Sunday, 17 April 2011
Wednesday, 30 March 2011
Canal Trip
Arriving in Panama we immediately noticed the American influence, before we'd even reached customs we past all the usual fastfood suspects...Subway, Dunkin Donuts, KFC etc.
Coming out into arrivals we had the standard 'you wan taxi' thrown at us from all angles but we needed to sort some cash out first so we said 'no thanks' to all of them. After sorting out some dollars (Panama uses US Dollars as its currency) we headed out to get transport, at this point we were thinking we might try and get a bus into the city to save the money but when the taxi guys came over again and said 20 bucks we took them up. One of the original taxi guys from inside had come out by that point and on hearing the name of the hotel we were staying in started going off at us with 'that's a first class hotel...how come you can't afford 20 bucks for a taxi' and 'this is why the rich man stay rich and poor stay poor....'. Yeh? DO ONE! We had booked into a decent hotel for the two nights in Panama City because it was Neens birthday. Not a great first impression of the people of Panama!! Luckily we realised over the next week that many of them were all very nice people and this was just a bad start..
We had one full day in the city and knew a few things we wanted to see but rather than book a tour, which were pretty toppy, we decided to do it ourselves using taxi's. First stop was the Panama Canal and the Miraflores Locks which has a visitor centre. The taxi driver asked if we wanted him to stay and and we agreed an extra 5 bucks, in fact he came in with us and knew everything about the canal so we actualy had a guide as well. The locks are huge as you would imagine and there was a tanker going through from the pacific to the carribean side when we arrived. Apparently the French were the first to try and build the canal but had to give up eventually due to the difficulties and number of workers that died. Bizzarely the majority of workers that built the successful canal came from Barbados. Ships are built using the dimensions of the canal specifically and they are building a new set of locks that will be able to cater for bigger boats. We were both impressed by the canal, the shire size of it and process for crossing between the two oceans.. Sad I know!!
We decided to hold onto our taxi/guide for the rest of the day and he took us into the rain forest to a hotel with an amazing view, where we had a nice drink on the balcony to toast Neens for her birthday. We then carried onto a small national park, with a 1 dollar entrance fee to check out the jaguar, monkeys, tapir and crocs. That night we found a nice little restaurant for Neens birthday and just had a chilled out evening with some nice food and wine.
The following day we left for a small island in the north east of Panama called 'Bocas Del Toro'. We got on a bus around 8.30am and arrived in a place called 'Almirante' around 6pm, when we got off the bus we had the locals shouting at us about the last boat leaving at 6pm for Bocas so we piled into this van, with some annoying American guy moaning about being squashed in the front with another person.. We got down to the water side and went to get in the boat but it was full! So we ended up being left with the couple of Americans and had to arrange another boat but as you can imagine they wanted more cash as this was not a scheduled boat ride. Eventually we managed to drum up another few passengers and got across to the island and checked into our hostel.
Bocas was a great little place with a really chilled out feel to it, we spent a couple of days chilling out, taking in the relaxed atmosphere, having a few drinks and eating some lovely food - especially the fish tacos! We decided to check out the 'starfish' beach on one of the days, which mean't another bus ride out to the area. Once we arrived we walked for around 45mins to the starfish beach, which I think is the best beach we have ever been to. The water was cristal clear, with starfish everywhere.. We met a really nice local guy who made us rum coconut cocktails in the coconut, did some snorkelling and just took in the amazing scenery around us. Rather than head back on the bus we found a few people who were going back on a boat so to finish the afternoon off we took a beautiful boat journey back to the main town of Bocas to spend the evening.
The following day we had booked a transfer from Bocas to Puerto Viejo in Costa Rica, which was a boat ride and van to the boarder, then a walk across a bridge from Panama and into Costa Rica - very weird expecially as the bridge was a bit on the dodgy side! Then finally a taxi to our hotel in Puerto Viejo.
