Tganga, Christmas, Tyrona and Cartagena

The Christmas period didn´t go precisely to plan due to our little group being hit by an ongoing bout of random illnesses. It all started when Tom fell over on Ciudad Perdida and twisted his ankle. Following that we stayed at a camp on the trip where Eli got really bad vomiting illness of some kind, the common travellers bug but particularly not fun when you still have 2 days to walk. We got back to Tganaga safely where we had a big night out which Chris took on with all his energy consuming the majority of the 2 lt bottle of rum, it was funny until the next day when he contracted the Eli bug as well, followed shortly by Tom. Chris made it through the day and we ended up on the random boat trip which I have no photos of because I was just wandering down the beach at the time.

Tom chilling in our apartment:

On Christmas eve Eli, Chris and I headed over to Santa Marta to shop which was a bit of a disaster because it turned out to be a massively busy shopping day for some reason. Anyway, I had no shortage of sunglasses to chose from, we though these were funny pics:

In the evening Eli, Rafael and I made a good attempt at the other bottle of rum before we went to the dinner. This is Raf and Eli playing poc-ite!
Unfortunately Eli made a bit too much of a good attempt and ended up cutting his evening short. Raf and I perservered through and ended up in `El Garage` (the only club) until the early hours. Tom by this point was staying in bed, Chris was with Ranie and Simon did the sensible thing and didn´t go clubbing.

I suffered the next day. Christmas was a very hung over day involving lots of siestas and limited eating, actually all I ate was homemade pancakes which were very good. By the evening I had gone down with the virus and spent the whole night dashing to the loo. I´ve never vomited so much, it was miserable.

Tganga wasn´t proving to be a healthy place so Boxing day we decided to go to Tyrona. One of Ranie´s friends, a lovey guy called Moras, drove me, Eli, Chris and Ranie to the National Park. I was better but not full of energy and it wasn´t the best idea. I had thought it was going to be an 40min walk and then I could relax but I instead ended up walking for about 3 hours carrying all my stuff. I wasn´t so happy. It is a beautiful place though and eventually we settled at a campsite and I got a hammock and went to sleep.

The next day I woke up having been bitten 32 times on my face. Not happy. Actually it was more funny than anything because Eli is unable to have a serious conversation so I was laughing before I´d even got out of my hammock, good thing he was there! I still couldn´t eat much, and I had a horrible headache, possibly caused by mass biting, so I stayed around the campsite most of the day. Simon and Tom pitched up which was nice but Tom was still not well and got steadily worse over the next two days. I spent three nights in Tyrona and met lots of people who had been in Tganga as well, there was a nice little group by the last day who are hopefully all going to be together for New Years.

This is Tyrona National Park, the Colombians are very proud of it with good reason but I don´t think I was able to make the most of my time there:

Ranie is a very spirital person, very into yoga, crystals, bindis and ummmms. It´s not totally my thing but the others got into it a little. This is Lewis playing one of Ranies un-namable instruments and Ranie preparing crystals for us all to wear. Lying next to Lewis is his other half, Collette, from Watford!! Hopefully they will be around for New Years.

With Tom still not 100% or anywhere near, Simon and Tom decided to stay in Santa Marta and Eli and I headed off to Cartagena with the responibility of finding accomodation. We got to Cartagena about 9ish last night, 29th Dec, and managed to find somewhere for us to stay in a hotel. The hostels here are rammed and there are travellers wandering the streets trying to find beds. It is a very cool city though and I´m looking forward to New Years here. We went wandering round the old town last night which is still lit up with Christmas lights, which may I add are so much better here than in England. I´m still not feeling 100%, got a headache and am quite tired so poor Eli had to deal with me in a strop last night - whoops.

This is Cartagena old town by night:

Ciudad Perdida

From Bogota I got the bus overnight to Santa Marta with three English guys I had met in the hostel, Simon, Eli and Tom. We went to stay in Hostel Miramar which had a nice vibe but it a world away from the Cranky Croc in quality. There we met up with an Aussie called Chris who the guys know from previous travelling.

The next day we booked up the Lost City trek and went to Tganga, a near by fishing village to book accomodation for Christmas and chill out on the beach. It´s nice to be near the Carribean Sea and it is seriously hot weather here. It was a chilled out day, lots of food, sun and sleep.

On the Wednesday we started our trek to Ciudad Perdida. It´s 3 days walking up there, a bit of time there and 3 days back again. 5 nights in total. We stayed in hammocks at make shift camps where they cooked amazing food on fires in tiny kitchens. It was really good fun. The walking wasn´t too hard and there were lots of rivers to swim in and cross which broke it up. We were twinned with another group of 3 Korean girls and a swiss guys. The girls couldn´t really speak english or spanish so communication proved difficult so I can´t say I got to know them at all. The Swiss guy, Rafael, was cool though and hung around with us. The scenary was awesome, trekking through the mountains in jungle and passing by indigenous communities - all good. It´s better explained with some photos...

First Day, first swim. From left to right, Pedro the cook, Missiel the guide, Simon, Eli, Chris, Tom, Me and Rafael.

