Week 49 - Venezuela

Fasten your seatbelts ladies and gentleman, it´s going to be a bumpy ride!

What a beach!

Cruisin!

Salto Angel and its 983 meters of glory!

The crooked table mountain opposite Angel Falls

Como Estas Amigos!

Welcome back to our real and uncensored blog.

We have been bumming the Venezuelan country making some serious ground.

Everyone is always talking about Chavez and maybe even someone you know could be delusional and think that Chavez is doing a good thing here. I won´t turn this into a political debate, but rather I´ll give an example of good and bad.

Starting with the good - Gasoline: How much is a liter of gas in Europe again, something like $2 (meaning almost $8/gallon). It’s about $4/gallon in the US, well try and guess what it is in Venezuela. I can´t tell you the exact price because it’s never posted. I mean, do they post the price of breathing air in England or the US? No, do they post the price of crossing the street, no, why, because its free. Well you might be catching on. Whilst it’s not exactly free to fill up our bus (think a big passenger bus) costs less than a dollar, roughly about 1 cent US/liter or 4 cents/gallon! I´m not joking!

Now let me tell you about Chavez´s policy to help encourage foreign investment and help boost the country´s economy. His regime has an interesting policy we have been learning about, if a business is successful and making a lot of money, its nationalized! This has happened in a lot of instances in Venezuela.

What have we been up to: Caracas > Ciudad Bolivar > Canaima > Merida

Monday - Passing Chavez´s palace: We arrived several hours before sunlight at Caracas airport, not due to poor planning, but due to an airline scam (let’s not get started on this topic). When you get to Caracas airport at this time of the night - safety is a concern and considering we were to leave on the first bus out of town, we decided to just chill for 3-4 hours and then we took a taxi at first light to the bus station. In our taxi we passed Chavez´s "presidential" palace and then we boarded our 10 hour bus south to the Ciudad Bolivar (which translates to Bolivar City, named after the hero Simon Bolivar who liberated Venezuela from the Spanish). There we were happy to enjoy a rest after a long time of travelling and a lot of stress.

Tuesday - Beer Garden on the Orinoco River: Today was time for us to get back into a human form and to chill. We successfully planned our trip to Angel Falls this day and enjoyed being on the banks of the Orinoco River. Being both from river towns, me on the Mississippi river in Missouri and Marina the Volga River in Samara, this was a sublime place to enjoy a beer. You might even be able to call the place a beer garden if you had never heard of Germany or their beer gardens.

Wednesday to Friday - Angel Falls: We boarded our small aircraft and were on our way to Canaima, which is a tiny town in the jungle which doesn´t have any roads connecting it to the outside world. That day we didn´t head up the river to Angel Falls instead we visited El Sapo Falls which is kind of like a mini Iguazu Falls with many separate waterfalls. We were able to sit in the small falls enjoying a water massage on our backs and later we hiked under the biggest falls viewing the blanket of water which masked the sky. This was not a dry activity and we were utterly soaked! The entire area is almost out of a story book and easily could be the attraction rather than Angel Falls. I told our guide Angel Falls or not, this place was worth the trip. We later sat on the beach of the lagoon. Picture this, red water from the tannins of the trees, palm trees coming from the water in front, and huge cascading water falls to the right! All around a lush tropical area! Forget my description - enjoy the picture!
The next day we headed for the falls. We had a 4 hour boat trip upstream, but this was not uncomfortable in our little canoe with an engine in the back, this again was worth the entire trip. All around are Table Mountains decorating the landscape! If you’re unfamiliar with what one is, it’s a mountain that looks like a table, thus a table mountain! :D We took pictures the whole way enjoying the views whilst the time flew by. In fact, not too far away, is Roraima, the world´s largest table mountain. If we were to come back to Venezuela, this would be the reason, but certainly not in the rainy season. The rainy season is prime time for Angel Falls, but not for Roraima. As we approached the falls in our boat we could see what locals call Salto Angel in the distance with all its grandeur! We had an hour hike from there to see it up close. At this vantage point, I could have easily sat there for hours just watching it, which is really the first time I´ve thought that about a waterfall. Until, our guide Jorge told us we could swim at the bottom of Angel Falls! The water was cold, but it felt good and it was certainly one of the best places I´ve ever swam in my life! What a view. Angel falls is tall, but to clarify, its the tallest in the world and is 983 meters or in my hometown terms, you would need to stack 5 St. Louis Arches to reach the top! This thing is massive! We camped nearby in hammocks for the night and were able to go to a viewing point for the late evening in the dark and for the sunrise. This trip was one of the best we have taken in our entire trip and seeing Angel Falls is certainly a top three for our South America trip! On Friday we caught a flight back to Ciudad Bolivar, cleaned up, and took the night bus for Merida.

