Ibarra, Ecuador
When we pulled into the line up at the border we immediately recognized Oliver and Carina’s Camper only a few cars ahead of us, so Karen jumped out and surprised them. The Border crossing was Quick and easy, a nice change from Central America. The Germans knew of a place to camp for free in Ibarra so we followed them up a long rough road that eventually led to a nice property at the base of Volcan Imbabura . When we arrived the incredibly friendly Australian owner Graham had no problems with us camping on his property. He has a beautiful lot overlooking the city, and it is also home to a small tree nursery. Here, we also met Peter, another German who is riding a motorcycle solo around S.A. and yet another German couple travelling by luxurious motor home. Oliver and Carina had to buy bus tickets in the city so Graham offered to give us a lift to town in the back of his pickup. After they bought their tickets he drove us up to a beautiful restaurant overlooking the city, here we watched the dramatic sun set and then had a nice meal while watching the sky change colours and the buildings in the city light up. What a magical welcome into Ecuador. For the next couple of days we relaxed at Graham’s and got caught up on a few things. Then we decided to get a bit of exercise and go for a hike up to Imbabura, a 4630m. volcano behind the house. We packed all of our overnight gear and were off. Graham drove us up the road until he ran out of gas and then we continued on from there. It was a hot day and we were not accustomed to the altitude so we moved very slowly. By the time we reached camp at 4260m. we were both exhausted, dehydrated and starting to cramp up. We set up camp took in the views, had some dinner and were in the tent before dark just to keep warm. The night dragged on for what seemed like days, we both lied there restlessly tossing and turning waiting for the sun to rise, at one point we thought it was around 6 am only to be disappointed when the clock read 1:30. When we finally got up we skipped breakfast and were off for the summit. On our way up we had a huge condor circle overhead and check us out, our first condor sighting! We arrived at the false summit and realized that we would have to traverse a long way around the whole crater to get to the real summit. At this point the clouds were moving in quickly and we lost all of our visibility especially Karen who’s glasses were completely fogged up. We decided to keep going, but then only a hundred or two hundred meters from the top we had to head back before we got completely soaked. We took a quick break in the tent to warm up then packed out and headed down. The down is always more punishing than the way up so we were looking forward to catching the bus down near where Graham had dropped us off. Unfortunately though the bus went by when we were cutting off a switch back and since there are only two busses a day we had to walk the entire road back to Grahams place, it was 2200m top to bottom and an extra 10k or so, which took us forever.
The next day we were walking like we were ninety, barely able to step out of the van without grimacing in pain, so we decided to visit the hot springs. Thirty something kilometres later and we were soaking in the hot waters of Arco Iris. After two relaxing hours at the hot springs we started to make our way back to Ibarra. But only one kilometre from the springs the van stalled and we lost all power. Luckily we coasted off the road into a safe pullout, where we began to investigate the problem. Within minutes we had a couple of locals helping us and calling their mechanic friend who showed up minutes later to see if he could help. Josef was studying at a mechanic institute in Ibarra and seemed trustworthy. He thought that the problem was coming from the distributor (hall sender), so he took it with him to see if he could find a part, while we were stranded on the side of the road for the night. Luckily it was a very safe and tranquil town where the locals were chatty and no one bothered us. The only down side was that there was a decaying dog carcass beside us that smelled awful. A few beers and some cribbage passed the time before we fell asleep. Then at eight am the following morning Josef returned with our distributor, no new parts but he did clean it up so we tried it again. And again we had no luck; it would turn over but wouldn’t start. We decided to tow it back to Ibarra, but found out that a proper tow truck would cost $120.00 so we opted for plan B which was to tow it behind a pickup with an old decrepit rope. We let Josef take the wheel since we had never done a tow like this before. For the next couple of twisting up and down highway hours Josef wore out our brakes, but we survived. Then when we arrived in Ibarra we were surprised that the van was running, Josef had tried jumping it on the way a few times and it finally caught. We still wanted to go to the mechanic’s, but Josef said “it’s running isn’t it?” so we drove it back to Grahams with spongy brakes. Once at Grahams we turned off the engine and fired it up twice, with no issues, problem solved. The next morning we woke up and decided to be safe and take her to the mechanics, but she had another idea....she wouldn’t start. The Germans and Graham all had a look at it and did some tests and once again it seemed to be the distributor, it wasn’t delivering a spark. So we took the part down town to see if we could get another one or get it repaired, we found a VW store where we could order parts but first we took it to an electrical mechanic to get it tested. After a quick unconvincing test he said that it was fine. We then had him make a house call and look at the van, where he said the problem was in the computer. He got us to take the computer to a friend of his outside of town to see if he could take a look at it, but when we arrived he said that he couldn’t do anything without the car, and he also didn’t believe that it was the computer that was broken. We could bring the car back to him on Monday if we wanted (a $70.00 tow at least). We decided to order in a hall sender and wait for it’s arrival after the weekend.
Cotacachi and Otavalo
We were starting to get itchy feet so we took a bus to Cotacachi for one night, it’s a small town known for it’s Sunday leather market. We spent the afternoon wandering the main street looking at all of the different leather products, our intensions were to buy some small things but when we saw all of the beautiful jackets we knew we had to get one for each of us. Hours and hours of shopping and we finally found some that fit our tall and lanky long armed bodies. Unfortunately we liked the most expensive jackets that we had seen, isn’t that always the way. They ended up dropping the price of the two jackets by $170.00 so we decided to buy them, at a great price. We didn’t bring enough cash with us because we weren’t intending on buying anything expensive, so we had to visit the bank machine, we tried all three in town and none of them worked. So we had to wait till the morning to try them again which also gave us time to think about our potential purchases. The next morning we still were interested in those jackets so we tried the ATMs again and were once again denied. We decided to take a bus to the nearby town of Otavalo to try the ATMs there. Otavalo is known for it’s huge Saturday artisan market, and is quite touristy. The first machine we tried spat out $20 bills with no problems. After an hour of exploring Otavalo (and buying some nice art) we went back to Cotacatchi where we paid for our jackets. We still had our eye on a few other leather pieces so we threw caution to the wind and bought 2 stools, a wallet, a purse, and a cowboy hat for Pete. We just couldn’t turn down the awesome prices for beautiful leather! It was our first splurge of the trip and well worth it.
Back to Ibarra
We returned back to Ibarra refreshed and had high hopes for the new part the following day. The next morning we headed into town and were reminded that we were in Ecuador...they ordered the wrong part!! Hmmm, what to do. We decided to go back to the VW dealership to see if they could get the part, but of course everything closes for 1.5 hours for lunch so we went grocery shopping instead. We decided were done wandering around aimlessly so we went back to Graham’s to rejuvenate. Karen then went with Graham to help a friend make puppets and Pete worked on the blog. With a bit of time off from thinking about our problem we came up with a plan...tow to the mechanic and let him give it a go in the morning. Graham said he’d do the towing so the next morning Patience got hooked back up and off we went. We unhooked for the downhills and made it through town pretty smoothly and Patience is now in the competent hands of Bolivar. Only time will tell....
Click on a picture to enlarge.
Wednesday, March 10, 2010
Friday, February 26, 2010
Colombia Part III
Medellin
Luckily Yon has an apartment in Medellin as well so he invited us to the city for the weekend. It was about time to get moving, but yet another hard place to leave. El Penol will always be a special place for us! The morning we decided to leave we had a big breakfast, swam and did some minor repairs on the old girl before setting off. Then after a few fruit stops we arrived in the sprawling city of Medellin. One of the cleanest and most modern cities we’ve visited thus far. It’s in a deep valley so they’ve solved the transportation problem by building an above ground metro that leads to a metrocable which is essentially a Gondola that they use as public transportation. Great idea!! When we got to the apartment we had some take out Chinese food and then went to meet a friend that Pete had met in Colombia 13 years ago. Her family welcomed us in and fed us a wonderful traditional Colombian meal finished off with some Mazamorra, a milk drink filled with corn and served with a panela square for dessert. After dinner we bid our adieus and went to meet Yon downtown for some salsa dancing. He took us to this amazing little underground club where they were pumping great salsa tunes and there were some amazing dancers. The ceiling wasn’t built for tall people, but it was a great night out!! The next day Yon took us on the tour of the city. We started off with a hike up behind his apartment building for a great view of the city and then we jumped on the Metro. For $0.75 you can ride the rails all day so we took advantage of this for a skyline tour of the city. The metrocable that we rode went up to the athlete’s village, but went over top of the poorest sections of town. It was odd having a bird’s eye view of places you wouldn’t necessarily want to walk through. Then we returned to town to see the statues outside of the Botero museum, a police procession to signify the end of needless deaths in Colombia and have a quick bite before heading to our first giant supermarket in a long time. We were awed by the selection of foods and even managed to find some couscous. Luckily we were picked up by a friend of Yon’s and went back to his apartment for a big fish fry up. Yon’s mom taught us how to eat every part of the fish including the eyeball! We ended up spending over a week with Yon and his mom and by the end we felt more like family then travellers. Thank you so much for taking us in!!!
Salento
After Medellin we made our way down to Salento, in the Zona Cafetera. On our way we got lost in Pereira and couldn’t find our way out of the city. We finally found our way out on a back road and were now racing the sun as it was setting quickly. We agreed to take the first accommodation that we would find to avoid driving around in the dark. We pulled up to the first campground and were surprised by how nice it was. It was next to a river and had many private sites, hot water and outdoor kitchens. After Jorge, the eccentric owner and his co worker properly welcomed us they gave us the full tour of the campground. We were blown away by all of the theme tents and cabanas, the museum, spa and snake pit. The next morning we were invited by a Colombian family to join them for a hike up to a secret waterfall. After 45 minutes of beautiful hiking through farm fields and old rail tunnels we arrived at the falls. The water was Canada cold, a nice way to recharge from the heat and humidity. One night at Monteroca (the campground) turned into four. One day we made a day trip into Salento to check out the artisan shops and go for dinner but for the rest of the time we relaxed at Monteroca all by ourselves.
Popoyan, Impiales
In the heaviest downpour that we’ve experienced so far we headed to Popoyan, a colonial city on the way to the Ecuadorian border. When we got there we found a parkade close to downtown that would let us sleep there for the night, it was perfect only $3.25 and it had a toilet. That evening we got caught in another rainstorm but luckily we had just purchased umbrellas only minutes before. They kept our hair dry but our feet were soaked from the roads that now resembled rivers. The next morning we got up early and took off for Pasto. When we got there neither of us had any desire to stay so we kept driving and chanced upon an old timers restaurant where he told us we should park in his alleyway for the night. Lucky!
We had high expectations for Colombia and it managed to exceed every single one. We’ll be back!!
