TravelStream™ news feed for member gracie-lou on TravelPod's free travel blogs service http://www.travelpod.com/syndication/rss/gracie-lou en-us Copyright ©2009 TravelPod.com Tue, 09 Jun 2009 21:26:29 -0400 http://www.travelpod.com http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/gracie-lou/1/1244520060/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/gracie-lou/1/1244520060/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/gracie-lou/1/1244520060/tpod.html Tue, 09 Jun 2009 21:26:29 -0400 Discovering the New World...starting with Colombia!

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Medellin, Colombia

I have arrived for the last leg of my tour, in the wonderful city of Medellin, where I'm staying with some nice people I met on my Amazon trip! Today we went on a tour of the city in Silvio's 1946 Ford coop (he likes classic cars!) which was fun, if not a little slow as it only has 3 gears. Then I spent a wonderful afternoon in the museum of Antioquia checking out Botero's work, as well as some more indigenous art and riding around on the very civilised metro system which they have here (which is above ground). The city is very clean and stays at a nice 20 degrees all year round. Off to see Santa Fe de Antioquia tomorrow, a little village in the mountains which has retained a lot of it's old colonial style, so stay tuned for more pretty pics!
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/gracie-lou/1/1244347200/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/gracie-lou/1/1244347200/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/gracie-lou/1/1244347200/tpod.html Tue, 09 Jun 2009 21:18:48 -0400 Discovering the New World...starting with Colombia!

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Manizales, Colombia

Last day of the coffee trip today. I'm very very sad to say goodbye to the girls and make the trip up to Medellin alone, but we've had such a good week! We decided to stay in Santa Rosa for the night to break up the journey to Manizales. When we arrived it was 8 o'clock on a saturday night and the town was already in full swing. And after the peacefulness of Salento it was like stepping into a drunken den of iniquity! We managed to find a place to stay, which turned out to be right beside some kind of underground discotheque with the hardest bed I've ever slept on. I imagine there would be better matresses in prison than in that place. We were tired after a long day so had some burgers and beer before retiring for the night. Today we had to get up super early to get breakfast in, take some pics to remember Santa Rosa (not that we really wanted to, unless you're going to take the time to go to the thermal pools, it's really not worth coming here) and get the bus to Manizales. So we've spent most of today looking round Manizales, after finding me somewhere to sleep for the night. It seems like a nice enough place, we took a tour up to the top of the cathedral and our guide took us for coffee afterwards to chat more about the city, we ate chicken in a chicken restaurant, and then it started to bucket it down so we didn't get to see anymore! The girls have just left to get their plane back to Barranquilla so I'm alone for the night before heading to Medellin tomorrow. I've been told it's about a four hour journey through the mountains, so I'd better go charge my iPod!
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/gracie-lou/1/1243649077/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/gracie-lou/1/1243649077/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/gracie-lou/1/1243649077/tpod.html Tue, 09 Jun 2009 20:38:48 -0400 Discovering the New World...starting with Colombia!

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Bogota, Colombia

The year is over, I can't believe it! It's flew by so fast I can hardly get my head around the epic trans-atlantic journey I will have to make in a few weeks! I'm back in Bogota for a few days spending time with German, Hannah, Andrea, Mona and all the BC assistants. I was so sad to leave Pedro and my wee apartment in Barranquilla - I've grown very attached! But I'm also so happy to be traveling again, free of responsibility and deadlines and classes, even if only for a few weeks!! And of course I'm happy to be going home to see my family and all my friends (and Murphy - sad as it sounds I really do miss the dog!!). So my plan is to travel to Armenia in the coffee zone, meet up with some friends who are flying down from the coast and travel with them as far as Manizales trying every type of coffee available and from there I'll go it alone to Medellin where I'm staying with some nice people I met on my Amazon trip, and I'll stay there for about a week to get to know the city and the surrounding region of Antioquia before heading back to Bogota and then home. So if anyone wants souvenirs, now is the time to email me!!
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/gracie-lou/1/1244520000/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/gracie-lou/1/1244520000/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/gracie-lou/1/1244520000/tpod.html Tue, 09 Jun 2009 20:20:59 -0400 Discovering the New World...starting with Colombia!