Coming out into arrivals we had the standard 'you wan taxi' thrown at us from all angles but we needed to sort some cash out first so we said 'no thanks' to all of them. After sorting out some dollars (Panama uses US Dollars as its currency) we headed out to get transport, at this point we were thinking we might try and get a bus into the city to save the money but when the taxi guys came over again and said 20 bucks we took them up. One of the original taxi guys from inside had come out by that point and on hearing the name of the hotel we were staying in started going off at us with 'that's a first class hotel...how come you can't afford 20 bucks for a taxi' and 'this is why the rich man stay rich and poor stay poor....'. Yeh? DO ONE! We had booked into a decent hotel for the two nights in Panama City because it was Neens birthday. Not a great first impression of the people of Panama!! Luckily we realised over the next week that many of them were all very nice people and this was just a bad start..
We had one full day in the city and knew a few things we wanted to see but rather than book a tour, which were pretty toppy, we decided to do it ourselves using taxi's. First stop was the Panama Canal and the Miraflores Locks which has a visitor centre. The taxi driver asked if we wanted him to stay and and we agreed an extra 5 bucks, in fact he came in with us and knew everything about the canal so we actualy had a guide as well. The locks are huge as you would imagine and there was a tanker going through from the pacific to the carribean side when we arrived. Apparently the French were the first to try and build the canal but had to give up eventually due to the difficulties and number of workers that died. Bizzarely the majority of workers that built the successful canal came from Barbados. Ships are built using the dimensions of the canal specifically and they are building a new set of locks that will be able to cater for bigger boats. We were both impressed by the canal, the shire size of it and process for crossing between the two oceans.. Sad I know!!
We decided to hold onto our taxi/guide for the rest of the day and he took us into the rain forest to a hotel with an amazing view, where we had a nice drink on the balcony to toast Neens for her birthday. We then carried onto a small national park, with a 1 dollar entrance fee to check out the jaguar, monkeys, tapir and crocs. That night we found a nice little restaurant for Neens birthday and just had a chilled out evening with some nice food and wine.
The following day we left for a small island in the north east of Panama called 'Bocas Del Toro'. We got on a bus around 8.30am and arrived in a place called 'Almirante' around 6pm, when we got off the bus we had the locals shouting at us about the last boat leaving at 6pm for Bocas so we piled into this van, with some annoying American guy moaning about being squashed in the front with another person.. We got down to the water side and went to get in the boat but it was full! So we ended up being left with the couple of Americans and had to arrange another boat but as you can imagine they wanted more cash as this was not a scheduled boat ride. Eventually we managed to drum up another few passengers and got across to the island and checked into our hostel.
Bocas was a great little place with a really chilled out feel to it, we spent a couple of days chilling out, taking in the relaxed atmosphere, having a few drinks and eating some lovely food - especially the fish tacos! We decided to check out the 'starfish' beach on one of the days, which mean't another bus ride out to the area. Once we arrived we walked for around 45mins to the starfish beach, which I think is the best beach we have ever been to. The water was cristal clear, with starfish everywhere.. We met a really nice local guy who made us rum coconut cocktails in the coconut, did some snorkelling and just took in the amazing scenery around us. Rather than head back on the bus we found a few people who were going back on a boat so to finish the afternoon off we took a beautiful boat journey back to the main town of Bocas to spend the evening.
The following day we had booked a transfer from Bocas to Puerto Viejo in Costa Rica, which was a boat ride and van to the boarder, then a walk across a bridge from Panama and into Costa Rica - very weird expecially as the bridge was a bit on the dodgy side! Then finally a taxi to our hotel in Puerto Viejo.
Saturday, 26 March 2011
Thursday, 24 March 2011
Say Hello To My Lil Friend
Hi all. Columbia was an interesting few weeks, it has some amazing scenery and some very bad roads......
