Got to Uribia which is the indigenous capital of the province La Guajira and of Colombia. It's a nice town where every weekend they have cultural events in the main square. Lucky for us it was friday, and the whole town square was filled with people, music and performances. We all danced on the street, showing the town folks our salsa moves :) Me and Eva went to the bar to get a beer, and before we even got to the stand, there were already 2 beers waiting for us :) These men !!! There is such a huge difference with these indigenous people. Men act like men, and they're crazy, they cater to all women's needs, just like regular macho men. So we drank the beers, talked to some men, midway they asked if we want another beer, we said no, but they ordered it anyways. And I don't drink beer. Midway the second beer there was an attempt to order a 3rd one, but I had enough. I don't like beer, I don't like these men, I don't want to talk to them. One guy almost started a fight, when some other guy went to the bar stand to order something, and by accident stood between us. So we said our friend is waiting, and we gotta go.
It is so hot in there, I was sweating and sweating, even to the point that I didn't wipe my face anymore. There is no point, the next second it will be wet again. Everybody is so lazy, the heat is driving everybody insane. While I was sitting in the hotel lobby, there were like 5 flies sitting on me, and both me and the flies were too lazy to move, so I just let them be :) The next day we wanted to go to the desert, but heard that it costs a lot of money (again, nobody knows anything), we had some, but according to some people not enough at all. It turned out that the only atm in the town is not working, and the closest atm is an hour away in Maicao (where we just arrived from) grrrrrr !!! So Geoff went to Maicao, and when he returned we missed all the rides to the desert and had to stay another day in Uribia. We didn't mind it though because we met up with the driver who drove us to the town, and since they love tourists, and love talking to them, they're always staying in touch for a long long time. We already lose track of who's who, "hi, it's me Lous, remember I helped you find a bus in Iza 2 month ago !!!! :)) Soooooo .... the driver and his friend Wilington came to join us for lunch, meanwhile bought us 5 beers each and trust us, we didn't ask, and said "no" every time, they just don't listen !!! They told us some interesting stories about their culture. For example:
- The wives don't work, they're house wives. The husband is the provider, he works, but gives all the money to his wife, who then decided how to spend it, and how much money she's gonna give to the husband to go out friday night!
- Lets say there is a conflict within families. So somebody kills somebody else. That family has the right to kill anybody (women coming last in the list) in the other family. And the cycle continues and continues. It happened with the family of the Wilington, but somehow they stopped the cycle, and now they're friends and even drinking together! The police is not involved in these traditional violences. One guy waited in some town, and killed another. The police arrested him, but he said that it's ok, I'm the cousin of a guy who the other family killed, so they did a blood analysis to prove that they're a family, and let him go!
- There is this traditional alcoholic drink which is made out of corn. And the way they make it is that all the virgins of the family chew the corn and spit it out, and then within a week it ferments, and the whole family drinks it ! :) and the reason why virgins do it, is because if a girl kissed another guy then it will be transferred in saliva, and it's like a guy kissing another guy if they drink that drink :)
- If there are lets say 2 guys who like a girl. They're gonna fight for her until death. And the reason for it is because the new husband doesn't want to worry that the other guy might do something with his wife for ex, while he's at work.
- The husband can have a wife and multiple lovers, while a girl can't ... (divorce !! ) , but the condition is that the husband has and must satisfy the wife first, and only then go to his lover :)
In the evening they took us to the nearby town which has a salt mine. It was pretty neat because we got all the way on top of a huge mountain of pure salt, which also had an amazing view of the city. They told us though that we quickly will need to get into the car if the police comes because we're invading a private territory :) Then we drove to the beach, listened and danced to the traditional vayonate music.The dropped us off at the hotel, we got really tired, but just as we got a chance to lay down and relax, the phone rings ... "hey we're here in the hotel, we have a party in our house and came to pick you up ! " aaahhhhhh ... Well I guess we can't miss the traditional Wayuu party. Of course it wasn't really a surprise to find out that a traditional party involves blasting the music so loud that you can't hear yourself talk, drinking and more drinking. The neighborhood is very basic, we thought that it was built many many years ago, because it's kinda dirty, and looks like everything is gonna fall down if you touch it the wrong way ... well nope ! it was built just 5 years ago, so it's brand new ! All the kids on the street don't have shoes. Some father gives his 1 year old baby a beer instead of milk. All beer caps are thrown right in front of the main door, which serve as toys for the local kids. While we were there, there was some fight which started nearby. Apparently, a lover of somebody else's husband got drunk, and went to his house to ask for some :) The whole neighborhood got involved. It was pretty funny, cause Wilington was just talking to us about the culture, and here we see it to the fullest. Then me and Geoff got up, and some kids approached us, and I don't like kids, so I turn around to walk away, and there are kids behind me, and on each side, and I look around, and we're surrounded by like 12 kids, which are battling for a turn to ask us some questions. For a second there I started panicking, these kids are everywhere ! :) We were driving in the car on our way back to the hotel, and some guy on the front seat was holding a baby. Suddenly this baby was transferred to Geoff who was sitting in the middle of the back seat, "there, you hold him" ... me and Eva were laughing so hard, while Geoff was looking and thinking what the hell is he gonna do with this baby :)
Next day went to Cabo de la Vela which is a city in the desert. We went on a jeep filled with packages for everybody who lives on the way. There is no road that leads to the desert, so it's a dirt road that changes every time it rains. So a few times we went forward, then back, then in another direction, then back. A few times I have no idea how the jeep didn't flip. 2.5 hours later we're in the middle of nowhere surrounded by sand, cactuses, and houses made out of mud. We went to sleep in the "hotel" of our drivers sister who gave us a discount on the hummocks. I slept pretty well, but Geoff and Eva had a hard time adjusting. It was funny because I didn't really want to sleep on the hummocks and Geoff and Eva did, and it turned out to be the other way around :) 1st night there was a drunk couple who sang until 3 am, and Eva woke up because she wanted to sleep on the sand only to find out that she's surrounded by 6 dogs, tens of crabs and a bunch of bugs ... "what am I doing in here??? take me home !!! " :))) The next day we went on a hike which started on the beach, and I was the only one who brought the shoes, cause Eva and Geoff thought that we could walk 2 hours to a light house only on a beach. An hour later, we're in the middle of the way with no beach, and no shoes :) I went to look for some shoes, and found a store that sold traditional Wayuu shoes which Geoff and Eva bought. In the night in the hotel we needed to shower, but with no electricity and no water it was a very interesting experience. In a complete dark in a closed space with a bucket of water, and some cup thingi to take the water out of the bucket and pour on yourself. I enjoyed it ! :)) At 3:30 am we were woken up to drive back into the city, now accompanied with some goats in the jeep which were taken into the city to be served as breakfast :(
There is another place is the desert called Punta Gaina which is even more remote than Cabo de la Vela. It's almost impossible to get there. Again, nobody knows anything. You ask 10 people and all 10 will give you different answers. There is a bus that goes there; no there is no bus; there are no roads that go there; it's been raining, and it's now inaccessible! There are some tour agencies that arrange 2 day trips at a ridiculous price. One of our "friends" in Uribia gave us a phone number of a guy who lives there and could take us with him. We called him, but he was leaving only the next day. So we gave up on the idea. Eva said that she wants nothing to do with desert anymore, and that she goes to Santa Marta. Me and Geoff waited for a bit, and went to a nearby town of Rioacha. In the hotel I fell asleep right away, and woke up to a dinner reservation for my birthday :)) It was really nice, since I missed nice restaurants that cost more than $3/plate. I got ready, put some make up on (again, not a common practice anymore :) ), and went to the restaurant. It was alright, the setting wasn't that nice, but the food was really good. I ordered fish in a seafood sauce. During the dinner Geoff informed me that we can't leave just yet, being so close to the desert, we can't miss the opportunity, so he called the guy again and arranged a pick up for the next day at 12 pm. Ok, I guess we're going back ... Next day we came back to Uribia, we just love that place ! Waited for 2 more hours until Cobo (the guys name) made some purchases, and got on the truck for our long long journey to nowhere. I sat in the front with his daughter, while Geoff sat on the top of the truck. For 8 long, tough, hot, miserable hours later with no food, almost no water and breaks we were going on the road on which they have monster truck competitions. It's a dirt road, on which you can't go over 30 km/hr. With holes and hills so deep and high that I have no idea how the truck didn't flip (and sometimes they do), or how did it make it up a 45 degree inclined hill. On the way we were passing little communities mostly consisting of 1 or 2 mud houses in the middle of nowhere. The kids got smart and installed what are called peajes. They just put a string across the road, and all the cars have to stop and pay them, either with money or candy. We passed like 20 of them on our way. FINALLY !! we got to the house ! That place is so remote it has nothing ! The closest house is at least 3 km away. Cabo told us that he just wanted to get away from everything and everybody. The whole village of Punta Gaina (translated to "point of the chickens") which is so spread apart it's crazy, doesn't have any electricity, almost no running water, no cell phone signal, no roads, just 3 cars, but a lot a lot of goats ! They put on 2 hammocks for us, which were so comfortable, and incomparable to the ones in Cabo de la Vela. They were hand made by the Wayuu people, and it takes them 3 months to make one. They were so pretty, and huge. You can even sleep on them diagonally. During the night, we left our food on the table, and at 3 in the morning I was woken up by Geoff running after the goat which apparently jumped on the table and ate 5 of our bananas. At 5 am, the goat learned to jump on the table quietly, and this time finished most of our food :( :) This place is surrounded by animals. We had breakfast in the company of 3 donkeys and their babies, a parrot, cat, 2 dogs, some chickens, roosters who were constantly fighting and running around the property. During our stay there, they made us the best home cooked food ever ! It took them 2 hours to get it ready, since they only had one flashlight, and a place for only 1 pot which was burning on firewood. They made us fresh caught fish, and lobsters which were the best ones that I tried in my life. We soon learned to order our food early because we were just sitting there and starving for 2 hours. The next few days, a wind picked up, and our food was filled with half rice, half sand :S
The goats are the local currency of that place. If somebody gets into the fight, and breaks somebody's nose, it will cost him like 25 goats, when a guy wants to get married to a girl, he gives the girls family goats. The mother of the 2 daughters in the house where we stayed at, can't wait for them to get married to have some addition to her family :) I found out that I'm worth 100 goats :)) which is not too bad :)) The guy can have as many women as he wishes, but the girl can't cheat, and if she does, then the family has to give all the goats back. The men of that culture also have sex with donkeys ... but I'm not sure what the reason for that is. And it's very popular in there. At first we thought that somebody just heard of someone doing it, but no ... most of them do ! There is not really anything to do in there, but we went to some beach which is the most northern point of the continent, passing through the extremely poor isolated houses. Kids playing soccer on rocks with no shoes. The next day we wanted to go to sand dunes, but 4 hours later with nothing but cactuses around us and hot sun, we turned back without reaching them, just to get to our house before sunset. We were supposed to leave the next day at 8 am, but Cobo told us that some guy needs to bring him goats for sale in the city, and so we'll leave at midnight, but not to worry, cause he'll take us to the dunes in the car, so we'll have something to do during the day. We went with his daughter, the dunes were amazing, these ocean of pure sand, I finally got the desert feeling I was waiting for. We were supposed to wait for him to pick us up at some house. We got there, and he's still not there, we waited and waited, experiencing the true Wayuu culture or just sitting in the dark and doing nothing. 3.5 hours later he came. But with no cell phones, all of us got pretty worried. He didn't say anything except "get into the car". Not sorry, not a reason for him being late, nothing ! Not surprisingly we didn't leave at midnight either, but next day for sure at 8 am. During the dinner, we got a real sense of who Cobo is... a lunatic ! He's a very interesting guy who's been to the moon. He also visited the gates of heaven, but wasn't allowed to go in ! The dunes are formed by the volcanoes that are below them that burst out sand. Geoff also told him that he's been to the most southern point of the continent of south america, which was followed by a question of how big the hole is at the end of the earth that the ships fall into ! Geoff had a very interesting and careful talk with him, that pretty much the earth is not flat, there is no hole, and that he could see some islands even more to the south which are not inhibited ... ahhh ... so it's not the end of the earth ! The true thing about him is that he has 70 kids !!! We just thought that he stops in the car, and gives some kids rides, apparently these are his kids. The next day we didn't leave till 4 pm ! We also got charged for the extra night, dinner, breakfast, so Geoff had a huge fight with the guy saying that we're not paying, and that if he's gonna charge us that we'll go to the police station in the city. Meanwhile I'm so scared and telling Geoff to stop arguing because this guy is crazy, there is no way of getting back unless he drives us, and fight later when we're in the city. But we did get a pretty big discount at the end, not only we didn't pay for extra stuff, we also got a general discount. Nice ! 8 hours later we're back in Uribia, thank god !! It was funny to see that the central square which was pumping with people and music just a few day ago, was overtaken by a herd of cows just casually going on about their business :)
From that trip we kinda got a sense out a meaning of "ahorrita" which is translated to something like "about now". This ahorrita lasts somewhere between 5 minutes and 35 hours ! :) In the square when the concert was starting, I went to the guard to ask him when it starts, "oh, ahorrita". And learning it the hard way, I told him that we are hungry and want to eat before the concert, and I wonder if we have time ... "yes of course, it's gonna start in around an hour" ! :)) Or when it took us 35 hours to get out of Punta Gaina, it was also ahorrita.
