Archive for Juli 2012

Columbia: The last path…

Juli 28, 2012

So this is the last part of our travel in Columbia!

 

3th of June

We took in the night of the 2th of June a bus to San Agustin. In the early morning hours Bastian woke me up because of the incredible landscape! Yeah it was really beautiful. After 30 minutes I was awake the bus drove ove a bump… i thought that! Then the bus stopped and I thought it was maybe a dog or something. Then we could hear some cryings and after a few minutes we realized what happened. We got off the bus and then we could see the corpus with some people around it. Our busdriver knocked a human down. But the whole situation became more curious! At first a women which looked like a man came to Bastian an me and she tried to say something but it was impossible to understand her. She showed us all the time her tongue. Then she passed us and took a line of cocaine. We thought we are in the wrong movie! At second after 20 minutes a fire truck arrived but it drove very slow! Then the guys got off the car also very slow. Then they took a barrow, realized that the peron is dead, brought it back to the fire truck and just do nothing! Fuck…. that was one of the most craziest things I have ever seen! This whole situation was so unreal! After another 20 or 30 minutes arrived finally an alternate bus! When we arrived in San Agustin we checked in a hostel! The rest of the day we didnt do something special!

 

4th of June

We rented horses and walked around the region. San Agustin is famous for his archaeological sites! The things there are from the same time like the Inkas! It was really interesting but after a while its just the same stuff ;). yeah I will upload some pictures, we just did that at this day!

 

5th of June Today we drove with the Jeep around the area. We had a amazing view at a waterfall and the sourroundings were in general pretty cool and a lot of coffee farms!

 

6th  of June

We headed to Coconuco. There are some hot water springs, but after we arrived we saw that this was just crap. One funny thin which will remind me always at Coconuco: We had for 2 people the biggest room ever. There were really just 2 beds inside and nothing more and I think this room was twice the size then my apartment in Germany!

 

7th of June

Today we hitch hiked to Puracé. Thats a small village in the Andes and there is a Nationalpark with a volcano named Puracé! When we arrived we walked a little bit around and the village and then we found a small path which lead us to a waterfall! After that the trail conintued and we had to walk a lot of stairs and after that we had a incredible view over the village and the whole valley! I love these moments!

 

8th of June

It should be another amazing day! We took the bus to the Nationalpark and got off and walked in the direction of the volcano Puracé. The volcano has a height of about 4900 meters! After one hour walking we passed a sulphur mine and your could smell it! The wind became all the time stronger and stronger the higher we walked! After a while it was possible to lie in the wind without to fall at the bottom! After a while it started raining and it became more and more misty. At 1:20 p.m. there came 2 guys the volcano down and one of them was a local. He told us that it is still 3 km till to the top and we should descend at 2:00 p.m. otherwise it could be a problem to find back. So Bastian and me decided to hang out a little bit and enjoyed the view and after that we climbed down another way then we climbed up. It was a really good day for us! After this trip both of us had the first time some problems with the stomache and it should need 6-10 days until everything was fine again!

 

9th of June

Today we just went to Pasto. We wanted to visit the Nationalpark Galerac but this one is since two years closed because of a Volcano which is very active at the moment! 10th of June Today should be our last day in Columbia! We crossed the border (wasnt a big deal) and then we drove too our first destination in Ecuador: Otavalo There is the biggest handcraft market in Ecuador. The things they sell are really pretty cool and very traditional. You can see there so many traditional people, thats amazing. One funny thing was: There was a girl, in very traditional clothes (its very colored and a lot of clothes) and she made photos of herself with an iPad. That was interesting. I bought also some handcrafts. After that we ate a enormous Pizza and walked around the city! Ok guys, that was Columbia!

Cheerio

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Columbia part 2

Juli 6, 2012

Hey people

My last entry was from the 7th of May today is the 4th of July, so after 2 Month it seems to be perfect to write a new entry 😉  (photos are at the end of this entry)

8th of May

This day we left the Tayrona Nationalpark and headed to the west! To the most beautiful city on the South American continent (people told us 😉 ) ! Cartagena!

In the bus, Bastian asked for his MP3 Player (that stuff was with the passport in a special plastic bag). I didn’t find it in my normal bag and after the second time I searched for it again, I told myself, ok it must be in my Bagpack! When we arrived in Cartagena I searched for it but it was nowhere… oh fuck… but… I am so sure that I didn’t forget it in the National Park so I searched for it in my normal bag again and hell shit… there was it! Puh that was a big shock for me and my heart was running like speedy conzalez!!!

Then we took a bus to the Center and searched for a cheap Hostal. And then a guy on the street gave us his card and told as its 18000 Pesos with breakfast (which is a very good price). So we went with him to his hostal and find out that he could speak german because he lived 3 years in Oldenburg.