Click on a picture to enlarge
Luckily Yon has an apartment in Medellin as well so he invited us to the city for the weekend. It was about time to get moving, but yet another hard place to leave. El Penol will always be a special place for us! The morning we decided to leave we had a big breakfast, swam and did some minor repairs on the old girl before setting off. Then after a few fruit stops we arrived in the sprawling city of Medellin. One of the cleanest and most modern cities we’ve visited thus far. It’s in a deep valley so they’ve solved the transportation problem by building an above ground metro that leads to a metrocable which is essentially a Gondola that they use as public transportation. Great idea!! When we got to the apartment we had some take out Chinese food and then went to meet a friend that Pete had met in Colombia 13 years ago. Her family welcomed us in and fed us a wonderful traditional Colombian meal finished off with some Mazamorra, a milk drink filled with corn and served with a panela square for dessert. After dinner we bid our adieus and went to meet Yon downtown for some salsa dancing. He took us to this amazing little underground club where they were pumping great salsa tunes and there were some amazing dancers. The ceiling wasn’t built for tall people, but it was a great night out!! The next day Yon took us on the tour of the city. We started off with a hike up behind his apartment building for a great view of the city and then we jumped on the Metro. For $0.75 you can ride the rails all day so we took advantage of this for a skyline tour of the city. The metrocable that we rode went up to the athlete’s village, but went over top of the poorest sections of town. It was odd having a bird’s eye view of places you wouldn’t necessarily want to walk through. Then we returned to town to see the statues outside of the Botero museum, a police procession to signify the end of needless deaths in Colombia and have a quick bite before heading to our first giant supermarket in a long time. We were awed by the selection of foods and even managed to find some couscous. Luckily we were picked up by a friend of Yon’s and went back to his apartment for a big fish fry up. Yon’s mom taught us how to eat every part of the fish including the eyeball! We ended up spending over a week with Yon and his mom and by the end we felt more like family then travellers. Thank you so much for taking us in!!!
Salento
After Medellin we made our way down to Salento, in the Zona Cafetera. On our way we got lost in Pereira and couldn’t find our way out of the city. We finally found our way out on a back road and were now racing the sun as it was setting quickly. We agreed to take the first accommodation that we would find to avoid driving around in the dark. We pulled up to the first campground and were surprised by how nice it was. It was next to a river and had many private sites, hot water and outdoor kitchens. After Jorge, the eccentric owner and his co worker properly welcomed us they gave us the full tour of the campground. We were blown away by all of the theme tents and cabanas, the museum, spa and snake pit. The next morning we were invited by a Colombian family to join them for a hike up to a secret waterfall. After 45 minutes of beautiful hiking through farm fields and old rail tunnels we arrived at the falls. The water was Canada cold, a nice way to recharge from the heat and humidity. One night at Monteroca (the campground) turned into four. One day we made a day trip into Salento to check out the artisan shops and go for dinner but for the rest of the time we relaxed at Monteroca all by ourselves.
Popoyan, Impiales
In the heaviest downpour that we’ve experienced so far we headed to Popoyan, a colonial city on the way to the Ecuadorian border. When we got there we found a parkade close to downtown that would let us sleep there for the night, it was perfect only $3.25 and it had a toilet. That evening we got caught in another rainstorm but luckily we had just purchased umbrellas only minutes before. They kept our hair dry but our feet were soaked from the roads that now resembled rivers. The next morning we got up early and took off for Pasto. When we got there neither of us had any desire to stay so we kept driving and chanced upon an old timers restaurant where he told us we should park in his alleyway for the night. Lucky!
We had high expectations for Colombia and it managed to exceed every single one. We’ll be back!!
Click on a picture to enlarge
Wednesday, February 17, 2010
Colombia Part II
Suesca
Off we went on another caravan journey with Max with the destination of Suesca, a climbing spot that we had heard was the best in Colombia. The owner of the hostel where we were staying gave us backroad directions to get there and it felt as though we were in rural Colombia seeing life in the mountains. It was gorgeous! When we finally got to Suesca we stopped for some amazing pizza and then looked around for somewhere to stay. We finally found the only hostel, El Vivac, in town and they said we could camp in their yard. Typical with a climbing community the owners were really hospitable and had lots of information for us so we parked and packed up to go for a climb. After following the train tracks for awhile we arrived at the wall. The most notable feature was a giant statue of the Virgin Mary watching from one of the overhanging roofs. We chose a climb to the right and played around for the next few hours. So good to be back on the rock again. The next morning we met Katty (the first Colombian woman to scale Everest) and Francesco who offered to show us around the rock. We spent another awesome day climbing and then met Carolina, an Argentinean at the end of the day who offered to take us around to find a free place to camp. Perfect! The next day we gave our surf board that we’d been lugging around since Mexico to the family who owned the hostel and moved over to Juan Carlos’s place....paradise!! We camped on his lot with a full frontal view of the rock, had access to running water and a bathroom. What more could we ask for!! Then we went for a climb up to a zone with more sport climbing and thoroughly pumped ourselves out. Good day!
Bogota
It was now the weekend so Max, Carolina and the two of us decided to hit up Bogota, the country’s capital. We’d heard that the drivers there were the worst in the world so we opted for a bus ride into town and wandered around the craziness for awhile. Then we stumbled upon the Candeleria district and were enchanted. We’d planned to meet up with a friend of Max’s, Wilman, a local from Bogota that Max had met in Mexico so he came and picked us up in his little sports car and proceeded to give us a whirlwind tour of all the highlights in Bogota. We’d spend about 5 minutes in each location and then be whisked off to another hot spot. It was madness, but a great way to see Bogota. The city is huge and has absolutely everything you could ever want including a super cool student scene with back alleys and street performers. Then we started drinking beers in front of a few different supermercados, meeting other locals and chatting the night away. The next day we started with an incredible typical breakfast of Tamales and hot chocolate and then went to a juice stand to sample some more of the fruits that Colombia has to offer. Everyday we discover a new fruit!! Then we went to the famous gold museum to see some ancient artefacts. We were especially interested in the finds from La Ciudad Perdida. Then we went for an awesome lunch of the usual...an absolutely amazing soup, meat, chorizo, plantains, rice, avocado, and this time a surprise blood sausage intestine thing that wasn’t too bad. Then stuffed to the brim we wandered around the huge park before heading back to the apartment to lame out and watch a movie. It’s a treat to chill out on a couch what can I say, hehehe. The next morning we needed some time to ourselves to we took the bus into the Candeleria district to do some wandering around and loved every minute of it. Carolina was having troubles getting an extension on her visa so we opted to take the bus back to Suesca early to avoid rush hour. Big thanks to Wilman and his daughter for showing us Bogota. It was so nice having local guides for such a big city and to feel so welcome into someone’s house.
Back to Suesca
We ended up spending another three nights in Suesca and had a hard time leaving when we did. Juan Carlos was so hospitable and his property was amazing!! Probably the best view in all of Suesca and super close to the sport climbing. He’s also a well known climbing shoe repairer so Karen took advantage of this to finally get an edge on her shoes, woohoo!! Three more days of climbing and we were spent. It reminded us a lot of climbing in Wyoming as we were the only ones there and it was so peaceful. We spent one more day lounging and exploring the town and then finally pushed on to El Penol.
Rio Claro and El Penol
It’s a two day drive to El Penol so we started off early, but decided we should check out the salt cathedral in Zipaquira on the way. The first church collapsed due to rain so another giant salt mine was used to construct an underground cathedral. It was huge, with cool lighting and music. It wasn’t quite what we were expecting, but it was definitely an interesting tour testing our knowledge of Spanish. An hour and a half later we were back on the road to El Penol. The roads here are insanely mountainous and curvy so it took us over 5 hours to go just over 100km before we stopped at a hillside refugio to camp for the night. The next day we made it to our original destination of Rio Claro and decided to stop for a few hours to cool off and enjoy the “agua dulce” (sweet water ie fresh water). It ended up being an amazing park with a jungle trail and cool caves. We even saw a huge fluorescent green snake. We finally pulled ourselves away from the refreshing water and drove the rest of the way to El Penol. We had made friends in Suesca with Yon the only climber in the region and he’d said that it would be okay to camp in his yard. He lives on the site of old El Penol which was flooded to make a reservoir. You can still see the Steeple of the original church sticking out of the water. We arrived just after lunch so we went into Guatape to use the internet and do some shopping and then returned and let ourselves in. It turned out that Yon was in the city, but his mom and dogs were there and they welcomed us in with open arms. LOVE COLOMBIANS!!! We spent the night getting to know the dogs and Socorro and then went to sleep with the view of El Penol in the van window. Ever since we entered Colombia Pete has had the idea of climbing El Penol and it was about to become a reality, hehe. We woke up early and took off with grey skies to the base. Welcome to the Squamish chief of Colombia. A huge granite slab with a few routes put up by Yon. We selected a few that looked doable and started climbing. On the second route the rain started, but Pete continued on while Karen got soaked at the bottom. Then it was Karen’s turn. Written by Karen: When I got near the top of this awesome climb Pete told me there was a surprise in one of the cracks. Since the climbs are really only done by Yon and a few weekend warriors there are a lot of spider’s and insects in all of the holds so I thought he’d found some massive spider or something gross so I refused to go any higher. Pete finally convinced me to take a look and there deep in the crack was a shiny object. I still didn’t know what to think of it and thought that it must have been something Pete had found on the climb, but then I pulled it out and it was a ring. Still not realizing what was happening I heard Pete say “will you marry me” I thought he was joking, but then I looked down and there he was on one knee, thankfully still belaying me. I asked if he was serious and he said of course he was serious and that it was our “five year anniversary, five months into the trip and it was Valentine’s Day. What a better time to do it” and so I started laughing and shouted “Of course I will, I’d love to be your wife, now get me down!!” It’s finally done...we’re getting married and we’re both really excited!!! Now we just have to figure out where and when...maybe a welcome home/wedding party this summer. Any ideas? It started to pour so we decided to pack it in and go back to the van. Then we went to town to call the folks, get haircuts and check out the military song and dance show. Afterwards we returned to the house and spent the night chatting with Socorro about Colombia.
The next day we went back up to the rock and spent the whole day slab climbing. When we returned to the van we ate some dinner and Yon arrived. He wanted to kayak out to “his island” for the sunset and a bonfire so we cleaned up and hit the water. Since he was taking the dogs we had to do two trips,I waited while Karen, Yon and the dogs paddled off. When Yon returned for the second trip the dogs swam all theway back to the mainland and followed him home. Then on the way back to the island Mujercita, one of his dogs, followed us back and swam all the way back to the Island, crazy dog. We had a fire and sat around, talked and enjoyed the silence of nature. The following morning Yon took us climbing, we started on an easy climb then moved on to a three pitch traverse that ended at a hammock that was hanging 70 feet off the ground under a giant roof. Even though we were safely backed up we were a little nervous not knowing if this hammock could hold the weight of three people, good thing we are all skinny. We enjoyed the scenery and took some photos before rappelling down. Back at Yon’s place we all went for a refreshing swim in the reservoir and relaxed for the rest of the day. The next day everyone including the dogs piled into the van and drove down to San Rafeal, where we went swimming at a secret swimming hole, ate fresh fruit off the trees and then went for some lunch at a local restaurant. It was a great day with Yon and his mom. They are so warm and welcoming that we felt like we were old friends.
Loving Colombia! Not sure if we are ever going to be able to leave...
