Blogs from Colombia, South America - page 297

A trip to ancient Tayrona Indians’ Ciudad Perdida (Lost City) is more like a journey to another world. It’s an intense 6-day uphill trek that can only be described as unique. On the way up through seemingly boundless dense rainforest one can easily why this country is such an easy place for guerillas to hide. Fortunately, this is now one of the areas that are back in the control of the Colombian government, and the various army posts along the way ensure that the chances of you running into trouble are small. Along the path, as well as on the actual site of the old civilization’s city (which no doubt must have played some part in the inspiration of the Indiana Jones movies), there are still indigenous Indians living pretty much the same as they did ... read more

We tried to make it to the Venezuelan boarder but time and the heat prevented it. We found a hotel, near to where the collectivos leave for the boarder. The earliest one left at 6 am so planned to be on that one. We went for a walk around town and found the ocean. We walked out onto a pier that went out for ages. There were boats tied up at the end and kids fishing. It was like Tologa except it was made of wood, it was much cooler out at the end. Looking back at land the beach was covered in coconut trees and really looked beautiful. Walking back to the hotel we came across something going on. It turned out to be a funeral so we walked through the crowd into a plaza ... read more

well frist off happy frickin´ Canada day everyone 140 years and still looking good... so this is the last few day in a nut shell... we are in a town of taganga right now on the colombian coast and can´t find another canadian as the isrealis have taken this town over... seriously most of the signs are in hebrew which is a bit strange but pointing still works so we are all good... so from bogota we flew down (or up?) to the coast and spent a few nights in cartagena which was nice to see the walled old city the largest fort in south america (not positive if that´s true) and maybe a bit of time hiding from the heat in th AC... from cartagena we bussed to santa marta which is a town about ... read more

Our overnight bus arrived about 9.30 am and we caught a taxi through a frenzy of traffic, donkey carts and people. Along the way some people banged on the taxi and were yelling, we didn't know what was happening, but the driver just sped off and then Paul said someone had been run over. It we had stopped we could have taken the person to hospital but we were well passed before we realised what was happening. It made me very sad to think the driver ignored those people. This place is really hot, we sweat like anything. It is very warm at night and we need no blankets, in fact the hostel does not have any. We dropped off our packs and went out for a walk along the top of the defensive walls of ... read more

well not much to write about galapagos continued to be awesome more snorkelling etc... and after 8 days on a boat it was time for us to get off and stagger towards the plane on our sealegs... we flew into quito and quickly went to the bus station and were off to tulcan which is in northern ecuador near the colombian boarder... we spent a night there in a super cheep but fairly sketchy hostel and the next day cabbed to the boarder... on the ecuador side we waited for about 2 hours to get our exit stamps as the computers were down and they didn´t feel like processing by hand so when we eventually got them done we walked over the bridge to colombia which was a breeze... form the boarder town of ipiales we ... read more