Piura
We were up before the sun had risen and were off to Peru. We only had gotten 10kms or so when we noticed that the temperature gage was above its normal position, we pushed on for another five minutes and then had to pull over for fear of overheating the engine. We checked the coolant level, and looked for leaks but everything appeared to be normal. Stumped and not sure what to do we sat on the side of the road for twenty minutes and then tried again, we headed in the direction of Loja where we could find mechanics and some help. We drove slowly and stared at the temperature gauge all the way to the border, but thankfully the gauge remained where it should be. The road from Loja to the border was a nightmare, full of pot holes, rocks, farm animals and lots of windy passes, not to mention a thick milky fog that limited our vision to a few metres. We finally reached the super mellow border crossing at Macara and after an hour or so we were in Peru. Just before leaving the customs office on the Peruvian side our customs officer came out to ask us a favour, he needed a ride back to Piura and the bus didn’t come for another few hours, so he hopped in the back and we gave him a ride. We were a bit overwhelmed and shocked at the drastic change from Ecuador to Peru, the landscape changed immediately from lush tropical forests to dry barren desert. The extreme poverty level also made us feel a bit uneasy, these people have literally nothing, living in small shacks made of wicker and bamboo in the middle of the most inhospitable dessert. We still have no idea how they eat or get water. Once again we were reminded how lucky we are in life. Once we arrived in Piura we found ourselves a cheap hostel with air conditioning where we relaxed and cooled off while watching some Latin T.V. Besides the proximity to a casino and the prostitutes near the entrance it wasn’t a bad place. At this point Pete was way over due for a hair cut so we made use of a pair of clippers that a fellow backpacker had given us and gave Pete his first buzz cut....WOAH!! Then we went into town to enjoy a meal and watch a parade in the streets.
Huanchaco and Barranca
Since Piura was kind of a hole we were happy to leave and head to the beach town of Huanchaco. It was a long and hot drive through more desert which kept getting drier and more desolate the further south we went. In Huanchaco we found a hotel which offered poolside camping so we didn’t hesitate to stay there. Since it was Samana Santa (Easter weekend) the beach was packed with Peruvian tourists and it was a blast people watching. While cruising the beach we were called over to join some Peruvians who were drinking and dancing to some live music on the beach, “bienvenidos a Peru.” They grabbed our hands and started swinging us around. They really got a kick out of Karen shaking her gringo hips, hehehe. Huanchaco isn’t the most attractive beach resort but it was a nice place to relax for a couple of days after two hard, hot days of driving. From Huanchaco we made our way to Huaraz with a stopover in Barranca, another beach town with far less appeal.
Huaraz
So far on this trip we’ve driven numerous mountain passes and been up to high elevations but none compared to the drive up to Huaraz. From sea level we drove up to over 4000 metres in about 100kms. Up and up we went, snaking our way through hundreds of switchbacks until we finally reached the summit and caught our first views of the Cordillera Huayhuash .These beautiful snow capped mountains reach heights of over 6000 metres and were worth a stop to take in the view and snap a few photos. When we got out of van we realized that we lost a hubcap on the rough pot holed road. After backtracking for a few minutes we found it balancing on top of a rock waiting for us to retrieve it. The rest of the road down to Huaraz was in very poor shape with so many potholes that it was impossible to dodge them all and as it turned out we lost another hubcap on the way. Huaraz is an ugly city in an amazing setting with the Cordillera Blanca to the east and the Cordillera Negra to the west. Pre 1970’s Huaraz had some colonial charm but there was an earthquake which caused a huge piece of a glacier to fall into an alpine lake which spilled over its banks causing an enormous land slide that wiped out the city. We spent a couple of nights in the city preparing to head out on the famous Santa Cruz trek. The night before we went trekking there was a heavy hail storm which flooded the streets and left piles of hail all over the city. We were a little worried about what we were getting ourselves into because it was still the rainy season and it is known to rain heavily every afternoon.
