From Venezuela to Ecuador

After a great little trip to Mérida, we decided to make the long haul back through Columbia to get ourselves to Bógata. Long it indeed was, as it turned out to be a marathon 24 hour trip involving 2 large buses, 3 busetas, 3 cabs, and a little cross border walking and a couple of little adventures.

Getting to the Venezuela-Columbia border was fairly uneventful. However, as per usual, we had to suffer the standard wait to get through the border due to my dodgy passport (which I put through the washing machine about 2 months before we started our trip). It still looks okay, but it NEVER scans the first time in the scanners at each border. Usually most officers just give up after 3 tries and just type in the number. Not this time though. After 25 minutes, 3 different officers and at least 20 different scan attempts, the Colombian boarder officers finally put their hands up in defeat and just let me through...

From the Border, we took a spectacular 6 hour Buseta (seats about 15 people) from the town of Cúcuta to Bucaramanga. The scenery on the trip was absolutely incredible as we drove through the Colombian section of the Andes at heights around 4000m above sea level. Despite the spectacular surrounds, the journey was tainted by our driver who proceeded to torture us (on his shiny new TV/DVD player) with 6 solid hours of Columbia´s greatest Accordion music videos from the late 70s and early 80s. At first it was hilarious..as video after video seemed to feature a balding, moustached, fat hairy man declaring his love for a slim, beautiful young model. The girls were cleary either shocking actors or just not paid enough in these low class videos as the ´affection´ they showed these ´studs´ was pretty well non-existent and extremely comical. They were hilarious for a while but....6 hours later and not being able to nap because of the loud volume AND the bus driver singing along to each song was more than we can handle !!

Finally arriving in Bucaramanga we hopped a a night bus to Bógata and slept VERY peacefully.

Bógata is certainly a modern, exciting, and clean city. Nothing at all like what we expecting. Indeed, to date Columbia has proven to be arguably the best country we´ve visited. We spent a relaxing 3 days taking in the town and stayed at a great little backpakers hostel (the Platypus). It was in the University district, so there were lots of great bars and cheap eats near the hostel, which we made the most of. I am thoroughly addicted to Empanadas (meat, eggs and other good stuff, encased in a fried pastry), and usually indulged in at least one or two of these artery clogging treats each day. We were also close to the historical downtown core so we took quite a few strolls through the area and even trekked up the nearby Téleferico which gave some awesome views of the whole city.

Here´s some pics of our time in Bogata...

If you can´t see them properly than click on the link here - Bogata

Another nightbus and we found ourselves in Pópayan, on the road to Ecuador. Founded in the early 16th century by the Spanish, the town is known as the "white city" because of its beautiful colonial houses which are....yep WHITE. The town was really pretty but WOW, could it use a splash of colour. As the pics below show, pretty well every building was...well, white. Still, a great little stopover to break up our long trip to Quito, Ecuador. Again we stayed in a great place (Our Hostel in Popayan...Hostel Trail, with Colin, the Scottish guy running the place, proving to be a great host and full of great information for us.

Here´s some pics of our time in Pópayan...

If you can´t see them properly than click on the link here - Pópayan

Finally our Colombian trek came to an end as we headed off the next day for a long (and once again spectacular) bus ride through the Andes and onto Ecuador. After almost 3 weeks in Columbia we can´t recommend it enough to anyone interested in coming here !!

A flying (literally) visit to Venezuela

Keen to add another country to our ever expanding list, we decided to make a quick detour out of Columbia and into Venezuela. With limited time now to cover a massive continent, we decided just to hit the town of Mérida in the Venezulean Andes.

Mérida is a beautiful city of about 300,000 people and is located on a wide plain in the valley of the Chama river, between the Sierra Nevada de Mérida to the southeast and the Sierra La Culata to the northwest. It´s fair to say that the huge peaks surrounding us made a stunning backdrop for the city (which we we soon to see in all its glory on the Téleferico). One thing we quickly noticed about Venezuela is that it appears that the country´s massive oil reserves flow deep into the economy as the people seem to be a lot more well off than their Central American neighbours and the cities appear a lot more modern and clean.

