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Published: March 2nd 2007
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Quito
The teleferico I've returned back home more than two months ago, but still didn't get to add this last blog, maybe because in some way it will end my trip officially. Anyway, here's a quick summary of the final chapter of my voyage:
From the Galapagos Islands I flew to Quito, where I found a modern and a bit dangerous city with some nice night life during the weekends.
Especially interesting was visiting Mitad del Mundo - a scientific museum situated at the equator, dedicated to the subject. Actually there are 2 museums, since the exact location of the equator was miscalculated and the first one was built at a wrong location, and only a decade ago the correct location was calculated with a GPS, allowing interesting scientific experiments. There are some amazing archaeological findings in the area, suggesting that the people that had been living in this area hundreds of years ago, had managed to calculate the exact location of the equator back than - without any GPS.
Ban~os is almost a must stop to anyone visiting Ecuador, especially famous for the active volcano Tungurahua that you can see smoking from the town, not to mention that it resides in
Quito
From the teleferico a very green and scenic area, one of the best in Ecuador, I think. There of course, once again, I enjoyed quads.
Latacunga would have been skipped by me, if not a tip from a local friend. Apparently it was the time for the annual Mama Negra festival. It was one of the funniest things I've seen in Ecuador, reminding very much the Carnaval of Salvador in Brazil I've witnessed during the start of my trip. The major differences were that it was much smaller, people got drunk already at 10AM, amazing by any standards, and that it had allot of pagan characteristic, such as blessings issued by some kind of dressed shamans, in the form of alcohol being literally spat on the be blessed victim, in the name of all the mountains.
Otavalo market just north of Quito was a disappointment after La Paz, by any scale, basically including the same things, but much more expensive, and with much less verity.
Wanting to get some suntan before returning home, I've decided to give Colombia a short visit and found a truly magnificent country.
As the border area between Ecuador and Colombia is considered a bit
Quito
From the teleferico sketchy, I've decided to fly from Tulcan in the north of Ecuador (nice topiary gardens) to Cali in the south of Colombia. Cali stroke me much more as a huge shunty town than a modern city, except the business area of avenida sixta, with some nice Salsatecas (yeah - Salsa discos), unfortunately being empty in the middle of the week. So after spending there entire one and a half days, I moved on to Medellin.
Medellin was a complete opposite for Cali, being really modern, with even a metro train running efficiently between the different parts of the city. It also included many interesting places to visit, such as the hydroelectric power station area, the construction of which created a really beautiful man-made lake, with allot of islands, and had a good night life during the weekends.
As charmfull as Medellin was, I wanted to move on to Colombias' Caribbean coast, to finally get my suntan, so after spending a week in Medellin, I took a bus to Cartagena, which is the best known touristic destination in Colombia.
But just after arriving to Cartagena, my South African friend Allon with whom I've been traveling, heard that in a
Quito
From the teleferico near city of Barranquilla Shakira will be doing a concert the next day.
Being a fan of her, he had to see it, and I decided to join him.
The concert was held in a stadium, and had the best atmosphere I've witnessed so far in a stadium in South America, including all the soccer games I'd seen.
A funny story was that at first we couldn't get to the stadium as all the taxi drivers refused to go on that direction for the traffic jams, and after finally arriving there, all the tickets were sold out. Not wanting to buy fake ones, we came up with a brilliant idea, buying'em from police officers. They also took advantage of us, selling them at a higher price, but at least they weren't fake.
The next day we visited the fun volcano del Lado del Tatumo, which is a mud volcano, created by natural decomposition of organic materials and gases.
Our next destination was Taganga, a small fisherman village, just near Santa Marta, with the best beaches I've seen in Colombia. It was exactly what I wanted to find towards the end of my trip - relaxed, quiet and laid back
Quito
From the teleferico village, and finally I also had there a few sunny days. No doubt, snorkeling was the best activity I did there.
From Taganga I also payed a visit to national park Tayrona, which have in my opinion, less nicer beaches, but maybe I got this impression because it was so cloudy that day.
As I didn't get to spend any time in Cartagena, I decided to return there, but had a very bad luck with the weather. It was raining most of the days, and towards the end of my stay there, the sea even had flooded parts of the city, so there was no possibility to enjoy Cartagenas' beaches, as all of them were gone...
Nevertheless I did pay a visit to Islas del Rosario which are an archipelago just near Cartagena, and again because of the weather, I didn't manage to see anything while snorkeling there.
I did enjoy the city of Cartagena itself, with its interesting historical center and fortresses.
My last stop was Bogota, where I found a modern capital, with a very good night life.
Exactly as I couldn't have realized nine and half months ago that my voyage to South America had
Quito
Mitad del Mundo started, landing me into a completely different reality, I was unable to realize that the amazing experience I've been having is going to end shortly.
The flight home was uneventful, except my scotch, that I had bought in Bogotas' duty free, being confiscated in Madrids' airport, as by the new regulations of the European Union, it is not allowed to have liquid on board. From Madrid the flight was continued by El Al which was great - for the first time in such a long period, the first and official language was Hebrew (yeah, you miss the small things), and the sight of Gush Dan and Ben Gurion airport was the best thing I've seen in so long.
That's all folks, that is - until my next voyage,
Vitaliy
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