TravelStream™ news feed for member polomuiriu on TravelPod's free travel blogs service http://www.travelpod.com/syndication/rss/polomuiriu en-us Copyright ©2009 TravelPod.com Tue, 12 Feb 2008 12:57:18 -0500 http://www.travelpod.com http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/polomuiriu/world_trip/1198296840/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/polomuiriu/world_trip/1198296840/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/polomuiriu/world_trip/1198296840/tpod.html Tue, 12 Feb 2008 12:57:18 -0500 Starting in SE Asia, I will be continuing on to Oz, NZ followed by a brief visit to LA and then on to central and S America

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Cusco, Peru

Cusco is clearly the tourist capital of South America. A handy twenty four hour bus ride from Lima, I don't think I've ever seen so many gringos in my life, not to mention that most of those gringos seem to be pale, pasty Irish people. The hostel I stayed in (Loki) was like a small Irish settlement, I would say over half the people staying here were Irish.As it was coming up to Christmas time, the hostel was preparing for the festivities with a proper Christmas dinner promised. The town of Cusco was also preparing for Christmas with a large Christmas market in the main square as well as a lifesize crib with real people in it just standing there all day. The night clubs around the main square seemed to be doing a good trade too, anyone who has been to Cusco will remember such names as Mama Africas and Uptown.The Christmas dinner in the hostel turned out to be a huge affair with over one hundred and fifty people there. Not quite the same as the home cooked variety but we did manage to get a bit of turkey for Christmas after all. Not that it really felt like Christmas, more like a Sunday. There were still plenty of shops and restaurants open around town and the streets weren't as quiet as you would normally assoctate with Christmas.With Christmas over it was time to get down to the business of what makes Cusco the number one tourist attraction in South America, Machu Pichu. Rather than do the traditional Inca trail which is overpriced, overcrowded and overbooked I opted for one of the alternative hikes.I signed up for what I though would be a five day hike through the Salkantay pass which rises to about 4500m.Apart from lots of tourists in Cusco, there are also a lot of people tryng to get money out of the tourists. Here you will here every sob story and see every scam imaginable and is the worst side of Peruvian culture. When I though I had signed up for a five day trip it turned out that they had blatantly lied to me and the hike was only four days. Of course that wasn't as bad as the group of Americans with us who had paid one hundred dollars mor ethan the rest of us and had been promised a private group. I guess these days a private group comes with an extra four people! But that's Peru and especially Cusco for you, people will tell you whatever they think you want to hear in order to try and get money from you. Kinda reminded me of Vietnam although the scams weren't nearly as clever, mostly just lying really. The actual hike itself was great. Needless to say the photos don't really do it justice. We were also pretty lucky with the weather, although it was the rainy season we only got absolutely soaked onece. And of course the poncho which I had bought in Cusco wasn't water proof so I really got soaked. But once the rain cleared away we had spectacular views and the rain did bring some great rainbows.The scenery may have been spectacular but the organisation of the hike certainly wasn't. The guide didn't really know what he was doing and the two guys who had the donkeys were just downright lazy, turing up late every night. It was supposed to be there job to cook for us and look after the donkeys which carried all the gear. Those donkeys worked hard but they didn't.Once again the Americans were bearing the brunt of this bad planning. A number of them were vegan which is clearly not a concept well understood in Peru. Dinner on the first night was the unfortunate chicken that we had seen running around the place half an hour ago.We didn't see them do it but it certainly answered the question of how they would keep the meat fresh!The toughest part of the hike was going through the Salkantay pass which is at 4500m. This was lower than we had slept on Cotapaxi and the altitude didn't affect me too much although I did have to take it slow. Some of the others in the group who were less used to the altitude were more affected but everyone made it through in one piece.On the third day of the hike we discovered that the final part of our hike would be along a railway track. No one really wanted to do this so we were told we could get the train for the final leg of the journey. Of course the donkey men seemed to have other ideas. They were supposed to prepare out lunch before we got the train but they set off so late that by the time the caught up with us it was too late and we had to skip lunch and catch the train. They came up with some b*ullshit story about a landslide but the reality was they had been too lazy to get up early and leave whe we did and didn't care if we got our lunch or not.The train ride into Agua Calientes, the small town by Machu Pichu was pretty uneventful although everyone was glad to be off there feet. Once we arrived there we found that the tour company had not bothered to book our accommodation so our guide had to frantically go off and find some. As for lunch? We were told it would take three