CANOA, Part 1

It's very difficult to find out when buses are going in Ecuador. There are schedules but you can only find them at the bus station (which is an hour away from the city center) According to the internet there was a direct bus from Quito to Canoa, that I decided to take. I bought my ticket to Canoa (but didn't notice that the conductor wrote Jama and not Canoa on the ticket). The bus was supposed to be in Canoa at 10 pm. But for whatever reasons, the bus did not go to Canoa but only to Jama, an hour north of Canoa. Since it was quite late there were no buses going to Canoa anymore and I had to stay a night in Jama. The bus conductor was very nice, we talked for a while in Spanish and he even walked me to a hostel. Now, I actually think it was better to end up in Jama in the middle of the night than in Canoa. Canoa is a very small fisher-/ surfer town with only one paved road and only a few hostels. A “sleepy village with a heart of gold” as the Lonely Planet calls it. And at 10 pm on a Sunday night not much is going on in Canoa. Looking for a hostel in the middle of the night would not have been easy.

The next morning I took the bus to Canoa (and talked to a 26-year old woman with three kids, who couldn't believe that I'm 32 years old and don't have husband, boyfriend nor kids).

After I checked in at the very nice and relaxed hostel Coco Loco, I went for a walk at the beach. I was surprised not to see any surfers in the water but than noticed that there were a lot of jellyfish in the water. There was also a dead sea lion and a dead turtle at the beach. ;-( Maybe not a good time to be in the water.

After I relaxed at the hostel I went back to the beach to watch the sunset before hanging out at the hostel bar talking to some other travelers and locals.

The next morning I went to some caves north of the village with Carlos (who I had met the day before at the beach). One of the dogs of the hostel joined us on our three hour walk and it was nice to be accompanied by a dog. There are a few caves but we couldn't get to all of them because they are only reachable at low tide and we were too late for some of the caves. The rock formations and caves were beautiful and very interesting.

The rest of the day was spend relaxing at the beach and the hostel. Like most of the other days in Canoa. One day I went to Bahia de Caraquez, walked along the “high-rise” beach condominiums and went to the museum. The museum actually was quite interesting with archaeological exhibitions, paintings and photographs. There was even a guide explaining the exhibitions. (of course in Spanish but I did understand quite a lot)

Friday night it was time to party. First at a small local bar. It was fun and very interesting. There were almost only locals - of all ages. Young girls dancing with their babies on the arm next to the 50 year old lady. After the bar closed we moved on to a private backyard party. Good times.
Saturday afternoon I went to a cockfight with Carlos and Alberto in San Vicente. I can't say that I liked it but it was definitely interesting. There were mainly men in the arena and almost all of them were betting on the winning cocks (and they were betting quite a lot of money for Ecuadorian standards) and drinking beer. People got very excited during the fights and it got pretty loud inside the arena.

Sunday passed by with more walking and hanging around at the beach before heading back to Quito with the night bus.
I really had a great week in Canoa, also thanks to Carlos (my private guide and Spanish teacher) and his friends and family.

MINDO

After a day in Quito I headed to Mindo for two days while Micha was learning Spanish in Quito. Mindo is a relaxed town in the mountains 3 hours west of Quito. It's much warmer (because it's not as high) than Quito, has nice fresh air, lots of birds and very friendly people. As usual the bus ride was quite interesting with nice landscape all around. When I got to Mindo, I had to find the hostel and asked someone on the street for directions. The man was very friendly, walked me the hostel (which was on the other side of the small town) and we talked in a funny combination of Spanish, English and German. In the hostel I got an amazing “room”.
It was basically a bed on a balcony with roof. Very nice. Sleeping outside with lots of fresh air. In the afternoon I walked around town (which didn't take very long), had a delicious mango batida and walked along the river for a while before returning to the hostel, where I relaxed for the rest of the day. The next morning, after a good nights sleep and breakfast I decided to go for a walk to the waterfalls before returning to Quito in the afternoon. I walked the road 4 km uphill before I got to the Tarabita (cable car).


