A Few More Days in Manizales

After our lesson in nighttime shortcuts in Manizales, we've successfully avoided the criminals and had a good few days relaxing and exploring the area around the city. We've visited hot springs, local ecological parks and Kadie managed to successfully renew her visa...

On Wednesday, I coughed up the hefty price to visit one of few glaciated mountains in Colombia, Nevado del Ruiz. Like all organized tours in Colombia, the van was overfilled with people, the food was marginally edible, and the road to our destination twisty, bumpy and very dusty. In these ways, Kadie was wise to sit this one out, but being a bit of a fiend for mountains and high places, I took the journey for better or worse. Before breakfast the guides did a good job of convincing everyone not to eat much food, because the tour reaches an altitude of 5100 meters (16,800 feet) and altitude sickness is a real risk. So with largely empty stomachs our van began ascending to the high refuge where we would hike higher up the mountain. En route we stopped at a small lake (probably the only pure glacial lake in Colombia) and other spots to snap pictures and admire the vistas.

Around 11am we arrived at a small bridge that was partially buried in a small mudflow. After getting the van stuck in the mud once, our driver refused to give it another go and instead called to other guides on the mountain to help us out of the situation. What started as a promised 20 minute wait, quickly turned into nearly an hour and a half, and my hungry, surly companions openly expressed their envy as I devoured the eggsalad sandwich I had smartly packed in my bag that morning.

Eventually we got over the small obstacle and reached the high refuge on the mountain. The landscape was extremely lunar as the soil is all volcanic and completely unhospitable to plant life. Unfortunately, because of our delay at the bridge, time did not permit us to reach the glacier, but regardless it was a remarkable landscape, and very different from any other mountains I've visited.

After a good night's sleep, we woke up the next morning and headed to a nearby coffee farm for a tour and education of coffee production in Colombia. The coffee region in Colombia is based around the cities of Manizales, Pereira and Armenia, and in the areas between these cities lie hundreds of small and large farms growing coffee for both domestic use and export. The farm we visited was a larger farm where they completed all cycles of coffee production including roasting. However, all the good coffee they grow (80% of harvest) is exported to Japan, Canada and Europe and the rest is left for South Americans to drink.

The tour was informative, and our guide did his best to speak in English so we could understand. Unfortunately, while walking through the coffee fields, some of the workers accidentally knocked a rock down the hill directly into Kadie's calf, leaving a good size scrape and bruise. After a couple games of croquet on the lawn, where Kadie beat me horribly, she was feeling better amd we headed home to do laundry and prepare to depart Manizales in the morning...


Because of Easter and Semana Santa (a weeklong holiday before easter) we're trying to stay away from big destinations until we have to go to Popayan on Maudy Thursday. Popayan has the largest Easter celebration in Colombia and one of the largest in South America, so we're looking forward to getting our fill of processions and religious songs next weekend. 

I'll end this post with my recent passport photo. In Colombia, evidently they believe passport photos should look professional, so they photoshop suits into the photo...awesome.

Too old to party in Medellin, robbed in Manizales

After leaving San Gil, we took a night bus to Medellin. While we were able to sleep, night buses pretty much suck and in Colombia are only marginally less expensive than flying. We'll probably shell out the extra cash in the future for the increased comforts...

Anyway, we arrived in Medellin and made it to our hostel. Both Kadie and I were quite happy with the hostel, and were rather surprised at how hip and developed Medellin felt. In the Barrio el Poblado where we were staying, there are extensive numbers of bars, boutiques and every comfort imaginable. To me, it felt a lot like Berkeley, CA in many ways. Unfortunately, the nice hostel and neighborhood came at the expense of noise and major partying. Our hostel had the sound system going until around 4am, and while Kadie and I aren't prudish about these things, the awful nights sleep and waking up to bathrooms covered in vomit was enough to make us switch hostels...

Aside from this, Medellin seemed to be a very nice city. Extremely fashionable (Kadie couldn't resist a pair of locally made high heels) with a wonderful Botanical Garden, a huge downtown market, and great train system. Unfortunately, after changing hostels, our second night was only marginally better than the first, with still more late night drinking and noise, so we admitted defeat and left Medellin for the small city of Manizales in the coffee region of Colombia.