Saturday - Bariosca Carioca Bar: If you thought we had a long day travelling well it didn´t finish early as we hoped. We had a change at Barinas which is just by Hugo Chavez´s home town. There we learned the road was closed so we had a long long wait and change of buses to get around it. At one point we all had to carry our luggage climbing dirt hills to switch buses. This wasn´t bad for Marina and I who are used to trekking around, but the Venezuelans, many with kids, didn´t seemed so thrilled. By 9pm (over 24 hours of travel) we made it to our destination; the mountain, University, and adventure town of Merida. That night we celebrated our arrival by finding a fun bar, which had a lot of students and we enjoyed far too many cheap $0.60 beers!

So what’s next for our LAST week in South America, we are planning to do something adventurous in Merida, but we are not sure yet. Afterwards we head up to the coast for either Morrocoy or Henri Pittier National Park for some tropical beach time.

Until next time,

Ciao amigos!

Dan and Marina

Week 48 - Mystery Island

Hola Chicos (hint hint)

Sadly, but wisely I have been advised by my Russian cohort not to comment on this past week. All is fantastic, but politics, etc...

We are now back in Venezuela and the blog will commence next week as planned.

Hopefully with a great story and pictures from our trip to Angel Falls!!!

Hasta Luego!

Dan and Marina

PS Drop us an email if you have any questions.

Week 47 - Aruba

The Fam!

Marina and Lauren over the Natural Bridge

Grillin it up!

Why do they call it Baby Beach?

Mia is just hanging around..

Hello Mr Iguana...

Bondia!

Welcome to "One happy island" as the Arubans call it. We´ve now been on the road for about 11 months and let me say, we needed this trip. It couldn´t have been a better time seeing my family and my new niece and sharing the amazing tropical island of Aruba!

For those who haven´t followed up on UB40´s song Kokomo to see where Aruba is, I´ll clarify, its only 16 miles (25km) off the western coast of Venezuela. Sadly, no we couldn´t take a boat there, but it’s hard to get jet lag when you are only in the air for 30 minutes ;D The island was part of the Nederland Antilles and has now sprung free from Dutch and their French fries with mayonnaise, but the windmills remain. The island is about 20 miles long (32km) and averages about 4 miles (7km) wide; certainly a little tiny island paradise.

Sometimes it’s hard not knowing you’re in the US. Most transactions are in US Dollars, however they do have their currency the Guilder - remember that one Europeans... You have many of the luxuries of American life - fast food. Yes, you will see the main ones, plus my personal favorite, Taco Bell, which is really the only one I eat. As far as languages go, yes, they speak Dutch, but not as a first language. English is seemingly spoken by EVERYONE, although the main language is Papiamento an indigenous language which from what I could tell contains, spanish, dutch, english and local words.

One of the best things about Aruba is that it´s not in the Hurricane zone and its temperatures are the same year round at 28C or 82F. They also have a limited amount of rain, most of which is in the autumn so really a tropical paradise!

We hired a villa near the north of the islands which was just down the street from the big hotels, allowing us the comforts of good restaurants and bars nearby. Only a 5 minute drive away was one of Aruba´s best two beaches, Arashi beach. I have to give Craig my brother-in-law big credit for finding this gem. When you have 8.5 people, I much prefer to have everyone together in one accommodation and since we aren´t from Arkansas, we couldn´t share one hotel room. The villa was the perfect overload of luxury to help balance out our time roughing it and in the jungle.

Saturday - Family Reunion: Marina had a lot of stress before we left as she was exempt from a visa for Aruba due to her UK residence permit, however it took time in the Dutch embassy in Buenos Aires to even confirm this, causing a doubt she would even be allowed on. Thankfully to the Venezuelan scamsters checking in people and demanding a $50pp fake tax, they were too preoccupied to check visas and simply let her on the plane. Once we landed in Aruba, they knew the drill and it was no drama. Except for Jennifer Hudson jumping the line in front of us - you think these celebrities would be a bit more considerate, not that I would.. ;D Once we passed though the baggage claim area I was like a kid on Christmas day - so happy to see my family. At one year since I had seen them last and Jared and Lauren my nephew and niece have certainly grown as you expect, but are never ready for. Seeing my precious new niece Mia (4 months old) was amazing), but difficult to keep Marina away from her - we still have lots of places to see first! That night, we all went for a dinner in the Marriott and back to the pool for beers and relaxing.

Sunday - Arashi Beach: Craig and I went for a run in the morning, whilst Marina and I are in pretty good shape, we haven´t been running for quite some time before our trip. Thankfully Craig took it easy on me as we had several distractions such as getting a car. The villa was slightly too far for walking so we rented one of those big vans you see in gangster movies during drive by shootings, except a bit nicer and more windows. My mom really loved the beach and turquoise water at Arashi, I think she certainly has her sea legs! Julie (my sister) did a great job keeping Mia out of the sun and that baby just doesn´t fuss much. Heat, sun, salt water, they all seemed to make her happy, especially as she drank the seawater off her hands and other peoples. That night, Julie, Craig, Marina and I went for drinks doing a mini pub crawl to about 6 places. I think it was more of an attempt to find normal beer, no I don´t mean American beer, I mean beer which is at least 330ml (12oz)! They love their small beers in Aruba and during the night, it’s not that hot that you need them. I guess I could say these tiny beers make my hands look bigger, but they don´t treat my liver well... I think they have dumped big beers and kept charging the same for these tiny ones.. Occasionally we found a few places with normal size Coronas. I didn´t see any local beer - Balashis which was up to a normal size.