Click on a picture to enlarge
Off we went on another caravan journey with Max with the destination of Suesca, a climbing spot that we had heard was the best in Colombia. The owner of the hostel where we were staying gave us backroad directions to get there and it felt as though we were in rural Colombia seeing life in the mountains. It was gorgeous! When we finally got to Suesca we stopped for some amazing pizza and then looked around for somewhere to stay. We finally found the only hostel, El Vivac, in town and they said we could camp in their yard. Typical with a climbing community the owners were really hospitable and had lots of information for us so we parked and packed up to go for a climb. After following the train tracks for awhile we arrived at the wall. The most notable feature was a giant statue of the Virgin Mary watching from one of the overhanging roofs. We chose a climb to the right and played around for the next few hours. So good to be back on the rock again. The next morning we met Katty (the first Colombian woman to scale Everest) and Francesco who offered to show us around the rock. We spent another awesome day climbing and then met Carolina, an Argentinean at the end of the day who offered to take us around to find a free place to camp. Perfect! The next day we gave our surf board that we’d been lugging around since Mexico to the family who owned the hostel and moved over to Juan Carlos’s place....paradise!! We camped on his lot with a full frontal view of the rock, had access to running water and a bathroom. What more could we ask for!! Then we went for a climb up to a zone with more sport climbing and thoroughly pumped ourselves out. Good day!
Bogota
It was now the weekend so Max, Carolina and the two of us decided to hit up Bogota, the country’s capital. We’d heard that the drivers there were the worst in the world so we opted for a bus ride into town and wandered around the craziness for awhile. Then we stumbled upon the Candeleria district and were enchanted. We’d planned to meet up with a friend of Max’s, Wilman, a local from Bogota that Max had met in Mexico so he came and picked us up in his little sports car and proceeded to give us a whirlwind tour of all the highlights in Bogota. We’d spend about 5 minutes in each location and then be whisked off to another hot spot. It was madness, but a great way to see Bogota. The city is huge and has absolutely everything you could ever want including a super cool student scene with back alleys and street performers. Then we started drinking beers in front of a few different supermercados, meeting other locals and chatting the night away. The next day we started with an incredible typical breakfast of Tamales and hot chocolate and then went to a juice stand to sample some more of the fruits that Colombia has to offer. Everyday we discover a new fruit!! Then we went to the famous gold museum to see some ancient artefacts. We were especially interested in the finds from La Ciudad Perdida. Then we went for an awesome lunch of the usual...an absolutely amazing soup, meat, chorizo, plantains, rice, avocado, and this time a surprise blood sausage intestine thing that wasn’t too bad. Then stuffed to the brim we wandered around the huge park before heading back to the apartment to lame out and watch a movie. It’s a treat to chill out on a couch what can I say, hehehe. The next morning we needed some time to ourselves to we took the bus into the Candeleria district to do some wandering around and loved every minute of it. Carolina was having troubles getting an extension on her visa so we opted to take the bus back to Suesca early to avoid rush hour. Big thanks to Wilman and his daughter for showing us Bogota. It was so nice having local guides for such a big city and to feel so welcome into someone’s house.
Back to Suesca
We ended up spending another three nights in Suesca and had a hard time leaving when we did. Juan Carlos was so hospitable and his property was amazing!! Probably the best view in all of Suesca and super close to the sport climbing. He’s also a well known climbing shoe repairer so Karen took advantage of this to finally get an edge on her shoes, woohoo!! Three more days of climbing and we were spent. It reminded us a lot of climbing in Wyoming as we were the only ones there and it was so peaceful. We spent one more day lounging and exploring the town and then finally pushed on to El Penol.
Rio Claro and El Penol
It’s a two day drive to El Penol so we started off early, but decided we should check out the salt cathedral in Zipaquira on the way. The first church collapsed due to rain so another giant salt mine was used to construct an underground cathedral. It was huge, with cool lighting and music. It wasn’t quite what we were expecting, but it was definitely an interesting tour testing our knowledge of Spanish. An hour and a half later we were back on the road to El Penol. The roads here are insanely mountainous and curvy so it took us over 5 hours to go just over 100km before we stopped at a hillside refugio to camp for the night. The next day we made it to our original destination of Rio Claro and decided to stop for a few hours to cool off and enjoy the “agua dulce” (sweet water ie fresh water). It ended up being an amazing park with a jungle trail and cool caves. We even saw a huge fluorescent green snake. We finally pulled ourselves away from the refreshing water and drove the rest of the way to El Penol. We had made friends in Suesca with Yon the only climber in the region and he’d said that it would be okay to camp in his yard. He lives on the site of old El Penol which was flooded to make a reservoir. You can still see the Steeple of the original church sticking out of the water. We arrived just after lunch so we went into Guatape to use the internet and do some shopping and then returned and let ourselves in. It turned out that Yon was in the city, but his mom and dogs were there and they welcomed us in with open arms. LOVE COLOMBIANS!!! We spent the night getting to know the dogs and Socorro and then went to sleep with the view of El Penol in the van window. Ever since we entered Colombia Pete has had the idea of climbing El Penol and it was about to become a reality, hehe. We woke up early and took off with grey skies to the base. Welcome to the Squamish chief of Colombia. A huge granite slab with a few routes put up by Yon. We selected a few that looked doable and started climbing. On the second route the rain started, but Pete continued on while Karen got soaked at the bottom. Then it was Karen’s turn. Written by Karen: When I got near the top of this awesome climb Pete told me there was a surprise in one of the cracks. Since the climbs are really only done by Yon and a few weekend warriors there are a lot of spider’s and insects in all of the holds so I thought he’d found some massive spider or something gross so I refused to go any higher. Pete finally convinced me to take a look and there deep in the crack was a shiny object. I still didn’t know what to think of it and thought that it must have been something Pete had found on the climb, but then I pulled it out and it was a ring. Still not realizing what was happening I heard Pete say “will you marry me” I thought he was joking, but then I looked down and there he was on one knee, thankfully still belaying me. I asked if he was serious and he said of course he was serious and that it was our “five year anniversary, five months into the trip and it was Valentine’s Day. What a better time to do it” and so I started laughing and shouted “Of course I will, I’d love to be your wife, now get me down!!” It’s finally done...we’re getting married and we’re both really excited!!! Now we just have to figure out where and when...maybe a welcome home/wedding party this summer. Any ideas? It started to pour so we decided to pack it in and go back to the van. Then we went to town to call the folks, get haircuts and check out the military song and dance show. Afterwards we returned to the house and spent the night chatting with Socorro about Colombia.
The next day we went back up to the rock and spent the whole day slab climbing. When we returned to the van we ate some dinner and Yon arrived. He wanted to kayak out to “his island” for the sunset and a bonfire so we cleaned up and hit the water. Since he was taking the dogs we had to do two trips,I waited while Karen, Yon and the dogs paddled off. When Yon returned for the second trip the dogs swam all theway back to the mainland and followed him home. Then on the way back to the island Mujercita, one of his dogs, followed us back and swam all the way back to the Island, crazy dog. We had a fire and sat around, talked and enjoyed the silence of nature. The following morning Yon took us climbing, we started on an easy climb then moved on to a three pitch traverse that ended at a hammock that was hanging 70 feet off the ground under a giant roof. Even though we were safely backed up we were a little nervous not knowing if this hammock could hold the weight of three people, good thing we are all skinny. We enjoyed the scenery and took some photos before rappelling down. Back at Yon’s place we all went for a refreshing swim in the reservoir and relaxed for the rest of the day. The next day everyone including the dogs piled into the van and drove down to San Rafeal, where we went swimming at a secret swimming hole, ate fresh fruit off the trees and then went for some lunch at a local restaurant. It was a great day with Yon and his mom. They are so warm and welcoming that we felt like we were old friends.
Loving Colombia! Not sure if we are ever going to be able to leave...
Click on a picture to enlarge
Wednesday, February 3, 2010
Colombia Part I
Cartagena
After an hour and a half in the air we caught our first sight of Cartagena. It was a mix of everything, high-rise apartments, hotels, yacht clubs, ports, suburbia and the magical old city surrounded by its fortress walls. We grabbed a taxi to Calle Media Luna, where many of the hostels and cheap hotels are located. Here we strolled around with our backpacks on checking out our different options, a strange feeling becaus it was the first time we were travelling without our van since the start of our trip. We settled for a room with two beds for the three of us, at Hotel Familiar. We soon learned that Federico, the Aussies and the Germans, Axel and Katrina were all staying there as well. We walked the streets of Cartagena stopping for celebratory beers at a great little pub then adventuring through the gates of the old city taking in the beautiful colonial buildings, plazas and courtyards. In the evening we met up with the whole gang who were awaiting the arrival of their vehicles, and enjoyed the night by hanging out in a small plaza drinking Aguilas and eating street food. The routine for the next few days didn’t vary much, Cartagena was really hot and zapping our energy until the night time when everyone seemed to come to life. On Tuesday we went to the port to get our baby back, and after a very long and tiring day we drove Patience out of the Port, into downtown Cartagena and then parked her in a lot across the street from our hotel. The whole experience was so exhausting that we spent another two nights in Cartagena before we finally escaped.
Taganga
Our first driving experience here was a little intense, it was hot and loud, busses and trucks were flying by with only inches to spare, and there were motorcycles everywhere, zigzagging in and out of traffic with no fear what so ever. We figured out quickly that the gas pedal and the horn were our best weapons to escape the rush hour traffic. If you drove like that in Canada you wouldn’t have a licence for long .After a long hot day on the road we were finally entering Santa Marta, but on our way into the center we spotted the Germans big rig, hard to miss in these parts. They were parked at supermarket so we stopped in to say hi. They told us that they were camping for free in Taganga so we followed them back. They led us down some dirt side streets, through some slums and to a parking lot down by the beach just as the sun was setting. It wasn’t somewhere we would have felt safe by ourselves, but they’d already stayed there a night and said it was fine so we unwound with a couple of well deserved cold beers and then went to bed. The next day we booked a trip to the “Lost City”, a six day adventure into the jungle and said goodbye to Karina and Oliver.
La Ciudad Perdida (The Lost City)
Day One
We spent another hot night in the parking lot and then got up early for our 8:30am start to the trip. Of course South American time is the same as Central American time so we didn’t actually leave town until about 9:30, but we all piled into an awesome converted land cruiser with bench seats and no doors and were off. We drove for an hour on pavement and an hour off road until we reached the town of Machete where we ate lunch while the guides sorted out gear and food. The first day may have been the hardest due to the heat and the long and steady ascent up to the first camp, but thanks to the refreshing swimming hole and the many fruit breaks along the way we didn’t dehydrate. We arrived at a beautiful camp where we enjoyed the views and showers, followed by a huge dinner after which everyone passed out in their own swinging hammock.
Day Two
Day two of the trek started with breakfast followed by a visit to a beautiful waterfall and swimming hole. We were waiting for three other Aussies to join our group but after lunch we gave up waiting and headed for the second camp. The hike to camp two was full of great views and passed by a couple of indigenous villages. When we arrived we had just enough light left to jump off the 15ft rock into the refreshing river. What a way to end a day of trekking! The wait for dinner was almost too long but when we saw the huge plates of food being served we forgot about the delay and stuffed ourselves with beans, rice, meat and Plantains.