hours. As you can imagine things were starting to get emotional at this stage with the lack of food, no accommodation, few days hard hike and oh yeah, we haven't got your train tickets out yet! We decided the best thing to do was buy our own lunch in one of the overpriced restaurants. So my tip money went on lunch instead of going to the guides, maybe next time they'll actually try and do some work.The guide did eventually sort out accommodation for us although we were scattered all over town. The train tickets turned up eventually too which was lucky for him as really I don't think he would have gotten out of there alive if he hadn't gotten those all important tickets back to Cusco (for New years eve). We even got a good dinner that evening, the guys obviously saving the best meal for tip night. After dinner they stood at the end of the table with their hands out looking for tips. I gave them nothing, lucky for them they didn't question that! Some of the others gave them money, I suppose out of sypmpathy, they only earn a few dollars a week, blah, blah, blah. As far as I'm concerned the service was terrible and they didn't deserve a tip at all. Maybe if no one tipped them they would learn that but it seems they can make enough out of a collective guilt of western tourists to not bother with any decent service. This seems to be a common enough atttitude amongst Peruvians in tourist areas, foreigners are seen as nothing more than big white cash machines.Whatever about the problems we had had, the important thing was not to let that overshadow the reason for being there. The plan was to get up at 4.30am for breakfast and then walk up to the main gates of Machu Pichu in time for their opening at 6am. So we had an early night in Agua Calientes, after a quick visit to the local hot springs. Agua Calientes means hot water in Spanish but judging by the hot springs I would say tepid water was a better description. Aside from this the pools were also very crowded so we didn't spend too long there.Having gotten so used to early starts, the 4.30am start wasn't too bad. The walk up to the mains gates wasn't too bad either after all the hardcore hiking of the last few days and the lower altitude (about 2200m) made breathing a breeze. Rather than walking to the main gate we could have gotten a bus up but most of us even managed to make it before the bus arrived to get almost to the front of the queue. There are so many stories of how crowded Machu Pichu can get once the trains arrive in later on that we were determined to see as much as we could before the hordes arrived.Once inside we had a guided tour arranged for us. This was quite interesting although it mainly consisted of a very dubious version of history. For instance the guide was convinced that before the Spanish arrived the Incas had no poverty or disease and everyone lived to be at least one hundred. He flatly denied any human sacrifices had ever taken place insisted that although the Incas were colonisers themselves all the other peoples they conquered were happy to become Incas. These kind of stories got a bit tiring and it would have been nice to have had a real historian guiding us but this is Peru where nothing is as it seems.Later, after the tour we hiked up the big hill called Huayna Pichu where we could get panoramic views of the entire site. Walking up the steps of Huayna Pichu was pretty treacherous, especially when it started raining and some lady obviously slipped and had to be stretchered down. The steps were the original Inca ones and some of them were quite big and difficult to climb.Walking around the ruins was impressive, especially when you imagine how much work it must have taken to carry all those rocks up there and all this without the wheel.Although obviously it wasn't the idylic paradise that the guide made it out to be the Incas were clearly a smart bunch of people they were just unlucky to come up against the Spanish with their vast technological advantage.The train ride back to Cusco passed through some spectacular scenery but of course being Peru the train ride was only halfway back and then we had to change to bus. The train between Machu Pichu and Cusco must be one of the most expensive trains in the world. There's no road in so you either get the train or walk it and a one way ticket for an hour and a half journey costs $45. The train is owned by a private company and they're clearlt raking it in. So what most tour companies do is get the train as far as the first stop with a road and bus it the rest of the way back to Cusco.That's what we did and we were back just in time for New Years Eve. We all went down to the main square for midnight where everything was going a bit crazy. Everyone was firing off rockets and other fireworks and not always up in the air. Of course I managed to but some dud ones but par for the course here really. At midnight everyone started to run around the square. The tradition is to run around the square twelve times. We did it once and figured that would be enough. And so after almost two weeks in and around the Cusco area it was the end of 2007, almost the end of my trip and time to move on to somewhere new.
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/polomuiriu/world_trip/1198009380/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/polomuiriu/world_trip/1198009380/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/polomuiriu/world_trip/1198009380/tpod.html Tue, 12 Feb 2008 10:29:49 -0500 Starting in SE Asia, I will be continuing on to Oz, NZ followed by a brief visit to LA and then on to central and S America