Monday - Natural Bridge: Today we did a tour of the island from top to bottom. Our first main stop was Baby Beach which is in my opinion, the nicest on the island. Firstly it was entirely secluded with no other people or any sign of commercialism. The waves are much nicer on Baby Beach compared to Arashi which is very calm. Jared and Lauren enjoyed jumping the waves and I even think Mia enjoyed the occasional splash in the face as we would see her lapping up the salt water off her lips. Later we drove to the Natural Bridge, not to be compared to the one in St.Louis or with our van the police certainly would have stopped us. The Natural Bridge is a stone bridge with a great array of colors in the water and nearby the waves crash in hard spraying water up to 10 meters (33ft) in the air! That night, we had a gluttonous BBQ, that’s what happens when several people go shopping, cooking up ribs, burgers, and chicken. We then swam off the calories in the pool discussing lizards spottings and how dangerous they "could possibly" eat the young ones..

Tuesday - Amazonia: Robin (Craig´s mom) and my mom, led the hunt for souvenirs this morning before we went to Iguana Joes for lunch. Note the name Iguana and Jared´s phobia of lizards, well planned I would say.. We later took the cooler up to Arashi beach and had a few beers enjoying the water and dunking Lauren and Jared; mostly Jared though as he is kind of an instigator to put it mildly. Seeing Amazonia you might have expected something from Brazil or Colombia, but it’s a fantastic Brazilian Churrascaria where they bring the sticks of meat and fill your belly until you´re ready to explode! Not that a fully belly would stop us having a good crazy night. Once we had everyone back in the car and one their way home went out for some gambling and drinks. Craig and Julie did well, but I´ll have to put the blame for our small losses on my better half ;D The wheels came off in the sports bar when we played pool and Golden Tee for shots, ouch.

Wednesday - Beach hopping: I didn´t expect we would find a better beach than Baby or Arashi, but it’s always worth exploring. We checked out Eagle beach by the Marriott and it was calm and perfect for the little one, but not our favorite. We stopped home getting a beer cooler and made our way up to Arashi. That night we went for all-you-can-eat fajitas. Delicious, but two nights in a row for all-you-can-eat is a killer on the waistline, but yummy! :D

Thursday - Goodbyes: Our last day on the island. Marina and I really wished we had a few more days there, but back to the crazy unexpected adventures of backpacking. It was very much a relaxing time, not only because we spent time with the people we love, but because we could truly relax from travels. No new faces, no worries watching our bags and hiding our stuff in the room, but just easy enjoyable conversation and stories with each other. They checked in around 1:30 and we went to wait for our flight back to Caracas. Unfortunately which was delayed by a few hours in Curacao, where we changed planes. Getting to Caracas after 10pm is never a great idea, but it went ok and I´m writing you from the lobby of our hotel.

So what is next; today we fly out to let’s call it a Big island famous for a tasty drink and certain largely rolled cigarettes - and no I don´t mean Jamaica. For political and legal reasons we will just call it Che Island.

Week 46 - Venezuela

We was rockin!!

The dunes

Hola chicas!

The rooftop of our posada

Coro´s cathedral

Hola Chicos!

I´m not sure if you are aware, but Venezuela is not the most well travelled country and most backpackers we met, have shied away from Venezuela - which was a big mistake for them. So far, we have found Venezuela to be somewhat out of the Twilight Zone. Mr Chavez´s so called "social" changes are mind boggling. Nonetheless, the people have been very warm and receptive and I have quickly realised the amount of time we have for Venezuela is not nearly enough.

For anyone who thinks this is a socialist country, think again. Marina certainly knows a few things about the subject...... It´s about as socialist looking as Texas! You can certainly get free schooling, but the teachers are paid about $2 a day and some students we have met, said their teachers haven´t been paid for 5+ months! You can imagine the quality of teachers you get in this scenario. Sadly, many of the students want to leave Venezuela, therefore many have a reasonable grasp of English and were eager to speak about the situation.

With Socialism as a mask, the leaders of Venezuela are seemingly doing a lot more taking than giving and the place has many woes. Most people think that if Chavez loses the next upcoming election, his army will fight, initiating a civil war. All over you can see "We love Chavez, and the revolution" - obviously not in English though.. We haven´t met anyone who has liked him yet and most have described him as dangerous or crazy.

Although, it seems the Venezuelans persevere and are high spirited. I've felt very looked after by people, advising us on both safety and nice places to go. Just today, a lady in our shared taxi went in to the hotel with us to ensure we were ok and were given a room with no problem.