One of the draws to the city for us was that it is known as a bit of an ´adventure´ town. We were of course keen to add something new into the long list of activities we´ve squeezed into on this journey so far, so this time it was....paragliding !! With tour companies everywhere it wasn´t hard to line up a crew that could take us out the next day.

We awoke to our early 8.30am start to be presented with a magnificent day for flying....blue sky as far as the eye could see. It was just Lyds and I so yet again we felt like royalty getting our own private tour. It took just over an hour to get up to our flyzone in the nearby Sierra Nevada de Mérida. The vistas from the top were incredible and with some ¨awesome thermals...(dude)¨, our pilots kept us in the air to enjoy it for a good 45 minutes of so. It was smooth sailing the whole way...well mas or menos, because both of our pilots finished the ride with some gut wrenching rapid turns to descend quickly down to our landing zones. Having brekkie before the trip suddenly didn´t appear to have been a good option.

Here is a few vid´s from our Paragliding...

Lyds launching into space...


Linking up in the sky...


Doug making a smooth landing..


Anyway, thankfully we survived our post flight queeze because high on our list of local sites was to make a bee-line for the locally renowned - Coromoto Heladaria. The store is actually in the Guiness Book of records for having the most ice cream favours in the Wuuurrrrld (800 odd). Of course only 60ish are available on any given day, but it still provides a good range. Keen to ´have a go´ that day I managed to enjoy a full meal of Hamburger, Beans and a Polar Ice Beer....and okay, yes, I´ll admit it - the Hamburger flavour was pretty awful !!

During our stay we also took in the Mérida Téleferico (Cable Car) - clearly they love records here because it is the World´s highest and 2nd longest!! It certainly puts Vancouver´s Grouse Mountain sky ride to shame. The Cable rises from Mérida´s 1,640m base up to Espejo Peak at a massive 4,765 m !! Even though you go up slowly over an hour or so (on 4 different cables) the change in height certainly plays a bit of havoc with your mental systems. Lyds and I were pretty dizzy at the top and after only a short walk around at the peak, I felt it was appropriate to start heading back down when I started seeing stars and my fingers seemed to have a weird, freaky spacey line behind them as I moved my hand....All up though an amazing journey which hopefully the pics below give you an idea about.

Here´s some pictures from our time in Venezuela....

If you can´t see the above gallery, check out the link here - Merida,Venezuela

A classic side story about Venezuela. If you withdraw money from any ATM or bank, you get the going official rate of $2,150 Bolivares to the $1US. HOWEVER, if you change money with a money changer or many local merchants you get a massive $4,000-$4,500Boliviares to the $1US !! We heard rumours of this before we entered the country but personally I was a bit sceptical as officially its illegal for companies to use $US (no doubt due to President Chavez´s distain for the US). None the less I still had a sneaky little collection of $150US hidden in the backpack for emergencies. When things started to seem a bit pricey after withdrawing some cash at an ATM, we were happy to find our paragliding company gladly relieved us of our $US at the max rate. It certainly made what could have been an expensive few days into a relatively cheap few days !!

Taganga, Colombia

After Cartegena we decided that it was only right that we continue our time on the beach and head to another sunshine destination? Our chosen location? Taganga, Colombia. A four hour drive later and we arrived into this gorgeous little beach town not knowing exactly what to expect. Despite the fact that it is more or less just a tiny one street town, it was buzzing with activity and after quickly checking into our hostel we decided to do some exploring and grab a bite to eat. The streets were filled with people and it was not hard to figure out that the place was not only an attraction for international tourists, but moreso for Colombians themselves, especially those from the nearby city, Santa Marta.

Famished from our journey we grabbed a table at one of the local beach restaurants and waited for our waiter to bring over a menu. Our waiter did arrive, however menus for the most part in this town...(and many others it seems) do not exist. After very quickly rattling off a number of options for us we agreed on pescado and a cerveza as it sounded simple enough. After leaving the table with a smile the guy returned with a HUGE tray filled with dozens of freshly caught raw fish for us to chose from. Everything from a 60cm salmon to smaller trouts, tunas, etc. We each pointed to our chosen catch of the day and waited with baited breath (k, terrible pun..oh Lydia) for our lunch to arrive. And what an incredible meal it was, melt in your mouth whole fish (eyes and all which we have gotten quite used to), rice, veggies and plantane...a typical Central and South American meal!

