Colombia will be our first stop, so whenever I get the itch to do some research, it tends to be at the forefront of my mind.  As a result, I probably have a better idea of what I’ll want to do there than most of the other stops we’ll be making.  Here’s a few of the places and activities I’m looking forward to the most about Colombia, in no specific order.

1)  Coffee

Colombia is (rightly) famous for its coffee, and is the third-highest coffee exporter in the world, after Brazil and Vietnam.  Coffee plays an important role in the Colombian culture, and I am very much looking forward to sampling it myself in its proper setting.  Cheap, high-quality coffee is abundant, and sipping on one while leisurely watching the world go by from some café sounds sublime.

Beyond just sampling the local flavor, one thing I’m looking forward to is taking part in the production myself (on a much smaller scale).  Many coffee plantations offer tours, where you can taste coffee that will be the freshest you’ll ever have, and some will even let you pick and roast your own beans!  Getting a better sense of how and where things like coffee are produced will give some unique insight into foods that would be difficult to achieve otherwise.

2)  Beaches

Colombia’s ecosystem is incredibly diverse, and as a result, you can find many different natural environments packed into a comparably small area.  Bordering both the Caribbean Sea to the north and the Pacific Ocean to the west, there are certainly no shortage of beach towns to laze about.

Playa Blanca appears to be a popular day-trip destination, only an hour or so from our starting city of Cartagena.  Although its popularity causes it to be nearly overrun with tourists during the day, many opt to head back to the mainland as the sun sets, so picking out a cabana to spend a night (or three) will definitely be an appealing option.  As a well-developed location, there are many options for shopping and eating, although if you stray from the beaten path, there are secluded beaches that offer a bit more in the way of leisure and relaxation.

Tayrona National Park is a more remote area in the northeast of Colombia that boasts a much more undeveloped destination for the more determined traveler.  The trip there involves a combination of buses, boats, and your own legs.  As a result of putting forth this effort, you’ll be rewarded with more pristine beaches away from the casual day-tripper.  The area also offers a number of interesting hikes, climbs, and other excursions, so using the beach as a base of exploration seems like a likely plan.

3)  Salento

Salento is a small town in northeast Colombia home to great seafood, lookout points, and sleepy charm.  However, its biggest claim to fame is its proximity to Cocora Valley, which harbors the world’s tallest palm trees!  This has been a must-do on my list since I saw the pictures for the first time.  Living in Los Angeles, palm trees are certainly not a rarity, but the photographs of the giants that live in Cocora are unlike anything I’ve seen in person.  It helps that Salento has plenty of other sights and excursions to keep us occupied as well.

4)  Playing Tejo

What do you get when you combine alcohol, steel projectiles, and gunpowder?  Colombia’s favorite drinking game, of course!  Tejo has its origins in aboriginal customs; rumors are that the native people used to play with discs made entirely of gold more than 500 years ago.  Although the exact origins are lost to time, there is no doubt that the game has a long and storied history, and is still practiced commonly today.

As far as I can tell, it’s basically an amalgamation of lawn darts, bocce ball, and, well, explosives.  There is a clay pitch at one end of the room that has gunpowder-filled balls embedded in various locations (don’t worry, parents, they’re just little explosives!).  You are then given heavy steel rings that you throw into the clay with all your might.  There is a scoring system based on how close you are to the targets than your opponent, whether you actually made one of them explode, and a few other rules that I’m sure I’ll be ridiculed for not knowing.  Oh, and it would be downright rude to ignore the local custom of drinking copious amounts of beer while doing so (parents, am I easing your fears yet?).

Suffice it to say, we’ll have no shortage of things to do and see during our time in Colombia.  What excites me most is that most of the things we’ll end up doing are things that we had no intention of doing or even knowledge about beforehand.  Staying open to new experiences will be key, but I think this list will give us some good starting points.