Around the World (2014-2016)
!
May 30, 2015 | 6:20 am
#107
Original Poster
Join Date: Oct 2012
Posts: 762
Video from Costa Rica
After finishing up my live updates from Panama, I can now present the video from Costa Rica. Although it was my least favorite country in Central America, it does not mean that the trip wasn’t good! In fact it actually was quiet nice, especially watching sea turtles lay eggs and doing some canopy as well as the obvious hikes through tropic rain forests.
>> Direct Vimeo Link
After finishing up my live updates from Panama, I can now present the video from Costa Rica. Although it was my least favorite country in Central America, it does not mean that the trip wasn’t good! In fact it actually was quiet nice, especially watching sea turtles lay eggs and doing some canopy as well as the obvious hikes through tropic rain forests.
>> Direct Vimeo Link
Jun 2, 2015 | 3:22 pm
#108
Original Poster
Join Date: Oct 2012
Posts: 762
Level up (31)
Well, it is that special day of the year again my birthday! Due to the fact that I was celebrating into it last night in Brasilia and a combined sleeping time of 3 hours in the last two nights, I decided to take it easy in Rio and will instead celebrate my birthday here on Friday a much better day than todays grey and rainy Tuesday
The weather forecast looks good and I will head to Petrpolis and Terespolis tomorrow for some hiking in the Serra dos Orgos. Turns out to be really expensive, but I will go anyway. So, onwards to 32 now, just another meaningless number
Well, it is that special day of the year again my birthday! Due to the fact that I was celebrating into it last night in Brasilia and a combined sleeping time of 3 hours in the last two nights, I decided to take it easy in Rio and will instead celebrate my birthday here on Friday a much better day than todays grey and rainy Tuesday
The weather forecast looks good and I will head to Petrpolis and Terespolis tomorrow for some hiking in the Serra dos Orgos. Turns out to be really expensive, but I will go anyway. So, onwards to 32 now, just another meaningless number
Jun 3, 2015 | 12:51 am
#109
FlyerTalk Evangelist
Join Date: Mar 2006
Location: Germany
Programs: Some
Posts: 13,130
Level up (31)
Well, it is that special day of the year again my birthday! Due to the fact that I was celebrating into it last night in Brasilia and a combined sleeping time of 3 hours in the last two nights, I decided to take it easy in Rio and will instead celebrate my birthday here on Friday a much better day than todays grey and rainy Tuesday The weather forecast looks good and I will head to Petrpolis and Terespolis tomorrow for some hiking in the Serra dos Orgos. Turns out to be really expensive, but I will go anyway. So, onwards to 32 now, just another meaningless number
Well, it is that special day of the year again my birthday! Due to the fact that I was celebrating into it last night in Brasilia and a combined sleeping time of 3 hours in the last two nights, I decided to take it easy in Rio and will instead celebrate my birthday here on Friday a much better day than todays grey and rainy Tuesday
The weather forecast looks good and I will head to Petrpolis and Terespolis tomorrow for some hiking in the Serra dos Orgos. Turns out to be really expensive, but I will go anyway. So, onwards to 32 now, just another meaningless number
Jun 6, 2015 | 6:43 am
#110
Original Poster
Join Date: Oct 2012
Posts: 762
Danke
Live #56, Capurgan, Colombia
19/02/2015 After a few days of amazing hiking in the Serra dos Orgos around Petrpolis and Terespolis, I am now back in Rio de Janeiro and ready to watch the Champions League finale at the beach followed by hopefully an awesome sunset at Praia do Aproador. This update will commence a new country and continent, arriving in Colombias border town of Capurgan, which can not be reached by car and is famed to be one of the best diving spots in Colombia; giving me a very good reason to do my first fun dives after my PADI Certification in Utila
The small boat ride from Supzurro at the border to Capurgan was charged with $5, a lot for the 10 minute ride! You can also do a two-hour hike over the hill to reach the little village, a much cooler way to arrive certainly; just a little bit problematic if you want to make it to Capurgan quickly in order to reserve a spot in one of the nicer hostels. After splitting up in groups and checking our options, we decided to settle down at Dive & Green for $20.000 Pesos per night they give you an discount if you dive with them, which we obviously did because of the great spots around here. In the evening we met up with everyone from the San Blas Island Cruise again to have an all-you-can-eat dinner. Having been used to great food from those guys, I happily paid the 10$ and was looking forward to eat at least three pizzas! Unfortunately, the food was VERY limited in the end and everyone was only able to get just three small slices and a bit of pasta. I felt a bit cheated after that
We woke up early the next morning to get ready for our two early morning fun dives! Paying 80$ for two tanks is an okay price I guess, especially in an remote place like Capurgan, which only has two diving facilities as well. The other one offered as a better price, however Dive & Green looked much nicer and more professional and we were not disappointed at all! The first dive was a bit boring, at least for me, since the beginning did not offer a lot and I ran out of air about 15 minutes before the other, more experienced, divers! I really have to work on my breathing technique, something that is totally normal to beginners according to our dive master.
For the second dive we ventured into an early called La Cueva and it was absolutely amazing! Even though only the advanced divers in our group were allowed to dive all the way through the tiny cave, eventually popping out of a small hole again, it was still a great experience for me to at least enter the cave and look around a bit before heading back to the entrance again. Really cool stuff! I was again running out of air a bit faster than the rest, but lasted longer than in the first dive. Maybe at some point I can get the opportunity to finish the advanced course and work on that issue.
After a long nights sleep, I explored the town a little bit on the last day before heading out to Necocl with a small motor boat, which was labelled as a ferry. It was a bit weird to pay a guy on the street and then wait for a long time until it finally arrived with a big delay, I was a bit afraid of being the victim of a scam but apparently it was the normal way it works over there The two hour ride was very uncomfortable but also a lot of funny since we were constantly jumping into the air due to very high waves. Sometimes it really looked like we would flip over but it never happened. My camera bag (secured in another garbage bag) was very wet afterwards, including all my money and passport.
