A brief burst of activity in amongst the general lull in Buenos Aires (to be blogged separately) was a quick visit to Iguazu Falls on the border between Argentina and Brazil. The falls were one of the very few natural wonders in South America that I'd actually heard about before reading the RG, due to them being arguably the most famous natural sight on the continent. Having seen numerous photos of them, I was intrigued as to whether they would be an anti-climax or if they'd deliver. There isn't a great deal to see or do in the area in which [View Full Entry]

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The Medellin-Bogota road links the two most important cities in Colombia, a route popular for both freight and passenger traffic, yet it is one lane in each direction and winds all over the place. Thus, in a bus, you will spend much of your travel time sitting behind lorries waiting for overtaking opportunities. I'd been quoted 8-9 hours for the journey, which turned out to be 11 and felt like 20 as the aircon didn't work and even the locals were complaining about the sweltering conditions. I'd read that Bogota wasn't a particularly pleasant city, and certainly the area that my [View Full Entry]

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The '80s and '90s were a tough time for the Medellin tourist board, with the city's murder and kidnapping rates during that period being some of the highest in the world. Pablo Escobar's cocaine cartel, engaged in a bloody war with both its main rival in Cali and the Colombian government, had made their leader's name synonymous with the city. $10 assassins riding on the backs of motorbikes were so common at one stage that the government banned pillion passengers. Foreigners on the streets were likely to be assumed to be DEA. A decade later, though, Medellin has made determined efforts [View Full Entry]

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In the nearly four decades that I've been taking up space on this planet, I've never encountered a place quite as rainy as Salento. Wet seasons in the Amazon can only dream of delivering the quantities of water that the skies above Salento deluged the town with during the four days I was there. There was none of the tropical policy of "afternoons only", with torrential cloudbursts around the clock. To say that it pissed down - a phrase I would hesitate to use in genteel company - would convey a small amount of the frustration that this caused me but [View Full Entry]

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Rumour had it that negotiating for long-distance bus fares was par for the course in Colombia but I couldn't bring myself to try, as the price given to me by the smartly-uniformed gentleman at the kiosk seemed reasonable and he was already printing off the ticket before I'd even had a chance to fire off a counter-offer. There was some excellent scenery on the way to Popayan - lushly-forested steep slopes culminating in misty ridges, which reminded me of southern China. We encountered only one roadblock, manned by police, at which everyone had to produce ID, and arrived in Popayan at [View Full Entry]

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The distance from San Agustin to San Andres is somewhere in the region of 100km as the cuervo flies which, in this part of the world, meant a journey in three parts involving 5.5 hours of travel time. First up was a whiz to Pitalito, requiring a mere hour in a camioneta (essentially a small Chevy pick-up with a covered back and two parallel benches). I sat in the back and was rewarded with a pleasant breeze, mountain views, and no fellow passengers. Pitalito bus station was like the others I've been to in Colombia - full of touts on the [View Full Entry]

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The RG's description of a 12 hour bus ride to reach San Agustin, punctuated by military and guerrilla roadblocks at which one might be relieved of money or other valuables, was as out of date as much of the information circulating about travel in Colombia. As I waited at Popayan bus station for my 6AM departure, I chanced upon the deaths/injuries board showing a tally for each of the transport companies and was pleased to see zeroes in all columns for Cootranshuila. 6.75 hours later, most of which was spent on a fairly horrendous pot-holed gravel road - though the green [View Full Entry]

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Ecuador warranted more time to explore, but I had a sufficiently negative view of Quito that I just wanted to get away from the capital, and with a glance at the calendar revealing I had only 7 weeks left in South America, it was time to be moving on anyway. On the bus north to Tulcan, my neighbour was an Ecuadorian woman who'd been living in New Jersey for the last 3 decades. She was back to visit her parents who lived just over the border in Colombia, which meant I had the benefits of her (hopefully incorrect) opinions of Colombia [View Full Entry]

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Cuenca airport was so small that I thought the taxi driver was dropping me off at a warehouse, and I was only convinced he wasn't having me on when I saw the first of the 8 check-in desks. The flight to Quito was cloud the entire way, with not even one Ande, let alone a whole range of them, visible. The airport pick-up for my hostal in Quito never materialised, and this, plus the non-existent wifi (contrary to the description on their website), dwarven room (I had to stoop in order to negotiate it without injury), and brazen attempt by the [View Full Entry]

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This is the second entry of a two-parter about my trip to the Galapagos. It picks up the story half way through the cruise - for the first half, see here. Day 5 Isabela (Punta Moreno and Elizabeth Bay) Day 5 dawned bright and clear - a first - and the volcanic landscape of Isabela met my gaze as I went up on deck for a pre-breakfast gawp. The Galapagos are volcanic islands in a similar fashion to Hawaii, i.e. never connected to the mainland and created by periodic releases of magma from u [View Full Entry]

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