Almirante Cartagena

HII ALL!!!


Cartagena is amazing!!! Since I've been here its been nothing but good things, good food, and good people! The first day was mostly getting aquatinted to the boat, and going grocery shopping and going out to dinner. After that the work started cleaning, organizing, fixing stuff, installing, polishing, more cleaning, more organizing, more fixing stuff, its like it never ends.. but its fine because I've been learning a TON of stuff. The names of all the boat ...

... the meat like you normally expect at a fruit and vegetable market to check its tenderness. A client would point to the piece they wanted and the butcher sliced off the chosen part, weighed it, put it in a bag and money changed hands. Our bus driver was eager to select a piece himself.

On we went, and about an hour and a half after we left Mompos, the road ended. It was a surprise to us. I knew that Mompos was suppose to be an island but I never ...

... of sugar mangoes, and snacks.
Returning to Cartagena mid afternoon we ran to El Mejor Sitio for lunch. Had to have my soup fix. Decided to go to the Hotel Sofitel's famed Coro Bar to have drinks that night. Supposedly Prez. Clinton had drinks there. He's a cool enough guy for me. Must be some good drinks. Or sexy ladies. We know he likes them. Or maybe not. Monica was not that much of a looker. Anyway ...

... connections had rotted away and some muck had got into his carbs, but we eventually resolved all the issues and got going into the old city and the Hostel Holiday which had a courtyard to take our bikes in safety.
We spent most of the afternoon re hydrating and recovering after the major ordeal. We had to meet Fritz at 7 that evening to pick up our passports.
We still had to sort out the legal importing of our bikes but that was a job for manaņa!

... a beautiful walled colonial town on Colombia’s Caribbean coast. It was the gateway to Central and South America for the Spanish trade in gold, commodities and slaves and as a result the old town has an incredible history of conflict and an amazing mix of people - descendents from the native Indians, the Spanish and Africans. Again, the weather was amazing and gave us the chance to get a bit of colour after 2 ...

... behind. Nor did any of our fellow passengers object when Alex, who had been partaking a little too freely of the rum, stood up and mooned a passing bus, but instead laughed and cheered. We stopped at the walls of the histoic old town (arenīt all old towns historic?) where we danced with the auld ones and fended off maraca and panama-hat salesmen. The highlight of this stop was being approached by a man with a sloth (the laziest of all ...

... there would be no room for Myself and Hicham. After an hour of arguing, they finally put all 5 of us in a sister hotel a few minutes away. But not before I caught the chain's GM telling a pathetic web of lies about how the problem was caused. Though our new hotel, the celebrity suites was pretty cool, I was left with an awful taste in my mouth and had a tough time enjoying the huge room. Imagine my frustration later when I found that they were double charging us for our ...

... will assume you are interesting and important.


Tuesday March 10th


START: 14722km

FROM: Machala (ECU)

TO: Banos (ECU)

FINISH: 15144 km


Despite its importance in the world of bananas, Ecuador could have actually been the country invented by Apple.


Take a country with an impressive array of geographic landforms, such as the United States. As far as countries go, it's pretty much got the lot - dramatic coastline, verdant ...

... like a miniature volcano, but instead of lava and ashes, it spews forth mud. The crater is filled with lukewarm mud with the consistency of thick cream. I went for my first volcano-dipping; having a refreshing bath in that soft, dark grey mud. It was quite an experience at first going in being all white and clean to dark and muddy but also the sensation of floating along in that thick liquid. Look at the pictures, I am not saying nonsense, well ...

... 11pm it drops you at a local discotheque, which at that time is totally dead so we headed into the old town to get a spot on the wall from which to watch the fireworks. From our spot on the old city wall we and thousands of others gathered and were able to witness three separate displays, one over the old town, one in Bocagrande and one taking place in San Diego. It was a great atmosphere, tables lined the closed streets and the cars lined the beach front where ...