We arrived in Leticia after our boat down the amazon and had a night here before a flight up to Bogota. Leticia is a bit like Iquitos, a frontier town that is always buzzing (India style moto-rickshaws instead of mototaxis) and is a bit grubby. One thing that was immediately apparent were the number of police and military on the streets - this was a feature of the entire country and not just because we were in a border town. The hotel we'd booked turned out to be good, had a great bed and a/c, which was well received after a few days of relative roughing it in the amazon. It was here that i first noticed another feature of Columbia - bad pavements - when i bust open my big toe on one.....
Leticia is in the far south east of Columbia but the flight to Bogota (which is central) only took an hour and a half. Bogota!! It's one of those places that you have to do a double take for it to sink in that you are there. Before we'd read any of the guides on Columbia we had the stereotypical picture of it as a dangerous, no-go place so it was interesting to actually get there and confirm it didn't feel like we were in the movie 'Clear and Present Danger'!! The people seemed genuinely friendly and keen to show off their country in a good way.
Bogota is a massive city, and has lots of different areas to it, we stayed in the Zona Rosa area, which was really nice and had some great restaurants and bars. The traffic there is crazy, with cars and buses everywhere, making journeys around long and drawn out. As with everywhere else in South America, Bogota has a Place De Bolivar which is the main square so after a 50 minute taxi ride, we started out here, then carried on to the Police and Gold Museum's. The Police Museum had a big gun room and a Pablo Escobar exhibition with a few dodgy dummies of him in various states which were so bad it was funny. The gold museum had some impressive stuff dating back to very early civilisations and focused on the culture that existed prior to Columbus and the Europeans arriving.
Lunch was at a little restaurant in La Candeleria which is a historic area near the main square, i had a Bandje Paisa (Beans, Chorizo, Plantain, Rice, Avocado, Pork) and Nina had the 'Ajiaco', which is a local soup dish with chicken and corn/capers.
After the museum's, another long taxi ride and some shopping we treated ourselves to a couple of beers at the 'Bogota Beer Company', then found a nice Asian fusion restaurant which served up some great sushi for dinner.
The next morning we headed off to Solenta which is in the Zona Cafateria (Coffee growing region) via a nine hour bus ride. The bus ride was almost all mountain roads so was pretty hard going, especially after lunch (Which took some concentration to keep down!). We also had a little stop for the military to get on and check every ones papers (this is apparently not uncommon in Columbia).
Solenta is a great little place in the hills where there are dudes walking around in hats and ponchos. We booked into a little B&B which took some finding and once we were settled in we popped out for some food. Nina tried the local trout, which is the speciality of the area, and said it was easily one of the nicest fish she's had, They butterflied it, filleted it and grilled it, plain but so fresh.
On our first morning we took the advice of our B&B and headed for a local organic coffee plantation, which was apparently 45 mins out of town. After walking for more than this amount of time down a track we started to wonder if we were actually going in the right direction. Then a couple of 4x4 jeeps went past and one of them stopped and said for us to 'hop on', so we sat on the grill at the back and got a ride down to the bottom of the hill!! classic. We then bumped into a local guy, and with a little bit of Spanish managed to understand that we were heading in the right direction.
After the hiddious bus journey from Bogota to Solenta, we decided to fly back on a small plane and then get a bus to our next destination, Valle De Levya. The plane journey was not too bad, but when we arrived at the bus terminal in Bogota we were told that due to a strike most of the buses were not running. After a bit of running around and some very bad Spanish we managed to find one bus leaving in an hour or so, so we booked onto it.
Valle De Leyva is a completely untouched historic town with dudes in ponchos walking about. It has the weirdest square in the middle of the town, which is massive but has nothing in the middle of it. There was some miltary action/training going on cos there were loads of armed comandoes running around everywhere. We were not that impressed with the place and it was peeing down with rain, so we had a quick whistle stop tour for one night and left the following day for San Gill.....
After the ranger let us go, we just looked around us and realised we had landed on one of the most amazing beaches either of us had ever seen. It really was absolutely stunning and the rest of the park was amazing, and in hignsight had we known this we would have probably camped here for a couple of days rather than staying in santa marta. We had a great walk through the park and out the other end back to Santa Marta and onto our next destination - Cartegena.