Necocl looked like a real cool places to hang out for a while, however I decided to join a group to start a series of bus journeys, eventually arriving to Cartagena in the evening. I used the window seat and air in the first bus to dry my passport bit while trying not to hit my head too many times since the bus was really speeding. We arrived at the bus station in Monteri at 19:30 after squeezing all four of us including backpacks into a tiny taxi, just missing the last bus. Luckily, the argentinean guys in the group managed to get a good private van deal for 40.000 instead of 55.000 pesos and we could leave at 20:30, finally arriving in Cartagena at 1AM! Nearly all hostels were booked out the three of them got the last spots in one of the hostels while I ended up in Casa Vienaa for 28.000 pesos, which seemed to be the cheapest option and they had one more spot free! I went out for some drinks with a few germans I ran into before getting some sleep somewhen around 3 or 4 AM
>> Pictures
Live #56, Capurgan, Colombia
19/02/2015 After a few days of amazing hiking in the Serra dos Orgos around Petrpolis and Terespolis, I am now back in Rio de Janeiro and ready to watch the Champions League finale at the beach followed by hopefully an awesome sunset at Praia do Aproador. This update will commence a new country and continent, arriving in Colombias border town of Capurgan, which can not be reached by car and is famed to be one of the best diving spots in Colombia; giving me a very good reason to do my first fun dives after my PADI Certification in Utila
The small boat ride from Supzurro at the border to Capurgan was charged with $5, a lot for the 10 minute ride! You can also do a two-hour hike over the hill to reach the little village, a much cooler way to arrive certainly; just a little bit problematic if you want to make it to Capurgan quickly in order to reserve a spot in one of the nicer hostels. After splitting up in groups and checking our options, we decided to settle down at Dive & Green for $20.000 Pesos per night they give you an discount if you dive with them, which we obviously did because of the great spots around here. In the evening we met up with everyone from the San Blas Island Cruise again to have an all-you-can-eat dinner. Having been used to great food from those guys, I happily paid the 10$ and was looking forward to eat at least three pizzas! Unfortunately, the food was VERY limited in the end and everyone was only able to get just three small slices and a bit of pasta. I felt a bit cheated after that
We woke up early the next morning to get ready for our two early morning fun dives! Paying 80$ for two tanks is an okay price I guess, especially in an remote place like Capurgan, which only has two diving facilities as well. The other one offered as a better price, however Dive & Green looked much nicer and more professional and we were not disappointed at all! The first dive was a bit boring, at least for me, since the beginning did not offer a lot and I ran out of air about 15 minutes before the other, more experienced, divers! I really have to work on my breathing technique, something that is totally normal to beginners according to our dive master.
For the second dive we ventured into an early called La Cueva and it was absolutely amazing! Even though only the advanced divers in our group were allowed to dive all the way through the tiny cave, eventually popping out of a small hole again, it was still a great experience for me to at least enter the cave and look around a bit before heading back to the entrance again. Really cool stuff! I was again running out of air a bit faster than the rest, but lasted longer than in the first dive. Maybe at some point I can get the opportunity to finish the advanced course and work on that issue.
After a long nights sleep, I explored the town a little bit on the last day before heading out to Necocl with a small motor boat, which was labelled as a ferry. It was a bit weird to pay a guy on the street and then wait for a long time until it finally arrived with a big delay, I was a bit afraid of being the victim of a scam but apparently it was the normal way it works over there
The two hour ride was very uncomfortable but also a lot of funny since we were constantly jumping into the air due to very high waves. Sometimes it really looked like we would flip over but it never happened. My camera bag (secured in another garbage bag) was very wet afterwards, including all my money and passport.Necocl looked like a real cool places to hang out for a while, however I decided to join a group to start a series of bus journeys, eventually arriving to Cartagena in the evening. I used the window seat and air in the first bus to dry my passport bit while trying not to hit my head too many times since the bus was really speeding. We arrived at the bus station in Monteri at 19:30 after squeezing all four of us including backpacks into a tiny taxi, just missing the last bus. Luckily, the argentinean guys in the group managed to get a good private van deal for 40.000 instead of 55.000 pesos and we could leave at 20:30, finally arriving in Cartagena at 1AM! Nearly all hostels were booked out the three of them got the last spots in one of the hostels while I ended up in Casa Vienaa for 28.000 pesos, which seemed to be the cheapest option and they had one more spot free! I went out for some drinks with a few germans I ran into before getting some sleep somewhen around 3 or 4 AM
>> Pictures
Jun 11, 2015 | 11:42 am
#111
Original Poster
Join Date: Oct 2012
Posts: 762
Live #57, Cartagena, Colombia
22/02/2015 I made it to Vitria in the east of Brazil now after some amazing days in Trindade and Paraty! Heading to Pedra Azul and the Capara National Park will be the most off-the-beaten-path experience in this trip so far, even 85% of the Brazilians I asked didnt know about the two places! This update covers Cartagena in Colombia, probably the most known and beautiful town in the north of the country.
After years of traveling and visiting countless cities, I developed a kind of boredom against most of them. Sadly Cartagena is just another one of those cities certainly a very very beautiful one and you could spend easily spent a couple of days there. For my part, however, I could not wait to get out again after a day and head towards Santa Marta, which offers more activities in the nature. I still have to say that I really liked Cartagena, it is really nice there and I had good company, joining up with the Australian couples again whom I met during the cruise through the San Blas Islands.
Cartagena, as Spains first colony in America, offers a lot of gorgeous buildings sourrounded by the over 500 years old city wall. I had a good time strolling around but eventually found myself bored, which was not because of the city but because of the fact I mentioned in the beginning of the post. So by no means this should tell you not to go there! I am sure there is much more to do in the town as well, I just didnt do it Luckily I can keep this post short as I have to go now, as usual haha.
>> Pictures
22/02/2015 I made it to Vitria in the east of Brazil now after some amazing days in Trindade and Paraty! Heading to Pedra Azul and the Capara National Park will be the most off-the-beaten-path experience in this trip so far, even 85% of the Brazilians I asked didnt know about the two places! This update covers Cartagena in Colombia, probably the most known and beautiful town in the north of the country.
After years of traveling and visiting countless cities, I developed a kind of boredom against most of them. Sadly Cartagena is just another one of those cities certainly a very very beautiful one and you could spend easily spent a couple of days there. For my part, however, I could not wait to get out again after a day and head towards Santa Marta, which offers more activities in the nature. I still have to say that I really liked Cartagena, it is really nice there and I had good company, joining up with the Australian couples again whom I met during the cruise through the San Blas Islands.
Cartagena, as Spains first colony in America, offers a lot of gorgeous buildings sourrounded by the over 500 years old city wall. I had a good time strolling around but eventually found myself bored, which was not because of the city but because of the fact I mentioned in the beginning of the post. So by no means this should tell you not to go there! I am sure there is much more to do in the town as well, I just didnt do it
Luckily I can keep this post short as I have to go now, as usual haha.>> Pictures
Jun 15, 2015 | 4:01 pm
#112
Join Date: Dec 2009
Location: DFW/STL
Programs: AA EXP, AA Admirals Club, Marriott PLT Premier, Hertz President's Circle
Posts: 762
Chris - Enjoying keeping up with your travels. I'll be in Rio around July 4th. Any chance youll be there? Would enjoy having a drink and hearing some more of these awesome adventures.
Jun 21, 2015 | 7:44 am
#113
Original Poster
Join Date: Oct 2012
Posts: 762
Hey man Im sorry but I will be leaving Brazil in 3 days! I am in the Sao Paulo State now and got a flight booked on the 24th... Too bad!
Live #58, Santa Marta & Minca, Colombia
23/02/2015 My time in Brazil is slowly coming to an end after almost two months and exploring Santurio do Caraa as well as colonial towns such as Ouro Preto was another great experience. I barely had internet in the last days, but now I can finally get a quick update out. Santa Marta has been an amazing base for a lot of different things in the northern coast of Colombia; one short side trip in a Jeep took us up the mountains to a small village called Minca.