Day Three
Day three started with a ton of river crossings, a brief swim and lunch break and then a steep ascent and 1600 stair climb to La Ciudad Perdida. These stairs and the city itself were built between the 11th and 14th centuries by the Tayrona Indians before they were chased to higher ground by the Spaniards. The stairs originally went all the way from the beach dwellings up to the Lost City and around the thousands of terraces up in the hills. Finally the moment we’d all been waiting for, the arrival at the Ciudad Perdida....amazing!! Here, nestled in the jungle, were hundreds of circular terraced platforms with stone trails and stairs leading all around the city and surrounding villages. We only saw a few of the terraces on our way in, but our accommodations were only five minutes away from the main terrace and we were going to do more exploring the next day. Once again it was a bit of a wait for dinner so we took advantage of the time to sneak off and do a bit of exploring on our own. It was magical to be alone in the ancient city! We were also really lucky as we were one of the last tour groups that are going to be able to sleep at the city as they are moving the accommodations down to the river. Good timing!
Day Four
The next morning we were stuffed with empanadas and then taken back into the city for a tour. Unfortunately or fortunately depending on how you look at it, just as we were starting the tour a big giant military helicopter flew in and landed right on the main terrace. Apparently once a month the high up government officials are allowed to bring a bunch of guests up to La Ciudad Perdida. A bit strange, but I guess that’s what power does for you. After that spectacle we were led away from the main terraces and around to see a few other terraces and some recreated dwellings before going to the pool of youth for a quick dip to take off a few years. The city was so much bigger than either of us could have ever imagined and we only saw a corner of what is actually out there. It makes it even more amazing that it wasn’t “discovered” until 1975! It was a wonderful morning in La Ciudad Perdida and our guides and thankfully translator gave us an awesome insight into the city. A few hours later and we were back at accommodation two for another swim, a jump off of a 20ft rock and an awesome dinner.
Day Five
Since we’d decided to do the trek in 6 days we had a great sleep in while the rest of the group got up early and headed off. Then we got up, had some breakfast and went back to the river for a swim. It was an easy hike made even easier by a mule carrying our packs back to the final camp. We got there nice and early so we were able to hang out in the hammocks reading our books and napping until a giant group arrived on their first day of the trek all excited and full of energy. Quite a difference. We got up, chatted a bit had some dinner and celebratory fruit wine and then settled in for our last sleep in the jungle.
Day Six
Another fairly leisurely morning and then the long dusty descent back to the jeep. We got super lucky and had 5 and a half beautiful sunny days in the place that always rains until the last 5 minutes of the trek when it started pouring. We ran for cover in our lunch shelter and watched the rain bucket down for the next hour while enjoying lunch and a nice cold bottle of beer. We felt sorry for all those trekkers that were starting at that time. Stuff never dries up there and the trail would be pure mud, yikes! When the rain finally stopped we jumped in the jeep and headed back to Taganga. What an awesome experience!! We were exhausted and dirty when we got back to town so luckily the owners of the hostel where our friends from the trek ,Vanessa and Will, were staying let us use the shower to clean up. Then we went to dinner at an awesome sandwich place and used the internet to let everyone know we weren’t kidnapped before retiring to the van in a new parking place right by the soccer field.
The road to Villa de Leyva
The next morning we got up early and headed South. Still in the lowlands we sweated our way through the day until we finally decided to stop for the night and lucked upon this awesome place to camp for the night right by a river and all to ourselves. Another day of driving and we finally made it to San Gil where we were directed to another campspot 7 km away, again right on a river and almost to ourselves. We’re loving that Colombians know what camping is!! The next day we drove into Villa de Leyva expected to find a nice place to camp by the lake only to find out that there was no lake, but instead there was an incredible little colonial town with the original cobble stone streets and huge central plaza. We were directed to the Colombian Highlands Hostel where we could camp with our car and were shocked to run into the Germans Karina and Oliver and Max all at the same hostel! Small world! We set up camp for the next three nights, explored the city streets, caught up with everyone, did some laundry finally, went for a hike, chatted with the amazing owner of the hostel and chilled out.
After an hour and a half in the air we caught our first sight of Cartagena. It was a mix of everything, high-rise apartments, hotels, yacht clubs, ports, suburbia and the magical old city surrounded by its fortress walls. We grabbed a taxi to Calle Media Luna, where many of the hostels and cheap hotels are located. Here we strolled around with our backpacks on checking out our different options, a strange feeling becaus it was the first time we were travelling without our van since the start of our trip. We settled for a room with two beds for the three of us, at Hotel Familiar. We soon learned that Federico, the Aussies and the Germans, Axel and Katrina were all staying there as well. We walked the streets of Cartagena stopping for celebratory beers at a great little pub then adventuring through the gates of the old city taking in the beautiful colonial buildings, plazas and courtyards. In the evening we met up with the whole gang who were awaiting the arrival of their vehicles, and enjoyed the night by hanging out in a small plaza drinking Aguilas and eating street food. The routine for the next few days didn’t vary much, Cartagena was really hot and zapping our energy until the night time when everyone seemed to come to life. On Tuesday we went to the port to get our baby back, and after a very long and tiring day we drove Patience out of the Port, into downtown Cartagena and then parked her in a lot across the street from our hotel. The whole experience was so exhausting that we spent another two nights in Cartagena before we finally escaped.
Taganga
Our first driving experience here was a little intense, it was hot and loud, busses and trucks were flying by with only inches to spare, and there were motorcycles everywhere, zigzagging in and out of traffic with no fear what so ever. We figured out quickly that the gas pedal and the horn were our best weapons to escape the rush hour traffic. If you drove like that in Canada you wouldn’t have a licence for long .After a long hot day on the road we were finally entering Santa Marta, but on our way into the center we spotted the Germans big rig, hard to miss in these parts. They were parked at supermarket so we stopped in to say hi. They told us that they were camping for free in Taganga so we followed them back. They led us down some dirt side streets, through some slums and to a parking lot down by the beach just as the sun was setting. It wasn’t somewhere we would have felt safe by ourselves, but they’d already stayed there a night and said it was fine so we unwound with a couple of well deserved cold beers and then went to bed. The next day we booked a trip to the “Lost City”, a six day adventure into the jungle and said goodbye to Karina and Oliver.
La Ciudad Perdida (The Lost City)
Day One
We spent another hot night in the parking lot and then got up early for our 8:30am start to the trip. Of course South American time is the same as Central American time so we didn’t actually leave town until about 9:30, but we all piled into an awesome converted land cruiser with bench seats and no doors and were off. We drove for an hour on pavement and an hour off road until we reached the town of Machete where we ate lunch while the guides sorted out gear and food. The first day may have been the hardest due to the heat and the long and steady ascent up to the first camp, but thanks to the refreshing swimming hole and the many fruit breaks along the way we didn’t dehydrate. We arrived at a beautiful camp where we enjoyed the views and showers, followed by a huge dinner after which everyone passed out in their own swinging hammock.
Day Two
Day two of the trek started with breakfast followed by a visit to a beautiful waterfall and swimming hole. We were waiting for three other Aussies to join our group but after lunch we gave up waiting and headed for the second camp. The hike to camp two was full of great views and passed by a couple of indigenous villages. When we arrived we had just enough light left to jump off the 15ft rock into the refreshing river. What a way to end a day of trekking! The wait for dinner was almost too long but when we saw the huge plates of food being served we forgot about the delay and stuffed ourselves with beans, rice, meat and Plantains.
Day Three
Day three started with a ton of river crossings, a brief swim and lunch break and then a steep ascent and 1600 stair climb to La Ciudad Perdida. These stairs and the city itself were built between the 11th and 14th centuries by the Tayrona Indians before they were chased to higher ground by the Spaniards. The stairs originally went all the way from the beach dwellings up to the Lost City and around the thousands of terraces up in the hills. Finally the moment we’d all been waiting for, the arrival at the Ciudad Perdida....amazing!! Here, nestled in the jungle, were hundreds of circular terraced platforms with stone trails and stairs leading all around the city and surrounding villages. We only saw a few of the terraces on our way in, but our accommodations were only five minutes away from the main terrace and we were going to do more exploring the next day. Once again it was a bit of a wait for dinner so we took advantage of the time to sneak off and do a bit of exploring on our own. It was magical to be alone in the ancient city! We were also really lucky as we were one of the last tour groups that are going to be able to sleep at the city as they are moving the accommodations down to the river. Good timing!
Day Four
The next morning we were stuffed with empanadas and then taken back into the city for a tour. Unfortunately or fortunately depending on how you look at it, just as we were starting the tour a big giant military helicopter flew in and landed right on the main terrace. Apparently once a month the high up government officials are allowed to bring a bunch of guests up to La Ciudad Perdida. A bit strange, but I guess that’s what power does for you. After that spectacle we were led away from the main terraces and around to see a few other terraces and some recreated dwellings before going to the pool of youth for a quick dip to take off a few years. The city was so much bigger than either of us could have ever imagined and we only saw a corner of what is actually out there. It makes it even more amazing that it wasn’t “discovered” until 1975! It was a wonderful morning in La Ciudad Perdida and our guides and thankfully translator gave us an awesome insight into the city. A few hours later and we were back at accommodation two for another swim, a jump off of a 20ft rock and an awesome dinner.
Day Five
Since we’d decided to do the trek in 6 days we had a great sleep in while the rest of the group got up early and headed off. Then we got up, had some breakfast and went back to the river for a swim. It was an easy hike made even easier by a mule carrying our packs back to the final camp. We got there nice and early so we were able to hang out in the hammocks reading our books and napping until a giant group arrived on their first day of the trek all excited and full of energy. Quite a difference. We got up, chatted a bit had some dinner and celebratory fruit wine and then settled in for our last sleep in the jungle.
Day Six
Another fairly leisurely morning and then the long dusty descent back to the jeep. We got super lucky and had 5 and a half beautiful sunny days in the place that always rains until the last 5 minutes of the trek when it started pouring. We ran for cover in our lunch shelter and watched the rain bucket down for the next hour while enjoying lunch and a nice cold bottle of beer. We felt sorry for all those trekkers that were starting at that time. Stuff never dries up there and the trail would be pure mud, yikes! When the rain finally stopped we jumped in the jeep and headed back to Taganga. What an awesome experience!! We were exhausted and dirty when we got back to town so luckily the owners of the hostel where our friends from the trek ,Vanessa and Will, were staying let us use the shower to clean up. Then we went to dinner at an awesome sandwich place and used the internet to let everyone know we weren’t kidnapped before retiring to the van in a new parking place right by the soccer field.