Upon arriving in Manizales, we were pretty impressed. The city is extremely hilly, and the entire downtown and shopping areas are built along a ridge with dramatic views of the surrounding mountains in either direction. After settling into a wonderfully clean, bright and spacious hostel room, we headed out to explore town and get some groceries for dinner.

Around 7pm, on our way home, we opted for a shortcut down a set of stairs not more than half a block from the door of our hostal. As soon as Kadie and I began descending them we both realized that it was probably not a good idea. While we were very close to two main roads with police, the stairs were dark and hidden from sight. We had just enough time to doubt our decision, before two young men came running down the stairs after us. Shaking a knife in my face, they cornered us and we willing handed over our bag of vegetables from the store and the $20 in my wallet. Because we were hidden in the stairway, they were able to take their time and search us for cameras, phones, jewelry, etc, but fortunately all these items were safely stored in our hostal. They explained they were robbing us because they were poor and hungry, and as they left I asked if they would mind giving me back my empty wallet. In response I was told to buy another wallet, and then they were gone. Within 1 minute of being robbed we waived down police officers and they took off to search in vain for the thieves. Annoyed by our poor decision, our loss of money and the disappearance of dinner we went home got more money and returned to the store to buy more groceries. All in all they were quite nice about robbing us, and neither Kadie or I really felt threatened, just more annoyed. We stayed away from the shortcut the rest of the evening and had a great dinner at home and a quiet nights sleep.
 
The following day we walked the streets during Ciclovia, where the streets are closed to cars for bicycle and pedestrian traffic. While there are similiar events in Portland, Ciclovia in Manizales at least happens every Sunday 8-12pm and involves a much broader spectrum of people than similar events in the states. Skateboarders, BMX’ers, families and dog walkers shared the streets and both Kadie and I were surprised to see so many young people out and about along with the regular family and fitness cyclists and runners. After walking a while we visited the big church in the center of town. While I felt a little claustrophobic in the cramped stairs, I loved the heights, whereas Kadie was pretty much the opposite. Regardless it was a nice view, and a good trip for the afternoon.

For now we’re waiting for Tuesday so Kadie can visit the immigration office and extend her visa, and relaxing in Manizales. While we will limit our time outside after dark, there’s tons of hot springs, coffee farms and a huge mountain range which we can visit during the days.

Ants, Rivers and the Best Market so far

After making the long journey out of Mompox, we arrived in the town of San Gil, the self-proclaimed adventure sports capital of Colombia. We settled into our small but comfortable hostel, and spent the next few days indulging in typical tourist activities. Our first priority was a thorough cleaning of ourselves and all of our belongings, as somewhere along the way we both suffered from an attack of bed bugs. While waiting for clothes to dry, we discovered for the first time real salsa in Columbia and enjoyed the first of our 6 days of cheap breakfast and juice in the main marketplace. This is by far the best produce market we've encountered in Colombia, and we made sure to visit it daily during our time in San Gil.

After the necessary laundry day, we chose to go rafting on the Rio Suarez, Class 4-5. Unfortunately, our choice to join three German men in a raft wasn't the best, as they screamed like little girls and stopped paddling the second we encountered rapids. After coming very close to flipping at the first big hole, our guide did an excellent job of making the best of it and keeping us out of trouble. However in doing this, we were heckled by other rafts with competent paddlers for our attention to safety. We concluded our rafting day with a trip out to a farm owned by the hostel owner for a little BBQ party, where we both gradually seemed to speak better and better Spanish as we drank more rum.

The following day, we opted for a more low key activity and visited a local creek for sampling of swimming holes. Fortunately, a friendly local provided us with a ride to and from the spot saving us from a long, hot walk. At one particular pool, very brave locals practiced 15' swan drives into about 6' of water. Very brave...

Next on our list was a day trip to the beautiful, tourist town of Barichara. As far as small colonial towns go, Barichara is about as picturesque as they come, but this doesn't really change the fact that there's not much to do there. Like most tourists, we ended up at local restaurant famous for it's use of large ants. The giant winged ants in this part of Colombia are traditionally fried and eaten, and this particular restaurant is extremely proud of this culinary legacy. Kadie and I opted for the special of the house, steak covered in ant sauce. Truth be told, the ants don't really taste like anything but crunchy.

