
San Carlos is called the hydro-electrical capital of Colombia due to many dams in the region that produce vast amount of energy. Apart from that its known by many waterfalls and exquisite landscape, of which proof you can see in the slideshow and in the pictures throughout this post.
Getting to San Carlos
I'll be blunt. It wasn't easy. Because I had a car for the week we decided to drive to San Carlos, which is only 10km in straight line fro Guatapé but as we all know nobody builds roads in straight line, especially in Colombia and in such part where peaks and hills are plentiful. It took us three hours :) Only because we actually drove from the airport and wanted to avoid the road through Granada so we opted in for the longer road but the "yellow-type road" on Google Maps, which would suggest it's paved as I believe it means it's one of the main roads. The drive to San Luis, our first stop, was normal, but when we left San Luis things started to get interesting. The last 30km was probably the most difficult terrain I have ever driven on. We're not just talking about it being uneven. Huge rocks lying around, holes, unexpected turns, ups and downs, everything made it quite a drive. Good thing the card I had was a high-suspension one, otherwise we would have to turn back.
During my travels there aren't many constants. Everything is changing - I do, people I see on a daily basis, the quality of air, the food, but there is something that I can, unfortunately, always count on: something that will skew, bend, or try to break my plans. This time it turned out that the bridge we needed to cross to get to the town was being rebuilt for a while and will still be out of service for 2 more months. The only way to get to town was little wooden bridge but not for cars - only humans and moto-taxis. In this case we had to leave the car near the bridge and go to the hotel in a moto-taxi.
Hotel Campestre La Cascada
I have only been once in a really fancy hotel - it was when Avianca cancelled my flight in Lima, on my way to Colombia, and were obligated to provide me with an accommodation for the night. Novotel was way too fancy for a simple traveller with a backpack but I enjoyed it anyway. If I can I always choose something simple, I learnt how to not need luxuries and enjoy the simplicity of things.Alexandra found this place through Airbnb and we booked it with little hesitation. The name doesn't say much but I trusted my travel companion to select something nice. The price wasn't exccessive either. It's simply 75 000 COP or $25 per night per person. Yes it's not as cheap as 18 000 COP per night hostel in Medellín but in the end it is a hotel.

The moment we reached the borders of the property we knew it would be an amazing place. Lots of flowers, trees, bushes, flying bees making their not-for-humans honey, and geese! We walk into the main building and it's one big WOW. My eyes are instantly locked on two american pool tables and I was happy as a clam knowing I will not leave the country without some good pool action. Later I realised that those tables are of an excellent quality including the cues and balls.

The place is a family business. We met Gabriela and her husband "El Patron" who own the place, having built it 30 years ago and making sure their guests have the best time has always been their priority. Doris/Lydia rocked the kitchen and her two kids Wendy (9) and Alejandro (16) have made our stay feel like we were kids on a camp trip.
At the face of it there are two small hiccups. First is the lack of hot water. They don't have got electric showers, which means you have to be prepared for cold showers - been there done that, in the end it didn't bother me too much. Lately I think hot water as it is luxury :D Second was the lack of internet. At first I was concerned but later I realised that it was actally good to be disonnected from matrix for a whole weekend.. My first three days in my life without ANY connection to the world - pure bliss.
I spent huge amount of my time in a green hammock, which I wasn't too fond of at the beginning but it was because I'm one of those people (my attempt to hide my pecularities behind assumption of belonging to a larger group with such pecularity) who just can't be comfortable in a hammock but I worked through it and my time travel pod was often occupied by my persona.

Cascadas & Chicharras
Saturday started from a delicious breakfast, after which Alejandro and his sister took us on a little trek outside of the town to a place called:While walking I kept focusing on a sound that was similar to human-sized crickets (if they existed) but those sounds turned out to be made by chicharras or cicadas in English. We saw a lot of their skins on the trees when going back to the hotel. The sound is very impressive, almost like a hundred of crickets at once. They also shed their skin leaving the cascaras on the tree..


Ever since I started living off-gride I pay more attention now to the life that surrounds us. I got excited like a little kid when Alejandro and I saw a green snake but very quickly he blended with its habitat and that was it. Big colonies of ants carrying little pieces of leaves, walking sticks, little fish, chicharras of course, and many more. However repetetive it sounds times like these make me even more happy that I am a vegan, treat all live beings equally as it allowed me to appreciate all living things the same way. They all have a purpose, they want to live regardless of how meaningless their lives might seem to us humans.