Laguna 69 and the Santa Cruz Trek
Instead of just doing the Santa Cruz trek we decided to combine it with the Laguna 69 hike. We caught a colectivo to Yungay and then a beat up taxi up into the park and to the trail head of Laguna 69. Here we stashed all of our overnight gear in the bushes and then hiked up to the lake. We’ve both seen many glacial lakes but this one was gorgeous, surrounded by 6000m peaks with a large waterfall plummeting into it, breathtaking! When we got back to the campsite we found our stuff in the bushes, set up camp and cooked up some dinner before going to bed. The next morning we packed up and waited on the side of the road for a colectivo or bus to pass. Fortunately a 4x4 drove by and picked us up, agreeing to drive us to Vaqueria for the same price as the bus. The rough, dirt road steadily climbed up to a 4700m pass through switchbacks, switchbacks and more switchbacks, looking down from the top the road looked like plate of spaghetti. Just as we crested the summit of the pass the truck ran out of gas... oh well we though, it’s all downhill from here. We coasted for a while before running into an empty petrol truck which had just dumped its load and was returning to Huaraz. Our driver stopped the tanker and managed to get the drags of the diesel from its empty tanks. Luckily it was just enough to get the pickup running again and get us to Vaqueria. Here we talked to some other hikers who had just finished the trek from the other direction, and they pointed us in the right direction. We hiked for a couple of hours until we arrived at a campsite where we set up camp by the river. We weren’t exactly sure where we were on the homemade map we had, but we were hoping that we were at the right campsite. After a relaxing lunch and time to dry everything out in the sun a group hiked by and Pete found out that we were actually an hour and a half shy of the campsite we intended to be at. With only a couple of hours of daylight left we decided to tear down camp and make our way further up the trail. At the next camp we spent the night with a couple of other tour groups, and ran into our friend Sara who we had befriended in Vilcabamba. Day three, our biggest day. We left camp and made our way up to the top of the pass. The trail was very rocky and muddy, which made travel slow and difficult. Even though we had heavy packs we were still quicker than most of the other tourists who had mules carrying all of their gear. The hike was gorgeous and it just kept getting better the higher we got. Fortunately the weather was nothing but blue sky with no rain clouds to be seen. When we finally reached the top of the pass at 4750 metres we took a long break and enjoyed the breathtaking views. You could count at least 15 peaks most of them over 6000 metres. It was like nothing we’d ever seen before, absolutely amazing. After relaxing and soaking up the sun we made our way down to camp number four. From here we had views of Alpamayo, a classic mountain here in the Cordillera Blanco, amongst other jagged snow capped peaks. Day four: the hike continued downhill past a couple of lakes until we reached a marsh. From here you had two options, either the longer dryer route around the marsh or straight through. We opted for taking our boots off and cutting straight through the marsh. After a total of six hours on the trail we arrived at the final campsite, which sat at the base of a huge waterfall and next to raging river. The end of the trail was less than two hours away but we were tired and decided to spend the night. It didn’t take long to realize that the black flies here were unbearable. Karen discovered this while relieving herself in the bushes, at first she thought she had sat on a cactus but then realized that her bare ass was covered in blood thirsty black flies. We spent the rest of the day hiding in the tent until they died off at dusk. Day Five: The final day. Only an hour and a half of hiking and we were done. We grabbed a colectivo and made our way back to Huaraz where we satisfied our hunger with a $ 1.50 lunch menu. What an awesome 5 days in the mountains!!!
The Way Inn
After another night in Huaraz we headed up the hill to check out The Way Inn lodge. This beautiful stone lodge sits at 3700 metres with the Cordillera Blanca right in its backyard. An absolutely gorgeous setting! To top it off this place has hot water, a wood stove, trout pond and a wood heated sauna. We knew right away we’d be staying for a while in this mountain paradise. We spent our days relaxing, hitting up the sauna, hiking, and bouldering. We also treated ourselves to an awesome trout dinner, fresh from the pond. One day we checked out Laguna Churup, and also ventured up to Montana Churupita, a peak that sits at 5035 metres. It was a long day but we were entertained by Albert and Princess two cute dogs from The Way Inn who joined us and made the hike look easy. After a week in heaven we busted a move and once again were south bound. We stopped at our favourite cafe in Huaraz, Cafe Andino, for some wifi to say happy birthday to Karen’s dad and a snack, then made our way to the coast. On the way we looked for our lost hubcap but soon gave up after stopping three times only to find other hubcaps which didn’t fit our rims.