The road to Villa de Leyva
The next morning we got up early and headed South. Still in the lowlands we sweated our way through the day until we finally decided to stop for the night and lucked upon this awesome place to camp for the night right by a river and all to ourselves. Another day of driving and we finally made it to San Gil where we were directed to another campspot 7 km away, again right on a river and almost to ourselves. We’re loving that Colombians know what camping is!! The next day we drove into Villa de Leyva expected to find a nice place to camp by the lake only to find out that there was no lake, but instead there was an incredible little colonial town with the original cobble stone streets and huge central plaza. We were directed to the Colombian Highlands Hostel where we could camp with our car and were shocked to run into the Germans Karina and Oliver and Max all at the same hostel! Small world! We set up camp for the next three nights, explored the city streets, caught up with everyone, did some laundry finally, went for a hike, chatted with the amazing owner of the hostel and chilled out.
Tuesday, January 19, 2010
Shipping Patience to Colombia
Panama City
On the way to Panama City we stopped to check our email one more time to see if we’d received our official departure date. To our surprise we found out that our ship was due to sail a day earlier than we had expected so now we had to start rushing. We quickly emailed in copies of our passports and vehicle registrations in order to get our bill of lading which we would need to do the next steps. The next day we were further shocked to find out that we had to load our cars onto the container the next day so we asked around and researched where the PTJ (police) office was, and then headed there following a homemade map, thankfully even though we missed one turn we still ended up at the right place. Our first step here was to get the van inspected. We made it there just in time because they don’t do inspections after 11am and it was now 10:55am. When we entered the inspection yard we were shocked to see Axel and Katarina (whom we’d met in Costa Rica) waiting there with an Australian couple. The inspection lasted all of ten minutes and then we had to wait until 3:30 for the next step to take place. We sat around in the parking lot killing time mostly listening to the Aussie couple, Chris and Elayne’s stories. They’ve been traveling the world in their homemade dune buggy for three years and have four years left. After about 3 hours Axel, Katarina, Elaine, Max, and Pete walked across the street to another office to wait for step number two. Unfortunately the cars were parked in the worst part of town where the police wouldn’t even let us cross the street to get some food which at first we thought was a bit overkill, but later found out that it really was for our safety. So while the rest of the gang waited safely in the air conditioned office and went out for lunch, Karen and Chris were left in the ghetto parking lot in the hot sun with no food to guard all the cars. All was going well until Karen and Chris decided they needed a 30cent ice cream cone across the dreaded street. They were approached by some kids who seemed friendly enough, but were promptly chased off by the local police and Karen and Chris were escorted back to the parking lot. Then not 5 minutes later the first gun shots rang out. At first Karen didn’t believe that it was gun shots, but then she saw one of the “thugs” holding a gun down his pants across the street and the second round of shots was enough to send her running into the nearest building. A few minutes later after it was confirmed that it indeed was people shooting in the streets Karen went back out and discovered that it had been 13 year old kids shooting at each other and that a tourist bus had been caught in the crossfire and had it’s window was shot out. The passengers were quite shaken up, but no one else seemed to think much of it. We’ve now learned that it is smart to heed all the police warnings. After another sketchy hour of waiting Karen and Chris were approached by a really nice man who told us in no uncertain terms that we had to vacate the lot in the next 20-30 minutes because things would get really ugly. Another 25 minutes later the rest of the group still hadn’t returned so Karen went off to get them whether the paperwork was finished or not. Luckily just as she rounded the corner she ran straight into Pete and Max, but not Elayne, Axel or Katarina. So the four of us had to wait another anxious 45 minutes for them to get their paperwork done as well. It was a nerve racking day, but we were successful!
Colon
We were up early the next day again and off to Colon, the only place that could be any worse than the ghetto in Panama City. We weren’t looking forward to this trip but it had to be done. Since Max had already been there we had no troubles finding the Sea Board Marine office at the Port. We checked in at the office got some paperwork then found out that we had to pay the whole shipping fee at the HSBC bank in Colon before anything else would happen. This wouldn’t have been a problem except that we had been told that we could pay later in Panama City so we didn’t bring any cash or many cards with us, due to the fear of getting robbed in Colon, which is highly probable. The good news was that Pete had brought his visa, but they could only do $1,000.00 a day, which left us with 880 dollars more to pay. All we had left were Pete and Max’s bank cards, but Max’s card is very temperamental. By some miracle both transactions worked and we could breathe a sigh of relief. We returned to the port for some more paperwork, and then visited three different offices trying to get our vehicle stamped out of the country. They kept sending us back and forth to the same places where no one knew what to do. Finally our friendly port inspector helped us and found out that we had to go across town to another immigration office. He tried to explain how to get there, but then grabbed his buddy and his car and personally drove us the 15 minutes to find the office which was in the middle of nowhere, but where we were finally able to get our cars stamped out of the country. Once again we went back to the port were we had to pay a two dollar bribe to an overweight security guard so he could get some lunch, then drove into the shipping yard. We waited for twenty minutes in a parking lot, got some more paper work done and then loaded the vehicles into the container. We were left all alone surrounded by thousands of containers and none of us had remembered a camera, bummer. We wanted to wait around to see them strap down the cars and lock the container but this wasn’t going to happen for a long time and we were exhausted so we left and hoped that the job would be done. We said our goodbyes to the cars, celebrated with a round of high fives then boarded our first bus of the trip back to Panama City.
Cartagena, Colombia
Armed with 5 copies of all of our important documents, some food, a book and some cash we were up and raring to go early in the morning to get Patience safely into South America. This was quite an involved procedure....
Step 1 – Take taxi #1 to "Muelle Del Bosque" (our port), to obtain our official "Bill of Lading" from the Seaboard Marine office.
Step 2 - Get taxi #2 to the DIAN (Direccion de Impuestas y Aduana Nacionales) office at the entrance to the Port of Manda. At this office we were supposed to be issued our Temporary Vehicle Import Form (Formulario De Importacion Temporal de Vehiculos) and assigned a customs inspector, but unfortunately when we flew into Colombia Max’s entry stamp didn’t include how many days he was allowed to be in the country. The office worker told us that we were going to have to go back to the airport to fix this problem. Luckily we talked to another guy and found out that for half the price of the taxi ride we could go to the “DAS” office in town to get it done.
Step 3 – Taxi #3. Spent 45 minutes in the “DAS” office just so they could write 60 days down in Max’s passport
Step 4 – Taxi #4 back to step 2 where we were assigned an inspector who was heading over to the port right then and could do our inspection. Perfect!!
Step 5 - Took taxi #5 back to "Muelle Del Bosque", where we went to the Document Centre (Centro De Documentos, of the Port Authorities to find out where our car was and pay the Port Fees so that we could get our vehicle inspected. ROAD BLOCK!!! Our container hadn’t been unloaded yet. It was 11:00 in the morning and they didn’t think that it would be done until 3:00 that afternoon. Sadly we had to let our inspector go with promises that he would return at 3:30.
Step 6 – After over 4 hours of waiting our container still wasn’t unloaded. Then at 3:15 our inspector showed up. We were nervous because he wouldn’t wait long and this was our last chance to get the cars that day. Luckily they gave us the thumbs up and we quickly paid our fees and went to get our first view of Patience. There she was just as we had left her perfectly in the container. The inspector did his customary check of the VIN numbers and Karen quickly snapped some shots before she was told she had to stop and we were surrounded by officials telling us all the things we were doing wrong; taking pictures, not wearing shoes, hard hats or long pants. Oops. We were escorted out of the yard and told to return with the appropriate clothing.
Step 7 – Taxi #6 back to the DIAN to get our Temporary Vehicle Import Form. We were running low on time and as always it took forever to get a simple form printed out and signed, but eventually it was done and we ran to catch our final taxi of the day.
Step 8 – Taxi #7 back to the port where we handed in all of our forms that we’d collected during the day and were issued our Vehicle Exit Form (Planilla De Salida Del Vehiculo) which we had to sign 9 times and verify with 9 finger prints and were also given our copies of the Temporary Vehicle Import Form and Customs Release Forms (Levante), which we would need to exit the country. Holy paperwork!
Step 9 – We’d read that you needed closed toed shoes so we’d come prepared with shoes for the boys who somehow talked their way out of the rest of the gear and were allowed into the port to pick up the cars.
Step 10 – We completed some more paperwork for who knows what and then found the exit where they checked over all of our paperwork one more time before letting us out of the port and into COLOMBIA!!!!
It was a lot of work and took 11 hours, but we did it in a day and out of the 2 other groups who also did it we were the fastest, hehehe.
This was the biggest road block of the trip and now it’s over and we are so excited to be road tripping in South America!!
Click on a picture to enlarge
On the way to Panama City we stopped to check our email one more time to see if we’d received our official departure date. To our surprise we found out that our ship was due to sail a day earlier than we had expected so now we had to start rushing. We quickly emailed in copies of our passports and vehicle registrations in order to get our bill of lading which we would need to do the next steps. The next day we were further shocked to find out that we had to load our cars onto the container the next day so we asked around and researched where the PTJ (police) office was, and then headed there following a homemade map, thankfully even though we missed one turn we still ended up at the right place. Our first step here was to get the van inspected. We made it there just in time because they don’t do inspections after 11am and it was now 10:55am. When we entered the inspection yard we were shocked to see Axel and Katarina (whom we’d met in Costa Rica) waiting there with an Australian couple. The inspection lasted all of ten minutes and then we had to wait until 3:30 for the next step to take place. We sat around in the parking lot killing time mostly listening to the Aussie couple, Chris and Elayne’s stories. They’ve been traveling the world in their homemade dune buggy for three years and have four years left. After about 3 hours Axel, Katarina, Elaine, Max, and Pete walked across the street to another office to wait for step number two. Unfortunately the cars were parked in the worst part of town where the police wouldn’t even let us cross the street to get some food which at first we thought was a bit overkill, but later found out that it really was for our safety. So while the rest of the gang waited safely in the air conditioned office and went out for lunch, Karen and Chris were left in the ghetto parking lot in the hot sun with no food to guard all the cars. All was going well until Karen and Chris decided they needed a 30cent ice cream cone across the dreaded street. They were approached by some kids who seemed friendly enough, but were promptly chased off by the local police and Karen and Chris were escorted back to the parking lot. Then not 5 minutes later the first gun shots rang out. At first Karen didn’t believe that it was gun shots, but then she saw one of the “thugs” holding a gun down his pants across the street and the second round of shots was enough to send her running into the nearest building. A few minutes later after it was confirmed that it indeed was people shooting in the streets Karen went back out and discovered that it had been 13 year old kids shooting at each other and that a tourist bus had been caught in the crossfire and had it’s window was shot out. The passengers were quite shaken up, but no one else seemed to think much of it. We’ve now learned that it is smart to heed all the police warnings. After another sketchy hour of waiting Karen and Chris were approached by a really nice man who told us in no uncertain terms that we had to vacate the lot in the next 20-30 minutes because things would get really ugly. Another 25 minutes later the rest of the group still hadn’t returned so Karen went off to get them whether the paperwork was finished or not. Luckily just as she rounded the corner she ran straight into Pete and Max, but not Elayne, Axel or Katarina. So the four of us had to wait another anxious 45 minutes for them to get their paperwork done as well. It was a nerve racking day, but we were successful!
