallen down the mountainside. Some nice chaps had put a few stones around the edge to warn us of the perilous drop. Scary.

There used to be many shops, restaurants, and bars selling lots of lovely stuff for us weekend trippers to refresh ourselves on this journey. Unfortunately, now all those places are now well and truly closed. It was like being in a horror film. We saw so many dilapidated buildings, and others in desperate state of repair. So glad the car never broke down, as I could imagine mad, desperate locals would jump out from the bushes and strip the car bare and leave us with a mad desperate rush to reach civilisation before sunset. Thankfully it never happened.

The lack of people was also evident. It’s as if a lot of people just got up and left. Don’t blame them really. Maybe everyone just moved to the tunnel area. As I imagine a healthy supply of food establishments were there.

When we reached the top and hit the toll. Amazing that there is one there. We asked them how many cars they had had this day so far. We were the 2^nd car to pass through. Noone comes this way anymore. They must spend more in wages than they actually make in toll fees. The three staff looked desperately bored.

The route down was just as depressing as the road up. Thankfully the landscape was still amazing. We stopped a few times to marvel at the countryside. So beautiful. It amazes me that places that have had civil conflict have some of the most beautiful countryside in the world. Kashmir springs to mind.

Finally we started to hit civilisation and things went back to normality a little. A few stalls selling fruits, which the zone is known for. Then we joined the road from the tunnel, and hotels sprang up everywhere. All with pools. A hotel in this region without a pool is a dead deal.

We were pretty hungry and thirsty by now, but as we were nearly in Santa Fe we decided to get a bite in the town itself.

We saw a lot of “For Sale” signs on the route. I wonder how many people have deserted their fincas on the old route, or whether they still go there.

If you are looking for a small house in the style of the area, and are desiring serious peace and quiet, then this area is for you.