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Published: February 4th 2010
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Continuing my travel, my next stop was Popayan, also nicknamed as the white town. And as soon as you enter the centre you understand why - every building is white. Very pretty.
I went on a bike tour to the thermal springs in Coconuco and had a lovely exploration of the countryside, accompanied by local specialities like tamale and hot chocolate with cheese.
I went with three French girls and wow, did I have to struggle to keep French and Spanish separated!!!
After Popayan I decided to go to Pance to discover the National Park of Farallones the Cali, and maybe climb one of the peaks in the surroundings.
Unfortunately, it is little bit off the beaten track and since there are almost no tourists (well, foreign tourists willing to pay a guide to suffer climbing some peaks...) there were no tours leaving for at least a week... But luckily I met the cutest gay couple that I spent the whole week-end with, swimming in the rivers, hiking in the mountains and drinking wine!
The nature and the surroundings in los Farallones is really extraordinary!
A less nice experience was the city of Buenaventura, the Pacific Coast's largest port.
I had heard before that it is an ugly and dangerous city, but one has to pass by here to go to Isla Gorgona, which was my goal.
I got information that boats leave every day for the Island until 4 pm so I arranged to get there early and take the first boat available.
I arrived al right and had lunch and visited the small nice center (small because only half a block is nice...) with two engineers who came with the same bus as me, who were here for business. They also helped me find out that, oh no!, there are no tours to Isla Gorgona for at least one month! Noooo! So I guess no diving in the Pacific for me... :o(
The park is owned by a private company, making it really expensive to go there. In fact, there are only one tour a month and it seems like a lot of them get cancelled due to lack of participants.
So I figured that I would spend a day or two here to explore the nearby islands... Until I got robbed, in a busy street, at 2 pm during the day...
The guy only took
my sun glasses, but I got really afraid because the guy was a lunetic and drug influenced and had really really crazy eyes. So I decided that I had had enough of Buenaventura and that I would go to some other place first thing the day after...
Until I got food poisoned by a ceviche and couldn't move the whole day after... So typical...!!! Hahaha!
I have been in Colombia for over four months now, often alone, and before that in several South American countries, also often alone, without anything ever happening... I guess I was just unlucky for this happening, but lucky it was not worse...
I am not afraid to continue to travel in Colombia on my own. Really, this was an exception and is not common - so please you who read this and think about going to Colombia - don't get afraid, it is one of the most wonderful countries I have ever been to. Just keep to tourist and safe places, or travel in a group. And after all, you can get robbed everywhere!
Same thing goes for food poisoning - I have been drinking tap water everywhere (except Buenaventura) and eating everything without
ever having any problems... but I guess, sometime it has to happen...
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