Colon
We were up early the next day again and off to Colon, the only place that could be any worse than the ghetto in Panama City. We weren’t looking forward to this trip but it had to be done. Since Max had already been there we had no troubles finding the Sea Board Marine office at the Port. We checked in at the office got some paperwork then found out that we had to pay the whole shipping fee at the HSBC bank in Colon before anything else would happen. This wouldn’t have been a problem except that we had been told that we could pay later in Panama City so we didn’t bring any cash or many cards with us, due to the fear of getting robbed in Colon, which is highly probable. The good news was that Pete had brought his visa, but they could only do $1,000.00 a day, which left us with 880 dollars more to pay. All we had left were Pete and Max’s bank cards, but Max’s card is very temperamental. By some miracle both transactions worked and we could breathe a sigh of relief. We returned to the port for some more paperwork, and then visited three different offices trying to get our vehicle stamped out of the country. They kept sending us back and forth to the same places where no one knew what to do. Finally our friendly port inspector helped us and found out that we had to go across town to another immigration office. He tried to explain how to get there, but then grabbed his buddy and his car and personally drove us the 15 minutes to find the office which was in the middle of nowhere, but where we were finally able to get our cars stamped out of the country. Once again we went back to the port were we had to pay a two dollar bribe to an overweight security guard so he could get some lunch, then drove into the shipping yard. We waited for twenty minutes in a parking lot, got some more paper work done and then loaded the vehicles into the container. We were left all alone surrounded by thousands of containers and none of us had remembered a camera, bummer. We wanted to wait around to see them strap down the cars and lock the container but this wasn’t going to happen for a long time and we were exhausted so we left and hoped that the job would be done. We said our goodbyes to the cars, celebrated with a round of high fives then boarded our first bus of the trip back to Panama City.
Cartagena, Colombia
Armed with 5 copies of all of our important documents, some food, a book and some cash we were up and raring to go early in the morning to get Patience safely into South America. This was quite an involved procedure....
Step 1 – Take taxi #1 to "Muelle Del Bosque" (our port), to obtain our official "Bill of Lading" from the Seaboard Marine office.
Step 2 - Get taxi #2 to the DIAN (Direccion de Impuestas y Aduana Nacionales) office at the entrance to the Port of Manda. At this office we were supposed to be issued our Temporary Vehicle Import Form (Formulario De Importacion Temporal de Vehiculos) and assigned a customs inspector, but unfortunately when we flew into Colombia Max’s entry stamp didn’t include how many days he was allowed to be in the country. The office worker told us that we were going to have to go back to the airport to fix this problem. Luckily we talked to another guy and found out that for half the price of the taxi ride we could go to the “DAS” office in town to get it done.
Step 3 – Taxi #3. Spent 45 minutes in the “DAS” office just so they could write 60 days down in Max’s passport
Step 4 – Taxi #4 back to step 2 where we were assigned an inspector who was heading over to the port right then and could do our inspection. Perfect!!
Step 5 - Took taxi #5 back to "Muelle Del Bosque", where we went to the Document Centre (Centro De Documentos, of the Port Authorities to find out where our car was and pay the Port Fees so that we could get our vehicle inspected. ROAD BLOCK!!! Our container hadn’t been unloaded yet. It was 11:00 in the morning and they didn’t think that it would be done until 3:00 that afternoon. Sadly we had to let our inspector go with promises that he would return at 3:30.
Step 6 – After over 4 hours of waiting our container still wasn’t unloaded. Then at 3:15 our inspector showed up. We were nervous because he wouldn’t wait long and this was our last chance to get the cars that day. Luckily they gave us the thumbs up and we quickly paid our fees and went to get our first view of Patience. There she was just as we had left her perfectly in the container. The inspector did his customary check of the VIN numbers and Karen quickly snapped some shots before she was told she had to stop and we were surrounded by officials telling us all the things we were doing wrong; taking pictures, not wearing shoes, hard hats or long pants. Oops. We were escorted out of the yard and told to return with the appropriate clothing.
Step 7 – Taxi #6 back to the DIAN to get our Temporary Vehicle Import Form. We were running low on time and as always it took forever to get a simple form printed out and signed, but eventually it was done and we ran to catch our final taxi of the day.
Step 8 – Taxi #7 back to the port where we handed in all of our forms that we’d collected during the day and were issued our Vehicle Exit Form (Planilla De Salida Del Vehiculo) which we had to sign 9 times and verify with 9 finger prints and were also given our copies of the Temporary Vehicle Import Form and Customs Release Forms (Levante), which we would need to exit the country. Holy paperwork!
Step 9 – We’d read that you needed closed toed shoes so we’d come prepared with shoes for the boys who somehow talked their way out of the rest of the gear and were allowed into the port to pick up the cars.
Step 10 – We completed some more paperwork for who knows what and then found the exit where they checked over all of our paperwork one more time before letting us out of the port and into COLOMBIA!!!!
It was a lot of work and took 11 hours, but we did it in a day and out of the 2 other groups who also did it we were the fastest, hehehe.
This was the biggest road block of the trip and now it’s over and we are so excited to be road tripping in South America!!
Click on a picture to enlarge
Sunday, January 17, 2010
Panama
Lost and Found Hostel, Chiriqui
The border crossing into Panama was relatively painless but it still took a couple of hours of running around. Thank goodness there weren’t any lines. Our first stop after the border was a mall outside of David. We wanted to stock up on groceries but the supermercado was closed, so we ended up checking out some other stores to take advantage of the air conditioning for some much needed cooling off. Karen bought a few things and then found the deal of a lifetime...a pair of Teva sandals for four dollars, yah. It was strangely nice to be in a mall again, but we were soon off as we were on our way to the Lost and Found hostel north of David. We’d arranged to meet up with our shipping container buddy Maxim who was volunteering there. The hostel was located up in the cloud forest with nothing else around for miles so we made another stop at a grocery store and were impressed by the selection and prices of the food and alcohol, 35 cent BEERS and 2 dollar bottles of wine! What a relief after the prices in Costa Rica. After a long winding drive up into the mountains we finally reached cooler air and the base of the 15 minute hike straight up to the hostel. Hmmm, maybe we should have thought about that part before we went grocery shopping. We took our first load up and ran into Max. It was good to see a familiar face! Then we found out that the hostel was having the busiest night in their history, but luckily they managed to find us a bed. Unfortunately we had to go back down to the van so we could park it in a safe place and hike a second load of luggage and food back up the steep trail. The hostel was amazing!! It’s located near the top of the continental divide in the cloud forest with views of the valley and the country’s highest volcano. They have wild animals visiting night and day and humming birds that will fly right up to you. They even have a pet Kinkajou a “vegetarian monkey raccoon” that loves to be cuddled and bite Pete’s nose. Behind the hostel is a national park with a series of hiking trails that bring you up and then down to a secluded river with swimming holes and waterfalls. On our second day there we did a treasure hunt which involved hiking, swimming, river crossings and of course riddle solving. In the end we succeeded in finding the illusive one eyed monkey. Up until this point we’d been lucky enough not to share a room with other people, but because the hostel was so busy we were thrust into our first crowded dorm room. The first night we were kept up by a group in the lounge drinking and playing cards late into the night followed by the duelling snorers in our room. The second night there were a few less people in the dorm so we moved to the corner bed with a nice fat mattress. After hiking all day and having little sleep the night before we passed out early with ease and were sleeping soundly until we were woken up to some guy choking and spitting on the floor. We then heard him getting up and the sound of water running, Karen immediately sat up and asked him “Are you peeing? Are you peeing on the floor”? She jumped up, hit the lights, and told him to “get out”. He was standing with one leg up on a vacant bed (where we had slept the night before) over a puddle of piss denying what he had just done. Karen yelled at him to get out numerous times before he finally left the room. A little while later he came back and we then suffered through three drunken people’s snoring for a few more hours until we finally gave up and went to sleep on a concrete bench with the mosquitos. What an experience! The next night we were a little nervous, but the guy promised not to drink again and we ended up having a great night’s sleep. All in all the hostel was a great experience. Pete won a foosball tournament, we cooked up some amazing meals (good thing we hiked up all that food after all), met some great people and were able to hike around in the jungle. We spent three nights there and then left in a convoy with Max and another friend Itay to hit up another mountain hostel.
La Qhia, Santa Fe
We didn’t think anything could top the Lost and Found hostel until we showed up at La Qhia. The Argentinian-Belgian owners have created a beautiful and artistic getaway in a place where the climate is perfect. The four of us spent our nights cooking and playing dice and our days lounging around and going for hikes. One day we hiked up this insanely steep road and then scrambled our way to the windy summit of Cerro Tute. It was a great 6 hour hike that seemed to be up both ways. Not sure about Max’s ability as a guide, just kidding! We ended up spending 4 nights here as we were able to camp out and we were avoiding leaving this perfect climate for steamy and busy Panama City.
Panama City
We were hoping to ship on Saturday so finally on Monday we admitted to ourselves that it was time to get going and the four of us got up and convoyed out early Monday morning. It was a strange feeling passing over the Bridge of the Americas knowing that we were about to encounter one of the biggest road blocks on our trip and then be in South America. Neither of us could believe it was already happening and that we’d made it this far!! Somehow we managed to navigate the one way city streets without losing Max and ended up at our hostel where we had a 3 bed dorm for 4 people. It was really tight, but at least we all knew each other. The hostel was packed full of backpackers who seemed to sit around drinking, watching movies, and blaring music from their lap tops all day, not our scene but it was a place to sleep. After three nights Itay left and we got tired of the hostel so we moved down the street to a seemingly nice clean hotel with A/C and a T.V. for the same price of the hostel. We were enjoying our stay until one night at four in the morning an argument broke out across the hall from our room. We think a prostitute stole $2,000.00 off some guy, he was yelling, she was crying, doors were slamming until finally the police showed up and quieted it down. Definitely a bizarre experience. Our stay in Panama City was a bit longer than we would have liked due to the shipping process (see the section on shipping for more details) but we made the best of our time there. We seemed to keep getting sucked into air conditioned malls so most of our time was spent shopping (mostly for new sandals for Max), eating at the food courts, and finding a killer sandal deal for Pete. We also took advantage of the ability to go to a movie theatre and went to see Avatar in 3D. Awesome film! One day we ventured out to see the Canal, which was interesting but definitely not the highlight of Panama City. We also explored Casco Viejo, the old city, which is an interesting mix of rebuilt colonial buildings and decrepit ruins side by side. There is only a block or two separating the presidential palace from one of the worst ghettos in Panama City. Max wanted to take us to some cafes but he kept going in the wrong direction, we were first turned back by the police who said it was a “zona roja“ (meaning you would be lucky to survive your visit there), then we were turned around two other times by locals once again telling us how dangerous it was in that neighbourhood , finally we stopped following Max and found a nice cafe for happy hour. Finally the day came when Patience was off for Colombia and we could follow suit.
Goodbye Central America!!!
Just click on a picture to enlarge.