Back to Rioacha. In there we made a day trip to see flamingos. It was really really nice. One of the best things for me that we've done. There was this very shallow lake with a lot of fish and wildlife. A lot of birds were feeding on the fish. And me and Geoff enjoyed a very relaxing private canoe tour around that lake. We got out and walked bare foot on mud to see the flamingos, but we only saw 3 :( The guide said that there are a lot early in the morning, before the fishermen arrive, and also during the dry months when there is not much water, there is just a tiny place for them to feed, so there are hundreds of them concentrated in a little area. On the way back to the land, he put up some home made sail with some stick. It was interesting how these Colombian men will do anything out of anything :)
pix at http://picasaweb.google.com/ed4330/LaGuajira#
Monday, December 14, 2009
Saturday, November 28, 2009
To the border / Geoff is back !
Took the most comfortable bus ever to Bucaramanga. The seats are wide, lean back very far, and with a special foot rest that you can almost lie down. There were also about half the seats as on other buses, it was a very enjoyable ride, except that it was on the most winding road ever, and I almost got very very sick, so I had to "meditate" and imagine straight roads and stable positions, and I got better :) At Bucaramanga at 1 am, we met Geoff !!!
There was nothing interesting happening in Bucaramanga, just a big city, but with lots and lots of fruits, so we decided to cut our trip short, go to another town for a day trip, and leave in the morning. Went to a colonial town Giron. It looked like just another town, and I think I already got enough of these Colonial cities. I also figured out that the locals just LOVE talking to tourists, help them out, and solve any problems that we might have. So I with almost no Spanish, barely get the words to ask them something, and then they are trying to explain me for half an hour where exactly I need to go or to be. So just for the heck of it I'm asking them questions for their entertainment :) One girl in the internet cafe was looking and looking at us, and started asking a bunch of questions which I'm so tired of hearing ... where are you from?? do you like Colombia ??? GRRRRR but I have to keep my patience, cause for them we're the first tourists they see in months, the last tourist was like half a year ago. So we invited her for coffee, and she ended up giving us a tour of the whole city. We went to a cigar factory where they make home made cigars, so quickly it's amazing. They also sell like 20 cigars for $3 !
Now we need to get way way north, and cross about a third of a country. So we decided to try and hitch-hike. We got on the road with all the bags and 10 minutes later a truck stopped by because a driver needed to make a phone call, Geoff quickly talked to him, and we were on the truck heading to almost our end destination! The driver was super friendly, and we talked all the way. Geoff said that when he hitch-hickes, he always gets stuff for the driver, pays for his lunches, and then gives him extra money. Well not this driver. He paid for everything, and insisted paying for us as well. We had to quickly pay for his lunch when he went to wash his hands. So we ended up getting paid to ride with him :) He also kept saying that his "house" is our house, and we could do whatever we wanted. So I was sitting with my legs on the dashboard, and did some yoga in the salon :) He also lives in Bogota, and since he travels all the time, he said that we could use his apartment whenever we want if we'll ever go to Bogota. I always thought that trucks were these humongous unmovable objects, but he maneuvered it so quickly, side to side, avoiding all the bumps on the road and passing almost all the cars, even small cars. It was very funny when we got to some stop, and he was taking pictures of Eva and me with his cell phone, so Geoff says, come with us lets take a picture of 4 of us, and he's like aha, aha, and keeps taking pictures only of us :) 7 hours later, we arrived at an already reserved hotel :) You have to pay for the roads in here outside the city, so every few kilometers there are toll booth with $3.5 price for a car. That's alot !!! The truck driver says that to drive from Bogota to Cartageta it costs $200 ! That's an average person salary in here a month !!
Got to Valledupar, again, nothing interesting. The noise pollution is crazy in there. An average car will honk once in 10 seconds. Beep - move out of the way, beep - hey, I'm coming, let me go through first, beep - do you think you're really gonna cross the street while I'm driving?, beep - hey, wassup??!!? I really was annoyed quite some time, but then learned to ignore it. Eva didn't feel that well, so she went into the hotel. After lunch me and Geoff found some police guys (surprise, surprise :) ) to ask what is there to do in the town. Eva meanwhile got better and went to the street to look for us. While looking, she saw some police guys, and immediately went towards them to ask for info, she saw the guys pointing their fingers in all direction ... hey, what's happening in here, there are more gringos beside us? that can't be ! as she got closer, oh, it's you guys hassling the police :)) we wanted to watch a movie, and went to a movie theatre, which was closed, so we sat beside it and people watched. There was a popcorn stand in there, and suddenly Eva gets a popcorn, I get a popcorn, and Geoff is sitting there with nothing :) "Oh, not again, you girls get free stuff while I'm left with nothing" :)) They even came a few times asking if we want salt or anything :) It's funny how Geoff said that he can't get used to this behavior yet, because when he travels by himself, it takes him a while to get to know someone, and it usually involves a free lunch, and then a person might be of some help, but with us around him we get all the attention, and we get free lunches and information, and without him trying to do anything. So now he uses us as his weapon :)
The next destination is Maicao which is a border city with Venezuela, we need to exit to get a new visa. While negotiating with the "middle-men" about which bus to take, a guy showed up who said that he'll drive us in a car for the price of the bus. We agreed thinking it was some company vehicle. But when we got there, it was just a regular car. We were unsure if we want to get in or not, it was kinda scary, but got in anyways, figured out that there are 3 of us, and 1 of him :) It turned out to be fine. In this area there are not a lot of taxis, so people use their own cars to provide that service. Another passenger in the car was way too funny. We stopped like every 10 minutes to get him 2 bottles of beer, and he got more and more drunk by a minute :) He started talking so loud, and get really emotional. Geoff asked him a question for which we got a 10 minute story out, and when he left, he repeated like 5 times that we're friends and to give him a call if we need anything. We got into a few cars like that, and of course the more people they have, the more money they get. So at any time there were anywhere from 5 to 10 people in the car. We started to have some strange kids on our laps, and in 40 degree weather with no a/c sometimes it wasn't too much fun... although it is fun to remember it right now :) Got to some coal mine which was on the way to Maicao, and from being "tourists" for 3 months now, I think this was the most touristic thing we've ever done. I'm not sure what was the reason, but we had to wear long pants, closed shoes, and we got a hamlet. And the only thing we did is a tour around the mining community in a bus, "here is the pool, here are where the executives live, here is a golf course" ... then we got like half a kilometer from the mine and looked over it for 5 minutes and went back :( Got to Maicao which borders with Venezuela. In the guidebook it says that it's a very dangerous city because there is a lot of contraband, illegal activity, drug trading, so we got really early to finish everything and leave before it gets dark, because "stores close at 4 and streets are dangerous after 5". Got a bus to the border. I have no idea how that bus still operates, but it doesn't have a door, it's all rusty, most of the people in the bus are drunk and having some sort of party going on. Everybody's cloths are dirty, they're picking their noses, spitting on the streets, scratching various parts of their body, the streets are just filled with garbage, and everybody tries to cheat us. There was one friendly girl on the bus though who wanted to help us get the visa. So she's like, you need that much Venezuelan money, you exchange it here from that guy. Now you give me your passports and the money, and I'll do everything for you. ummmmm .... NOOOOOO !!!! We were really tough with her, didn't give her anything, and followed her closely so she wouldn't be able to get away anywhere, and just gave her a hard time. But she really ended up helping us alot ! She got it done very fast, and we saved like 80,000 pesos because we left Venezuela the same day, and they have some 24 hour rule, that if you leave before, you have to pay a fine. We literary left our bags with Geoff, walked 200 meters to Venezuelan immigration office, got the entry and exit stamp, and walked 200 meters back to Colombian office. They give new visa anywhere from 30-90 days, with 60 being the most common and 90 being very very rare. We get to the office, and of course there are 2 guys sitting there. So me and Eva put the best and brightest smile on our faces. How are you doing today? We really loooovveee Colombia, and really want to learn Spanish and Salsa (yeah right), so can we please please please get 90 days :))))))))))) (that's our big smile) :) So they're very hesitant, don't really want to give it to us, asking too many questions, but we're still continuing with please please please method. And the thing is that by Colombian rule, you need to be out of the country for 3 days before you can get back in, and not only we're violating the rules by coming back after half an hour, we also ask for 90 days after our 3rd month in Colombia. They asked us how much money we have, so we calculated how much it is, and said very little so they'll be sure that we'll get out. They also asked if we promise to leave the country at the end of the period, and we promised, so we got our 90 days !! :)) I got mine, and before they got to stamp Eva's passport, casually they asked for our phone number, we kinda looked at each other, and gave them Geoff's number :) They also took us to the office, and started talking to us, asking what we're doing in the evening, and that they could drive us to the city, and this way we don't have to pay for the toll booth, and they have a place to sleep ... so annoying !!! but we had to stay there for a few minutes cause they kinda did us a favor with the visa. Not thinking twice about staying, we make some excuse, and quickly leave the town for Uribia. The closest city to our desert adventure.
There was nothing interesting happening in Bucaramanga, just a big city, but with lots and lots of fruits, so we decided to cut our trip short, go to another town for a day trip, and leave in the morning. Went to a colonial town Giron. It looked like just another town, and I think I already got enough of these Colonial cities. I also figured out that the locals just LOVE talking to tourists, help them out, and solve any problems that we might have. So I with almost no Spanish, barely get the words to ask them something, and then they are trying to explain me for half an hour where exactly I need to go or to be. So just for the heck of it I'm asking them questions for their entertainment :) One girl in the internet cafe was looking and looking at us, and started asking a bunch of questions which I'm so tired of hearing ... where are you from?? do you like Colombia ??? GRRRRR but I have to keep my patience, cause for them we're the first tourists they see in months, the last tourist was like half a year ago. So we invited her for coffee, and she ended up giving us a tour of the whole city. We went to a cigar factory where they make home made cigars, so quickly it's amazing. They also sell like 20 cigars for $3 !
