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Two Passports, One Adventure

Yuki: Okay, so first things first — Mia and I have been best friends since college, which was seven years ago, and this was our first international trip together. We'd talked about it forever. "Let's go somewhere amazing." "Yes, totally." Then we'd both open our laptops, look at flights for ten minutes, get overwhelmed, and watch Netflix instead.

Mia: In my defense, every time I suggested somewhere, Yuki would say, "I read a bad review about the hostels there." She's extremely particular about where she sleeps.

Yuki: I like clean sheets. That's not particular, that's basic hygiene.

Mia: Anyway. Colombia happened because Yuki's cousin went to Medellín last year and wouldn't shut up about it. And Jardín happened because a girl at our hostel in Medellín showed us a video of a waterfall pouring through a cave ceiling and said, "This is four hours away and nobody knows about it."

Yuki: That video was of the Cueva del Esplendor. And the moment I saw it, I said, "We're going."

Mia: She literally booked bus tickets before we finished breakfast. I was still eating my arepa.

Arriving in Jardín

Mia: The bus from Medellín is a whole experience. The roads curve through these incredible mountain landscapes, and Yuki spent about sixty percent of the ride with her eyes closed because she gets motion sick.

Yuki: I spent sixty percent of the ride meditating. There's a difference.

Mia: She was definitely not meditating. But once we arrived and walked into the town center, all motion sickness was forgotten. Jardín is impossibly cute. Like, aggressively cute. Every building is a different color, there are flowers everywhere, and the main plaza has this Gothic basilica that looks like it belongs in a European city, not a small Colombian mountain town.

We found Isla de Pascua hostel, which was exactly what we needed — clean (Yuki inspected the sheets), a gorgeous pool area, and this lovely common space where people actually talked to each other instead of staring at their phones.

Yuki: The pool was the selling point for me. After days of hiking and sweating through Colombian heat, having a pool to come back to felt like luxury.

Day One: Cueva del Esplendor

Yuki: We didn't waste time. Day one: Cueva del Esplendor. We booked a guide through the hostel (highly recommended — the trail isn't always obvious), and set off early in the morning.

Mia: The hike to the cave is about three hours each way, depending on your pace. The trail goes through farmland, cloud forest, and some seriously muddy sections. Yuki wore white sneakers.

Yuki: They were my only hiking-adjacent shoes!

Mia: They were white Nikes. To a muddy cave hike. In the rainy season.

Yuki: They're brown now. Very earthy. Very on-brand for the jungle.

Mia: Anyway, the hike itself is beautiful. You're surrounded by green — every shade of green that exists — and the air smells like wet earth and wildflowers. Our guide pointed out birds, plants, and told us stories about the local farmers whose land we were walking through. It felt respectful and connected, not like a tourist conveyor belt.

Yuki: And then you reach the cave. I need to try to describe this without sounding like a travel brochure, but it's genuinely one of the most incredible natural sights I've ever seen. You walk into this massive cave opening, and there's a waterfall pouring through a hole in the ceiling — like the mountain just decided to cry from happiness. The water falls into a pool at the bottom, and the light coming through the opening creates this ethereal, misty glow.

Mia: Yuki cried.

Yuki: I had water in my eyes from the waterfall spray.

Mia: She cried. I have video evidence.

Yuki: Moving on. We swam in the pool under the waterfall, which was freezing but absolutely worth it. That moment — floating in a cave pool with a waterfall cascading above you and your best friend laughing next to you — that's the kind of thing you travel for.

The Swimming Holes

Mia: After the Cueva del Esplendor set the bar impossibly high, we spent the next couple of days exploring the swimming holes around Jardín. And honestly? Some of them were just as magical in their own way.

Yuki: Charco Corazón was my favorite. It's this heart-shaped natural pool in the river — well, it's roughly heart-shaped if you squint — surrounded by rocks and tropical vegetation. The water is crystal clear and cold enough to make you gasp when you get in.

