Colombia to Ecuador - A border with class!

When its time to move on to a new country, the one thing you dread second to immigration queues is border towns. They’re depressing places, usually full of unsavoury types who would love to get their hands on some gringo money – often in the form of a money exchangers.

Actually, for the first time we came upon a new trick. - a calculator that’s wired to make the wrong sums. Yes, the ‘kind’ man lends you his calculator, you divide one number by a given exchange rate, and hey presto you’re down ten dollars. Unless you’re on the ball, it’s easy to fall for and not so much a rip off that you immediately notice. Never mind.

Where was I? Oh yeah, border towns. Well, if you find yourself heading to Ecuador from Colombia then brighten up the experience by visiting a spectacular church just outside of Ipiales. It’s the Sanctuary of the Virgin of Las Lajas and it’s well worth it a look. You only really need an hour to get a collectivo (white taxis) there, take it all in and a few snaps, and then head back to the business of crossing the border.

The border crossing was very smooth. And on the Ecuador side the officials didn’t even try to act …official. One in particular was playing a latino song on his iphone and singing along to it. It certainly lifted the mood!

Ecuador’s border town, Tulcan, on the other hand is very much as dull and depressing as you come to expect. Still, you don’t have to be there long. Once you’ve been hassled by five guys trying to sell you the same bus ticket (you only need one guy, how do they make a living splitting it five ways?), you’re on your way towards Quito. It’s then time to relax and take in more impressive landscapes. Almost immediately it’s more striking than south-western Colombia, and that’s no mean feat!

The Road To Pasto

When we arrived in San Augustin we learned that to go south toward Ecuador we’d have to go north to Popayan – which is another bumpy dusty journey – and then go to Pasto from there. A solid 12 hours travelling, it wasn’t appealing. However, the girl in the tourist office had said this was the safe way.

Later we found out about another way to get to Pasto. You take a taxi to Pitalito, a bus to Mocoa and then a pick up to Pasto. Total travel time; nine hours. Much better.

The journey and the connections all worked very well. But when the tourist office girl had mentioned safety, we had assumed she meant high way robbery and the like. Once on the road to Pasto from Mocoa, we realised she had in fact mean the safety aspect of travelling on such a road. This road was bumpy and rocky but climbed up mountains and down through valleys all the way. We were faced with sheer drops most of the time. And to avoid a five hour journey becoming ten, the driver really attacked the road like it was a rally circuit.

Sitting in the back of the pick up, we got covered in dust. But it wasn’t all bad. The scenery through the Andean mountains was spectacular. We concentrated on this, rather than the almost certain death at the next bend! I think the blurred picture above says it all.

I’m trying to think what to write about Pasto. I’m struggling. It is a nice enough place and has a variety of religious architecture to see. It’s certainly not a bad place to be, just not particularly memorable.

We stayed at a hostel called Koala Inn (it used to be run by Aussies) and that was perfectly nice but really very quiet. Again, where are all the travellers? Luckily the French couple from Tierradentro turned up and so did a girl called Manu, who we’ve been bumping into since Panama!

San Agustin - Colombia

The other favourite place for a bit of ancient artefact action is San Agustin. If you want somewhere that has a bit more going on than Tierradentro, then this is the place. Its still a small town but, bizarrely it has two large public swimming pools and there is a good choice of restaurants and places to stay. Plus if you fancy staying on a ‘Finca’ (farm) then there are a lot of choices. – the one we chose being Finca El Maco which is up a very steep hill. The steep hill is worth it though, especially if you get to sleep in a place that looks like a gingerbread house!

San Agustin has plenty of choice all round. It has various stone statues and tombs scattered on the outskirts of town and you have a choice of how to see them. We chose to spice it up a little and hire horses.

I’ve never really liked horses. A bit like monkeys, I’ve always felt ill at ease in their presence. They can behave in such a skittish manner and I’ve never been keen on anything with such large teeth. Still, while on our travels I’ve seen plenty of people on horses with guides and the guide walks the horse while you sit on top. Better than walking all day, we decided to do it.

