South America: October 2009

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 :))

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? :))

It's freezing in here !!!

Took the night bus to Bogota. It went for 8 hours, up and down, left and right, and it's only about 200 kms. Managed to fall asleep somehow, but the weather really depends on the altitude, so sometimes I woke up frozen, and sometimes boiling hot. I'm sure that the yoga book could be doubled after that trip. I was sleeping with my legs up, or curled up on the seat, or almost lying in the middle of the bus with just my head on the seat :)

At 6 am, got to our couch surfers appt, and crushed again till 11. The guy is so nice! His name is Beto. He's been telling us time and time again that his appartment is our appartment, and not to ask for a permission to do anything. He lives with his mom, step dad and a sister. They all really welcomed us. Made us breakfast. Beto took us on a city tour. It was really nice except that the weather here sucks !!! It's freezing ! 18 degrees at day, 9 at night, and it's raining the whole time ! And it's summer right now ! But other than that, Bogota is great! It's supper clean, very organized, kinda reminded me on Toronto though :) Big buildings, mountain views, excellent transportation system.. very industrial and commercial but with a lot of culture, museums, churches. We went to 2 museums, but mostly to hide from the rain :) One was interesting, it was of a famous Colombian painter Botero who draws fat people and things. There was also picasso, and some other painters which I don't really know.
Beto is so cool, he's very very open, so he told us all about his life, his views, ideas, adventures. He knows a lot of history, and even read about Russian culture and history before we arrived, and it looked like he knew more than us ... which is kinda embarresing :( His family is also so cool. In the morning, we wanted to make fresh lulu juice, and Eva went to make it, and his mom said no way, at least she wants to do something nice for us ... like they haven't done enough. And Beto is leaving for a weekend so we were supposed to stay until then, but his mom said that we can stay for as long as we want in here. I'm so amazed by this culture, I wish Canada was a little bit more like that. I like Bogota, but I don't think I could stay here long, it's way to cold. It's a difference between sleeping on a marble floor in Cali because it's hot, and sleeping under 2 thick wool blankets in here, and still being cold!

Today in the morning we went to a salt mine a bit outside the city. It was very interesting. The whole tour took 3 hours. Before it was a mine, but the miners are very religious, so they made a cathedral from that mine, and it's in use. They have weddings in there too. There is another mine very close by, but they make explotions only during the night because there were a few accidents a few years ago. Some gas exploded, but thank god that the fire went in some other direction, and not where the tourists where. But all of the tourists went deaf for some time, some were unconsious and some dizzy and disoriented. They also told us that there are no animal living in the mine, not even cockroches because of the toxic gases ... that made me think ... The salt mine was formed some millions years ago when the oceans began to evaporate, and left a lot of salt behind. Then the techtonic plates colided which formed the Andies mountains, and when the two mountains started to converge and close into each other, it created a mine ... probably not that clear, but oh well. at least I know what i'm talking about :) We also got to wear halmets with lights on top, and walk in pitch dark through some tunnels, and try to dig the salt from the walls :) really cool !

Saturday, October 10, 2009

Bogota ... what Bogota ???

Yesterday we went to a bus terminal to take a night bus to Bogota. We arrived there at 10, and all the seats on the buses until 2 am were already sold out !!! So we waited and waited, there were so many people trying to get in, the bus company was trying to get another bus which might arrive at 2 am. We tried to buy tickets for the next day, but there was such a chaos, that 2 hours later, we all fully tired and unable to move went back to the hotel. I thought that I´ll just drop dead on the bed, but nope, couldn´t fall asleep till 4 am. With TV on, people talking in the lobby, light right in the face, people screaming that there is something in the room, somebody came back drunk in the middle of the night and started to make too much noise :(( Barely got up at 8 am and after a freezing shower went to the bus terminal to get the tickets for a night bus for today. Got them ! So in 2 hours we´ll be on our way to Bogota. Not much else to write. Just a few random points ...
- There are buses in here, and if they don´t go somewhere, you just get off, and in most cases there will be motorbikes waiting to take you wherever you need to go. At first when we went to the Indian reserve I was freaked out and refused to take it, but now it´s ok, and it can fit 3 people somehow, so it´s cheap, fast and safe!
- When we went to the hike in Sallento, we went there on Jeeps. So they have this cool system that they deliver stuff on the way to the hike, so along an empty road there will be suddenly a 6 year old kid waiting to pick up some milk and coke :) On the way back, Eva sat on the roof on the jeep !
- Almost everybody has a cellphone in here, but the local calls are about 350 pesos, so there are a bunch of people selling minutes on the streets for 100-200. And everybody uses them. First I thought it´s just for the tourists, but no, they´re so popular! Caller ID is really useless service in here :)
- I also noticed that people are singing everywhere in here, on the streets, in the buses, in the hotels. And very loud too! Happy crowd!
- Today we went to a coffee plantation. Getting there was interesting. We just took 2 buses, but the thing is that we never know how to get anywhere. And I always have questions on my mind... are we going in the right direction? Are we going to the correct place? ... Are we gonna get there at all??? But all the time we do somehow :) So today, we got off somewhere in the middle of the road (cause somebody told us), then we went 2 kms by foot, but got there at the end! We had a private tour with Eva. Wore their typical cloths, saw how the whole process takes place from planting them, until drinking them ... not really anything that interesting. But the interesting thing is that when the beans are dry, they sell them at that point. So the other countries buy them and process them themselves. Then there were beds from bamboo to rest on, and me and Eva completely passed out for 2 hours among the chickens, ducks and turkeys :) Wanted to have some lunch, but it was way too expensive, $5 !!! Are they nuts ?? It´s a rip off!! So we protested the price and decided to stay hungry :)) On the way back to the main road (2 kms), there was a dog that was following us all the way. It was really funny. It was always looking at us, wiggling it´s tail. But the thing is that we passed many other dogs on the way who were barking and doing their dog fights thingis .. and that dog was always hiding next to us, and using us as his protection, so a few times it was pretty scary being surrounded by 4 dogs chasing each other, barking, showing their teeth! Then it waited for the bus with us :)) Somebody even told us that we can´t take our dog on the bus :))
- Oh, and we tried "prostokvasha" today ... Russain people will know :))