The cable car was more than 500 m long and took me to the other side of the valley where I started my hike. Walking alone through the forest was nice and it was very quiet except the noises from hummingbirds, butterflies and other birds. I walked to two waterfalls. One was a little hidden behind rocks and it locked very nice with the sun and the water. Although the water was pretty cold I took off my shoes and walked all the way to the waterfall. On my way back I met a nice Ecuadorian from New York who gave me a ride back to town in his car. After lunch it was time to head back to Quito, where I hang out Saturday before leaving for the coast on Sunday.

SALENTO

When we finally arrived in Salento it was raining very heavy and we weren't impressed with the town nor the hostel. We got a tiny little room in a hostel that the Lonely Planet praised but wasn't anything special. It definitely didn't help that it was dark and raining. The next morning we wanted to go for a hike through the Valle de Cocora but since it was still raining, decided to wait another day. So we spent the day at the hostel and in cafes with our net books - working on the blog. (It's more work than expected)
The next day we finally went to the Valle de Cocora and the weather was much better than the day before. To get to the park we took a jeep early in the morning. Because of a landslide the jeep had to get off the road and drive over a field. Since it was wet that wasn't easy and we all had to get off the jeep and people had to push the jeep.
We didn't have a map for the area and so we chose the trail that we thought would lead us in the right direction. Most people only walk through the valley to a little farm with hummingbirds. But we opted for a little longer hike over a hill and back through the valley. After we walked for maybe 15 minutes we got to a river that was more than a little creek. There was a tree as a bridge over the river but it was no easy task to balance over that tree to the other side of the river. The tree was a good 1.5 m over the river, quite long and the water fast and with a lot of rocks.

Micha was brave (or crazy) enough to balance over the tree and luckily made it safe to the other side of the river. I tried but didn't fell safe and turned around. In the end I walked through the river with Micha's help. After that the trail was much easier. But still difficult enough with a lot of uphill and a lot of mud. The trail was very nice with trees and bushes everywhere. We also saw some hummingbirds and some other big birds. The view from the hill is supposed to be very nice but we didn't see anything since we were basically walking in the clouds and it was very foggy around us. But at least it didn't rain. When we got to the house with the hummingbirds we enjoyed a hot chocolate and talked to some nice Colombians. Our way back went first along a creek, than became a very muddy path. Walking through the valley was very nice and there were amazingly tall wax palms everywhere. After too much time in Salento we left the next morning for Cali, were we spend a day before flying to Quito.

TRAVELING BY BUS II

Traveling by bus is not only fascinating, sometimes it also can take much longer than expected and be exhausting. We wanted to travel from the small village near the coffee farm to Salento a small town in the mountains. The distance between the two place is less than 50 km but it took five hours to get to Salento.
We waited at the road hoping to stop the bus to Pereira, the next bigger town in our direction, where we were supposed to change buses. Unfortunately we let the first bus going by because we were standing at the wrong side of the road and the bus driver didn't see us. The next bus didn't stop. After almost half an hour we stopped one bus and asked if it goes to Pereira. The driver said no but a few people on the bus said yes and we got in. The buses here usually have signs in the front window showing the cities where they are going. This bus didn't show Pereira but Peaje and I wondered where I had seen that word before. After a very short ride I knew why - it meant toll. The bus was only going to the toll station. The guys that told us to take this bus said we had to walk around the toll station and get on another bus there. The first bus we tried to take didn't stop for us. So we went on another local bus with the other guys. When we got to the next town the guys signaled us to get off the bus and change to yet another bus. There was a little confusion since some of the people told us to stay on this bus and others told us to change the bus. We changed the bus and luckily we finally got to the bus terminal in Pereira. In Pereira we had to take the bus to Salento. Unfortunately the last bus going there left 10 minuted before we got to the ticket booth. (maybe we should have skipped the bathroom stop). We now had to take a bus to Armenia, a town south of Salento and from there a bus back north to Salento. After an uneventful one hour bus ride to Armenia and some waiting we got on the bus to Salento. We only got a few blocks until the bus was stopped by the police. It seemed like there were problems with the bus light and after some discussion between the driver and the police we drove to a little repair shop around the corner. It took only a few minutes to fix the problem and luckily we could continue our journey. After that little stop it was less than an hour on the bus to get to Salento. It was totally dark when we finally got to Salento after a rather long bus ride. I still wonder how long it would have taken to drive directly by car.