That was just the beginning of what had to be some of the best meals we have had so far this trip. As a massive fruit lover, I especially liked the many fruit stands that could be found on every corner of the tiny little beach road (like Starbucks in Vancouver) ready to make any combination of fruit drink you can imagine. The best part was when I realized that they also made the biggest, juiciest, fruit salad I have ever seen. With at least 20 types of fruit (some of which I didn´t even know existed) and topped off with fresh yogurt and granola. All for a grand total of $2.50. This quickly became our breakfast destination of choice for our stay. By the end of our four days in Taganga we had frequented our favorite stand so often (averaging 3 times a day at least) that the girls got to know us and would often give us any leftover juice from the blender or extra large portions whenever we visited. I was truly in fruit heaven.

Being a diving town we of course had to tie in a few scuba dives during our stay. We found a great little company called Octupus Divers who´s team we took to immediately. Having never had the chance to do a wreck dive in the past (they typically are in very deep water where you need your advanced divers certificate, which we NOW have) we immediately signed up for the next mornings excursion at 6:30am. This was the first wreck we had encountered since Roatan (which we couldn´t do) so we were giddy with anticipation.

The dive was 40 meters deep which is about 15 meters deeper than we had experienced before, and I for one was a little bit nervous as I anticipated the depth. It can effect people differently (i.e. - may cause vertigo or lightheadedness) so I let my imagination run wild at the thought of the dark abandoned ship I was about to explore. Well, fortunately for us the dive itself was easy with no noticable side effects. The wreck itself was a huge two level freighter and a great experience all around.

Why stop at one when you can do three !!!....so we ended up doing two more dives that day. They were awesome drift dives with a plethora of fish, lobsters, crabs and corral. An excellent day with lots of new additions to our logbooks.

The last couple of days basically consisted of beach and nap time...yes, life is very hard for the Vargos.

Here are some snaps of our time in Taganga...


If you can´t see them properly than click on the link here - Taganga

A little God moment for you!

Doug and I had ideally wanted to head to Venezuela the day following our dives, however after our kind hotel owner made a few calls on our behalf, we discoverd to our chagrin that all the buses were sold out. He did however discover that there were 3 seats left on one of the buses that was leaving two days later but we had to go to the neearby town of Santa Marta in person to book them. We quickly hopped a collectivo (local van) and made our way to the bus terminal which was as it turns out, over an hour away. We walked in at 5pm on the dot, only to find that the company we were hoping to book with closed at 5:00pm !!! We checked with the two other companies that do the route and found out that they had no available seats until the 20th of January!! (5 days later). Feeling very frustrated at the thought of being stuck for another 5 days, we roamed the terminal aimlessly wondering what on earth we were meant to do. Doug was a bit ahead of me when I saw a young guy begin to move in on us from the side.

"Oh great!" I thought to myself, "Another taxi driver/tour company/ hotel owner trying to solicit our business!!"

"Señor, señor" he called to Doug, who turned and noticeably braced himself for such an attack...

"Usted Doug?" (pronouncing it correctly which is a miracle in itself as Doug has become quite accustomed to responding to ´Duck´).

"Quieren dos bolletos a Venezuela con nuestra compania, si?" (you would like two tickets to Venezuela with our company, yes?)

It turns out that our lovely hotel manager had noticed us leave and had called the company ahead of time to have them look out for us. With that, our new amigo re-opened the agency and sold us the very last two tickets leaving Colombia for Venezuela...and they happened to be together.

We left that terminal in awe and with a little prayer of thanks.

Cartagena

From Panama we flew into Columbia to the breathtakingly beautiful town of Cartagena. The city itself is a bustling little Port town of 300,000ish people, but the real highlight is the Old walled city where we set up camp.

Established in the 16th century by the Spanish, the fame of this prosperous city evidently turned it into a bit of a plunder site for pirates and thieves back in the day; so the kings of Spain decided ordered the construction of castles, forts, and walls to surrounded the city. There are now some eleven kilometres of walls surrounding the old city and much of it is still there.

