A noticeable change in topography occured not long after the border, as we moved into the outskirts of the Canaima national park area, before stopping at our spectacular campsite, Salto Kama, nestled next to a 40m waterfall with a plethora of biting insects. There was little time to enjoy the falls however as we all mucked in (with a couple of notable exceptions - the usual suspects slinking off when work needs doing!) for a final truck and tent clean. A fantastic dinner of steak and mash later with caesar salad and peaches and cream, we went to the bar to [View Full Entry]

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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 [View Full Entry]

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This was originally going to be a blog about Bogota, the Colombian capital; however I only slept there for two nights and I spent no time there during the day. My time was spent in Villa de Leyva instead; and hence it is the subject of this blog. The reason for my change of destination was that some of the people I met in Salento were heading to Villa de Leyva and so I thought I would do the same. Villa de Leyva is in the Colombian Highlands and it is about four hours north by bus from Bogota. It is [View Full Entry]

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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 [View Full Entry]

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Bogotá / Kolumbien [View Full Entry]

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Quito to Salento was a long journey that involved an overnight stay in Cali. I had to change flights in Bogota and the connection was delayed. On arrival at my hostel in Cali I found out that it was somebody's house and that the owner was decorating so I couldn't stay there. Instead, the owner called a friend of and I stayed at her house. The next day I got a bus to Armenia, which was also delayed, and from there I caught another bus to Salento. Salento sits at an altitude of around 2800 metres in the Zona Cafetera (Coffee [View Full Entry]

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Kolumbien, Maerz 2008 [View Full Entry]

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And a bit left over for a bag of chips.... Under the cover of nightfall, me and me dear brain, reunited once again where I left him at the airport in Bogota made haste for Lima. There are times I guess over the last month where he would have come in handy...my grasp of the spanish language seems to have gone to pot without him...I think he feels the same way however, after getting a few nice ladies phone numbers realised that without his owners chisled and finely sculpted body he is just in fact a brain and really does look [View Full Entry]

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Bogota is a city of contrasts, offering a huge range in everything--from cheap to expensive (a full lunch for $2.50 to a dinner in the nice parts of town for $35) , from rudimentary to high-tech (horses pulling carts on the street next to their rather advance "bus" metro), from beautiful to disgusting (cool parks and colonial buildings to abandoned buildings surrounded by trash) and from welcoming to not-so-welcoming. (people approaching me on the street and welcoming me to their country to one guy yelling at me "Gringo Go home"). So the whole thing has been very stimulating in many ways. [View Full Entry]

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Did I mention how much I love my kids? Some of the random moments in Bogota... [View Full Entry]

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