Blog 8 - San Gil (Col) to Bogota (Col)

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Days 110 - 124: San Gil (Col), Ciudad Perdida (Col), Bogota (Col), Leticia (Col), Bogota (Col)

Executive Summary
• Status: Pretty much done with the jungle now
• Current location: Bogota, Colombia
• Notable incidents: Sweaty and smelly doing the Lost City trek, spreading the good word of Canasta, piranha fishing take two, finally liking Bogota (at the third time of asking!)

Full Report
Jules:
So last time I wrote, I had successfully dispatched the boys (who I can confirm did make it home after their epic journey of four flights through four countries) and was heading back up to the north coast to finally do the Ciudad Perdida (Lost City) trek. As my regular readers will know, the Lost City trek was the trek I tried to do with the boys after we got back from Tayrona but it was closed for a couple of weeks for some indigenous festival. Anyway, I had canvassed opinion from a cross section of travelers and the collective wisdom appeared to be that it was definitely worth coming back up North to do the trek. So after leaving the boys at the airport, and armed with my sleeping bag in hand, I got myself on an overnight bus up to Taganga to join a trek starting the next day. The timing was going to be tight, my bus was a 13 hour affair due to arrive at 7.30am and the trek was leaving from the Taganga office at 9.30am, but the Colombian buses had been fairly ok thus far so I had faith I would make it.

Well, I guess we must have been delayed overnight, while I was kind of sleeping, because at 7.30 the next morning we were still travelling and there was no sign of the coast. At about 9am, the bus guy came up to me and motioned that it was time for me to get off. I obediently disembarked to find myself in the middle of nowhere with a couple of other confused looking gringos. As I stood there, my bags literally flashed before my eyes as they were transferred from the bus to a little ‘collectivo’ (minibus) which said ‘Santa Marta’, promisingly, on the front. While my destination was Taganaga, Santa Marta is only 5km from Taganga so I followed my bags and found myself sitting in the collectivo and bouncing along a road towards what I hoped would be Santa Marta. It was gone 9.30am so I had resigned myself to missing that day’s tour but wasn’t that worried, I would just go the next day.

After 45 minutes or so, the collectivo arrived in Santa Marta where I switched to a taxi to take me the rest of the way along the coast to Taganga, finally arriving at the Magic Tours office at about 10.30am. Fanny, the lady I had arranged the tour through, greeted me like I’d just crossed Antarctica single handed and was very pleased to announce that I was not too late to join that day’s trek. I dropped my bags, grabbed the day pack I had hastily packed the day before and jumped into another taxi with a Colombian dude/chaperone. First they took me to a supermarket so I could a) get cash from a cash machine to pay for the tour and b) buy some water. Then they took me to the bus ‘station’ (more like a street where the local buses all congregate) where we got on a public bus along the coast, past Tayrona, eventually arriving at a military checkpoint where we disembarked. My Colombian chaperone then put me on the back of a mototaxi, waved me adios, and we drove into the jungle. After about half an hour of a very bouncy and uncomfortable journey we arrived at a paved road with some buildings and I saw a group of likely looking trekkers.

I’d been travelling pretty much non-stop since 7pm the previous night so must have looked a bit of a state, especially when I sat down and unceremoniously devoured the meal that was put in front of me. Anyway the group didn’t look overly disgusted so after I wiped the mayonnaise from my chin we set off.

It turns out that I lucked out with my trekking group. They were Alex (sponsored by Bear Grylls) & Debs (a couple of Welshies, recently engaged), Kate & Cheryl (the Anglo-Canadian Londoners), Gavin (an Irish farmer), Sara (the Egyptian Aussie) and Alvaro (the Spaniard). We were also complimented by another group of trekkers from a different tour company who we shadowed most of the way: Rick, Adam and Eric (the New Yorkers) and Felix & Sophie (the Würst makers from Dusseldorf). However, heir pace was significantly stiffer than ours, so our bonding happened mostly in the evenings!

