Hotel Karlaka Armenia

... to cull what we could and condense the two bags into one. When we had previously been in Bogota and done a bike tour, we had encountered some people that Mike knew who had lost all of their possessions in a fire. These were poor people. We had too much stuff to carry, and whatever we could offload would help us but would also benefit some very needy people. It took us about an hour and then we went around to the bike shop to give Mike the bag, and the kids ...

... It wasn't cheap either at $6mil pesos per adult and $5mil pesos per child. While we were there we had a quick look around the hotel, it was the oldest hotel in Mompos, well presented with a huge tree in the centre of its courtyard. We looked at one of the rooms, not hugely different from the room we were in at La Casa Amilla, the Dona Manuella was quoted tous at $150mil pesos per night which included breakfast and, of course, use of the pool. It was only $30mil pesos more a ...

... of the noisy motor and stank of fumes. It was the only place where you couldn't open the windows. Our rucksacks were roped onto the roof.

When they described these chalupas as fast, they weren’t kidding. I will research their speed later, but I can say that they were very fast, at least the front half of the boat was out of the water once we were going. Fortunately our misery at the back was short lived as our first stop was within 30 minutes and a row became ...

... I had 3 big owl butterflies (I think that's what they were called anyway) on my hand at one point, all with their weird tongues out trying to suck at my skin. They must have needles or something on their tongues because it felt like they were pricking me. Then I couldn't get them off and freaked out a little bit before Alex came along and batted them away!
We went to a lovely little restuarant by the roadside for lunch and ...

... I got a bit of a late start because I had to find an ATM to get cash to pay my hotel bill. Then I stopped for breakfast and had steak and eggs. Good thing I did because there was no time for food the rest of the day. I took a cab to the bus station which is way the hell out of town. According to LP it's 7 Km but it sure seemed like 15. Anyway, as I got out of the cab a guy asked me where I ...

... Marta and there is a river and waterfalls that you can swim in with whirlpools which was lots of fun. We missed the last car home so had to take mototaxis back which was fun, downhill all the way, but a bit scary with shorts and flip flops on (I am a bit of a wuss). Tomorrow going to head to Cali and hopefully meet up with Lilly again and maybe my sister Isabelīs friend Ben who teaches English there I think. It ...

... churches. We statyed at the Casa Amarillo, the only hostel in town. It was a really good hostel, and I would recomend staying there. We got stuck there for an extra day because the truckers were on strike. They were angry that the road was in such bad shape.

... draw. Among the lush mountains are the giant wax palms that tower above all the trees. They really do not seem to fit in with the rest of the flora and make for a scene like no other in the world. The constant rain and fog were a bit of a downer, (hey thats Colombia in the rainy season for you) but also made a bit of an eerie and cool sight.

... everyone we met were absolutely wonderful. They were all so helpful and very giving. The man that had made the call returned about 20 minutes after he left us to see that we were doing ok and to let us know that the people should be here in about 10 minutes. Our hosts, Zulma & Fransisco, were very kind and seemed to make it their duty to tend to our every need. The only problem with staying here was that when we had met them in Argentina, they had offered ...

... arranging to do a trek to the Valle de Corcora the next day. Bright and early the next morning we took our bags down to Plantation House and waited for the jeep to take us to Corcora. There were 8 of us doing the walk that day, I think I can safely say we all regretted it. We arrived in Corcora and set off on a path, the walk was supposed to be 5 hours return but after we had been walking for 3 and a half (at speed) and still not come ...