When visiting Colombia, Guatape (and specifically The Rock of Guatapé aka El Peñón de Guatapé) is a place that you MUST travel to... and yes, you must climb the rock to make the trip complete. From Medellin is a 2-hour bus. Here is a little background about the rock and how to get there. Please keep in mind that there is a bus that will take you back to Medellin. I personally didn't stay in the Guatape area. Also, I highly recommend taking a taxi to the town of Guatape. Its filled with beautiful and colorful homes. What is The Rock of Guatape? -- https://unusualplaces.org/the-rock-of-guatape-or-el-penon-de-guatape/ How to get to The Rock of Guatape? --- https://www.halfhalftravel.com/travel-guides/how-to-get-to-guatape-from-medellin.html

We loved our Nicaragua Experience! Things to do: - Check out the Nicaraguan beaches. Imagine a Costa Rican beach without many people on it. We essentially had a private beach to ourselves right outside of our Airbnb. - Do Sunday Funday! Essentially a huge bar tour on Sunday where you get to network and party it up with other foreign travelers. Highly recommended! https://explorewithlora.com/sunday-funday-nicaragua/ - Learn to surf. Nicaragua is a surfers paradise as many people come from all over the world just to surf. They have plenty of instructors who will teach you the basics.

We loved our Barbados Experience! Things to do: - Go. To. Crop-over. Enough said. - Visit Rihanna’s Childhood House - Take the buses as they are safe and cheap (couple dollars to get up and down the island) - Attend the Friday night fish fry at Oistins. Live music and great food. Things to keep in mind: - They drive on the other side of the road. This can take some getting used to. - The American dollar didnt stretch as far as I thought it would mostly because Barbados imports a fair amount of their goods. - Most people speak English so there wasn’t much of a language barrier.

We loved our Colombian experience! What we loved: The Airbnb’s were very affordable so we had rooftop pools at every location. The #views were unbelievable. Here’s an example of one: https://abnb.me/7UmWSP6CCX The food in Colombia was more diverse that we thought. We even checked out a beer brewing bar in Medellin. Who knew you could get IPAs in Colombia?! Safety - I never once felt like my life was in danger. Like anywhere else, be smart. Enough said. Things to keep in mind: Cartagena in the summer can be pretty humid leaving you feeling sticky all day. Most people don’t speak English so google translate will be your best friend. I recommend downloading the “offline” version of the app since cell signal is somewhat spotty in Colombia ( Enjoy!