Taganga & Parque Nacional Tayrona - Week 46

27th July to 3rd August



We took a local bus to the terminal in Cartagena and got driven directly to the bus to Santa Marta by our 'friendly' bus driver. Aaaargh!!! Why didn't we check it? It sure enough arrived at Santa Marta but only one bus broke down requiring THREE changes of bus and 7 hours. (It's meant to be direct and 4 hours).



Anyway, we didn't hang around in Santa Marta (had been warned it was a dump) but jumped straight in a collectivo to Taganga, a little fishing village around the bay. Taganga was very nice and relaxed and we checked into Casa Felipe, a nice little hostel up the hill.



Our first day was spent lounging in hammocks in the sun, working on the tans and reading books. There was a thunderstorm in the afternoon so we raced down through the village to the sea in just our cossies for a swim - it was fab! We were sharing a room with an English/Columbian couple and three irish lads so that night James went out with them to find some 'action'! (Katie couldn't be arsed). Taganga was dead and so it was into in Santa Marta, for a super dance club. We realised we had no money after the 10,000 peso entry fee and the 7,000 peso beers. It was interesting to see the Colombian women all dressed up for the night - all verging on supermodels. But after one beer and dancing to hardcore drum & bass - which always has seemed a bit shit, and now at 30 years of age has turned into disbelief that people actually get enjoyment from listening to such crap - it was time to head back after just an hour.



Early the next morning we left Taganga for Parque Nacional Tayrona. Three buses and two hours later we had arrived and we were so pleased to be there - it was spectacular! We walked from the entrance for 1 1/2 very hot but incredible beautiful hours through rainforest and accross beaches until we reached the final beach and our home for two nights - a couple of hammocks on the beach. And what a beach!





We were there in time for an afternoon of sunbathing and reading and a little explore further around the bay for the sunset:











The next morning we did a very sweaty hike for an hour up to 'Pueblito' which were some ruins dating back to 1500 AD. It was no Macchu Picchu but interesting and very pretty nevertheless!




The afternoon was spent predictably, swimming, reading and sunbathing on deserted beaches (James even got his kit off at the nudist section but luckily for you we don't have a photo) and was great!

Once we were back in Taganga we had planned to go diving but as we had met people that had said it wasn't too exciting we sacked that idea and took a boat to a beach further round the bay. The sea was very good, perfect temperature and lovely and clear for swimming but the beach was crap. Never mind, we borrowed some chairs and had a tasty fish lunch and did lots of swimming!

We couldn't resist a bottle of rum in the evening and passed a very pleasant few hours playing cards and getting steadily rat-arsed...

The next day we took the bus (direct and air conditioned!!) back to Cartagena and decided to stay in the fancy resort part of Bocagrande for a change. Ooops!! Mega-pricey and really not that nice. We did find a reasonable room though and had a very naughty McDonalds... Our final day was spent at a couple of museums in the old town and doing a bit of admin. Oh, and a spot of shopping for Columbian emeralds! Katie may be sporting the greenest engagement ring ever when she gets home!

Cartagena & Playa Blanca - Week 45

22nd to 26th July

We arrived in Cartagena at about 5pm and as we got off the plane we felt the wall of heat - lovely! - like a holiday in a holiday.

Flying in to Cartagena

It was 31 degrees and quite humid so we quickly checked into Hotel Marlin with air-con and then walked over to the old city to have a look.

Cartagena is thought to be the best preserved example of colonial architecture in South America, with a beautiful historical section within the city walls. But because it is so well preserved it is also incredibly touristy and very expensive. We spent ages on our first evening in the old city trying to find somewhere to eat and ended up in a reasonable pasta place where we spent the most that we'd spent on a meal for months (about $25 - not in the budget!!).

It was nice to spend a couple of days mooching around the old city and walking the wall forts. We popped into a few churches and found shady spots in the lovely squares to drink lovely cold beers straight from the fridge in the supermarket!