ONE NIGHT AT A COFFEE FARM

After partying in Medellin we headed south to a small coffee farm. The farm is located two kilometers of the road and we walked there in the rain. We were the only guests staying there for the night and the owners / people who worked there were extremely friendly. They talked very slowly Spanish so I could understand everything, served us as much coffee as we wanted, prepared delicious food and even made a little German flag for the dinner table. The landscape around the farm was very nice - green hills with a lot of coffee trees and other plants. There were many birds in all colors near the hacienda as well.

In the morning we got a tour through the farm where our guide explained how coffee is grown and produced. It's so much work. Workers collecting the coffee beans get paid by the amount of coffee they collect and most of them spend 12 hours daily in the fields. The beans are then washed, sorted and dried before the high quality beans are send abroad. Only lower quality coffee stays in Colombia and usually the coffee in restaurants really isn't very good.

It was very relaxing at the farm and I totally enjoyed the quiet surroundings and nice landscape.

RUSSIAN COCAINE IN MEDELLIN

After another overnight bus ride we got to Medellin at 6 am in the morning. With Medellin's metro it was easy to make our way to the hotel. Most hostel are in the El Poblado area but we decided to stay in a small hotel downtown to “avoid the hostel scene” as the Lonely Planet called it. The area around the hotel was a little shabby but safe enough. After we relaxed for a while in the hotel we started on a tour through the city. First we stopped at the Cathedral Metropolitana, a huge, beautiful church near Parque Bolivar. It seems like every South- American city has a Parque Bolivar and at least five statues of Bolivar. After that we walked through the streets which had a lot of small stores before we enjoyed a coffee at the 10^th Floor of the Centro Colombo Americano building. The view from there was nice. Next on our tour through town was the Botanical Garden. It was nice walking through the park even tough it started raining.

In the evening we met up with Walter and Milena, who we met in Tayrona. They picked us up by car and showed us places in Medellin they like. That was awesome. (THANK YOU SOOO MUCH Walter and Milena).

First we went to Cerro Nutibara, a hill with great views over Medellin at night. Up on the hill was also a museum-like version of a typical town from the Zona Cafetera. Quite interesting. After that we went to the cool Plaza Mayor before we stopped at a nice little bar near the old Museum of Modern Art. There we enjoyed a refreshing Refajo, a mix of beer, aguardiente and soda.. We also checked out the area around the new Museum of Modern Art and even got a tour in Walter's beautiful home. For dinner we had delicious pasta at the best restaurant on this trip so far.

The next morning we met Milena and Walter once more. We went to Explora, an interactive museum. There we played like kids with the physical experiments that were set up, went to the aquarium and got some information about Colombian geography. After that we took the MetroCable up to the Santa Elena park. Although the cable car looks like a ski lift it is used for public transport. It first passes working class and poor housing areas and than runs over the park. We went for a short walk and had lunch in a typical Colombian restaurant on the road. Huge amounts of meat with beans and some rice. For me it was definitely too much meat - there was half a pig on my plate. And was definitely enough meat for a few weeks for me.

Back in the city we went to El Poblado for some drinks and had a lot of fun. In the first bar we got a special cocktail called Iced Tea - I don't remember what exactly it contained but it was a lot of alcohol. Afterward we headed to the next bar trying Russian Cocaine. No drugs! Only a shot - Vodka + a lemon with sugar and coffee. Very good...

Thanks to Walter and Milena we had an amazing time in Medellin and really enjoyed it.

