GALAPAGOS!!

9th April 2010

And so began the Galapagos wallet robbing exercise, as at Guayaquil airport we had to pay for a $10 tourist card only for us to pay a further $100 tourist tax upon arrival at Baltra airport in the Galapagos. I must have spent about $2,000 in the 7 days I was there!

I was picked up at Baltra, along with 3 other, by my guide Pablo and we were bussed to the jetty and taken out to our boat for the next 4 nights, Galaven II, operated by GAP adventures (everyone else on board had booked through GAP). Luckily I was one of only 8 passengers on board the boat that would take 16 and I had the biggest cabin all to myself. Despite booking Tourist Superior class this was properly luxury with ensuite bathrooms with hot water, toilets that operated on a conventional flushing system (not one of these horrible pump ones) etc. G'dad could take some tips on comfortable boat living....

We went straight off for a snorkelling tour at North Seymour island, one of the small islands around Santa Cruz. The water was a pretty comfortable temperature which was a real luxury. The coral in the Galapagos isn't all that exciting, but there are some cool fish and stuff to keep you occupied. And on top of that you've got the really cool stuff - on this snorkel we were joined by sea lions swimming around us which was really scary at first but also really amazing. They're just like labradors - will swim right up to your face and then head off and play with something and then come back to say hi again.

From there we went for a walk on North Seymour Island which is the one famous for the frigate birds (see pics of birds with bright red bubbles on their chests). It was amazing to get so close to the animals, although this did mean about half of us got shat on!! We also saw the Blue Footed Boobies and their daft waddles and whistling, Galapagos Iguanas, little lava lizards and sea lions everywhere!

Our afternoon entertainment consisted of the crew on the boat dangling tuna heads in the water so we were quickly joined by 3 rather large (2m or so) Galapagos Sharks circling the boat and being persuaded to jump out of the water.

Day two started off with a wee trip out to Rabida Island which was hilly and scrubby and had lots of the "Mickey Mouse" cactus trees so named for the discs that look like Mickey Mouse ears. The beach was red sand and there was a wee salt water lagoon. We saw lots of hermit crabs (and unsuccessfully tried to race them), a Galapagos Hawk, a Galapagos Flycatcher (which I think is the best photo I took) and lots of the little Lava Lizards (which were everywhere) again.

We went snorkelling from the beach with sea lions swimming all around us again (so cool) and saw the usual fish etc but also a ray flying by in the water and a large shark which swam past a couple of times.

After lunch of rice and beans followed by candied figs with cheese (the food was usually MUCH better than this!) we went off for another snorkel - this time at Puerto Egas on San Salvador island. Saw the usual plus a turtle!!! and a tiger eel which is kind of like a moray eel but much smaller and less creepy! From there we walked over some volcanic rocks to see just hundreds of marine iguanas sunning themselves on the rocks. These iguanas have slightly different heads from the land ones, are black and eat seaweed so are in the sea a lot. There were so many of them, and they were so well camoflauged against the rocks that a few of us almost stood on some of them! There were some cool rock arches and some fur seals sunning themselves.

In the evening we sat up on the sun loungers on the top deck and watched the sun go down and the stars come out which was really nice.

The next day we were on the move again pretty early to get to Sombrero Chino, a tiny little island with a perfect cone shaped volcano sloping down to the sea, covered in scrubby plants but not much else. On the island we saw tons and tons of the bright orange crabs, another Galapagos Hawk, a Lava Heron, Oystercatchers and Wandering Tattlers and the ubiquitous Iguanas and Sea Lions. The white sand beaches are apparently nothing to do with erosion, but are the result of fish eating coral to get at the algae within, and pooing out white sand!! There were also lots of lava tubes on the island, some of which had collapsed. They are rock tunnels which are formed when the top surface of flowing lava solidifies, keeping the inner lava liquid which then flows out. When they get smashed you can see inside them, and apparently Galapagos penguins like to live in the ones that open into the sea. We were also given a bit of an explanation of the geology of the islands which is pretty cool. Although the islands are up to 6m years old (the youngest being <1m),>

The next stop was at Bartolome Island which is home to the famous (I'd never heard of it!) Pinnacle Rock. The island is a moonscape of lava and volcanic sand and spatter cones and is pretty cool, but wildlife is very much limited to about 5 individual cacti and some lava lizards! And it was bloody hot! But the view from the top of the hill (walking up boardwalks rather than sand thankfully) was pretty impressive - see photos! Snorkelling off this island as cool with loads of puffer fish, chocolate chip starfish, sea cucumbers/sea slugs, but also a shark kicking back on the bottom, some underwater lava tubes, and some penguins swimming alongside us again.