Click on a photo to enlarge and see the captions
Tuesday, April 20, 2010
Thursday, April 1, 2010
Ecuador Part II
Still in Ibarra...Lago Cuicocha and Volcan Cotacachi
After 2 days of testing, our mechanic #2, Bolivar, was still convinced that our problem was due to the ECU so we finally succumbed to tow #3 and took her out to see mechanic #3 Juan Carlos. Unfortunately it was Friday so we had another weekend to wait before we could get any info so we decided to go for another hike. One of the many volcanoes that had enticed us from Ibarra was Volcan Cotacachi so away we went. We took the bus back to Cotacachi and then a taxi ride to Lago Cuicocha and started hiking. After about 2 hours we reached a beautiful shelter on the crater rim and decided this would be a perfect spot for the night. We admired the lake with its two volcanic peaks in the centre while watching the fog roll in and then set up camp. This time we remembered cards to pass the time so we could stay up to a reasonable hour as it gets dark here around 6:30. Then in the middle of the night we were woken up by the sound of thunder nearby. We were a bit concerned as we were camping under a metal roof, but decided to wait it out. It was intense for awhile, but then started to fade away when all of a sudden the storm was on top of us. We scrambled out of the tent and stood there in indecision. Freeze our butts off in the rain or risk electrocution. Luckily the weather made our minds up for us and the storm moved off again, phewf! We had planned on waking up early to hit up the summit, but after our restless sleep we decided to sleep a little longer. We finally got up around 7 noticed that our metal roof was actually clay, packed up and headed off. We weren’t sure where the trail started, but there was a road that went up so up we went. 3 hours later we finally got to the trail head, but so did the fog. After a short prayer to the Virgin Mary for clear skies (see photos) we decided to see how far we could get. It was an awesome trail, but it just kept getting windier, wetter and more socked in the farther we went. After another 2 hours of hiking and scrambling we reached a camp where it was so windy we had to erect the group’s blown over tents. The weather was fowl and we still had to hike back down so reluctantly we turned around. It was a long hike out and about half way down the road, just as we were starting to think about how we could fly out the rest of the way a saviour in a jeep drove down and picked us up!! Even better he was heading all the way back to Ibarra!! It was two local hikers who had also been turned back due to snow a little higher then we’d gotten. Exhausted they dropped us off at our favourite grocery store where we stocked up and took a cab back to Graham’s. Monday morning we wanted to give the mechanic a chance to look at her so we decided to walk up to our favourite restaurant overlooking Ibarra with Oliver and Carina. We relaxed and enjoyed some awesome crepes and the beautiful views. Then Graham showed up and we went for a drive up and over the mountain. What an incredible experience. The people in these countries are so tough that they farm on nearly vertical slopes where I have no idea how the stand up let alone plant crops!! It was a beautiful journey and something that we wouldn’t have done on our own. Another benefit of being “stuck” in Ibarra. The trip ended up taking longer than we thought and by the time we were down the mechanic’s shop was closing, but he said to come tomorrow for a “test drive”. That sounded promising, but we didn’t want to get too excited. The next morning we woke up and headed out to pick up the van or at least figure out what was going on. When we got there we were handed the keys and told to take her for a spin....WHAT?!?!?! Could it really be that easy? We looked at each other and then jumped in the driver’s seat and sure enough she ran! We took her for a drive with one of the young apprentices and eventually the strange knocking stopped and we were set! He did something with the ECU and replaced all of our cracking fuel lines. Still not 100% sure what the problem was, but pretty sure something shorted out the ECU. We drove her back to Ibarra totally in shock that we were back on the road, arrived at Graham’s and started the long process of packing her back up.
