Bogota!

Hola!

Now in Bogota, the capital of Colombia and wow what a city! Its a funky and vibrant city with lots going on and really friendly locals. There are heaps of great bars, cinemas and markets as well. Parts are a little dodgy and there is some very shady people getting around. You just have to use some commonsense. The flip side of that is there is hardly any tourists here. Anyway arrived on Sunday and am staying at a hostel right in the centre of things next to the old town. The hostel is full of aussies and is really friendly and homely.



The city is a surrounded by a spectacular rim of mountains one of which has a monastery with access via a cable car and funicular. Speaking of views, I took a lift up to the top of a 46 story building in the middle of the city on sun and the views of the metropolis (7 mill live here) were superb. I even got to look down on a bullfight in process saving the 20 bucs entrance fee but didn´t really get into it. Also on sun, they close the major roads and everyone jumps on their bikes and rollerblades and hits the streets! There is also heaps of markets and street performers.


Today I went to the police museum which was interesting. Especially the exhibit on Pablo Escabar who was won of the biggest cocaine lords. At one point the cartels were so cashed up they offered to pay off the country´s 6 billion $ foreign debt in exchange from indemnity from prosecution. The government thought about it but then said no and all hell broke loose. Anyway Pablo was shot by police in 1993. Got to see some gruesome pics plus his $120k gold plated Harley! The museum also has a alarmingly huge collection of guns and weapons!!





From Santa Marta
Caught the overnight bus, with aussie mate Narelle, down to a little colonial town called San Gill which was very relaxed and had a true ´local´ favour. On the bus down i found i had a little ´friend´ from the lost city on a very intimate place - i had a tick on my d_ck!! Pleased to say i got the little sucker off asap (in the bus loo)! After San Gill we went to a Barichara, a even smaller town completely untouched by the 20th century with cobble stone streets, stone churches and beautiful white washed colonial houses. Really pretty stuff.




From San Gill it was 6 hours bus to Villa De Leva, another town completely untouched by modern architecture. With cobble stone streets, a huge square, cute houses, super friendly locals, a huge sat vegie market all set against a great mountain back drop. Being only two hours from Bogga its hugely popular on the weekend and has tons of great bars and restaurants. While we were there they had a astrological evening with telescopes setup in the main square and home made rockets being shot up into the evening skies. Colombia is cool! Also hired a bike and did a ride around the countryside and visited a awesome monastery built in 1620.

So from Bogota the plan is to head south west to Salento, which is famous for huge palm trees and then to Cali, the salsa capital. Plan to leave in a couple of days if i can get away from this rocking city!!!

Hasta luego!

Indiana Jones and the lost city...

Hola from San Gill, a pretty little Colombian town in the mountains 12 hours south of Santa Marta and halfway to Bogota. Just arrived today after a bumpy and windy overnight bus trip. Needless to say am feeling a bit ´zombied` out...

So yeah made it back from the 6 day lost city (Cidudad Peridia) hike. Was brilliant!!!..Complete with Indian villages, snakes and paramilitary..The hike is a reasonably tough trek with some steep never ending sections through heavily cleared areas to remote virgin rain forest. The area is heavily controlled by paramilitary and we passed through their ´posts´ on route. While some of them were friendly their not the sort of guys u want to upset or meet in a dark alley! I learnt that they are actually employed by some of the wealthy landholders in the region to keep the guerrillas away so i guess they were on our side. While being illegal the government turns a blind eye to these private armies as they do a pretty good job that the government doesn´t have the resources to do.

Back to the trek. I´d never done a organised hike before where all food and gear is carried for u. But in this case it is the only way to do it and was good fun. There were about 11 of us all up, a couple of other aussies, swiss, german, canadian, english and a colombian. So a real multi-cultural mix. Everyone got on well and i meet some great people. We had great nights playing cards, stirring each other and generally just mucking about. Accommodation was in purpose build cabanas with open air kitchens and space for our hammocks. Food was lots of rice, pasta, vegies, tuna and dodgy salami type meat. We had two porters and cooks and a guide. Horses were used to carry food in to the first 2 camps. Our guide, Omar was very knowledgeable and entertaining.