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Salento, Quindío, Colombia

I've spent two of the most fantastic days in Salento and now I don't want to leave! There's so much more to see, but unfortunately we just don't have time if we want to get through our list and up to Manizales by Sunday. Salento is an absolutely beautiful wee village. It's full of colour and life and the locals are very friendly. It's no wonder almost everyone doing the coffee tour stops off here for at least a few days. Yesterday we went hiking in the Valle de Cocora. It was once a FARC stronghold, but today you can hike in it without a guide as it's perfectly safe and all the paths are signposted. After an early start we drove up through the clouds to the starting point in one of the local jeeps - which the locals actually call "willys", and caused me to snicker like a schoolkid ("ha ha willys!"). Unfortunately neither Alex nor Isaure speaks the good old British variety of English and were left looking dumbfounded until I explained what willys were to British people, by which time it wasn't that funny anymore. Anyway, we had a route which the lady at the hostel recommended so we decided to do that one - not realising it was a bloody 15 kilometer hike on a route that even Sly Stallone in that movie "Cliffhanger" would have quailed at! It was fun though, just very, very hard. I thought my legs were just going to snap off at one point but my pride kept forcing me upwards. I wasn't going to give up, not while I could still walk - a possibility that seemed to be getting slimmer by the minute. About half way up we encountered a little old lady's house. For 3000 pesos she was happily serving hot drinks to the foreigners who came puffing by. She loved us because we could speak Spanish (a lot of people who come here don't, or don't understand the accent) and me even more because I lent her my phone so she could call her husband - who had the family's only mobile phone - to tell him to bring some more panela (raw sugar cane) up the mountain because she was running out. A hilarious conversation ensued where she yelled into the phone everything she needed and everything she already had. You could probably hear her a good few miles away if you listened...she wasn't used to using the phone and I had to dial the number for her. Anyway, she made us nice big mugs of agua de panela (basically sugar water made from the raw cane) which is what they drink here in the mountains to warm up, along with a big hunk of salty cheese from the larder. By the time we were ready to go again I was almost hyperactive with the sugar. This quickly diminished as the path got harder and the air got thinner and I had to force myself to the top of the mountain, determined not to turn back. The view will be worth it, I told myself. Turns out the view was indeed <i>not worth it as the clouds came down and just about obscured everything that wasn't 10 feet in front of me! I did get to have my picture taken by the sign that said I'd reached the top of the mountain. After that it was plain sailing as everything was downhill and we arrived back to the jeeps cold and wet but proud of ourselves. Then we all made a dash back to the hostal and the hot showers!! So today I woke up and all but fell out of bed as my legs spasmed with the unusual stress of exercise from the day before, and we made our way to the village of Filandia, about a half hour from Salento. It looks a lot like Salento, except it's not as well kept and tourists don't really come here, which is a shame because they've got some really nice artesan shops which are cheaper than Salento and we also discovered this wee coffee place which won "best cup of coffee 2008" in the whole region. The owners were very nice people who invited us into their little workshop, gave us all coffee to try, showed us how they processed their coffee and their plans for the future to put Filandia and its coffee on the map. I bought two bags of coffee to add to my growing collection. I'm starting to get a little scared about the amount of stuff I'm bringing back to Northern Ireland with me! If your suitcase is filled with nothing but bags of coffee, bottles of aguardiente and indigenous jewelry, is it still "nothing to declare"?? Anyway, after Filandia we headed back to Salento to walk around one last time and so Alex could buy the rest of the artesan shops that she hadn't bought the first time round! I don't even know how she's going to get all that stuff back to Canada. Maybe she can hire a truck... So the plan is now to head to the village of Santa Rosa de Cabal tonight and spend the night there and head to Manizales tomorrow. Turns out Manizales is a good 4 hours away from here so we're going to break it up by going to Santa Rosa tonight. Then the girls are flying back up to Barranquilla from Manizales on Sunday night and I'm spending the night in the town before getting the bus up to Medellin on Monday.
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/gracie-lou/1/1244081790/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/gracie-lou/1/1244081790/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/gracie-lou/1/1244081790/tpod.html Thu, 04 Jun 2009 22:39:31 -0400 Discovering the New World...starting with Colombia!

