Colombia with Dandelion Chocolate & Traci Des Jardins

Bienvenidos a Colombia! Today we meet up in Santa Marta with our fellow Modern Adventurists and drive into one of the world’s highest coastal mountain ranges, the Sierra Nevada, soaring nearly 19,000 feet from the Caribbean in a 1,500-square-mile jungle paradise for jaguar, tapir and tropical birds. 

We’re on the hunt for the world’s highest-quality cacao beans. We’ll have a rare chance to meet with the indigenous Arhuaco, who will grant us permission to explore their fertile lands, where swollen pods of cacao hang from trees in the lush rainforest. We’ll see how beans are plucked from the pulp and turned into the best chocolate beans before getting the unique opportunity to feast with the Arhuacans on a rustically supreme lunch cooked over a fire.

In the afternoon, we’ll drive to our luxurious seaside villas in nearby Tayrona, and celebrate our first night together with cocktails and a welcome dinner with an ocean view.

Who doesn’t want chocolate and the Caribbean all in one day? We begin with the rare white cacao, or bunsi cacao. We’re in good hands with Carlos Ignacio Velasco and his band of Cacao Hunters. Our journey to find the best beans offers timeless access to the lush Sierra Nevada landscape. We board boats and steadily cruise up a narrow river in the forest, then hike for the fields, where we’ll see the rare bean hanging from trees. We’ll learn how groups like Cacao Hunters are helping empower local communities to find more sustainable farming methods and work opportunities.

We’ll return to our villas for a relaxed afternoon, a great chance to kick back and swim the turquoise Caribbean waters—or dip in your private pool—then regroup for another feast under a star-studded oceanfront sky.

Adventure isn’t always work! Today, the Palomino river is calling. We’ll drive up into the mountains and take a tubing safari down its clear, cool waters of the narrow river hemmed in by a medley of tropical trees. Listen to the rustling reeds and singing coos of nearby quetzals and other jungle birds, watch for caiman sunbathing on beaches, and howler monkeys earn their names in the treetops above us. It’s a leisurely float through the mountains before we stop to dine on a locally sourced lunch at One Love Reserve (think: succulent meat skewers and perfectly charred vegetables.

The afternoon is all about relaxing, with plenty of time for a poolside cocktail, before an unforgettable meal prepared just for us by Traci and one of Cartagena’s top local chefs, filled with so much local flavor and paired appropriately with wine, beer and a sky full of twinkling stars.

After loading up on breakfast we say adios to Santa Marta and head for Cartagena, one of the world’s most colorful colonial cities. Along the way, we’ll stop to soak up some of the scenery: fishing villages, mountains, beaches.

Our final stop is the old city of Cartagena. This is the colorful source for Gabriel García Márquez’s “magical realism” and we’ll see why right away. The Unesco-protected city on the coast is an irresistible, cobblestoned beauty, with 500-year-old buildings draped in bougainvillea and plazas where musicians pluck on guitars. We’ll venture into its vibrant atmosphere, meeting locals and sampling tropical fruits or egg-filled arepas from street vendors. We’ll have the evening to venture into Cartagena’s famed nightlife on our own, exploring at our leisure.

After a well-deserved morning on our own, relaxing poolside with a strong cup of coffee or exploring more of Cartegena, we head to Getsemaní. This is the city’s true barrio of artists, poets and musicians. We’ll wander past 17th-century churches on cobbled streets and see the graffiti-filled Calle de la Sierpe. Walk past colonial buildings swathed in a beautiful cacophony of murals—electric birds, valiant natives, social discourses, the resplendent environment, glorious odes to color.

With plenty of inspiration in our periphery, we then meet with a local artist for a lettering workshop. We’ll learn about the creation of traditional party posters for the champeta, the local folk music/dance that blends many African styles. Each poster displays kinetic cursive and nuanced organic feeling, an echo of the dance itself.  Now that we’ve made the art, we have to learn the moves. We’ll head to Bazurto Social Club for private salsa lessons to a little of the champeta, too. Now we’re primed and ready to enjoy Cartagena’s nightlife!

Cartagena kitchens create some of South America’s most succulent meals, like the seafood-filled sopa Caribe and ceviches that wooed Anthony Bourdain. Today we go to see where all these tasty, local ingredients come from. A local chef will walk us through the bustling, chaotic Bazurto market. We’ll see freshly butchered pigs hanging by stacks of pineapples and rows of just-caught fish. As we go, we’ll stop to chat and try local snacks and tropical fruits.

After some leisure time, we’ll get a detailed rum and cacao tasting from a famed local mixologist. Then, as the rum loosens our limbs, we’re primed for an impeccable farewell dinner. Celele by Proyecto Caribe Lab is a high-end graduate of Cartagena’s experimental pop-up restaurant scene. We’ll feast on rich flavors of freshly prepared Caribbean cuisine, each presented as works of art, and linger long with toasts to our Colombian adventure.

Our time together wraps up. After a farewell breakfast at our hotel, we’ll pack up and head for Cartagena’s airport. Until next time, buen viaje!