Pineapple stop after a massive hill, very sweaty photo!

Oranges and swim stop!

Indigenous village with not a soul in sight, they are very shy.

The whole group on day 2.

The boys on one of many river crossings

Missiel, me and Eli having reached the lower tear of the Lost city

The top!

The Lost City is protected by loads of army guys to stop the tourists being kidnapped. Chris had the balls to ask one of the solders if we could pose with his gun. It was funny because this solder whipped out his own camera because he wanted photos of me with the gun as well!

We had a tour round the lost city on the evening of the 3rd day and morning of the 4th day but only stayed there one night which was good because the accomodation up there was cramped. There isn´t actually that much to see there because most was destroyed by the founders when the stole all the gold etc but it is pretty amazing anyway and the trek was good fun.

Me swinging on the vines.

View at the top. This area was also used as a helicopter pad when one of the girls from another group dislocated her knee...!

On our way back down we had a free afternoon so Missiel took us to a waterfall he used to play in as a kid. We followed a track to the top of the waterfall then climbed down the waterfall itself to swim at the bottom and stand under it. Only Chris and I went with the guides, it was like a little undiscovered paradise, really beautiful and inaccesable.








Unfortunately on the 4th day (still two days to go) Tom fell over and badly hurt his ankle. He was treated by the indigenous people which was very interesting and is doing quite well now but at the time he couldn´t walk. Missiel carried him to the camp and then he spent the next two days on a donkey!








The last day. Rafael, Chris, Simon and me.

After the trek we came to Tganga and got our apartment and had a crazy night out playing games and swimming at 2am etc. It was fun. This isTganga...

It´s not the most beautiful of places actually but the vibe here is really good and everyone is really chilled out. Had a random day yesterday, ended up on a boat trip with 2 English guys, Mark and Michael, 2 English girls, Chrisy and Jenny, a girl from the beach called ranie and Chris. It was fun and random, we went to deserted beaches and drunk rum! Even more randomly Mark knows my brother!

Today is Christmas eve so I am going to go swim before the big party kicks off!!!

Botoga

I´m staying in The Cranky Croc Hostel, Botoga and it is such a nice place I would definitely stay here again. On Friday I wandered round the old town, Plaza Boliviar and went to the Police Museum and a Fernando Botero museum. The police museum is apparently the biggest of police museum in the world. It´s free and I had a free guided tour by one of the boys on military service which was great. You get to see mug shots of all the drug lords etc, After that I went to the Botero museum, he´s a famous artist here who painted fat, rich people.

In the evening I cooked with 3 people from the hostel which was hilarious for all the wrong reasons then we drunk beer and sung songs around the fire in the hostel sitting room.

Cathedral in Plaza Boliviar:


Plaza Boliviar:

A typical Botero painting:



On Saturday a group of us hiked up to the top of the Monserrate Hill which overlooks the city and has a big church on top. I went with 2 English guys Tom and Eli, an Aussie girl called Crystal and a Canadian called Gregory.


Me and Eli having just reached the top...yuk!
Bailing out and getting the funnicular down, Eli, Gregory and me:

Afterwards Gregory and I went to the Museo d´oro which is huge and has a pretty amazing collection of gold, like below: We then went wandering round the back streets of Bogota:
And through empty markets:
In the evening Greg, Eli and I went to the circus....It was pretty cool apart from we were late and only actually saw 45mins worth of show! They put four men on moterbikes in a big silver ball and they drove round and round all at the same time which was impressive. Also, as the above photo, men in a pendulum and various other tricks. We out for drinks afterwards and didn´t get to bed until 6am again...!

Wizzing through South Colombia

Monday morning I finally decided that I would go to Colombia and jumped on a bus to Tulcan, made my way across the border (very simple) and got to Pasto. It was a beautiful journey through the andes, long but good to do but day. When I arrived at Pasto I immediately met two guys, Matt from Derby and Chris from New Jersey, in the hostel. We went out to eat, then went to a bar, then played pool and got chatting to some locals who we ended up hanging out with all night. Don´t think I made it to bed before 4am.

The next day after some interesting breakfast we went to a lake nearby. We all went swimming but Chris bailed saying it was too cold for him but it was great until we got out and it started to rain. Got a boat across the lake to a little island with a nature reserve and wandered round that, it was like a little rain forest.

Had another crazy night on Tuesday playing pool, hanging out with a new crowd of locals and staying up all night. Wednesday, we all headed off to the bus station but we lost Chris who jumped on a bus asap. Matt and I got the bus to Cali and arrived at 11pm ish which was not fun.

The taxi driver massively tried to rip us off and we went to the Iguana Hostel which had moved location and once we did find it was a dive. Rubbish.

Views from the bus:

Cali:

I was pretty unimpressed with Cali, it´s supposed to be a great party town but I couldn´t be bothered to have a third night out so I skipped that but the town itsself has little character. After wondering round all day Thursday I jumped on a bus to Bogota.

So far I´m loving Colombia, the people are great. I arrived in Bogota early this morning and I´m staying in a great hostel called The Cranky Croc Hostel. Wandered round the old town today and went to a few museums, I like it here.