The Tayronian Indians who inhabited the lost city (Tayrona) were the most advanced indigenous groups in the region. They had evolved complex social and political systems as well as advanced engineering. It´s believed the city was abandoned in the 14th century when the spainards came and decimated the local indigenous cultures in their search for gold. Surveys have found about 300 other cities in the surrounding slopes with Tayrona being the ´capital´. Today it is still very impressive. It is set on a steep ridge at 1500m and has some 1300 small stone steps to climb! A great leg work out.. As well as lots of steps and paths there are lots of round house sites and there is even a map of the city carved into a rock.



Our camp at the lost city was set in a spectacular jungle setting close to the ruins. There were a couple of other groups doing the same trek so in total there was about 30 of us staying there. I think the lack of other tourists and amenities is what made it really magic. We spent one night there before returning via the same route. It was a lot quicker going back and we probably could have done it in a day less but it was nice hanging out in the group, swimming in the many creeks, teaching the local kids how to make water bombs, sharing meals, playing cards etc.

I´m travelling with a fellow Aussie, Narelle from the hike so is great to have some company. The plan is to spend a few days checking out some of the colonial towns on the way from here to Bogota. Then from Bogota i will make my way down to Ecuador where i´m hoping to check out the amazon and get out to the Galapagos islands! This trip keeps getting extended. I´m also considering ditching my return ticket home and poss going back to skippering in Greece or possibly Croatia for the European summer season. So have some serious thinking to do. Australia is great but just so far away!

Hasta luego,
D.

Back in Santa Marta

Hola again,

Now back in Santa Marta after 5 days in the lovely Cartagna, a couple of 100ks west of here.

Cartagna fascinating. It used to be the main port for shipping all the stolen indian gold back to Spain. For this reason it was also a repeatedly attacked by pirates and other nations jealous of all Spains stolen Indian bounty. The Spaniards responded by building some pretty impressive forts and circling the city with almost imprenitable inner and outer stone walls. Today a lot of these walls are still left and the forts are still standing. The old city has also been well preserved with many colonial buildings, paths and squares. It deservedly gets described as one of the most impressive and beautiful cities in south america. It is also a bit of a gringo capital and i haven't meet so many aussies since back home! Funny how aussies are always in the dodgy places.. There is a lot of cocaine here and the expected shady characters lurking around waiting to pounce on gringos..The hassle factor was pretty big here.. Meet some great people and did some big partying (i'm def one of the more 'mature' backpackers around) as well as visiting some of the stunning surrounding beaches and islands.

Have backtracked to Santa Marta as have decided to go on the lost city trek to 'Ciduad Peridia' with a a fellow traveller i meet in Cartagna. Its a 6 day hike and i was a bit apprehensive about having everything carried for me and someone cooking for me! However, this is the only way one can do it and it provides jobs for the locals and there is a rumour that part of the fees go to the local guerrillas in the area! Besides the 'city' is supposed to be spectacular and was actually the capital of the Tayrona Indians.

Until next time...hasta luego!
D.

Colombia!

Hola from Santa Matra on the coast in North Colombia! Safely made it over the venezualian border from Coro. It took about 12 hours in a bus, shared taxi (huge old chevolete) and another bus.. Every since crossing the border have been pretty impressed with colombia and is living up to the great expectations passed on to me by other travelers. People are super friendly and helpful here even for a gringo speaking broken spansih! And people actually smile here.. Coming from the border there were several military/police/and drug police check stops. All with heavily armed guys but really friendly and i generally feel much safer here than in Venezuala.

Funny story to tell. In the colombian bus as i was watching one of the many dodgy dubbed war/action movies that play on most buses in SA while there was some tank action on the screen I happen to look out the window to see a real tank parked on the side of the road!!! Was a little surprised and had to blink twice..

So far have spent some time checking out the beaches here and spent a night in the Tayrona National Park which is a huge park along the coast and has postcard beaches and mountain scenery. Hooked up with a couple of kiwis and a German and camped on the beach last night even though i was intending to only do a day trip in the park..It was just too damn nice to stay for only a day! Did some hell man body surfing in 2m of dumpy surf with Matt from NZ. It was great to be back in surf again. Access to the park is by foot but there are a couple of huge camping areas complete with restaurants, cafes and juice bars. Everything is brought in by horse. At first i was a bit 'oh my god this place is so packed out, i would never stay here if u paid me too' but after spending a night there and listening to some local musos play a session with everyone getting into it, i'm converted to camping in mass!

So that's about it is really hot here so am going to go for another dip followed by a couple of the local brews...

Tomorrow its off to Cartenga further west along the coast....

