Heading Inland
Trip Start
Oct 11, 2006
1
19
25
Trip End
Apr 25, 2007
Bogota,
Colombia
Thursday, February 15, 2007
We took a day-long boat tour to some of the nearby islands and beaches, and saw some of the most crystal-clear waters we have yet to see. Unfortunately this was the one time we went to a beach and Kyle forgot to bring his snorkel. The next day we went about an hour North of the city to a very unique volcano. Instead of hot lava, this volcano spews forth cool mud from its crater. We got to be fully submerged in the mud, and received massages while floating on the surface. Afterwards, only a 20 meter walk away in the lagoon, we were rinsed totally clean by the women. This was truly a full-service spa experience, for only a few dollars. In the night we rode around town in a traditional Colombian wood-sided bus, called a chiva. The 'Rumba en Chiva' featured a live band in the back, a guide telling us all about the important sites in the town, and - get this - included FREE drinks for the duration of the night.
01 Cartagena From Our Tour Boat
It goes without saying that fun times were had by all on the chiva. We headed inland on a 12-hour bus ride to Medellin, former home of Pablo Escobar and the infamous Escobar Cartel. We arrived at the hostel around dinnertime, and there were a few guys sitting around playing poker. Of course Kyle bought-in, and ended up winning again! Too bad the stakes were only equivalent to two dollars. On our first day in Medellin we went up the side of the valley and went paragliding. The views from high above the city absolutely cannot be beat! The ride lasted about thirty minutes and was well worth the thirty dollars we paid. The next day was spent on a day trip to the town of Guatape, and to the Piedra el Peņol. The piedra(stone) is an incredibly tall rock formation jutting out of a lake ridden landscape. The views from atop the 700 stairs were amazing, wait for the pictures!
After Medellin we headed to Manizales, a city in the heart of the coffee-growing region of Colombia. Early in the morning we set out for our tour of Parque Nacional Los Nevados, a high altitude national park near Manizales. The bus took us as high as 4800 meters, (15,750 feet) over 1000 feet higher than the highest peak in the rockies! From there there is an hour and a half walk through the icy landscape to 5100 meters, (16,750 feet) or 1000 feet lower than Everest base camp. Unfortunately on this day the path was blocked by an avalanche, so we were unable to continue on.
02 Crystal Clear Waters of Isla Rosario
On the ride back down the mountain we stopped at a hot spring for a swim in some very warm, VERY sulphurous water. While on this tour we made some spanish-speaking friends who wouldn't allow us to speak english, even to each other, which gave us some good spanish practice. Since the path was blocked that day, we were offered to return for the tour the following morning free of charge, and climb to the summit. Unfortunately that morning Kyle woke up with a splitting headache and was unable to get out of bed, so fran completed the hike on her own. Kyle's headache ended up lasting for about three days straight, day and night, and we attributed it to altitude sickness. One of the following days while Kyle was still sick Fran went to a Manizales soccer game with some friends. She had as much fun watching the game as she did watching the die-hard fans cheer or whistle over various controversies. After Manizales we headed to Salento, a nice quiet town, still in the heart of the Zona Cafetera. People visit Salento because of it's proximity to the Valle de Cocora, or Cocora Valley. The valley could be a sight straight from Switzerland, other than the enormous palm trees dotting the landscape. The Cocora valley is home to the wax palm, the World's tallest species of palm tree, reaching heights of up to 60 meters! We went to the valley with a few people, and all of us assumed the others knew where we were going. There was the odd signpost on the trail, but as it turns out we ended up hiking for five hours, basically to nowhere, before turning back.
03 Some Dancers in Cartagena
Us two were the leaders on the hike, and left the others behind fairly early along the way, and we later learned that everyone turned back after about two hours. It goes without mentioning that we slept well that night! The following day we went with our British friend Helen to a theme park called Panaca. We had basically no idea what was there before going, other than that they had pig-racing. The park ended up being a really wierd barn-animal theme park, which did in fact have pig races. Other features of the park were a horse show, a freaky small animal show, a dog show, and a COW show (no joke). Panaca was basically a zoo, but for boringly common animals rather than exotic ones.Next, on to the big city of six million, Bogota. Bogota was a pretty cool city, with many museums. We had heard along our travels which museums were the coolest, so we limited our visits to the top three. The Botero Museum was pretty cool if you are into art, but Kyle was bored basically after the first room of paintings. The Gold Museum is probably the most well known, and had some very interesting pieces. It has a collection of numerous pre-colombian gold artefacts taken from all parts of country. Our favourite museum was the police museum. This featured all sorts of random things, all somehow related to law enforcement. There was one room that had numerous uniforms of different police organizations worldwide, including of course the red mounty uniform of Canada.
04 Cartagena Architecture
Another cool room was full of hundreds of different guns of all sorts, some behind glass and some out in the open. Our guide was a young guy, and even let Kyle pick up, cock, and fire a particularly large rifle (as long as his boss wasn't around). Probably the coolest room was the 'Escobar Room' which was filled with items that belonged to Pablo Escobar. There was a voice disguising phone, his leather jacket, his handguns, and his motorcycle, amongst other things. Also featured were a few pictures of Pablo post-mortem, after the police raided his hideout and shot him. Fran's friend Sebastion has cousins in Bogota, and one night we met up with them and a few of their friends. They generously took us out to one of their favourite night-spots, and we spent the night drinking aguardiente (a Colombian unmatured rum that tastes like licorice). One day we got a meal we really couldn't stomach, so we boxed it to go, gave it to a homeless man, and went to McDonald's. This was our first McDonald's on our travels, and we enjoyed it enough that we went back for lunch the following day. On our last day in Bogota we went to a bullfight. Outside the stadium was a huge group of animal-rights activists protesting the bullfight, and between them and the entrance was a small army of police in full riot gear. Kyle really enjoyed the bullfight, but Fran was disgusted and began to read her book after the first bull was killed. There were a total of five bulls killed, and the sixth had it's life spared due to an outstanding performance. That evening we took an overnight bus to San Agustin. We spent three incredible weeks in the San Agustin area... stories from our stay will be coming soon.
We hope you are all enjoying the start of Spring!
Love,
Kyle and Fran
Crib Score: See next entry
Comments
The Total Spa Experience
Being washed totally clean by strange women sounds like a highlight. And for only a few dollars yet. It sounds like the 2 of you are having a wonderful time, and kudos for your descriptive writing, Fran and Kyle.
Stay Safe,
James