So Day One was pretty chilled. We walked for about three hours, climbed a big hill, got sweaty, went for a swim in the river and arrived at our camp in the late afternoon. Dinner was good and then it was time for bed. Based on my experiences in Tayrona I wasn’t looking forward to bed time - it was hammocks again! Although this time, they were slightly different. They were strung up so they were a lot flatter and this made an enormous difference - if only I’d known this back in Tayrona! I mean don’t get me wrong I’m still very much a mattress kind of guy, but stringing the hammocks up flatter did make them much more comfortable!

Day Two started with a tour of a cocaine factory (as you do!). None of us were really sure what to expect but the tiny tent in the middle of the jungle with a few bottles of chemicals and a pile of coca leaves left us all looking decidedly underwhelmed. It looked entirely like it had been mocked up for tourists and we were all murmuring that it was probably the worst $10 any of us had spent on our trips so far. Anyway, we took photos and were just about to leave when the guy who had brought us to the ‘factory’ told us to sit down in the tent. For the next 45 minutes he took us through the entire process of making cocaine from the raw coca leaves right through to the white powder itself. It was incredibly interesting and really is not that complex a process. You just need some coca leaves, salt, caustic soda, potassium permanganate, sulphuric acid, gasoline and a couple of pieces of silk to filter out the end product. There were a couple of occasions where he pulled a bit of a Blue Peter with a “Here’s one I prepared earlier”, but it was really interesting to see the entire process.

The rest of the day was more of the same - jungle scenery, hills, sweat and mosquitoes as well as our first river crossing.

Day Three was the same again but with more river crossings (nine in total) and was rounded off with climbing up 2,000 very narrow and very slippery steps up to the Lost City itself, just before sunset.

Everyone I’d spoken to about the trek had said it was more about the journey than the destination, so as I thought that the journey had been pretty average so far, I really was expecting very little from the site. However, when we arrived I was pretty impressed. Like Macchu Pichu, it is set very impressively on top of a mountain and although there aren’t any of the original dwellings left, as they were mostly made out of wood, the steps and terracing really are impressive. As the sun was going down we only had a short amount of time to check it out that evening, but I was looking forward to spending some more time exploring the next day.

That night was definitely the worst of the trip so far in terms of mozzies - I think pretty much everyone got massacred in our big communal mozzie net - having said that, I did meet an American who knew about (and even liked!) drum and bass - so all was not lost!

The following morning we were greeted with a breakfast of tuna fish empanadas - which we all agreed was a VERY strange breakfast - before spending a good two hours wandering around the Lost City site. Only a very small proportion of the 360 terraces have been excavated which is both a shame, because the place really would look amazing if all of them were excavated, but also quite cool to see what the terraces looked like when they were first discovered by the explorers (I prefer 'explorer' to 'grave robber', it sounds more poetic!) in the 1970s.

The rest of Day Four, was Day Three in reverse, so nine river crossings, hills, sweat, jungle scenery etc etc. It was all going well until the last river crossing when I got to the far side and swung my pack off my shoulder only to see my little camera fly off the strap and into the river. I dived in after it and managed to retrieve it but despite getting it dry pretty quickly and leaving it in a bowl of rice all night (apparently it helps draw out the moisture), in the morning it was not looking happy and refused to turn on 😞. Fortunately the memory card was ok, so the photos I had taken were all ok, but I’m not sure the camera will ever recover although I will try and get it fixed somewhere.

Day Five was Days One and Two in reverse, so it was a tough day. However, the ice cold coke I had when we finally got back to the starting point (followed swiftly by an ice cold beer!) was definitely one of the top ten moments of the trip so far!

Overall, it’s definitely backpacker-cool to say that the Lost City trek is “Amazing”, “Better than Macchu Pichu” etc etc and in some ways it is. There are certainly fewer tourists (approximately 20 per day compared with approx 500 per day on the Inca Trail and approx 4,000 per day at Macchu Pichu itself), the food we had was pretty good and the river crossings were fun but overall I really didn’t think it was up to much. If you’ve never been to the jungle before then yes the jungle scenery is cool. I have no problem with tough treks, but I like to feel rewarded for them e.g. with variety of scenery, but on the Lost City trek, I found the scenery very monotonous i.e. banana tree, river, banana tree, muddy hill, banana tree, river etc etc. and while the Lost City itself was better than expected, I don’t think it was worth the three days to get there and the two days to get back. I mean, the trek was fine but it’s certainly not anywhere near the top of my list of best things I’ve done in SA so far … and breaking my camera was the final insult!