However, this was not like the other guided tours we’d seen before. On this one the guide has a horse and you have a horse. No one walks. My horse was white, wasn’t keen on stopping and always wanted to be in front. But. surprisingly I felt very comfortable and the horse was very easy to control. Steering and braking all done with the reins, I wondered why I hadn’t tried this before. And to speed up a couple of clicks with your tongue or a tap with your heels did the trick. I also threw in a “woah, woah” for good measure!

After we had negotiated the steep hill down from the finca, we made our way through town and into the countryside. Occasionally we broke into a trot, which was pretty uncomfortable. Then we did what I never thought I’d do on my first ride. We galloped! What an amazing experience. It was much more comfortable than trotting and rushing through the countryside was exhilarating. My little white horse really liked to go fast! It was time for  a “yee-hah” or two!

Our guide was friendly and knowledgeable (we’ll gloss over the part where he offered us cocaine, gold and ceramic artefacts) and the horses were so good, no instruction was needed. I enjoyed seeing the stone statues, but what made it brilliant was our mode of transport. Within four hours I’d changed my view on horses.

Tombs in Tierradentro

If you look on a map, the major attractions in the Cauca area of Colombia look pretty close together. However, many of them can only be reached by bumpy, rocky road meaning your travel time increases significantly. Equally your travel comfort decreases significantly too! But the road to San Agustin, the town in Tierradentro, keeps you occupied with breathtaking mountains and valleys. As long as the driver safely negotiates the windy sheer-drop bends, you can forgive the bumps.

We’ve been fairly lucky with bus journeys recently. The bus from Cali to Popayan took 2 ½ hours when it could have taken 4. And the bus from Popayan to San Augustine took 4 hours, not the 5 or 6 we’d geared ourselves up for. It’s always better that way.

This journey started with the longest sales pitch delivered from the front of a bus that I’ve ever witnessed. The guy carefully explained every health risk going and how the book he was selling would provide all the answers for a disease free and healthy lifestyle. A good forty minutes long, it was impressive stuff. By the end even the parrot nearby was repeating his spiel!

San Augustine is a tiny village consisting of one dusty road that snakes uphill to a 16^th century church with a thatched roof - incidentally you wouldn't want to smoke near it, but apparently the thatched roof if there so that in the event of an earthquake, it doesn't destroy what's inside the church. The road has a number of guesthouses and a couple of restaurants – both of which serve the standard meal of meat (usually chicken or beef), rice and fried plantain. It’s a cheap and filling, although after the tenth time in a row you just want some variety. I miss vegetables.

The main pull for tourism here is the ancient tombs that have been found in a number of locations in the surrounding hills and mountains. We took a walking tour with a really competent guide called Fabien, (the bar has been set fairly low by William in Ometepe!) who explained all there was to know about these tombs and stone statues dating back 2500 years.

In truth there isn’t a great deal any guide can tell you about these tombs . For example, why did some contain bones and some an urn? That question drew a blank. A lot of what is found is made sense of by educated guesses. But that doesn’t make it any less wonderful to see for yourself.

In fact, we had an interesting day, language-wise too. We took the tour with three Frenchmen who spoke Spanish. Fabien only spoke Spanish therefore we picked up as much as we could – he spoke slowly which helped – and anything that we didn’t understand, was translated via French to English. It worked a whole lot better than you’d think!

We spent a whole day walking through the green countryside, frequently stopping to climb down into tombs. It was magnificent. There are many more tombs that have yet to be excavated. They keep a policy whereby only once a tomb has collapsed due to an earthquake do they unearth a new one. It's all very carefully monitored and controlled - especially considering there is probably many more valuable gold and ceramic artefacts to be found. Who knows, maybe other tombs will reveal more answers about these ancient civilisations and what they believed in.