Now we need to get way way north, and cross about a third of a country. So we decided to try and hitch-hike. We got on the road with all the bags and 10 minutes later a truck stopped by because a driver needed to make a phone call, Geoff quickly talked to him, and we were on the truck heading to almost our end destination! The driver was super friendly, and we talked all the way. Geoff said that when he hitch-hickes, he always gets stuff for the driver, pays for his lunches, and then gives him extra money. Well not this driver. He paid for everything, and insisted paying for us as well. We had to quickly pay for his lunch when he went to wash his hands. So we ended up getting paid to ride with him :) He also kept saying that his "house" is our house, and we could do whatever we wanted. So I was sitting with my legs on the dashboard, and did some yoga in the salon :) He also lives in Bogota, and since he travels all the time, he said that we could use his apartment whenever we want if we'll ever go to Bogota. I always thought that trucks were these humongous unmovable objects, but he maneuvered it so quickly, side to side, avoiding all the bumps on the road and passing almost all the cars, even small cars. It was very funny when we got to some stop, and he was taking pictures of Eva and me with his cell phone, so Geoff says, come with us lets take a picture of 4 of us, and he's like aha, aha, and keeps taking pictures only of us :) 7 hours later, we arrived at an already reserved hotel :) You have to pay for the roads in here outside the city, so every few kilometers there are toll booth with $3.5 price for a car. That's alot !!! The truck driver says that to drive from Bogota to Cartageta it costs $200 ! That's an average person salary in here a month !!
Got to Valledupar, again, nothing interesting. The noise pollution is crazy in there. An average car will honk once in 10 seconds. Beep - move out of the way, beep - hey, I'm coming, let me go through first, beep - do you think you're really gonna cross the street while I'm driving?, beep - hey, wassup??!!? I really was annoyed quite some time, but then learned to ignore it. Eva didn't feel that well, so she went into the hotel. After lunch me and Geoff found some police guys (surprise, surprise :) ) to ask what is there to do in the town. Eva meanwhile got better and went to the street to look for us. While looking, she saw some police guys, and immediately went towards them to ask for info, she saw the guys pointing their fingers in all direction ... hey, what's happening in here, there are more gringos beside us? that can't be ! as she got closer, oh, it's you guys hassling the police :)) we wanted to watch a movie, and went to a movie theatre, which was closed, so we sat beside it and people watched. There was a popcorn stand in there, and suddenly Eva gets a popcorn, I get a popcorn, and Geoff is sitting there with nothing :) "Oh, not again, you girls get free stuff while I'm left with nothing" :)) They even came a few times asking if we want salt or anything :) It's funny how Geoff said that he can't get used to this behavior yet, because when he travels by himself, it takes him a while to get to know someone, and it usually involves a free lunch, and then a person might be of some help, but with us around him we get all the attention, and we get free lunches and information, and without him trying to do anything. So now he uses us as his weapon :)
The next destination is Maicao which is a border city with Venezuela, we need to exit to get a new visa. While negotiating with the "middle-men" about which bus to take, a guy showed up who said that he'll drive us in a car for the price of the bus. We agreed thinking it was some company vehicle. But when we got there, it was just a regular car. We were unsure if we want to get in or not, it was kinda scary, but got in anyways, figured out that there are 3 of us, and 1 of him :) It turned out to be fine. In this area there are not a lot of taxis, so people use their own cars to provide that service. Another passenger in the car was way too funny. We stopped like every 10 minutes to get him 2 bottles of beer, and he got more and more drunk by a minute :) He started talking so loud, and get really emotional. Geoff asked him a question for which we got a 10 minute story out, and when he left, he repeated like 5 times that we're friends and to give him a call if we need anything. We got into a few cars like that, and of course the more people they have, the more money they get. So at any time there were anywhere from 5 to 10 people in the car. We started to have some strange kids on our laps, and in 40 degree weather with no a/c sometimes it wasn't too much fun... although it is fun to remember it right now :) Got to some coal mine which was on the way to Maicao, and from being "tourists" for 3 months now, I think this was the most touristic thing we've ever done. I'm not sure what was the reason, but we had to wear long pants, closed shoes, and we got a hamlet. And the only thing we did is a tour around the mining community in a bus, "here is the pool, here are where the executives live, here is a golf course" ... then we got like half a kilometer from the mine and looked over it for 5 minutes and went back :( Got to Maicao which borders with Venezuela. In the guidebook it says that it's a very dangerous city because there is a lot of contraband, illegal activity, drug trading, so we got really early to finish everything and leave before it gets dark, because "stores close at 4 and streets are dangerous after 5". Got a bus to the border. I have no idea how that bus still operates, but it doesn't have a door, it's all rusty, most of the people in the bus are drunk and having some sort of party going on. Everybody's cloths are dirty, they're picking their noses, spitting on the streets, scratching various parts of their body, the streets are just filled with garbage, and everybody tries to cheat us. There was one friendly girl on the bus though who wanted to help us get the visa. So she's like, you need that much Venezuelan money, you exchange it here from that guy. Now you give me your passports and the money, and I'll do everything for you. ummmmm .... NOOOOOO !!!! We were really tough with her, didn't give her anything, and followed her closely so she wouldn't be able to get away anywhere, and just gave her a hard time. But she really ended up helping us alot ! She got it done very fast, and we saved like 80,000 pesos because we left Venezuela the same day, and they have some 24 hour rule, that if you leave before, you have to pay a fine. We literary left our bags with Geoff, walked 200 meters to Venezuelan immigration office, got the entry and exit stamp, and walked 200 meters back to Colombian office. They give new visa anywhere from 30-90 days, with 60 being the most common and 90 being very very rare. We get to the office, and of course there are 2 guys sitting there. So me and Eva put the best and brightest smile on our faces. How are you doing today? We really loooovveee Colombia, and really want to learn Spanish and Salsa (yeah right), so can we please please please get 90 days :))))))))))) (that's our big smile) :) So they're very hesitant, don't really want to give it to us, asking too many questions, but we're still continuing with please please please method. And the thing is that by Colombian rule, you need to be out of the country for 3 days before you can get back in, and not only we're violating the rules by coming back after half an hour, we also ask for 90 days after our 3rd month in Colombia. They asked us how much money we have, so we calculated how much it is, and said very little so they'll be sure that we'll get out. They also asked if we promise to leave the country at the end of the period, and we promised, so we got our 90 days !! :)) I got mine, and before they got to stamp Eva's passport, casually they asked for our phone number, we kinda looked at each other, and gave them Geoff's number :) They also took us to the office, and started talking to us, asking what we're doing in the evening, and that they could drive us to the city, and this way we don't have to pay for the toll booth, and they have a place to sleep ... so annoying !!! but we had to stay there for a few minutes cause they kinda did us a favor with the visa. Not thinking twice about staying, we make some excuse, and quickly leave the town for Uribia. The closest city to our desert adventure.
San Gil - Gringo invasion
When Americans invaded Mexico, they were wearing green army uniforms. The locals wanted them to leave and they didn't know much English, so they said "Green Go" as in leave. Since then the term for the foreigners who look American is "Gringo". Gringo is basically something like an African man in China. You recognize him right away, he looks different, wears different cloths, can't speak the language, you could recognize him in the middle of 1000 people, and he basically looks lost all the time :) At first it was offensive, but now we call each other that and definitely most of the people in San Gil. And OMG the people !!! We've seen so many weirdos that's incredible ! "Do you speak Canadian?" was a question that I didn't really know how to answer :) One guy was travelling for a year didn't know that water in a bag costs 5 to 20 times less than a water in a bottle, didn't know that all the buses in the little towns leave from the main square, didn't know the difference between tomato and a fruit (called tree tomatoes), and didn't know how to make fruit juices. All of that we learned in first week in Cali. That's so strange how the experiences are different, and it seems that we know so much about the culture and people than most of the backpackers. For him an hour walk between cities looked like forever, and for us after 12 hour hikes it's just like a walk in a park :)
It still surprises me how easy it is to get to know people so quickly. After 5 minutes of knowing each other we already eating lunch together. I can imagine meeting someone on a subway in Toronto, having a quick talk like which station to get off of and asking the person for lunch ... maybe I will try it one day just for the heck of it :) It's also very easy to find people to travel with. In the duration of 1 week we met 1 guy, and 3 lawyers who invited us to travel together. With the lawyers, all it took is 1 trip to the cave and 1 lunch. It was a good idea, we got along quite well, but they were leaving way too early, and we haven't done all the activities yet. We also met a 75 year old man who was travelling and he did paragliding. It's very inspiring to meet people like that and to know that it's never to late or we're never too old to do anything we wish to do.
On Thursday we went to a cave. It was quite interesting. The cave was huge with very big halls, and hundreds of hundreds of bats. We turned our hamlet lights off and could feel them flying around us !! There was a place in the cave with vampire bats, and everything underneath was covered in blood ! At the end we reached a cliff where we could jump off 4.5 meters into the darkness with just a spot of the flashlight indicating where to jump ... nice !!
On Saturday we went to another cave which was by far more interesting than the first one. It was much narrower and people can actually do 3 day hikes in there. There is a river passing through out all the cave, so we were constantly in the water and surrounded by stalagmites and stalactites. The minute we got there, we had to get down on the bottom into the river and use our arms to get us through, since the height was only 1 meter. Then there were mud slides, and we had to sit in a mud bath to get ourselves fully muddy so that we could slide down. We also turned our lights off and walked in complete darkness in the river with our right leg on the edge to feel the path. There was also a spot where the water was high and the ceiling low, and only 10 cms of air in between. So we had to float with our legs forward, everything in the water, and only with nose and mouth outside, and with the help of our hands on the ceiling to get ourselves through. Another cool part was about 30 meters long with about half a meter of height, and we were just like soldiers lying down, and rolling all the way through :) Some guys couldn't do it though because they were stuck when they turned on their sides :)))
On Sunday we were thinking to leave but it was raining a lot of the time and the river was too full of water with big current, so they kept on canceling rafting. And a bunch of people stayed extra days just to be able to go. The owner of the hostel said that usually the rafting is canceled about 15 days a year, and only when we were there, it got canceled for 4 days ... just our luck. Anyway, so we decided to do hydro speed. It in a grade 3+ river, and you have a boogie board which you lie on top off and kinda cruise down the river. At the beginning it was fun because the waves were kinda big. But we were scared to go in since the current was so strong and fast, and the waves were big and there is only a life jacket, hamlet and a 0.5 by 1 meter board to save you. But once we were in, it wasn't too bad, except that there is no way of knowing the waves. Sometimes they get big, but by the time you get there, they kinda smooth down, and you pass on top of them very easily. So it happened a few times, except that one time when 2 waves from different directions converged, and I got just in the middle of it just in time to cover myself completely by a huge and powerful 2 meter wave. Immediately I lost my board, did a few turns in the water. It wasn't a big deal, but for some reason I started to panic. Good thing that the safety kayak was there very quickly, so I grabbed onto him, but still I was gasping for air since a lot of waves still were covering me by the time we got my board back and finished that set of rapids. The rest of the trip was very peaceful, with no more rapids, so we just went along with the current. The guide even told us that we finished the trip in half the time because of the strength of the river. The flip was very scary, but it was an extremely good preparation for what came next.