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Lima, Peru

After the peace and quiet of Mancora, Lima was a shock to the senses. Possibly the noisiest city I've ever been to, the streets are clogged with cars belching out smoke and drivers constantly blaring their horns. It seems that Peruvians have no patience at all and the slightest delay has everyone honking their horns even though it clearly makes no difference.At least the old part of the city around the Plaze de Armas was a little bit quieter due to most traffic not being allowed up there. I was staying in a hostel just around the corner from there in possibly the strangest hostel yet. It obviously used to be a convent or school or something and still had all the religious pictures up. In addition there were a few tortoises living there. As for sightseeing in Lima, really there's only the old town to see and not a lot else, the place is just too noisey and polluted to spend more than a couple of days there. The people were all friendly but really it's not worth spending too long here.
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/polomuiriu/world_trip/1197764340/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/polomuiriu/world_trip/1197764340/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/polomuiriu/world_trip/1197764340/tpod.html Tue, 12 Feb 2008 10:28:32 -0500 Starting in SE Asia, I will be continuing on to Oz, NZ followed by a brief visit to LA and then on to central and S America

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Mancora, Peru

After Cotapaxi it was time to get down to sea level for a bit to get away from the shortest of breath and headaches and Mancora on the west coast of Peru seemed like the perfect choice. The weather was perfect with a cool sea breeze stopping the temperature from going too high. Mancora is all about two things sea food and beach. Some of the best ceviche I've had was here in Mancora(ceviche is raw sea food pickled withlime juice and onions and is dcelicious).In addition there's some surfing to be had here. Although the waves weren't amazing it had been a while since I'd been on a board (and it showed) and it was good to be out on the waves again.
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/polomuiriu/world_trip/1197332100/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/polomuiriu/world_trip/1197332100/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/polomuiriu/world_trip/1197332100/tpod.html Wed, 02 Jan 2008 17:59:25 -0500 Starting in SE Asia, I will be continuing on to Oz, NZ followed by a brief visit to LA and then on to central and S America