CARTAGENA

After almost two weeks it was time to move on and leave Taganga. Our next stop would be Cartagena, the old colonial city in the Caribbean coast. When we arrived at the bus terminal we decided to take a bus to the city center and not a taxi. Since we didn't know exactly were we had to get off it was quite adventurous. Luckily the driver told us where we had to get off. It was dark already and we didn't really know where we were and where to go. We started walking in the direction that looked best to us and tried to find the way to the hostel. In the end a local guy showed us the way (and asked for money for doing so). After we checked into the hostel we went for a short walk through Cartagena's old town.
The many old colonial houses were nicely lit and a lot of people were in the streets. The atmosphere was really nice with open stores, restaurants and bars. The next day we walked around the old town and along the wide walls surrounding the city. Since it was quite hot we got tired and lazy fast and decided to spend the afternoon relaxing at the hostel.

On Sunday were elections for the local government and selling and consumption of alcohol was prohibited. That meant that unfortunately most bars were closed and the city was very quite in the evenings.

We also went to a little monastery on a hill. Unfortunately we were ripped off by the taxi driver because I didn't understand what he was saying and he asked for way too much money that we didn't wanted to pay. The view from the monastery over the city was quite nice but all in all it wasn't worth going there. Especially since the view from the old fortress was great as well.

After the monastery we visited the Castillo San Felipe fortress just outside the old city walls. It is a huge complex with thick walls and a lot of little towers overlooking the surroundings. What was most interesting in the fortress were the many tunnels. There was a maze of long tunnels deep inside the fortress that people could walk around. It was a little scary (especially once you got to the point were there was very little light and water was standing in the tunnel) but very nice.
We spent the last morning going to the market Mercado Bazurto. Very interesting. The market was huge, unorganized and crazy. You could buy everything from fresh fish to shoes, meat, fruits, cow eyes, pencils, watches, pig heads, car repair parts, lunch, underwear and probably a lot of other things we didn't see. The smell in the little alleys was intense and I couldn't stand it very long.

BEING LATE IN TAGANGA

Since we wanted to visit the Tayrona National Park and hike to Ciudad Perdida we chose Taganga as a base because it's close to both.

Taganga is a small village on the carribean coast. It used to be a fishing village but now there are also a lot of hostels and backpackers. We got there directly from Bogota after a very short stop in Santa Marta and didn't like the town much at the beginning. The bay looked very nice but the beach itself wasn't that great and the village not very clean. A lot of streets were just rocks and trash. But we stayed in a very nice hostel Casa de Felipe up on the hill. The hostel had a very nice, green garden with hammocks and comfy chairs. It was the perfect place to hang out and relax. And it was warm and sunny as well.

For some reason I didn't pack any shorts but definitely needed some for the hike. There was a small store sewing swimsuits and I asked if they could sew shorts for me. The problem was that I needed them within 24 hours (as always, I do everything last minute) and they didn't have fabric for the shorts. But everyone here is very friendly and the husband of the owner drove to Santa Marta (Saturday night at 6pm) to buy the fabric so that I would get my shorts. They told me to come back the next day at 3pm. I did not take 3pm as a sharp appointment. When I walked down to the store around 3.45 pm it was closed. I walked back there at 6 pm but the store was still closed and I decided to walk to town to try to find some shorts in the little stores at the beach. On the way there some people on the street waved at us and called "Hello Claudia". First I was surprised that someone would greet me with my name but than I realized it were the people from the tailor's shop. They were waiting for me at 3pm. Since it was Sunday they wanted to go to the beach in the afternoon and closed the store. They even took the shorts with them to the beach hoping they would see me there. It's unbelievable but I managed to be late in South America. Am I really German??

In the end Taganga become kind of a 'home' and we stayed much longer then expected. People were very friendly and it was nice being greeted by people while walking through town. Since we always went to the same stores and cafes people 'knew' us. It was also great because Antonio and Carlos from the Ciudad Perdida hike live in Taganga and we could always walk by their house for a chat or beer with them. (It was great meeting you guys. Gracias por todo!)

PARQUE TAYRONA AND THE POLICE

Tayrona National Park is on the Caribbean Coast and is know for beautiful beaches and it's  landscape.

