Colombia marinera

Yes, finally I've arrived in the hot climate zones! I just forgot to take into account that it is the rainy season as well. Full of enthusiasm and ignoring the rain showers I headed from Santa Marta into Parque Tayrona, a nature reserve at the Colombian Caribbean sea. Since there are no roads to the beaches and the walkways consisted mainly of knee-deep mud, I decided to take a horse. After 1 1/2 hrs ride I looked just as if I had bathed in mud (my horse certainly had), but at least I had arrived at the famous beach Cabo San Juan de la Guia, where you can sleep in hammocks overlooking the sea on the top of a little island.

It would have been very nice except for all the garbage that was swept on the beaches after the rain and the thunderstorms at night, which kept me freezing in my luxurious hammock (after all, this hammock on top of the island was more expensive than any hotel room I had before on this trip), so after only 2 days I fled the site and took the fast boat to Taganga, a supposedly picturesque fishing village near Santa Marta. Only this time it looked as if it had been hit by a reverse Tsunami - the streets and the beach had been literally washed away by the heavy rains and all that was left was rubble and garbage.

Not impressed I moved on the Cartagena - first I was told that the road was closed because of floods and there was no way to get there, but then after changing buses in Shakira's home town (very ugly Barranquilla) I miraculously arrived in Cartagena.

The historic center is what Cartagena is all about and it is pretty wherever you turn. I also started looking for a boat to cross over to Panama and found a captain from Barcelona whose boat was up next for departure. Since the sea was very rough after the thunderstorms we had to wait for a few days so I killed time by visiting the nearby volcano El Totumo, whose main attraction is not its height (which is only 29 m above sea level) but the fact that you can throw yourself into the (supposedly healthy) mud it still spits out and experience zero gravity. Great fun!

Spending the weekend in town called for party and I found an able guide in Angelo, who brought me to an Austrian-owned bar (highly recommendable: Harry's Tropical Cafe in Getsemani) and to other hotspots of Cartagena nightlife. With a slight hangover I boarded the boat Lyka the next day and we waved good-bye to Colombia. Thanks to anti-seasickness pills I had a rather relaxed night (as opposed to other passengers including our cook, whose been on boats for 10 years!)

After 2 days of a bumpy ride we arrived at the Archipelago of San Blas - what a magnificent reward, the most beautiful, picture-postcard like islands I've ever seen! We stayed around for 3 days, counting starfish, buying lobsters and crabs from the local Kuna people for almost nothing and roasting them on the BBQ, getting coconuts from palm-trees, snorkelling around corals and a sunken boat and rowing our little dinghy to the tiny paradisiacal islands.

I don't think I will see anything alike again on this trip. Now I am in Panama City not sure how to divide the rest of my time, I think next I will hit some decent surf beaches in Costa Rica and Nicaragua and finally get to practice!

Colombia - Panama

Colombia terrestre

It´s only 10 days since I arrived in Colombia and it seems ages ago - loads of interesting places in such a short time! So before I head off to remote Carribean beaches and islands in Tayrona (and will certainly be offline!) here´s all about my visit to mainland Colombia.

I arrived in the city of Cali after a very long trip from Baños, Ecuador, and was welcomed by my friend Isa's parents, who invited me to stay in their amazing home. I also got to spend a day with Isa's lovely friends Cata, Paulo and Gabi at a very rustic finca in the mountains.

After a few days I continued to Salento in the coffee region where I got the real stuff from Don Elias at his coffee plantation (coffee in Ecuador usually had a suspicious taste of washing-up water). The main activity in Saltento, however, is a hike up the beautiful, though somewhat misty, Valle de Cocora, where wax palm trees with a height of up to 70 m grow on surreal green hills.

At my 1-day stop in Bogotá I was hosted by Ana, Isa's sister (since she had promised me I would be passed around her whole family in Colombia :) She took me to the amazing event steak-house Andrés Carne de Res, the best food I've had so far on this trip!

People in Colombia are exceptionally nice, they sincerely try to help if you are lost or have any questions, I have hardly noticed any of the usual tourist rip-offs, kids don't beg (yet) even in the most touristy places, and you can walk around without being hassled (what a relief after my last trip to India!)

So the next stop was Villa de Leyva, a picture-book colonial town, great to visit for a day, then San Gil, the outdoor adventure sports capital of Colombia. My programm on the first day was kind of conservative though - a trip to the 180 m high waterfall Juan Curi and an afternoon in Barichara, a colonial town so perfectly preserved it has become a popular film set for Columbian telenovelas.

My second day in San Gil was more exciting - I signed up for a paragliding tandem-flight! San Gil and its surroundings are a paragliding mekka, it's possible to fly on almost all days of the year. Just on the day I went it looked as if we would not have enough wind - our only pilot accidentally crashed way down the mountain with the third person he carried, and it looked as if there would be no more flying for the rest of us. But then 3 more pilots arrived, the wind picked up and all of us went home with big grins on our faces!

Colombia

(I wanted to add a picture of my flight yesterday but just found that a vicious virus has attacked my camera card, will add it later once I restored the data - thanks, Macondo Hostel computer!)

Up and down Ecuador

It was cold. And cloudy. But beautiful! Still, I can't wait to reach the sun, the beach, the heat, so my trip through Ecuador was short and sweet.
Started out with a couple of days in Quito - the second highest capital in the world (2850 m) and apparently the most dangerous of all cities I am visiting on this trip (with the exception of Mexico City, maybe).

I survived without damage (except for a cold) and went on a 3-day-tour to the volcanoes of the Central Highlands - not before visiting the touristic equator of Ecuador.

First challenge was to climb up to the glacier of the Cotopaxi, Ecuador's second highest peak, in a hail storm. The glacier lies at 5100 m, so one could say, I climbed the Kilimanjaro (hehe).
A day of horse-riding and a visit to the stunning volcano crater lake Quilotoa completed the tour.

I thought I might improve my poor surfing skills in the surfer´s mekka Montañita, but somehow I hardly saw the daylight (and this was not only due to constant dark clouds).

To cure my resaca I went to the spa town of Baños, where I first cycled along the route of the waterfalls and afterwards fried my sore muscles in boiling hot thermal pools.

From now on my direction will be exclusively North - Columbia it is for the next few weeks!

Ecuador