Katie's always posing

Statue of Simon Bolivar - the liberator of Colombia from the Spanish

Typical colonial mansion

We also visited the fort of San Felipe, the largest fort in South America! The whole of Cartagena is one large fort really due to its importance to the Spanish. The majority of the wealth the Spanish made in gold and silver was stored here before being shipped back to Spain. For this reason Cartagena was a prime target for pirates, with countless attacks over the years. In 1586 our man Sir Francis Drake (probably the worst of all the pirates) attached Cartagena with 1,300 men. Then in 1697 the French pirates Baron de Pontis and Ducasse attacked with 10,000 men. The largest attack by far was by Sir Edward Vernon with 27,000 men and 3,000 pieces of artillery. He failed though as he was thwarted by the hero Blas de Lezo with one eye, one arm and one leg!! With his men he defended the city of Cartagena against the English for 56 days, finally defeating the English pirates.

Blas de Lezo

After exploring Cartegena, we decided to take a boat out to some of the islands nearby and to what people kept describing as the nicest beach around, to stay the night.

We had a row with the boat people about prices and once we'd got them down from an extortionate price to a less extortionate price, settled on the boat ready for the 'cruise' to the islands. Hmmm, first stop was Isla Rosario where the only attraction to see was the aquarium (apparently it is a beautiful island but we couldn't get anywhere else on it) so we went for a lovely swim instead.

The next (and final!) stop was Playa Blanca on Isla Baru and they weren't wrong about it being a great beach - it was like paradise!

Thinks he Hasselhof or something...

We were also really pleased and smug that we'd decided to stay overnight as between 2pm and 3pm all the tourist boats descend and it is mahem but after they have all left by 3.30pm it is absolutely beautiful and very tranquil. I think there were about 20 other backpackers dotted around but we barely saw anyone all evening (we've finally got a bit bored of making conversation with other sweaty backpackers that we're never going to see again and have become somewhat reclusive!).

Our 'cabaña'

The sunset was gorgeous and the swimming perfect.

The night in the cabaña was really hot and sweaty so we were up and in the sea by 7.30. The swimming was just so good. Lovely clear water and perfect temperature.


It was a perfect couple of days but also very nice to get back to the air-con in Cartagena!

Bogota (Columbia) - Week 45

19th - 21st July

We arrived in Bogota at about 9pm and checked in to Hostel Internacional, carefully selected from the travel guide. This has got to be the worst recommendation yet. I mean, the bible is often wrong but this place was awful. After a terrible night's sleep, we went on a mission to find a new hostel. Easier than it sounds! All the places recommended in the book were awful and in the end we plumped for Hotel Dorantes, once we had knocked the price down. Still overpriced and not good but at least it had a mattress thicker than 5mm!

We walked up to the main street and saw that it had all been blocked off. We assumed another demonstration - the south americans just love'em! - but then we realised that we had arrived on independence day and the grand procession was about to start. It went on for ages and there were some really good bands. This was also James's first proper look at the famously beautiful Columbian women and he wasn't disappointed! We then walked up to the main square in the old town to try and get a look at the soldiers marching but we all got herded away down the side streets so no-one could see anything!

As it was Independence Day, all the museums were free so we took advantage and first went to test our Spanish in the National Museum (not good enough, incidentally) which had a lot of paintings from Colonial times and quite a bit of pottery (more arrowheads, getting a bit bored of them to be honest...!).

In the afternoon we went to the Gold Museum which was amazing. Gold has been used extensively all through Columbian history and the museum had huge quantities of beautifully preserved pieces:

Gold was used for ceremonial dress, as decoration in temples and there was even a fancy dress kit that the shamans used to pretend to be bats!

Most of the pieces were amazing quality and really detailed:

This little raft above is the prize of the collection as it holds great significance. Many of you may have heard of "El Dorado, The Gilded Man", possibly from the excellant childrens cartoon, The Mysterious Cities of Gold!! One of the main reasons the Spanish came to South America was to search for this mythical place with endless gold. Well apparently it may have not been so mythical. There is a crater lake in Northern Colombia called Lake Guatavita. Here each new king covered himself in gold powder, went out on his raft onto the lake (see above) and jumped in till all the gold washed off, followed up by gold offerings thrown into the lake - they are crazy these old civilizations! This got back to Europe, and with Chinese whispers became a city of gold. The Spaniards found the crater, cut a large v-section on one side of the crater to try and drain the lake, then find the gold. For some reason this never worked and so as far as we know all the gold still lies at the bottom of the lake!!