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Cotapaxi, Ecuador

I had to spend a few days around Cotapaxi to acclimatise to the high altitude. The problem with high altitude is that you can´t do much training for it, you just need to spend some time at high altitude and hope that yiu get acclimatised. I was staying in a hostel owned by the company organising the tour and it was really out in the middle of nowhere. I spent one day hiking around to try and get used to the lower oxygen levels.Walking at a fast pace would very quickly have you panting for breath, a lot different to sea level. Nevertheless the altitude didn´t seem to be affecting me too much although sleeping at night was more difficult and breathing was not natural.There were four other people doing the ascent with me , two from Holland , one from the US and one from Canada along with three guides. The first day we drove up to the car park at Cotapaxi which was about 300m below the mountain refuge where we spend the night. We had to hike the remaining 300m with all our gear and everyone was feeling the altitude. Starting at about 4500m this was the highest altitude I´d ever been at outside of an airplane. Once we got to the refuge we had a quick lunch and then it was out to the glacier for a bit of training.I´d worn crampons before in New Zealand but this time we had to also learn other stuff such as how to stop ourselve with the ice axe if we fell. The altitude was really a factor at this point and I was taking it as easy as I could all the time. What I didn´t realise was that although the guides were telling us to take it easy they were also evaluating us. If I´d know this I would have opushed myself a lot harder rather than save my energy for the ascent.After the training session it was back to the refuge for dinner and then although it was only seven o´clock it was bed time. We would have to get up at midnight to beging the ascent!I don´t think anyone was able to sleep that night, everyone was finding it hard to breathe as we were at an altitude of about 4800m. Heavybreathing could be heard throughout the night. I also had a bad headache which I´d had for a few hours. I drank as much water as I could and this seemed to the the trick. Although I didn´t manage to get any sleep my headach was gone by the time we were ´woken´ up at midnight.After a quick breakfast wer put all our gear on, grabbed our day packs and began the ascent. Almost instantly my headtorch failed. Apparently the cold can affect battereies and I had forgotten to get some spare ones. Luckily one of the guides had a spare torch and I was able top keep going. Trudging up the hill in the dark apart from the torches was a slow procession of about thirty people, panting their way up the mountainside. Initially iwas was just roped in wit my guide, the two Dutch were with one guide and the two North Americans with the other. My guide had me off to a slow start based on the previous days evaluation but I was seeon able to persuade him to go faster. This soon had us over taking the North Americans and I weas feeling fine. Then probably the definging moment of the ascent, word came from the back that one of the Dutch was struggling and we had to wait ten minutes for the other Dutch guy to come up and tie himself in with us. In the meantgime the American and Canadian had overtaken us and I was now tied in with someone else, someone who was less used to hiking and with no more guides, someone who would also have to make it to the top if I was to make it.Straight away I could see it was going to be a struggle, he wasn´t used to hiking at all ( Are there any hills in Holland?) and the pace dropped significantly. After about an hour he was really starting to struggle and soon started to slip and fall in the snow every few steps. He would then pant heavily for about thirty seconds before getting up again and continuing on. This was annoying me a lot ( a side effect of high altitude is increased irritability) but after a while I had to admire his heart. Although he clearly wasn´t in good shape he kept getting up and continuing and you could see it was really tough for him. I tried to encourage him as much as I could as I knew if I was to make it to the top h ewould have to be with me but the slow pace and stop start nature of it was starting to take it´s toll on me too. Wioth altitude although you can´t go too fast, you can´t goo too slow either as a lot of the altitude affects take about half an hour to kick in.This process of falling, heaving breathing for thirty seconds, getting up and walking for five steps before repeating continued for about four hours and I was alternating between putting my ice axe in his back and admiring his determination. If we were toi reach the top we only had a short window in which to do it. Once the sun came up, the snow would start to becomne softer and after a few hours make for as treachearous descent. So the pressure was on. As we got to abbout 5300m the altitude began to affect me and I started to feel a bit nauseous with a slight headache. The lack of sleep was also taking it´s toll and I was starting to get tired. I began to think that the oportunity had been lost and now I wouldn´t be able go ono much further either. Eventually about 100m from the top the decision was made to stop and go on no further. This led ot a mix of emotions for me. Obviously I was disappointed we hadn´t made the top, I felt that on my own I would have made it but I would never know for sure. I would have preferred to have failed by myself rather than having failed because someone I had only met the previous day had failed. Still I had to admire how far he had come and the views from where we were were spectacular. We were far above the clouds and could see snow peaked mountains in every direction. It had been a gruelling few hours and it was a relief to stop even if it was short of our goal. Due to the nausea I wasn´t able to eat much during the break we had there although I drank as much water as I could. We watched with some jealousie as the American and Canadian passed us on their descent after reaching the top. How different could it have been if I had been tied in with them ?We were the last to begin the descent and was we were quite late it was starting to get quite warm from the sun and the snow was getting a lot softer. This made conditions under foot a lot more difficult and as we were pretty exhausted at this stage we stgarted to slip and fall a lot. This was where the training came in and I was able ot use my ice axe to arrest my falls. As we were all tied in to each other this would also catch our falls. Going down was getting more and more difficult as the sun went higher and tempers were getting short. Soon the ice axe had a new potential target, our guide who was obviously keen to get down before the sun was too high insisted on shorter and shorter breaks and a faster pace. ´Keep going chicos´ would keep saying. Although I knew why he was saying it the ice axe was ready anyway :). Although every step was a challenge one thing we could feel was that with every step down was an extra bit of oxygen, the opposite to the ascent.Finally we made it back down to the refuge at about ten thirty, we had been up and walking for about nine and a half hours at high altitude and with no sleep the night before. Although we hadn´t made it to the top it was still a great feeling of acheivement although slightly tinged with disappointment. I suppose when I go for Everest I need to pick my own climbing partner or else go on my own ...
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/polomuiriu/world_trip/1197162660/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/polomuiriu/world_trip/1197162660/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/polomuiriu/world_trip/1197162660/tpod.html Wed, 02 Jan 2008 16:41:30 -0500 Starting in SE Asia, I will be continuing on to Oz, NZ followed by a brief visit to LA and then on to central and S America

