Photo Diary by Christian Kober: February 2011

Its time to catch up again on this diary. I've just been sat on a bus (or five) for the last 48 hours, so have had plenty of time to think abut doing this.

I crossed over the Darien Gap into Colombia on 27th December. Unfortunately it wasn't overland, or even by boat. The Darien gap is the connecting part of North and South America, but its too dangerous (controlled by FARQ guerillas and the FARQing mosquitoes) to go through it. The other choice is five days on a boat passing through the beautiful San Blas Islands. I was eager to see more of Colombia though, and in hindsight it was a good choice to fly, as I'm now desperate for extra days to see as much as i can in South America.

So I arrive in Cartagena, Colombia in time to settle in for a few days before New Year's Eve. Its obviously more lively here than Panama, and a lot more colourful, so I'm happy to have been able to get here to see in the New Year.

Cartagena harbour

city walls

Cartagena is on the Caribbean coast and i go out to a Marine park for a day trip, and a beach which is supposed to be one of the best in South America. Only two problems though, first the booking agent (my hostel) didn't tell me the weather is too rough to go out to the famous beach, and second, after the day out at the alternative island my boat leaves me stranded.

The people here are the least friendly i have met so far (and since) on my trip. More interested in making money than making people happy. And the boat operators are not nice at all. After asking, in poor Spanish, what time the boat is going to move on, they just wave me away, like I'm a distraction to their busy schedule. So its no surprise that when i turn up at the time one of the other passengers told me, the boat is nowhere to be seen.

I couldn't believe they hadn't waited for me, I could have been stranded all night, or longer!!! Luckily another boat is at the dock, i tell them what happened and claim i have no money, so they let me on board for their sunset cruise back to Cartagena.

marine park

Next day i warily do another trip, to a mud volcano. This one goes better and the experience is really funny. For some reason a volcano started oozing out mud next to a lake and you can enter freely to soak up the therapeutic values of decomposed organic materials (which have turned into mud).

The experience is like a cross between scuba diving, swimming in the Dead Sea, and the effortlessness of floating in space (maybe?). Its impossible to sink but difficult to maintain buoyancy. Local kids hang out to hold people''s cameras and take pictures - for a charge. After you can swim in the lake to clean off and old women try make money by helping! This is a real hassle, even though i can wash myself, thank you very much, they still try and accuse you of being cleaned afterwards. How they recognise you or not afterwards is impossible, so they try and charge everyone they see. Its a good day though, at least my ride waits for me this time.

mud volcano

A lot of people are going to the beach resort of Taganga for New Year, its a very small place but good for a big party. Its probably the most scenic beach I've seen on this trip. At midnight locals set off fireworks which are prepared inside lifelike dolls they have made. Its a bit like Guy Fawks night, except the dolls explode first then burn! Later a few hundred people are in an open air night club overlooking the beach and the music goes on 'til morning. I'm up by 10am on New Years Day, and the locals i saw sitting outside their houses drinking last night, are still sitting outside their houses drinking! This is one of the few places I've seen where the locals out-party the backpackers!

Tayrona NP

Taganga

Next stop was going to be east to Venezuela to climb their highest peak, (and then back to Colombia further south) but i go to the bus station to buy a ticket and because of New Year, the next available is in 4 days. OK, new plan, go south to Bucaramanga to climb in Colombia first, then into Venezuela. But the road is closed due to flooding (about 100 people dead this week!) A new plan, and only available plan left, is to go to Medellin (pronounced Medejin), 17 hours south west of where i am now. Its the only major place in Colombia i planned on not going to, so its ironic that i have to go now through lack of choice. Medellin is where the Colombian drug lord Pablo Escobar ruled, and made it one of the most deadliest cities in the world. Now Medellin is a modernising city with some modern architecture and the famous Fernando Botero museum - with all his FAT paintings and sculptures. A lot of people have told me this is a really nice city, they obviously haven't been to Florence or Venice! For me its a drab industrial town, made dull by the fact that everything is made out of old red bricks ( a bit like Manchester, England (sorry Dino!). So two days is enough and i get out of the city into the hills of Salento.

Medellin

Medellin - Botero

Medellin - Botero Museum

I say hills, because even though you can get all the way to 5200m, you don't actually see a real looking mountain until you get to the glacier at 4800m! The people here are much more friendly, and its very cheap too, no-one trying to rip of the gullible tourists here! Only $1.50 for a meal with soup and drink included. There's lots of trekking in the area. I spend 2 nights hiking up to the glacier staying in farm houses (now maintained for hikers). On the second night i have run out of cash (the town ATM doesn't work on weekends!) and i don't have enough to pay. The kind owner gives me a discount and i give him a packet of ham and some Oreos! I think we are both happy!

Salento

Salento - Valley de Cocora

Salento

Once I'm back in town I take an overnight bus which gets me into Bogota, the Capital, at 4.30 in the morning. I've heard its a dangerous city, so i leave it for later in my trip and take the first bus out to a colonial town Villa de Leyva a few hours north, surrounded by countryside with waterfalls and small villages. Its just as the guide book describes it, "colonial town par excellence. Declared a national monument in 1954, it has been preserved in its entirety and virtually no modern architecture exists".