I had to bear through another long bus ride with Colombian music videos featuring local music and ridiculous half naked girls to arrive in Santa Marta at 7pm. The drop bear hostel was just 3km away from the Bus station, so I decided to walk over there in a creepy atmosphere, a thin layer of mist covering the ground in the dark. The hostel turned out to be pretty amazing, featuring a huge swing, really nice game room and very comfortable, clean and big dorms. Since it was pretty hot in Santa Marta, I jumped into the swimming pool to cool off before heading off with my new four buddies from Australia to explore the mountain village of Minca in the next morning.
We made a deal with a Jeep driver to get us up there and picked up another guy on the way: Tristan from England. Seemed like a cool guy and just jumped off another bus when we were about to leave town to head into the mountains. Once there, we started the 45 minute walk to the local waterfall. I paid 3000 to get in and 2000 for a beer (instead of 3000, pero no tengo mas!! haha) and we enjoyed the nice water for a while before heading back down.
The town itself is not so spectacular, what makes it really enjoyable though is the surrounding landscape. And because of that reason, I decided to quickly run to a viewpoint while the rest waited for the Jeep to bring us back again. After running into the wrong direction first, I finally found it but was not too impressed by the view. Still a nice workout running around in that altitude hehe When I made it back to the center of the village, everyone was already waiting in the Jeep for me to squeeze in on the last tiny spot in the back.
We made it back to Santa Marta at nightfall and dropped off at the supermarket to store up for the trip that everyone was looking forward to already: Tayrona National Park. This next update will certainly be a much bigger one I could even do some really nice Bouldering there!
>> Pictures
Live #58, Santa Marta & Minca, Colombia
23/02/2015 My time in Brazil is slowly coming to an end after almost two months and exploring Santurio do Caraa as well as colonial towns such as Ouro Preto was another great experience. I barely had internet in the last days, but now I can finally get a quick update out. Santa Marta has been an amazing base for a lot of different things in the northern coast of Colombia; one short side trip in a Jeep took us up the mountains to a small village called Minca.
I had to bear through another long bus ride with Colombian music videos featuring local music and ridiculous half naked girls to arrive in Santa Marta at 7pm. The drop bear hostel was just 3km away from the Bus station, so I decided to walk over there in a creepy atmosphere, a thin layer of mist covering the ground in the dark. The hostel turned out to be pretty amazing, featuring a huge swing, really nice game room and very comfortable, clean and big dorms. Since it was pretty hot in Santa Marta, I jumped into the swimming pool to cool off before heading off with my new four buddies from Australia to explore the mountain village of Minca in the next morning.
We made a deal with a Jeep driver to get us up there and picked up another guy on the way: Tristan from England. Seemed like a cool guy and just jumped off another bus when we were about to leave town to head into the mountains. Once there, we started the 45 minute walk to the local waterfall. I paid 3000 to get in and 2000 for a beer (instead of 3000, pero no tengo mas!! haha) and we enjoyed the nice water for a while before heading back down.
The town itself is not so spectacular, what makes it really enjoyable though is the surrounding landscape. And because of that reason, I decided to quickly run to a viewpoint while the rest waited for the Jeep to bring us back again. After running into the wrong direction first, I finally found it but was not too impressed by the view. Still a nice workout running around in that altitude hehe
When I made it back to the center of the village, everyone was already waiting in the Jeep for me to squeeze in on the last tiny spot in the back.We made it back to Santa Marta at nightfall and dropped off at the supermarket to store up for the trip that everyone was looking forward to already: Tayrona National Park. This next update will certainly be a much bigger one I could even do some really nice Bouldering there!
>> Pictures
Jun 25, 2015 | 11:34 am
#115
Original Poster
Join Date: Oct 2012
Posts: 762
Round-the-World Trip Statistics #02
Its been 270 days or 9 months since I started my trip in Canada and so far I have spent nearly 13.000 . I will actually take a break from traveling now for a couple of reasons, but have a lot of material left to keep you guys busy for a while no worries
A lot of people have asked me how much money I would spend on this trip. It was always hard to answer before I actually started, but now that I was on the road for nine months and thanks to my neat little Excel sheet, I can now provide you with some information!
My total spendings so far add up to 12.758,22
This figure includes everything: food, accommodations, booked trips and all the rest like buying new shower gel or paying to get into a climbing gym. Whenever I spend money, I convert the local currency to Euros and add it to my Excel sheet. The biggest part of the above sum was the cruise to Antarctica in March.
More interesting for yourself might be how much I actually spend on the food (including all sorts of drinks too) and accommodations in each country. The following stats will give you an insight on that. Luckily, I was able to Couchsurf every single day in Canada, making the average spendings in North America look a bit low because it just reflects Mexico. It is also interesting that South America matches Central America in terms of average food spendings!
Hope you liked that information, I will continue to gather the data in my lovely Excel sheet, haha. (Im soooo German, I know)
[url="https://chrisontour84.wordpress.com/2015/06/25/round-the-world-trip-statistics-02/"]>
Its been 270 days or 9 months since I started my trip in Canada and so far I have spent nearly 13.000 . I will actually take a break from traveling now for a couple of reasons, but have a lot of material left to keep you guys busy for a while no worries
A lot of people have asked me how much money I would spend on this trip. It was always hard to answer before I actually started, but now that I was on the road for nine months and thanks to my neat little Excel sheet, I can now provide you with some information!
My total spendings so far add up to 12.758,22
This figure includes everything: food, accommodations, booked trips and all the rest like buying new shower gel or paying to get into a climbing gym. Whenever I spend money, I convert the local currency to Euros and add it to my Excel sheet. The biggest part of the above sum was the cruise to Antarctica in March.
More interesting for yourself might be how much I actually spend on the food (including all sorts of drinks too) and accommodations in each country. The following stats will give you an insight on that. Luckily, I was able to Couchsurf every single day in Canada, making the average spendings in North America look a bit low because it just reflects Mexico. It is also interesting that South America matches Central America in terms of average food spendings!
Hope you liked that information, I will continue to gather the data in my lovely Excel sheet, haha. (Im soooo German, I know)
[url="https://chrisontour84.wordpress.com/2015/06/25/round-the-world-trip-statistics-02/"]>
Jun 28, 2015 | 12:16 am
#116
Original Poster
Join Date: Oct 2012
Posts: 762
Live #59, Tayrona National Park, Colombia
25/02/2015 Tayrona National Park should ring a bell for a lot of people, forming one of the most spectacular coastlines in Colombia. About four months ago, I spent a few nights there and can finally present you my story wandering through the beaches, doing some great bouldering and exploring the mini lost city Pueblito
I arrived at the entrance of Tayrona National Park around 11:00 after being stuck in traffic with the public bus. First off, you need to watch a video and actually receive a ticket as proof that you saw the video without it you wont be able to buy your entrance ticket. I met a few people in line that had to go back to get the ticket as it is not very obvious. The line was not really huge, but thanks to the fact that only two people sold tickets, I ended up waiting over an hour to get my ticket, leaving me enough time to make new friends which would explore the park with me together We finally were able to pay the 40.000 Pesos entry fee and started to walk along the paved road and hiking path for an good hour before arriving at Arrecifes beach. You can also take a shuttle for more than half of that trip if you are short on time.
