From Hot Springs to Hot Places
Trip Start
Sep 13, 2004
1
18
25
Trip End
Apr 30, 2005
Cartagena,
Colombia
Friday, January 7, 2005
Well we've made it back into the Northern hemisphere, we arrived in Cartagena on the 5th of January. We have also passed the half way mark of our trip, leaving the cold, high, Andean mounatins behind and experiencing some serious heat on the Carribean coast.
We spent a few more days in Quito before New Years, most of our time spent figuring out the some remaining odds and ends left over from the robbery incident; new glasses for Pete, a new camera and lots of time on the phone with the bank. Other highlights include a piercing incident, some good cuisine and me almost getting my bag snatched.
The plan was to head south of Quito about 4 hours to a town called Baņos to spend New Years. Turns out our Vancouver pals, Steve and Chessa, who we'd met in Canoa at Christmas decided to join us. As a special treat Pete's parents had sent us all the necessary ingredients with which to make sushi, so on New Year's eve we found a hostel with a kitchen and bought some avacado. Despite the pasty rice (my fault) and the terrible soya sauce, it tasted pretty good and we stuffed ourselves. After our little taste of home we then hit the streets of Baņos to celebrate Ecuadorian style. Ecuadorians spend the days before New Years making huge paper mache figures and dummies of important or famous people and characters, mostly politicians and cartoon characters. At midnight they pour gasoline on the creations, kick them a few times and then light them on fire. It's a strange thing to watch and we haven't yet figured out the significance of it all. Anyways there we were dancing on the street, kicking some stuffed dummies and cheering as they burned away. The evening finished with some really bad Ecuadorian champagne.
We spent about 5 days in Baņos, mostly pretty relaxed, we spent a morning in the thermal baths with lots of ecuadorians in terrible bathing suits, we went for full body massages from a German lady living in Baņos and one morning we rented ATVs and spent a few hours exploring the countryside (very muddy and turns out I am a better ATV driver than Pete)!
Mostly we layed in the hammocks at our hostel and read, watched movies and chatted, then we'd go for good food and some drinks. I went back to Quito a day before the other three and spent a day two hours north of Quito in a town called Otavalo which claims to have the biggest artisans market in South America. Needless to say my pack is now pretty full and I need to find a post office to mail some stuff home.
I enjoyed Ecuador and leaving was a bit sad for me, we had to leave before our bank cards and some packages from my parents arrived and we also had to say goodbye to Chessa and Steve.
How are we doing half way through our trip? Well, we are both a nice shade brown for january and our hair is light (Pete's is long and curly too) and I think we are getting pretty good at travelling. We have learned some important survival skills (like how to maximize the hot water from an eletric shower and what street food is good to eat) and we are mas o menos good enough with our Spanish to get by in most circumstances. Getting robbed has made us a little more wary sometimes but maybe that's a good thing. We even get along most of the time!
I'll let Pete tell you about Columbia... he's funnier anyways.
And better looking too. Julie hit most of the high points. The soy sauce was definately a disapointment, Ecuadorian soy sauce is syrupy garbage with a taste closer to molasses than the real thing. Steve did his best with some water and salt but the man is not a magician. New Years was a blast, it's quite something to see a 4ft high Sponge Bob Square Pants (Bob Esponja here) effigy go up in flames. Some of the less mature of us put in a few kicks and even jumped over the flames... The champagne was my fault, think grape soda with a kick (but the price, at $2.50, was right!) ATV riding was good fun and Julie is right, she is better behind the wheel... so long as points are given for hitting all the puddles and squealing over the bumps. The hair comment is unfair, it makes me sound like Kenny G. Please substitute "longer" for "long".
As mentioned we are now in Cartagena, Columbia. The flight was wonderfully uneventful but we didn't arrive in town until 11PM and because all the Columbian people are on holidays until mid January we had to taxi around town for an hour doing our Mary and Joseph - no room at the inn routine. We finally wound up staying in a lady's apartment for some unreasonable price.
Cartagena is a beatiful colonial city with a rich history that I know nothing about. Lots of great plazas, churches, forts etc. It is by far the most beautiful city we've visited to date. The last couple of days have been spent just wandering around, a pastime I have little aptitude for under most circumstances. Unfortunately, because of the holidays, it's very expensive right now and accomodation is scarce. It's also ridiculously hot, if it weren't for the Carribean breeze it would probably be unbearable.
We plan to stick around for the next few days as it is too busy to travel in the area. We want to see a few places on the Carribean coast of Columbia before we try to hitch a ride (preferably by sea) to Panama.
More to come from the land of coffee, cocaine and guerillas...
Julie and Pete
