If you are reading this most likely you are not from Colombia. You do not speak Spanish or maybe you speak some, or just enough to get by if you visit a Spanish-speaking country. Possibly you are considering coming to Colombia to learn Spanish.
So why would you choose the town of San Carlos instead of a bigger city such as Medellin or Bogota?
San Carlos is tucked away in eastern Antioquia. Surrounded by mountains, rivers, and farmland. When I thought about coming to Colombia it was NOT the first place on the top of my list.
It actually wasn’t on my list at all.
San Carlos Center
I knew it was not on the backpacker trail and that it was a little town, so naturally, I started to get curious. As soon as I started to read that it was off the beaten track and very few tourists from the US, I instantly decided to check it out. It was even more solidified that I would come here once I read there was a Spanish school, I was completely intrigued so I signed up for a month.
So I committed to a month, living in a little “pueblo” in the mountains of Colombia, you might be asking, so what is it like? Let me tell you a few of my favorite things about learning Spanish in Colombia, off the backpacker trail.
Every morning when I wake up I look outside to the mountains and hear the birds chirping. So much different than when I was in Medellin and woke up to loud traffic, and just normal hustle and bustle of a city.
In the mornings here you can see the gauchos riding to work on their horses. Children walking to school, moto moving about the streets and the start of the day. There is a bar in town that has a spot to park horses. This for me was something out of a movie and I thought no way this is real, but it is.
San Carlos now is an amazing small pueblo but this was not always the case.
A little history about San Carlos
San Carlos was once a ghost town after fights between leftist guerrillas and right-wing paramilitaries, causing most of its inhabitants to flee in the early 1990s and by 2004 80% of the population had fled. In 2005 once the paramilitaries set their weapons aside, the slow return began. Between 2009-2011 families made the slow migration back to San Carlos. Finally, in 2012 San Carlos was declared free of suspicion of antipersonnel mines. In 2018 the population of San Carlos is 14,480.
San Carlos carries a national peace prize due to the success of the return of many families to the area.
Some of my favorite waterfalls/hikes are.
Charco Redondo
El Indio
La Cascada
For me living in a place that has very few tourists helps me actually speak the language. If you do not know a word in Spanish, you have to figure it out, look it up or figure out a way to communicate. They are not going to find someone to speak English. It forces you to actually speak to people. I know when learning a language the hardest part is speaking. I still struggle daily to speak, but when it is the only way to get what you want or need, you will speak.
It is such a simple and basic thing, speak. Even if you do not think you know enough words, once you start to talk to someone or listen, it will occur that maybe you know more than you think. The people of San Carlos are amazing, always willing to talk to you. This is also a reason I have chosen Colombia, the people love to talk to us gringos! My favorite part of being in San Carlos has been meeting the locals, speaking their language, or at least trying!
So if you are up for a new way to learn, tons of adventures in nature come visit us here in San Carlos!
For more information on how you can come to visit us in San Carlos check out our page here.