Venezuelan Currency Scam: This is the most bizarre thing I've ever seen in my travels regarding money! There are ATMs everywhere, but if you use them, you will get the official rate that is set by the Venezuelan Government which is roughly 4 Bolivars to the dollar. The currency is not convertible, meaning it can´t be traded on the market so the government sets the rates. With the combination of this and a severe shortage on US Dollars (the currency used widely) you obtain a 8.5 Bolivar to the dollar rate. Yes, you read correctly, by trading US dollars you get more than double!!! This is not scam on the part of the people. Chavez apparently limits the amount US Dollars his people can have and also the amount allowed in the country so the demand is high. EVERYBODY wants dollars. We were buying coffee in a strip mall and the cashier asked me if we wanted to trade dollars. Every man and his dog have Bolivars to trade and so far it seems pretty legit, but you need to bargain a bit on the rate. On side note, they have a 12.5 centimos coin (like 12.5 cents) - bizarre huh, but again, its the land of Chavez!

Our route; Maracaibo > Coro > Caracas

Tuesday - Lights out: On the bus towards the Venezuelan boarder, we stopped for what seemingly was an accident. To my surprise there were 50-70 locals pilfering a bus of its contents. I was surprised to see the Colombian police just sit back and watch. Being that there were several dozen police, surely they could have prevented this. When I learned the situation, I don´t think I was too shocked. The bus was full of contraband (untaxed goods) and the locals typically raid these shipments as the police don´t care given its illegal items. Our experience on the boarder was stranger. We had been to two Venezuelan embassies in Colombia found incompetency at its highest and were concerned about the entry. As we approached the immigration office, the power was out and the guy didn't even look at our passports and just stamped us in. Bizarre. Sadly I have heard from a fellow traveller that this specific crossing is now closed. Thank God we made it!!! We stayed the night in Maracaibo and were just happy and content to stay in our hotel.

Wednesday - Parque National Medanos de Coro: The earsplitting loud bus ride to Coro was eventful. It seems like in the Caribean, the drivers are the owners of the bus and this one we took was fully decked out with hugh speakers and subwoofers. The driver didn´t take it easy on the volume either, blarring it at Metallica concert levels! Our path to Coro took us over what is said to be South America´s biggest lake and longest bridge, spanning 8.5km (5 miles). We arrived around midday and enjoyed strolling down the town´s cobblestone streets and admiring the colonial architecture. Late in the afternoon we made our way to their famous sand dunes. For as far as the eye can see they have huge gorgeous sand dunes which we hiked up and down meeting many Venezuelan high school students who were on a field trip there.

Thursday - Baking Hot Coro: If you think the SUN is hot, well you need to visit Coro! This place is said to be one of the hottest in Venezuela and its positively boiling. Certainly over 100F or 38C!! We opted for a gorgeous little posada (typical Spanish house with the garden in the middle) which was amazing, however it didn't have AC. Also with ground floor windows we closed them for safety reasons and it must have been 90F /34C in our room. We are really just looking forward to a nice night to sleep in AC. We didn't do much during the day, but enjoy Coro and relax before our upcoming crazy week...

Friday - Mountainous Caracas: Just as we were starting to enjoy Caracas and its stunning surrounding mountain scenery, we had a bit of an unexpected problem. In the form of a huge puddle of sewage water flying at us from a truck that raced through it. Yes, sadly on our way to this Internet cafe, we were covered in this disgusting water. However we haven´t let that ruin our day and laughed it off once we showered. Caracas doesn't have the best reputation in South America, but I think its going to be a pretty decent place. Our hotel is just across the street from the Caribbean Sea so our view is lush green mountains on one side and the sea on the other! Not bad.

So why am I writing so early; we have a new country to explore tomorrow, but more importantly we´re meeting our family in Aruba tomorrow! My mom, sister Julie, brother in law - Craig, Craig´s mom Robin, my niece Lauren, nephew Jared, and my brand new niece Mia are all going to be waiting for us when we land! Wish us luck that all goes smoothly with the journey there and We´ll have truly tropical adventures to report next week!

Hasta Luego,

Dan and Marina

Week 45 - Colombia

Colonial Cartagena

A Typical Taganga sunset, best served with an ice cold Poker cerveza!

The locals

Gorgeous!

The entry to Ciudad Perida

The Lost City´s terraces

Beach time in Tarona National Park

Hola Amigos!

Let me first say, man am I glad to be back in civilization (civilization being Taganga Colombia)!