In the morning we arrived at South Plazas island, a teeny one off the east coast of Santa Cruz. It was by far the prettiest so far with lots of greenery and the strange cactus trees everywhere. There were sea lions all over the jetty and you had to negotiate them to get up onto the island. There was a really cute little bird called a Yellow Warbler on the jetty too and I got some great photos, except my lens had condensation on it as it had just come out of my air-conditioned cabin. So not so great photos! We walked round on white rocks (black volcanic rocks with large amounts of calcium rich dried sea lion poo polished into them) round to the other side of the island where we saw tons of Swallow Tailed Gulls, Shearwaters, Nazca Boobies and Tropic Birds which was pretty cool.

After an unventful cruise during which I searched for mantas flying out of the water (there were none!) we arrived at Santa Fe island where we moored in a submerged crater and went snorkelling where we saw the most amazing thing. We ended up snorkelling above and in a massive school of fish that were probably only about 10-15 cms long, but what was really cool is that there were some large Galapagos sharks there too, also swimming in and amongst the fish which was really cool to see.

Having only seen one turtle at this point I was completely thrilled when, motoring to the shore for a walk, we saw about 5 turtles in the water and surfacing for breathing, plus a really big Galapagos shark which was hanging about in water so shallow that it's fins were out of the water in a scary jaws-style! When we finally landed on the shore there were yet more sea lions, Galapagos Doves, Mockingbirds and some Santa Fe Iguanas which are a separate subspecies (though I couldn't see any difference!)

That night we were dropped ashore at Puerto Ayora, the main town on Santa Cruz and, gringos that we are, went out drinking! But we'd booked our dinghy back to the boat for the (for us) late hour of 930 so it wasn't too debauched!

In the morning we were off the boat by 7am and off to the Charles Darwin centre which I imagined to be an informative kind of place, but was just a tortoise breeding centre and sanctuary. We saw lots of the baby tortoises, the arse end of Lonesome George (he wasn't up for having his picture taken!) and a group of massive males that were clearly lonely for female company.

Then I had 3 days of diving with a company called Scuba Iguana who were the most expensive (at $160 a day) on the island, but also seemed the most professional with the best reviews. They were super organised. We were driven off to the other side of the island in trucks and hung around whilst the staff loaded the massive and well equipped speed boat. And for the diving all we had to do was haul on our (7mm - excessive!) wetsuits and they did everything else including putting our fins on and strapping us into our bcds. Easy peasy!! The only really challenging part of the exercise was wearing 12kg of weight (due to thick wetsuits and salty water). I should have been wearing more, but couldn't face trying to hand a belt that heavy up to the boat at the end! Strangely I was hardly using any air on the dives. Most people were coming up with about 300psi in their tanks and I ranged from 1,000-1,500psi surfacing, even after I'd had additional time underwater - v weird.

Over the 6 dives we went to Cousins Rocks, Bartolome, North Seymour (2 dives), Beagle Rocks and Daphne minor. And we saw all sorts of cool things including Pacific Seahorses, Stonefish that exactly matched the coral, schools of eagle rays including some massive ones, loads of turtles, a chinese lobster (which looks like an alien!), stingrays, loads of black tipped and white tipped reef sharks and galapagos sharks, sea lions, some weird garden eel things that looked like weeds growing out of the sand and of course, tons of fish, starfish, urchins, morays etc. Highlights were the seahorses, a cave full of 8 white tip reef sharks which swam to within 1 foot of our faces (v cool!) and 2 HAMMERHEADS!!