Since we were done so quickly with the trip, we decided to go to another town for some river. Got a bus there, and then had to walk for half an hour. It was nothing special, we just sat there for a bit, didn't even get into the water. We were so lazy to go back, and there were a few buses standing there. We asked the first one, and apparently he was going to the village. YES !!! We were allowed to get in. It turned out to be some tour bus with senior citizens. Of course he announced to the whole bus that we're Russian/Canadian tourists :) The driver was driving around showing us different places. He took us to some night club which was in a natural cave with a waterfall in front of it! Amazing !! So we thought if he's gonna charge us or not, and just in case we got out 5000 pesos, put it aside to tell him that we don't have any more money. But when we got into the town, we asked if we need to pay, and he said something like "only if you want to", and we were more than happy to give him that money :) ... Only in Colombia - hitch hiking a tour bus :))
On Monday, the rafting trip was finally on ! 18 eager backpackers hopped into the bus, got to the start point, and went through the most extensive safety procedures that I've ever been to. Grade 5+ river (the hardest river you can do rafting on) is not a joke, and everybody tried really hard to absorb and understand everything to stay safe. The guides were very knowledgeable, had a lot of safety equipment, and 4 safety kayaks patrolling the boats. The tour was fun, we got through all the big waves, mid way through the tour we stopped for lunch and played games. The tour was almost done, there was only 1 more set of waves to go through. The guide started jokingly scaring us, and almost getting off the boat as saying that he can't go through with this. But then he got very serious and told us to listen carefully to all the instructions, and repeated it a few times. FULL ATTENTION!!, POSITION, FORWARD, INSIDE, LISTEN, FOLLOW MY INSTRUCTIONS !! Okkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkk .... everybody started to worry a little bit, it's the last set of waves grade 5+. Ok, here we go !!! Everything is alright, passing through them just fine, and then 1 big wave, crash, our boat spins out of control .... IIIINSIIIIDDDDDDEEEEEEEEE !!!! (the safest position on the boat, for the boat to be the most stable and safest for the riders, with us holding the safety rope on the sides). We can see the wave coming, and we're going towards it sideways (not a good position), SMASH ... OH SHIT, OH SHIT, OH SHIT !!! the boat is flipping, we've all underwater. I was under the boat right away, getting carried away with it, unable to get out, thrown from left to right, it hurts to hold the rope, the hand gets torn out of it, but I kept on holding. What to do?? trying to get out in all the directions, can't think, can't focus, can't breath. For a second I remembered the safely instructions that said that if you under the boat, just chose one direction the stick with it. Trying to remain calm, I push myself out by the rope with all the strength that I have left and 15 seconds later I'm outside, able to breath again, and moving forward with an incredible speed with the water. The guide got on top of the boat ... SWIM TO THE RIGHT, SWIM TO THE RIGHT !!!!!!! No way, I'm not getting away from the boat. It's keeping me up, and I'm holding the safety rope, so I stuck with it. They flipped the boat back, and I was the first one in. We rescued a few people, and 2 were brought back by the safety kayaks. Man what an experience. It was extremely scary!!! But overall it was fun, and we would definitely do it again!
pix at http://picasaweb.google.com/ed4330/Santander#
It still surprises me how easy it is to get to know people so quickly. After 5 minutes of knowing each other we already eating lunch together. I can imagine meeting someone on a subway in Toronto, having a quick talk like which station to get off of and asking the person for lunch ... maybe I will try it one day just for the heck of it :) It's also very easy to find people to travel with. In the duration of 1 week we met 1 guy, and 3 lawyers who invited us to travel together. With the lawyers, all it took is 1 trip to the cave and 1 lunch. It was a good idea, we got along quite well, but they were leaving way too early, and we haven't done all the activities yet. We also met a 75 year old man who was travelling and he did paragliding. It's very inspiring to meet people like that and to know that it's never to late or we're never too old to do anything we wish to do.
On Thursday we went to a cave. It was quite interesting. The cave was huge with very big halls, and hundreds of hundreds of bats. We turned our hamlet lights off and could feel them flying around us !! There was a place in the cave with vampire bats, and everything underneath was covered in blood ! At the end we reached a cliff where we could jump off 4.5 meters into the darkness with just a spot of the flashlight indicating where to jump ... nice !!
On Saturday we went to another cave which was by far more interesting than the first one. It was much narrower and people can actually do 3 day hikes in there. There is a river passing through out all the cave, so we were constantly in the water and surrounded by stalagmites and stalactites. The minute we got there, we had to get down on the bottom into the river and use our arms to get us through, since the height was only 1 meter. Then there were mud slides, and we had to sit in a mud bath to get ourselves fully muddy so that we could slide down. We also turned our lights off and walked in complete darkness in the river with our right leg on the edge to feel the path. There was also a spot where the water was high and the ceiling low, and only 10 cms of air in between. So we had to float with our legs forward, everything in the water, and only with nose and mouth outside, and with the help of our hands on the ceiling to get ourselves through. Another cool part was about 30 meters long with about half a meter of height, and we were just like soldiers lying down, and rolling all the way through :) Some guys couldn't do it though because they were stuck when they turned on their sides :)))
On Sunday we were thinking to leave but it was raining a lot of the time and the river was too full of water with big current, so they kept on canceling rafting. And a bunch of people stayed extra days just to be able to go. The owner of the hostel said that usually the rafting is canceled about 15 days a year, and only when we were there, it got canceled for 4 days ... just our luck. Anyway, so we decided to do hydro speed. It in a grade 3+ river, and you have a boogie board which you lie on top off and kinda cruise down the river. At the beginning it was fun because the waves were kinda big. But we were scared to go in since the current was so strong and fast, and the waves were big and there is only a life jacket, hamlet and a 0.5 by 1 meter board to save you. But once we were in, it wasn't too bad, except that there is no way of knowing the waves. Sometimes they get big, but by the time you get there, they kinda smooth down, and you pass on top of them very easily. So it happened a few times, except that one time when 2 waves from different directions converged, and I got just in the middle of it just in time to cover myself completely by a huge and powerful 2 meter wave. Immediately I lost my board, did a few turns in the water. It wasn't a big deal, but for some reason I started to panic. Good thing that the safety kayak was there very quickly, so I grabbed onto him, but still I was gasping for air since a lot of waves still were covering me by the time we got my board back and finished that set of rapids. The rest of the trip was very peaceful, with no more rapids, so we just went along with the current. The guide even told us that we finished the trip in half the time because of the strength of the river. The flip was very scary, but it was an extremely good preparation for what came next.
Since we were done so quickly with the trip, we decided to go to another town for some river. Got a bus there, and then had to walk for half an hour. It was nothing special, we just sat there for a bit, didn't even get into the water. We were so lazy to go back, and there were a few buses standing there. We asked the first one, and apparently he was going to the village. YES !!! We were allowed to get in. It turned out to be some tour bus with senior citizens. Of course he announced to the whole bus that we're Russian/Canadian tourists :) The driver was driving around showing us different places. He took us to some night club which was in a natural cave with a waterfall in front of it! Amazing !! So we thought if he's gonna charge us or not, and just in case we got out 5000 pesos, put it aside to tell him that we don't have any more money. But when we got into the town, we asked if we need to pay, and he said something like "only if you want to", and we were more than happy to give him that money :) ... Only in Colombia - hitch hiking a tour bus :))
On Monday, the rafting trip was finally on ! 18 eager backpackers hopped into the bus, got to the start point, and went through the most extensive safety procedures that I've ever been to. Grade 5+ river (the hardest river you can do rafting on) is not a joke, and everybody tried really hard to absorb and understand everything to stay safe. The guides were very knowledgeable, had a lot of safety equipment, and 4 safety kayaks patrolling the boats. The tour was fun, we got through all the big waves, mid way through the tour we stopped for lunch and played games. The tour was almost done, there was only 1 more set of waves to go through. The guide started jokingly scaring us, and almost getting off the boat as saying that he can't go through with this. But then he got very serious and told us to listen carefully to all the instructions, and repeated it a few times. FULL ATTENTION!!, POSITION, FORWARD, INSIDE, LISTEN, FOLLOW MY INSTRUCTIONS !! Okkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkk .... everybody started to worry a little bit, it's the last set of waves grade 5+. Ok, here we go !!! Everything is alright, passing through them just fine, and then 1 big wave, crash, our boat spins out of control .... IIIINSIIIIDDDDDDEEEEEEEEE !!!! (the safest position on the boat, for the boat to be the most stable and safest for the riders, with us holding the safety rope on the sides). We can see the wave coming, and we're going towards it sideways (not a good position), SMASH ... OH SHIT, OH SHIT, OH SHIT !!! the boat is flipping, we've all underwater. I was under the boat right away, getting carried away with it, unable to get out, thrown from left to right, it hurts to hold the rope, the hand gets torn out of it, but I kept on holding. What to do?? trying to get out in all the directions, can't think, can't focus, can't breath. For a second I remembered the safely instructions that said that if you under the boat, just chose one direction the stick with it. Trying to remain calm, I push myself out by the rope with all the strength that I have left and 15 seconds later I'm outside, able to breath again, and moving forward with an incredible speed with the water. The guide got on top of the boat ... SWIM TO THE RIGHT, SWIM TO THE RIGHT !!!!!!! No way, I'm not getting away from the boat. It's keeping me up, and I'm holding the safety rope, so I stuck with it. They flipped the boat back, and I was the first one in. We rescued a few people, and 2 were brought back by the safety kayaks. Man what an experience. It was extremely scary!!! But overall it was fun, and we would definitely do it again!
pix at http://picasaweb.google.com/ed4330/Santander#
Friday, November 6, 2009
San Jose and La Macarena pix
this pic is taken without a zoom. This bird doesn´t move when it´s scared, it´s a kind of a camoflaj
this monkey looked so smart, with expressions of a human
On the army boat ! :))
our canoo back to La Macarena
cano crystales
cano crystales
cano Crystales
cano crystales
cano crystales
cano crystales
cano crystales
cano crystales
Cano crystales
cano crystales
Landscape around the river
Starting our hike to cano crystales
taxi in La Macarena
La Macarena, with interent service accross the street :)
La Macarena after the rain
View of Villavisensio from the plane
Our private Jet to La Macarena
rock formations from the earthquake
Geoff the tarzan
in the rock city
in the rock city
A bunch of tunnels with bats
Climbing the rocks in "the rock city"
Beef cooked the Llanero way
Sunset in San Jose
Feeling important with our police officer guide
Village of San Jose
On the bus to San Jose, with this beautiful landscape throughout all the trip
Wednesday, November 4, 2009
Live & Learn
Went to town of Villa de Leiva. There are no natural resources beside that town, and when Spanish conquared Colombia they left the town alone since they couldn't get anything out of it. It is now declared as a national monument, as it remained untouched since the 15 hundreds. The construction or alteration of buildings is not allowed so it's very preserved. It was alright. Geoff and Eva didn't like it that much because it's too touristic, but for me it was a nice change after all the muddy villages that we've been too. It's very neat, clean and cozy with very nice dessert places :) All the houses are very looked after, have lots of flowers and little details, and each house differs from the other one. We finally went to eat in a nice restaurant, although still "fast food" which means food that's pre cooked for a few hours, so you don't have a choice of stuff, but it's pretty good, big and cheap. It was a fine restaurant quality, and for a $1 more I couldn't wish for anything better. The hotel was also the nicest hotel we've stayed in. As a backpacker you don't have much choices as you try to save every dollar, so staying in a sh*thole with no doors to the washroom, half rooms furniture broken, bed bugs, freezing water is a normal thing already.