The landscape at the first beach was nothing short of impressive, combining an awesome beach with huge boulders and a thick jungle in one spot! It was also very hot in February and walking in the sand did not make it any easier. None of us had any spot to sleep yet and the little group split up a little bit, me ending up with a German couple at a place called Finca don Pedro, offering Hammocks for 12.000 per night after some negotiating a pretty decent price! We relaxed for the rest of the day before heading down to the beach for sunset. It actually took about 15 minutes of walking to get there, but we preferred to be up in the jungle a little bit and would then stay right at the beach for the second night.
Having all those boulders around, I decided to grab my climbing shoes and make my way to the beach for sunrise in the next morning. I arrived at 6AM, just a few minutes before the sun came out of the cloudy sky. Barely any people could be seen along the huge beach line and I came back to one huge boulder I spotted the day before. Some nice cracks and the sand offered me two great easy routes (V1 and V2 Id say) which I could do without using a crash pad. It was so much fun to finally climb again and I ended up staying for 2 1/2 hours in that one spot before heading on to find some more boulders further down the beach.
I was able to find some, but actually ran out of time, because I really wanted to see Cabo San Juan as well, being the most famous beach in the Tayrona National Park. Arriving at the check-in, my plan was to get myself a nice spot in one of the hammocks for the night already. However, rumors turned out to be true and they did not sell any spots until 2PM, which was 5 hours away by the time I got there! I had no intentions to wait that long and decided to find another spot while checking out the really amazing coast line over here. Walking up to a little hill towards the more expensive hammocks offered a great view, perfect beaches dotted with palm trees everywhere. Oh and guess what- I met my friends from Australia once again over here, they were actually sleeping at the beach last night
Since there was no other good place to stay the night at the beach, I grabbed all of my stuff and decided to walk towards the mini lost city Pueblito La Ciudad Perdida to then sleep in Santa Marta afterwards. It was really hot by the time I started the hike through the jungle and boulder fields and the journey turned into a sweat-fest. After doing some more bouldering within the forest area, the path constantly went uphill through more and more huge boulders. I had to squeeze under some of those as well and actually used some climbing techniques to get on top of some others with my backpack. All of that made the hike very physical challenging in the speed I progressed, but man how much fun it was hoping and crawling on top and under the boulders!
Once I arrived at Pueblito, I finally had time to rest and enjoy the pineapple I was bringing along. Drinking the rest of my 5L water canister, I realized that I was completely alone at the site and spent a few minutes exploring. It was really enough time as it was pretty small. Nonetheless, it was nice to see the terraces and it made me look forward to my hike to the actual lost city in the next days. My water ran out and I hurried up towards the main road and alternative access point of the Park. I quickly bought 3 bags of water there for just 200 each and entered the public bus, which was presently inspected by some police. That same procedure actually happened again two more times within just ten minutes of driving! It took a very long time to return to Santa Marta and to round this nice trip up, they would just drop me at the roundabout outside the city, forcing me to take another shuttle towards the hostel, where I could finally relax a bit and reflect on the amazing trip I just had!
>> Pictures
25/02/2015 Tayrona National Park should ring a bell for a lot of people, forming one of the most spectacular coastlines in Colombia. About four months ago, I spent a few nights there and can finally present you my story wandering through the beaches, doing some great bouldering and exploring the mini lost city Pueblito
I arrived at the entrance of Tayrona National Park around 11:00 after being stuck in traffic with the public bus. First off, you need to watch a video and actually receive a ticket as proof that you saw the video without it you wont be able to buy your entrance ticket. I met a few people in line that had to go back to get the ticket as it is not very obvious. The line was not really huge, but thanks to the fact that only two people sold tickets, I ended up waiting over an hour to get my ticket, leaving me enough time to make new friends which would explore the park with me together
We finally were able to pay the 40.000 Pesos entry fee and started to walk along the paved road and hiking path for an good hour before arriving at Arrecifes beach. You can also take a shuttle for more than half of that trip if you are short on time.The landscape at the first beach was nothing short of impressive, combining an awesome beach with huge boulders and a thick jungle in one spot! It was also very hot in February and walking in the sand did not make it any easier. None of us had any spot to sleep yet and the little group split up a little bit, me ending up with a German couple at a place called Finca don Pedro, offering Hammocks for 12.000 per night after some negotiating a pretty decent price! We relaxed for the rest of the day before heading down to the beach for sunset. It actually took about 15 minutes of walking to get there, but we preferred to be up in the jungle a little bit and would then stay right at the beach for the second night.
Having all those boulders around, I decided to grab my climbing shoes and make my way to the beach for sunrise in the next morning. I arrived at 6AM, just a few minutes before the sun came out of the cloudy sky. Barely any people could be seen along the huge beach line and I came back to one huge boulder I spotted the day before. Some nice cracks and the sand offered me two great easy routes (V1 and V2 Id say) which I could do without using a crash pad. It was so much fun to finally climb again and I ended up staying for 2 1/2 hours in that one spot before heading on to find some more boulders further down the beach.
I was able to find some, but actually ran out of time, because I really wanted to see Cabo San Juan as well, being the most famous beach in the Tayrona National Park. Arriving at the check-in, my plan was to get myself a nice spot in one of the hammocks for the night already. However, rumors turned out to be true and they did not sell any spots until 2PM, which was 5 hours away by the time I got there! I had no intentions to wait that long and decided to find another spot while checking out the really amazing coast line over here. Walking up to a little hill towards the more expensive hammocks offered a great view, perfect beaches dotted with palm trees everywhere. Oh and guess what- I met my friends from Australia once again over here, they were actually sleeping at the beach last night
Since there was no other good place to stay the night at the beach, I grabbed all of my stuff and decided to walk towards the mini lost city Pueblito La Ciudad Perdida to then sleep in Santa Marta afterwards. It was really hot by the time I started the hike through the jungle and boulder fields and the journey turned into a sweat-fest. After doing some more bouldering within the forest area, the path constantly went uphill through more and more huge boulders. I had to squeeze under some of those as well and actually used some climbing techniques to get on top of some others with my backpack. All of that made the hike very physical challenging in the speed I progressed, but man how much fun it was hoping and crawling on top and under the boulders!
Once I arrived at Pueblito, I finally had time to rest and enjoy the pineapple I was bringing along. Drinking the rest of my 5L water canister, I realized that I was completely alone at the site and spent a few minutes exploring. It was really enough time as it was pretty small. Nonetheless, it was nice to see the terraces and it made me look forward to my hike to the actual lost city in the next days. My water ran out and I hurried up towards the main road and alternative access point of the Park. I quickly bought 3 bags of water there for just 200 each and entered the public bus, which was presently inspected by some police. That same procedure actually happened again two more times within just ten minutes of driving! It took a very long time to return to Santa Marta and to round this nice trip up, they would just drop me at the roundabout outside the city, forcing me to take another shuttle towards the hostel, where I could finally relax a bit and reflect on the amazing trip I just had!