Venezuala the land of oil, big cars, beauty queens and cheap plastic surgery

Ok one of my NY resolutions was to get back into blogging so here i am, all fresh to go with lots to tell...Currently am in the pretty colonial town of Corro in Venezuala! My fav town so far..Tomorrow i'm off to colombia as i have heard very good reports that the scenery is spectacular and people really friendly (those that don't want to kidnap you, ok bad joke) . While i've enjoyed Venezuala the people are sometimes 'hard work' in that they are not overly friendly or helpful.

In Greece
From Delhi it was a flight back into the 'normal' western world. Greece, where i managed to score my dream job in 4 days after some ´dock walking´. I was skippering yachts for a charter company in Greece and was getting paid quite well to basically sail to fantastic islands (there is almost a 1000 all up in Greece alone), swim, eat and entertain! My clients were from France, Spain, US and Canada (this charter was moir and 7 girls, tough job i know!) The yachts i sailed were really well appointed and ranged from 40ft to 50ft. Every trip was on a different yacht. I got to meet some great people and did some visiting after the season in france and spain. The season in Greece ended in October and i spent a couple of months (and way too much money) travelling through Italy, Spain, France and Portugal. I really loved Rome and Barcelona. Rome for the impressive ruins and Barcelona for the funky scene. Lisbon was also a great laid back city. As impressed as i was with all the history and culture i was missing the outdoors, guess u can take a aussie out of australia but u can´t take the australia out of the aussie! So it was then off to answer the calling of the jungles and mountains in Venezuala where i´ve been since the start of December.

Venezuala
Petrol here is about 20cents a litre! However new cars and spare parts are heavily taxed so what u get is a lot of really old big cars that are falling apart...Once on a bus trip there seemed to be a constant string of broken down cars or bits of cars on the roads including a fuel tank that fell off a old truck in front of us! Anyway during my time here i have:

• Survived 2 days in crazy Caracas which is like a India meets America. Hung out in a great fishing village called Puerto colombia surrounded by the jungle of Henri Pitter national park.


• Went on tour in the catacombs which is a huge lake where villages are built on stilts and the area is famous for its nightly lightening shows. The tributaries are full of monkeys, birds and the hugest butterflies u have ever seen. Our guide was a renowned butterfly expert and teller of really bad jokes.
  
• Survived election madness. Elections were held a couple of weeks ago and political fever gripped the country at some times fanatical levels. There was utter chaos in the streets with convoys of cars, trucks and utes complete with pa systems in the tray blasting out salsa music crusing the streets. Not to mention the constant explosions of firecrackers being set off by kids. The chavez government got back in which was a relief as no one was quite sure what would happen if it didn´t.
  
• Spent 6 hard days doing a solo hike in from the mountains of Andes to the low lands. The trek when through this great semi-abandoned village called El Carrizel, complete with church, school and a village square. It was 2 days walk from the nearest road surrounded by the jungle. Also meet some great permacutlure people that were looking for native bees that are being threatened by the introduction of african killer bees. Hung out yet again in great student town and adventure capital called Merida.
  
  
• Finally just did a great hike up MT Roramia which was the inspiration for Arthur Conyan Doyle´s novel, ´the lost world´. It took 4 days and involved walking through a lot of hot open country (thank god for mp3) then scrambling through the jungle to the top. I went with a interesting American couple (Elane is teaching english and Ethan is doing his masters in oceanography) and our compulsory guide, Ray. Unfortunately Ethan developed a fever on the way to the base camp so didn´t make it to the top. I ended up spending two days camped on the top. I wasn´t alone as there were heaps of groups up there (some 4000 people climb up every year)!
  
  


• Hitchhiked from Santa Elena, 15ks from the Brazilian border to El Pauj, which is a little community 70ks down a dirt track famous for honey and diamond and gold mining. Travelled with a Argentinian guy, Pablo who is a splitting image of Che Guavera. Had some interesting rides on the back of battered old landcruisers and found that venezualians drink almost as much beer as aussies but only when their driving!
  
  
  
• From El Pauji we walked to the Albasimo, where the grann sabana ends and the amazon begins. It was spectacular.


• Finally for new years got ''adopted'' at the bus station by a local family and spent it with them and their huge extended family in their village called La Cruz in the mountains. It was lots of fun and total spanish immersion as no one in the village spoke any english! Its funny over here as the celebrations don't really start until after 12 and then the salsa and dancing starts...

Ok that's a biggie but have caught up now. Stay tuned for colombia coming soon!
Damon ..