The next day we went to a day trip around the city. Started our day with a Gaudi like house. The whole house is made out of mud, have weird shapes of rooms and hallways, there is really no sense to the structure, and it's not yet finished, yet it's already falling apart :) We continued our journey to the land of large stone penises, but when we got there, we thought that it's not worth spending $3 on these stones, so we took a few pictures with zoom, and went on. The next destination was a monestary, that was like 15 kms away. Geoff introduced us to the idea of hitch-hiking, but every car that passed by, my arm just froze and I just wasn't able to lift it up. "Come on girls, lift that hand up" was a constant reminder, but I guess I wasn't just ready yet. 3 hours later on the blazzing sun it came up by itself :) One truck stopped, and we took a ride in it, it wasn't as scary as it looked, some people are just willing to help. There was nothing interesting in the monestary except that there were 3 very angry dogs on the way without a leash barking at us like crazy, so we learned a new trick, you have to just bend down very fast as though you're picking up a rock, and right away the tail goes between their legs and they're trying to hide somewhere very quickly. Those country/city dogs are very used to the kids throwing rocks at them, so they've learned that lesson and better be safe than sorry, they lose their pride and get out of the way. It's really cool. Now we're using it every time ! :) On the way back from the monestary (15 kms back), obviously we tried to hitch-hike again. But so many cars passed by, and none of them stopped :( So Geoff said that we need to "meditate" and imagine that we're getting a ride, and cars are stopping, so I've tried that for 5 minutes, just sitting there quietly with my eyes closed and trying to imagine that situation. When I was ready, I put that hand up, and what do you know, the first car stops ! Although when we got to our next stop, they said that we need to pay them. We argued and argued, paid them at the end, but Geoff said that it was his fault, because he didn't tell us to imagine that the ride would be for free, and we need to be precise ... ok ... next time ... We went to the fossil museum. It was pretty cool. That area was once filled with a huge lake (millions of years ago), and then plates collided creating a hole, and all the water got drained. And so in this area are so many fossils and skeletons, just 8 years ago in 2000 a huge skeleton of a dinasour was found, and it's the largest and the most preserved skeleton in the world which we saw in the museum. At first I didn't think much of it, but a day later while we were having dinner it suddenly hit me "holy sh*t it was a huge dinasour !!!" :))) After that museum we went to the ostrich farm. It was pretty cool except that I didn't understand anything of what the guide was saying about them. But at least we got to interact with them, feed them and pet them. It was quite scary to walk between them, considering that they're not that smart, double our size and kick harder than a horse! We got on the last tour of the day, and on the way back it started to get dark very quickly. It was 2 kms till the main road, no lights on the road, and every step it got darker and darker. I could really feel my sense of smell, hearing and vision improving as we were walking, which I thought was pretty cool ! When we were approaching the road, Geoff told us to concentrate on getting a ride, because at that hour of the evening, it was dangerous to walk on the main road, there are no buses or taxies, and 4 more kms left to the town. So we started to concentrate, and again, the first car that went by stopped and gave us a ride! p.s. all of these things (visualization and energy) are described in a movie "the secret", so to people who are interested, I really really recommend it.
There were 2 things that we were supposed to do around the town. 1 was to walk to near-by attractions, and the other one to go on a hike. So after travelling for a long time, I chose the attractions first so I could relax a bit for a day. But after 10 hours and 25 kms of non stop walking in the sun, I wished that I chose the extreme hike first :)
The next day was a hiking day, and we cought a 7am bus to get there. There are so many farms in that area, and I always wished to try fresh milk. I was constantly talking about it, and again, what do you know, on the way to the hike there were farmers standing with fresh milk, and we bought 2 littres of it for 25 cents. It was nice, it was still warm. Eva's stomach was hurting, but after drinking the milk it stopped. 3 kms to the actual park, and for me it was more than enough, I did my part of the hike even before starting it :) But when we got there, it was very nice. It's a cloud forest, so the clouds pass very very low, and we had breakfast while enjoying the green mountains covered with clouds passing by just a few meters away from us. The entrance fee to the hike was divided into a Colombian and a non Colombian tourists. For Colombians it was $6, and for non Colombians $ 16. That it was too much for the hike, especially with our budget of $20/day. So we told them that we don't have that much money, and if we couldn't get a better price, then unfortunately we wouldn't be able to go. So they checked us in as Colombians, nice ! The hike was very pretty and very intense. 2.5 hours straight up, I learned that I need to work on my cardio. Eva and Geoff were flying up, meanwhile I needed to make like 50 stoppes to get there. But according to the guide book, it did take me 2.5 hours to get up, so maybe I'm not in such a bad shape after all :) We didn't see any animals, which was very dissapointing, but to walk along the clouds was well worth it. We could also see how the landscape changed on the way up. First there was a rain forest, then we reached the cloud level, and couldn't see anything, since it was all white, and then it was kinda deserted with bunch of flowers, small plants and clouds underneath. It was so quite on the top, there were no people, no animals, no birds, so I could hear Eva and Geoff talking very clearly 100 meters away from me. Amazing !!! On the top of the mountain is a sacred lake. It's believed that a 3 year old boy was born in it, and that how the whole civilization started. So indians sacrifized a lot of gold and threw it into the lake. Years later, there were a lot of attempts to try to get the gold out, companies invested 4 million dollars to get the gold out, but only found $20,000 of it. Some even tried to drain the lake, 100 of years and 10s of attemps later, the government prohibited further extortions of the lake, and now it's left in peace. The minute we got to the top it started raining, and with 5 degree weather it was pretty cold ! We thought that the way down would be so much easier, man were we wrong ! With the rain, now all the ground became mud, and we involuntary started practicing a new sports named mud sliding. The shoes although made for tracking didn't help at all, we fell numerous times going down, and after hours of being frozen, wet, dirty, bruised and scratched, we realized that we are late for the last bus to town, and that we have half an hour to walk 3 kms till the road. Almost running back, we barely made it, the bus was just passing by! As we've constantly heard that Colombia is dangerous, we don't really feel it, and definitely didn't feel it on the bus, when parents were putting their 3-4 year old kids on the bus with no supervision, a bunch of kids that age are going to the school/kindergarden all by themselves.
Next morning we left to another town Iza to relax in hot springs. The town with population of 2000 is really cute, but the problem is that it's not touristic, and a few hotels that are there charge a rediculous rate. We even thought to camp, but were not allowed since we didn't have a tent, and thank god for that, because in that region the difference between day and night temperature is huge! Eva took the initiative into her own hands and went from house to house to ask if somebody will host us. After a short time we found an owner who was willing to rent us a room in their house for a resonable rate. We changed and went to hot springs. The village is really cool because there is no separation between the houses and the farms, they all mixed together, and to see donkeys/horses/sheeps on the road is not uncommon. In the hot springs we were bathing along the locals, and giving each other mud massages and facials :) All the locals in these towns are not used to tourists, and simple questions with a 5 second answers usually lead to long and deep conversations :) not to mention that whenever we go there are people who just stear at us for hours. And if somebody of us is lost, we can always ask the first person on the street where our friend is, and the answer is almost 100% guaranteed :) In the evening we noticed that the light doesn't come on. Yep, there is a power outage again ! Yet nobody seems to be concerned about it. Everybody's happy, got their candles out, nobody knows what happened, what time it will be on again, or if it will be on at all. It's a bit inconvinient, but we love it, it adds something to the experience! On the main square of the town, the local tradition is to make home made desserts. There are stands of endless choices of various cakes with all the sellers trying to shove the desserts in us so we could taste them. And even without buying anything we were already full from all the samples. But they were so delicious that we found any excuse to go back and buy more and more until I became completely sick! Not a good feeling at all, but everybody seems to take care of me. People that I don't even know offering me pills and teas and giving me suggestions on how to get better!
We were supposed to leave, but after a talk with the locals discovered that there is a town nearby that has a nice hike to the lost city, and also the town (Mongui) is considered to be the most beautiful town in the province, and yes it was! It also makes footballs, and during FIFA matches, they export 100,000 footballs, and it seems like that's all that the stores sell. The town again is very clean, nice, and friendly, but cold ! Days and days later and our cloths are still wet and dirty, with no laundry service we don't have a choice but to wear them ... oh well ... asked some couple on the street where to find cheap hotel, and they ended up helping us for an hour, walking around, and calling their friends for help with accomodations. It took us a while to find a place to stay (roughly 2.5 hours). In the process found a guide to take us to the lost city, and he too ended up walking with us for 2 hours trying to find a hotel, and helping us buy food for the next day. The room had 5 beds, but we got all the blankets that we could get from the other beds that when we went to sleep we couldn't breath under the load :) but it was freezing so we didn't have much choice. I decided not to go for the hike because I was still feeling weak. So I spend the day sleeping for 12 hours for a change, and went to walk in the town by myself. It was nice, since I had to talk spanish without Geoff's of Eva's help, and I got by just fine ! :) When we were getting ready to leave, Geoff suddenly announced that he feels bad energy that we try to save money and that we negotiate too much with people, and that's not his theory on life, so it's time for him to leave. hm ... ok then ...
Next destination San Gil - the extreme sports town. Got on the bus, and the only seat for me was beside the driver, sqeezed between him and another person. It was nice. I tried talking with them with my broken spanish, but they were very eager to listen and help me out. They were all very worried about my well being, and kinda everything I needed was provided with. A guys winter jacket to warm me up, a/c was changed to heater, music was turned down, I got some space to sleep, and when we got into San Gil, they dropped us off instead of a terminal, in a hotel zone. And in the middle of the night with our bags, it was a huge help ! We just went to the first hotel, and it was sooo cheap, $8 for night, and it was quite descent. But in the morning we decided to find a hostel because it's such a touristic place, so after 2 weeks of being by ourselves, we wanted some interaction with backpackers. Now we're paying double the price as in the hotel, but it's all worth it. The first night, 20 of us went to hang out in the main park, and then off to nightclub with karayoki. Everybody's extremely friendly, and it's nice to hear some English for a change. We found out that most backpackers don't travel the way we do. We go to little towns, try to find way off the beaten track, interact with local people, do local things ... but most backpackers just go to the biggest cities, and do like 5 cities in a country in like 2-3 weeks and they're off to their next destination. We like our way better, it's way too much fun, many more interesting experiences, and we get to learn the culture much much more! Oh, right now the light went off again, and somebody's running around in a mask growling and scarying people :))) poor Eva, she's just went into the shower :)))
We went rapelling today, it was pretty cool ! We went down 60 meters in the waterfall. Wasn't scary for me and Eva, but a bunch of people got freaked out. It was cool though! On the way back, we were just shown the way, climb here, cross the river there, take the rope and go down these rocks, and we went half an hour back by ourselves without a guide ... typical Colombian attitude !
Next on the agenda: caves and water rafting ...