>> Pictures
Jul 1, 2015 | 4:16 am
#117
Original Poster
Join Date: Oct 2012
Posts: 762
Live #60, Palomino & Santa Marta, Colombia
27/02/2015 Sometimes you come along a place you had no idea it even existed and then find yourself at that very place the next day. This happened to me in the case of Palomino, a small cozy settlement not too far from Santa Marta in Colombia on the way to Riohacha. It is famous for tubing down the river Palomino and a great place to just relax and enjoy the calming effects of the ocean.
Once again I hopped into a bus from Santa Marta towards Tayrona National Park, but this time I would stay in the bus for a bit longer and get off at Palomino instead. I spotted a familiar face and strangely enough, it was Tristan the guy we picked up with the Jeep on the way to Minca! Hes really nice, so I was glad to see him again and of course we joined forces. The ride took two hours in total and we started to walk through the sandy streets to find a place to sleep. One of the first places along the road was really rude, pushing us to sign in while I was still checking if they even had a working WiFi. Ending up in another, much nicer, place for 20.000 the night, I could finally start enjoying the relaxed atmosphere of the town.
I had no plans of doing the tubing myself, it just seemed to be much more enjoyable in a bigger group and Tristan was not so keen on it either. So instead I was walking to the point about 20 minutes away along the beach to see the groups coming in with the tubes. The beach there was really nice and because of its length, it actually feels like you are alone there. It is not a major tourist spot yet, so actually there are not too many people around and having a beach of that size certainly allows you to find a spot just for yourself.
I could see people walking towards me way in the distance, having their tubes on their back. It made up for a nice photo motive while the sun was slowly setting in the background. Arriving at the river Palomino, I could still see groups coming in with beers in their hand while the sun eventually went down, turning the place into a beautiful display of sunset reflections on the river. Walking to that spot just to see the sunset was already amazing, although I would have done the tubing as well in a bigger group.
Once again, I could negotiate the price for the bus ride and paid only 6000 to return to Santa Marta. Arriving there at 6PM, I made it to the water front just in time for another nice sunset. I had no CouchSurfer to host me so far and looked out for a place with WiFi. Sadly no one new came up to host me, so I decided to look for a cheap hotel instead. Meeting up with some CS for some dancing and drinks, I was told that the area of my hotel was a really bad one and the guys tried to convince me to go somewhere else. I already put my stuff in the room though and was too lazy to get it now.
After a great night out with some interesting Break dancing artists in one bar and then another awesome roof top party in a hostel, I made it back to my hotel at 3AM, wondering if something would happen. The only thing that happened were some homeless people asking for drugs and some prostitutes offering their service nothing serious and nothing I could just thankfully decline The only thing that was a bit worrying was the fact that I had no key for the hotel and I was forced to ring the bell in the middle of the night. After 15 minutes of waiting, the not-so-amused owner finally opened the door and I could retreat into my smelly, hot (but very cheap) single room without any drinking water left and totally thirsty, looking forward to get out of this mess as soon as I can in the morning
>> Pictures
27/02/2015 Sometimes you come along a place you had no idea it even existed and then find yourself at that very place the next day. This happened to me in the case of Palomino, a small cozy settlement not too far from Santa Marta in Colombia on the way to Riohacha. It is famous for tubing down the river Palomino and a great place to just relax and enjoy the calming effects of the ocean.
Once again I hopped into a bus from Santa Marta towards Tayrona National Park, but this time I would stay in the bus for a bit longer and get off at Palomino instead. I spotted a familiar face and strangely enough, it was Tristan the guy we picked up with the Jeep on the way to Minca! Hes really nice, so I was glad to see him again and of course we joined forces. The ride took two hours in total and we started to walk through the sandy streets to find a place to sleep. One of the first places along the road was really rude, pushing us to sign in while I was still checking if they even had a working WiFi. Ending up in another, much nicer, place for 20.000 the night, I could finally start enjoying the relaxed atmosphere of the town.
I had no plans of doing the tubing myself, it just seemed to be much more enjoyable in a bigger group and Tristan was not so keen on it either. So instead I was walking to the point about 20 minutes away along the beach to see the groups coming in with the tubes. The beach there was really nice and because of its length, it actually feels like you are alone there. It is not a major tourist spot yet, so actually there are not too many people around and having a beach of that size certainly allows you to find a spot just for yourself.
I could see people walking towards me way in the distance, having their tubes on their back. It made up for a nice photo motive while the sun was slowly setting in the background. Arriving at the river Palomino, I could still see groups coming in with beers in their hand while the sun eventually went down, turning the place into a beautiful display of sunset reflections on the river. Walking to that spot just to see the sunset was already amazing, although I would have done the tubing as well in a bigger group.
Once again, I could negotiate the price for the bus ride and paid only 6000 to return to Santa Marta. Arriving there at 6PM, I made it to the water front just in time for another nice sunset. I had no CouchSurfer to host me so far and looked out for a place with WiFi. Sadly no one new came up to host me, so I decided to look for a cheap hotel instead. Meeting up with some CS for some dancing and drinks, I was told that the area of my hotel was a really bad one and the guys tried to convince me to go somewhere else. I already put my stuff in the room though and was too lazy to get it now.
After a great night out with some interesting Break dancing artists in one bar and then another awesome roof top party in a hostel, I made it back to my hotel at 3AM, wondering if something would happen. The only thing that happened were some homeless people asking for drugs and some prostitutes offering their service nothing serious and nothing I could just thankfully decline
The only thing that was a bit worrying was the fact that I had no key for the hotel and I was forced to ring the bell in the middle of the night. After 15 minutes of waiting, the not-so-amused owner finally opened the door and I could retreat into my smelly, hot (but very cheap) single room without any drinking water left and totally thirsty, looking forward to get out of this mess as soon as I can in the morning >> Pictures
Jul 4, 2015 | 4:11 am
#118
Join Date: Mar 2001
Location: SYD
Programs: Mid-tiers with no tears: OZ*G, AC*G, NZ*S, VA Silver, QF Gold, HH Gold, Bonvoy Gold
Posts: 5,441
I've finally caught up with your adventures. The San Blas islands and Colombia both look utterly spectacular. Duly added to the 'must do' list.
Looking forward to the next update
Looking forward to the next update
Jul 7, 2015 | 3:33 am
#119
Original Poster
Join Date: Oct 2012
Posts: 762
Thanks, you should like the next update too
Live #61, Ciduad Perdida & Taganga, Colombia
01/03/2015 Relaxing at the gorgeous beach of Palomino was great, but if you followed my blog for a while, you will know that I actually prefer to put on my hiking boots and be a bit more active. The 5-day trek to the The Lost City of Ciduad Perdida deep in the jungle of northern Colombia seemed to be a must-do for me. We certainly had a lot of action thanks to the poisonous snakes in the area. One of them bit a soldier, putting him in a desperate need to be rescued by a helicopter, and one other was found and killed by our guides on the way back!