Out of everywhere we'd been in Columbia this was by far the most touristy (mostly Americans) which probably explains why we were approached by Johnny 'Walker Blue' Kay when sitting outside a bar at lunch. We weren't sure what he wanted at first but it soon became clear that when he said he organised 'the best quality parties' and 'did we underdestand him?' that he was actually trying to sell us some of Columbia's finest, cocaine!! We declined but not before buying some dodgy cohiba cigars off what turned out to be his mate.
After spending a couple of nights in Cartagena we flew to a Columbian island that is actually off the coast of Nicaragua (the dispute over sovereignty still goes on apprently) for a few days of beach action. We stayed for four days and just relaxed on the beach, drove around the island in a golf buggy we hired and ate some great fresh fish. The best meal we had by far was at a restaurant called Regatta in the marina where I had three lobster tails each cooked differently and Neen had Langoustines. The only bad thing about the night, pretty much our last day in Columbia, was that i busted open the same toe as i had done on our first day when we arrived in Leticia.....fricking Columbian pavements...
We arrived in Leticia after our boat down the amazon and had a night here before a flight up to Bogota. Leticia is a bit like Iquitos, a frontier town that is always buzzing (India style moto-rickshaws instead of mototaxis) and is a bit grubby. One thing that was immediately apparent were the number of police and military on the streets - this was a feature of the entire country and not just because we were in a border town. The hotel we'd booked turned out to be good, had a great bed and a/c, which was well received after a few days of relative roughing it in the amazon. It was here that i first noticed another feature of Columbia - bad pavements - when i bust open my big toe on one.....
Leticia is in the far south east of Columbia but the flight to Bogota (which is central) only took an hour and a half. Bogota!! It's one of those places that you have to do a double take for it to sink in that you are there. Before we'd read any of the guides on Columbia we had the stereotypical picture of it as a dangerous, no-go place so it was interesting to actually get there and confirm it didn't feel like we were in the movie 'Clear and Present Danger'!! The people seemed genuinely friendly and keen to show off their country in a good way.
Bogota is a massive city, and has lots of different areas to it, we stayed in the Zona Rosa area, which was really nice and had some great restaurants and bars. The traffic there is crazy, with cars and buses everywhere, making journeys around long and drawn out. As with everywhere else in South America, Bogota has a Place De Bolivar which is the main square so after a 50 minute taxi ride, we started out here, then carried on to the Police and Gold Museum's. The Police Museum had a big gun room and a Pablo Escobar exhibition with a few dodgy dummies of him in various states which were so bad it was funny. The gold museum had some impressive stuff dating back to very early civilisations and focused on the culture that existed prior to Columbus and the Europeans arriving.
Lunch was at a little restaurant in La Candeleria which is a historic area near the main square, i had a Bandje Paisa (Beans, Chorizo, Plantain, Rice, Avocado, Pork) and Nina had the 'Ajiaco', which is a local soup dish with chicken and corn/capers.
After the museum's, another long taxi ride and some shopping we treated ourselves to a couple of beers at the 'Bogota Beer Company', then found a nice Asian fusion restaurant which served up some great sushi for dinner.
The next morning we headed off to Solenta which is in the Zona Cafateria (Coffee growing region) via a nine hour bus ride. The bus ride was almost all mountain roads so was pretty hard going, especially after lunch (Which took some concentration to keep down!). We also had a little stop for the military to get on and check every ones papers (this is apparently not uncommon in Columbia).
Solenta is a great little place in the hills where there are dudes walking around in hats and ponchos. We booked into a little B&B which took some finding and once we were settled in we popped out for some food. Nina tried the local trout, which is the speciality of the area, and said it was easily one of the nicest fish she's had, They butterflied it, filleted it and grilled it, plain but so fresh.