The next day we went to a day trip around the city. Started our day with a Gaudi like house. The whole house is made out of mud, have weird shapes of rooms and hallways, there is really no sense to the structure, and it's not yet finished, yet it's already falling apart :) We continued our journey to the land of large stone penises, but when we got there, we thought that it's not worth spending $3 on these stones, so we took a few pictures with zoom, and went on. The next destination was a monestary, that was like 15 kms away. Geoff introduced us to the idea of hitch-hiking, but every car that passed by, my arm just froze and I just wasn't able to lift it up. "Come on girls, lift that hand up" was a constant reminder, but I guess I wasn't just ready yet. 3 hours later on the blazzing sun it came up by itself :) One truck stopped, and we took a ride in it, it wasn't as scary as it looked, some people are just willing to help. There was nothing interesting in the monestary except that there were 3 very angry dogs on the way without a leash barking at us like crazy, so we learned a new trick, you have to just bend down very fast as though you're picking up a rock, and right away the tail goes between their legs and they're trying to hide somewhere very quickly. Those country/city dogs are very used to the kids throwing rocks at them, so they've learned that lesson and better be safe than sorry, they lose their pride and get out of the way. It's really cool. Now we're using it every time ! :) On the way back from the monestary (15 kms back), obviously we tried to hitch-hike again. But so many cars passed by, and none of them stopped :( So Geoff said that we need to "meditate" and imagine that we're getting a ride, and cars are stopping, so I've tried that for 5 minutes, just sitting there quietly with my eyes closed and trying to imagine that situation. When I was ready, I put that hand up, and what do you know, the first car stops ! Although when we got to our next stop, they said that we need to pay them. We argued and argued, paid them at the end, but Geoff said that it was his fault, because he didn't tell us to imagine that the ride would be for free, and we need to be precise ... ok ... next time ... We went to the fossil museum. It was pretty cool. That area was once filled with a huge lake (millions of years ago), and then plates collided creating a hole, and all the water got drained. And so in this area are so many fossils and skeletons, just 8 years ago in 2000 a huge skeleton of a dinasour was found, and it's the largest and the most preserved skeleton in the world which we saw in the museum. At first I didn't think much of it, but a day later while we were having dinner it suddenly hit me "holy sh*t it was a huge dinasour !!!" :))) After that museum we went to the ostrich farm. It was pretty cool except that I didn't understand anything of what the guide was saying about them. But at least we got to interact with them, feed them and pet them. It was quite scary to walk between them, considering that they're not that smart, double our size and kick harder than a horse! We got on the last tour of the day, and on the way back it started to get dark very quickly. It was 2 kms till the main road, no lights on the road, and every step it got darker and darker. I could really feel my sense of smell, hearing and vision improving as we were walking, which I thought was pretty cool ! When we were approaching the road, Geoff told us to concentrate on getting a ride, because at that hour of the evening, it was dangerous to walk on the main road, there are no buses or taxies, and 4 more kms left to the town. So we started to concentrate, and again, the first car that went by stopped and gave us a ride! p.s. all of these things (visualization and energy) are described in a movie "the secret", so to people who are interested, I really really recommend it.
There were 2 things that we were supposed to do around the town. 1 was to walk to near-by attractions, and the other one to go on a hike. So after travelling for a long time, I chose the attractions first so I could relax a bit for a day. But after 10 hours and 25 kms of non stop walking in the sun, I wished that I chose the extreme hike first :)
The next day was a hiking day, and we cought a 7am bus to get there. There are so many farms in that area, and I always wished to try fresh milk. I was constantly talking about it, and again, what do you know, on the way to the hike there were farmers standing with fresh milk, and we bought 2 littres of it for 25 cents. It was nice, it was still warm. Eva's stomach was hurting, but after drinking the milk it stopped. 3 kms to the actual park, and for me it was more than enough, I did my part of the hike even before starting it :) But when we got there, it was very nice. It's a cloud forest, so the clouds pass very very low, and we had breakfast while enjoying the green mountains covered with clouds passing by just a few meters away from us. The entrance fee to the hike was divided into a Colombian and a non Colombian tourists. For Colombians it was $6, and for non Colombians $ 16. That it was too much for the hike, especially with our budget of $20/day. So we told them that we don't have that much money, and if we couldn't get a better price, then unfortunately we wouldn't be able to go. So they checked us in as Colombians, nice ! The hike was very pretty and very intense. 2.5 hours straight up, I learned that I need to work on my cardio. Eva and Geoff were flying up, meanwhile I needed to make like 50 stoppes to get there. But according to the guide book, it did take me 2.5 hours to get up, so maybe I'm not in such a bad shape after all :) We didn't see any animals, which was very dissapointing, but to walk along the clouds was well worth it. We could also see how the landscape changed on the way up. First there was a rain forest, then we reached the cloud level, and couldn't see anything, since it was all white, and then it was kinda deserted with bunch of flowers, small plants and clouds underneath. It was so quite on the top, there were no people, no animals, no birds, so I could hear Eva and Geoff talking very clearly 100 meters away from me. Amazing !!! On the top of the mountain is a sacred lake. It's believed that a 3 year old boy was born in it, and that how the whole civilization started. So indians sacrifized a lot of gold and threw it into the lake. Years later, there were a lot of attempts to try to get the gold out, companies invested 4 million dollars to get the gold out, but only found $20,000 of it. Some even tried to drain the lake, 100 of years and 10s of attemps later, the government prohibited further extortions of the lake, and now it's left in peace. The minute we got to the top it started raining, and with 5 degree weather it was pretty cold ! We thought that the way down would be so much easier, man were we wrong ! With the rain, now all the ground became mud, and we involuntary started practicing a new sports named mud sliding. The shoes although made for tracking didn't help at all, we fell numerous times going down, and after hours of being frozen, wet, dirty, bruised and scratched, we realized that we are late for the last bus to town, and that we have half an hour to walk 3 kms till the road. Almost running back, we barely made it, the bus was just passing by! As we've constantly heard that Colombia is dangerous, we don't really feel it, and definitely didn't feel it on the bus, when parents were putting their 3-4 year old kids on the bus with no supervision, a bunch of kids that age are going to the school/kindergarden all by themselves.
Next morning we left to another town Iza to relax in hot springs. The town with population of 2000 is really cute, but the problem is that it's not touristic, and a few hotels that are there charge a rediculous rate. We even thought to camp, but were not allowed since we didn't have a tent, and thank god for that, because in that region the difference between day and night temperature is huge! Eva took the initiative into her own hands and went from house to house to ask if somebody will host us. After a short time we found an owner who was willing to rent us a room in their house for a resonable rate. We changed and went to hot springs. The village is really cool because there is no separation between the houses and the farms, they all mixed together, and to see donkeys/horses/sheeps on the road is not uncommon. In the hot springs we were bathing along the locals, and giving each other mud massages and facials :) All the locals in these towns are not used to tourists, and simple questions with a 5 second answers usually lead to long and deep conversations :) not to mention that whenever we go there are people who just stear at us for hours. And if somebody of us is lost, we can always ask the first person on the street where our friend is, and the answer is almost 100% guaranteed :) In the evening we noticed that the light doesn't come on. Yep, there is a power outage again ! Yet nobody seems to be concerned about it. Everybody's happy, got their candles out, nobody knows what happened, what time it will be on again, or if it will be on at all. It's a bit inconvinient, but we love it, it adds something to the experience! On the main square of the town, the local tradition is to make home made desserts. There are stands of endless choices of various cakes with all the sellers trying to shove the desserts in us so we could taste them. And even without buying anything we were already full from all the samples. But they were so delicious that we found any excuse to go back and buy more and more until I became completely sick! Not a good feeling at all, but everybody seems to take care of me. People that I don't even know offering me pills and teas and giving me suggestions on how to get better!
We were supposed to leave, but after a talk with the locals discovered that there is a town nearby that has a nice hike to the lost city, and also the town (Mongui) is considered to be the most beautiful town in the province, and yes it was! It also makes footballs, and during FIFA matches, they export 100,000 footballs, and it seems like that's all that the stores sell. The town again is very clean, nice, and friendly, but cold ! Days and days later and our cloths are still wet and dirty, with no laundry service we don't have a choice but to wear them ... oh well ... asked some couple on the street where to find cheap hotel, and they ended up helping us for an hour, walking around, and calling their friends for help with accomodations. It took us a while to find a place to stay (roughly 2.5 hours). In the process found a guide to take us to the lost city, and he too ended up walking with us for 2 hours trying to find a hotel, and helping us buy food for the next day. The room had 5 beds, but we got all the blankets that we could get from the other beds that when we went to sleep we couldn't breath under the load :) but it was freezing so we didn't have much choice. I decided not to go for the hike because I was still feeling weak. So I spend the day sleeping for 12 hours for a change, and went to walk in the town by myself. It was nice, since I had to talk spanish without Geoff's of Eva's help, and I got by just fine ! :) When we were getting ready to leave, Geoff suddenly announced that he feels bad energy that we try to save money and that we negotiate too much with people, and that's not his theory on life, so it's time for him to leave. hm ... ok then ...
Next destination San Gil - the extreme sports town. Got on the bus, and the only seat for me was beside the driver, sqeezed between him and another person. It was nice. I tried talking with them with my broken spanish, but they were very eager to listen and help me out. They were all very worried about my well being, and kinda everything I needed was provided with. A guys winter jacket to warm me up, a/c was changed to heater, music was turned down, I got some space to sleep, and when we got into San Gil, they dropped us off instead of a terminal, in a hotel zone. And in the middle of the night with our bags, it was a huge help ! We just went to the first hotel, and it was sooo cheap, $8 for night, and it was quite descent. But in the morning we decided to find a hostel because it's such a touristic place, so after 2 weeks of being by ourselves, we wanted some interaction with backpackers. Now we're paying double the price as in the hotel, but it's all worth it. The first night, 20 of us went to hang out in the main park, and then off to nightclub with karayoki. Everybody's extremely friendly, and it's nice to hear some English for a change. We found out that most backpackers don't travel the way we do. We go to little towns, try to find way off the beaten track, interact with local people, do local things ... but most backpackers just go to the biggest cities, and do like 5 cities in a country in like 2-3 weeks and they're off to their next destination. We like our way better, it's way too much fun, many more interesting experiences, and we get to learn the culture much much more! Oh, right now the light went off again, and somebody's running around in a mask growling and scarying people :))) poor Eva, she's just went into the shower :)))
We went rapelling today, it was pretty cool ! We went down 60 meters in the waterfall. Wasn't scary for me and Eva, but a bunch of people got freaked out. It was cool though! On the way back, we were just shown the way, climb here, cross the river there, take the rope and go down these rocks, and we went half an hour back by ourselves without a guide ... typical Colombian attitude !
Next on the agenda: caves and water rafting ...
Friday, October 23, 2009
detour !!
Went to museo de oro - "gold museum" which is supposed to be the best and biggest one in the world in Bogota. It was quite interesting. A few interesting things is that the shamans are very important people in the tribe, so they took drugs, and that´s how they communicated with the outside world, and saw the future. Also the people who were viewed as smart and who were teaching others the lessons of life and giving advices were closed-in in some cave in complete darkness and isolation for a few years! Seems to me these people were turning crazy, what can they teach? They were alone, and didn´t experience what others did, so why would they have more information about life? Also, people believed that when they wear something of an animal like feathers or skin or bones, that they would get the attributes of that animal, so they would get their sharp eyesight, or their agility, speed, strength, and vise verca, so they would for ex. teach a perrot to speak (and thus it would get human caracteristics), and they would sacrifise the parrot instead of people. I guess there were no animal rights groups back then :) I don´t really like museums, but this one was definitly on the top of my list.
Getting ready to leave for the hike, got to have a manicure first :) The girl was working on me for good 45 minutes, and it cost only $2.50 !
Eva, Geoff (from Cali) and myself are going for a hike to the most beautiful river in the world !!!!
www.youtube.com/watch?v=SQiQ6GXMTG0
Of course there is no information about it at all ! There were a lot of places in Colombia that were dangerous 5 years ago, now they´re all safe, but people around still think it´s dangerous. Everybody we talked to basically told us not to go, or that they did´t even hear about the place, have no idea where it is or how to get there, or basically said that we are crazy! Even the office of department of Colombian national parks said that this park is closed ! Anyway, not listening to anybody, off we go !