Arriving back in Guayaquil the next day, I met two lovely Sydney girls called Sarah and Megan and we went to the football! It was a match between Barcelona (the most popular team in Ecuador) and Cuenca and it was completely nuts. We bought ourselves some yellow Barcelona football shirts in a futile attempt to blend in (no chance esp with Megan's blonde hair) and dutifully queued past the mayhem and huge police horses to get into the stadium. The stadium was probably 99% Barcelona fans with only about 40 Cuenca fans (the poor souls). The Barcelona fans were nuts with fireworks going off, loads of drumming, chanting, banners etc. I've no idea what the score was as we arrived late, left early and there was no scoreboard, but whilst we were there Barcelona scored 2 goals to Cuenca's 1 (I think!).

And from there on to the beach at Montanita......

Ecuador - Cuenca and Guayaquil

27th March 2010

After an 8 hour bus ride I turned up in Cuenca in the evening and went to El Cafecito, a great little hostel/restaurant/bar, as recommended by the lovely Susie. Met tons of nice new people and we all went out to an amazing resturant that cooked up fantastic hot plates of meat (I had pasta!) with hundreds of side dishes which was pretty cool.

The following day was Palm Sunday so I met up with Rob (who I'd met in Cuenca) and Abi and Hannah again for a wee stroll around town to see all the festivities (which mainly comprised the churches being packed out of the doors and lots of people walking around with foliage). Had a nice wee stroll round the outside of the museum (it was closed) and back along a really pretty river running through town and followed it up with the usual evening entertainment of eating and drinking.

The next day Rob and I went for brekkie and then got the bus 2 1/2 hours back towards Banos to go to some pretty amazing Canari/Inca ruins called Ingapirca. Not quite the scale of Machu Picchu or anything, but a pretty big site all the same and really interesting - it's a fusion of local Canari moon worship and Inca sun worship, all laid out in the shape of a jaguar. The countryside in the mountains is really beautiful - really green and lush with lots of farmland and picturesque mountain landscapes.

I pretty much just hung out with my new friends for the rest of the week, visiting the viewpoint, going to the museum (cool shrunken heads!), eating a lot, fighting about the use of the term "America/American" to mean the US rather than the continent etc. Also managed to be the victim of an attempted mugging, in broad daylight, along with my friend Kathleen. Four guys approached us and tried to grab my bag from my shoulder, but I shouted, screamed, held on etc and they gave up and walked off. Noone nearby (there was a car full of locals and a family standing nearby) came to our aid. Kind of threw me off my stride for a few days but I didn't lose anything and wasn't injured so it wasn't that bad. There were a few other people at our hostel who were also the victim of attempted muggings, but in each case the muggers got nothing so they should probably look for a new line of work....

I didn't manage to formulate a plan to leave before the Easter festivities, and travel would have been a bit troublesome whilst it was going on, so I stayed for Easter. Learnt lots of specifics such as time of death etc from locals which was kind of interesting, and saw a big parade going by, complete with floats depicting the series of events (not quite sure why Jesus was chained to a chicken in one of them!) and everyone in mourning as they walked by. Was kind of interesting. On Good Friday the hostel was serving special soup with 12 kinds of beans and jesus represented by 1/4 of a boiled egg. My religious knowledge increases in leaps and bounds......

Us foreigners, having no access to Cadbury's on such a high holiday, settled for hot chocolate with a dash of rum, and huge slabs of chocolate cake on Easter Sunday.

After Easter Kathleen (my attempted mugging buddy) and I headed off on a bus, through the really beautiful Cajas national park, on roads that were being freshly concreted (and therefore one way with tons of delays) down the hills and onto the flat, hot, humid plains towards the coast and the big city of Guayaquil. Kathleen went off couch surfing and I got a completely mental taxi driver (muttering under his breath that I couldn't speak Spanish when all I didn't understand was ONE VERB in the entire conversation we had about the weather, where I was going, where I was from etc!) off to a hostel.

The next day started off oppressively hot and humid and sweaty, but my new friend Mike and I braved the local bus to get into town and go to a little city park which had the added bonus of massive iguanas running free and a lake full of turtles and then off to the Malecon which is a boardwalk alongside a massive brown, slow moving river. We had heard tales of Guayaquil being massively renovated and a shiny example of modern city living and suchlike, but in reality it was just a bit dull, with a strip mall and food stalls serving friend food. Would not like to have seen the place before it was spruced up! There was a good culture and contemporary arts museum at one end though which had lots of interesting stuff and was airconditioned. We ended the day, together with an American called Paul, at one of the seafood stands near the hostel, bashing open crabs with a mallet and sucking out all the flesh. I only ended up with minor injuries so judged the experience a success!