Anyway, the people were great and back in Taganga we had a great night out at the Mirador bar. Way too much vodka was consumed - I blame Alex (sponsored by Bear Grylls) - but I did get to see Gavin dancing, which really was something to behold (I think there’s a video of it somewhere which I’ll try and get hold of). Also while I was in Taganga the replacement computer screen for my laptop arrived and after a remarkably easy replacement process, my laptop is back in pristine condition 😊

So after a night back in Taganga, it was time to move on. I’d heard about a Colombian airline called Aires who do very cheap internal flights in Colombia and I managed to get a flight down to Bogota and then on further south to the south eastern tip of Colombia, to a place called Leticia, for only $120.

Leticia is in the heart of the Amazon Basin on the border of Colombia, Brazil and Peru. The borders are very relaxed and it’s quite cool that you can have lunch in Colombia, dinner in Peru, party in Brazil and then end up back in bed in Colombia. The plan was to get to Leticia, do a three(ish) day tour in the jungle and then get the boat 1,100km (four days) downriver to Manaus in Brazil. Anyway I arrived in Leticia on Sunday afternoon and checked into the Mahatu hostel with its slightly crazy owner Gustavo-Rene. I also met a couple of sisters from Hawaii, Jill and Amanda who are travelling round South America under an initiative called Jungle To Jungle - check out the website. They had got got stuck in Leticia - after coming down the river from Iquitos in Peru - with visa issues … oh the joys of being an American! Anyway, it turned out that boats to Manaus left Wednesday and Saturday so I had to decide whether I really wanted to do a jungle tour, as it would mean I would have to wait till the following Saturday to get the boat. The added problem was that as I am currently travelling solo, I had to wait until one of the tour companies had a decent sized group I could join, and I didn’t know how long that would take. Anyway, the girls convinced me that my thought process would be greatly assisted by a sampling of the local liquor, and a slightly crazy night ensued

The following day, an angel from heaven fell into my lap when Jamie walked into the hostel. Jamie, a fellow New Yorker, had been living in Bogota for three months learning Spanish and, together with another American doing a similar thing (Bridget), had organised a three day jungle tour leaving the next day - perfect! I cheekily invited myself to join them and after they’d completed the formalities (CIA background check etc.) they agreed to me tagging along.

So the next day we headed off. First stop was to get some welly boots - attention New Yorkers, according to all the Amazon dwellers we met (who should know about welly boots) “Hunters” are soooo last season … it’s all about a Dutch brand called “Viking” this year - which were slightly too small for me but there wasn’t a lot of choice - not a lot of size 12 Colombians! Next up was a short taxi ride over the border to Tabatinga in Brazil to meet our guide, Adolfo. After a quick breakfast, we got in the boat again and headed further down river to a small house on the river bank owned by Teturriano (60 years old, no teeth), our guide for the first part of our tour - a night in the jungle. When we arrived at Terturriano’s house, the first thing we saw was a monkey riding on the back of a dog and we thought, “Hey, this is gonna be the real thing!”.

We switched to a smaller boat and headed down one of the small tributaries that feed the Amazon, or more correctly, we headed down one of the small tributaries that feeds one of the slightly bigger tributaries, which feeds one of the slightly bigger tributaries, which at some point ends up, via few more tributaries, feeding the Amazon.

The boat we were in was pretty amazing. I couldn’t see a public safety sign anywhere in the boat which declared the maximum occupancy of our craft, but I’m pretty sure that eight was pushing it. Thank heavens for the meniscus effect as that was surely the only thing that kept us from sinking in the murky waters. This time of year is when the water level is lowest in the Amazon basin (in fact the water level varies by about 15m during the year which is why all the houses are built on stilts). I was encouraged because I thought the low water level would bode well for wildlife viewing (as all the animals would have to congregate near the river for water), however, it didn’t bode so well for our passage along the river. On a number of occasions we ran aground on sand banks and fallen trees, and despite the three enormous gringos in the boat clearly being the problem (we may have only made up 3/8 of the boat’s occupancy but must have accounted for at least 2/3 of the boat’s weight), we were not allowed to disembark and instead Terturriano and his tiny family perched precariously on the fallen trees while literally lifting the boat over the obstacles, with us still in it!!