The first time I heard about Ciduad Perdida was during my trek to Machu Picchu in July 2013 and a bit less than two years later, I made it there myself! There are several options to do the hike: 4, 5 or 6 days. All of them use the same route and even the price is the same for all of them. Fast people tend to use the 4 day option while slower ones, obviously, take 6 days. I picked the middle option, mostly because I wanted to relax a bit and did not mind to get free food and accommodation for one extra day A lot of stuff happened and I will try to get it all into this live update, which will propably end up more like being a complete travel report. For this reason I actually included the live updates for each country into my travel report overview now!
Day 1
I picked Turcol as a company to guide me to Ciduad Perdida, but all companies charge the same and they actually shuffle around guides as well, so I think it doesnt really matter which one you pick! We left their office at 09:00 to pick up some more people and more importantly, buy tons of food. There were about 70 people to start the hike on that day and each jeep picked up something for the group. My group consisted of our guide, two people from Italy and a British girl. All jeeps met up at the last village before the starting point of the hike, which would also serve us for some sandwiches for lunch around 12:30.
About two hours of easy hiking later, we arrived at a natural swimming pool which enabled me to do some deep water bouldering again. Sadly I didnt bring my climbing shoes, so I was pretty limited being bare feet. A huge spider was sitting at the rock as well, having no problem with me being super close to her for some pictures. You should zoom in the picture to see her hairy legs, haha! We had a quick break for Water Melons at 15:00 and continued the hike in a pretty slow speed. Our Italian friend seemed to be a little bit uncomfortable walking around in the jungle and took his time. I was relieved to spot our camp site in the distance, asking for permission if I could go ahead and wait for them there, which my guide accepted as long as I would be careful. Of course I would! I made it to the camp in my own speed soon after at 16:45 and could pick a nice hammock for the night. There were about 30 hammocks overall and some of them were already used from a group coming back again on their last day. We also shared dinner with them, each group being served by their own guide and cook. They prepared Rice, Chicken and Potatoes for us and even though it tasted okay, I was missing the awesome food we received at the San Blas Islands in Panama; they set the standards pretty high!
Day 2
The second day started early at 06:45 in the morning and we were joined by a second group full of dutch guys and their own guide. After some time downhill through the jungle, we eventually made it to a village of the indigenous people. Some curious girls in their white ropes came over while the guide explained about their culture. We were served a huge fish lunch at the next camp and could go out for a swim in the nearby river. The water there was crystal clear and cold, which was very welcome after walking in the heat for quiet some time. It was pretty interesting to see our Italians friend tanning pose, hard to describe in words but he really looked funny and certainly enjoyed the hiking break! No one could finish the lunch this time and we continued the hike at 12:00, back into the jungle.
Several hours later, I realized why the guides wont let me go alone this time: We had to cross two rivers and while the first was no problem for everyone except the Italian guy, the second one was actually a bit trickier and I slipped at the end, landing in the knee deep water with one foot. Just then it also started to rain for the firs time a very welcome change, because it got pretty hot in the jungle. Not long after we would find ourselves in our camp for the second night, arriving at 15:45, about two hours before nightfall. It was dark, still raining and I was just about to head to dinner when I suddenly slipped into a dark corner and suffering two open small wounds that bled a bit. We disinfected them with alcohol, lime and salt, allowing me to finally eat up before heading to bed and watch some Mad Men since it was still pretty early. This time we had actual beds and no hammocks and even though they were not super clean, it was still better and thanks to the relaxing sound of the rain pouring down, I could fall asleep pretty fast.
Day 3
You could consider the third day as the highlight of the trek as we would reach the famous terraces of the Lost City today. Starting early at 06:00, we walked about 45 minutes through the rain and crossed one more river before suddenly standing at the beginning of a 1000 steps stair case, built by the tayrona indians somewhen between the 8th and 12th century. Those guys used to be very short (1,50m 1,60m) and once you walked on their stairs, you will see why. Some of the super steep steps required some attention, but overall the hike was not too hard. The sun finally came out as well while we were walking up to the first terrace, where our guide started to explain about the lost city and their former inhabitants. For instance, they built everything with the use of fire, water, wood and stones. Not much of a breaking news. More interesting was the moment we reached the most famous of all terraces, fully occupied by a complete squad of about 50 soldiers! Im not really sure why they need so many there, but it might also have been because of the fact that one of them was just bitten by a highly venomous snake
The military split up in groups, some of them taking care of the bitten comrade, others occupied keeping the signal fire up to produce enough smoke for the upcoming helicopter, and some just documenting everything on their smart phones. It was a pretty intense situation, the soldier only had about 30 minutes to get treatment before the bite would kill him. I asked our guide and they told us that snake bites here are not too uncommon and it was also not the first time for him to see a helicopter coming in for rescue. About 20 minutes later, the helicopter finally got in and the whole scene with all the soldiers felt a little bit like being in a movie! Hoping that the soldier received his medication in time, we eventually started our hike back with just one more stop for some more explanations about the area. Turns out that Ciduad Perdida is 200 years younger than El Publito, the mini lost city I visited in Tayrona National Park!
The guides spotted something in the bush on the way back to catch up with the rest and it was actually the same kind of snake that bit the soldier earlier! I could really tell that the guides have been in those situation before, quickly cutting a branch of a tree and shaping it to a Y shape to capture and then kill the snake with their machete. I spent the last 1% of my camera battery to take some cool close up pictures with the snake and her blood on the eye and was really happy to be here to witness this while the others of our group already went down hopefully they would not find another snake! The terraces have been really enjoyable despite all the action we had. We were the only tourists at the time and despite the warnings, barely had to fight with any mosquitoes! The weather was great as well and the jungle surroundings made for a really cool Indiana Jones kind of atmosphere it was totally worth coming here. I received permission to walk back in my own pace since the wound on my foot from last night was hurting a bit and I wanted to get out of the hiking boots to rest as soon as possible, arriving at the camp again at 15:30, taking just 90 minutes for the hike that took us four hours this morning.
Day 4
The Italians and myself woke up at 07:30 while the others in our two groups already left the camp at 05:00. They are on the 4 day trek and have to get back all the way to the end while we will have another night in the first camp. I waited a bit to dry my wet clothes, which were a bit wet every morning due to the humidity in the jungle, and soon after would catch up with the Italians who left an hour before me. Arriving at the camp at 11:00, we would have a full day to relax now. The Italian girl, our guide and myself decided to take a little excursion to a nearby waterfall at 15:00 and only a 20 minute walk away. We arrived at the top of the pretty big falls and had to climb down to the bottom. The girl decided to stay on top because the climb was an actual climb and I was happy to be able to use some Bouldering moves to get down Enjoying the view from the bottom and the waterfall it self, we returned to camp at 16:30 for a nice dinner. I was glad to take the 5 day hike, as I would not have been able to see the pretty nice waterfall otherwise.
