Hotel Panaca Armenia

... to see his dog Parchita. It was a nice enough reunion and Christie also managed to swap some books in his book exchange while we were there. We stopped close by and had a really nice menu de dia before grabbing a taxi back to the bus terminal.

We eventually caught a bus to Armenia about 2-30pm, costing us $30mil pesos each. We were told that we probably wouldn’t get to Armenia until 8pm. I knew at this point that we were going to be much later ...

... than what we were paying. We had a great swim, Jody, Niamh and I did some laps, something we haven’t done for a while, and a little playtime. Some other Colombian guests arrived and it became quite obvious that lap swimming etiquette was very unfamiliar to them, as one gentleman almost dived right on top of Jody in the middle of his lap. The fact that the depth was only 3 feet didn’t seem to put him off either.

As we left, a very large 2.4 metre gentleman ...

... in the middle of the boat. It was excellent position, as I was able to put my out of the large window, feel the wind in my face and take photographs at will, For me it was really great fun as I viewed the life of people living on the river and the natural inhabitants, mostly birds. It was a great change from the nauseas bus rides. Jody played his Nintendo, Niamh slept, Christie read. There were about 8 stops in all with plenty of nothingness in between, that is nothing ...

... a local chicken dish, and the owner was even nice enough to give us a lift back to the bus station!
After doing another quick spin of Armenia and looking in some of the Artesan shops, we were off to our next destination, the village of Salento (where I am now, writing this from the world's smallest internet cafe)
It was dark when we got here but the village looks fantastic, old colonial houses painted up in all ...

... going. Mompox, I said. Ok. Follow me to the direct bus with AC. I followed him through the maze of the bus station and ended up on one of those half size buses. He asked for a tip and I reluctantly gave it to him. In the end I would've been better off going to the ticket counter and figuring it all out myself but I didn't know that at the time. The aisle on these buses is about a foot wide and ...

... about 3-4 hours so if I leave early should be there by lunchtime. After that apparently the route I had planned to take is daft due to the quality of the roads, so will probably head back to Armenia (near Salento) before catching an overnight bus to somewhere or other near San Agustin, and will then continue my way south via Popayan and head for the Ecuadorean border to be in Quito next Saturday. Enjoy your week! Nick

... open, even their main Cathedral look in bad shape , I was able to get inside cause somebody was fixing something so I sneak inn. They do not have much as far as restaurants or night life but we manage to meet some very friendly locals and had an entertaining evening. Next day we were out of there, fairly much there is only one scheduled bus that leaves at 6 am towards Cartagena and another one at the same time to Barranquilla and that is it,otherwise you are at the hands of the locals ...

Lesson learned - nev** take a hotel recommendation from a fellow travell** without checking it out first! We w**e due to change buses at Armenia for Salento, but due to sev**al delays or oth**, it was dark when we arrived and so rath** than travel any furth** at night time, decided to spend the night in Armenia and complete our journey in the morning. This seemed the most sensible plan, given that we had a glowing hotel ...

... home at the same price that we were paying there in Mendoza...which was $20 a night. Well, they charged us $20 a night...but it was per person..so we were paying $40...or double what we paid in Argentina. Being on a budget has caused us to sometimes miss out on some things that we would like to do and that is disappointing, but being on a budget and thinking that you are paying something only to find out that you are paying double is really upsetting. When we ...

... the place we were looking for we knew we had gone the wrong way. The walk we did was hell, all in all 8 hours of 6 very steep up hill climbs and very slippery descents. Graham and I hadn't eaten breakfast and because the 5 hour walk was meant to be relatively easy we only took some biscuits to keep us going. By about the 5th hour we weren't feeling well and Graham was starting to feel dizzy and I'd cut my foot so couldn't wear my ...