When Maaike strongarmed me into taking a year out & 6 months travel through South America, I was a little nervous to begin with. I thought there’d be robbers around every corner and that my limited abilities with languages would be painful. I never thought we’d go to Colombia, because I thought the only people who lived there were murderers, drug runners and thieves.
I was quite wrong. :)
Travelling in South America was great. You do want to have your wits about you, but no more than anywhere else really. Do learn at least rudimentary Spanish before going, it’ll stand you in good stead. You’d be surprised how far you can go without having any Spanish as now you can book hostels online in your own language.. and most receptionists will have at least a bit of English. Still, definitely learn a bit. I also strongly recommend downloading an Open Street Map program for your phone. I use (and love) OSMAND+ for Android, I believe Maps.me ? is also good. I’m not sure if that is for Apple only or not.
I also had a little lock that my friend Myra had lent me, quite handy for locking your bag just to stop simple opportunism. Always keep your little bag on you at all times, even on busses. Never put them up in the luggage racks, people come on board before the bus has left, and just casually walk down the bus and will take a bag if they can and just get off. So yes, keep it where you can see it and lock it if possible.
The rest of my travel tips are on my wiki and might even stay up to date.
Colombia
Like I said, I thought it was going to be super dangerous. However, every traveller we came across who had been through it recommended it very strongly. So off we went. Colombia was great. The people were lovely, still quite a bit cheaper than anywhere else we’d been. The fruits (and smoothies) where amazing. I can happily recommend visiting. Again, be sensible. We did hear stories of people having smart phones snatched out of their hands while using them in the street etc, but we were fine ;)
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