---

If I ever see another bus in my life again it will be way too soon! In the last week we have spent over 60 hours on busses, and none of them could be described as luxurious. We have been travelling at such a breakneck speed to meet Sams friend here in Bogota.

Colombia is said to be the gem of South America so I plan to spend over a month here. Indeed I have no plans except that I want to be in Brazil for around the end of June to make my way through the Amazon and down the coast back to Buenos Aires. Despite the fact the majority of the last 10 days have been spent on busses there is still a fair amount to write about.

Mancora
Mancora is a beach resort in Northern Peru. Our plan was to chill out for a few days there before travelling hard up to Colombia. We stayed at a hostel called Loki. It is a chain of 4 hostels, and I have stayed in the ones in La Paz, Cusco, and visited the one in Lima. If you stay in 3 you are entitled to a free Loki t-shirt. Sam and I have friends called Chris and Helen who hated Loki, and our plan was to send them the free Loki t-shirt as a gift for when they got home. Unfortunately our plan was scuppered as when we checked out Loki had no free t-shirts to give! Gutted.

The Loki in Mancora reminded me of a Spanish hotel, though with dorms rather then private rooms, it had a pool with lots of deckchairs and an outside bar. They even brought the TV outside so everyone could watch the Champions League Semi Finals. From the hostel you could step onto the beach and after a 5 minute walk you pretty much had the beach to yourself. I even went for an evening run down the beach. Probably the first exercise I have had since I got to South America.

We basically just chilled out, read, and watched football. With predictable results for me - a sunburnt chest! The partying wasnt great as Loki´s bar shut at 1am and then all the bars on the main strip were so rubbish you didnt want to be in them. That said there was a full moon party at another hostel on our last night. Whilst good fun it hardly compared in size to Thailands.

I was pretty sad to leave Peru, I had a really good time there, a better time then I probably expected to have. There is a massive division between rich and poor, for instance parts of Lima were like being in the US then at other times particularly in rural areas it felt like being back in Bolivia. That said all the Peruvians I met were really friendly, alot more friendly in my opinion then either the Bolivians or the Chileans. However, the men did seem to think that all Western girls were "easy" and the fact they had a boyfriend didnt seem to matter a jot to them. But then I guess we can all be guilty of that crime.

Equador
From Mancora we headed to Equador. We only made 2 stops there, which was a shame as again it seemed a very beautiful, and interesting country. I dont know whether when I leave Colombia i´ll head back there but I certainly wish I could have spent more time there. The first place we stayed was Baños, which was high in the mountains. This seemed to attract the Swiss and despite the place being pretty small there were 2 Swiss restaurants! Its an activities sort of place where you go mountain biking, rafting etc. Given our limited time we went rafting. Now it was my first time rafting and they took us down grade 4 rapids. I had an absolute blast. Sam said I was "giggling like a girl" the whole way down. Though I think she heard the middleaged women who had her trip bought as a gift by her kids for mothersday rather then me! Its fair to say I will definitely do it again, this time for a full day, and hopefully here in Colombia. It was a day for firsts, as at lunch I was introduced to the delights of eating chickens feet, and neck. Its fair to say they are not the best cuts from a chicken!

After lunch on the way back to Baños we stopped at this bridge approximately 50 metres above a rocky river. Here we were being offered the opportunity to jump off the bridge. It was a swing jump rather then a bungee jump, so the harness is attached round your chest rather then just your feet. Now given I had just eaten lunch I had no plans to do it, but after manipulative bullying by Sam I was persuaded. I believe it was my first time jumping off a bridge and certainly infront of a crowd. I have to be honest and say once I had made the decision I wasnt particularly nervous, but jumping off a bridge isnt natural to me and according to Sam I sort of crumbled off the bridge as opposed to dived. It was fun and definitely wetted my appetite to do another jump. One unwanted side effect of the day though was all the river water I swallowed gave meant 2 days later I had a bad stomach and didnt feel particularly well.

Baños as the Spanish speakers amongst you will know means bath or bathroom, and the town was so named because of its natural springs. A visit to Baños wouldnt be complete without a visit to the springs. We went on what was mothers day in Equador and so it was rammed. But it was still nice to relax in the 3 pools, one cold water, one warm water, and one hot water.

After Baños we made the 3 hour trip to Equadors capital, Quito. Its a really nice city, surrounded by lush green mountains, and with a restored old centre that rivals some of its more famous neighbours. Apart from wondering around the old centre we made the essential trip to the middle of the earth I.E the equator. Equador is unsurprisingly one of the countries that the equator runs through and a big monument outside Quito marks the spot or not as the case actually is. The monument which was built in honour of the French scientists who tried to work out the line of the Equator is a few hundred metres off the actual line of the equator, which was calculated alot more recently using GPS. Given that the French scientists didnt have this technology I felt to get within a few hundred metres was a pretty good attempt.

After having our pictures taken at the monument and on the false line of the equator we went to a much more interesting museum on the actual equator called El Museo De Sitio Intinan "Camino Del Sol". There we were given a tour, touching not just on the equator but on Equador too, and we got to hear about their national cuisine - Guinea pig, and about the tribe in the jungle that were resonsible for shrinking human heads. After the history and ethnology lesson we moved on to the actual equator line and saw anumber of demonstrations. Firstly how water on the equator goes straight down the plug hole, while in the northern hemisphere water goes down the plug hole anti-clockwise, and in the southern hemisphere it goes clockwise. We then tried to balance an egg on an nail. Sam managed to balance it first, and then the rest of our group succeeded aswell, leaving me as the only person who failed to balance the egg and get the "Egg master" certificate. Gutted.

Now I don´t know what your pre-conceptions are of the Equator but mine were that it should be pretty hot. Not true. While we were in Quito there was a shock snow storm and there was in one part of the city up to a metre of snow in one afternoon. The taxi diver told us in Quito it was possible to experience 4 seasons in one day.

Bus trip to Bogota
From Quito we started our 30 hour bus trip up to Bogota. On the first leg up to the Colombian border Sam noticed a women and 2 men on the bus acting suspiciously. When we got off the bus she discovered that there was a cut in her bag, it appeared that someone had tried to get under the seat to cut her bag to rob the contents. A trick that is not uncommon in South America. Fortunately Sam was wise to it and there was nothing of value in her bag.

The border crossing from Equador to Colombia was straightforward and we quickly were able to catch a bus that day to Bogota. The scenary was beautiful, lush green mountains almost all the way. Colombia obviously has a troubled past and is not entirely safe. We were stopped by the police and army on two occassions. On the second occasion me and Sam were taken off the bus in the middle of the night while our bags and documents were searched. Our biggest fear was that drugs may be planted in our stuff by the police or army in order to solicit a bribe. Fortunately this wasnt the case and we arrived in Bogota safely and ahead of schedule. Bogota appears well organised if not the prettiest of the city but we have been warned not to go out at night with anything you dont want to have stolen. But we havent ventured too far from the hostel so I will write more about it in my next blog. I will say though so far so many Colombians have been keen to help us and there English seems alot better then people in other South American countries.

Until the next episode.

T

---