North Colombia - many would correct me to say, northern Colombia, but I see the "situation" differently. Maybe it’s the American in me with the reputation of dividing countries, to get to the point - North Colombia is as shockingly different from the rest of the country as Count Dracula and the Staypuff marshmallow man! Maybe we have just been riding our luck with our great experiences in Colombia, but I truly believe the people are just worlds apart! Some people we meet will ask if we are getting tired of travelling after this long; we may be strange, but every day is so exciting and often a new amazing adventure, so no still really enjoying things. However when you get to certain areas where you are faced with scams, one after another, it does wear you down a bit... And No, we are coming home now ;)
North Colombia is that very area. I´ll give you a few examples and then tell you about all the fantastic things we have done despite this past week´s hassles.
- Sold dodgy boat tickets to Playa Blanca (beach): The seller tried to push us on a different boat that was going to charge us again. We endured 2 hours of stupidity by these boat guys and then decided to bail on the trip there.
- Bus trip to Santa Marta: The bus stopped half way to switch buses for some reason (our ticket was the whole way). We ensured there would be no charges and it was a transfer and had it confirmed by the new bus. When we sat down and the previous bus left, the same attendant came to us demanding money. After 20 or so minutes he caved and started asking for less money, proving without a doubt it was a scam. This guy sat in our faces for about 40 minutes trying to get us to break. Eventually he left us alone after giving us the transfer tickets for free.
- Receptionist at our hotel: She was angry we booked our tour to Ciudad Perida (The Lost City) through an agency rather than her, despite her not having told us she sells it and her lack of knowledge for even one word of English). She told us we had to cancel it and book it through her and then picked up the phone and asked us the company we booked through. When we didn´t tell her, she told us it would be an extortionate amount of money to store our luggage for the trip. When we said we would just checkout and pay for the previous night, she threatened to call the police saying it was 3pm and we owed her for two nights. I calmed her and say ok ok, we will stay. We went up to the room and then on our way down to the beach, the police were actually there!!!! I think the police were as surprised as we were when they found out why she called them (needless to say, we had no issue with them).

So this is North Colombia. I wrote the above a few days ago and since, we have heard numerous other similar situations from fellow travelers. Unfortunate for you to have to read the bad stuff, but I feel compelled to report the bad with the good. Luckily the good FAR outweighs the bad. If you are wondering, these are just a few of the dozens of incidents we have had with North Colombians - it’s really a shame as the people elsewhere in the country have been so warm and receptive!

Our path; Cartagena, Taganga, Ciudad Perida, Tarona Park

Monday - Coastal Colonial Cartagena: We arrived in the morning and once checked in to a hotel, were on our way to experience Cartagena´s charm. As you can read above, it wasn´t the people that made it special in ANY way, however the buildings are superb and a walk through the town is a real treat! We took in pretty much all the sites, most were makeshift to just charge money, but two were very nice; firstly the convento de san Pedro Claver. The convent of Saint Pedro Claver who is said to be a great friend and help to the many slaves that passed through Cartagena´s ports. The second was the naval museum showing the history of pirates and many of the great historical ships which sailed over the centuries, including the Cutty Sark! The backpacker scene in Cartagena is a lot of fun and we met a lot of people that night going to a few bars and listening to two live sax players.

Tuesday - Mud Volcano: Yes, I did say, Mud Volcano! Outside of Cartagena is a 15 meter (50 ft) tall volcano that spews mud! Which is apparently therapeutic mud so to the point that they sell a chance to sit in it. The mud goes all the way down 15 meters and you just float in this volcano´s core. It’s nearly impossible hard to submerge yourself! After 20 minutes, our skin was rejuvenated enough and after a dip in the nearby lake, I was happy to be clean; certainly a strange and unusual experience.

Wednesday - Casa Felipe Hostel: I am aware some of you reading this are not familiar with hostels and how you live. Well I can tell you that some are out of this world good! We arrived in Taganga this day ready for some chill time at the beach. A bit after a gorgeous red sunset, we made our way out for dinner at Casa Filipe Hostel - where we are now staying. Its rumored that the French owner and chef has a Michelin star when he worked in Europe. I can verify that his food is certainly good enough! For about $10 you get 2 Filet Mignons, cooked better than Argentine’s can and exactly like you request, covered in Blue Cheese sauce with veggies and potatoes - not bad for a hostel, and the meat is oh so tender! For an additional $3 you can get the chocolate brownie with chocolate chip ice cream. This certainly made up for all the scams we faced this day that I complained about above...

Thursday - Caribbean Diving: Possibly the cheapest diving in the world at $55 for two dives - Taganga is the place for cheap diving certifications, forget Koh Tao. We cruised out to the dive sites and had reasonably good dives, but excellent value. We saw a few moray eels swimming, prawns, lots of lion fish and a good amount of tropical fish. That night, where do you think we headed for dinner, yes, Casa Felipe!