And then to the fun stuff: I decided, a little bit on a whim, and probably having a lot to do with the fact that my hostel was also a travel agency, to go to the Galapagos. In one day I managed to sort out my boat trip and accompanying flights, leaving the next day (no reason to hang around in Guayaquil), acquire all the cash to pay for it and get to the mall to buy an underwater camera.

Ecuador - Quito and Banos

17th March 2010

After the slightly strange border crossing into Ecuador, we all (Abi, Hannah, Tristan and I) piled onto a super cheap ($4 for 5 hours) bus ride down to Quito. Checked in at the Blue House Hostel in the New Town (aka Gringolandia) area of Quito. It happened to be St Paddy's day so out we went. Firstly for Vietnamese food from a wee Irish owned place called Uncle Ho's (their logo is similar to the 1 love NY logo - use your imagination!) and then, after a wee detour to the hospital for Tristan to get a rabies shot after being bitten by a dog, off to Finn McCool's pub for a couple of shandy's. Good night had by all!

The girls and I went out for a wee wander the next day in weather that alternated between scorchio and tropical downpours. We managed to walk around much of the Old Town without actually going inside or seeing very much! Didn't manage to make it into the governer's palace, into any churches (they wanted money!) or up any of the numerous viewing places!

The girls headed off into the jungle and I faffed around for a bit before taking the bus down to a fantastic town called Banos (there's a squiggle thing over the n so it sounds like Banyos). I was only there for a day before Susie who I'd met in Cartagena was in touch to say she was also there. It was great to have someone to pal about with. She introduced me to the BEST HOSTEL IN THE WORLD aka La Casa Verde which was a little way out of town, but soooo worth it. It's run by a great Aus/NZ couple and it's a really beautiful place with gorgeous bathrooms (these things matter) and homemade soda bread plus other goodies for breakfast.

Susie and I went white water rafting which was great, but a little scary. We started the day with tequila in fresh sugar can juice then got on the water. The guide flipped the boat on purpose and surfacing under an upturned boat can be a little scary. The second time was worse as it was unplanned and we were still going down white water! The water was really a really pleasant temperature and the scenery was stunning. We saw even more of the scenery when they took us on a four hour truck ride (we were in the back!) through the jungle on the way back, just to drop some people off.

Susie and I also managed to get to the thermal baths where the options of pools were either scalding, even hotter, or bloody freezing. We just about managed to get into the scalding one for a wee while. I also met up with Abi and Hannah again (I met them in Salento and travelled to Quito with them) and the evil madams that they are, forced me to climb a gazillion steps up a mountain (at altitude) for some pretty views of the town. Sadly the local volcano was shrouded in cloud so I didn't get to see it.

The other v exciting thing that happened in Banos was that we were just quietly eating tea one night in a restaurant and the floor shook for a couple of seconds. I thought it must be the volcano coughing or something, but the US Geological Survey says it was a 4.9 earthquake just 30kms or so from Banos. V exciting!!

The food in Banos was excellent (as was the drink!). There was a great swiss place where we got fondue (you don't know how exciting it is to get real cheese!), a little french place (cheese too!) and a local hippy place with great chocolate milkshakes. The best though, was this mad Danish woman who had a little cafe serving great sandwiches. But she was hilarious - she refused to serve one woman a cup of tea as she was "too busy" at the time, even though I was the only customer there, she wouldn't let you eat in peace, but regaled you with stories of shopping trips in the states, and she got really upset if she deemed that you hadn't ordered enough of her (rather expensive!) food. Great fun and great food though - I went there four times!

And onwards to Cuenca....

Colombia - Medellin and South

17 February 2010

Wow, haven't updated in a really long time. Sorry!