Anyway, after an hour or so, we finally couldn’t get any further so we disembarked and headed off into what we were told was the Peruvian jungle (we had crossed the border from Brazil at some point, although I’m not entirely sure when!).

It was a pretty authentic jungle trekking experience with Terturriano leading the way wielding his machete, me, Jamie and Bridget in the middle, and Terturriano’s oldest son bringing up the rear. There wasn’t much to see, other than jungle, although at one point, we did see a troop of Squirrel Monkeys making their way through the canopy in the distance and occasionally Terturriano would point out a tree (which generally looked exactly the same as the previous one he had pointed out) and make some outrageous claim, in Spanish, about its medicinal qualities. Thankfully Jamie and Bridget’s Spanish was far superior to mine and they were able to give me an abridged version of everything the guide said.

After about three hours we got to what I’m going to call a clearing, but to be honest, ‘clearing’ is really a pretty generous name for it. It was more just a slight gap in the trees, but whatever it was, it appeared it was our camp for the night. Jamie double checked and I triple checked but sure enough, this was our camp!

As Terturriano and his son busied themselves making camp, we stood round looking rather helpless. Before we knew it, the hammocks were up, complete with mozzie nets and plastic tarps to protect from the rain, the fire was burning and coffee was brewing. As the sun went down, we gorged ourselves on our delicious (?!) dinner of bread and canned sausages, washed down with a choice of very sweet coffee or Coca-Cola. Hmmm, very authentic!

The night was spent in hammocks and based on my learning experiences from Tayronaand the Lost City trek I was pleased to see that they had been strung up pretty flat. Having said that, as we were sleeping literally in the middle of the jungle, the volume and variety of noises made sleeping pretty difficult, despite getting the hang of the old hammock thing! At one point during the night, I was convinced there was a pretty sizeable beast just metres away from my hammock but it obviously got bored or decided I wouldn’t taste good. A little later when my need to go to the toilet finally overcame my fear of the black abyss surrounding me, I ventured out into the darkness - not that far to be fair, in fact just far enough to ensure I wasn’t urinating on Jamie’s head - before scurrying back to the protection (!?) of my hammock and mozzie net.

The next morning we breakfasted like kings on bread and sugary coffee (with extra sugar) or Coca-Cola of course, before setting off for an hour’s walk back to the river where we were met by Adolfo. We got back in the boat and headed further down river to a house owned by a Peruvian family in a very nice spot overlooking the river. There we had a more substantial breakfast of scrambled eggs, bread and orange juice (from a carton slightly disappointingly) and were ready for our next adventure. The night in the jungle had not been that enjoyable at the time to be honest but it had certainly been an experience and we were excited to see what was up next.

Anyway, after breakfast Adolfo suggested we may like to ‘decansalo’ (rest) for a while in the hammocks and it sounded like a pretty good idea. An hour later our next activity was up - a trip to a white sand beach and a swim in the river. I was skeptical about how ‘white’ the white sand beach would actually be and Jamie and Bridget were skeptical about how safe swimming in the murky Amazon would be but like good tourists we blindly put our faith in our guide and headed off. It turned out that the beach was just round the corner and was indeed very white! We got out of the boat and had a quick swim, which was quite fun but from Bridget’s questioning of Adolfo, it seemed like this was pretty much the only activity of the day, so we stretched it out as much as we could, by going for a walk along the beach. We also stretched things out a little by having a wash in the river (Adolfo had bought soap with him) but after an hour we were pretty much done with the beach. Adolfo decided we looked exhausted so it was time for some more 'decansalo' in the hammocks. With nothing else planned till the evening, we had a whole afternoon to kill - a perfect opportunity to continue spreading the good word of Canasta - so that’s how we spent the afternoon, playing cards!