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Banos, Ecuador

With a few days to wait before the climb of Cotapaxi, I decided to go to Baños for a few days. This meant a small drop in elevation but I wouldn´t be there long enough to completely lose the aclimatisation I had gained.Baños literally means bath and has lot of thermal springs and baths around. Apart from that there´s also plenty of adventure sports to do. I decided to go for whitewater rafting and wasn´t disappointed by it. There were five of us in the raft along with the guide and we all fell out at least once whilst negotiating some of the rapids. Some of them were really big and for two of them we actually had to get out and walk past them as they were too dangerous for inexperienced people to go through.With only two days in Baños there wasn´t much time to do anything else. Next I went back to a hostel near Cotapaxi which was at 3500m to give me another few days aclimatisation.
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/polomuiriu/world_trip/1196614980/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/polomuiriu/world_trip/1196614980/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/polomuiriu/world_trip/1196614980/tpod.html Wed, 26 Dec 2007 16:56:04 -0500 Starting in SE Asia, I will be continuing on to Oz, NZ followed by a brief visit to LA and then on to central and S America

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Quito, Ecuador

Quito´s main claim to fame is that it´s located at the middle of the world almost right on the equator. We were there for the first week in December when there´s a big festival on to mark the founding of Quito. Naturally this meant lots of parties. Even out on the streets there were buses driving around with bands on the roof and people inside the bus partying. The busiest day was the Thursday which was the date of the actual founding of Quito and was marked by a big parade on the streets that night. At one of the markets I also saw a traditional Ecuadorian dance where they were all dancing with pieces of string. They dance in a circle and did a kind of weaving with all the string then. This lasted about ten minutes and then they went the other way and undid all the string. All a bit strange but good to watch.Apart from partying in Quito, the old town is fairly nice, it´s also a lot busier than most old towns with a lot more than just tourism going on there. The traffic was quite busy through the narrow streets with cars and buses belcning out black smoke. Another highlight was a league match we went to in Quito where the local team Liga won the league. The atmosphere was a lot tamer than we expected, not nearly as wild as you would expect from a South American match. I suppose the real hardcore fans must be further south in Argentina and Brazil.Quito is also at quite a high altitude, about 2800m and you can reallly feel it. Just walking up stairs makes you breathless. I needed to hang around Quito for a bit though to aclimatise to the altitude before climbing Cotapaxi, a volcanoe in Ecuador which is 5800m high.
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/polomuiriu/world_trip/1196528280/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/polomuiriu/world_trip/1196528280/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/polomuiriu/world_trip/1196528280/tpod.html Sat, 22 Dec 2007 23:16:46 -0500 Starting in SE Asia, I will be continuing on to Oz, NZ followed by a brief visit to LA and then on to central and S America

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Pasto, Colombia

Little did we realise when we arrived in San Augustin but leaving it for Ecuador would not be as straight forward as we though. The only good rood out of there was back to Bogota and that was in the wrong direction. Instead we had to somehow go west and across to the Pan-American. This involved a collection of jeeps, mini-buses and buses with some random stopoffs along the way. We eventually found ourselves in the town of Mocoa where the real journey would begin. This would be an eight hour journey over a newly construicted "road" in a 4wd. We didn´t realise at the time but buses took this rout too. Most of the road wasn´t paved and was barely wide enough for two cars. Add to that some huge drops over the side, fog and rain and some suicidal driving and you had would could have been a very lethal combination. I don´t have any pictures of the road but dotted along the road where crucifixes obviously marking the points where people had been killed. Coming around blind bends there were a few times when we had to slam on the brakes to avoid hitting an oncoming articulated truck. Of course we also had to overtake a few buses and trucks along the way but in fairness our driver was pretty good and didn´t take any stupid risks. He also stopped for a few minutes at some shrine on the road and lit a candle and said a quick prayer. He obviously wasn´t taking any chances. In addition to the dodgy road there seemed to be a higher risk of rebel activity in this area. All along the road were military patrols, some even with armoured cars. Every bridge was guarded an dyou could see that these soldiers were a bit older than the ones we had seen in the jungle. All the same they were friendly at the checkpoints and for us it was more reassuring that they were there, it probably meant that there would be no rebels there.Finally after eight tough hours we arrived in the town of Pasto, close to the border. As it was getting late we decided to stay there for the night and go on towars Ecuador the next day. Since Pasto seemed like a nice enough town and it was a Saturday night we hit the town for a bit. Being Colombia there were plenty of Salsa clubs so a chance to practice the old slasa again.The next day we had an early start, got to the border and in spite of all we had heard got through immigration with no problems. We then had to get anothetr bus to Quito. Straight away we noticed a chance in the scenery as we got more into the Andes. The views were fantastic and the driving terrible. Far too much overtaking through blind corners up hills, not really what you want your bus driver to be doing. We did make it to Quito in one piece though where we would be just in time for the annual festival that celebrates Quito´s founding.
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/polomuiriu/world_trip/1196481360/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/polomuiriu/world_trip/1196481360/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/polomuiriu/world_trip/1196481360/tpod.html Thu, 20 Dec 2007 14:29:48 -0500 Starting in SE Asia, I will be continuing on to Oz, NZ followed by a brief visit to LA and then on to central and S America