I ended up staying in Medellin for over two weeks! It's a really huge city and known for it's "eternal spring" climate. Don't be fooled into thinking this is like April in Scotland though! It's hot during the day, cooler in the evening, and rains (heavily) most days for about an hour or so. I took Spanish classes almost every day in Medellin with a really sweet Colombian girl called Yadi who's based at a Kiwi owned hostel called Black Sheep. I was staying in Casa Kiwi which is owned by an American and frequented by a lot of bikers, but not your garden variety bikers, the ones that think a good holiday is riding from Alaska to Punta Arenas.

The hostel is in the El Poblado area of the city which is the posh bit. Lots of nice restaurants and bars and the like (including some rather fab pastry shops!). I was pretty well behaved in Medellin though as I had class every day.

I said hello again to my new Aussie chums, Lee and Tanya in Medellin, only to say goodbye a couple of days later. And I met really sweet girls from Devon who I may meet up with again in central america at some point soon.

Other than spanish classes I really didn't get up to much in Medellin. Mick's friend Ricardo met with me a couple of times and bought me lunch, gave me a tour of the Botanics and pointed me in the direction of the acquarium. There's a great metro system in Medellin which includes a couple of sections of cable cars which is pretty cool just for sightseeing. And there is a plaza where there are quite a lot of Botero sculptures. So, all in all, a nice place to hang out, but not a whole lot to see!

I realised at some point that I was nearing the end of my visa for Colombia (60 days!) and either had to make a move for the border or pay to extend my visa. So I decided to head off south towards Ecuador. I was heading for a wee town in coffee country called Salento which seemed to involve taking a bus to a place called Armenia and changing. Only instead of going to Armenia I was chucked off the bus at the side of a motorway at about 530pm (sunset is at 6pm!) and told to wait for another bus. I stood by myself in the middle of nowhere as the sun rapidly went down for an anxious 20 mins before my bus came!

In Salento I stayed at a place called Plantation House run by an old, slightly mad, British guy and his Colombian wife. Met tons of people and went horseriding, on a coffee tour, on a long walk up a steep hill, and ate a lot of rainbow trout. Was a good few days! Really beautiful countryside - wax palms, mountains and coffee plantations.

I met three other souls who needed to cross the border too, an Aussie called Tristan and two lovely girls from London called Abi and Hannah. We got up at stupid o'clock and got a bus to Cali, and changed to a minibus for Popayan. It's a lovely little colonial place. Stayed in a hostel run by lovely Scots (!) and had a nice wander around all the churches and a wee feed.

Off again early in the morning for another major bus ride to Ipiales on the Colombian side of the border with Ecuador. Arrived there after dark so went off for a pizza and an early sleep. It's a bit of a strange little town and the weather was bad so didn't mind not seeing too much of the place!

In the morning we went to Las Lajas, an amazing church built out over a ravine because someone saw the virgin's face in the rock (or summat similar!). See my pics (on fb or kodakgallery) to truly understand the place!

Our taxi driver to the border got a little over enthusiastic and drove us over the bridge into Ecuador so we had to walk back to Colombia in the rain to wait for an hour for our exit stamps. Oddly there was no physical check at the border.

And that concludes my first visit to Colombia! (Second and third visits this year are already planned.)

I'll try to be a little less tardy with my Ecuador posts.

Colombia - Carneval and Cartagena

6 February 2010

So, headed south with the Australians to a town called Valledupar which is a local capital. We stayed at the only hostel in a town that isn't so much small, as quite off the tourist trail.
The first day the hostel owner, Miguel, very kindly gave us a lift to a river about 40 mins drive away and we spent the day messing about at the river and watching the local kids jump off very high rocks into narrow and shallow sections. Completely crazy, but amazing. There was also a river in town so that's where we spent the majority of the rest of our time. The water was really cool (the town was pretty hot!) and on my first day I wore a beige bikini which along with my very fair skin and the lack of gringos in town attracted quite a lot of attention. I had to be saved by my Aussie friend bringing me my sarong! We met a lovely family at the river and despite not being able to communicate at all we managed to take lots of photos of each other and I was even forced to kiss a baby for a photo!!

Food in Valledupar involved a lot of icecream and there was a BBQ so the Aussies grilled stuff on a couple of nights. We also managed to find an amazing seafood place (most of the food was grilled chicken) which was great.

