As promised... [View Full Entry]

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Ty here, reporting from Panama City, back on solid ground again after 8 days on the good ship Melody. Yeah, we were planning on 4 or 5 but Capitan Marcos invited us to stay on to cruise the San Blas Islands for a few more days and we couldn´t resist. The trip was amazing, starting with an early morning departure from Cartagena and heading due west into the open ocean. Our first blue water crossing, it was 200 miles before we hit land again in Panama. That translates into about 40 hours which meant shifts at night making sure we avoided [View Full Entry]

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Well, we´re off to sea in a beautiful pea green boat (actually not, it´s white), departing at 6am tomorrow from Cartagena and heading West to the San Blas Islands in northeast Panama on a 44 foot sailboat named Melody with Capitan Marcos (he´s on Facebook) his wife Paola and four other travellers. It will take us 5 days in all, including two or three of lazing on deserted islands, so wish us good wind but not TOO good if you know what I mean, we have five days supply of rum, but not of Seasick pills. Adios South America, Buenos Dias [View Full Entry]

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Okay, I'm back in a dark internet cafe, rather than a few steps away on the white sand with a large fruity drink frothily escaping from it's coconut shell home, but such is the price of this darn blog... By the way, it's Ty writing, I know some of you are feeling uncomfortable without a clear mental picture of the writer, so I hope that helps. It's been a while since a proper update, but I know most of you just want to look at the pretty photos anyway, so I'm going to make it quick and get back to my [View Full Entry]

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Just a very quick note to say that we´re safe and happily lounging at the seaside in Santa Marta... No time to update right now, but will do so soon! Salut, T / L [View Full Entry]

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Hi Everyone ....this is Laurel blogging... a first .... After Ty´s birthday and Halloween in the city we flew Southwest from Bogota at 2500 M to the village of Popyan at a slighty warmer 1740 M. Our plan : to visit 2 of the 3 archaeological sites of Colombia. (A Documentary Moment) Colombia is the only overland gateway to South America & is assumed to have been the route travelled by the continents first human inhabitants coming from N. & Central America.....now we gringos continue to come from the north. The archaelogical sites of Colombia arent particulary well known - small [View Full Entry]

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Our final night in Bogota, again planning a quiet one considering our flight the next day, and quickly laughed out of that plan, thrown into the truck and driven north an hour to a small town called Chia. Chia basically exists solely as a town where the drinking rules are more lax than Bogota and so consists entirely of bars and restaurants. We were headed to Andres Carne de Res (Andres meat of cow, yum) which is a huge place several hundred feet long, where Bogota comes to eat extremely well and party in between eating. More aguardiente, more vodka, some [View Full Entry]

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Well, Colombianos actually like Halloween MORE than North Americans. They party straight for at least a week, and I think probably two, and they do not go out unless they´re pretty much aiming to win the costume contest. And I don´t think they even have costume contests. We´d brought a few little things to wear, but Nety informed us that they certainly weren´t adequate, and quickly dressed us up with something more appropriate. Javier and Felipe came over and off we went to the Alma Nightclub which is owned by Tania´s boyfriend Jairo. Alma has three floors including a rooftop terrace [View Full Entry]

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All the Colombianos are denying it, but come on, we´re from CANADA, and it definately SNOWED. We were too slow to catch the photographic proof of the rigged up truck-tractor-plow clearing the freeway, but it´s in our memory... The weather continues to be loco and, in adition to the snow, there´s more rain on the coast than in the past 100 years and pretty much everywhere in Colombia is covered in thunderstorms. Thankfully it´s usally limited to the early afternoon so we´re still getting lots of stuff in. We´ve just spent a few more days in Bogota, and the stories and [View Full Entry]

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Well, we arrived safe and sound in Bogota after 16 hours in planes and airports, but our backpacks (mochillas) decided they didn´t feel like coming to Colombia. No jackets, no toiletries, no spare underwear, no change of shoes, socks, pants, no towel, no hair product, yep you get the picture.... Thankfully, Mauricio´s girlfriend Nety WAS there to meet us and informed us that we would have to come stay with her until we figured things out. She has a great little place in North Bogota and soon had us sorted with extra clothes and everythig else we needed. You might not [View Full Entry]

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