Top 5 Spooky Colombian Halloween Travel Activities

 

Halloween is fast approaching; a night for spooky costumes, street parties and eating too many sweets! However, for plenty of people who are traveling, Halloween can end up being just another day: you’re staying in a hostel somewhere, maybe you don’t know anyone, and you can’t exactly fit that amazing Edward Scissorhands costume in a 50 litre backpack now, can you!? So, to help make your traveling Halloween a little bit spookier and creepier, here are the Colombia Travel Blog’s Top 5 spooky Halloween travel activities:

 

 

1. Dive with sharks in Malpelo

Malpelo is pretty creepy in itself: a jagged rock jutting out of the wild Pacific Ocean. However, the main draw of this rock is the really creepy part: here you can dive with schools of hundreds of hammerhead sharks, like something out of a horror film! The big difference is that these sharks are pretty chilled out, and you’ll just get to enjoy watching them. Try for a night dive for that super special Halloween fright…

 

 

2. Go night-time crocodile hunting in the Amazon…

This one is really spooky: slipping along the Amazon river in the dead of night, pitch-black sky and scary jungle noises all around you, as your guide uses a torch to search for the red reflection of caiman eyes on the river bank. When he spots one he’ll jump off into the water to (and I’m not actually kidding) grab the damn thing and bring it back to the boat for you to admire. The animals aren’t hurt in the process, and are obviously released afterwards, but the whole set-up is positively spine-tingling!

 

 

3. Graveyards…

It’s not all creepy animals on this list (although, admittedly, there’s another coming up…): if you find yourself in the city, visiting the central cemetery can be a fascinating way to learn some local history, as well as a spooky Halloween day-out. Bogota’s main cemetery for instance, is an amazing slice of Colombian history, with many vital historical figures buried there (and they sometimes offer guided night walks!). My favorite is the graveyard in Mompos: almost entirely white, and seemingly guarded by a gang of cats…it’s perfect horror movie material!

 

 

4. Gorgona Island

Another diving hotspot in the Caribbean, this island is on the list for it’s history rather than it’s aquatic inhabitants. Gorgona just has the perfect horror movie backstory: named after the snake-haired Medusa of Greek legend, whose one glance turned you to stone, the island was named by Pizarro who chose this fitting moniker on account of the number of his men who perished from deadly snake bites while stranded there. It then became a maximum security prison from where only 2 men ever escaped! Somebody call a producer and a script-writer, I have an idea for a Halloween blockbuster…

 

 

5. Piranha fishing…

One of the ultimate horror movie creatures, the piranha calls the Amazon basin home, which means that, from Leticia in the south of Colombia, you can head out on a canoe and fish for the crazy little blighters! Cast-off your line and wait for the strong, aggressive tugging; pull it in (if you can…) and say hello face-to-face with one of nature’s creepiest creations! For added horror value, take a dip in the river once you’re done fishing…

Chris