 After a short bus ride from Santa Marta we got to the Entrance Station of the Tayrona National Park. There were two police men who checked my bag (don't know what they were looking for) and asked where we were going. Our plan was to go to Castilletes Camping a short walk down the road. Somehow we got a ride from the police in their truck to the campground. Great service by the Colombian police. 

The campground was very quiet and besides us there was only one couple staying there. We got a tent a few meters from the beach and had a 1.5 km long Caribbean beach all for ourselves. In the afternoon we went for a walk along the beach and relaxed.

The campground was on an former narco estate with ruins of a nice old pool, barbecue place and many palm trees. After we had dinner the couple introduced themselves. Walter and Milena are a very nice Colombian couple from Medellin that we became friendly with. We talked for quite a while and were sitting at the beach before going to sleep. Waking up with the sound of the sea and seeing palm trees and the beach when you open your eyes is great. Life is good.

On our second day in the park we took a little hike to the next place. The hike wasn't very long but still took quite some time and was exhausting in the heat. The trail went along the beach and through the muddy forest. We stopped for a nice swim in the very warm water. Very relaxing. The second night we slept in hammocks at the Miradora at Cabo San Juan, a small place with a few hammocks on a rock between two small nice bays. The view was amazing. When a heavy thunderstorm started early at night we had the best place to watch the lightning. We spent the last day swimming and relaxing at the beach with Milena and Walter before going back to Taganga in the afternoon. Because none of us felt like going on another long hike to get out of the park again we opted for the boat going directly to Taganga. The boat wasn't that big but there were a lot of people on board. Shortly before getting to Taganga our boat was stopped by the police. There were too many people on board (35 instead of the allowed 30) and the company had to pay a 7 million peso (4000$) fine. The police boat escorted our boat all the way back to the beach. So, in the end we entered and left the park with the police.

MICHA'S BLOG

Check out what Micha thinks about Colombia
http://mb.rivulet.org/journal/

HIKE TO CIUDAD PERDIDA 11. October - 15. October 2010

Ciudad Perdida (Lost City) - is a large pre-Colombian city in the Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta that was built between the 11th and 14th centuries by the Tayrona Indians. The only way to get there is by foot. It took five days to hike there and back.
After talking to a few travel agencies that offered the hike, we booked the tour with Expotur that offered the tour with an English translator.

On the day we started we were picked up in the morning by an old jeep to get to the start of the trail. We were 13 people in the jeep and it was very, very cozy. After an hour driving on the road we had to drive for about another hour up to the mountain village were we would start the hike. The way up there can not really be described as a road. It was more a wide trail with a lot of deep holes and some very steep parts. The jeep had to work very hard to get there. But of course we made it. Our group consisted of 10 people (6 from Canada, 2 from Ireland and us) and our great guide Antonio and awesome translator Carlos.

 After we had lunch in the little village Machete we started the hike. At the beginning the trail was quite steep and exhausting. Luckily we stopped at a nice little spot at the river were we could jump in and swim for a while before continuing the hike. The view over the mountains surrounding us was amazing - green everywhere. When we got to the camp we were the only group there and it was nice and quiet. We relaxed at the camp while Antonio and Carlos prepared the dinner. The food on the trail was always surprisingly good. Mmmmm. The guides even carried eggs up the hills so that we could have eggs for breakfast. We also had a lot of delicious fruits during the hike and chocolate bars.

The area where we were hiking used to have a lot of farms growing coca plants and producing cocaine paste. In recent years people from that region were encouraged and financially supported by the government to grow other crops or work in the tourism industry. We visited a small little shack where a young guy explained the process of producing cocaine paste. Out of 12 kg coca leaves they get 20 g of cocaine paste. There are a lot of different chemicals (salt, gasoline, potassium, lime, ...) involved and through quite a number of processes they get the paste. This paste is than sold and will be made to the powder and send abroad. Of course we couldn't take this little tour officially but apparently the military doesn't care too much about these tours. It was interesting to see how complicated it is to produce cocaine. I also tried the paste but it doesn't have an effect except numbing your mouth. 
The hiking on the second day was fairly easy over nice rolling hills. Again we stopped at a river were we jumped of the rocks into the water. After hiking in the heat that was great and very refreshing.

