Blogs from Popayan, Colombia, South America - page 4

'Nuff said - simply being able to come and ride through this fantastic country is a major result, as up until recently, there's no way that Foreign Office advice would have allowed an overland bike trip like this to take place (insurance etc). Here's the story since Panama... Crossing the Darien Gap This is one hundred miles of swamp and jungle that separates Panama from Colombia. For economic/geographical/logistical/political reasons (choose one or more of the above), no-one has yet built a road through it, so we had to park ourselves (and our bikes) into planes for the one hour flight to Bogota. Riding Colombia! The tourist industry for Gringos is steadily trying to get back on its feet here, after a number of years of 'issues'. Hence, the BMW bike dealerships in Bogota and Medellin were ... read more

Hola amigos, Zoals beloofd een blog over Colombia. Een mooi groot en tegenwoordig ook veilig land met voor ieder wat wils. Zon, zee, strand, bergen, jungle, noem het maar op. Omdat we niet konden kiezen, zijn we overal maar wezen kijken. De overheerlijke koffies uit eigen tuin smaken hier erg goed en gaven ons vleugels. Vooral in het begin vlogen we van de ene plaats naar de andere. Zo trokken we naar San Agustin om de vele beelden uit vroegere tijden te bezoeken en naar Tierradentro om af te dalen in prachtig geschilderde graftombes. Het reizen was af en toe wel vermoeiend. Vooral als de 5 uur durende reis over een hobbel-de-bobbelweg 2x zolang duurt en de veering/ophanging ook nog eens breekt. Gelukkig brachten een stuk touw en een omgehakte boom uitkomst en verstevigde boel dusdanig ... read more

Day 732 (31.03.09) We spent the morning visiting the market in the town of Sylvia, a little over an hour away from Popayan on the local bus. Every Tuesday this small town plays host to a big market where local indigenous folk come down from their remote villages to stock up on all their requirements for the next week. Purely there for the locals it makes a great place to go and see local life in full flow. The people from the area attend the market in their usual traditional dress and we had a great time wandering around and watching the shopping and socialising in progress. After a couple of hours we made a move as we were headed to San Augustin that afternoon trying to pack in as much as possible in our last ... read more

I thought I would be looking forward to getting back to a city again after a good stint in the country but to be honest if I can have the chice of being woken up by cows mooing or big horrible trucks going past my window at 5am I know which one I will choose. The girls and I were obviously very happy to get to Popayan and get off the bus from hell!! We checked into a hostel full of priomise called Hostel Trail. It was set up by a couple who had initiated a website connecting all of the hostels together across south america and on their travels they ended up in Popayan and realised the need for more hostels. It was a lovely place and I'm amost ashamed to say that the thing ... read more

Mit dem Ableben der letzten Kackerlacken gehört meine Nörgelphase endgültig der Vergangenheit an. Außerdem macht mir die Arbeit hier in Popayán von Tag zu Tag mehr Spaß. Im Büro der Organisation, die quasi im Mittelpunkt meiner Magisterarbeit steht, hat man immer ein offenes Ohr für mich. Überhaupt gefällt mir die Arbeitsatmosphäre dort ausgesprochen gut. Es herrscht „Open-Door-Policy“. Jeder kommt in das Büro des anderen, wann immer er Lust hat, fragt, tratscht, macht Witze, usw. Und ich bin Mitten drin. Ich kann mich mit meinem Laptop in den großen Arbeitsraum setzten, ihn ans Internet anstöpseln (wenn es denn Internet hat, denn die Verbindungen sind hier leider nicht die zuverlässigsten), die Dokumente der Organisation lesen und immer wenn ich Fragen hab, einfach in den Raum reden. Irgendjemand antwortet dann immer. Meistens ist es Marcela. Sie arbeitet schon eine ... read more