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San Augustin, Colombia

The bus ride to San Augustin was a lot smoother than the one to Bogota although it was proibably just as long. San Augustin is famous for some ancient stone statues so we decided to take a horse back tour of them. Never having been on a horse before I wasn´t sure what to expect. Surfe enough the horse had a mind of it´s own and completely ignored anything I told it to do, instead paying attention to what the guide told him, which was fair enough I suppose. The statues were interesting enough and it was quite good riding around the countryside on horseback but after a while it did all get a bit boring and sitting on a horse for more than half an hour does start to get a bit uncomfortable, especially when the horse starts to trot a bit faster.We must have stayed in one of the nicest hostels in San Augustin, It was rub by a French guy who went travelling years ago and found himself staying in San Augustin he liked it som much. He had been to some of the same places as me in China but fifteen years earlier and he was able to show me photos of what it used to be like which was pretty cool.
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/polomuiriu/world_trip/1196263500/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/polomuiriu/world_trip/1196263500/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/polomuiriu/world_trip/1196263500/tpod.html Sun, 16 Dec 2007 19:33:57 -0500 Starting in SE Asia, I will be continuing on to Oz, NZ followed by a brief visit to LA and then on to central and S America

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Bogota, Colombia

Driving down on the night bus to Bogota we had some kind of boy racer bus driver. He completely forgot that he was driving a bus and not some kind of rally car and insisted on taking every corner as fast as he could. And on this road there were a lot of corners. IT was probably a good thing that it was night time so we couldn´´t see what kind of roads he was driving on but there was more than one occasion when he had to brake after once again attempting to overtake an articluated truck around a blind corner.Somehow we managed to arrive safely and after being so long away in the jungle Bogota didn´t seem like the nicest city I´d been to. It just seemed like a big dirty city. Even Colombians on the bus were warning us to be careful there as apparently it was a really "dangerous" city. We didn´t run into any problems there although we did hear some gunshots late one night when we were in the hostel! I suppose it could have been a car back firing...The old part of Bogota is a lot nicer than what we saw on arrival although it is still a bit shabby looking and and is obviously the latest "up and coming" area in Bogota. The best thing about the area was a juice bar just down the road from the hostel. On one day we must have gone in about five times to get juices, they were so good with some amazing combinations of juices although I think if we had stayed any longer we would have all developed a serious juice habit.With not much too do in Bogota we only stayed there two day before jumping on another night bus down to San Augustin in the south of Colombia.
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/polomuiriu/world_trip/1195488480/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/polomuiriu/world_trip/1195488480/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/polomuiriu/world_trip/1195488480/tpod.html Fri, 07 Dec 2007 15:31:33 -0500 Starting in SE Asia, I will be continuing on to Oz, NZ followed by a brief visit to LA and then on to central and S America

