Blogs from Colombia, South America - page 329

Despite now having nine mosquito bites on my right hand big toe alone (Not kidding, I´ll take a photo, and this toe is no rare exception), I´ve decided to spend six days trekking through the Colombian jungle to the Lost City. I´ve dumped all but a day of my time in Venezuela to do this. It should be good though. I won´t get back until, ooh, Saturday, so you´ll have to amuse yourselves for a while.... read more

Apropos of nothing in particular (apart from the fact that Bogota has been boring, cold and rainy so far and I´ve just been to a couple of art galleries and played some basketball), herewith the Liz Bates Official Ways To Make Friends With Foreigners: Americans: Litter your conversation with words such as "wicked, rubbish, bin, swimming costume, golly, plasters and gumboots". They find this hilarious, they never tire of it, and it´s much easier than thinking up clever jokes or amusing anecdotes that they probably wouldn´t understand anyway. French: Be as sarcastic as you can. Dutch: Nothing in particular. They´re just really friendly to everyone with their red cheeks and hearty laughs. Israelis: Tell them you paid a lot more than they did for exactly the same thing. Germans: You probably won´t want to bother. If ... read more

Cartagena is one of the most beautiful colonial cities I have seen. The old town is surrounded by a wall built by the Spanish to protect it from the many attacks from pirates. It was a main port to Spain during colonial times and goods from all over South America went through Cartagena, making it rich, but also a valuable target. Phil, Sjoerd, Paul, Eva and I left for Santa Marta after three days, Sjoerd was feeling much better, but Eva was giving signs of being sick, we were afraid that she had got whatever disease Paul had. ... read more

These ruins were set in the middle of the Colombian jungle. We had to climb 1200 steps to reach the hilltop ruins. There were carvings on the rocks that looked like a map, water channels, stone circles and would have been quite a construction job. Please click below for further details about my trip around Colombia http://www.travelblog.org/South-America/Colombia/blog-490421.html... read more

Disclaimer: In case any one reads this and thinks that colombia is dangerous or unsavoury on account of what I write or perhaps appear to insinuate I assure you it isnt; the people here are incredibly helpful and often go out of their way to help you, and I would definitely reccommend anyone to come here, no worries. (just the stretch of road around ipiales at night - apart from that safer than a lot of other countries. nb Guy I was travelling with left colombia for ecuador (by plane) because he was afraid something would happen here, and got a bus straight away to the peruvian boader the moment he arrived so as to distance himself from the "horror" that was colombia. The bus was stopped by 3 men with guns in santo domingo who ... read more