A mask placed over the face of a king when he was buried, in the shape of a puma as with all things South American!:

They have so much gold in this museum that I think someone got bored and made a muriel covering the walls of a whole room out of a few spare nose rings! It was stunning:

That night we decided to take a taxi to the party zone (Zona Rosa) of Bogota to see how the young and beautiful do things in Columbia! Basically, there were lots of bars selling very good pints (not seen proper pints of ale for a long time) at extortionate prices, two pounds fifty!! We were hoping for a mega-party as it was independence day but apparently a lot of people celebrate at home so it wasn't any busier than usual. Good fun though.

On Saturday we tried again to find some decent food to eat (in vain, Katie had a revolting breakfast) and having decided that Bogota was really a bit rubbish (crap food, crap hotels, crap weather) and that we didn't want to take an overnight bus, that we would do our final bit of flashpacking and book return flights to Cartagena!!! (Call ourselves 'travellers'!).

Flights booked, we walked up to the former house of Simon Bolivar who was the main man in the liberation of South America. The house is very pretty with lovely gardens. See typical flower of Latin America:

Next, we took the cable car up Monserrate which is one of the peaks (3210m) to the east of the city. There was a great view from up there and various little walk ways to have a wander round.

After another rubbish meal, we headed to another area of Bogota with plenty of little bars and pubs. We forgave Bogota when we got there, it was great! Two little narrow streets packed with cosy makeshift bars and cheap beer. Every bar was packed with students and playing great music. We even had a delicious pizza!

The next morning we were even more taken with Bogota when we found a wicked french cafe with croissants to rival france and the best coffee we have had in six months. And then it was time to catch our flight, but we will be back and this time we'll know where to go!

Books we read: Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte - tragic but great

Quito - Week 44

15th - 18th July

We managed to spend from 10am to 6pm 'travelling' from Chugchilan to Quito but there were only two buses and about 5 hours altogether actually getting anywhere. Lots of waiting around! We could only buy standing tickets for the 3 1/2 hour journey from Sigchos to Quito. Katie was lucky to sit herself in seat of a bloke trying to pull a girl that happened to be sitting two seats in front so he was perfectly happy to give up his seat for the whole journey in order to impress!! It was all altogether more unpleasant for James, however, hanging on round the hairpin bends every 200m and trying to stay upright over the potholes...

We checked into a hostel in the new town which is great for a few days - tons of restaurants, bars and casinos to amuse ourselves in. Having said that, we were in bed early after the knackering day of buses.

Monday was spent 'getting organised'. We did washing, swapped books, ate curry and finally booked our Galapagos trip! We fly on 20th August - very exciting! We spent the next three days taking as much cash each day out of the cash machines as we could and worriedly hurrying across the road to the travel agent. The rest of the time we spent exploring. On Tuesday afternoon we went to the Museo Nacional which was excellent. They have a lot of very impressive pieces of pottery etc and it told a very good story of Ecuadorean history.

On Tuesday night, we met up with 'army' Steve that we had travelled with for a few weeks in Bolivia and his roommate, Will from France. There is a happy hour in every bar in The Mariscal (the area where we are staying) so it got a bit messy. At about 10pm we decided that karaoke was the way forward and it was hilarious. In the first bar we went to there were a couple of women in their 30s and a 40 year old business man in a suit (all locals, of course). James started of the singing with his party piece that is 'Faith' by Micheal Jackson and things went on from there...