Popayan - a great Cali detox

From Cali we took the bus (which surprisingly only took about 2 ½ hours – the driver REALLY sped!) and checked in at a place called Hostel Trail, which is run by two very friendly Scots from Edinburgh. Their hostel is modern and has all the facilities you need including a great DVD collection if you haven’t watched a film in a while. They had a wealth of information on what to do and how to get to nearby destinations. The only negative point was the road outside and the lack of double glazing – although it should improve once the Pan American Highway is finished and traffic is no longer diverted through town.

Oh yes, and the one other drawback was a particular guest who thought it OK to be outside our room on Skype at 2am- despite several people asking her to stop! It was a tense situation. What do you do when you’ve asked politely and someone continues as if you hadn’t said anything? What is the next step? Rip the plug from the wall? The argument started to simmer. This woman did not back down one bit clearly thinking we were unreasonable to want to sleep. Either someone went to find the night porter, or he heard the raised voices and luckily that settled things. She conceded defeat and went to sit downstairs in the dark – seriously, she was nocturnal. You didn’t see her by day.

It was not the fault of the hostel (the night porter was usually close by but had been moved to allow some renovation works), but the next night the computers were turned off, before there was a punch up – we had actually discussed the possibility. Sophie was to do the punching, I would coach from a distance!

I’m sounding like a grumpy old man, I know. But being kept awake by someone can drive you to murderous thoughts! It reminds me of the time someone next door was practicing the Eastender theme tune on the recorder. Yes, dark thoughts indeed. It's one thing if you check into a lively and sociable hostel that allows people to drink and chat all night, but this was not that kind of place. But it’s the first rude person I’ve come across so I’ll dwell on that no further.

You can’t get much more of a contrast than between Cali and Popayan. Popayan’s old town is full of aesthetic architecture and lovely restaurants but it is a quiet place and there are few people on the streets after dark. It’s what you need if you want to relax and catch up on sleep.

However there are plenty of activities you can do and we took some mountain bikes, along with a German girl and a Belgian guy, into the green and rolling countryside. A pick-up took us 30km past the town of Coconuco to the Tibias Hot Springs. There you can chose from a number of pools of ranging temperatures, plus one has a slide that is faster than you think! We also took the opportunity to have a dip in the mud pool – the locals found it amusing watching the white guy cover himself in mud and who can blame them?!

We cycled back down to Popayan. It was mostly downhill but there were enough inclines to raise the pulse and make you feel like you’d done a day’s work! There were some fantastic downhill stretches and some refreshing scenery. We did what was recommended and stopped off for a hot chocolate with cheese. Ever dipped cheese into hot chocolate? Well, don’t. It’s wrong.

Cali - the eyes have it

Cali is a place that everyone seems to go when travelling through Colombia and it is famous for its night life. And according to our guide book, people say that Cali is home to the most "beautiful women in Colombia". I won't comment on that only to say you could substitute the word 'beautiful' for the word 'flirtatious'. Seriously, if you want to walk down the street and feel like Brad Pitt or George Clooney, hang out in Cali. Perhaps they appreciate the western man in Cali. Or perhaps they see a money bag with a dollar sign on it - like in the cartoons - I don't know. What I do know is that there was no shortage of batted eyelids whether it be in the supermarket or the salsa club. A French guy we met seemed almost bored with it, but then I suppose that is no surprise. Cali women must be at opposite ends of the scale compared with Parisian women!

As with most major towns and cities, there are areas you shouldn't go after dark. We stayed in the Granada area which is supposed to be the safest, though even there we were warned to watch out for a gun-wielding couple on a motorbike apparently out robbing people. But, like everywhere else, you just need to keep your wits about you. And the taxis are so cheap that there isn't really any need to go wandering at night.

The city really isn't very pretty. The good looking buildings are few and far between and the photos I took are misleadingly flattering. We walked through to San Antonio which is home to some nice architecture and then further up to the church where you can get a good view of the city. It's not an impressive sight and isn't worth the trek.