Friday, October 9, 2009

Sallento

A few things forgot to mention in the previous blog is that when we got to Armenia, all the hotels were booked !! so we were walking around for half an hour with these heavy bags with a guy who sold stuff on the street, so he assisted us all the way! The hotel is pretty crappy, but it costs $5 per room per night, so i guess it´s not too bad. Later on the owner of the hotel asked us if we were registered, we said no, so he´s like ok. what´s your names? and we said Eva and Yana, and he didn´t write it down or anything ... so weird. We were supposed to wake up pretty early to leave for a hike in Sallento, so i asked him if there would be anybody up to open the door since it´s too early. well ... i got up at 3 am with people walking around, buzzing the door bells, choosing melodies for their cellphones. and when it was 5:30 the whole hotel was already up! Got to Sallento at 10 am. and we pretty much were by ourselves. They offered us to take a horse ride, but it was way too expensive, $40 for 3 hours, so we decided to take a walk with a guide... well, there was no guide, just a map in the "tourist information" with nobody there. There was some local guy and showed us the path on the map, and so we two girls with some bread and 5 bananas, went up the dirty rood up to the mountain. at first it was kinda freaky since we didn´t really know where we were going, but it turned out to be fine. we were just following the horse droppings ... ahhh their fresh, it has to be that way ! :)) the path we wanted to walk on was closed, so we had to climb a few fences with a barbed wire :) we were walking 3 kms straight up the mountain, but it was really cool. we saw a bunch of birds, see through butterflies, something that looks like a raccoon, and an armadilo (maybe). the armadilo was funny. we just saw it, and froze in place, my camera was ready, and we were scared to breath not to scare it away, but then it was just casually walking towards us, like it was saying, hey move it, you´re on my way :)) and it stopped right beside us, like a meter away ! this was soooo cooolll !!!!! pix to follow ofcourse ! overall the hike was amazing, really beautiful views and interesting wildlife. got a bit lost on the way, and ended up on somebody´s private property. were kinda scared to climb through the fances again, but nobody saw us ... feefhhh :)) when we got back to our starting point, we just missed a jeep back to the town, and had to wait until 6 people gather to fill up another jeep, so it was quite a long wait (i think something like an hour). so we´re all too tired right now, and we´re gonna take an 8 hour bus ride to Bogota. I couldn´t find earplugs anywhere :( so I hope i could sleep somehow.

Thursday, October 8, 2009

We actually left Cali ....

in tears :(((

since the last blog post, for Eva´s birthday, we went to have a manicure in the most expensive hotel in the city, intercontinental. It was alright, I expected more from the most expensive hotel, but it was good for a change. The staff were friendly, professional, the spa was new, clean with air con ! After that we spontaniously went to get a haircut. It´s nice to have these non back packing days, and to treat yourself. In the evening went to a nice Italian restaurant, had mushroom soup, ceaser salad, cheesecake and wine ... ahhhhh .... I finally felt like a person :))
We were supposed to leave Cali on Thursday, but then we came up with every excuse to stay longer and longer. So for the whole week we were "leaving tomorrow". It´s so nice, feels like home. We knew everybody, had our favourite restaurants, and juice places, where we could get 2 glasses of fresh fruit juice with a bunch of fruit pieces for 50 cents. We had our routine, and enjoyed really every single day, so we couldn´t even think of leaving that soon.
Went for a hike in the mountain in the city, up to 3 crosses. That was one difficult hike, although it was great ! Amazing views of the city and the surrounding, extremely challenging, and on the top there is even a whole gym outside ! We even went in the rain, but it was all worth it !

Finally we left Cali ... couldn´t sleep the night before, and cried for quite some time :(( Went to the bus terminal, and the bus waited for more people to fill it up, well that took a whole hour, and constant moving from 1st floor to 2nd floor, from one gate to another ... very annoying, specially with the crazy heavy backpack ! But the trip on the bus was very nice, it ended up being a small minivan that fit 8 people, so without any stops we got to Armenia. The views were amazing on the way, and Armenia itself it so much prettier than Cali. People actuall dress up very nice, streets are clean, it´s so much safer, without every house having 3 fenses and metal bars in the windows, a lot of coffee places (since this is a coffee county, and for the first time in Colombia we tried a good coffee !! Finally !!!) Air is fresh, everybody is selling fresh fruits and juices on the road, we´re just walking on the streets with big big eyes, and even bigger mouths :) trying to eat everything that we see :)) and everything just seems brighter and more colorful. Still missing Cali though ... So we went just to sit on the street and relax with a view of the mountains in clouds ... while sitting there, we saw blue parrots, a humming bird, another big bird, and 2 dogs :))
there is such a difference in Colombia between every city, although they´re so close together. sometimes it´s a busy city, sometimes it´s a jungle, sometimes a resort town, so we really enjoy exploring different parts of it.
Gotta go to sleep now, since tomorrow we´re leaving on a 7 hour hike in what is supposed to be one of the most beautiful places in Colombia, so we´ll see ...

Buenos noches!! ;)