Despite being congested from a cold, I attempted to go parasailing the following day, but because of all the congestion in my ears I was crippled by vertigo and unable to go for the flight. Kadie however, let out squeals of delight as her pilot spun and dropped through the sky. Evidently, apart from spinning, being the passenger in tandem parasailing is actually quite boring.

After my experience with dizziness we decided to stay in San Gil one extra day to give my cold time to pass, and hiked to a local waterfall. All in all, San Gil has been a great place to visit, but after six days we're ready to get moving. After making the decision to skip Bogota until the end of our trip, we're ready for our first night
bus to Medellin...

Cuidad Perdida and the Lovely Town of Mompox

After returning from Tayrona, we spent a couple days in Santa Marta, swimming in the pool and playing with the kitten at our hostel. (if you go to Santa Marta, stay at the Dreamer!) Then on Wednesday we left for our 5 day hike to the ruins of the ancient Tayrona city, Ciudad Perdida in the Sierra Nevada Mtns of Colombia. The following is a summary:


Day 1.
After listening to an angry, old Israeli man with no spanish language skills argue with the tour agency, we eventually boarded our brightly colored jeep for a three hour drive, which was half on highway and half on rough jeep trails. At the end of he road we had a quick lunch and hiked for a couple of  hours to our first camp. While we had a great swimming hole, and mosquito nets, the shower was a hose into a garbage can, and we were awoken in the night by local dogs and cats who were arguing over garbage and escaping the rain in our shelter.

Day 2.
A two hour hike to our second camp. Fortunately this one had a better swimming hole, real showers and bunks. Kadie and I hike faster than everybody else, and we´re rewarded with about 8 really dull hours sitting in camp. Kadie begins to legitimately feel substanial effects from her allergies.

Day 3.
Another two hour hike, again rewarded with hours of idle time in camp. Unfortunately, the swimming hole here sucked almost as much as the camp. Because regulations recently changed we were unable to camp at Ciudad Perdida and instead are forced into a tiny camp, totally overcrowded. I managed to secure a hammock for the night, while Kadie was forced to spend the night awkwardly sleeping in a rainbow colored tent with a very unfriendly, silent Spanish couple who was part of our group. Although Ciudad Perdida is only an hour away, persistent rain keeps us from visiting the site in the afternoon. One highlight was watching some locals almost destroy the camp shelter while cutting down a large tree, and watching the same locals pour gasoline on a dog in an attempt to clean it´s plethora of open mange sores.

Day 4.
Kadie feels downright sick from allergies. Despite this, we hike and ascend the 1200 stairs quickly to the Ciudad Perdida and are rewarded with having the place to ourselves in the morning sun. By the time the other groups arrive it is cloudly and raining. After 3 hours at the site, we return for lunch and hike back to the day 2 camp. Highlight: watching a guide chasing a squealing Armadillo, and watching another guide have a banana throwing fight with some Kogi children. 


Day 5.
Longer hike out, retracing the same path we took in. Jeep ride in pouring rain back to Santa Marta. Highlight: clambering onto the hillsides for safety as cows stampede down the trail, followed by two bulls fighting each other along the trail.

All in all the trip was great. It wasn´t as tough hiking as anticipated, but our tour company and the individuals in our group left a little bit to be desired as far as conversation and food are concerned. The site itself was actually quite large, but indigenous groups have succeeded in limiting future restoration work and tourist expansion at the Ciudad Perdida. For the jungle and the Kogi, this is very good news. As it is, the trail is a tourist highway, complete with trash, declining water quality in the rivers, absence of wildlife and severely eroded trails with virtually no maintance to preserve their integrity or protect the surrounding area. Despite all this, I'd recommend the trip but I hope the current efforts to clean up the trails and the area are successful for the sustainability of the area. The regulations against camping at the Ciudad Perdida are definitely a step in the right direction. (Travel Advice: use Magic Tours, not Turcol, and do the hike in 4 days not 5)

Mompox.
Again we returned to our hostel in Santa Marta for a day of rest with Tigre (the resident kitten) before leaving for Mompox. Mompox is known as being notoriously difficult to reach and it is at least partially off the major tourist circuits. However, with its reputation as being the Colombian equivalent to the American Bayou, it was one spot we wanted to reach.

