Colours of Colombia: Capture the Colour Photo Contest

Among the travel blogger sphere, there's been a lot of buzz about Capture the Colour contest started by TravelSupermarket. I was recently tagged to participate in the contest by my friend and talented photographer Andi of My Beautiful Adventures. The contest winner gets £2000, which would make for heaps of pesos...

As I am currently travelling in Colombia, which is one of the most colourful and photographically inspiring countries I've ever seen, I'm only posting photos from Colombia.

Let me know which colour you enjoy the most in a comment below.

BLUE

Silvia, Colombia

We took a near 2-hour bus journey to arrive at this market, and right as we pulled up we realized it was going to be a blue day. With all the locals dressed in bright traditional Colombian blue, we got our cameras out and were ready to take photos the magic before us. We quickly realized it was going to be a challenge, as a few of the people turned away from the camera or said no when we asked if we could take a photo. Disappointed, with our hearts beaming with amazement and joy for the sights before us, one woman smiled and waved us over to her corner. She then pulled out a beaded necklace and chatted away with my friend in Spanish as I snuck a few photos. She then offered for us to take more photos, and cracked a huge laugh at seeing herself on the camera. It was a lovely start to our morning in the market.

GREEN

Salento, Colombia

The green hills and quiet winds of Salento soothed my soul upon arrival, and my heart smiled when I saw a guitar free for the playing in the hostel common area. I grabbed it, and found a spot overlooking the hills to strum and relax. After a few chords and lines, this cow walked up out of nowhere and stared right at me. I wondered if it was listening to my songs, or if it cared at all that I was there. We shared the view of the hills and a song or two together that afternoon.

YELLOW

Cartagena, Colombia

My first stop in Colombia was Cartagena, and I couldn't have started in a more colourful city. Everywhere we walked, the crumbling vivid walls begged to be photographed. This scene above is at the entrance of the old town in Cartagena, and we walked past this magazine stand every morning. The man greeted us with an "hola chicas" and a smile, and this bright photo reminds me of the friendliness of strangers all over Colombia.

WHITE

Salento, Colombia

Salento is in the middle of Colombia, and is one of the most famous coffee-growing regions in all of Colombia. After a few days riding horses and hiking the nearby mountains, we thought a coffee farm tour was in order. Luckily, we found a sweet local guide at the Don Elias coffee farm who took us around the grounds of his family business. You can read in more detail about the coffee tour in my blogpost here. In the photo above, the organic beans are in the drying stage of the coffee-making process. They are a gorgeous white when they come out of the red beans, and turn to the familiar black colour we know and love after they are roasted.

RED

Salento, Colombia

After an hour of intense horseback riding - the kind where you feel like Indiana Jones as your horse trots through wandering rivers and takes you down steep hills on rolling stones - you begin to feel at one with nature. Now add a cloud of beautiful butterflies to the mix. Now you feel like Indiana Jones at a party with real-life confetti being thrown at you as you wade through the water and make it to the other side. That's how we felt that day, and I was lucky enough to catch a close glimpse of just one of the hundreds of butterflies who scurried around us as we trotted by.

The memories preserved in these photos are moments in time from a journey I'm still on. I look back at each one and remember a time and a place when I was welcomed in this beautiful country.

I hope to keep capturing colours and moments like these for the rest of my travels.

Thank you to Travelsupermarket for creating this contest, and for giving all of us travel bloggers a challenging way to showcase our photos.