After a few hours hiking we got to the camp around 2 in the afternoon. We were not sitting there too long until we noticed that there were tons of little flies biting everyone in the legs. Of course I got so many bits that it was impossible to count them. We all changed into long pants and were wearing our flip flops with socks. Only covering up helped against the bugs. Luckily at night we had mosquito nets over our beds or hammocks.

The trail on the third day was very beautiful with trails through thick amazingly green forest and a few river crossings. We also passed a few little Indian Villages where Kogi Indians live.

In the afternoon we hang out at camp and watched the rain. It was pouring very hard for an hour or so and we could definitely see the water rise in the rivers.

On day 4 we finally were going to see Ciudad Perdida. But to get there we first had to cross a river and than climb 1300 steps. The remains of the city were very interesting and pretty. Grass and tree covered terraces that were the foundations for the houses. Of course there is nothing left of the wood houses that were built hundreds of years ago. There are around 170 terraces and we visited a few. We climbed a little higher and had a great view over the biggest and highest terrace and the surrounding forest and mountains. Amazing!
The soldiers protecting Ciudad Perdida were very friendly and had no problems lending their guns to us and getting photographed.

          

After we visited the lost city it was time to hike back.
Usually I was quite slow and most of the time I walked at the back of the group, usually together with Chelsie who was slower than the rest of the group as well. Antonio was very nice and walked at the end with us and even had enough patience to speak slowly Spanish with me (Gracias Antonio!) But somehow at a river crossing I lost the people walking in the front of the group and the last people were far behind me. So, I ended up walking alone for about two hours through the Colombian jungle. I usually don't like hiking alone but I started to enjoy it when it started raining very hard. The trail turned into a small river and since I was all sweating from hiking anyways I didn't mind getting wet. And it was warm anyways. We were all soaking wet when we got to the camp but no one really cared. Our clothes were dirty and wet most of the time anyways.

The last day shortly before the end of the hike, we all jumped into the river. All clothes and shoes on. Everything was wet from sweating, rain and river crossings anyways. It was a lot of fun and very refreshing. The hike on the last day was a lot of downhill and not too difficult. I even ran part of the way because it was easier to run than to walk the trail.

Back in Taganga at night we all met for dinner and drinks (after a nice hot shower) and had a good time together.

The hike to Ciudad Perdida was one of the reasons why I wanted to go to Colombia (Thanks Eli for telling me about it) and it totally held up to the expectations. The hike was truly amazing. The landscape was beautiful, the Ciudad Perdida impressive, the trail challenging but great, the fruits delicious, the group was nice and our guides awesome (Gracias Carlos y Antonio!!)

TRAVELING BY BUS

Traveling by bus is not only cheaper but more fascinating than flying. Looking out the window while going through small fishing or mountain villages or on narrow mountain roads can be quite interesting. The buses themselves are more comfortable than planes as well. That's good thing since 20 hours on the bus with only one stop is a long time.

On our way from Bogota to Santa Marta on the coast we were driving through the mountains for the first few hours. There was a lot of traffic on the mountain road. Lots of buses and trucks in both directions. Our bus was still overtaking other buses and trucks. Never mind the oncoming traffic After it got dark the buses turned on huge flashlights on the roofs to signal that they were overtaking trucks. A little scary but it worked.
All towns we passed had little stores along the road and people were sitting in front of them. Just hanging around waiting for someone to buy anything from them. Or just hanging around. The scenery was much different in the morning when we got closer to the coast. Cows on green fields and palm trees. There were still little stores along the road and people in front of them. There were also many people biking or walking, horse carriages and occasionally someone washing clothes in the river.

The scenery was much different along the coast on our way from Santa Marta to Cartagena. Just a few meters to the side of the road the Caribbean Sea started and on the over side of the road were small fishing villages. Some completely under water.





More pictures are here