On our first morning we took the advice of our B&B and headed for a local organic coffee plantation, which was apparently 45 mins out of town. After walking for more than this amount of time down a track we started to wonder if we were actually going in the right direction. Then a couple of 4x4 jeeps went past and one of them stopped and said for us to 'hop on', so we sat on the grill at the back and got a ride down to the bottom of the hill!! classic. We then bumped into a local guy, and with a little bit of Spanish managed to understand that we were heading in the right direction. So we carried on this walk and eventually found the place, more like 1 & half hours!! The coffee plantation was very small but a local lad walked us round and explained the whole process, picking beans off the bushes along the way. He then explained the process from shelling to washing to drying out to roasting and then grinding. He freshly ground some roasted beans and then made us some coffee with it .....mmmmmmmmm. After this we then had the nice walk back UP the hill!! It was also a very interesting walk as we almost stepped on a coral snake which was slithering across the track... That made Nina walk even faster to get up the hill after another encounter with a snake for her!
For our last full day we did a hike in the Valle De Cocora, which started with a jeep ride with 11 people on our jeep - apparently the record is 14! We started the walk through a valley up into the mountains, then into some deeper cloud forest to a lovely little hummingbird reserve, where we got a nice cup of coffee and watched lots of hummingbirds flitting around us. We then continued to climb to the top, which was 2500m through the cloud forest. After a short rest we had the spectacular walk down through the valley of the wax palms, which are the tallest in the world and also the national tree of Columbia! Once we reached the bottom we had another interesting jeep ride to the town for a well earned beer and bite to eat.
After the hiddious bus journey from Bogota to Solenta, we decided to fly back on a small plane and then get a bus to our next destination, Valle De Levya. The plane journey was not too bad, but when we arrived at the bus terminal in Bogota we were told that due to a strike most of the buses were not running. After a bit of running around and some very bad Spanish we managed to find one bus leaving in an hour or so, so we booked onto it. Valle De Leyva is a completely untouched historic town with dudes in ponchos walking about. It has the weirdest square in the middle of the town, which is massive but has nothing in the middle of it. There was some miltary action/training going on cos there were loads of armed comandoes running around everywhere. We were not that impressed with the place and it was peeing down with rain, so we had a quick whistle stop tour for one night and left the following day for San Gill.....
We thought getting to San Gil would be easy, one stop in Tunja and then a direct bus all the way to San Gil. However, we stupidly took the advice of the minibus company and went to another small village (for a more direct route!) where we were told lots of buses pass through and we just hop on any of them to San Gill. When we arrived it was tiny and we were told by many of the locals there were no buses to San Gill!! Standing in the middle of this place, we did not really know what to do, as you can imagine we were both really calm and not arguing at all!! Not, we went to have a quick juice and got chatting to the lady who kindly flagged us down a local minibus and eventually after four minibuses later and a taxi ride we got to our destination.
San Gil is supposed to be the 'adventure capital', but I guess after having been to New Zealand we were a bit spoilt and so none of the activities really grabbed us, so after a long journey to get to this place, we left the next day!! That kinda says it all for us for San Gill, and both of us were now looking forward to some much needed down time on the caribbean coast.
We knew that the bus journey to Santa Marta was going to be a long one, around 12 hours, but it left around 7pm and was supposed to arrive 7am, so after a few beers at the bus terminal and a sandwich all packed in for our dinner, we thought a sleep and we would be there. How wrong we could be!! The journey was pretty horrific, it started with the driver overtaking everything on the small mountain roads in bad weather. Then we stopped around midnight and no one really knew why, there where massive mud slides and at times the bus seemed to be slipping but it was too dark to see, then we thought it might have broken down, but afterwards someone said it was due to some of the other buses striking and blocking the roads..In the end the bus was at a standstill for around 6hrs, so eventually when we got moving again, we stopped at a local restaurant around 11am and still had another 6hrs or so to go, then we got transferred to another bus about 45 mins out of Santa Marta and then dropped at a taxi rank to finish the journey, we eventually arrived at our accommodation at around 7pm!! So all in all around 24hrs!! Columbian buses - not so great!