Mitad del Mundo and Quito
As if in a dream 3 weeks, 3 tows and 3 mechanics later and we were finally saying our farewells. We were so lucky to have met Graham and had the opportunity to stay at his place. He is incredibly welcoming and has such a big heart. We learned a lot about the community and met a lot of the single mothers that he helps out. What a guy!! Karen’s brother Dan only had one request from this trip and it was that we take a picture of the equator for him so off we went on a detour. After asking a million people for directions we finally ended up on the right road to the Mitad del Mundo (Middle of the world). The first place we came to was the giant monument set up by gringos in 1979, but they were off by about 240m. Then we went to the Intiñan Solar Museum built on the GPS calculated equator and enjoyed an amazing tour of not only cheap equator tricks like balancing an egg, walking a straight line, water going down the drain (straight down, counter and clock-wise), and strength tests but also a great tour of the different cultures in Ecuador. Our tour guide was an archeologist and loved his country so was super informative. We were also introduced to the art of head shrinking. An ancient practice no longer allowed on human heads, but still done on sloths and other animals. It was fascinating!! Although we were 2 days early for the big equinox celebration, bummer.
After a few hours we finally left the Equator and entered the SOUTHERN HEMISPHERE!! We got on an amazing highway passing through Quito and thought all was going to go smoothly until we hit a detour and were taken right into the heart of old Quito with it’s windy streets and one way streets that run into each other. We finally made our way out of the old part and were trying to find our way out of the city when the van started running rough and then died!! Luckily we were right beside a parking spot under an overpass and were able to coast in. CRAP!! Not only did it seem to be the same problem, but we were in the worst part of Quito a city we had no desire to visit and the sun was setting. Pete went to phone our helpful mechanic and Karen went to talk to a police officer about getting a tow. The police officer told Karen that because we were in a bad part of town no tow truck would come, what?? Luckily we then went to talk to a transit cop and he called for a police tow to come to our rescue. 15 minutes later our 4th tow arrived and we were driven around searching for an open mechanic shop. We drove around forever and then finally found an open door and were delivered into what would be our oily home for the next 2 nights. The owner kindly said that we could sleep in the lot, but told us not to go outside the gates at night because it was too dangerous. Our mechanic from Ibarra had told Pete that he was going to come and help us out on Saturday so we fended off the local mechanics and went to sleep. The next day our mechanic decided that he wouldn’t come until Sunday so we went to explore Quito. We wandered around for awhile and then ended up in a pub in mall land. Here we met Drew from Calgary who ordered us a pitcher and was great to chat with for the next couple of hours. So nice to take our minds off things. Back to our slum for another surprisingly good night sleep despite it also being a truck and bus parking lot for an early wake up to wait for our mechanic. After a bit of a communication problem he finally arrived at 9:30 with his entire family and got to work. After a short investigation he discovered it was our ignition coil that we’d just replaced before the trip with a cheap Chinese imitation part. He sent his family off to find us a real German part and we waited. They returned, he popped in the part and we were off and running again. We couldn’t believe it wasn’t the same problem, but were relieved it wasn’t. It was still early so we decided to get out of our grease pit and hit the road.
Quilotoa
Our original destination when we left Ibarra was Quilotoa so we got back on track. The route from Latacunga to Quilotoa was one of the most breathtaking drives we’ve done so far. Full of beautiful farmland, people and rolling green hills. We even picked up a local and he told us all about the different crops planted in the area. Then we arrived in the tiny town of Quilotoa and were greeted by all the friendly indigenous people there (who wanted us to buy their stuff) and went to look at the Crater Lake. You can’t see anything until you are right at the crater rim, but when you get there the view is breathtaking. We’ve seen a lot of crater lakes, but this one is stunning!! We wandered around taking pictures of the setting sun and fog and then met two other couples staying at one of the hostels. They invited us over for a drink and we all cozied up by the fire and chatted about travelling before heading back to the van for a peaceful night’s sleep. The next morning we met pack up with the rest of the group and took off for a 5 hour hike around the crater. It was a beautiful hike up and down ridges, through sand and farmer’s fields. By the time we got back it was starting to rain and we were all starving so we popped in for a bite to eat and then scammed the hostel’s shower before playing a rousing game of dice and enjoying an awesome meal. The next morning 8 of us piled in the van and headed back to the Panamerican. It was our first time with this many passengers, but Patience did awesome.
