Me, Adam and his friend Matan all set off from Quito at midday to Ibarra. From there we got a front seat ride next to the driver on the bus to San Lorenzo through some great scenery and down through the clouds into the tropics again. We arrived in the middle of another thunderstorm and words of caution from the bus driver (his colleague had been robbed the night before in the same town) and the hotel owner who told us that it was not a safe town to be walking around in the dark. According to the books where we [View Full Entry]

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On our first afternoon back on dry land, the boys (Peter and Adam) went round the dive shops and booked themselves in for a dive on Gordon rocks the next day, then we met up with the others for dinner just incase we hadnt had enough of each other. I spent the next morning in bed and met them after their spectacular hammerhead filled dive to look at their photos and curse myself for not going with them! The day after we hired mountain bikes and headed out towards some lava tunnels, but on reaching them decided to head further up [View Full Entry]

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I arrived back at the airport far too early to meet my guide and the people I would be spending the next week with and sat watching with horror as the geriatric couples streamed through the arrivals gate. It suddenly dawned on me that in booking a fairly good boat with a good reputation and itinerary instead of a cheap crappy one, I had probably assured that there would be no young backpacker types on board and I may have to spend the week with octogenarian ornithologists! At least, I thought to myself, there's a good chance the guide might be [View Full Entry]

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Wow, I'm sure the pictures in this blog speak for themselves....I have lots more photos to put up here but I have to find a computer which reads DVDs first. I have just spent my first week in the Galapagos and although I was going to write about my short stay in Cali, a power cut at the border crossing and getting robbed and rained on in Quito, it all pales in to insignificance compared to this place so we'll just skip all that and get straight to the point....which is ...... wow! I arrived on the plane and stepped out [View Full Entry]

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Well it seems again I have delayed writing my blog until there is just too much to tell you all! I left Barranquilla pretty exhausted after the carnaval and so couldn't bring myself to join the other gringos in San Gil for any of the adventure sports offered there. I had a look round the small villages of Guane and Barichara, which were pretty but not all that interesting to be honest apart from the beautiful interior of the church in Barichara. A sleepless night with swollen glands in San Gill, waking myself and everyone else up making strange strangled noises, [View Full Entry]

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After all this time traveling I still find it both refreshing and disturbing how open and direct people are in South America, people talk happily to me about their hemorrhoids and sex lives, people talk about how black somebody is as a means of distinguishing who you are talking about (as in "do you mean Bruno el negrito or el morenito?). This always confuses me because to me they are all dark skinned and I obviously cant distinguish the finer points of brownness yet! The most common name I hear people call each other in Colombia though is Maríca, translated as [View Full Entry]

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I have said it before but it really seems like the whole world is in Colombia! I haven't come across this many travelers, locals or other South Americans in any other country. I know I have been here over Christmas holidays but it doesn't seem to be stopping even now. Some one said that the locals here are only just starting to feel safe enough now to travel again in their own country and I guess they have been waiting a long time. I am really enjoying Colombia for lots of reasons, the climate, the music, the friendly people. It seems [View Full Entry]

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I really had no idea that Colombia would be so beautiful, lively, cultured and modern at the same time. I had a vague idea about Bolivia even though it turned out to be so much more, but thinking back I don't remember seeing any images or descriptions of Columbia before coming here, I guess the world is just discovering it. I spent another few days in Taganga and another few nights in El Garage before deciding to go with Karen, Marlien, Bruno and Nelson (two locals) to a beach near the village of Palomino where Nelsons uncle ‘El Negro’ has a [View Full Entry]

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Wow, there is something really weird going on in here...I have finally found all the male travelers that were mysteriously missing in the rest of my trip. In fact pretty much everyone is here. I never imagined that there would be so many people traveling in Colombia, in fact I was all geared up for solitary hotel rooms again like Bolivia but boy was I wrong! Anyway, getting back to what I ment to be writting about.......I mentioned to Marlien, a Dutch girl in my apartment in Taganga, that I was thinking of doing the trek to the lost city but [View Full Entry]

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Well I´m hoping you all had a fantastic Christmas and New year too, but I bet mine will still make you jealous! I wanted to be with a fun group of people, on a beautiful beach, sleeping in a hammock and drinking lots of rum. Its always dangerous trying to achieve a fantasy Christmas and new year though because it doesn't normally turn out how you want. However this one couldn´t have gone more to plan. When Marsha and I arrived at the park it was already getting late in the day and we only just made it through the mud [View Full Entry]

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