We booked into a cool little guest house called Casa Verde in the historic quarter of Santa Marta. It had a juice bar attached to it and this is where we learned about the number of different fruits which Columbia has that you do not come across elsewhere (at least not without looking for them specifically), like Guanabana and Lulo. Santa Marta itself isn't much to look at but the surrounding area has some stunning spots - Taganga & Tyrona National Park (AMAZING!).
San Gil is supposed to be the 'adventure capital', but I guess after having been to New Zealand we were a bit spoilt and so none of the activities really grabbed us, so after a long journey to get to this place, we left the next day!! That kinda says it all for us for San Gill, and both of us were now looking forward to some much needed down time on the caribbean coast.
We knew that the bus journey to Santa Marta was going to be a long one, around 12 hours, but it left around 7pm and was supposed to arrive 7am, so after a few beers at the bus terminal and a sandwich all packed in for our dinner, we thought a sleep and we would be there. How wrong we could be!! The journey was pretty horrific, it started with the driver overtaking everything on the small mountain roads in bad weather. Then we stopped around midnight and no one really knew why, there where massive mud slides and at times the bus seemed to be slipping but it was too dark to see, then we thought it might have broken down, but afterwards someone said it was due to some of the other buses striking and blocking the roads..In the end the bus was at a standstill for around 6hrs, so eventually when we got moving again, we stopped at a local restaurant around 11am and still had another 6hrs or so to go, then we got transferred to another bus about 45 mins out of Santa Marta and then dropped at a taxi rank to finish the journey, we eventually arrived at our accommodation at around 7pm!! So all in all around 24hrs!! Columbian buses - not so great!
We booked into a cool little guest house called Casa Verde in the historic quarter of Santa Marta. It had a juice bar attached to it and this is where we learned about the number of different fruits which Columbia has that you do not come across elsewhere (at least not without looking for them specifically), like Guanabana and Lulo. Santa Marta itself isn't much to look at but the surrounding area has some stunning spots - Taganga & Tyrona National Park (AMAZING!).
The following day we went to Taganga and hopped in a little boat round to a smaller beach where we spent the day chilling and eating some of the delicious local fish with coconut rice.
After chatting with the guest house owners we decided to take a boat the following day round to Tyrona National Park, specifically the beach of Cabo San Juan and then take a walk through the national park and the bus back to Santa Marta. The boat journey was interesting to say the least, the ocean is extremely dangerous around the national park and people are advised not to swim, we even saw signs explaining how people die here each year due to the conditions. This should have sent alarm bells ringing but no we still opted for the boat, and it was a very bumpy and unpleasant journey, with the boat at times feeling like it was going to tip over. Luckily the guy driving was very good and so we did make it to the beach, only to be greeted by the park rangers (and accompianing soldier who was going through everyone's bags and confiscating any alcohol etc he found) requesting us to pay the entrance fee...Oops thats where the problem arose, we only took a bit of cash with us for the day and completely forgot about having to pay the entrance fee, so we were way short of the cash we needed!! After a bit of pleading ignorance, certainly not wanting to get back on that boat and head home, the nice ranger agreed for us to just pay one fee and let us into the park. He even left us with the exact money we needed to get the bus back to Santa Marta, although not the shuttle bus to the main road, so that did add another 4kms onto our walk, with no money for food or anything more to drink!!
After the ranger let us go, we just looked around us and realised we had landed on one of the most amazing beaches either of us had ever seen. It really was absolutely stunning and the rest of the park was amazing, and in hignsight had we known this we would have probably camped here for a couple of days rather than staying in santa marta. We had a great walk through the park and out the other end back to Santa Marta and onto our next destination - Cartegena.
We had to encounter another rather strange experience for our transport to Cartegena as there were no more direct buses, so we took a taxi to some random place on the side of the main road in order to wait for a bus to Barrenquilla. We first of all jump in this beefed up SUV thing with mega tyres and then realised very quickly it was very dodgy so got out as quick as we got in!! Then we waited for one of the other more mainstream minivans and that took us to Barrenquilla, where we then changed onto another bus direct to Cartegena and then a taxi to our hostel.
