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Uzbekistan: the Fergana Valley
The Fergana Valley Personally, I know the Fergana Valley because the best dried fruit and nuts sold in Kazan, my home city, come from there. Indeed, the Fergana Valley is the most fertile area in Uzbekistan and in the southern part of Central Asia, that’s why it became the agricultural heartland in the region. The Fergana Valley [...]
Uzbekistan: Exploring Tashkent
Tashkent Tashkent, the capital and the cultural and economic center of Uzbekistan, is home to more than four million people, which makes it the largest city in Central Asia. In 1966, a heavy earthquake destroyed a significant part of Tashkent, especially the old part of the city. Tashkent was completely restored by multiple architects [...]
Colombia: before you go
Currency The current rate (17 November 2019) of COP (Colombian peso) is: 1 EUR = 3810 COP, 1 USD = 3447 COP. 1 Colombian peso = 100 centavo The symbol for COP is $, what looks very similar (or identical?) to the USD’s sign $. Some taxi scammers use this similarity to trick unexperienced tourists, so be careful when paying [...]
Colombia: Bogota graffiti tour
Bogota graffiti tour As for Medellin, we didn’t plan much time for Bogota. In total, we had there two nights which is shamelessly little for this city. However, we had to choose and decided that we would rather spend more time in nature and in the smaller cities. The highlight of our short stay in Bogota was the [...]
Colombia: Paramo de Oceta from Mongui
Paramo de Oceta Our fellow travelers recommended us to visit Mongui and from there to hike the Paramo de Oceta, which is declared to be one of the most beautiful hikes in the world. We booked our trip with Mongui Travels (https://monguitravels.com/paramo-de-oceta/) two days in advance. The trip costs 40000 peso pp, and for 35000 peso per group [...]
Colombia: Villa de Leyva
Villa de Leyva Next on our Colombian route was Villa de Leyva, a town which became very touristy as over the last 400 years it has preserved much of its original colonial style and architecture: the streets and large central square (Plaza Mayor) are paved with cobblestones, and many buildings date from the sixteenth century. Villa de Leyva’s [...]
Colombia: Salento and Cocora Valley
Salento To get from Manizales to Salento, you will most probably have to take two buses, from Manizales to Pereira (around 11500 peso pp) or Armenia and then from Pereira to Salento (around 8000 peso pp). As usual, I would strongly recommend you to check the timelines at least the day before and plan your trip accordingly. [...]
Colombia: Manizales
Getting to Manizales from Jardín The next stop on our trip to Salento should have been Manizales. Unfortunately, we realized that there was only one direct bus to Manizales from Jardín which leaves at 6:20 in the morning and costs 40000 peso pp. We preferred to stay in Jardin for half a day more (otherwise we hadn’t had [...]
Colombia: detour to Jardín
After Medellin, we wanted to visit Salento and the Valley de Cocora. However, we weren’t sure what was the best way to get there. As we still have enough time on our trip, we decided against the direct bus from Medellin to Salento which supposedly takes about 7 hours and came up with the idea to escape the travelers [...]
