Blogs from Colombia, South America - page 280

After our time spent there, we were all more than ready to leave Venezuela and head for the much anticipated Colombia. Having already changed as much currency on the black market upon entry to Venezuela, we had already increased our spending power there (getting nearly double the "official" rate), however we were duly shafted upon leaving, emphasized by their substantial hike (300%!!!) in departure tax for exiting the country. Furthermore, with the current bleak state of the Mighty Dollar, no-one would accept them for love nor money, posing some probs to those who had only enough currency for the supposed exit fee. Thankfully Billy, Jude and myself had enough currency to feed an army so were able to sort the others out, although trying to explain to our Japanese contingent, Takuya that the exchange would NOT ... read more

I arrived in Cali at the beginning of the month with exactly 31 days until I need to be back on the north coast for my lift out of here to central America. I wanted to work here for a while in order to improve my Spanish a bit more and to see a part of Colombia from a non backpacker point of view. I had chosen Cali as it is not really on the gringo trail but if I am honest the fact that it lists itself as the salsa capital of Colombia was also a big draw. Coincidentally all the people I met at Christmas on the beach were also from Cali and one girl in particular, Wisely, thought she might be able to set me up with some work connections. I arrived here ... read more

Having recently returned from a Caribbean cruise aboard the excellent ship Celebrity Constellation, I came to the conclusion that the Caribbean is actually rather short of interesting places to visit. The weather is great in the early part of the year, and there are many superb locations for diving, snorkelling or just sitting on the many beaches, but there is a lack of interesting towns. Cartagena in Colombia is a major exception to this and is well worth a visit: it is actually a sizeable city with a population of around a million but the most interesting part for the traveller is the Old Town with its Spanish colonial buildings in narrow streets. I would certainly like to go back and maybe visit other parts of Colombia as well. More photos of Cartagena as well as ... read more

Whilst in Ecuador I floated the idea that Adam could come with me to Colombia seeing as he didn't have much planned up until his flight from Quito to Peru, so I said why not kill the time with me and see a bit of Colombia to boot. The US government strongly advises its citizens against visiting Colombia as does ours, but for some reason us Brits just tend to take far less notice of any officials or politicians than they do. So while I was painting pictures of lovely people and countryside two Belgians arrived and told us that the San Augustin was indeed beautiful but the road there was crap, they had to wait for 7 hours on route as there was a body on the road under investigation plus they think that's where ... read more

Heading on down to the docks in Belem, we spent an appreciable amount of time hanging around amidst the constant smell of bananas, (although not as long as the guys who had gone down in the morning to try, with no avail, to save us all hammock spaces) before eventually boarding the ship that would be our home for the next 5-6 days. Already bustling, the rush was to find good hammock locations as there is precious little available room. As things were, we managed to group all of ours together at the end of the area, although in a somewhat cosy manner. Staying up top on the ferry, we set into a few beers and I had my leftover Pizza Hut pizza (well we needed to bring food for the first night - what else ... read more