Got to the mid point town 3 hours from Bogota. Yeah !!! It´s a warm weather ! Me and Eva started jumping up and down from joy ! :) A week of rain, wind and cold in Bogota didn´t do us well at all ! In town we were asking around how to get to the river, and some people told us that we need to take a bus to another town, and from there take a boat on the river ... alright then. It´s evening.... we´re walking on the street and suddanly i feel worse and worse and worse, and in 5 minutes my head hurts, my stomach hurts, I can´t walk, can´t think, can´t keep my eyes open. So I went into the hotel to sleep. The whole night I was freezing in 30 degree weather, with a winter wool shirt, and a blanket, couldn´t sleep at all. We went on the bus early morning which was suppose to take us 6 hours to the city. I tried to sleep on the bus, but every bump on the road felt like somebody is pounding on my head with a hammer ... 3 hours later, I open my eyes and feel completely fine ! That was way too weird !!! Finally getting some sleep, but the bus stops and everybody is getting out... are we there yet?? I thought we have a few more hours to go. Wait a minute why does Geoff stand with his hands on the head facing a bus and getting searched??? Ohhhhh ... it's just another police checkpoint, but the women are not getting searched, so all is good ... going back to sleep :)
Finally at our destination !
We got off the bus, went to a police station for some information, all the police got out, and was looking at us like what the hell are we doing in there?? Do we know where we are?? They never saw turists in the city ! But that´s ok! Everybody is trying to make us happy. They say that there is no boat, and even if there was, they wouldn´t allow us to get in it, but no problem, this is a great and beautiful city, why do we even need the river, anything we want is right there, why won´t we stay there for a few days enjoy and relax ... and meanwhile our thoughts are ... how the hell do we get out of here, and when is the next bus back :) but anyway, we decided to stay for the night and relax for a bit. meanwhile the next minute, the police talks between themselves, and assigns us a guide! So this guide takes our bags, tries to find us a place to stay, knocks off half the price from the hotel. Shows us the views and the streets. Tells us the history of the place. In the evening all the soldiers tried to take the next day off for us to show around, so they all started to call their luitenants (or whoever) to ask for a permission to take a day off :) We were laughing so hard. It looked like the luitenant says, "you, guard the river, you go to the tower, you check the surrounding, and you ... you make sure the tourists have a good time in here" :) meanwhile all the citizens are stearing at us, not even hiding it. They never ever saw tourists before ... talk about travelling off the beaten path !! Note to yourself : ALWAYS take make up to the jungle !!! :))
There was this "rock city" which was quite far away, and on taxi is $20, which for here is ALOT ! But, what do you know, in the morning, we get a knock on the door and 2 soldiers did get a permission to take a day off and are ready on their motorcycles to take us on the tour ! Alrighly then ! Although we were hoping to go on a police car, but oh well :( ;)
The ride was awsome. So many rocks and sand, such an uneven road, I have no idea how we didn´t fall. I think the guy was the best driver I ever saw ! And ofcouse, the guy from such a macho and serious police man, turned into a kid who jumps up and down from a sight of a candy without uniform :) After that experience with them, we´re not scared from police and army people anymore, they´re such softies, who are always willing to flirt :) but to help and show around as well. We even thought that whenever we´ll get to the new city, we should just go the police station instead of a turist information center :)) We left 1 cell phone in the hotel room, and some police guy called 7 times in 1 hour!
The rock city was amazing !!! So many caves and tunnels, we saw bats, climbed a few huge rocks, went through tunnels that could fit only 1 person half the size, so pretty !!! Untouched by any polution, or tourist´s garbage, pure nature, there were no hiking paths, just going and trying to find our way through the jungle. The police guys showed us around, help us climb, they´re so strong, we felt like we were flying a few times when they helped us up :)
The next morning we took the first bus back to the mid point. After we left we still got like 5 calls back from the police guys asking if we were alright, if we needed anything. They asked about the river and how to get there, and found some special deals with hotels. And called again to make sure that we took these deals. :))
Back in the city, we renewed our visa in Colombia so we could stay one more month! Man what a headache ! It took us 3 hours, 4 passport pictures, 2 sets of finger prints, blood type test, photocopies of all documents a long form and a $35 fee ! But that´s ok, it´s worth it :) It´s just you get 2 months when you get into the country, and to renew for just 1 more month is such a hassle !
Early morning (and that was the 3rd day when we woke up at 5 am) we went to the airport to catch a flight to the river. The flight is super expensive! $185! It costs less to fly to miami ! Found one flight for $155 !! Yes !! But, we didn´t have money, and ofcourse the airport didn´t have any ATM. So back to the city center ... grrr !!! When we got back to the airport, it turned out that somebody died in that city where we were going to, and a bunch of people showed up at the airport and booked all the cheap flights :( 6 hours of negotiations later, we finally decided to get the tickets on the last plane with the most expensive price and just go ! The plane ride was very interesting ! 1 hour 15 minutes just the 3 of us and the pilot, flying above oceans of grass and jungle and nothing else around. The pilot turned out to be very cute !!! Note to yourself again : TAKE MAKE UP TO THE JUNGLE !!! :))
Got to that little town of Macarena. Population 4000. I think this is the most amazing and relaxing place we´ve ever been to. This is a place where people, mud, donkeys, horses, pigs and internet coexist together :) Everybody is just soooo friendly. 2 hours later we already recognize a lot of the faces :) We got to the hotel which is extremely cute, clean and cheap, booked a guide for the next day for our hike. 10 pm, all lights in the city shut down !!! There is not a single light bulb and it´s pitch dark, this is soooo cooooooollll !!!! :)))) So we and the pilot :) went into the park with 1 candle to play cards :) The sky was the most beautiful sky I ever saw, It was such a clear night, and you could see all the starts shining so brightly, and there were millions of them. I have never ever saw such a beautiful night sky before ! So we´re in the park, all the wildlife is around us, so many different bugs, and animal sounds. Plus all the soldiers gathered around us to see how we play :) So interesting how these people change from serious like to guffy like in a matter of seconds. Of course it´s still a bit scary when you´re surrounded by 10s of soldiers with their full gear on !!! :) Geoff lost the game, so he gave us a show of the Macarena dance in front of everybody :) We walked the pilot guy to the hotel and tried to get back to ours. 3 people walking in pitch dark with 1 candle ... and it just rained in the afternoon. The whole street is full of mud knee deep, and all you could hear is "shit !!! damn it !!!" while we are trying to guess where there is less mud :) finally we got stuck in the middle of the street with mud all around us, and we can´t help but laugh our heads off, while it looks like the candle is gonna burn out any second now. I can´t move because there is mud, and because my stomach hurts from laughter, and what do you know, some soldiers heard us and came to us with flashlights to the rescue :) This turning off the light thing was such an experience. 10 minutes before you feel that people are kinda in a hurry to get home, 5 minutes before, everybody is just nervously looking around trying to do last minute stuff. Feels like having a wax, you kinda know that it's gonna hurt, but not sure exactly when. Brushing the teeth, trying to predict the second it will turn out, nothing yet, nothing yet .... AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA !!!! ok, it happened, now how the hell do I find my toothbrush and the way back to the room :) 4 nights later, and the same reaction every time ... this is sooo cooolll !! :)))
5 am ... BAM BAM BAM !!!! We´re jumping up !!! what happened ?? Ooooooooooh! the church bells are ringing waking all the people up ! And if once is not enough, it will ring again at 5:15, 5:30, 5:45, until you have no choice but to get up. Barely can open our eyes, we get off the bed, and what do you know? The whole village is already up, restaurants serving breakfasts, construction is on full speed ! So we have our breakfast and go on the hike ! This place is in the middle of nowhere, so there is just either a plane or a small road on which it takes a whole day on a car, so everything is brought in. It also was our luck that the road got blocked, all the food stoped, stores are empty, no electricity, the prices are double, but we´re loving it, this is fun !!! :))) So the gasoline is $5 per litre! Everything that has to do with transportation is so overpriced in here ! We took a canoo to the other side of the river that runs on an engine, and 5 minutes 1 way, 5 another costs $20 !!! But oh well, it only took us a week to get here, might as well ! 2.5 hours by foot just to get to the river, finally we made it ! Oh my god the beauty ! We just stood there taking gazilions of pictures both digital and mental. This river is called either "the 5 color river" or "the crystal river". There is alge growing in it, and it´s red in color, the water is crystal clear, waterfalls are everywhere. There are some nature made holes and swimming pools. Just amazing beauty ! We were walking the whole day in it, above it, and around it. Going to different places and different branches of the river. 12 hours of non stop hike we´re exausted but happy ! Got a car to take us back to the canoo. The car was going and going and going ... I couldn´t even think how we covered all that distance by foot ! Our guide also became our bell boy of the city. Out of nowhere he shows up, updates us on staff and gives us advices. Later on it became, hey Raul, can you go find Geoff and tell him that we´ll meet him in that restaurant ... 20 minutes later ... hey Raul, can you tell him that we´ll be late :) Hey Raul, can you buy us some chicken and 20 bananas :))))
The locals told us that this place was under the supervision of gorillas some years ago, but everybody loved it. They didn´t hurt anybody and only grew cocaine in the village, and on the contrary were very fair, and the village had a lot of money because of it. A bunch of people were even upset when the army came in! Very interesting ! We feel so safe in here. We walk alone at night, with no light, and feel 100% safe, there is never anything happening in here. First of all because there are only 4000 people, and 2nd of all because there are 5 army bases around here guarding the place. Today, the road block finished, suddenly the stores are full of food, fruits, bread, all the prices dropped in half. We went to some other river to hang out. And now we´re going to relax, drink coffee, sit on the street enjoy the city and later on see how a cow gonna be slaughtered, and tomorrow we´ll eat it :))
Oh and btw, we got burned !!! Can´t move. Any move is followed by awwuu awwwuuuuu!!!! Such a difference in color between covered and not covered areas. It hurts to look up, or to put on/take off any cloths, even if their on and touch the skin it hurts, or when we move the arm and it involves a move in the shoulder ... aaawwwuuuuuuuuuu !!!! :))) But it´s better now, we found aloa vera growing, and got covered in it head to tow :) Btw, half a day later and everything is fine, nothing hurts anymore, the power of nature !! :)
On the way back on the plane, we asked the pilot if he could take us above the river, so he did, we got really low, like 50 meters off the ground, and suddanly he sharply turns the plane 90 degrees and flies like that above every turn of the river. I screamed from fear, but it was so exciting that I didn't mind :)
Such a trip, looked like every step on the way was such a challange, everything/everybody just was against us going, misinformation, hassle, 12 hour round trip, dirt, mud, not knowing what to do ... but it all turned out to be one of the most fascinating trips of my life. Memories forever and much stronger abs from all the laughter :))
Getting ready to leave for the hike, got to have a manicure first :) The girl was working on me for good 45 minutes, and it cost only $2.50 !
Eva, Geoff (from Cali) and myself are going for a hike to the most beautiful river in the world !!!!
www.youtube.com/watch?v=SQiQ6GXMTG0
Of course there is no information about it at all ! There were a lot of places in Colombia that were dangerous 5 years ago, now they´re all safe, but people around still think it´s dangerous. Everybody we talked to basically told us not to go, or that they did´t even hear about the place, have no idea where it is or how to get there, or basically said that we are crazy! Even the office of department of Colombian national parks said that this park is closed ! Anyway, not listening to anybody, off we go !
Got to the mid point town 3 hours from Bogota. Yeah !!! It´s a warm weather ! Me and Eva started jumping up and down from joy ! :) A week of rain, wind and cold in Bogota didn´t do us well at all ! In town we were asking around how to get to the river, and some people told us that we need to take a bus to another town, and from there take a boat on the river ... alright then. It´s evening.... we´re walking on the street and suddanly i feel worse and worse and worse, and in 5 minutes my head hurts, my stomach hurts, I can´t walk, can´t think, can´t keep my eyes open. So I went into the hotel to sleep. The whole night I was freezing in 30 degree weather, with a winter wool shirt, and a blanket, couldn´t sleep at all. We went on the bus early morning which was suppose to take us 6 hours to the city. I tried to sleep on the bus, but every bump on the road felt like somebody is pounding on my head with a hammer ... 3 hours later, I open my eyes and feel completely fine ! That was way too weird !!! Finally getting some sleep, but the bus stops and everybody is getting out... are we there yet?? I thought we have a few more hours to go. Wait a minute why does Geoff stand with his hands on the head facing a bus and getting searched??? Ohhhhh ... it's just another police checkpoint, but the women are not getting searched, so all is good ... going back to sleep :)
Finally at our destination !