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Taganga, Colombia

Moving on from Cartagena, we ended up in Taganga further along the carribean coast. Near to Taganga is the famous Ciudad Perdida, not as well travelled as the more famous Inca Trail, it´s a hard three day hike into the jungle to get to the ruins of an ancient Tayronan city. In the past it was regarded as a dangerous hike due to guerrilla activity in the area (Some tourists were kidnapped in ´96) but now it´s meant to be relatively safe due to a large army presence.Before doing the hike we were able to relax for a day in Taganga, a sleepy Colombian beach village. The hostel we stayed in probably had more hammocks than beds in it and was an ideal place to relax before the hard slog ahead.On the trip with me were James and Steve from the boat, Cameron from Australia and Spanish from Spain (we couldn´t remember his real name!). We had two guides, Omar and Jose, neither of whom spoke Spanish and somewhere in the background was an heroic donkey carrying our provisions in.The journey started with a crazy 4wd ride, I say crazy becaise the drive hadn´t a clue how to drive a four wheel drive and kept getting us stuck and almost toppled over thge edge of the road a few times. We kept having to get out and push and at one point Jose was trying to hold the jeep up from toppling over. Of course if the jeep really had toppled over he wouldn´t have been able to hold it up and would have been crushed. Finally and with some relief we got to the point where we were to start walking. We were all glad to leave the driver and his jeep behind at this point.The first days hike was pretty relaxed, we arrived into a small village where we would be staying for the night after about four hours walking. To our surprise the village was full of soldiers, all brandishing machine guns. It all seemed pretty relaxed but I think we were all a bit nervous to see so many soldiers and guns around. We got a bit more relaxed around them later when a few of them dropped in to where we were staying to watch Colombia play Argentina on the tv. All the soldiers seemed really young and there was something unnervingl about the way they left their guns on the ground as the watched the football. Colombia were the surprise 2-1 winnners so everyone went home happy. We had to sleep in hammocks that night, not the most comfortable way to sleep but something that we would have to get used to.Day two began with an all out frontal assault of one of the biggest, steepest hills I´ve ever seen. The heat didn´t help and we were all soaked with sweat by the end of it. Luckily, at the top was a shop selling drinks, they weren´t cold but the infusion of gatorade was just what we needed and we were soon ready to go again. After that hill the rest of the day seemed like a walk in the park. We had a few river crossings to make but nothing major. We also passed through an indigenous village and when we arrived in camp we were able to clean off in a nearby river before tucking into some of the great food that Omar had prepared for us. Even this far into the jungle we were able to get some beers but as we had an early start the next day (breakfast at 6.30am) we didn´t take too many and we were probably all in bed by nine, once again in hammocks but this time with mozzy nets to keep the little b*st$rds out. We had all been eaten alive that day and scratching just seemed to make it worse.We were due to arrive at the ruins on the third day but not before one more uphill climb and about nine river crossings. At the very end we had to ascend something like 1000 steps before arriving at the ruins. Just before the steps we were met by a few soldiers who seemed to be escorting us in, we weren´t sure but it did seem a bit like they were there to protect us. Once at the ruins the first thing that struck us was the amount of soldiers there. They all seemed friendly and very young. The ruins were impressive too but I think for all of us the hike in itself was the highlight, even if there had been no ruins there we would have done the hike. We did get a chance to explore the ruins over the next few days. Most of the ruins are still under the jungle, the city only being discovered in the ´70s. Being more of a ceremonial centre, most of the population lived in surrounding cities linked by paths though the jungle. Most of these cities haven´t been excavated yet with most of the archaelogical effort concentrated on the main site.For our two nights in the city itself we got to stay in a hut with mattresses so no hammocks this time. There were mosquitos everywhere and some were even able to bite through clothes and socks so would often get under the mozzy nets just to get some rest from them. From time to time bored soldiers would come along and talk to us too. They had to spend two months in the jungle and you could see they were all bored and quite happy to talk to any gringos that came along. One of them even let us pose with his machine!James, who is from Cork was travelling around with his village flag and poses for pictures with it everywhere. He managed to get one with a group of soldiers and one classic photo with one of the soldiers holding a machine gun in one hand and the flag in another. His face was covered by a balaclava. He even dropped the gun when he was posing and was highly embarassed. Only later did we find out that the Cloyne flag which is black and red is the same flag as that used by ELN (Ejercito de Liberacion Nacional of National Liberation Army), one of the main terrorist groups in Colombia! At least that explained some of the strange looks we were getting from the soldiers.Leaving the Lost City, we had another two days hard tramp ahead of us. We had to come out the way we went in so lots more river crossings and this time we did the hills the other way round. On the last day we had to walk for an extra three hours or so as our favourite 4wd driver had managed to bust something on the jeep and we had to walk out to meet him. We didn´t mind doing this as we were all after doing so many miles that a few more wouldn´t hurt. That was except for Spanish of course who had been holding up the rear the whole time and got a motor bike out of there.Once back at the hostel we settled down for some well earned rest. This hike was definitely one of the highlights of the whole journey so far, we didn´t see much wildlife and the ruins weren´t all that great but the hike was such a test and we were so isolated out in the jungle that this would be hard to beat.
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