Our hostel was in the old quarter of the city, which was supposed to be a little dodgy at night, but not too bad (it is the old red light district and there are still a fair few 'workers' out at night when you walk around). It was fairly near the walled city and so on the first day we headed to there to have a look around. We passed a park on the way and noticed lots of rather large iguanas wandering around, and a couple of which were having a fight. A pretty strange sight in the middle of a city.. The walled city was nice to stroll through and take in the atmosphere, but there was not loads to see, so that afternoon we jumped in a taxi and headed to the fort where we looked around and walked through the tunnels.
Our hostel was in the old quarter of the city, which was supposed to be a little dodgy at night, but not too bad (it is the old red light district and there are still a fair few 'workers' out at night when you walk around). It was fairly near the walled city and so on the first day we headed to there to have a look around. We passed a park on the way and noticed lots of rather large iguanas wandering around, and a couple of which were having a fight. A pretty strange sight in the middle of a city.. The walled city was nice to stroll through and take in the atmosphere, but there was not loads to see, so that afternoon we jumped in a taxi and headed to the fort where we looked around and walked through the tunnels.
Out of everywhere we'd been in Columbia this was by far the most touristy (mostly Americans) which probably explains why we were approached by Johnny 'Walker Blue' Kay when sitting outside a bar at lunch. We weren't sure what he wanted at first but it soon became clear that when he said he organised 'the best quality parties' and 'did we underdestand him?' that he was actually trying to sell us some of Columbia's finest, cocaine!! We declined but not before buying some dodgy cohiba cigars off what turned out to be his mate.
After spending a couple of nights in Cartagena we flew to a Columbian island that is actually off the coast of Nicaragua (the dispute over sovereignty still goes on apprently) for a few days of beach action. We stayed for four days and just relaxed on the beach, drove around the island in a golf buggy we hired and ate some great fresh fish. The best meal we had by far was at a restaurant called Regatta in the marina where I had three lobster tails each cooked differently and Neen had Langoustines. The only bad thing about the night, pretty much our last day in Columbia, was that i busted open the same toe as i had done on our first day when we arrived in Leticia.....fricking Columbian pavements...
Leaving San Andres we flew to Panama City and in doing so said goodbye to South America and hello to Central America. South America had been bloody excellent and we will definately be going back. Our lasting impression of Columbia was of friendly people, great scenery and dodgy bus rides!!
Saturday, 26 February 2011
Friday, 11 February 2011
Desert Meets Jungle
We left Rio and took a flight back to Santiago as its one of the main hubs in SA and decided to head north as unfortunately Patagonia was too difficult and expensive to get too! We stayed in a really nice hostel, its was a very old building in the centre with lots of character and charm, for one night and the following day headed to the bus station to catch a bus to La Serena.
La Serena is Chile's second oldest city and had a nice vibe to it, small but it had character, with lots of churches and museums. Funny enough X Factor Chile was going on whilst we were there, very weird.
The next evening we took a night bus to San Pedro de Atacama in the Atacama desert - the driest desert in the world!! But yep it rained 3 afternoons out of the 4 we were there, just typical. However, it did not spoil it and was actually quite refreshing. We spent most of our time in the desert walking and taking in the sights.
We saw the cactus valley, flamingoes, Valle de Luna. One of the highlights of the day for me, was spending a couple of hours walking through the cactus valley, over the rocks and through the water falls. After this we went to a great spot to wait for the sun to set. It was one of the greatest sun sets I have seen. Another morning we were up at 4am to drive up to 4300m and see the El Tatio geysers.
We were hoping to get to Bolivia next and take a tour over the salt flats from San Pedro to Uyuni but the weather was too bad and tours had stopped or were missing loads of good stuff out. So we changed our plans and decided to head into Peru instead and take a trip down the Amazon - what a great choice!