Anyway, back to salsa, it's pretty much the main reason for a visit to Cali. They absolutely love their salsa music and it seems like a genuine love and not just something cultural they want to hang onto. After looking around the city we decided that the best way to see the place is at night. (The city is definitely not beautiful). So we teamed up with the aforementioned French guy, Philippe, and none other than Dutch TV sports broadcaster Ronald Strater. OK so unless you're Dutch you may not have heard of him, but he is YouTube-able! They were both great guys and we had a lot of fun, including a couple of late night/early morning finishes. Our secret to success was: start out at the Chipichape Mall food court and take in the calories - including delicious waffles or crepes. Next, head to a bar on Avenida 6 and take in some rum. Then head to a club and take in some salsa - you'll need those calories!

As in Colombia in general, the people in Cali are lovely, friendly and only too keen to teach you some salsa should you so fancy. I managed the most basic steps for a little while, but by then it must have been 3am and getting any sort of coordination on the dance floor was a major achievement!

Bogota - part 2

Our first visit to Bogota was fairly fleeting so we very much looked forward to going back there. And the city really didn´t dissappoint second time round. Last time we didn't manage to see the Museo del Oro (gold museum) so that was first on the list. It is one of the best museums I have been to. Brilliantly laid out, all of the information is displayed both in Spanish and English and is well written enough to hold your attention - and what's more it's free on Sundays!

In search of a guide book (we lost our last one) we went across town by bus to a book shop stocking english books. The bus system in Bogota really is very good by the way. All the stations are enclosed with a ticket office and policeman and the busses only stop at them and not on the street.

Anyway, the only book we found was the Shoestring Lonely Planet and at 120,000 pesos (40 odd quid), it was a bit pricey, even more so considering that the new addition is out this March.

However, all was not lost. The bookstore happened to be fairly close to the Zona Rosa area, so we walked on to check that out. This part of town is seriously high class. Well, I guess its just very western, but in a nice way. It´s not covered in neon or anything (accept the Hard Rock Cafe!) and it has a good number of shiny bars and restaurants. There was a good atmosphere and many Colombians doing what us Brits do best - sitting in a pub with a cold pint in hand. Yes, they have had a stab at creating some pubs and have done a pretty good job really. They also had an Irish pub. Where doesn't?

Seeing some Colombian girls with pints of a dark cloudy liquid I went over to ask if they´d recommend it. They kindly offered a taste of this beverage and it was indeed bitter. The drink, on closer inpection was a slighgtly reddish colour with an oaky flavour, but it was quite bitter-like so I got myself a pint.

Our stay back in Bogota coincided with a bank hoilday weekend, and on the Sunday and Monday pretty much everything was closed. Cue the unsavory types. The streets in the central area then seemed to belong to the homeless, needy and desperate (not the guy above, he seemed perfectly respectable!). It really did take on an entriely different vibe. Just the day before I was thinking how nice it was to be able to walk around in a city and blend in a bit - mainly due to the fact that plenty of Colombians have white skin. But on the Sunday it was back to being stared at. We quickly made our way back to the Candelaria area we were staying, but not before being warned by a kind Israeli couple that a guy was following us with a knife. His cover blown, he ambled off accross the road. Damn these hoodies!

With not much going on in town on the Monday, we paid a visit to Zipaquira to see the salt mines. Its a slick set up there and we took a guide in to see the Cathedral inside and also a miners walking tour - all in Spanish, we gleaned what information we could. The Colombians especially liked the parts where the guide would get us all to turn off our headlamps and follow each other in the dark. Suddenly instead of walking with adults you could be forgiven for thinking you were surrounded by school kids! Though I've never been a fan of stumbling around in pitch black darkness!

Time to catch up...