Mia: We spent an entire afternoon there. Just swimming, lying on the warm rocks, reading our books, swimming again. No agenda. No schedule. No "we should probably go see the museum before it closes." Just existing near water with sunshine on our faces.

Yuki: This is the thing about traveling with your best friend versus traveling with a partner or a group. There's no negotiation. Mia and I have the same travel style: do one big thing in the morning, spend the afternoon being lazy near water, eat too much for dinner, repeat.

Pool Days and Hostel Life

Mia: Some of our best memories weren't at any tourist attraction. They were at the hostel pool.

Yuki: Isla de Pascua has this pool that catches the afternoon sun perfectly. We'd come back from our morning adventures, change into swimsuits, and just float. Sometimes for hours.

Mia: We met some of our favorite people at that pool. There was a couple from Brazil who were the most in-love humans I've ever seen — they literally couldn't stop touching each other, which was adorable and slightly annoying when you're a single woman on day 47 of a trip.

Yuki: There was a solo traveler from Japan — which was exciting for me because I got to speak Japanese with someone for the first time in weeks — and a group of Colombian friends from Cali who taught us to dance salsa. Badly. We danced salsa very badly.

Mia: Speak for yourself. I was great.

Yuki: You stepped on that guy's foot so hard he limped for the rest of the evening.

Mia: He said it was fine!

Yuki: He was being polite. He was Colombian. They're the politest people on earth.

The Friendship Conversation

Mia: Okay, getting real for a second. On our third night, Yuki and I were sitting by the pool after everyone else had gone to bed. The sky was insanely clear — more stars than either of us had ever seen. And we had one of those conversations that only happens when you're far from home, a little tipsy, and completely relaxed.

Yuki: We talked about everything. Our careers. Our fears. The relationships we'd been in and the ones we wanted. How travel changes you in ways that are hard to explain to people who haven't done it. How friendship is this weird, beautiful thing that you have to actively choose to maintain.

Mia: I told Yuki that this trip had reminded me why she's my person. Not in a romantic way — in the way where someone knows exactly when you need space and when you need company. When to push you toward the scary cliff jump and when to hand you a towel.

Yuki: I told Mia that she makes me braver. Left to my own devices, I'd probably research destinations for three years and never actually go. Mia books the ticket and says, "We're going. Pack a bag." I need that in my life.

Mia: We both cried. The stars didn't judge.

The Food Situation

Yuki: Quick note on food because Mia will be mad if I don't mention it. The restaurants in Jardín are incredible for a town this size. The trucha (trout) is fresh from the local rivers, and there's this one place near the plaza that serves it with patacones and a coconut rice that I'm still dreaming about.

Mia: I ate trucha four out of five nights. I regret nothing. Also, the coffee. Oh my god, the coffee. We did a coffee farm tour on our fourth day and it completely changed how I think about coffee. I used to think "good coffee" meant the expensive stuff at Whole Foods. Now I know what actually fresh-roasted, single-origin coffee tastes like, and I can never go back to my old life.

Yuki: She bought four bags of beans to bring home. Her suitcase smells like a café.

Why Jardín Is a Best-Friend Destination

Mia: If you're thinking about taking a trip with your best friend, put Jardín on your list. It has the perfect mix of adventure and relaxation. You can hike to a waterfall in the morning and float in a pool in the afternoon. The town is small enough that you feel safe walking everywhere, the hostel scene is social but not overwhelming, and the natural beauty is genuinely world-class.

Yuki: Isla de Pascua was the perfect base. Clean sheets (essential), great pool (essential), good WiFi for when Mia needed to post her swimming hole photos immediately (apparently essential), and a vibe that was welcoming without being pushy. We felt at home within hours.

Mia: Plus, it's affordable. Two best friends, five nights, multiple adventures, and we each spent less than what a weekend in New York would cost.

Yuki: Come for the waterfall. Stay for the pool. Cry under the stars.

Mia: That should be the town's official slogan.

— Yuki Park (Seoul, South Korea) & Mia Chen (Portland, USA). August 2025.