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Published: January 6th 2008
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From Huaraz I took the bus to visit an old friend from my school days - Dave. We used to hang out together in the village when we were about 15 but I don't think I have seen him for about 10 years or more. I was interested to see how Cajamarca was as all the Peruvians I had mentioned it to has said it was lovely but its not quite on the Gringo trail. As it turned out Cajamarca was a nice little city in the mountains but I enjoyed it much more because I got to do lots of normal things like watch TV on a sofa, go to the cinema, download some new music from Dave, play with his daughter and go round to his sister in laws for lunch.
I had a great time hanging out there and its always great to meet someone again after a long time and find that you still get on well. However I do feel a bit slack that during my time there I didn't go and see any of the pre Incan sites and surroundings that are part of the attraction of the city. I did go to someones birthday
party though and tried guinea pig too (Dave sister in Law keeps a load up on the roof to cook up on special occasions) so I think that counts for more.
We also saw Santa in a fake snowdome in one of the big American style malls they have got everywhere all of a sudden.
The further I get away from Bolivia the more I see it as a big black hole in the continent, into which all mod cons and western culture got sucked. Its weird to have had this gap in between Argentina and Peru where certain things disappeared from my life such as pop music and supermarkets, and its only now they´re back again that I realise I missed them.
Anyway it was getting close to Christmas and so I had to leave Cajamarca and embark on my mission to get through Ecuador and to the Northern part of Columbia for Xmas. I was waved off at the bus station by Dave, Yove and Kiera at 2pm not entirely sure when or where I would be stopping along the way but with some new books to read and new music to keep me entertained on the long
haul. I thought that probably I would have to stop after 48 hours on a bus just to get some sleep somewhere but in fact the discomfort didn't get any worse after the first 24 hrs and all my connections seem to meet up with another bus so I decided to just keep on trucking all the way through. The scenery was great too, first of all the hot tropical, everyone sitting on porches and banana plantations of Ecuador. Then into Colombia and damp and misty looking mountains, winding our way down to hot dusty little villages on rivers, which I tried to find names for as we passed thinking I might be able to come back there. I also met my first lovely and super friendly Colombian (one of many I now realise) who was going the same way and took me under his wing, got me discounts on my next bus tickets and waited for me to clear immigration. I even found there were showers in the bus station in Medellin, how civilized.
So 84 hours later and after 7 different buses, I arrived in Santa Marta to find that the hostel where my friend Marsha had reserved
me a room wouldn't answer the doorbell at 2:30am and so there I was on the streets of Colombia with Salsa music blasting out of the bars around me, my rucksack on my back and looking ripe for a mugging!
I wasn't fazed by any of that however, having survived the hell that was the Peru/Ecuador border where everyone seemed to be trying to rip me off and scare me into paying them to escort me through because "it was very dangerous". Its all compounded by the fact that immigration is 5km away from the actual border and you have to trust the taxi drivers to get you there. Luckily I had already heard stories about some of the scams so I was wary but it was all very confusing and manic, I can imagine if you spoke no Spanish it would be horrendous.
So I found myself another place to stay the night and slept in late but apart from that felt amazingly alert and healthy after my crazy journey. Unfortunately I went back to the original hostel to find that Marsha had left for the Tayrona National park already, thinking that I hadn´t made it the night before
and that I´d have to catch her up. I also couldn't find any one to do my washing which desperately needed doing so I had just resolved to just buy some new pants and get after Marsha asap when I bumped into her. She had got all the way onto the bus to the park then realised she had left something under the pillow in the hostel and had rushed back.
Having already been in Santa Marta for a day or two she took me off to find Juice Street before we left, where you can pick and fruit combination you want and the whizz it up into juice in front of you.
Santa Marta was noisy and lively and colourful and felt like I imagine Cuba to be. I had already decided I liked it when I had arrived to the Salsa dancing the night before and now as we set off to the park munching on barbecued sweetcorn with our rucksacs weighted with rum and limes, chatting away I had a really good feeling about Colombia and what the next few weeks and months might hold.
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Mark Hunter
non-member comment
HAHA
I saw this when i went on an exebition earlier this year XD