Cartagena was once the most important sea port of the Spanish colonies in South America (basically the whole continent and more). Many of the gold ships of the Spanish fleet left from here towards Spain laden with the gold of the Incas and Aztecs. This obviously attracted many pirates and buccaneers of the time which led to Cartagena being plundered quite a few times. The Spanish didn’t like that a lot so they started to build a wall around the city and some forts to protect the city better. This seemed to work just fine as the pirate attacks continued but [View Full Entry]

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Hi all Just wanted to let you know that I arrived safely in the 21st century and finally joined the VoIP craze with Skype Just in case you dont know what that I´m talking about. Skype is a programm for your computer which lets you call other people with Skype for free. Try it its quite amazin (btw. You can also make really cheap call to landlines in most countries with Skype). If you have Skype then you might want to add me to your contact list. My skype username is “ralphwarta” You can download Skype from here www.Skype.com. Happy calling [View Full Entry]

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Ciudad Perdida - "The lost city" the city we are talking about was build by the Tyrona Indians a long time ago and was abandoned four centuries ago when the Indians got wiped out by the Spaniards looking for Eldorado. It is the biggest Pre-Colombian city ever found in South America. At the peak the city had somewhere between 2000 and 4000 inhabitants (Machu Picchu had only 1000). You might have heard of the city in 2003 as some tourists were kidnapped while doing the trek there by the local Guerillas. The big surprise is not that the city got lost [View Full Entry]

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Unbelievable but true I went to the white water rafting capital of Colombia. Ok San Gil is the only place in Colombia where you can go rafting but we won’t be picky will we. The other reason why I thought of stopping in San Gil was that it nicely breaks up the 20 hour bus ride to the coast. Didn’t expect much from the town but I liked it very much. It is not that big (30.000), very clean (which is surprising for a SA city) and feels very safe. Safe enough even to go for a run after dusk on [View Full Entry]

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I guess most of you like me haven’t heard much good news from Colombia in a long time. If you ever hear anything on TV then its mostly related to Cocaine, the Medellin or Cali cartel, Colombia being the kidnapping capital of the world or the US trying to fxxk up another country. Well all good enough reasons to check it out (just kidding). The reason why I’m here is that Matt (Hi) a friend of mine brought Colombia up when I asked him where to go in South America. He seemed to be quite taken by this country. Other people [View Full Entry]

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If I would have only two words to describe Rio de Janeiro then I would use "not impressed". Yes, yes I know everyone claims that Rio has the most beautiful setting in the world, is full of girls in little bikinis laying on beautiful city beaches but I still think it’s not that great. I did the usual tourist things like going up and say hello to Christ, view the city from above from the Pao de Azucar (Sugar Loaf Mountain) and have a look at the admittedly exceptional setting the city has. A mandatory stop at Copacabana and Ipanema beach [View Full Entry]

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Good news: I found a way to share videos. If you want to view them, then read this blog. There you’ll find a video of Salvador but also of other locations I have been to. A quote from someone else’s website: Salvador's Carnival got into the 2005 edition of the Guinness Book as the biggest Carnival and the biggest street party on earth. Each year, two million people crowd the streets and roads of the city during the six days of Carnival. Yes big, crowded, dirty and smelly it was but hell it was fun. I arrived safe and secure at [View Full Entry]

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Btw. if you click on the image to the right you see a satellite map of the place which you can zoom in and out. To quote Lonely Planet the Iguazu falls are not your average "isn’t gravity nice" type of waterfalls. This one is bigger, better and wider than all the waterfalls I've seen so far combined. Apparently there are close to 300 falls with up to 80 meters height spread out over 2km. As one tourist brochure claims 1.2 million liters of water run over the falls ever second. The waterfalls (the river to be exact) are also the [View Full Entry]

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Now that I have your attention let me start from the beginning. As I mentioned in the previous blog I wanted to take a bus to Asuncion which is the capital of Paraguay. As it goes with plans they are made to be changed and so I did. I met a polish guy at the bus terminal in Montevideo and he had the plan to get off in the first city in Paraguay to see some old Jesuit ruins. As I didn’t want to see another city I decided to go along with him. We got dropped off in Encarnacion at [View Full Entry]

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Three weeks three countries... No I'm not just collecting Stamps in my passport I really heard its worth going to Uruguay. Colonia What is there to say about Colonia. It was founded 1680 by the Portuguese to piss of the Spanish which just founded Buenos Aires and to smuggle stuff into BA. It is named by UNESCO as a World Heritage Site; it is really cute and has lot of old building and cobble stone streets. Have a look at the pics and you know what I mean. Montevideo Before you ask no I didn’t mention that I live in Australia [View Full Entry]

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