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Armenia, Colombia

So my long awaited tour of the coffee region of Colombia has finally begun! I arrived here on Monday after an 8 hour bus ride through the mountains from Bogota, which was actually very pleasant and passed quickly. Spectacular scenery. Busing it is definitely the way to get around here, you can't see any of this stuff from a plane - well you can but it's not as nice. Andrea's niece very kindly put me up for the night while I was waiting for Isaure and Alexandra to arrive. Picked them up at the airport on Tuesday and we went to our first port of call, this beautiful hotel in the middle of the countryside called Mirador Las Palmas. At around 200,000 pesos per night it's pricey for Colombia but when you divvy it up between 3 it works out at 20 quid each for the night, not bad for a luxury place. They have an infinity pool overlooking panoramic views of the fincas and mountains which is just absolutely breath-taking. Plus it's low season right now and there was no-one else there so they waited on us hand and foot - not a bad way to start the holiday! We spent the day and night relaxing there before heading on. Yesterday we did the Parque Nacional de Café, an entire park dedicated to all things coffee (with an attraction park for the kiddies). There's a museum, an eco-walk which shows how they produce the coffee among a forest of coffee plants, cultural shows and cable car rides. We spent almost the entire day there without realising it! In the evening we headed back to Armenia to spend the night and managed to bargain the price down in a decent hotel for the night (you gotta love low season!) Today we went to some botannical gardens out in the countryside and had a great time in the butterfly house. 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 had 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 different colours. I bet it'll look fabulous tomorrow. We ate the regional dish of trout, which they sell almost exclusively in every restaurant...fried trout, grilled trout, trout with garlic...you get the idea, I'm going to be eating a lot of trout this week. Tomorrow we're planning to go hiking in the famed "Valle de Cocora" to take in the fresh country air and eat - you guessed it- trout! Photos coming soon I promise!
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/gracie-lou/1/1241401881/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/gracie-lou/1/1241401881/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/gracie-lou/1/1241401881/tpod.html Thu, 04 Jun 2009 22:04:05 -0400 Discovering the New World...starting with Colombia!

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Monteria, Colombia

What a great weekend in Monteria! Went to the mud volcano on Saturday. Weirdest feeling ever! Much like I assume being put into a bucket of cement would feel like! A lot of comedy moments were had, not least when I tried to get out and my bikini bottoms fell down, exposing one very muddy arse at the poor unsuspecting bystanders! Moral of the story - wear shorts to the mud volcano. At least it was next to the sea though so I was able to wash it all off after Steve eventually helped fish me out (after much laughing). I looked like something from "The Lord of the Rings". Watch this space for comedy photography! The volcano is sulphour mud so smells pretty bad but is good for your skin (apparently). My skin <i>did feel rather good after though. You can actually feel the sulphour gases bubbling up under your feet, and if you actually made it to the middle (I got stuck on my belly several times trying to swim it, much to the amusement of the locals) you can be where the big bubbles are. Then on Sunday we went to Coveñas beach about an hour and a half from Monteria. It would be a beautiful beach if people would stop throwing their rubbish everywhere. I was walking peacefully along the beach, enjoying the view, when I almost stepped on a big piece of medical waste - an IV bag complete with needle and someone's blood still in the tube - and a little kid playing in the water 10 feet away. This seems to be a big problem with almost every Colombian beach I've visited so far. Recycling is non existent - with the exception of the poor who hoke through the bins at night looking for things to re-use - and people don't teach their kids to pick up their rubbish and put it in a bin. And why should they when they have a muchacha (maid) to pick up after them anyway?! Such a shame as the beaches here are beautiful! I'm heading back to Barranquilla tomorrow, back to work, but not much time left, only a few weeks!
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/gracie-lou/1/1241235188/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/gracie-lou/1/1241235188/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/gracie-lou/1/1241235188/tpod.html Sun, 31 May 2009 23:41:20 -0400 Discovering the New World...starting with Colombia!

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Monteria, Colombia

After the epic Amazon adventure, I decided I needed another (if not quite so epic) one. I've come to Monteria for the weekend to visit Steve another BC assistant. After a VERY (before 5am) early start on the bus we arrived in Monteria after just 6 hours, which is pretty good going. Monteria is a small town in the middle of the Cordoba department - it's "finca" country, so the town itself is surrounded by cattle ranches. It's still close enough to the Caribbean to be costeño but also on the brink of the interior. It was a paramilitary stronghold for a number of years and so a lot of guidebooks advise people against coming here, so there aren't many tourists, but I'd recommend a couple of nights in this part of the world to anyone. The fincas are so pretty, and it's a good base for visiting places like the mud volcano and Coveñas. Didn't do a lot today. After I arrived we went for lunch and then a walk in the park, where I took about 3 million pictures of giant iguanas, and then our for a few beers later on. But we're going to the mud volcano tomorrow, so I'm super excited about that!
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/gracie-lou/1/1239333642/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/gracie-lou/1/1239333642/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/gracie-lou/1/1239333642/tpod.html Sun, 31 May 2009 23:32:17 -0400 Discovering the New World...starting with Colombia!