From Valledupar we headed up to Barranquilla on the coast. It's an industrial city and home to Shakira and not much for tourists to do EXCEPT when it's Carneval. The Carneval is UNESCO listed, is the biggest Carneval in South America outside Rio and goes on for the 4 days before Lent. On the first day there was a massive parade with all sorts of floats and dancers and famous Colombians and we got foamed and floured a little (it's a tradition apparently!!). In the evening we went to a Daddy Yankee concert. He's a big player in the Reggaeton music scene. It was really good, and we bought into a "beach bar" by buying a case of beer with some other people so we could sit and had a good view of the stage.

On the second day I was a touch hungover so didn't make it out to the parade (it's really hot and sweaty in Barranquilla and there's no point leaving an air conditioned room if you're not feeling up to it!). Luckily the parade that day wasn't that exciting according to all my new chums! Though they had the excitement of an attempted pickpocketing on them, facilitated by foam being sprayed in their faces. Luckily the police noticed and hauled the culprits away with no harm done.

On the third day there was another big parade but this was more about dancers than floats. The police were great and ensured we got a good spot. We ended up speaking for most of the parade to a young policeman called Ricardo who had lived in NY and spoke great English. He even arranged for us to be escorted to a taxi as one of the Aussies had a big expensive camera.

That night we ended up in a bar with a Swedish friend, his new Colombian girlfriend and her parents! Her parents were so kind and they invited all of us to their house for the last day to have a massive water fight. We arrived in the neigbourhood (looked poor, but quite clean and safe) at about 11am and started in on the beers. It only took about 1 min before the local little kids ran up and soaked us through. The rest of the day was spent having water fights, being given mud baths, being taught how to dance (it's impossible!) and generally larking about. When it got dark we thought we were being offered a lift home by the family, but instead they took us to another town where there was a massive stage set up and a big party going on. It was fantastic! I think we were given our lift home eventually at about 2am! It was absolutely the best day of the trip so far - just so great to hang out with a Colombian family and take part in all the madness!

After recovering I took the bus by myself to Cartagena, another town on the coast, but this one with ancient defences including a fort and city wall. I checked into a hostel called Media Luna (half moon) purely for the fact that it had been held up at gunpoint only 3 weeks earlier and therefore was guaranteed to be the safest place in town!! The robbery turned out to be an inside job and there were police about outside all the time so it was absolutely fine. The hostel had a rooftop terrace and a pool so I managed to stay almost a week there without getting bored! Managed a touch of sightseeing but me and my fellow members of the "rooftop gang" (mainly Swedes) figured that you could see all the main attractions from the roof so there wasn't much point venturing too far in the sweltering heat!

I've just taken a flight down to Medellin (it was the same price as the 14 hour night bus) and will probably take language classes here, but it's a little cool (just 18 degrees!) and apparently there's not a whole heap to do, so might head back north again and just hang out on the coast. My tan is coming along nicely and it would be a shame to give up on it....!

Currently thought is that I might head north from Colombia. Two reasons - might want to wait until Argentina decides what action it's going to take over Las Malvinas, and if I head south now I'll reach the bottom in the middle of winter which is no fun.
Thinking therefore of heading north through central america, then possibly take a road trip through some of the southern states (or head up and visit Nancy, Mick etc) and over through to Florida. Then fly back to Bogota and see what bits of south america I can do before the money runs out. South America is just such a vast place and I'm not sure I want to spend my life on a bus!

We'll see. Plenty more investigating and thinking to be done!

Colombia - Bogota and to the coast

19 January 2010

It's been really hectic so far. Kerstin and I spent a couple of days in Bogota which is a really nice city. There's a cable car and funicular railway that run up the side of a mountain so you get views out over the city, plus there's a big gold museum and quite a few pubs, clubs and restaurants to keep you occupied! The weird thing is that all the xmas decorations are still up including the christmas tree on the central square - G&G should invite the country to their 12th night party next year and explain the rules!!

