Travelling Fraggles

We're here, we made it - overland from Buenos Aires to Caracas in 4 months, more or less on or following the world's largest mountain range. When we've been sat waiting for hours at bus terminals we devised a way to amuse ourselves and here are the results... We have: * Visited 8 countries * Been to the world's driest dessert * Been to the world's largest and highest salt flats * Visited one of the seven wonders of the world * Crossed the equator (stood on it, hopped over it, straddled it) * Been from zero meters above sea level to 5,012m above * Endured temperatures ranging from -15C to +32C * Been 9 weeks without a single drop of rain * Not been sick on a single bus (although its got close a few ... read more

Think Venezuela and you don't normally think of the Andes, but the last 400km of the Andes does indeed reside here. We're not talking little mountains either, these puppies are up to 5,000m high. From Maracaibo we took what should have been an 8 hour night bus to Merida. It was by far and away our crappiest night bus and had precisely zero leg room and the journey took 3 hours longer than it should because the bus kept breaking down. The biggest town in the Venezuelan Andes, Merida is used to seeing tourists and so was very welcoming. We soon found a 'cheap' (by Venezuelan standards, not by ours) hotel after confirming that yes the LP options had massively inflated their prices and headed off to explore the town and get some money. We wandered ... read more

Our 3 weeks in Colombia are at an end, we've travelled overland from one end of the country to the other - Ipiales on the Ecuadorian border to Maicao on the Venezuelan Caribbean coast border - and stopped off lots on the way. What they say Colombia is known for terrorist guerrillas, cocaine and for once being the kidnap capital of the world (Iraq now holds that title), and Bogota as the most dangerous city in the world. Various governments travel advisories still don't make for pretty reading... Current NZ travel advisory for Colombia: There is a high risk to your security in the city of Bogota. You should avoid all government buildings and areas such as shopping centres and malls as well as places of entertainment. Government buildings, public transport and commercial and entertainment centres ... read more

We were determined to get a bus out to Cartagena bus terminal even if it was a mission because taking a cab was way too expensive. As it turns out it was pretty easy, we got up really early to get as much of the travelling done as we could before it got too hot, walked to where we were told buses go past, asked a man on a street stall there and he flagged us one (which because it was early on a Sunday morning was pretty dead). It was a proper local bus with caribbean music blaring full blast and people getting on with all manner of things, like a basket of fish and boxes of advocados. It was way more fun than a proper terminal bus. As a local bus it went by ... read more

The bus station in San Gil was dead when we arrived but we sussed out that buses passing through tout for business on the main road just below the park. We also found a bus company office opposite who go to Bucaramanga every half hour, so on the morning we came to leave we dragged our heels walking down the road and when nothing passed (it was a bit early for buses from Bogota to have got that far) went to the bus office. The 2 1/2 hour journey took us through the Chicamocha National Park and some cool high Andean/big mountain scenery. Despite having a population of over half a million Bucaramanaga bus station was almost as dead as San Gil´s, and we weren't sure how we were going to find a bus to the ... read more