Villa de Veyva

Barrichara

San Gil the next town north is the new adventure capital of Colombia. There's very little to see, but plenty to do, including abseiling down waterfalls, paragliding, white water rafting, caving and more. I try everything except the rafting which I've down twice in Nepal. Paragliding is great, my pilot is a real stunt flier, its like being on a roller-coaster in mid air. I think I'll do a course in flying, its great for taking photos! Caving was cool too, jumping from a 10m rock into a river was the most challenging, and fun part!

San Gil

There's supposed to be a National Park, Chichamocha NP, nearby so i go to check it out, but when i get there all i can see is a disney type amusement park on top of a hill and an expensive cable car which goes over a road you can drive down anyway. I'm not sure what they're protecting, or if its just a way to generate money from nothing, but i cant see anything spectacular around anywhere. At least there's a nice winding road to photograph at night. Its a shame none of the the 30 odd buses that passed me picked me up when i wanted to go back. Luckily a guy in a truck stopped for me, telling me how dangerous it was to be there. I'm sure he was right!

Chichiamocha NP

I'm wondering if i can get to the mountains i was going to climb 2 weeks earlier. I don't have time for Venezuela now, but i still want to get to El Cocuy National Park, which looks close to San Gil on the map. Unfortunately its near the closed road i couldn't get down at New Year. I set off for Bucaramanga, passing through Chichamocha NP again, able now to see in the daylight how many hairpin bends i walked down last night. The bus company tells me there's no way, no bus, no train, no plane to get to El Cocuy. But the guy on the next counter tells me to go to a town I didn't know about and get another bus the next day.

The road doesn't look like it was closed down, but it does look like it should never been opened at all! I arrive in the unknown town at 10pm and go to a hotel 5 meters away where the woman running it tells me the bus to the park will be at 3am. $10 for the room. At 4am she wakes me up and says the bus has arrived. Perfect! The road in is even worse condition and we have a puncture which is fixed in an hour. Once i arrive i stock up for a 6 day hike and wonder if it will be worth the journey.

El Cocuy

The cheapest way to get to the hiking trails is on a lecher (milk truck). I thought it was for delivering milk to communities or lodges, but of course its the communities who make the milk, and the truck goes around picking up a few litres here, and a few litres there from dozens of small farms all over the mountains. Everyday they pick up 1400 litres! and it takes 4 hours and 900 litres later before arriving at the trail head. No wonder its cheap!

I've heard this park is going to be the new Patagonia in 10 years. I'm lucky to be one of the early visitors to enjoy it without mass tourism. Only 5 people come up the trail in the next week, and as far as i could tell, about the same number going in my direction on the circuit. Hiking is between 3800m and 4800m, and climbing can go up to 5230m. If this park were anywhere else it would be overrun with tourists and on the front of many a guide book. It has some of the greatest scenery I've seen anywhere! Hopefully my pictures will make it onto some front covers soon, but still, i hope not too many people will come here and spoil it!

El Cocuy NP

The road back to Bogota is more direct, only 10 hours this time! But i arrive at 6am with no reservation. I have to walk around trying 5 hostels before i find one with a bed. Luckily I'm not mugged! I spend my only day here looking at a few museums, including one with most of the gold in Colombia and another one trying to protect all the gold in Colombia!

Bogota

Bogota - Gold Museum

Bogota - Police Museum

I need to head in to Ecuador now, but don't want to back track (thanks to the closed roads earlier in the month), so i have booked a flight to Pasto an hour on the Colombian side of the board. Its also close to Ipiales a place where the Virgin Mary is said to have appeared on the side of a cliff. Since then a church was built in the same place and thousands of pilgrims and some tourist now come to worship and see the precipitously built site.

Ipiales

Ipiales - Sanctuario las Lajas

Leaving Colombia I'm horrified to be told I've overstayed my time in the country!!! Tourists are allowed 90 days usually, and i didn't even look at the stamp in my passport which now says 30 days. I'm 3 days over and the border control want to fine me about $200!!! I complain for a while, but still told to go to the bank and get money, which is not even at the border! I would have to go to the nearest town! Not at all happy with Colombia now! There's a tourist office surprisingly so i go and complain. Obviously she cant do anything. Eventually i go back to the immigration and complain again, saying I'm a journalist and will write about how they treat tourists. A few seconds later he stamped my passport and let me out for free! I think he just felt sorry for me. I was very close to taking his stamp and stamping my own passport. Luckily i didn't have to try! Welcome to Ecuador!

December 27th - Central America

I think a blog is supposed to keep a regular update of what I'm doing. Well i seem to have missed a few countries or so. Its Christmas now and Central America has come and gone. I've been through Guatemala, El Salvador, Honduras, Nicaragua, Costa Rica and Panama. In a few days I'll be in Colombia, South America....

Thursday, February 24, 2011

Colombia