The border crossing into Panama was relatively painless but it still took a couple of hours of running around. Thank goodness there weren’t any lines. Our first stop after the border was a mall outside of David. We wanted to stock up on groceries but the supermercado was closed, so we ended up checking out some other stores to take advantage of the air conditioning for some much needed cooling off. Karen bought a few things and then found the deal of a lifetime...a pair of Teva sandals for four dollars, yah. It was strangely nice to be in a mall again, but we were soon off as we were on our way to the Lost and Found hostel north of David. We’d arranged to meet up with our shipping container buddy Maxim who was volunteering there. The hostel was located up in the cloud forest with nothing else around for miles so we made another stop at a grocery store and were impressed by the selection and prices of the food and alcohol, 35 cent BEERS and 2 dollar bottles of wine! What a relief after the prices in Costa Rica. After a long winding drive up into the mountains we finally reached cooler air and the base of the 15 minute hike straight up to the hostel. Hmmm, maybe we should have thought about that part before we went grocery shopping. We took our first load up and ran into Max. It was good to see a familiar face! Then we found out that the hostel was having the busiest night in their history, but luckily they managed to find us a bed. Unfortunately we had to go back down to the van so we could park it in a safe place and hike a second load of luggage and food back up the steep trail. The hostel was amazing!! It’s located near the top of the continental divide in the cloud forest with views of the valley and the country’s highest volcano. They have wild animals visiting night and day and humming birds that will fly right up to you. They even have a pet Kinkajou a “vegetarian monkey raccoon” that loves to be cuddled and bite Pete’s nose. Behind the hostel is a national park with a series of hiking trails that bring you up and then down to a secluded river with swimming holes and waterfalls. On our second day there we did a treasure hunt which involved hiking, swimming, river crossings and of course riddle solving. In the end we succeeded in finding the illusive one eyed monkey. Up until this point we’d been lucky enough not to share a room with other people, but because the hostel was so busy we were thrust into our first crowded dorm room. The first night we were kept up by a group in the lounge drinking and playing cards late into the night followed by the duelling snorers in our room. The second night there were a few less people in the dorm so we moved to the corner bed with a nice fat mattress. After hiking all day and having little sleep the night before we passed out early with ease and were sleeping soundly until we were woken up to some guy choking and spitting on the floor. We then heard him getting up and the sound of water running, Karen immediately sat up and asked him “Are you peeing? Are you peeing on the floor”? She jumped up, hit the lights, and told him to “get out”. He was standing with one leg up on a vacant bed (where we had slept the night before) over a puddle of piss denying what he had just done. Karen yelled at him to get out numerous times before he finally left the room. A little while later he came back and we then suffered through three drunken people’s snoring for a few more hours until we finally gave up and went to sleep on a concrete bench with the mosquitos. What an experience! The next night we were a little nervous, but the guy promised not to drink again and we ended up having a great night’s sleep. All in all the hostel was a great experience. Pete won a foosball tournament, we cooked up some amazing meals (good thing we hiked up all that food after all), met some great people and were able to hike around in the jungle. We spent three nights there and then left in a convoy with Max and another friend Itay to hit up another mountain hostel.
La Qhia, Santa Fe
We didn’t think anything could top the Lost and Found hostel until we showed up at La Qhia. The Argentinian-Belgian owners have created a beautiful and artistic getaway in a place where the climate is perfect. The four of us spent our nights cooking and playing dice and our days lounging around and going for hikes. One day we hiked up this insanely steep road and then scrambled our way to the windy summit of Cerro Tute. It was a great 6 hour hike that seemed to be up both ways. Not sure about Max’s ability as a guide, just kidding! We ended up spending 4 nights here as we were able to camp out and we were avoiding leaving this perfect climate for steamy and busy Panama City.
Panama City
We were hoping to ship on Saturday so finally on Monday we admitted to ourselves that it was time to get going and the four of us got up and convoyed out early Monday morning. It was a strange feeling passing over the Bridge of the Americas knowing that we were about to encounter one of the biggest road blocks on our trip and then be in South America. Neither of us could believe it was already happening and that we’d made it this far!! Somehow we managed to navigate the one way city streets without losing Max and ended up at our hostel where we had a 3 bed dorm for 4 people. It was really tight, but at least we all knew each other. The hostel was packed full of backpackers who seemed to sit around drinking, watching movies, and blaring music from their lap tops all day, not our scene but it was a place to sleep. After three nights Itay left and we got tired of the hostel so we moved down the street to a seemingly nice clean hotel with A/C and a T.V. for the same price of the hostel. We were enjoying our stay until one night at four in the morning an argument broke out across the hall from our room. We think a prostitute stole $2,000.00 off some guy, he was yelling, she was crying, doors were slamming until finally the police showed up and quieted it down. Definitely a bizarre experience. Our stay in Panama City was a bit longer than we would have liked due to the shipping process (see the section on shipping for more details) but we made the best of our time there. We seemed to keep getting sucked into air conditioned malls so most of our time was spent shopping (mostly for new sandals for Max), eating at the food courts, and finding a killer sandal deal for Pete. We also took advantage of the ability to go to a movie theatre and went to see Avatar in 3D. Awesome film! One day we ventured out to see the Canal, which was interesting but definitely not the highlight of Panama City. We also explored Casco Viejo, the old city, which is an interesting mix of rebuilt colonial buildings and decrepit ruins side by side. There is only a block or two separating the presidential palace from one of the worst ghettos in Panama City. Max wanted to take us to some cafes but he kept going in the wrong direction, we were first turned back by the police who said it was a “zona roja“ (meaning you would be lucky to survive your visit there), then we were turned around two other times by locals once again telling us how dangerous it was in that neighbourhood , finally we stopped following Max and found a nice cafe for happy hour. Finally the day came when Patience was off for Colombia and we could follow suit.
Goodbye Central America!!!
Just click on a picture to enlarge.
Saturday, January 2, 2010
Costa Rica
Playa Samara
We left the beach in Nicaragua early and were ready for another border crossing. After the previous chaotic crossings we were not nervous about this one at all. The drive to the border provided great views of Lago Nicaragua, the only lake home to fresh water sharks and Isla Ometepe, a large Island made up of two volcanoes. 6kms before the border we passed hundreds of semi trucks lined up on the side of the highway, our first clue of what was to come. When we arrived at the Nicaraguan side we couldn’t believe how many people were lined up at the office. It took us over two hours to get our exit stamps and then we had to run around and track down the right officials to get our car permits cancelled. Off to the Costa Rican side to join the same crowd who we’d been waiting with in the other line. After getting our passports stamped we had to buy car insurance then visit two different offices to import our van. By the end of it all we spent over four hours at the border, our longest crossing yet. When we reached Liberia, the first major town, we were seduced into McDonalds for a big mac combo and most importantly air conditioning and Wifi. We got out the map and searched the internet for places to go in Costa Rica, we had many interesting choices, but we decided to stick on the paved roads and headed for Playa Samara on the Nicoya Peninsula. Before leaving Liberia we stopped in at the grocery store and were shocked to find that the prices were the same if not higher than in Canada, but we were heading to the beach to camp so we stocked up. By the time we reached Samara it was dark and we had to search for a campground. We thought we’d found the jackpot with a spot on the beach, but that was when the fun started. First off we were parked under some potentially windshield smashing coconuts so we decided to turn around only to find out we were stuck!! Karen and a very old man dug and pushed us out to hard ground and then we hit the next roadblock, they had no water. No problem, a girl filled up our shower bag at another campground and we started getting set up. Next roadblock, Karen had to pee and they wouldn’t let her use the washrooms and there was nowhere to go behind a tree. By this point we were exhausted and done with the “management” so we packed up and moved down the road to a campground where we could shower and use the washrooms, perfect! We decided to stay there two nights so the next day we went out to explore the town of Samara and go for a swim. What a beautiful place!! Huge beach, mellow waves and a town big enough for there to be stuff going on, but not be too crazy. On our first walk down the beach we stumbled across another campground where we heard a bonjour as we entered. We turned around to chat and found our Christmas family!! We were welcomed with open arms by three other groups of travellers who had been running into each other on the road and had met here for Christmas. Perfect!! We spent one more night at the other campground as we had already paid and then Christmas Eve morning after a surf and big breakfast we made the move. The three other groups consisted of a family from Quebec; Réjean, his wife Nathalie and two daughters Eve and Charlotte who are travelling around Central America for a year and Oliver and Karina from Germany and Val and Jeff from Alberta all doing the same trip as us. What a nice surprise!! We hadn’t run into other travellers in a long time and hadn’t met any doing our trip since Mexico. We spent Christmas Eve drinking Sangria, phoning home and then eating a great group meal cooked by Oliver and Karina. It was a great way to spent Christmas and even better having two little girls around who were spoiled rotten by everyone around them. They were able to experience Christmas traditions from various countries including “El Tio” a tree branch with a painted mouth that you feed every night and then on Christmas Eve you beat with a stick and it “poops” out a gift, hehehe. We ended the night with a roaring campfire on the beach and then went to bed to wait for Santa. Christmas morning everyone got together again and we helped Val and Jeff make pancakes for 20. It was great fun and we were able to feed almost everyone at the campground including a huge group of musical international students who in turn played some rousing tunes on their various instruments. We had a relaxing day and then that night we took over dinner preparations with some fish help from Réjean just in time for a giant rainstorm. Luckily there was a big central shelter so we set up and ate by candlelight. Ever since we entered Central America we’d heard how crazy the beaches get with locals flocking there for the holidays so Dec 26th we were semi prepared for the onslaught. It happened fast and we were glad we’d set up clearly defined camp borders as the locals take every available space around them even if it’s occupied. All in all we faired well, but some other campers had dogs sleeping against their tents and hammocks strung across their site. The Costa Rican’s like to party for Christmas, but we were able to sleep through it and met some really nice locals who fed us tamales and gave us advice on where to go. We ended up spending about a week in Samara enjoying great big dinners with everyone, playing pelonk, swimming, lounging and getting to know everyone. We were also joined by Axel and Katharina from Germany who are travelling the world on motorbikes. What a great gathering place. Slowly everyone started to leave and we knew it was time to move on, but such a great surprise and wonderful way to celebrate Christmas surrounded by amazing people! That’s what the holidays are really about.