As the sun went down, we tried our hand at piranha fishing, and although we each caught two fish, none of them were deemed big enough to eat, so Adolfo ended up buying a bigger fish from a passing fisherman for our dinner - very embarrassing.

After an exhausting 45 minutes of piranha fishing we had some more well deserved 'decansalo' and Canasta while dinner was prepared. After dinner we went out in the boat with our flashlights to do some Caiman spotting, which I found to be an incredibly frustrating activity. We all dutifully took our headtorches but inexplicably weren’t allowed to switch them on so for 30 minutes we watched Adolfo panning the riverbanks looking in vane for the reflection of some Caiman eyes. Based on my experience of doing the same thing in Rurrenabaque, you only see the reflection of the eyes if you are directly behind the light source, for example if the light source is coming from a point on your forehead, like maybe if you were wearing a headtorch! Anyway, eventually Adolfo saw something and we paddled over to the river bank where to my mild horror Adolfo reached down into the water and grabbed a very small Caiman (maybe 12 inches long). Now I’m not one of these placard waving eco-tourists, but I do believe that wildlife is there to be seen and not touched so the sight of this poor Caiman, clearly scared out of its skin (although had it literally been scared out of its skin it wouldn’t have been the worst thing in the world as its skin would have made a great little case for my Mont Blanc pen) was mildly perturbing. I politely declined Adolfo’s offer to hold it and was glad when it was returned safely to the water and swam away.

Anyway, this was obviously way too much excitement for all of us so it was back to the hammocks to finish off another game of Canasta, which frustratingly Jamie won - I was obviously an excellent teacher!

That night we had the choice between hammocks and a bed and I was quick to go for the bed option - which turned out to be one of the most comfortable beds of the trip so far - while Jamie and Bridget kept it real by sticking with the hammocks.

In the morning we got up excitedly - what would the new day hold for us. After such a relaxing day two, there must be something big planned for the last day! Jamie and Bridget’s excitement had got the better of them and they had got up early to go for a kayak down the river (either that or they couldn’t sleep in their hammocks - ha ha ha!) and although they saw about as much as Stevie Wonder did on his trip to London last year, they were nevertheless excited for the rest of the day.

It turned out that our excitement was misplaced 😞. Adolfo’s plan for the day consisted of getting the boat all the way back to Leticia. Hmmm - not exactly what we were hoping for. Some quick thinking on Bridget’s behalf at least secured us another hour at the beach (the same one as the previous day) and we did have a good time taking photos of us jumping off a log for half an hour, but the inevitable could not be put off and we were soon back in the boat back to Leticia. We stopped off along the way at a town called Benjamin Constant (which sounds way more interesting than it actually is) but by 1pm we were back in Leticia.

So in summary, it wasn’t the best tour I’ve ever done. Our wildlife viewing consisted of a troop of squirrel monkeys in the distance, a 12 inch Caiman, some birds, six small piranha, a few river dolphins and of course the monkey-dog. Being on the Amazon was kinda cool (and we did actually spend some time on the actual Amazon and not just a tributary) but as Jamie said at the end of it all “Hmmm, I just paid a lot of money to sleep in a hammock and learn to play Canasta!” which is pretty much how I felt. Leticia itself wasn't bad - there were a few restaurants and I managed to get a haircut (from a guy with a fantastic mullet!) but it probably wasn't worth the trip all the way down there, even if the flight was dirt cheap.

During the tour, I tried not to mention (too much) to Jamie and Bridget how amazing the jungle tour had been that I did in Rurrenabaque but if you do find yourself with the choice, the willdlife viewing in Bolivia was way superior to what we saw in Leticia. Certainly don’t organize a tour with Felipe, even if he is recommended in the Lonely Planet, cos his tour was frankly bollocks! I’m sure there are good tours out of Leticia, just not the one we did!

When I got back to the hostel, Jill and Amanda (the sisters from Hawaii) who were supposed to have left on Wednesday were still there - more visa problems - so we went out for dinner, drinks and a haircut (from a guy with a fantastic mullet!!) and then found some dolphin and Caiman skulls in a bar before the Cachaca rendered us incapable and we returned to the hostel.