The bar man and business man were both fantastic singers and were interspersing our terrible, drunken efforts with brilliantly sung local songs. James spent most of the time being chatted up by the two desparados and doing zambuca shots, Katie got smarmed on by the businessman (and he made me sing a local song that I'd never heard before), and we all got very drunk. The next bar was a busier but still we were the only gringos. They were apparently all having a lovely time with their local songs 'til we rocked up and promptly sang 'Daydream Beleiver', 'La Isla Bonita' and 'Without You'. Very funny. By the time we got bored of that bar it was 3.30am, just time for a quick burger before bed!

Wednesday wasn't up to much except sleeping, over-eating and collecting Katie's jumper that she left in the karaoke bar. We did manage to get to the cinema to watch a rubbish Jack Black film (very disappointing) and checked out the shopping malls for shopping before we leave to come home. In the evening we met up with the girls that we met in Chugchilan and went to a pub quiz in an English pub.

On Thursday, we finally managed to get ourselves out of the Mariscal and into the old town for a bit of sightseeing. The old town is lovely with a lot of colonial buildings and a large central square with a big cathedral:

We visited a really good museum all about the colonial times in Ecuador with a scary recreation of the 1809 massacre of some of the revolutionaries in the basement! We also went to the top of the basilica for a fantastic view of the city. Inside the basilica itself was also beautiful.

We got back to the new town with plenty of time to finalise flight details for Galapagos, have a curry etc etc. Then we checked our flight tickets and realised that we were an hour late for our flight to Bogota! After lots of panicking, the most frustrating traffic in the world and a run through the airport and we arrived in time for boarding. The flight was the best yet with a glass of champers before we even set off, delicious food and lots of red wine - just what the doctor ordered!

Books we read: The Cupboard Full of Life by Alexander McCall-Smith

The Quilatoa Loop - Week 44

12th - 14th July

From Baños, we decided to take a detour on the way to Quito to 'do' the Quilotoa Loop which everyone told us was beautiful but a bit painful on the old transport front. It is a 200km circuit off the main highway through the mountains and back again.

We got up early to take the 7am bus to Latacunga and then took the next bus out at 10am to Quilatoa to the gorgeous crater lake:


Apparently there is a 5 hour hike from here to our ultimate destination for that day but we wimped out on that (using the heaviness of backpacks as a good excuse) and waited for the next bus at 2pm!

We arrived in Chugchilan 24km and 1 1/2 hours later, I kid you not, the roads are really bad and every couple of kilometers people were being dropped off at their houses along the way. The bus was so full that women were passing the kids and shopping out of the windows to their husbands!

We stayed at Mama Hilda's (James was getting annoyed with Katie who kept referring to it as Madame Hilda's by accident, he said it sounded like we were staying at the local knocking shop) which is a lovely homely place where you eat every meal together with the other guests, family-style. Good job as Chugchilan is tiny and very poor. There are no restaurants, just one shop with a shelf of fruit varying between 1 week and 3 months old and a couple of bottles of coke:


On Friday morning we were up early as we had been told about a lovely hike to a European cheese factory. Now that is worth getting up early for!! The weather was perfect and the whole walk took us through scenery like this:





We must have been very keen for the cheese because we were told the walk would take 2 1/2 hours and we did it in an hour 20 mins!

Mozzarella in process

We bought a big lump of emmenthal and a quarter of lovely soft Andean cheese and couldn't wait to get back and get it eaten (we haven't had any decent cheese since the last cheese factory we went to in Costa Rica, 7 months ago!).

On the way back, we passed the cloud forest and more stunning scenery:


We were back at Mama Hilda's for about 3 and through lack of anything else to do in Chugchilan, drank a fair few beers and played lots of cards with fellow backpackers!

On Saturday we started out on a walk down into the gorge and to walk along the river. Unfortunately, we went wrong somewhere (still no idea where!) and ended up walking an hour steeply downhill in the wrong direction. Luckily, everywhere you look in this area is stunning so we weren't too upset!

When we finally got back to the starting point, we stopped for a little cheese break (delicious!) and then set out in the other direction to a lovely viewpoint of the valley:

This was typical of the food we could have eaten if Mama Hilda hadn't been cooking up a storm for us:!

Typical pig on the top of a bus...