When we arrived there we checked in and who else was there? Of course Felix from the Tayrona National Park! We had a good time together and had some dinner!

9th – 13th of May

In these days there is not much to say. So I make a shortcut!

Cartagena is still for me (and its 2 month later now) the most beautiful city! It’s a very old town, it has a old colonial wall because in the colonial era Cartagena was often attacked by pirates, so they decided to built a big wall. For me Cartagena has a lot of charm, its in the Caribbean, its hot, I can recommend to go there ;).  So we just relaxed there, take a bath in a volcano which was full with mud. We had a good time, some good cheap rum and ower Hostal owner was great (he went out every night with us!) and we met some other cool people from around the world!

14th of May

With a detour, we took a bus to Medellin. That wasn’t the bus, which tourists normally us. That were just small buses, we stopped many times, and we needed 4 hours more than normally (17std).  Right in the middle of the trip I called Johan (our Couchhoster in Medellin) to tell him that we arrive very late at night (2 o clock) he just was like: “yeah that’s cool, my mother will open you I am in the hospital I have to work”. I don’t know if people in Germany would say the same.

Another cool thing was: We made another stop to have dinner! So we had a look what they have and a guy started to speak in English with us what we are doing, where we are from and so on, and then he bought us some food and drinks….. this would definitely never happen in Germany or further more in whole Europe!

So when we arrived at 2 o clock, we took a cap, drove to Johans home and she was pretty nice, explained everything to us and so on! But we were also happy to sleep finally!

15th of May

Today Johan went with us and his girlfriend to a restaurant and invited us for lunch (I was a little bit confused because normally we should invite him but he was like: “no no that’s ok”! Cool guy! Afterwards he had to learn (Johan works at night in the hospital and in the day he has to study. Pretty hard!

Is girlfriend Carolin showed us the Metro and how it works and afterwards Bastian and me walked around Medellin. At night Bastian and I cooked Spaghetti Bolognese because Carolin wanted to eat that. Carolin went out at night with us for some cocktails, Johan had to work….and I danced the first time (and for now also the last time) Salsa hehe. I think I wasn’t so good ;)!

16th of May

Today we cycled and walked a lot in a Mountain Park close to Medellin and a height of almost 2500 Meters. We spend the whole day there. Was a good trekking day but nothing more!

17th of May

We went to the new city of Medellin but that wasn’t so special. Afterwards we wanted to go with the Metro to Poeblido which is a small Mountain in the City and you have a great few over Medellin. The Metro was very crowded and. Then Bastian could feel a hand in his pocket where his wallet was. The guy was very fast and the wallet was gone…dam it! There were almost 50 Euros inside but whatever…shit happens and it was just money!

Bastian was of course a little bit pissed off but to rise is mood we wanted to go to the Mountain and hell, that was definitely a good idea. We had such a great view over the city by night!

At night Johanns Mom cooked for us some pretty good stuff.

18th of May

Today was a good and bad day at the same time!

We walked in Medellin Center and Bastian bought a new bag because his one was too old and small. Afterwards we kept walking and a felt a drag on my bag. I turned around and saw the hand of a young woman she put it very fast away and looked at my bag and hell shit, the bxtch opened it! I was totally pissed off and was asking here was she was doing but she just were saying “No sé, No sé” what means “I don’t know”! I was a little bit happy to know that we would leave the next day!

In the evening Johan and a friend of him brought us with their motorbikes in to the mountains of Medellin where we drank some beers and had I guess the most amazing view over a City I ever had! That was such a good spot, hell! And a cool thing is that he told us that there are never tourists, because you have to drive through a “dangerous” part of the city. Afterwards we drove to the university where we had the best party since our whole trip! That was a good night!

19th of May

After we woke up, Johanns Mom made us a perfect breakfast then we said goodbye and headed to our next destination Guatapé!  The drive was already amazing with this amazing lake landscape! Something to Guatapé: Guatapé is a small village and it has the biggest lake of Columbia which supports Columbia with water engery!

So we drove directly to the Lakeview Hostal which is managed by a guy from England and the other one is from the US.  They had some good recommendations for us. The following evening we relaxed just a little bit!

20th of May

Today we hiked with some locals through the nature to a waterfall in the jungle. The hike was about 2-3 hours. It was pretty nice nothing special but we had something to do. The rest of the day we watched a movie, cooked something and were upset about the time we went to Guatapé because it was holiday time and I felt like whole Medellin is in Guatapé!

21th of May

This day we cycled with the Mountainbikes 20 km to a part of the lake where the waterlevel was so high that water was running above the wall (it’s a dam). It was a good ride and the surroundings were so beautiful and just a few people hang out there learned some Spanish vocabularies (yeeahh… we are not just having fun we have also to work!!! 😉 )  Then it started raining very heavily so we cycled back but that was kind of fun. Ah ja on the way back I saw a very big spider I think it was a bird spider but she was already dead, but have never seen something in the wildness before!