In an effort to catch up with this blog writing I'm going to do two things;

1) Viva - tayrona-national-park - I hope its not too whiney! (only joking Sophie x)
and
2) Viva - overland-to-venezuela

Yes yes, its very much cheating I know. But you have to remember I'm the cameraman in this team and I've spent most of my time sorting out photos and backing up 10GB worth of images on line. Yeah fun! And I wouldn't want you to have to read things twice now would I?

Don't worry, I'll get back to writing things from my point of view soon enough. But, in summary, we spent Christmas and New Year with friends on Margarita island and Tobago respectively. We went off our intended route and very much off our intended budget. But these guys, well, they're worth it. Hang on, I've just done a quick check on expenditure... they must be REALLY good friends!

So, Christmas and New Year was spent playing cricket on the beach, going fishing and generally relaxing and not having to travel every two days. It was bliss. It wasn't all lazing around though. There was plenty of hard work done in the form of card playing and drinking games. Am I really 30? What was I doing 10 years ago? Oh yeah, drinking games. Oh well, on a positive drinking note, I discovered dark rum - now my choice of spirit!

Back to the backpacker trail meant flying from Tobago back to Colombia, which we did via Miami (we didn't fancy another venture into Venezuela). And no one said Miami would be so cold! Since when is Miami that cold you can see your breath in the air? Hmm, that pesky global warming.. erm I mean climate change. I blame it for the hole in our budget too!

Taganga aka Dog Town

We had all heard some good things about Taganga - a beach town on the north coast of Colombia. However I couldn't see quite what the fuss was about. Don't get me wrong, it wasn't a horrible place to be and I guess it is very easy to get overly picky when you're see so many amazing places. We chose to stay there as most people apparently opt to go there instead of Santa Marta these days.

But how nice can a place be when it is practically being run by dogs?! Literally dogs. There are almost as many dogs in Taganga as there are people. And they don't trot around minding there own business as in most places. They loiter the streets in packs. They have formed gangs and hang around intimidating humans and other dogs looking to switch allegiances. They may as well have had flick knives and nun-chucks! I'm not exaggerating here and I don't have cynophobia - a phobia of dogs. On the contrary, I very much like dogs.

And while I remember, I feel compelled to warn anyone wishing to stay at the hotel Casa Blanca. On our first night when looking for somewhere to stay Sophie got rudely treated by the owners and their dog tried to take a chunk out of her bag. Nice. They could have just said they has no vacancies...

On a lighter note, if you walk 20min over to the next bay there is a lovely beach with plenty of deck chairs and places to buy a cold beer. Plus the sunset there is pretty special. Oh, and if you're into diving then I have it on good authority that Taganga offers great dives at a reasonable price. They are also in the process of building new footpaths and generally tidying up the place. They really should start with the stray dog issue though.

Cartagena - it's a delight

Being so late that you think you're going to miss your flight is a horrible and stressful situation and one I don't intend on repeating. A combination of events led to a mad dash for the gate and somehow we made it - the full story is admirably covered in Viva Latin America

Rocking up in Cartagena my first impression wasn't all that thrilling. The airport was fine.  In fact the flight was extremely smooth and sitting in the comfortable brand new plane I was able to de-stress from the madness that led up to boarding it! But as we entered the backpacker part of town in our taxi, I started to wonder whether we were heading for the right place. Run down buildings and no shortage of threatening looks aimed your way. Plenty of awkward eyes. And in these parts a man with nothing to do will happily sit on a wall and dish out shifty looks by the dozen!

However, spend a bit of time there and you soon find there's nothing too threatening lurking about after all. Once you've experienced the stares second time round, its like water off a ducks back. Of course, your confidence is helped by the thousand or so police officers patrolling the area!

A ten minute walk down the road is the historic quarter which is not only completely safe but truly beautiful. Even more so at night when all the buildings are lit by up-lighters. There is no shortage of restaurants and bars there - though they don't exactly cater for the backpacker budget, you can treat yourself once in a while.

