Climbing Chimborazo!!!

Hi,

Well i´m safely back from my first serious mountaineering attempt...Have to say this was the physically hardest thing i have ever done!!! Didn´t make it to the summit but did make it to 6000m, almost 3/4 of the way up. The last section involved climbing a huge glacier with crampons and a ice axe. It was bloody tough going and i almost made it to the top before hitting the 'wall' and becoming completely exhausted and unable to take another painful step.

We started the hike at 10pm from the refugee so was a unusual experience hiking up a mountain in complete darkness and only being able to see 2ft in front! None of us really got much sleep either as we arrived at 3pm and had dinner at 5 before going to bed at 6!! Don't think i've ever gone to bed that early before! It was a really different weekend experience. There were 7 of us all up 3 guys, one tough english girl + 3 excellent guides!



The conditions were also very tough with near gale force winds blowing and a -15 wind chill factor! Yeeckks..One tough army guy in our group of 4 was the only one to make it up. I saw his one and only pic from the summit and he looked completely miserable so I don´t feel so bad about not making it up!!!


So am now back in Quito planning my next trip - to a somewhere warm and a bit more inviting, the Galapagos islands! Enjoy the pics, hasta semana....

Quito

Hola from Quito in Ecuador. Have been here for over a week now and am really enjoying it. It's a pretty hectic place with 7 mill living here. The city has a great old area with some impressive plazas and churches. One of which, San Francisco allows u to climb right up inside the spirals and actually out onto a super scary tiny ledge 20 floors up! Of course there are so safety rails just a sign in spanish and english saying 'Take Care'!!!!



The city sprawls along a big valley surrounded by mountains and yesterday i took the nearby telefrico up to a 4100m lookout and then hiked for a couple hours up to the a peak of Pichincha at 4700. It was a great afternoon - I left at 2 and was back by 7! Tomorrow am off on a organised hike up the glacicated peak of Chimborazo, Ecuador's highest peak at 6300m. Its a weekend trip and we cheat a little as we drive up to a refugee at 4800m before getting up at 12am to tackle the summit. I've been chowing down the pasta so feel fully carbo loaded up. Yes this city is the place to do outdoor stuff. NB The South American Explorers Club is a great place to hook up with other outdoor freaks http://www.samexplo.org/

Is also great to be in one place for more than 4 days. Am staying in yet another top and cheap South American hostel with million dollar views of the city for a bargain basement price of $5 a night! Everyone here is super friendly and a lot are teaching english so people tend to stick around for a while. I've been taking spanish lessons with a tutor so will be talking like a local soon!

Coming from Popayan was eventful. It all started when i woke up early and decided to get a early bus. It was still dark and i crazily thought it would beok to walk the 20mins to the bus station. After all the town seemed chilled enough. Wrong. I was just getting my stuff out of the hostal door when this dodgy looking guy called out from down the street and started heading my way. Hmmm i thought and started to make a retreat when the dog belonging to the owner of the hostel shot out from the door and started barking crazily at this guy. The guy responded by pulling out a mother of all machetes (obviously intended to convince me to part with some dinero ) so i speed up my retreat and managed to get mysef and the dog safely back in before closing the door..Moral of the story - always use cabs in south America.. Anyway the rest of the trip was long but incident free. Managed to stop on the way and check out this huge church build in a gorge called San Blas. Arrived in Quito later that night and of course caught a cab to the hostal.


Gotta get some sleep so adios....nb pics coming soon...

D

Eating Dust!!

Hola from Popayan, a kewl preserved colonial town, about 9 hours from the Ecuadorian border.

Had a brilliant time exploring the tombas in Tierradentro, the town close to the ruins is called Sand Andres De Pisimblia. Its a pretty small place with some super cheap guest houses and restaurants that were all pretty much empty. The only other tourists i meet in my two nights there were are really nice Chilean couple travelling around Colombia. I actually had a good chat in my spanglish! Think a lot of travellers are put off by the fact that this used to be a big FARC area and its a long and dusty ride to get there. The tombs were excellent and are unique in the Americas. Some were 7m in diameter and a lot of paintings and carvings are still intact. Some are in a staffed park and others are 2 hour walk away up a ridge with spectacular views of the surronding countryside. The dust eating, bone jarring ride in and out was totally worth it!

A story..On the way out of San Augustin, i caught what is called a collectivo and is basically a shared ute or a van that takes passengers were the buses don´t go. So anyway i was sitting in the back of the ute with my pack in its packsack on the roof rack, speeding along when i noticed this huge black ufo flying overhead..Hmm well the ufo turned out to be my pack and in a few seconds it was a couple of hundred metres on the road behind us! Luckily drivers in Colombia are used to swerving to avoid the many potholes, rocks etc on the roads here so it didn´t get squashed and i was able to stop the ute and get it back. Lesson learnt!

So yeah arrived in Popayan yesterday arvo with all my luggage and did some cool recon off the place. Lots of whitewashed old buildings, churches and great leafy squares. The place was half destroyed by a earthquake some 15 years ago but has been remarkably restored. Its quite a big place and modern with heaps of bars, cafes, internet cafes and a uni. This place is totally undeveloped but modern at the same time..

Last night some familiar travelling faces, that keep popping up in my travels and I went out to El Sotareno, which is this great old bar that's been going for 46 years and plays nostalgic old tunes including tango, bolero, ranchera and milonga from scratched vinyls. Not normally my style of music but atmosphere was awesome and everyone there was super friendly. It also has the cheapest beer in town! A top night was had..