Friday to Sunday - Ciudad Perida (The Lost City): The lost city of the Tarona people who are ranked up there with the Incas and Mayans as the most developed of the ancient people in the Americas. If you refer back to my remark on the Museo del Oro in Bogota and the well crafted Gold artifacts there, they were all done by the Tarona people. We purchased a six day hike to the so called Lost City, it really wasn´t that hard to find and let me say, they didn´t even have WIFI - seriously a lost city!! Marina and I are really becoming hardened trekkers. We finished the hike in 3 days, which was the first time our guide has ever finished so fast. To be exact, it was about 51 hours in the park, half of which we were trekking. The trek was gorgeous! On the way we saw Toucans, a coral snake, monkeys, frogs, and many gorgeous butterflies. Also along the way we met many of the indigenous people who are descendants of the Tayronas. We reached the city on the second day and walked around the bright green moss covered remains. They were terraces along the side of the mountain in which they lived and farmed. You will find it very interesting that the entire area of the train and even Ciudad Perida used to be covered in Coca plants just 6 years ago and the area was run by paramilitaries. Those of you in the US would have read many stories about the war on drugs. This is a good example of progress. We also had to cross many rivers, sometimes taking our shoes off and walking in waist deep water, others just hopping stones. Twenty minutes from finishing the trip, I slid off a rock and went for a splash, luckily all the electronics were ok even though me and my backpack went under the water!! So, we were able to laugh...

Monday - Parque Tarona: Yes, named after the Tarona people, the Park is a national park, but its main draw is the beaches. We left to go there straight from our Lost City trek and stayed Sunday night in hammocks. Despite the rain that late afternoon we still went and banked on it being nice for Monday and oh it was! The beaches are quite similar to the ones in the Seychelles; huge palm trees, lush green foliage, huge boulders on the beaches - its pristine. The other great thing is it’s not cheap to get in so the crowds are minimal and also that you have to hike to get there. Yes, we did a 3 day trek and then went straight to another.... I know, I know.. We relaxed there all day enjoying several different tranquil beaches and then took the speedboat back to Taganga where we sit and enjoy the knowledge of having a nice bed to sleep in tonight.

So, this is it, the end of our time..... in Colombia. Tomorrow, we are catching a bus for VENEZUELA!!! woohoo, bring it on Chavez!

Hasta Luego,

Dan and Marina

Week 44-Columbia

Bogota's salt cathedral

The Square in Bogota

Saltento's Giant Palms

Monumento a la Raza in Medellin

Botero's work

Hanging with Roberto Escobar


Hola amigos!

Let me say you shouldn't expect any fancy writing this morning. Weekends in Medellin are wickedly crazy and I put it up as one of the best in South America (one could argue the best)!

Before I get carried away about Medellin, let me tell you a few funny observations we have had in Colombia.

First and foremost, maybe since I´m American - Plastic Surgery - Colombia is said to be South America´s capital of Plastic Surgery and its also said that people travel from all over the world and especially the US to have operations performed here for 1/3 the price in their home countries. Just go out for a night on the town and you will see many recipients of the doctor´s handiwork. Apparently LASIC eye surgery was invented in Colombia.

Fernando Botero - you may or may not have heard of this guy, but he is the most famous Colombian artist. Have a look at the above bronze sculptures pictured, seem strange. Well they say the camera adds 15 pounds (I guess they say 5 or 10 kilos in Europe); Botero´s palette adds 100 pounds (45kg)!! At least! He is famous for making people and animals look as Cartman says "festively plump"! The paintings and sculptures are as interesting as amusing.

One of the frustrations of travelling is being overcharged. It happens everywhere, Europe, Asia, South America, etc. Much of the time it’s a small amount and you don´t notice. We had lunch a few days ago and I noticed the bill was higher than I expected. Unfortunately only after paying, I caught a quick glance at the next table´s bill it was 25% lower for the same food. We tried to argue it further, but they were not budging. In Colombia, the lunch specials are usually all the same price. Knowing they ripped us off and unable to get our money back we left quite peeved. Just to further on how nice some Colombians are; a lady dining in the restaurant was trying to help us as she figured out what they did. Unfortunately she couldn´t resolve the problem either, so just out of her generosity, purchased two drinks for us. No reason, but just to say sorry it seemed.

Our path this past week - Bogota > Salento > Manziales > Medellin

Sunday - Museo Del Oro: We arrived into Bogota around 7:30am it might have well been 5am with the amount of people out. Thankfully we checked into our hostel quickly and then were able to make our way out to explore the city. One of our first stops was the Museo Del Oro - South America´s biggest collection of gold artifacts! You could have bankrolled the Iraq War with the amount of gold in this place. Besides the quantity, the ornate metallurgy was superb for being made 2000 years ago! That night we went out with one of Marina´s classmates from her time studying English in London. Andres, who coincidentally is Colombian took us out to see the finer side of Bogota and enjoy a few fun bars. Its common in Colombia to order a bottle of alcohol instead of individual drinks, therefore it makes for a very messy night - I bet he really enjoyed work the next day...

Monday - Salt Cathedral: We made the 2 hour pilgrimage outside Bogota to a huge complex of salt mines. You wouldn´t believe it, but these seriously pious people, built a church down in the tunnels. When I say a church, I should say its more like a stadium church! You can fit nearly 10,000 people in this place and a whole lot more in the joining tunnels showing the Stations of the Cross! Meanwhile, everything was made of salt, well except the pews.