Then it was off to a v small colonial town called Villa de Levya which is all olde-worldy with a massive central plaza and lots of low stone buildings with balconies and stuff. We stayed at a gorgeous wee hostel in the hills with hammocks everwhere. But no rest for the wicked - off cycling up ridiculously steep hills in crazy heat to see a dinosaur skeleton and ancient stone archaelogical site. It was pretty hot and dry with olive trees and goats and really did just look like Mallorca. You can see why the spanish would have felt at home!

Then off again to another small town further north called San Gil. This was more of a "real" town in the sense that it wasn't so beautiful, but the hostel (about 7 quid a night) had a rooftop pool and a balcony over the main square, so not exactly slumming it! San Gil is all about white water rafting and parasaling and stuff. However, the last rainy season didn't happen so there didn't seem to be much point.... We went up to a waterfall with an amazing pool at the bottom for a wee swim and off to another couple of wee towns in the hills another day.

On again on the night bus to the Carribean coast. Buses here are air conditioned to freezing point so you need a jumper and trousers even just for short journeys then when you get off you're stepping into temperatures in the high 30s - it's all v strange! Ended up in a tiny town called Taganga which is all about hippies and drugs and hanging out on the beach. Local police are as corrupt as hell and set up some aussies for coke possession when we were there - they had to pay a massive "fine" to get released. Luckily the police station is beside the cashpoint.....

However, it was also all about diving, so I did a couple of refresher dives, and Kerstin did her PADI course which was good. Met a couple of great Aussies who I'm now travelling with (Kerstin only has a week left so has raced on down south now whereas I've got more time to kick about). There's a national park just next door called Tayrona which has the most beautiful beaches. Whereas Taganga is all dry and scrubby, Tayrona has rainforest running right down to gorgeous beaches with massive granite boulders everywhere.

And then onto the more exciting stuff. We left the gringo trail completely and went into the Guijara peninsula. Kerstin and I and the 2 aussies caught a bus to a town called Riohacha then organised a taxi for another hour to another small town near Venezuela called Uribia, and from there we managed to get a ride in the back of a supply truck for another 2 1/2 hours out to a place called Cabo de la Vela. It was absolutely amazing. We were right out in the desert with cacti everywhere, and endless horizons as it was so flat. It took us all day to get there so the next morning we walked out across the desert for an hour to a brilliant wee beach where you could swim. It was unbelievably hot. No running water with the family we were staying with, though there were beds and bucket flush loos so it was fine. We managed to hire a driver and 4x4 for a drive the following day to a place called Punta Gallinas which is the northernmost point on the continent. We stayed overnight with a really sweet native Wayuu family who managed to get us fresh fish (and rice and fried plantain) for tea. We slept outside in hammocks which was really cool (literally!). Then the next day we were driven out to this amazing sand dune which is near vertical and runs straight into the bluest sea! I don't know if our photos will capture just how amazing it really was!

Everywhere you go in Colombia there are police, customs and military roadblocks. Mainly they're looking for draft dodgers and ensuring that the rebels are kept at bay. There's little corruption (apart from in Taganga!) and therefore little for us to be worried about and they're quite a welcome site. All over the Guijara peninsula there are also roadblocks. However, these are ropes strung across the road and are manned by Wayuu children who demand sweeties before you can pass! It's the funniest thing!

We're now back in Santa Marta on the coast in a great hostel in a colonial house with a pool in the middle. Never has a shower felt so good when you've not washed in 4 days and you're covered in sand and your hair is full of salt! Free beer every time you check in. Which is now three times as we've used this place as a bit of a base to leave our stuff for the expiditions to Tayrona and Guijara.

We're probably heading south tomorrow for a few days, just killing time really before we hopefully go to carneval in Baranquilla. Baranquilla is home to Shakira and the second biggest/best carneval in South America according to all the locals! After that I'll probably head west to Cartagena and then south to Medellin where I'm going to try to organise language school. The people here are really lovely so it's def a country worth hanging around in for a little while longer.

Food has been ok. Mostly rice and fish, or eggs and sweet bread (EVERTHING here has tons of sugar!) but lots of fresh juices which are fab. I know enough spanish to ensure that I'm not ordering meat or chicken which is good! The local booze is Aguardiente (fire water) which is Anise flavoured which puts a lot of people off. The beer is ok but a bit wimpy, like Corona but with less flavour!!