Banos
Next stop, the small town of Banos for a healing soak in the thermal waters. They were hot, awesome and very much needed. The next day we decided to rent bikes and go for a 30km waterfall tour. We passed tons of waterfalls, rode through and by 1km long tunnels and enjoyed some scenic detours. It was a beautiful ride, but way too long for Karen’s poor butt, hehehe. That night we treated ourselves to one too many amazing margaritas and had some mouth watering fajitas at the cutest Mexican restaurant.
Banos #2 and Cuenca
Just when we were raving about the roads in Ecuador we hit the road to Cuenca, yikes! Detours, construction and potholes. It took us 10 hours before we finally found a place to stay in Banos #2. It was a little more expensive then we were used to at $10 a person, but we got to use their hot pools, steam bath and hot showers so in the long run we got our money’s worth and more!! We’d originally been searching for a place we’d heard about near Cuenca so the next morning we resumed the search. Thank goodness we’d given up looking the night before because it took us forever to find! We eventually pulled into the unmarked driveway and headed in to explore Cuenca. It was a beautiful city, but everything seemed to be closed. We’d heard about some amazing climbing in the area so as always we went in search of the nearest climbing store where we always seem to encounter the friendliest people. This time was no different and at Monodedo we met Xavier, a fellow climber who offered us a ride home, a cheap canyoning tour the next day, a place to park and a chance to go climbing on Sunday...WOW!!! The next morning we got up early and went to meet the crew. It turned out we were going with the producer and star of an Ecuadorian adventure show who’d done the tour while filming and were coming back to take their American friend Chris on the trip. Since we were all experienced Xavier and his brother decided we should do the entire canyon instead of the normal route. Perfect! We drove and hiked up and to the start of the canyon and jumped in, literally. We were both starting to wonder what we’d gotten ourselves into especially since this was the coldest water we’d ever been in, but went with it. It was amazing!! We rappelled down 140ft waterfalls, jumped off rocks, slid down rock slides and shivered our way through 1km of beautiful Ecuadorian canyon. It was brutally cold and by the time we crawled out we were all shaking and turning blue, but were happy. We were all starving so Xavier took us to a steak house for the cheapest and best steak of the trip! Then we followed him back to his house where we met his family, bouldered around on his homemade wall and played board games with his son Amaru. Such a wonderful family and a dream home! The next morning we had a slow start and then met up with the gang to do some climbing. As always we were a bit sandbagged, but we struggled our way up a few amazing climbs and then went back to Xavier’s house for another night. The people that we have met on this trip have truly blown us away with their kindness and this was no exception. We have a lot of pay back to give when we finally get a house!
Vilcabamba
It was a hard decision to leave Cuenca, but fortunately the weather made it easy for us and we woke up to grey skies to push us on our way. Though not before we enjoyed a leisurely morning and big breakfast made in a real kitchen. The next destination was Vilcabamba and luckily the road was much easier to get there although we were now experiencing squeaky brakes. We hope that this isn’t due to the dodgy tow. Only time will tell. We arrived at the beautiful hostel Ishcayluma where they welcome overlanders into their parking lot with power, hot showers, a pool, beautiful views and awesome restaurant. We cooked up an amazing meal, had a glass of wine and unwound. The next day we scammed the awesome free breakfast and took off for a hike up to Mandango (the protective sleeping Inca) mountain for a little exercise and some amazing views of the valley. We managed to dodge the bulls on the trail and route find our way back to the hostel for a swim and a steaming hot shower. After an involuntary nap we went to the hostel bar and met up with three fellow travellers for a Caiprinia and a chat. The next day Pete went for a run and Karen enjoyed a super cheap 75 minute massage. That night we had an awesome German meal and then hung around soaking in the atmosphere. So nice!! We were going to leave the next day, but the facilities were so nice and it was time to get caught up on the blog so here we are hanging out one more day in paradise before another border crossing and our 11th country...Peru!!