Tuesday - Solento before sunset: We had a long day travelling to get to Colombia´s coffee zone. Thankfully arriving in the gorgeous little town of Solento before sunset and enjoying the bright red landscape as the sun retreated. Later we sat in the lively, but relaxing square to enjoy a few beers.

Wednesday - Valle De Cocora: Any trip to Solento MUST include the plush green valleys of Cocora. This is the only place in the world where palm trees grow to such a height (60 meters, 130 feet)! We hiked through the forest and walked on fallen trees over small rivers reaching a small farm in the woods where we had a drink. Despite being in the coffee zone, Colombians seem to love hot chocolate, wait there´s a catch, with cheese! Yes, they dump a big piece of cheese in their hot chocolate. Later we hiked up to the viewing point to see a huge group of clouds along the tops of the trees and the giant palms in the distance.
That night we were kicked out of our first hostel in South America, the second on this trip. Different to our experience in Nepal, I think this guy was just crazy and stupid, not greedy. There was a mistake in the price we were quoted (only a few bucks so not a big deal), but the guy came to our room, seemingly drunk and started yelling. I guess he didn´t like that I laughed and told him this is not how to talk to people, so we got booted. As you would expect from my writing thus far, no he wasn´t Colombian, he was English - can you believe that.

Thursday - Chipre Monument: We arrived in Manizales around midday knowing there would not be a whole lot to see in this University/college town; the real attraction was the night life. Our one accomplishment in the day was reaching the high viewing area in this mountain town. Very different to St Louis´s monument to westward expansion, Manizales´ monument is to what seems, ´upward´ expansion; depicting the grueling effort required to build the town higher and higher. That night we were ready to paint the town red, but unfortunately the town was painted wet by torrential rains (typical in Colombia), however this didn´t stop us so we still went out and enjoyed a mediocre nightlife.

Friday - Beer Pong: Once we arrived in Medellin, the rains followed us shortly after. Thankfully we stayed in a fun and crazy hostel which kept us dry and having a good time. That night they arranged a beer pong game which me and my Aussie teammate dominated the tournament winning free beer for the prize!

Saturday - Pablo Escobar tour: I´m almost getting goose bumps writing you about yesterday! Wow, what a wicked time. If you don´t know who Pablo Escobar is, stop reading and Google him! He is the biggest drug dealer of all time, pretty much introduced cocaine to the world in the 70´s and was on Forbes’s list as the richest man in the world. Besides being a ruthless drug lord and mass murderer, he was a major philanthropist in his home down of Medellin and is some part responsible for what the city is today, which is one of the best in South America. The tour we arranged took us to Roberto Escobar’s house, who is Pablo´s brother and accountant in the cartel. There we saw some of Pablo´s interesting processions such as his bulletproof Chevy truck given by the Cali cartel, personal pictures, and a Harley given by Frank Sinatra. He also told us stories of his glory days and what it was like to be in his shoes. Later we visited his old apartment building the Cali Cartel bombed starting the wars, the building where he was killed and also Pablo´s grave. Later in the night we found a Hooters and went out with a few backpackers who had never experienced real fine dining :D How I miss the chicken wings. If haven´t ever been to a Hooters, Colombia is a good place start! ;D I won’t even begin to tell you about our night, we don’t have another hour and it was a ton of fun!

So what’s happening now...well once I finish writing you all we are catching a bus to the Caribbean coast and the city of Cartagena! Then over to Taganga (near Santa Marta) for a bit of scuba diving.

Until next time,
hasta luego,

Dan and Marina

Week 43 - Colombia

Santuario De Las Lajas

Popayan town square

The statues of San Agustin

A true born Equestrian

Top of the morning to ya!

Buenos, Que Tal!

After such a great time in the Galapagos it would be hard to top it, not that we were trying, but I think Columbia was trying. Yes, the country was trying - strange huh!

You may know Colombia as the wild and crazy outlaw country once somewhat ruled by Pablo Escabar and later FARC (the drug running separatists); let me tell you those days are long gone. Colombia´s government seems to have a reasonable hold on the rebels and dangers for locals and tourists. Don´t get me wrong, I don´t mean to disillusion you with ideas that Colombia is perfectly safe, its not. After all Colombia is still the world´s number one exporter of cocaine. It is obvious to see that the government is putting in a reasonable effort to control crime with many soldiers in the cities and on the highways.

Back to my comment about ¨Colombia trying¨, well it really seems every person you come across is aiming to make you feel very welcome in their country. People are just nice. I dare say, based on our week here, they are the nicest in South America. Brazilians would certainly give them a run for their money, but Colombians in my opinion take the trophy (Venezuela pending)....Maybe its the lack of tourists in Colombia, scared off by the days of Pablo and FARC.

The land named after Christopher Columbus is a pretty exciting place to see so far. On entering the country, the landscape has been one of the best in South America. I´m just shocked at how much stuff we have managed to fit in the last week in Colombia. We have had a pretty exciting start and I expect the fun to continue!