Each morning from the port hundreds of people leave on boats out to the various beaches nearby. We took one out to Playa Blanca (a popular choice) and enjoyed the white beaches, the turquoise waters, the hassling vendors less so - they don't take no for an answer so you just have to be rude.

Most people express concern about travelling to Colombia and think its a dangerous place to be. I heard before we came out that its a bit of a dated view now and I have to agree. There is a visible effort with tourism and that was especially noticeable in Cartagena. Its no surprise that its one of the top tourist destinations in the country.

Bogota - Colombia

We arrived in Bogota only one hour before our UK friends Chris and Jo. With the ever changing plans, I think thats almost perfect timing! All the speeding through the last remainder of Central America meant we'd now be with friends for Christmas and New Year - well, they're worth it! (I'm surprised the last three weeks haven't been a total blur, by the way!)

Coming from a very humid Panama, Bogota is literally a breath of fresh air. Its high altitude means that (in December at least) it's nice and warm in the sunshine during the day and a little cold at night. I'm sure I've said before, but to be able to wear shoes and socks feels like real luxury after sticky humid places.

We stayed in a hostel call The Cranky Croc run by a well meaning if slightly disorgainised Aussie guy. But unlike the hostel up the road, the place had hot water so I was more than happy. You can just about get used to cold showers in places like Panama, but here anything else would be torture in the morning.

When we weren't drinking disgusting cheap red wine out of cartons, we managed to take in some of the wonderful architecture the city has to offer. And I've come to think that you can't beat beautiful buildings set in a city with mountainous views as the backdrop. We wondered around the streets, took in a free lunch - yes, there is such a thing - and checked out the many street markets and alleys packed with stalls.

In the evening we took a ride up the cable car to the top of the mountain and admired a fantastic view of Bogota at night. Up there they had a concert performance inside a church and outside had attempted to create Blackpool illuminations with festive figures of all kinds! It was enough to make us all feel a little Christmassy for a few moments! Then it was back down for a KFC style meal in the slowest fast food place I've been in. We all craved a greasy chicken meal and instantly regretted it. Back to the supermarket to purchase more of its finest plonk....

Panama to Colombia

I must start firstly by wishing my readers a very Happy New Year. Secondly I'd like to apologise (again) for the lack of new blog posts. And thirdly when one does pop on t'internet, say sorry that its not been in any way coordinated with Viva Latin America. Clearly we are almost one in the same person these days and need to make an effort not to cover exactly the same ground! Nevertheless here's a slightly more condensed (and I reckon probably less entertaining) version of what happened from Panama to Colombia.

If, like us, your forward planning has been fairly minimal you'll soon find out that there is no cheap way of getting from Panama to Colombia - that is if you value your life! You could attempt to travel overland across the Darien Gap but that should either be classed as adventurous or suicide, depending on how you view these things. I didn't think my parents would appreciate a phone call from some guerrillas demanding money in exchange for my life. It just wouldn't be a particularly good Christmas present!

So, faced with flying or sailing, we chose flying. Sailing takes at least 5 days and although you get to see the San Blas islands, we just didn't have the time. But wait a minute, what's this? Trans Darien Monorail
Could my eyes be deceiving me? No. Its a joke website but it tickled me and almost raised my hopes during hours and hours of flight searching!

We found some fairly cheap flights in the end but a feature of the low cost was that to get to Bogota we had to change planes twice and sleep in Barranquilla airport in northern Colombia. Our main concern was that the airport would be shut overnight and we'd have to find somewhere to sleep at some ridiculous time at night. However, it actually worked surprisingly well. After a comedy 20 minute flight from Cartagena to Barranquilla in a 20 seater Dash 8, we found that the airport was open. We even got the approval from the security guard, although he seemed totally baffled as to why we weren't going to a hotel. All that was left for it was to find a row of seats and unroll the sleeping bags for a bit of shut eye.

I can't say I felt at my best the next day, but I did get some sleep so I was happy with that. Compared with some overland border crossings it was a walk in the park!