Bejuco/Uvita
We’d read about a beach near a nature reserve that sounded really relaxing so we decided to skip the tourist trap of Fortuna and MonteVerde and remain on the coast. After spending a week not driving we’d forgotten just how hot and tiring it was so after 6 hours we were spent and pulled into a random beach on the map called Bejuco for the night. After being in Nicaragua where all the best beach front is blocked by private homes we were pleasantly surprised to find a strip of land between the road and the beach that was free for camping! We found a great little spot, chugged some water and had a heat exhaustion pass out in the hammock. Then we were joined by two local Costa Rican guys Carlos and Orlando who were staying at a friend’s place right across the street. They were super friendly and we spent the next 3 hours watching the sunset and chatting with them until one disappeared and the other got progressively drunker and our understanding of his slurred Spanish started to diminish as he tried to get us to promise to start having kids as soon as possible. It was super muggy and we were sticky from the day’s drive so thankfully they let us use their shower to clean and cool off and then went in the van to take refuge from the bugs. The next morning the bugs were still bad so off we went to Uvita. We’d been on the beach for over a week so when we were confronted with 100’s of Tico’s camping on a muddy stretch of road on the beach we weren’t too enthused and went in search of another option. Luckily we came across Hostel Toucan and cute little place with clean bathrooms, wifi, lot’s of hammocks and they let us camp. We spent almost the whole day and night catching up on the blog and staying in the cool of the shade. Just what we needed. The next day the hostel was hosting a New Year’s Eve/50th birthday party so we decided to spend another night there. We were trying to decide what to do for the day when we met a couple from Sweden, Brita and David who were going to Finca Carolina to hike to some waterfalls. It sounded great so we joined in. We were picked up by a guy from the states who had bought the farm with a couple friends, driven up a steep and muddy road and then dropped off to fend for ourselves. We followed the path all the way down to the river and were able to swim in our coolest fresh water pool yet, awh. Then we decided to follow the path further downstream and finally came to another waterfall. This one didn’t have a pool so we settled for a lay down in the river to cool off before the long hike back up. Once we got back up to the road Pete spotted a whole flock of toucans in the trees. Then a little further down the road we heard some more rustling in the trees and looked up to see a bunch of howler monkeys. We snapped some photos and then started walking again when all of a sudden one of the monkeys jumped out of the trees and started coming at us making big scary howler monkey noises, uh oh. We know what to do with bears, but what do you do with an aggressive monkey?? We decided it would be best to keep moving so he chased us down the road a bit more and then finally went back up in the trees. Spooky. We were treated to the last sunset of 2009 as we walked down the road and by the time we finally made it to the highway we were starving so we decided to eat out. We ended up at a soda that served great fish and cold beer, mmmm. Then we went back to the hostel just in time for a shower and for the party to start. It was a bit of a weird scene with old hippies from the states who moved to Costa Rica, but there were live bands, an acrobat swinging from 2 ribbons off a tree and a capoeira group who displayed their skills and got the crowd moving with their drumming. It was a great day and night. HAPPY NEW YEAR 2010!!! It’s going to be a great year full of excitement for all. The next day we were too tired to move on so we tried to repair a flat tire and gave Patience an oil change (her Christmas present).
Cerro Chirripo and the border
We were ready to retreat from the heat and head into the mountains again so after Uvita we headed to the highest peak in Costa Rica with plans to do the 2 day trek for the summit. Unfortunately when we got there we were told that the hike was full and that we’d have to wait at least a day to start the trek. We were anxious to get to Panama so we decided to spend the night by the river, visit the hot springs in the morning and then head for the border the next day. It was a short trip, but the air was fresh and the river was cold so we were happy we made the trip up there. The next day we drove close to the Panama border and after being told by the local police that camping by the river was a bad idea, we splurged on a hotel room with air conditioning and cable tv. The bonus came in the morning when we were surprised by squirrel monkeys in the trees. Onto PANAMA!!!
We left the beach in Nicaragua early and were ready for another border crossing. After the previous chaotic crossings we were not nervous about this one at all. The drive to the border provided great views of Lago Nicaragua, the only lake home to fresh water sharks and Isla Ometepe, a large Island made up of two volcanoes. 6kms before the border we passed hundreds of semi trucks lined up on the side of the highway, our first clue of what was to come. When we arrived at the Nicaraguan side we couldn’t believe how many people were lined up at the office. It took us over two hours to get our exit stamps and then we had to run around and track down the right officials to get our car permits cancelled. Off to the Costa Rican side to join the same crowd who we’d been waiting with in the other line. After getting our passports stamped we had to buy car insurance then visit two different offices to import our van. By the end of it all we spent over four hours at the border, our longest crossing yet. When we reached Liberia, the first major town, we were seduced into McDonalds for a big mac combo and most importantly air conditioning and Wifi. We got out the map and searched the internet for places to go in Costa Rica, we had many interesting choices, but we decided to stick on the paved roads and headed for Playa Samara on the Nicoya Peninsula. Before leaving Liberia we stopped in at the grocery store and were shocked to find that the prices were the same if not higher than in Canada, but we were heading to the beach to camp so we stocked up. By the time we reached Samara it was dark and we had to search for a campground. We thought we’d found the jackpot with a spot on the beach, but that was when the fun started. First off we were parked under some potentially windshield smashing coconuts so we decided to turn around only to find out we were stuck!! Karen and a very old man dug and pushed us out to hard ground and then we hit the next roadblock, they had no water. No problem, a girl filled up our shower bag at another campground and we started getting set up. Next roadblock, Karen had to pee and they wouldn’t let her use the washrooms and there was nowhere to go behind a tree. By this point we were exhausted and done with the “management” so we packed up and moved down the road to a campground where we could shower and use the washrooms, perfect! We decided to stay there two nights so the next day we went out to explore the town of Samara and go for a swim. What a beautiful place!! Huge beach, mellow waves and a town big enough for there to be stuff going on, but not be too crazy. On our first walk down the beach we stumbled across another campground where we heard a bonjour as we entered. We turned around to chat and found our Christmas family!! We were welcomed with open arms by three other groups of travellers who had been running into each other on the road and had met here for Christmas. Perfect!! We spent one more night at the other campground as we had already paid and then Christmas Eve morning after a surf and big breakfast we made the move. The three other groups consisted of a family from Quebec; Réjean, his wife Nathalie and two daughters Eve and Charlotte who are travelling around Central America for a year and Oliver and Karina from Germany and Val and Jeff from Alberta all doing the same trip as us. What a nice surprise!! We hadn’t run into other travellers in a long time and hadn’t met any doing our trip since Mexico. We spent Christmas Eve drinking Sangria, phoning home and then eating a great group meal cooked by Oliver and Karina. It was a great way to spent Christmas and even better having two little girls around who were spoiled rotten by everyone around them. They were able to experience Christmas traditions from various countries including “El Tio” a tree branch with a painted mouth that you feed every night and then on Christmas Eve you beat with a stick and it “poops” out a gift, hehehe. We ended the night with a roaring campfire on the beach and then went to bed to wait for Santa. Christmas morning everyone got together again and we helped Val and Jeff make pancakes for 20. It was great fun and we were able to feed almost everyone at the campground including a huge group of musical international students who in turn played some rousing tunes on their various instruments. We had a relaxing day and then that night we took over dinner preparations with some fish help from Réjean just in time for a giant rainstorm. Luckily there was a big central shelter so we set up and ate by candlelight. Ever since we entered Central America we’d heard how crazy the beaches get with locals flocking there for the holidays so Dec 26th we were semi prepared for the onslaught. It happened fast and we were glad we’d set up clearly defined camp borders as the locals take every available space around them even if it’s occupied. All in all we faired well, but some other campers had dogs sleeping against their tents and hammocks strung across their site. The Costa Rican’s like to party for Christmas, but we were able to sleep through it and met some really nice locals who fed us tamales and gave us advice on where to go. We ended up spending about a week in Samara enjoying great big dinners with everyone, playing pelonk, swimming, lounging and getting to know everyone. We were also joined by Axel and Katharina from Germany who are travelling the world on motorbikes. What a great gathering place. Slowly everyone started to leave and we knew it was time to move on, but such a great surprise and wonderful way to celebrate Christmas surrounded by amazing people! That’s what the holidays are really about.
Bejuco/Uvita
We’d read about a beach near a nature reserve that sounded really relaxing so we decided to skip the tourist trap of Fortuna and MonteVerde and remain on the coast. After spending a week not driving we’d forgotten just how hot and tiring it was so after 6 hours we were spent and pulled into a random beach on the map called Bejuco for the night. After being in Nicaragua where all the best beach front is blocked by private homes we were pleasantly surprised to find a strip of land between the road and the beach that was free for camping! We found a great little spot, chugged some water and had a heat exhaustion pass out in the hammock. Then we were joined by two local Costa Rican guys Carlos and Orlando who were staying at a friend’s place right across the street. They were super friendly and we spent the next 3 hours watching the sunset and chatting with them until one disappeared and the other got progressively drunker and our understanding of his slurred Spanish started to diminish as he tried to get us to promise to start having kids as soon as possible. It was super muggy and we were sticky from the day’s drive so thankfully they let us use their shower to clean and cool off and then went in the van to take refuge from the bugs. The next morning the bugs were still bad so off we went to Uvita. We’d been on the beach for over a week so when we were confronted with 100’s of Tico’s camping on a muddy stretch of road on the beach we weren’t too enthused and went in search of another option. Luckily we came across Hostel Toucan and cute little place with clean bathrooms, wifi, lot’s of hammocks and they let us camp. We spent almost the whole day and night catching up on the blog and staying in the cool of the shade. Just what we needed. The next day the hostel was hosting a New Year’s Eve/50th birthday party so we decided to spend another night there. We were trying to decide what to do for the day when we met a couple from Sweden, Brita and David who were going to Finca Carolina to hike to some waterfalls. It sounded great so we joined in. We were picked up by a guy from the states who had bought the farm with a couple friends, driven up a steep and muddy road and then dropped off to fend for ourselves. We followed the path all the way down to the river and were able to swim in our coolest fresh water pool yet, awh. Then we decided to follow the path further downstream and finally came to another waterfall. This one didn’t have a pool so we settled for a lay down in the river to cool off before the long hike back up. Once we got back up to the road Pete spotted a whole flock of toucans in the trees. Then a little further down the road we heard some more rustling in the trees and looked up to see a bunch of howler monkeys. We snapped some photos and then started walking again when all of a sudden one of the monkeys jumped out of the trees and started coming at us making big scary howler monkey noises, uh oh. We know what to do with bears, but what do you do with an aggressive monkey?? We decided it would be best to keep moving so he chased us down the road a bit more and then finally went back up in the trees. Spooky. We were treated to the last sunset of 2009 as we walked down the road and by the time we finally made it to the highway we were starving so we decided to eat out. We ended up at a soda that served great fish and cold beer, mmmm. Then we went back to the hostel just in time for a shower and for the party to start. It was a bit of a weird scene with old hippies from the states who moved to Costa Rica, but there were live bands, an acrobat swinging from 2 ribbons off a tree and a capoeira group who displayed their skills and got the crowd moving with their drumming. It was a great day and night. HAPPY NEW YEAR 2010!!! It’s going to be a great year full of excitement for all. The next day we were too tired to move on so we tried to repair a flat tire and gave Patience an oil change (her Christmas present).
Cerro Chirripo and the border
We were ready to retreat from the heat and head into the mountains again so after Uvita we headed to the highest peak in Costa Rica with plans to do the 2 day trek for the summit. Unfortunately when we got there we were told that the hike was full and that we’d have to wait at least a day to start the trek. We were anxious to get to Panama so we decided to spend the night by the river, visit the hot springs in the morning and then head for the border the next day. It was a short trip, but the air was fresh and the river was cold so we were happy we made the trip up there. The next day we drove close to the Panama border and after being told by the local police that camping by the river was a bad idea, we splurged on a hotel room with air conditioning and cable tv. The bonus came in the morning when we were surprised by squirrel monkeys in the trees. Onto PANAMA!!!
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