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Tabatinga, Estado do Amazonas, Brazil

I'm standing in the middle of a small, dirty river port in Brazil. To my right, across the treeline, I can see Colombia. And across the sprawling Amazon river in front of me, I can see Peru. This is "tres fronteras", the point in South America where Brazil, Colombia and Peru briefly meet. We only had about an hour and a half in Brazil in the end, as we had to get back into Colombia and to the airport for our flight. Not that it was hard - I went shooting across the border on a moto taxi without even so much as a helmet and no-one even asked me for my passport. We went to see the fish market, which was dark, and as you can imagine, smelly, but interesting to see all the different kinds of fish and the locals haggling over prices in Portuguese, which I have to admit, I don't speak a word of. Luckily Alex took a semester of it back in Barranquilla and was able to dazzle the locals with her skills. And most people spoke Spanish anyway, given we were so close to Colombia and Peru. so we took lots of photos before going for some cebiche...well, Alex had cebiche. I was still traumatized by the food poisoning incident last year, so I just had a cola and watched her jealously. It looked so good, but I just wasn't willing to risk getting sick on the journey back. Semana Santa is over and it's back to work on Monday! :(
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/gracie-lou/1/1239246326/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/gracie-lou/1/1239246326/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/gracie-lou/1/1239246326/tpod.html Sun, 31 May 2009 23:20:27 -0400 Discovering the New World...starting with Colombia!

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Leticia, Amazonas, Colombia

It was SO hot today. I swear I've dropped a few pounds just by sweating! Proper jungle weather. Alex and I took the public boat up to Puerto Nariño today. It's a beautiful little town - one of those places where every house has a little front garden, neatly tended and displaying tropical flowers. Our first stop was the local museum dedicated to the cultures and traditions of the peoples who inhabit this part of the world. After that we went to another place where they showed us a video and talked about some of the eco-tourism projects going on in the area. It <i>was really interesting to hear about the work the community was doing, but by this point I was seriously struggling to stay awake because of the humidity and mid-day heat. We then decided to visit the Yagua community, which was about a half hour walk from where we were, and, as we realised 15 minutes in, NOT a good place to hike to at midday! Of course, it being a spur of the moment decision, we hadn't brought enough water either. I don't think I've ever wanted to drink the brown Amazon waters more! I didn't though, bearing in mind that the nearest hospital was 70km away. I did, however, get bitten by a wide variety of nasty, nasty insects, which bit me so hard there were dots of blood all over my back, and because of the intensity of the heat, my "extreme conditions" bug spray was rendered totally useless. The Yagua community is different from the others in that their eyes are this beautiful clear blue/green colour which contrasts sharply with their dark skin. Apparently it's due to their part European decent and a strong gene which has been passed from generation to generation. We bought some more jewelry from them and then it was time to go. I wish we had more time to spend there, but we just couldn't. The last boat back was at 4.30pm and we had to be in Leticia the next day. The boat back was interesting...people brought their TVs, banana produce, fans, everything that needed to be transported back to Leticia, the "big city" was on that boat. It must be tough here - unless you have your own boat, movements can be very restricted.
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/gracie-lou/1/1239159225/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/gracie-lou/1/1239159225/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/gracie-lou/1/1239159225/tpod.html Sun, 31 May 2009 23:05:04 -0400 Discovering the New World...starting with Colombia!

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Leticia, Amazonas, Colombia

Another great day today, filled with activities. This morning we visited "Casa de los Micos", a monkey sanctuary run by an American biologist who has been working here for 10 years, taking in, caring for and re-releasing monkeys confiscated by the environmental police. The sanctaury is quite near the lodge and as we arrived the monkeys came swinging down out of the trees and landed in the boat! They were absolutely georgous and very clever. If you weren't paying attention, you'd find little hands in your pockets looking for treats! We sat in the canoes for a good 2 hours playing with the monkeys and chatting to Sarah and the workers who are not only caring for the monkeys but researching their behaviour. After lunch we took a trip further upriver to the Macedonia community where we bought some lovely artisan goods in their little shop, chatted to some of the women and ate zapote with them (a kind of tropical fruit). After dinner we decided to do the nocturnal activity, going out on the River Mata Mata (a tributary at the side of the lodge) to spot some nocturnal wildlife and listen to the jungle. It was a full moon and everything was bathed in moonlight and it was so relaxing just to sit there listening to the jungle all around us. I wasn't as apprehensive as I thought I would be, probably because I could see everything so clearly in the moonlight. Unfortunately this meant there wasn't a lot of animals to be seen. It's easier to see them on darker nights apparently. We just saw a few pretty tropical frogs and contented ourselves just listening to the forest.
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