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Published: September 16th 2011
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Waterfall
One of the cool waterfalls we swam at Hi all!Hope this finds you all well. Thanks for informing us that it is the World Cup at the moment - would have passed us by completely! Also heard we won against Wales!
The last week has been very eventful. Our extra days in Santa Marta were used to sleep and try to get rid of a bad case of gipoguts. We also stumbled upon a festival with some cool theatrical pieces and music, including a woman doing trapeze work while hanging from a rope held up by the fire dept´s crane! Unfortunately, the next day, two guys attempted to rob us while we were leaving a corner cafe. The two men flanked us and then held a knife to Marco´s side while reaching into his pockets. I ran for help while Marco just refused to let them take anything. We called two policemen close by, a chase ensued (2 policemen with cocked guns chasing one guy, a motorbike with 2 policemen chasing the other guy). The culprits could not have been more than 15m away but for some reason, the police never caught them!!! Needless to say, we were extremely angry about the whole situation. Phillipa is shaken up
Hairo´s Birthday
Notice Alice, the cake eating Kogi Indian but we´re happy we have all our belongings.
We were happy to venture into the bush, although in retrospect I´m not sure if it´s much safer there! We had a great group of fellow hikers and our guide was very good! Phillipa ended up being the translator for the whole trip. The route was tough! Only severe ups and downs. It rains every afternoon and the path turns into a mud bath, where you sink ankle deep in mud. And the mozzies are like nothing we have ever seen - they give a new meaning to ¨silent killers´ You can´t feel them bite, but they bite through your clothes! The route is high up in the moutains (a 1.5 hour 4x4 ride gets you to the start) and the landscapes are breathtaking! We ate like kings and were treated very well. Unfortunatley, every person in our group spent at least one night on the toilet with diarrhoea, much to our cook´s disappointment. We walked through some indigenous tribal areas - Kogi Indians, an interesting bunch of people. The men do nothing else but chew coca leaves (the growing of the coca plant is legal, however they are not supposed
to actually make cocaine with it) mixed with seashells while the women do the work and raise the kids. With the influx of tourists, the Kogis appeared conveniently at every meal time, where they were then given a plate to eat. We even had Alice, who had the audacity to sit down with our group when we were celebrating a guy in our group´s birthday and ate cake with us!! (It was amazing - our guide carried the cake with him for 2 days in a black bag - it must have melted countless times!). The Lost City itself was cool too - hundreds of terraces in the forest where the Taryonian tribe built their houses around 700AD. It is believed they died out from diseases brought in by the Spanish. There are over 1300 stone steps leading up to the village, so we were truly pooped at the end of each day! We crossed through rivers throughout the hike and swam in plenty of pools and waterfalls. It pelts with rain each afternoon, and the rivers rise by about 1 to 2 metres! Phillipa also emjoyed 3 close encounters with nature - 2 snakes and a tarantula in her
Tarantula
Baby tarantula in Phil´s shoe! hiking boot (which she thought was her shoelace and tried to fish out!)
We returned this afternoon, with Phillipa´s knees looking like balloons and Marco who we suspect has sunstroke. We are sleeping in a small fishing village called Taganga but leave tmrw morning for Cartagena.
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African Amy
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keep swimming keep swimming
We're marchin on, we\'re marchin on! Guys, this blog made me feel particularly exhausted. Were you very tired when writing it? Descriptions briefer and less euphoric/jokey than previous ones - so many expereinces it\'s exhausting to think of capturing it in words? Pictures are good for that... =) (that beach looks like a pool!, and the mozzie bites are for real!) What an epic trip! Am so glad you were kept safe through that mugging. May that be the last. Am having a super busy sociable wkend ... will mail you, P. I owe you a newsy mail! Have a happy trip onwards! God bless, love A