Day 5
The last day started at 07:00 and we walked back to the starting point after breakfast. Our Italian friend turned out to be a great entertainer as he started to scream as loud as he can from a tiny slip. He was so careful all of the time and I think his scream was rather out of disappointment that he fell down rather than actual pain resulting from it. It was pretty amusing to see though and both the guide and myself were looking at each other in disbelief while he was crying out loud for about two minutes straight. Eventually, we made it back to the extraction point and I had enough time to take a shower before the car would drive us back to Santa Marta at 09:00. The Italians stayed in a hostel in Taganga and we dropped them off there with a quick stop at the viewpoint overlooking the bay. I returned to Turcols office to get my stuff, had some food and then headed back to Taganga myself, since I planned to stay there for my last night in the area. I made it just in time for the sunset at 17:30 and met up with a CS for some nice dinner at the bar Babaganoush, highly recommended if you are in the area. A dutch chef is serving really nice food over there for a decent price of 30.000 Colombian pesos. Thats it! I had no time to do any diving in Taganga but was very satisfied with my visit of the north coast. Up next for me was a flight to the capital Bogot and a short visit to Villa de Leyva before flying down all the way to the southern point of Argentina, getting ready for my long awaited cruise to Antarctica
>> Pictures
Live #61, Ciduad Perdida & Taganga, Colombia
01/03/2015 Relaxing at the gorgeous beach of Palomino was great, but if you followed my blog for a while, you will know that I actually prefer to put on my hiking boots and be a bit more active. The 5-day trek to the The Lost City of Ciduad Perdida deep in the jungle of northern Colombia seemed to be a must-do for me. We certainly had a lot of action thanks to the poisonous snakes in the area. One of them bit a soldier, putting him in a desperate need to be rescued by a helicopter, and one other was found and killed by our guides on the way back!
The first time I heard about Ciduad Perdida was during my trek to Machu Picchu in July 2013 and a bit less than two years later, I made it there myself! There are several options to do the hike: 4, 5 or 6 days. All of them use the same route and even the price is the same for all of them. Fast people tend to use the 4 day option while slower ones, obviously, take 6 days. I picked the middle option, mostly because I wanted to relax a bit and did not mind to get free food and accommodation for one extra day
A lot of stuff happened and I will try to get it all into this live update, which will propably end up more like being a complete travel report. For this reason I actually included the live updates for each country into my travel report overview now!Day 1
I picked Turcol as a company to guide me to Ciduad Perdida, but all companies charge the same and they actually shuffle around guides as well, so I think it doesnt really matter which one you pick! We left their office at 09:00 to pick up some more people and more importantly, buy tons of food. There were about 70 people to start the hike on that day and each jeep picked up something for the group. My group consisted of our guide, two people from Italy and a British girl. All jeeps met up at the last village before the starting point of the hike, which would also serve us for some sandwiches for lunch around 12:30.
About two hours of easy hiking later, we arrived at a natural swimming pool which enabled me to do some deep water bouldering again. Sadly I didnt bring my climbing shoes, so I was pretty limited being bare feet. A huge spider was sitting at the rock as well, having no problem with me being super close to her for some pictures. You should zoom in the picture to see her hairy legs, haha! We had a quick break for Water Melons at 15:00 and continued the hike in a pretty slow speed. Our Italian friend seemed to be a little bit uncomfortable walking around in the jungle and took his time. I was relieved to spot our camp site in the distance, asking for permission if I could go ahead and wait for them there, which my guide accepted as long as I would be careful. Of course I would! I made it to the camp in my own speed soon after at 16:45 and could pick a nice hammock for the night. There were about 30 hammocks overall and some of them were already used from a group coming back again on their last day. We also shared dinner with them, each group being served by their own guide and cook. They prepared Rice, Chicken and Potatoes for us and even though it tasted okay, I was missing the awesome food we received at the San Blas Islands in Panama; they set the standards pretty high!
Day 2
The second day started early at 06:45 in the morning and we were joined by a second group full of dutch guys and their own guide. After some time downhill through the jungle, we eventually made it to a village of the indigenous people. Some curious girls in their white ropes came over while the guide explained about their culture. We were served a huge fish lunch at the next camp and could go out for a swim in the nearby river. The water there was crystal clear and cold, which was very welcome after walking in the heat for quiet some time. It was pretty interesting to see our Italians friend tanning pose, hard to describe in words but he really looked funny and certainly enjoyed the hiking break! No one could finish the lunch this time and we continued the hike at 12:00, back into the jungle.
Several hours later, I realized why the guides wont let me go alone this time: We had to cross two rivers and while the first was no problem for everyone except the Italian guy, the second one was actually a bit trickier and I slipped at the end, landing in the knee deep water with one foot. Just then it also started to rain for the firs time a very welcome change, because it got pretty hot in the jungle. Not long after we would find ourselves in our camp for the second night, arriving at 15:45, about two hours before nightfall. It was dark, still raining and I was just about to head to dinner when I suddenly slipped into a dark corner and suffering two open small wounds that bled a bit. We disinfected them with alcohol, lime and salt, allowing me to finally eat up before heading to bed and watch some Mad Men since it was still pretty early. This time we had actual beds and no hammocks and even though they were not super clean, it was still better and thanks to the relaxing sound of the rain pouring down, I could fall asleep pretty fast.
Day 3
You could consider the third day as the highlight of the trek as we would reach the famous terraces of the Lost City today. Starting early at 06:00, we walked about 45 minutes through the rain and crossed one more river before suddenly standing at the beginning of a 1000 steps stair case, built by the tayrona indians somewhen between the 8th and 12th century. Those guys used to be very short (1,50m 1,60m) and once you walked on their stairs, you will see why. Some of the super steep steps required some attention, but overall the hike was not too hard. The sun finally came out as well while we were walking up to the first terrace, where our guide started to explain about the lost city and their former inhabitants. For instance, they built everything with the use of fire, water, wood and stones. Not much of a breaking news. More interesting was the moment we reached the most famous of all terraces, fully occupied by a complete squad of about 50 soldiers! Im not really sure why they need so many there, but it might also have been because of the fact that one of them was just bitten by a highly venomous snake
The military split up in groups, some of them taking care of the bitten comrade, others occupied keeping the signal fire up to produce enough smoke for the upcoming helicopter, and some just documenting everything on their smart phones. It was a pretty intense situation, the soldier only had about 30 minutes to get treatment before the bite would kill him. I asked our guide and they told us that snake bites here are not too uncommon and it was also not the first time for him to see a helicopter coming in for rescue. About 20 minutes later, the helicopter finally got in and the whole scene with all the soldiers felt a little bit like being in a movie! Hoping that the soldier received his medication in time, we eventually started our hike back with just one more stop for some more explanations about the area. Turns out that Ciduad Perdida is 200 years younger than El Publito, the mini lost city I visited in Tayrona National Park!