Click on a photo to enlarge and see the captions.
After 2 days of testing, our mechanic #2, Bolivar, was still convinced that our problem was due to the ECU so we finally succumbed to tow #3 and took her out to see mechanic #3 Juan Carlos. Unfortunately it was Friday so we had another weekend to wait before we could get any info so we decided to go for another hike. One of the many volcanoes that had enticed us from Ibarra was Volcan Cotacachi so away we went. We took the bus back to Cotacachi and then a taxi ride to Lago Cuicocha and started hiking. After about 2 hours we reached a beautiful shelter on the crater rim and decided this would be a perfect spot for the night. We admired the lake with its two volcanic peaks in the centre while watching the fog roll in and then set up camp. This time we remembered cards to pass the time so we could stay up to a reasonable hour as it gets dark here around 6:30. Then in the middle of the night we were woken up by the sound of thunder nearby. We were a bit concerned as we were camping under a metal roof, but decided to wait it out. It was intense for awhile, but then started to fade away when all of a sudden the storm was on top of us. We scrambled out of the tent and stood there in indecision. Freeze our butts off in the rain or risk electrocution. Luckily the weather made our minds up for us and the storm moved off again, phewf! We had planned on waking up early to hit up the summit, but after our restless sleep we decided to sleep a little longer. We finally got up around 7 noticed that our metal roof was actually clay, packed up and headed off. We weren’t sure where the trail started, but there was a road that went up so up we went. 3 hours later we finally got to the trail head, but so did the fog. After a short prayer to the Virgin Mary for clear skies (see photos) we decided to see how far we could get. It was an awesome trail, but it just kept getting windier, wetter and more socked in the farther we went. After another 2 hours of hiking and scrambling we reached a camp where it was so windy we had to erect the group’s blown over tents. The weather was fowl and we still had to hike back down so reluctantly we turned around. It was a long hike out and about half way down the road, just as we were starting to think about how we could fly out the rest of the way a saviour in a jeep drove down and picked us up!! Even better he was heading all the way back to Ibarra!! It was two local hikers who had also been turned back due to snow a little higher then we’d gotten. Exhausted they dropped us off at our favourite grocery store where we stocked up and took a cab back to Graham’s. Monday morning we wanted to give the mechanic a chance to look at her so we decided to walk up to our favourite restaurant overlooking Ibarra with Oliver and Carina. We relaxed and enjoyed some awesome crepes and the beautiful views. Then Graham showed up and we went for a drive up and over the mountain. What an incredible experience. The people in these countries are so tough that they farm on nearly vertical slopes where I have no idea how the stand up let alone plant crops!! It was a beautiful journey and something that we wouldn’t have done on our own. Another benefit of being “stuck” in Ibarra. The trip ended up taking longer than we thought and by the time we were down the mechanic’s shop was closing, but he said to come tomorrow for a “test drive”. That sounded promising, but we didn’t want to get too excited. The next morning we woke up and headed out to pick up the van or at least figure out what was going on. When we got there we were handed the keys and told to take her for a spin....WHAT?!?!?! Could it really be that easy? We looked at each other and then jumped in the driver’s seat and sure enough she ran! We took her for a drive with one of the young apprentices and eventually the strange knocking stopped and we were set! He did something with the ECU and replaced all of our cracking fuel lines. Still not 100% sure what the problem was, but pretty sure something shorted out the ECU. We drove her back to Ibarra totally in shock that we were back on the road, arrived at Graham’s and started the long process of packing her back up.