The Rio Amazonas was just amazing - but first we had to get there from San Pedro. We had a fair bit of travelling to do, a 10hr night bus followed by a 2hr taxi ride across the boarder, one flight to Lima then another flight to Iquitos. Iquitos is a crazy place with nothing but motorbike taxis and motorbikes the noise is immense.
After a well needed sleep we were met by our tour guide, Walter, at 9 am for a tour around the local market 'Belem'. Belem Market is interesting to say the least! We saw everything from plants, fruits, natural medicines, chickens, turtles, socks, clothes and even a giant catfish with it's head cut off but heart still beating (gross) pretty much anything you could ever want!!
Our tour guide Walter is from a small village in the Amazon but now lives in Iquitos and loves the jungle as it's his home. He spent most of the time with us trekking through the jungle chopping everything out of our way with his machete whilst keeping his eyes peeled for snakes (of which we encountered an extremely dangerous one!! Not good) iguanas, frogs, monkeys, spiders, birds, dolphins, sloths, lizards etc.
The jungle lodge we stayed in was really good with a great hammock room to chill in after a morning in the jungle. It also had a few resident guests - two macaws Ara & Azur, Te-Wan the Toucan, two eagles, a cayman and a deadly snake amongst all the wild frogs, cayman, snakes, spiders etc which just live in the jungle.
We spent a morning fishing for Pirahna, which was great, and whilst I don't want to bragg I did catch the biggest one of the day! That evening we got to taste our delicious catch. I had never eaten Piranha but it was actually quite nice. J was not too happy as he only managed to catch a small Piranha on the day..
On our last day in the Amazon we were taken to Oran, the next village along, to get our boat down river to the tri-boarder of Brazil, Peru and Columbia. After 8hrs we arrived in Santa Rosa to get our passports stamped and a quick boat ride to the Colombian boarder town of Leticia. We have one night here and then onto Bogota tomorrow the capital city- Columbia here we come!!
La Serena is Chile's second oldest city and had a nice vibe to it, small but it had character, with lots of churches and museums. Funny enough X Factor Chile was going on whilst we were there, very weird.
The next evening we took a night bus to San Pedro de Atacama in the Atacama desert - the driest desert in the world!! But yep it rained 3 afternoons out of the 4 we were there, just typical. However, it did not spoil it and was actually quite refreshing. We spent most of our time in the desert walking and taking in the sights.
We saw the cactus valley, flamingoes, Valle de Luna. One of the highlights of the day for me, was spending a couple of hours walking through the cactus valley, over the rocks and through the water falls. After this we went to a great spot to wait for the sun to set. It was one of the greatest sun sets I have seen. Another morning we were up at 4am to drive up to 4300m and see the El Tatio geysers.
The Rio Amazonas was just amazing - but first we had to get there from San Pedro. We had a fair bit of travelling to do, a 10hr night bus followed by a 2hr taxi ride across the boarder, one flight to Lima then another flight to Iquitos. Iquitos is a crazy place with nothing but motorbike taxis and motorbikes the noise is immense. After a well needed sleep we were met by our tour guide, Walter, at 9 am for a tour around the local market 'Belem'. Belem Market is interesting to say the least! We saw everything from plants, fruits, natural medicines, chickens, turtles, socks, clothes and even a giant catfish with it's head cut off but heart still beating (gross) pretty much anything you could ever want!!
Our tour guide Walter is from a small village in the Amazon but now lives in Iquitos and loves the jungle as it's his home. He spent most of the time with us trekking through the jungle chopping everything out of our way with his machete whilst keeping his eyes peeled for snakes (of which we encountered an extremely dangerous one!! Not good) iguanas, frogs, monkeys, spiders, birds, dolphins, sloths, lizards etc.
We spent 4 nights and 5 days in the jungle and got to see a couple of neighbouring villages where the locals live - a real eye opener to these people & there way of living. Most of the food they eat is grown locally by them or taken to Belem market & sold for them to buy other food, as well as fish they catch.
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