The guides spotted something in the bush on the way back to catch up with the rest and it was actually the same kind of snake that bit the soldier earlier! I could really tell that the guides have been in those situation before, quickly cutting a branch of a tree and shaping it to a Y shape to capture and then kill the snake with their machete. I spent the last 1% of my camera battery to take some cool close up pictures with the snake and her blood on the eye and was really happy to be here to witness this while the others of our group already went down hopefully they would not find another snake! The terraces have been really enjoyable despite all the action we had. We were the only tourists at the time and despite the warnings, barely had to fight with any mosquitoes! The weather was great as well and the jungle surroundings made for a really cool Indiana Jones kind of atmosphere it was totally worth coming here. I received permission to walk back in my own pace since the wound on my foot from last night was hurting a bit and I wanted to get out of the hiking boots to rest as soon as possible, arriving at the camp again at 15:30, taking just 90 minutes for the hike that took us four hours this morning.
Day 4
The Italians and myself woke up at 07:30 while the others in our two groups already left the camp at 05:00. They are on the 4 day trek and have to get back all the way to the end while we will have another night in the first camp. I waited a bit to dry my wet clothes, which were a bit wet every morning due to the humidity in the jungle, and soon after would catch up with the Italians who left an hour before me. Arriving at the camp at 11:00, we would have a full day to relax now. The Italian girl, our guide and myself decided to take a little excursion to a nearby waterfall at 15:00 and only a 20 minute walk away. We arrived at the top of the pretty big falls and had to climb down to the bottom. The girl decided to stay on top because the climb was an actual climb and I was happy to be able to use some Bouldering moves to get down
Enjoying the view from the bottom and the waterfall it self, we returned to camp at 16:30 for a nice dinner. I was glad to take the 5 day hike, as I would not have been able to see the pretty nice waterfall otherwise.Day 5
The last day started at 07:00 and we walked back to the starting point after breakfast. Our Italian friend turned out to be a great entertainer as he started to scream as loud as he can from a tiny slip. He was so careful all of the time and I think his scream was rather out of disappointment that he fell down rather than actual pain resulting from it. It was pretty amusing to see though and both the guide and myself were looking at each other in disbelief while he was crying out loud for about two minutes straight. Eventually, we made it back to the extraction point and I had enough time to take a shower before the car would drive us back to Santa Marta at 09:00. The Italians stayed in a hostel in Taganga and we dropped them off there with a quick stop at the viewpoint overlooking the bay. I returned to Turcols office to get my stuff, had some food and then headed back to Taganga myself, since I planned to stay there for my last night in the area. I made it just in time for the sunset at 17:30 and met up with a CS for some nice dinner at the bar Babaganoush, highly recommended if you are in the area. A dutch chef is serving really nice food over there for a decent price of 30.000 Colombian pesos. Thats it! I had no time to do any diving in Taganga but was very satisfied with my visit of the north coast. Up next for me was a flight to the capital Bogot and a short visit to Villa de Leyva before flying down all the way to the southern point of Argentina, getting ready for my long awaited cruise to Antarctica
>> Pictures
Jul 11, 2015 | 4:46 am
#120
Original Poster
Join Date: Oct 2012
Posts: 762
Live #62, Bogot & Villa de Leyva, Colombia
06/03/2015 Its been my second visit to Colombias capital Bogot and I met up with some friends from my last time over there. We were also headed to Villa de Leyva for a little roadtrip, a beautiful small colonial town about 160km north east of Bogot.
Returning to Bogot was really nice as the city has a lot to offer and I did not have a lot of time two years ago. After breaking my lens during the trip, I would also finally receive a new lens here as a friends friend came to visit from Germany and was kind enough to take a new lens and winter jacket along for me! This saved me a lot of hassle and also money as this stuff is just cheaper in Europe. My former Arcteryx jacket was stolen in Canada all the way back in October last year and ever since leaving Canada, I didnt really need a jacket. But now with Patagonia and Antarctica up on the horizon, it was time to gear up again I could even play some guitar AND football table that evening as well, just a very nice night before heading off to our road trip to Villa de Leyva in the next morning.
Villa de Leyva was something I was not familiar with, but luckily, my friends told me about it and we got a nice group of four people together for a little roadtrip. Arriving there on a perfect sunny and not too hot day was great timing to explore the beautiful little town, covered in nice houses along the cobbled streets. We could also do a little hike to the viewpoint (mirador) overlooking the complete town and surroundings, it was not the easiest hike and in combination with the then hot sun around 1PM resulted in a sweaty affair. It was totally worth though, the view was amazing and the even had a little Jesus statue up there. Sadly, my camera would run out of battery and I was not able to take as many pictures as I would have liked to.
Some delicious ice scream at 15:45 marked the end of our visit and we were headed back to the capital. Everyone became pretty tired during the drive back and we just had a few beer in the evening before getting some sleep. I would have to get up pretty early to catch my flight to El Calafate in the South of Argentina, with a stop over in Buenos Aires. I could not wait to finally leave the hot zone and breath in some nice crisp clean air in south of Patagonia during the colder off season there!
>> Pictures
06/03/2015 Its been my second visit to Colombias capital Bogot and I met up with some friends from my last time over there. We were also headed to Villa de Leyva for a little roadtrip, a beautiful small colonial town about 160km north east of Bogot.
Returning to Bogot was really nice as the city has a lot to offer and I did not have a lot of time two years ago. After breaking my lens during the trip, I would also finally receive a new lens here as a friends friend came to visit from Germany and was kind enough to take a new lens and winter jacket along for me! This saved me a lot of hassle and also money as this stuff is just cheaper in Europe. My former Arcteryx jacket was stolen in Canada all the way back in October last year and ever since leaving Canada, I didnt really need a jacket. But now with Patagonia and Antarctica up on the horizon, it was time to gear up again
I could even play some guitar AND football table that evening as well, just a very nice night before heading off to our road trip to Villa de Leyva in the next morning.Villa de Leyva was something I was not familiar with, but luckily, my friends told me about it and we got a nice group of four people together for a little roadtrip. Arriving there on a perfect sunny and not too hot day was great timing to explore the beautiful little town, covered in nice houses along the cobbled streets. We could also do a little hike to the viewpoint (mirador) overlooking the complete town and surroundings, it was not the easiest hike and in combination with the then hot sun around 1PM resulted in a sweaty affair. It was totally worth though, the view was amazing and the even had a little Jesus statue up there. Sadly, my camera would run out of battery and I was not able to take as many pictures as I would have liked to.
Some delicious ice scream at 15:45 marked the end of our visit and we were headed back to the capital. Everyone became pretty tired during the drive back and we just had a few beer in the evening before getting some sleep. I would have to get up pretty early to catch my flight to El Calafate in the South of Argentina, with a stop over in Buenos Aires. I could not wait to finally leave the hot zone and breath in some nice crisp clean air in south of Patagonia during the colder off season there!
>> Pictures