22th of May

Today was a really cool day. We took a Kayak and we kayaked to the Villa of Pablo Escobar (the famous drug baron of Columbia). The Villa was bombed before they killed Pablo Escobar and I think it was once a pretty nice Villa hehe.  But before we arrived there we kayaked I think 3-4 hours to there because we didn’t find it! So we asked all time some people where it is and so on. We were a little bit tired afterwards but it was totally worth it! Good day!

23th of May

Today we walked to the emblem of Guatapé. The Peñol. It’s a 200 Meter high Mountain everything is flat that’s the reason why its so special! We walked all the way up and hell shit, the view was so amazing with the Lake but you will see it later!

24th – 25th of May

Today we headed to Manizales. There we had another Couchhoster, Marianna her name. We had a really good time with her but we just didn’t stay a long time there, because there was not much to do in Manizales. We wanted to go to a national park close to Manizales but it wasn’t possible because it was closed because of activity (2010 was the last big blow out). The last night we had a pretty good time with some beers.

26th of May

I woke up and had a hangover but I wanted to leave to be early in our next place Salento  (in this place are the highest palm trees in the world: 80 Meters).

So we went to the bus station and normally I have my wallet always in my bag. But because I bought the bus tickets and put my wallet in my trouser. So we ve entered the bus and two other guys with us (nothing special)! I wanted (while I was standing) to open a window at my place. So one guy wanted to pass me and sit at a seat behind me. But before he told me “mas duro, mas duro” (he meant I should push the window more hard to open the window) and shaked in a strange way on my ass (I totally forgot that my wallet was there at this moment). So he sat behind me and then the other guy put Bastians Backpack (which was in front in the bus) at somewhere else and we were so confused! Then some other people came inside and 2 mintues later they left the bus….. 1 minute later I recognized what happened! But it was already too late…I gave a shit that there were 40 Euros inside, but there was as well my credit card in…dam it!!! So after 3 hours it was able to call my brother (it wasn’t possible to call my bank, because the number doesn’t work in Columbia) and he could block it for me!

This day I was pissed off and I couldn’t  eat for 2 days….

27th – 28th of May

At these two days we made a coffee tour. I don’t like coffee but it was very interesting. What you should know is. A lot of rainforest is cut off because of coffee farms and they cut every day more forests off which sucks. The same happens at the moment here in Ecuador (jep I am at the moment in Ecuador). But whatever, it was interesting and now I know how to make a good coffee (also when I think that coffee does never has a good taste 😉 ).

The other day we went to the Cocora Valley. There are the highest palm trees in the world. And hell, they are high! Bastian and me hiked there for 4 hours. It was really beautiful and we had a very good time there!

29th of May

Time to go to Bogota!!! We took a night bus but arrived also very late at night (3 a.m.). So we took a cap to our next Couchsurfer Daniel! When we arrived he opened the door and showed us our room and went to bed.

At 8 or 9 o clock we woke up Daniels mum made us breakfast and then we watched at a masterthesis presentation from Daniels friend (Gabriel).  After that we went to another friend o cooked for us lunch and at night Daniel and his sister went out with us.

30th of May

This day we hiked in the mountain region close to Bogota. This was a great adventure for all of us! We hiked a way which even Daniel never hiked and after a while it got pretty hard. So we followed a river and after I guess 2 hours hiking we couldn’t continue because there was a (I guess) waterfall which was 30 meter high. So we had to go back a little bit and find another way (I have to admit that the way we walked wasn’t a way! We just walked through the river and climbed some mountains to find a way back to Bogota). It was a great day and I think it was the most adventuresome day for Daniel in his live! At the end he said: “I go hiking with some friend from Germany in my city and they help to find back to Bogota”…

In the evening we cycled with the bikes 4-5 hours through Bogota…hell such a cool city. I really could imagine living there.

31th of May

Today we cycled again this time in the day and Daniel showed us the university, the biggest park in Bogota where every 28th of June Rock in the Park is. This is the biggest Rockfestival in South America and the entry is for free!

Bastian and I cooked for the whole family a typically German dish and I  hope the liked it!

1th of June

Today we headed with Daniel and Gabriel close to Villavicencio. Gabriels father owns a Mountain in the Andes and he has a small hut in the rainforest there. So the idea was, to hike to there and sleep there for one night.  The hike was awesome but very rainy. The hut was really in the middle of nowhere. We had lunch and dinner in the “kitchen” but yeah, watch the fotos ;). The next day we had a shower under some waterfalls…. Great experience!

So I am too lazy to continue! And I think also for you its enough!

I try to continue in the next few days

Cheerio and thanks for reading!

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