Cocaine. Kidnapping. Guerillas. Guns. Murder. This is what usually spings to mind when people think of Colombia. When planning our trip, many friends and family were worried we would travel to Colombia. The capital Bogota is seen as a forbidden city, no one in their right mind goes there. Some though us nuts! Yet we heard nothing but good reports about the country from travellers who had just visited Colombia. Our minds were at ease. Colombia is somewhere I have wanted to see ever since I watched the film ´Romancing The Stone´. The reason I am writing this is because most [View Full Entry]

---

---

In some civilisations, life was simply a preparation for the afterlife. To them death was the ultimate goal, more important than life itself. These civilisations built magnificent burial chambers all over their kingdoms. A sort of departure lounge to the heavens. Just think of the ancient pyramids in Egypt or the even older Celtic tombs at Newgrange in Co. Meath, Ireland. Visiting the funeral sites of Tierradentro and San Agustin in south west Colombia, I was constantly reminded of similarities to Newgrange. Although built by a unknown people on the far side of the world about 4,000 years [View Full Entry]

---

---

We had two options - a thirty minute jeep ride at 7.30am or a three hour walk. It was a no brainer. Out came the boots. Yes, I would rather walk for three hours than get up early. Even missing the jeep, we still left Salento the wrong side of nine o´clock for my liking. And so we walked, winding down from Salento into the Valle de Cocora. After the steep twisty descent we crossed the Rio Quindio and made our way along country lanes lined with eucalyptus trees. Halfway to Cocora, a young lad was herding about ten calves down [View Full Entry]

---

---

We have set eyes on church after church in Latin America. At times it seems there is one on every block. Every village, town and city is dominated by churches. Their architecture is unique so each one stands out from the other town buildings. The main plaza always has one if not two churches. Apparently the theory behind this is obedience. During the Spanish conquest, every town was designed around a central plaza. As crown and church drank from the same cup, by placing a church in the place where people congregated (still do today), it was as though a higher [View Full Entry]

---

---

When we found ourselves in the small colonial town of Barichara in the heartland of Columbia, we were so utterly charmed by the friendly atmosphere and scenic setting that we decided to stay a week longer than planned (really sticking to the plan of no plan!). Barichara is a photographer´s dream. Set high on a sloping hillside, whitewashed buildings line stone-paved narrow streets. The red roof tiles and blooming flowers give the town a Tuscan feel, but the lush sweeping gorges on either side make it distinctly Colombian. Plus Semana Santa was fast approaching and we had heard enough about [View Full Entry]

---

---

Ahh the chicken bus - our main form of transport through Central America. There are long-distance luxury coaches, air-conditioned tourist shuttles, convenient taxis...and then there is the chicken bus, so called in reference to the way passengers are packed into the bus like chickens stuffed in a cage in transit. Not even room for a breeze to pass. These cheap and cheerful chariots are the pulse of Central America, pumping life around the cities and providing a lifeline to rural communities. Another reason for the name: an incredible amount of goods are squeezed onto the buses - sacks of c [View Full Entry]

---

---

We stepped on board the Princess Queen at 7am just outside Panama City - to our surprise a kind of Latin Manhattan with tall skyscrapers lining the coast. Our boat made its way past a flotilla of massive containers ships and oil tankers waiting their turn to enter the Canal. With the Pacific Ocean behind us and a Panama Canal Company captain on board (every ship has to have an official Company pilot to steer it through the Canal), we passed under the Bridge of the Americas and entered the Miraflores Locks, the first of three locks we would go through [View Full Entry]

---

---

I´ll admit, the title makes our day sound more dramatic than it actually was, but even so, it is a true account of what happened! It was a fairly ordinary quiet day. We didn´t have anything planned - no mountain to climb or buses to catch or birds to spot - just a day pottering about. We are in Tortuguero, a muggy village on Costa Rica´s Caribbean coast. It is famed for its shores where 40,000 turtles arrive every year to nest, but unfortunately we are visiting out of season. The next day we planned to visit the national park where [View Full Entry]

---

---

The weather in Monteverde made me homesick - constant drizzle and gusts of wind that chilled through to the bone. Real rain jacket weather - zip up, hood up. It was like being in a cloud. This is not how I imagined Costa Rica to be. The area´s name really should have given it away though, but my brain must have focused more on the word ´forest´ than ´cloud´when we decided to head to Monteverde Cloud Forest. Doh. Not ones to let the weather get us down, we donned our unflattering waterproofs (as we saw on other tourists, all waterproofs seem [View Full Entry]

---

---

Today I saw something so heartbreakingly cruel, I am compelled to write about it - I saw a monkey chained to a tree with shackles around its neck. Those of you who know me will know that when it comes to animals I have honourable principles. I don´t eat anything with a face and I don´t buy leather. But surely even the most hardened carnivorous bull-fighting game-hunting cowboy would find this completely wrong. The poor monkey in question is apparently called Pico and watermelon is his favourite fruit. A sad irony - humanising an animal by giving it a name and [View Full Entry]

---

---