Mitad del Mundo and Quito
As if in a dream 3 weeks, 3 tows and 3 mechanics later and we were finally saying our farewells. We were so lucky to have met Graham and had the opportunity to stay at his place. He is incredibly welcoming and has such a big heart. We learned a lot about the community and met a lot of the single mothers that he helps out. What a guy!! Karen’s brother Dan only had one request from this trip and it was that we take a picture of the equator for him so off we went on a detour. After asking a million people for directions we finally ended up on the right road to the Mitad del Mundo (Middle of the world). The first place we came to was the giant monument set up by gringos in 1979, but they were off by about 240m. Then we went to the Intiñan Solar Museum built on the GPS calculated equator and enjoyed an amazing tour of not only cheap equator tricks like balancing an egg, walking a straight line, water going down the drain (straight down, counter and clock-wise), and strength tests but also a great tour of the different cultures in Ecuador. Our tour guide was an archeologist and loved his country so was super informative. We were also introduced to the art of head shrinking. An ancient practice no longer allowed on human heads, but still done on sloths and other animals. It was fascinating!! Although we were 2 days early for the big equinox celebration, bummer.
After a few hours we finally left the Equator and entered the SOUTHERN HEMISPHERE!! We got on an amazing highway passing through Quito and thought all was going to go smoothly until we hit a detour and were taken right into the heart of old Quito with it’s windy streets and one way streets that run into each other. We finally made our way out of the old part and were trying to find our way out of the city when the van started running rough and then died!! Luckily we were right beside a parking spot under an overpass and were able to coast in. CRAP!! Not only did it seem to be the same problem, but we were in the worst part of Quito a city we had no desire to visit and the sun was setting. Pete went to phone our helpful mechanic and Karen went to talk to a police officer about getting a tow. The police officer told Karen that because we were in a bad part of town no tow truck would come, what?? Luckily we then went to talk to a transit cop and he called for a police tow to come to our rescue. 15 minutes later our 4th tow arrived and we were driven around searching for an open mechanic shop. We drove around forever and then finally found an open door and were delivered into what would be our oily home for the next 2 nights. The owner kindly said that we could sleep in the lot, but told us not to go outside the gates at night because it was too dangerous. Our mechanic from Ibarra had told Pete that he was going to come and help us out on Saturday so we fended off the local mechanics and went to sleep. The next day our mechanic decided that he wouldn’t come until Sunday so we went to explore Quito. We wandered around for awhile and then ended up in a pub in mall land. Here we met Drew from Calgary who ordered us a pitcher and was great to chat with for the next couple of hours. So nice to take our minds off things. Back to our slum for another surprisingly good night sleep despite it also being a truck and bus parking lot for an early wake up to wait for our mechanic. After a bit of a communication problem he finally arrived at 9:30 with his entire family and got to work. After a short investigation he discovered it was our ignition coil that we’d just replaced before the trip with a cheap Chinese imitation part. He sent his family off to find us a real German part and we waited. They returned, he popped in the part and we were off and running again. We couldn’t believe it wasn’t the same problem, but were relieved it wasn’t. It was still early so we decided to get out of our grease pit and hit the road.
Quilotoa
Our original destination when we left Ibarra was Quilotoa so we got back on track. The route from Latacunga to Quilotoa was one of the most breathtaking drives we’ve done so far. Full of beautiful farmland, people and rolling green hills. We even picked up a local and he told us all about the different crops planted in the area. Then we arrived in the tiny town of Quilotoa and were greeted by all the friendly indigenous people there (who wanted us to buy their stuff) and went to look at the Crater Lake. You can’t see anything until you are right at the crater rim, but when you get there the view is breathtaking. We’ve seen a lot of crater lakes, but this one is stunning!! We wandered around taking pictures of the setting sun and fog and then met two other couples staying at one of the hostels. They invited us over for a drink and we all cozied up by the fire and chatted about travelling before heading back to the van for a peaceful night’s sleep. The next morning we met pack up with the rest of the group and took off for a 5 hour hike around the crater. It was a beautiful hike up and down ridges, through sand and farmer’s fields. By the time we got back it was starting to rain and we were all starving so we popped in for a bite to eat and then scammed the hostel’s shower before playing a rousing game of dice and enjoying an awesome meal. The next morning 8 of us piled in the van and headed back to the Panamerican. It was our first time with this many passengers, but Patience did awesome.
