End of columbia!
Trip Start
Mar 25, 2007
1
50
72
Trip End
Feb 16, 2008
Popyan,
Colombia
Thursday, October 18, 2007
Just wrote a massive entry for Columbia, which has disappeared! hate that. so here goes again. I was going to get another one up to date but will have to just do this again.
We arrived in Bogota mid afternoon, and all we wanted to do was eat and sleep, but we tried to stay up and speak to some people about where to go and what to do. unfortunately the only guy around was an american who told us to spend all 4 months in Columbia (all very well for him when he can come back any time!) It was really cold there, a bit of a shock to the system!
The next day we headed to the botero musuem, he is the famous Colombian painter who does stylised fat people, and he donated his collection including several Picassoīs and a Rembrandt to this museum. It was good to fill in half an hour and best of all it was cheap. Then we headed to the gold musuem, containing gold from lots of the pre columbian societies. It was a bit overrated, but we probably would have got more out of it had we been able to read all the info!
The next day we took the first of many buses to Cali. The weather was crap (rainy season) so we decided not to do the day trip on the open hand powered railway carts we had planned on and just stayed in the city. We headed out that night to sample the colombian beers which they served with lemon juice and salted glasses, and the salsa. it was good fun watching but unfortunately us gringos canīt dance! We did get dragged up by some locals but they gave up on what was obviously a lost cause!
The next day, after a late start we headed to Popyan, where we stayed in a brand new hostal run by a scottish couple, which was the first place we were able to actually talk to people about where they had been and where they were going etc.
We intended to had from there to San Augustin, but the bus was full so headed to Tierradentro instead. We booked our bus, but when we couldnīt find it we were getting a bit stressed. Luckily there was a guy there who spoke a little english and told us our bus had broken down, but they were getting another one. Our bus finally showed up and we piled on, becuase it was a local bus there were a lot more people than seats but we got the last 4, but it was a bit of a rugby scrum to keep them! we went thourhg a checkpint to make sure the bus wasnīt overcrowded then 400 m up the road picked up another 20 peole. then it was seriously crowded! Luckily our friend who spoke english had told just about everyone on the bus where we were going to (it was really the middle of nowhere) and so 4 hours later they told us it was our stop. We piled off the bus collected our packs and walked the 2k to the hostal (2 quid a night canīt go wrong), then went to see the sights. Tierradentro is an archelogical site with lots of tombs that have ben dug into the rock underground and painted in a style very similar to Maori painting. They donņt know alot about them, but some of them are really beautiful. It was a big walk up hill to see the sites, good training for inca trail! That night we headed to the one restaurant in town (no menu, just get wht you are given) and met an australian/kiwi couple doing something similar to us, but they had done it in the opposite direction, so glened lots of info off them!
The next morning we got up early to catch our ībusīturned out it was a douple cab ute with seats on the back. He told us to start with there was no room, but then said 4 people were getting off ījust down the roadī so the guys could hang off the back. We carried on and picked up several more people along the way, to a total of 26 + 2 babies. the 4 promised people did get affm after about 40 mins and not before time by all accounts!
Well after a quiet night in Madrid we headed to Bogota the capital of Columbia, the flight was 11 hours but wasnīt too bad except for the entertainment was all in Spanish, something Iīm getting use to. We arrived and made it thru immigartion and customs intact. Grabbed a taxi to our hostal. We made it round the corner for a feed but that was about all that day.
The next we were up and about early cos of the time difference. We went for a look round town. Saw the Palace and the churches. Went to the Botera Museum, for those of you who donīt know heīs the one that paints all the fat people, pretty cool actually. There were also some Picasso and Rembrandtīs in there among others. We went on to the gold museum which displayed all the peices that have been found round Columbia. Also saw an interesting betting game where you place money on which one of fifteen containers a Guinea Pig will run too when told too?? Of course we found a couple of bars on the way back to the hostal but was an early one again.
The next day we did our first long bus trip, 10 1/2 hours to Cali, some interesting scenery and lots of military on the roads, but rather uneventful. We got to Cali quite late but went and got a feed and headed to bed. The next day we realised thereīs not a lot to do in Cali so we headed thru the markets and headed to a bar. Had a late lunch, our first experience of real local delicacy, yip there was chicken feet in our soup, we all tried it but must say we saved ourselves for the main course. We went on to a few more bars and found they also put salt on the top of beer glasses, mmm salty. Went some salsatechs, basically a disco but the salsa. We met a group of locals who we managed somehow to communicate with. I timed my toilet stop to perfection and managed to get back to see the other three up on the dance floor, haha.
The next day was off to Popayan, another decent bus journey but nothing to report. Got to Popayan and headed to the Hostal, was pretty much brand new and a young Scottish couple was running it so we got as much information as we could off them before heading out for dinner and back to bed ready for another journey.
San Augustin is famous for itīs statues dating back to before the Spanish arrived. So we went on tour to see the sights including some waterfalls, also on the tour were an Aus/Kiwi couple from Sydney and a travel writer from USA who we took as much info as we could from over a few beers later that night. The statues were pretty cool, most of them guarding tombs. again little is known about the site. One of the waterfalls was 400 m, the 2nd highest in colombia.
The next day we headed back to Popayan over quite possibly the worst road ever, no chance of reading a book even. We stopped at Coconuco for a dip in the hot springs which was magic, specially as once we got of the bus it hosed down. Another night spent in Popyan before heading to the border the next day. At the border we went and saw Santuario De Las Lajas, a church bulit in a gorge where the Virgin Mary supposedly appeared. The rock she appeared on is behind the alter. Quite an amazing church. From there it was across the border into Ecuador.....
In all the Columbians were real frindly and we got a lot of help from people who could see we were struggling. There seems to be nothing of the trouble you read about and is seems safe as long as youīre smart
.
Our Spanish is getting better, we can now ask for food and drink and hotel rooms but struggle with unexpected questions! we are finding as well that they shorten a lot of words, especially numbers which makes it a lot harder to understand prices etc.
ps this keyboard is crap so sorry for the typos!
Hope you are all well...the first version had a bit more detail - sorry
Hamish and Katie
