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Published: April 28th 2009
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We left Salvador and headed to Belem in the North of Brazil. From here we decided to take a 5 day boat trip up the Rio Amazonas, but as with most things in Brazil it ended up taking 6 days. The view was amazing and it was great to travel up the Amazon. The boat arrived a day before we where due to leave, so we went aboard and set up the hammocks, hoping to avoid making the same mistake as we did in Paraguay. However on our return the next day we found that the spacious deck had transformed into hammock mayhem. There were hundreds of hammocks on each floor and where in between, under and over our own. The only way to get in and out of the hammock zone was to crawl on the floor!! But everyone soon got in the spirit of things and the area became quite cozy. The food was great on the boat and we had plenty of supplies to keep us going. Our days mostly consisted of playing cards, reading and drinking rum. We were also lucky enough to see lots of dolphins swimming along side the boat.
We left the boat
in Manaus, a city isolated deep in the Amazon, and decided to relax there for a few days with some friends we made on the boat. The city is a base for trips into the jungle, however due to the high prices we decided to save our Amazon trekking for Bolivia which is much cheaper and apparently has more animals. We did however visit an animal rehabilitation park which was very interesting. There where lots things to see some of which where electric eels. Due to curiosity and also stupidity we decided to see how electric they where....... the answer is very. Prince Charles also visited the park two days later!
We decided not to travel in Venezuela as everything is so expensive and apparently this has been done to reduce tourism. The only thing which is cheap is petrol which is the equivalent of 1p a liter. But our next destination was northern Columbia and the quickest and cheapest way of getting there was buses through Venezuela. We arrived in the border town of Santa Helena and were told that to make travelling in Venezuela cheaper you should change your money on the black market. This really helped
The Lost City Trek
Entrance to The Lost City and made the 3 day bus journey a lot cheaper. Travelling this way meant we didn’t get to see much of the country and the journey was long and uncomfortable, however arriving in the Caribbean made it worth while.
We went straight from the Columbian Border to Santa Marta which is a beautiful costal town in the North by the Caribbean Sea. The street food and coffee was delicious, there was so much to choose from and everything there was really cheap, which is great after being in Brazil.
We then decided to go on The Lost City Trek which took us 6 days and did almost kill me. I defiantly didn’t mentally or physically prepare for how tough it would be and after 2 months of relaxing, eating and drinking in Brazil. It was a bit of a shock!!! It took 3 days to get to the lost city but we were not hiking for that long each day so we had plenty of time to enjoy where we were. The first night we stayed in hammocks by the guide’s parent’s house in the jungle and the second night was a lodge further up the hill. To
finally reach The Lost City we had to wade through about 9 rivers and climb the final 3500 steps. It was well worth the 3 day walk and it was beautiful, the views around the jungle and mountains were amazing. Although our guide didn’t speak English others were able to translate and explain how the lost city was found and its history, we only saw 2 km of it as the other 7 km is still overgrown by jungle. We also got to find out more about the indigenous people in Columbia. We had our own personal cook travelling with us and I don’t think we have eaten so well since we have been away. We spent one night at The Lost City and it took another 2 days to get back down again. There were lots of rivers and waterfalls to swim in and jump off which was good fun. On the last day we also got to see how they use coca leaves to create the paste which is used to make cocaine. It was interesting to see how it was done and we were surprised that we where allowed to see it at all. It was a
safe trek to be on as the military seem to be camped all over the jungle. We were knackerd after the trek but it was certainly worth it.
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