Not far outside the walls the city has kilometres of beaches which unfortunately have the high rise hotels to go with it. Its peak season now, so during a stroll down there we quickly discovered where most of well off Colombians seem to go on holiday !!! From then on we kept as far away from there as possible and kept to the Old city. In saying that though, it certainly was interesting to be in a touristy place, yet there were VERY few westerners. A big plus for our Spanish practice.

For 3 days we remained entranced exploring, wandering and getting lost in the maze of cobbled streets lined by spectacularly restored houses. The whole area was adorned with great plazas full of bustling restaurants and bars, street performers and dancers, creating a sensational ambiance about the place.

There was also some of the best street meat vendors we´ve come across (we didn´t get sick) and I am definitely addicted to Arapas (a kind of soft potato paddy lightly fried and then stuffed with fresh cheese and butter...delicious).

It´s is hard to say what city in the World could rival this old town as far as beauty and vibe. Certainly the likes of Antigua, Guatemala and Granada, Nicaragua unbelievably don´t even come close in our opinion.

It was sad to move on, but time is getting away from us. Before we left though we did a day trip to the nearby Volcano Totumo. I say ´Volcano´but it is really just a 50m high mud volcano with a small square hole on top that is naturally full of slimy, oozing mud. However, that is exactly what we were there for !!! Along with around 20 other people at a time we jumped into the pit. It´s hard to explain how strange it felt as we slowly lowered ourselves into the thick pool of mud. You couldn´t really stand but you didn´t really sink. You kind of just floated there and one of the resident assistants had to push you around into a spare place.

We quickly got right into the experience and ended up plastering it all over our bodies. We both received a great massage in the bath from one of the locals (plying for tips) which was shortly followed by the 'wash down' in the nearby lake. Basically one of the local women lead us (and everyone else)down to a nearby river, sat us down, then proceed to undo our swimmers and douse as with water as we sat there butt-naked (although concealed by the murky water). I myself only knew she was finished when she proceeded to throw my bathers on my head and send me on my way !! All a bit strange but helpful at the same time and just part of the whole mud bath experience.

Here´s a slideshow of our time in Cartagena...


If you can´t see the above gallery, check out the link here - Cartagena

Panama City

After a great few days in the Bocas, we took a short flight and headed into Panama City. For us the highlight of Panama would be a visit to the Canal. It´s kind of weird to admit that you want to see a big Canal, but it truly is an incredible engineering marvel of the World. Once we got to Panama City we were presently surprise to find a city on the move that mixes its historical old town with a vibrant and exploding modern city where high rise apartment buildings, exploiting the city´s ocean views, are going up at a startling rate.

Our first point of call was ´Casco Viejo´ - The historical centre of Panama City. This could easily be a highlight of anyone´s visit to Panama but we´d say its probably 3-5 years away from getting there. Despite the fact that the area features many beautiful historic buildings from the 16th century, scattered 5 star hotels and restaurants and cobble-stoned streets, the area is still a bit of a work in progress as they continue to renovate more and more of the buildings which are still fairly dilapidated. Still, it was very relaxing and quaint to wander around for a couple of hours.

Also on the agenda before the Canal was a trek to the Parque Natural Metropolitano (Metropolitan Nature Park), stretching from Panama city along the Panama Canal. The park apparently has several unique bird species and other animals such as tapir, puma, alligators, etc. However our trek just revealed a couple of colorful birds and the odd turtle. Still, a relaxing walk under the canopy to avoid the city heat. The Park also offered sweeping views of the city and out to the sea which was pretty nice.

Here´s a slideshow of our time in Panama...


If you can´t see the above gallery, check out the link here - PanamaCity

Okay....The Panama Canal. So the next day we headed off to see what all the fuss is, with what most would agree is the real highlight of Panama. We have to admit that we were both completely blown away by the canal and its functioning.

Here´s 5 quick facts about the Canal...

1. The canal consists of seventeen artificial lakes, several improved and artificial channels, and three sets of locks.The total length of the canal is 77.1 km (47.9mi).

2. A boat traveling from New York to San Francisco saves 7,872 miles by using the Panama Canal instead of going around Cape Horn.