So, back in Leticia I had a change of mind. It was a Thursday and the next boat to Manaus was not until Saturday. That boat would then take four days to get to Manaus and then I would either need to get a pretty expensive flight to get to the North coast of Brazil or another three day boat. I did kind of want to see Manaus but the reason I was originally going there was to do a jungle tour and to be honest I was pretty jungled out. On top of this, Aires were offering flights back to Bogota for $45 so I booked for the next day and decided I would try and get to Brazil from there.

So back to Bogota 😞.

I had slightly higher hopes this time. Jamie and Bridget were both flying back the same day and they both lived in Bogota and had given me some pointers on some stuff to do. Also Sara and Gavin from the Lost City trek were also there, as well as a couple of Colombian girls I had met on the bus to San Gil (Pao and Yohanna), so the weekend boded well.

To cut a long story short, I haven’t had as big a change of heart about something for a long time as much as I have about Bogota. It’s actually a pretty cool city. The unfortunate thing about it is that 90% of the hostels in Bogota are in the Candelaria region of downtown which is quite pretty and nice to walk round during the day but is frankly dangerous at night. The hostels themselves are ok, I stayed in Hostel Fatima this time, but the area is not. Anyway, this time I spent less time in the centre and ventured north to the more upscale Zona Rosa region a few times. It has great bars, restaurants and clubs and although it looks (and feels sometimes) a bit like a shopping mall in Milwaukee, it is nevertheless good fun. We had a great night out on Friday where I managed to put in a reasonably adept performance on the dancefloor - although my legs felt it the next day! Saturday was chilled and I spent some time doing a bit of souvenir shopping because Gavin, who was coming to the end of his trip, had kindly offered to take some stuff back to NYC for me as his trip back to Ireland included a three day stop over in NYC. On Sunday I had a fantastic afternoon, after I found a bar that sold beer and chicken wings and also had the opening day of the NFL season on the TV - who needs New York!?

Anyway, when I wasn’t shopping, dancing and eating wings, I spent a lot of time researching the next part of my trip. I wanted to get to the north coast of Brazil and in particular a place called Jericoacoara (‘Jeri’ for short) which reputedly has the best conditions for kite surfing in the whole of South America. The problem is that to get there is not easy. It’s a seven hour bus ride from the nearest big city (Fortaleza), and Fortaleza itself is only serviced by internal Brazilian flights, so to get there I ended up having to shell out over $700 for a flight from Bogota with connections in Lima and Sao Paolo. There were some other options. I thought about skipping the North Coast of Brazil entirely and heading to Rio earlier. I also noticed that Aires had cheap flights to Curacao (but at such short notice all the flights were booked), but in the end, kite surfing is something I really wanted to do on this trip and everyone I’d spoken to about it had said that Jeri was THE place to do it, so I sucked it up and bought the flight.

So that’s the plan - five days or so kite surfing in the North before heading south to meet mum in Rio - then the party really starts!

Keep the emails coming!

Love Jules

P.S. This blog features the launch of a new game called “Where’s Sim?”. For those of you familiar with the “Where’s Wally/Waldo” books, you may recognize the concept, but in one (or more) of the photos in this blog, you will find one (or more) Sim’s - good luck!

This week’s likes
• Bananas that taste like apples - weird but delicious!
• Jelly shoes
• Bogota (remarkably enough)
• Beer, wings and footie
• Free delivery of souvenirs back to NY (cheers Gav!)

This week’s dislikes
• Mozzies
• Over-hyped treks
• Cameras + water 😞

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Photos

Here you go kids, a step-by-step guide to making cocaine.
In next week's lesson, how to start your own international cartel

Back in Taganga at the end of the trek
The Blue Steels got better as the alcohol intake increased

So after successfully completing the Lost City trek, it was a quick flight south to LeticiaSunset over the Amazon (well, not THE Amazon, but it gets there eventually)
... just in time for sunset over The Amazon

What a handsome trio!
Although Jamie, I only just noticed, but those shorts are awfully high!