Since the beginning of the trip, we’ve been attempting to track every expense to get a better picture of where our money is going and if we’re on track to make it last.  After each country, we’re planning on posting our resulting budget to give a better idea of how much it actually costs to travel in each place.  First up: Colombia!  We were in Colombia for a total of 53 days; the table below splits out the budget by category and by amount per day, and each category is further expanded upon below.

• Lodging – We stayed in a mixture of hostels and Airbnb rentals.  Traveling as a couple, you don’t tend to find cheaper accommodation per person, but you can find nicer accommodation for the same price.  A single hostel bed might be $10.00, while a private double room might be just over $20.00, affording you extra comfort and privacy for about the same cost.
• Transportation – Local buses, taxis, metro tickets, Ubers (yes, they have those in Colombia), and long-haul buses make up this category.  An average local bus or metro trip cost between 2,000 and 4,000 COP ($0.69 – $1.37), and the long-haul buses between two major cities usually came out to about 5,000 COP per hour, the average inter-city bus ride being around 12 hours and 60,000 COP.
• Meals – This category only counts meals we ate in a restaurant or from a street vendor.  For the most part, street food is cheap and delicious, but occasionally we would splurge on a nicer sit-down meal.
• Soft Drinks – Soda, juice, water, coffee, etc.  You work up a thirst walking around the city so this was a frequent purchase.
• Groceries – Hostels and Airbnb’s almost always have a kitchen available for use, so one way we kept costs down was by cooking some meals for ourselves.  In addition to saving on restaurant costs, it’s a nice way to get some familiar food now and then.
• Alcohol – Includes both bars/clubs and beer/liquor purchased from the store.  We took a particular liking to Aguardiente, an anise-flavored liquor popular in much of South America.  If you’re not much of a drinker, a similar trip to ours would likely be significantly cheaper.
• Sightseeing – The highlights here were a paragliding trip over Medellín, salsa dancing lessons in Cali, a weekend trip to Salento to visit the coffee farms, and taking a cable car up into the mountains surrounding Bogotá.  We also visited numerous other sites of interest including museums, monuments, and even a zoo.
• Necessities – This category includes things like soap, shampoo, medicine, toothpaste, and other toiletries.  It would have been even lower had Bridgette not needed antibiotics at the beginning to combat her Lyme Disease.
• Miscellaneous – Anything that didn’t fit into another category.  Ice cream, the occasional tip, money tossed in a fountain, etc.

Overall, Colombia is a very affordable destination with a lot to offer.  Knowing what we do now, we probably could have done it a bit cheaper, but even going in with very little planning, we were able to have a great visit on a budget.  We tried to save wherever possible but didn’t skimp on things we really wanted to do.  Finding that balance is key, and it’s something we’ll have to continue working on as we go.