We got off the bus, went to a police station for some information, all the police got out, and was looking at us like what the hell are we doing in there?? Do we know where we are?? They never saw turists in the city ! But that´s ok! Everybody is trying to make us happy. They say that there is no boat, and even if there was, they wouldn´t allow us to get in it, but no problem, this is a great and beautiful city, why do we even need the river, anything we want is right there, why won´t we stay there for a few days enjoy and relax ... and meanwhile our thoughts are ... how the hell do we get out of here, and when is the next bus back :) but anyway, we decided to stay for the night and relax for a bit. meanwhile the next minute, the police talks between themselves, and assigns us a guide! So this guide takes our bags, tries to find us a place to stay, knocks off half the price from the hotel. Shows us the views and the streets. Tells us the history of the place. In the evening all the soldiers tried to take the next day off for us to show around, so they all started to call their luitenants (or whoever) to ask for a permission to take a day off :) We were laughing so hard. It looked like the luitenant says, "you, guard the river, you go to the tower, you check the surrounding, and you ... you make sure the tourists have a good time in here" :) meanwhile all the citizens are stearing at us, not even hiding it. They never ever saw tourists before ... talk about travelling off the beaten path !! Note to yourself : ALWAYS take make up to the jungle !!! :))
There was this "rock city" which was quite far away, and on taxi is $20, which for here is ALOT ! But, what do you know, in the morning, we get a knock on the door and 2 soldiers did get a permission to take a day off and are ready on their motorcycles to take us on the tour ! Alrighly then ! Although we were hoping to go on a police car, but oh well :( ;)
The ride was awsome. So many rocks and sand, such an uneven road, I have no idea how we didn´t fall. I think the guy was the best driver I ever saw ! And ofcouse, the guy from such a macho and serious police man, turned into a kid who jumps up and down from a sight of a candy without uniform :) After that experience with them, we´re not scared from police and army people anymore, they´re such softies, who are always willing to flirt :) but to help and show around as well. We even thought that whenever we´ll get to the new city, we should just go the police station instead of a turist information center :)) We left 1 cell phone in the hotel room, and some police guy called 7 times in 1 hour!
The rock city was amazing !!! So many caves and tunnels, we saw bats, climbed a few huge rocks, went through tunnels that could fit only 1 person half the size, so pretty !!! Untouched by any polution, or tourist´s garbage, pure nature, there were no hiking paths, just going and trying to find our way through the jungle. The police guys showed us around, help us climb, they´re so strong, we felt like we were flying a few times when they helped us up :)
The next morning we took the first bus back to the mid point. After we left we still got like 5 calls back from the police guys asking if we were alright, if we needed anything. They asked about the river and how to get there, and found some special deals with hotels. And called again to make sure that we took these deals. :))
Back in the city, we renewed our visa in Colombia so we could stay one more month! Man what a headache ! It took us 3 hours, 4 passport pictures, 2 sets of finger prints, blood type test, photocopies of all documents a long form and a $35 fee ! But that´s ok, it´s worth it :) It´s just you get 2 months when you get into the country, and to renew for just 1 more month is such a hassle !
Early morning (and that was the 3rd day when we woke up at 5 am) we went to the airport to catch a flight to the river. The flight is super expensive! $185! It costs less to fly to miami ! Found one flight for $155 !! Yes !! But, we didn´t have money, and ofcourse the airport didn´t have any ATM. So back to the city center ... grrr !!! When we got back to the airport, it turned out that somebody died in that city where we were going to, and a bunch of people showed up at the airport and booked all the cheap flights :( 6 hours of negotiations later, we finally decided to get the tickets on the last plane with the most expensive price and just go ! The plane ride was very interesting ! 1 hour 15 minutes just the 3 of us and the pilot, flying above oceans of grass and jungle and nothing else around. The pilot turned out to be very cute !!! Note to yourself again : TAKE MAKE UP TO THE JUNGLE !!! :))
Got to that little town of Macarena. Population 4000. I think this is the most amazing and relaxing place we´ve ever been to. This is a place where people, mud, donkeys, horses, pigs and internet coexist together :) Everybody is just soooo friendly. 2 hours later we already recognize a lot of the faces :) We got to the hotel which is extremely cute, clean and cheap, booked a guide for the next day for our hike. 10 pm, all lights in the city shut down !!! There is not a single light bulb and it´s pitch dark, this is soooo cooooooollll !!!! :)))) So we and the pilot :) went into the park with 1 candle to play cards :) The sky was the most beautiful sky I ever saw, It was such a clear night, and you could see all the starts shining so brightly, and there were millions of them. I have never ever saw such a beautiful night sky before ! So we´re in the park, all the wildlife is around us, so many different bugs, and animal sounds. Plus all the soldiers gathered around us to see how we play :) So interesting how these people change from serious like to guffy like in a matter of seconds. Of course it´s still a bit scary when you´re surrounded by 10s of soldiers with their full gear on !!! :) Geoff lost the game, so he gave us a show of the Macarena dance in front of everybody :) We walked the pilot guy to the hotel and tried to get back to ours. 3 people walking in pitch dark with 1 candle ... and it just rained in the afternoon. The whole street is full of mud knee deep, and all you could hear is "shit !!! damn it !!!" while we are trying to guess where there is less mud :) finally we got stuck in the middle of the street with mud all around us, and we can´t help but laugh our heads off, while it looks like the candle is gonna burn out any second now. I can´t move because there is mud, and because my stomach hurts from laughter, and what do you know, some soldiers heard us and came to us with flashlights to the rescue :) This turning off the light thing was such an experience. 10 minutes before you feel that people are kinda in a hurry to get home, 5 minutes before, everybody is just nervously looking around trying to do last minute stuff. Feels like having a wax, you kinda know that it's gonna hurt, but not sure exactly when. Brushing the teeth, trying to predict the second it will turn out, nothing yet, nothing yet .... AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA !!!! ok, it happened, now how the hell do I find my toothbrush and the way back to the room :) 4 nights later, and the same reaction every time ... this is sooo cooolll !! :)))
5 am ... BAM BAM BAM !!!! We´re jumping up !!! what happened ?? Ooooooooooh! the church bells are ringing waking all the people up ! And if once is not enough, it will ring again at 5:15, 5:30, 5:45, until you have no choice but to get up. Barely can open our eyes, we get off the bed, and what do you know? The whole village is already up, restaurants serving breakfasts, construction is on full speed ! So we have our breakfast and go on the hike ! This place is in the middle of nowhere, so there is just either a plane or a small road on which it takes a whole day on a car, so everything is brought in. It also was our luck that the road got blocked, all the food stoped, stores are empty, no electricity, the prices are double, but we´re loving it, this is fun !!! :))) So the gasoline is $5 per litre! Everything that has to do with transportation is so overpriced in here ! We took a canoo to the other side of the river that runs on an engine, and 5 minutes 1 way, 5 another costs $20 !!! But oh well, it only took us a week to get here, might as well ! 2.5 hours by foot just to get to the river, finally we made it ! Oh my god the beauty ! We just stood there taking gazilions of pictures both digital and mental. This river is called either "the 5 color river" or "the crystal river". There is alge growing in it, and it´s red in color, the water is crystal clear, waterfalls are everywhere. There are some nature made holes and swimming pools. Just amazing beauty ! We were walking the whole day in it, above it, and around it. Going to different places and different branches of the river. 12 hours of non stop hike we´re exausted but happy ! Got a car to take us back to the canoo. The car was going and going and going ... I couldn´t even think how we covered all that distance by foot ! Our guide also became our bell boy of the city. Out of nowhere he shows up, updates us on staff and gives us advices. Later on it became, hey Raul, can you go find Geoff and tell him that we´ll meet him in that restaurant ... 20 minutes later ... hey Raul, can you tell him that we´ll be late :) Hey Raul, can you buy us some chicken and 20 bananas :))))
The locals told us that this place was under the supervision of gorillas some years ago, but everybody loved it. They didn´t hurt anybody and only grew cocaine in the village, and on the contrary were very fair, and the village had a lot of money because of it. A bunch of people were even upset when the army came in! Very interesting ! We feel so safe in here. We walk alone at night, with no light, and feel 100% safe, there is never anything happening in here. First of all because there are only 4000 people, and 2nd of all because there are 5 army bases around here guarding the place. Today, the road block finished, suddenly the stores are full of food, fruits, bread, all the prices dropped in half. We went to some other river to hang out. And now we´re going to relax, drink coffee, sit on the street enjoy the city and later on see how a cow gonna be slaughtered, and tomorrow we´ll eat it :))
Oh and btw, we got burned !!! Can´t move. Any move is followed by awwuu awwwuuuuu!!!! Such a difference in color between covered and not covered areas. It hurts to look up, or to put on/take off any cloths, even if their on and touch the skin it hurts, or when we move the arm and it involves a move in the shoulder ... aaawwwuuuuuuuuuu !!!! :))) But it´s better now, we found aloa vera growing, and got covered in it head to tow :) Btw, half a day later and everything is fine, nothing hurts anymore, the power of nature !! :)
On the way back on the plane, we asked the pilot if he could take us above the river, so he did, we got really low, like 50 meters off the ground, and suddanly he sharply turns the plane 90 degrees and flies like that above every turn of the river. I screamed from fear, but it was so exciting that I didn't mind :)
Such a trip, looked like every step on the way was such a challange, everything/everybody just was against us going, misinformation, hassle, 12 hour round trip, dirt, mud, not knowing what to do ... but it all turned out to be one of the most fascinating trips of my life. Memories forever and much stronger abs from all the laughter :))
Monday, October 12, 2009
Armenia - Selento - Bogota pix
again ... bottom to top
Drilling holes for the dinamites
Hard at work
Salt mine ... tried to take lots of pictures, but they really didn't turn out too well
Bogota
Botero
Our great couch surfer Beto
Our pet :)
... and in a more modern way
Getting the seeds out
Eva is picking the coffee in winter cloths
Cloths for the summer
Why would anybody in their right mind dress up like that ? :O)
In the coffee plantation
Couldn't take my eyes off of this view
Armadilo
Racoon looking thingi
See through batterfly
I'm crossing the river
Eva is crossing the river
Starting our hike
Colorful Selento
Amazing view from Armenia ... that's where we saw hamming bird and parrots
City center in Armenia
Cali from above
Still have some energy to do heavy lifting :)
climbing up to 3 crosses in Cali
salsa again ... or is it? :))
Drilling holes for the dinamites
Hard at work
Salt mine ... tried to take lots of pictures, but they really didn't turn out too well
Bogota
Botero
Our great couch surfer Beto
Our pet :)
... and in a more modern way
Getting the seeds out
Eva is picking the coffee in winter cloths
Cloths for the summer
Why would anybody in their right mind dress up like that ? :O)
In the coffee plantation
Couldn't take my eyes off of this view
Armadilo
Racoon looking thingi
See through batterfly
I'm crossing the river
Eva is crossing the river
Starting our hike
Colorful Selento
Amazing view from Armenia ... that's where we saw hamming bird and parrots
City center in Armenia
Cali from above
Still have some energy to do heavy lifting :)
climbing up to 3 crosses in Cali
salsa again ... or is it? :))
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