BureaucraZy Ok, in itself this has nothing to do with Bolivia, but as we're right now in La Paz, Bolivia's de facto capital city, and we've started to prepare our next leg of the trip, we became annoyed: From South America we want to go to Africa and we've found a good connection. The issue appears to be that for the African country where we want to go Agi needs a visa, but there is no embassy nor consulate nearby, and the bloody French are not cooperative... We went to the French consulate on Friday and there the lady behind the glass said it wasn't possible, unless she would have been a resident here in Bolivia, which she's obviously not. 2 hours later we got an e-mail from the French consul himself, stating that is was ... read more

We are in Iquitos The world´s largest city unreachable by road, 371.000 human souls in a sweaty, chaotic cradle of the Peruvian Amazon: Yes, this is it, and here we are! We took a speed boat from Leticia/Santa Rosa. Ruled out the slow boat that would take 4 days upstream, most of the time spent with sleeping, reading books in hammocks, wondering when the next stop would be and wishing good luck to the captain for navigating among the sandbanks in the shallow water. The Amazon is damn dry now. We definitely have to come back when the water is high as the whole region must be completely different. So yes, we came fast, 12 hours, only 2 sandbanks hit: all fine. Upon arrival to this overheated jungle metropolis we noticed clearly that we are ... read more

Amazing, we have already spent over 2 months in this country, more than we spent in China! Yes, we like it here. However, soon we are leaving, but till then: The number 1 archeological site of Colombia - San Agustin So from Cali airport we quickly went back to the hostel where we left quite some stuff of ours before the dive trip. Wrapped up and took a bus to Popayan, reducing this way the time we had to spend on the bumpy road next day towards San Agustin. In Popayan the hostel owner was very happy to see us again. Next morning we were lucky enough to get a direct bus to San Agustin. Okay, 5 hours on unpaved roads, but in a beautiful environment. Our road went on the ridges of the West and ... read more

¿Cali, again? Yes, we went back to Cali (where the hostal owner knows us by now by our names), for a very good reason: Diving @ Malpelo. After arranging our final details in Cali (read: pay the flight tickets), we were ready to go, so the next day: ¡VAMOS! Mingling with Colombians! At the Cali airport we met our fellow dreamers, 4 divers arriving from Bogota, one of them our contact and guide, Jorge. From Cali we took a flight to Guapi, which is a village in the middle of the jungle. OK, from one side its borders the ocean, but no roads take you here, so flying is the best option. The second, vomiting option is by a bumpy speedboat, but that we ignored. We boarded the small plane to Guapi and there we landed ... read more

Ok, Colombia is good. It's actually too good to leave on a short notice, so we're still here. The funny thing is that fellow travellers have the same issue: They also just keep on extending their stay here. It's really remarkable, but Colombia has it all: Mountains, beaches, deserts, jungles, cool cities, nice people and enough stuff to see without other loads of tourists (and yes, you can still manage it on a small budget). But before we kick off: still a small picture of the Dutch soccer team, according the Colombians. Got this pic from Facebook from a Colombian friend. Ok, enough b#llshit: the Colombian story continues... Medellin. The town of Pablo Escobar - Medellin From the north we headed down to Medellin and guess that the most (in)famous inhabitant was Pablo Escobar. There are ... read more