Fortunately Mompox is not as hard to reach as people make it sound, however it did require 12 hours in a bus to travel the relatively short distance from Santa Marta. After arriving in Mompox, any difficulty we had in reaching this town was well worth it. The town is definitely rural, reached only with ferries as it is surrounded by rivers on all sides, but it is a Spanish colonial town constructed in a similar style to Cartagena. For me, it has all the Colonial beauty of Cartagena, but it is cheaper, has friendlier people and the backpackers are few. A party destination Mompox is not, and this is exactly why I love it. The pride of this town lies in its laid back atmosphere, its beautiful locally made rocking chairs and cheap platinum and gold jewelry. Walking around this morning during commute hours I saw one car, but seemingly

hundreds of bicycles (both children and adults) and motorcycles. Other than the 6 colonial churches in town, the most interesting thing around is definitely its cemetery. Inhabited by a dozen or so ferral cats, the cemetery is extremely spooky and is a fantastic representation of all the macabre beauty of Latin Catholism.

For now we´re just hanging out in Mompox, drinking watermelon juice, checking out rocking chairs and looking foward to the nighttime outdoor food market outside the biggest church in town. Tomorrow, we´re tentatively leaving to make our way to San Gil for our first dose of river rafting.....

 

Beaches, Jungle Hiking and the Kogis

We've been very busy over the last couple of weeks so I'll try to get the blog up to speed. 


We left Cartagena on the last Friday of February and took the 4 hour van trip to Santa Marta. While we had scheduled a multiple-day trek to a pre-Colombian city hidden deep in the jungle of the Sierra Nevada Mtn. Range, we had a couple of days to kill before the trip, so we headed to one of Colombia's most beloved parks- Tayrona. Tayrona is basically a stretch of coastline where hilly jungle hugs the beach, and the area is characterized by cliffs, small cove beaches and extremely unsafe surf. There aren't really any roads, just trails, and most of the accomodation options are either very expensive cabanas with LCD TVs or hammocks. After arriving at the park entrance, we started our journey with an hour or so of walking from the main gate to the first of the ecolodges. As all the days around here are hot and humid, cooling off was a big priority so we skipped the first few beaches we came to as they were were clearly too dangerous to allow for swimming. We continued hiking down for another half hour along the coast until we hit the main backpackers hangout Cabo San Juan de Guia. It was a little crowded for our tastes, but we decided to stay the night as the beaches were clearly the most beautiful in Tayrona, with two beautiful and safe crystal clear lagoons. We spent the day floating in the ocean and rented a couple of hammocks located under the cabana, high above the ocean for the night. The elevation and the wind kept the mosquitos at bay, but the hammock thing is a little hard to get used to. (we opted to pay for the premium hammocks $12/night because the standard hammocks were located adjacent to the stables).


The following morning we decided to hike up and over a small mountain to reach our final stop in Tayrona. This spot, known as Playa Brava, was at a far more remote beach maintained by an indigenous tribe in the area, the Kogis. Getting to the beach required an hour long jungle hike up to the top one of the foothills, and an hour or so back down to the other side. The trails were surprisingly steep and eroded, so it made for an interesting, and difficult trip. Along the way, we went through a small Pre-Colombian site known as Pueblito, and after taking a couple photos we continued on and were happy to get to the beach and get out of our sweat-drenched clothes. 

Happily, we also found that Playa Brava was very different than Cabo. There were only four other guests, so we had plenty of beach to roam without other people around. While Cabo San Juan de Guia felt a bit like a very dirty summer camp, Playa Brava was clean, quiet and extremely peaceful. The pigs, chickens, cats, dogs, mules and other animals far out numbered the guests, which is always a good thing. The folks running the camp were very nice, but unfortunately spanish was not their first language, so all of us struggled to communicate despite the language barrier. Fortunately, they were nice enough to fire up their genereator to give us an outdoor screening of a Colombian documentary about the Kogi tribe which provided us with some background to understanding their culture and challenges. After a difficult nights sleep in the hammocks plagued by both mosquitos and rain, we made the hike out of Playa Brava, and caught a bus back to Santa Marta.


We left happy to have finally found the tropical beach paradise we were hoping for, and we also managed to see a hot-dog sized poisonous centipede, an endangered species of monkey, a lot of wild pineapple, banana, avocado, other mystery fruit trees, and a few Kogis. A very productive and enjoyable three days.