Banos
Next stop, the small town of Banos for a healing soak in the thermal waters. They were hot, awesome and very much needed. The next day we decided to rent bikes and go for a 30km waterfall tour. We passed tons of waterfalls, rode through and by 1km long tunnels and enjoyed some scenic detours. It was a beautiful ride, but way too long for Karen’s poor butt, hehehe. That night we treated ourselves to one too many amazing margaritas and had some mouth watering fajitas at the cutest Mexican restaurant.
Banos #2 and Cuenca
Just when we were raving about the roads in Ecuador we hit the road to Cuenca, yikes! Detours, construction and potholes. It took us 10 hours before we finally found a place to stay in Banos #2. It was a little more expensive then we were used to at $10 a person, but we got to use their hot pools, steam bath and hot showers so in the long run we got our money’s worth and more!! We’d originally been searching for a place we’d heard about near Cuenca so the next morning we resumed the search. Thank goodness we’d given up looking the night before because it took us forever to find! We eventually pulled into the unmarked driveway and headed in to explore Cuenca. It was a beautiful city, but everything seemed to be closed. We’d heard about some amazing climbing in the area so as always we went in search of the nearest climbing store where we always seem to encounter the friendliest people. This time was no different and at Monodedo we met Xavier, a fellow climber who offered us a ride home, a cheap canyoning tour the next day, a place to park and a chance to go climbing on Sunday...WOW!!! The next morning we got up early and went to meet the crew. It turned out we were going with the producer and star of an Ecuadorian adventure show who’d done the tour while filming and were coming back to take their American friend Chris on the trip. Since we were all experienced Xavier and his brother decided we should do the entire canyon instead of the normal route. Perfect! We drove and hiked up and to the start of the canyon and jumped in, literally. We were both starting to wonder what we’d gotten ourselves into especially since this was the coldest water we’d ever been in, but went with it. It was amazing!! We rappelled down 140ft waterfalls, jumped off rocks, slid down rock slides and shivered our way through 1km of beautiful Ecuadorian canyon. It was brutally cold and by the time we crawled out we were all shaking and turning blue, but were happy. We were all starving so Xavier took us to a steak house for the cheapest and best steak of the trip! Then we followed him back to his house where we met his family, bouldered around on his homemade wall and played board games with his son Amaru. Such a wonderful family and a dream home! The next morning we had a slow start and then met up with the gang to do some climbing. As always we were a bit sandbagged, but we struggled our way up a few amazing climbs and then went back to Xavier’s house for another night. The people that we have met on this trip have truly blown us away with their kindness and this was no exception. We have a lot of pay back to give when we finally get a house!
Vilcabamba
It was a hard decision to leave Cuenca, but fortunately the weather made it easy for us and we woke up to grey skies to push us on our way. Though not before we enjoyed a leisurely morning and big breakfast made in a real kitchen. The next destination was Vilcabamba and luckily the road was much easier to get there although we were now experiencing squeaky brakes. We hope that this isn’t due to the dodgy tow. Only time will tell. We arrived at the beautiful hostel Ishcayluma where they welcome overlanders into their parking lot with power, hot showers, a pool, beautiful views and awesome restaurant. We cooked up an amazing meal, had a glass of wine and unwound. The next day we scammed the awesome free breakfast and took off for a hike up to Mandango (the protective sleeping Inca) mountain for a little exercise and some amazing views of the valley. We managed to dodge the bulls on the trail and route find our way back to the hostel for a swim and a steaming hot shower. After an involuntary nap we went to the hostel bar and met up with three fellow travellers for a Caiprinia and a chat. The next day Pete went for a run and Karen enjoyed a super cheap 75 minute massage. That night we had an awesome German meal and then hung around soaking in the atmosphere. So nice!! We were going to leave the next day, but the facilities were so nice and it was time to get caught up on the blog so here we are hanging out one more day in paradise before another border crossing and our 11th country...Peru!!
Click on a photo to enlarge and see the captions.
Wednesday, March 10, 2010
Ecuador Part I
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.
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.
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
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