Went back into the hills today to check out ´market day´in a little town, a couple of hours away called Silvia. It was cool. Lots of indigenous indians, rock up in the chivas (big old painted truck/bus thingies) to trade their wares and veggies so was very colourful and buzzing...

Tomorrow am leaving Colombia (sob) and going to Ecuador (yeah). Should be about a 9 hour bus ride but on good roads with spectacular views. Have already decided next time i´m coming back to SA am going to do it on a motor bike. Got inspired by a Japanese girl i meet who travelled from Chile, all the way up to Colombia by bike on her own! Impressive...

So signing off from Colombia. It has been a truly brilliant experience with the friendliest and most generous people i have every meet. Not to mention the spectacular country side and archaeology and colonial history...Get over here ASAP!

Hasta luego,
d.

San Augstin and the tomb raiders

Hola!

Volcano walk didn´t work out due to a problems with the guide...So decided to hit the road again and head down south. Nb camera is alive again after its swim, still no screen but am getting pretty good at shot-guessing..Have also gone and added some pix to last post.

Its a hot afternoon and have just spent a dusty morning riding around to check out some pre-inca archaeological sites consisting of tombs and carved stone statues. I went with a couple of fellow american and german travellers that are staying at Casa De Francisco, a funky hostel on top of a hill overlooking the town. It was great riding, through, farmland, coffee plantations and a little jungle. The horses were pretty spirited so we got quite a bit of a gallop in. All for $6, with guide!





A bit about the sites from the ´go.southamerica.about.com´ website "The sites are relics of a civilization that that flourished and died between the 6th century B.C and 12th A.D.. Thought to be a cultural center and used by a succession of varied indigenous groups that disappeared before the Incas arrived on the scene, this region has several sites with the same type of statues and carvings, but the most important is the site at San Agustín, now the Parque Arqueológico de San Agustín, and listed in 1995 on the World Heritage List of UNESCO.

The park sprawls over an area of 500 square kilometers and is considered the largest of the pre-Columbian sites in South America, and brings together cultural influences from peoples of the Andes, Amazonia and the Caribbean groups. Though not much is known of the cultures who created the statues, dolmens and carvings, these relics tell a tale of their own. The lush landscape serves as a foil for statues representing mythical and real creatures, perhaps gods and actual men, as well as the Goddess of Motherhood. There are about 500 statues and tombs are scattered in groups over an area on both sides of the Rio Magdalena Gorge, and there may be more undiscovered to date."

So potential tomb raiders take not of the last bit of the above. If anyone is keen?

Arrived yesterday after a uneventful but windy overnight bus ride from Salento. Managed to find my way up the hill to Fransico´s chilled out hill top retreat. There are several buildings mostly constructed from bamboo and mud brick. Fransico is a French guy, no surprises who arrived here some 15 years ago and setup the hostel. It´s good having a kitchen again and this am had a smothie-off - who could create the best smoothie..My mango, pineapple, banana and yogurt number was a knockout!

Tomorrow i´m heading to Tierradento, which has more archaeological ruins including impressive tombs. Is a 7 hour or so bumpy and dusty ride..yeah!
later,
d.

Salento - a lush mountain paradise

Finally left Bogota after a very,very big night with the hostel crew that involved the local rum and the other stuff that begins with c. Am getting way too old for this but when in rome i guess...Can understand why so many aussies can´t leave that great town and its abundance.

Shared overnight bus with some over `Bogota Escapees' to Armenia (Colombia), arriving at the very wrong hour of 4:30am. Then a short bus ride to the gorgeous Salento situated on a plateau surrounded by mountains and some of the lushest and greenest valleys i have ever seen. The town is small, untouristy and super friendly. People actually come up to us and thank us for visiting their town and country. No wonder Colombia was voted number 2 for having the happiest people (src: mum). The ´Plantation Hostel' ison a ridge overlooking a valley 10 mins walk from the centre. Its run by a super friendly English Tim and his colombian wife.
Yesterday a group of us went for a great hike through some stunning cloudforest at a nearby town called Cocora to see the 40m wax palms that are unique to this area. Tomorrow poss off for a 3 day hike to a 5000m volcano. Bring it on!

Last night a group of us from the hostel went out to play ´Tajeo´. Basically u have to ´throw a metal disc at a clay target several metres away and get points on how close u get to the target. There is also paper envelopes filled with gun powder pasted on a metal ring in the clay and if u hit them the right way..BOOM!!..Interesting and original. The locals playing on the full size ring were very impressive. One of crew is a journalist and is going to do a story on it. I want to bring it back home...Though could have some trouble getting it passed by the police and licensing and gaming authorities, not too mention work place health and safety! U don´t actually get charged to play the game but are expected to buy a few beers. Our crew bought beers and the evil aquadente, a local version of sambucca.

Sorry there are no photos on this post. Unfortunately i managed to get my camera wet so couldn´t take pix. This is after accidentally sitting on it in Bogota and killing the lcd screen! I could still take photos before yesterday without seeing what i was taking! 3 cameras in 1 year! Might be going back to disposables afer this! I´m drying it out now so hopefully it can be brought back to life.

Ok time to get away from the computer and to take a leisurely stroll around town.

Chow,
Global tripper!