You all must know Colombia is famous for coffee, well yes, its more than tasty, its delicious. The other great thing to have along with your coffee is a Colombian pastry which one can smell all the way down the street, yummy!

Our path in Colombia - Ipiales > Pasto > Popayan > San Agustin > Bogota

Monday - Santuario De Las Lajas: This cathedral was built on the site where Colombians witnessed a vision of the Virgin Mary. Despite if you believe this or not, I can tell you for sure, the cathedral they have built in her honor is real and WOW. The church is built in the side of a 100 meter/yard gorge and also on the bridge that joins the two sides. Using a kind of South American Gothic style, its a very unique place in a stunning landscape. Along with crossing the boarder, this took up most of the day and we went out for dinner and drinks in Pasto with a few backpackers.

Tuesday - Volcan Azufral: Hmm, I can say, while writing about this day, I´m cringing! Don´t worry too much, nothing really bad happened, other than poor judgement. Based on a solid tip from backpackers; after getting a late start, we took a two hour mini-bus, fended off dodgy taxi drivers and arrived at the ranger station for the volcano (approx 3500 meters, over 10,000 feet) around 12:30, with a slight rain and a very cold temperature. We considered heading back as the taxi drivers were very dodgy, then as we arrived on the volcano a lack of common sense or a false courage persevered and we decided to stay. That walk to the top was about 5km (3 miles) and it was not too fun. Besides being very cold and wet, at that altitude, we couldn't see more than 5 meters/yards due to the clouds. The main aim when seeing this volcano is to see a emerald green lake in the crater of the volcano called Laguna Verde. Well, we pressed on, made it to the top and said a few words I won´t write down and headed back, soaked! As it was about 0 degrees C (32F) Marina caught had a small fever that night, but it luckily went away by morning. Funny she was fine to go out have a good meal and a few beers - good strong Russian blood!

Wednesday - Blanco Ciudad: It took most of the daylight hours to get there, but this is one road you want to do in the daylight. We arrived in Popayan around 4pm with just enough time to wonder around and see the gorgeous white washed colonial city! Said to be the second nicest one in Colombia, it lived up to the reputation. For dinner we had the best steak so far outside of Argentina - each one could have fed a family. After food we headed to an old man´s pub where they play music on an gramophone. In Marina´s interest, we shaked our moves on the dance floor amongst Columbians who could have won any US/UK dance reality show! I´m sure we (no sorry, I) looked sad... :D

Thursday- Laundry mishap: On Sreda (as Russians call hump day) we took a long bumpy ride to San Agustin, home to the second most famous archaeological site in Colombia. As we left our bus to get a taxi into town, I noticed a funny smell. I guess this is one of the things you deal with when backpacking. Someone had put a box of veggies or something on my bag and this puke like liquid leaked all over it and my freshly cleaned clothes (Clean clothes for a backpacker is heaven). On top of that we had to change hotels 3 times, do to bad locks on the doors and missed the sites for the day. There is not much to do ¨in¨ San Agustin, but we killed time by hitting the market, getting my first haircut by an English speaker in God knows how long, and playing a bit of pool.

Friday- Cocaine fed horses: Well, I don´t know if they were eating any of Colombia´s most expensive export, but they may occasionally eat coca leaves which grow wild and they do eat shredded sugar cane and drink water with honey. Let me say, if we had known about this, we would have thought twice before beginning our horse riding trip. Within the first 5 minutes I knew we would be in for a seriously crazy day. We later learned we had racing horses! Before I can tell you what we went to see, these horses were scary and probably VERY dangerous. Its the fastest I've ever been on a horse, which says a fair amount coming from a Missouri boy! This thing didn't gallop, it practically flew! I certainly came close to flying a few times! Enough berating about the horses, our trip this day was around the countryside to go and see San Agustin´s famous statues which were carved over 2500 years ago representing shamans, animals, tribe leaders, etc. After we finished the trip, our guide dropped Marina and I off at the Pargue Arqueological (I´ll let you guess what that means) and we saw hundreds of the statues along a stunning layout in the forest.

Saturday - Jeep tour: We joined a jeep tour with a few other travellers to see the surrounding countryside in greater detail. Our first stop, was where the big river, the Rio Magdellena closes to 2 meters/yards wide. Almost close enough to jump across except if you miss you´ll spend a while enjoying the under water current. We saw a few waterfalls, the biggest being 400 meters/yards tall! Also, we saw more of the statues and tombs, again all around a stunning landscape. Cutting our trip in San Agustin short, we boarded a horrible bus for Bogota which is where I´m writing you from. Horrible as it was small, bumpy, freezing cold with AC, woken by military security checks a few times and the chairs were impossible to sleep in. But hey, I not miffed, I´m loving Colombia and we are still having the times of our lives!!!

So whats next; We have a few days in Bogota, then over to Zona (the coffee area) and later on up to Medellin (previous home of Pablo Escabar).

Until next time, adios!

Dan and Marina