3. Tolls for the canal are based on vessel type, size, and the type of cargo carried. The most expensive toll for canal passage to date was to the container ship Maersk Dellys, which paid US$249,165.00 for passage.

4. The lowest toll paid was US$ 0.36 and was paid by Richard Halliburton who crossed the Canal swimming in 1928. The average is $80,000.

5. Each year more than 14,000 ships pass through the canal, carrying more than 205 million tons of cargo

We spent a good 4 hours at the magnificent Visitor Centre that they have set up at the Miraflores Locks on the Pacific Side of the canal. The Centre had a great interactive museum which occupied our time between watching a variety of ships that came through the canal. During our watch we saw a massive freighter, Cruise Ship and a couple of tankers...nice. The size of the boats and the speed at which they pass through the locks is truly impressive.

A great day all up at the Canal and Panama City in general.

Bocas del Toro, Panama

PANAMA !!...We finally left rainy Puerto Viejo and headed to the boarder with Panama. Our first adventure was the border crossing itself. With the bus not being able to get us any closer, Doug and I were forced to walk a mile (in the rain that we still hadn´t escaped), over a rusty bridge with dodgy train tracks, uphill both ways ;o).... to get to the other side. This was the first crossing that we truly felt like refugees fleeing from a country to make it to safety. Alright, wasn´t all bad, but it certainly was a great experience.

After an hour shuttle and 30 minute lancha, we arrived in Bocas del Toro, Panama, where it was off to the races.

We had been warned in San Jose that it would be wise to book accommodation beforehand, but of course being ¨Lucky Lydia and Doug¨ where everything always seems to work out for us, (as my sister in law likes to say), we didn´t... and ended up getting the very last private room in the only cheap hostel on the island.

We would like to thank our good friend Heike for being our guide on this one. We saw her name (Hostel Heike) in the Lonely planet and thought we should definitely head there first. While the other 5 or so couples on our boat were distracted and bombarded by locals trying to coerce them into staying in expensive accommodation, we quickly walked by and B-lined it to Heike´s in the hopes of getting a room. Sadly, they were full...however the owner of their sister hostel Mondo Taitu just happened to be there at the time, and told us that if we hurried we could possibly secure their very last room that had just come available. Without another word...(even a thanks, oops) we turned and ran out the door. Within seconds we assessed the street and saw that three of the other couples were briskly following their guides in the direction of our hostel. With the inside info of only one room available, I am embarrassed to say that Doug and I kicked up our heals and RAN down the street, making it only steps ahead of the competition. I felt more than a little sheepish as the girl showed us into our newly acquired accommodation to the chagrin of the six others who walked in straight after us.

The hostel although very affordable was also a bit of a party spot, and as we checked in we were told that they were hosting a costume party that night and we needed to dress as a superhero, villain, or emotion (fun but a challenge for two backpackers such as ourselves, Thankfully they did have a tickle trunk for us to invade, and we managed to find a pair of angel wings, a toy gun, silk yellow shorts, a crazy curly wig, and a head band. The result? One charlie´s angel and one John McEnroe....not too shabby for last minute costumes.

The party itself was fun with many tourists from all over the world. One of the funniest people we met was a guy named Jeremy from the States that had signed up for the ongoing hostel challenge of drinking 100 beers during their stay. A brilliant marketing ploy if you ask me, as the hostel is guaranteed the sale of 100 beers, and all they have to do is post a picture of the person on the ¨talent¨ wall. You had as many days as you needed to complete this task, however Jeremy was determined to do it in the shortest amount of time...3 days. The top three or four on the board were all Canadians, followed by an Australian or two....but not one American had made the cut so far. Sadly, (although selfishly- as a Canadian) still no Americans grace the wall, as Doug and I did not see Jeremy again after that night. I guess the 20 or so he had already consumed were enough to quench his thirst for fame.

Bocas del Torro was a great little town with lots to offer as far as great food, shops, scuba diving etc. We decided to go on an a day diving tour which consisted of a visit to Dolphin bay (where we were wrapped to see, as promised - dozens of dolphins swimming arms length from the boat), two dives, and a nature walk to an isolated and beautiful beach nearby. Regardless of the drizzle, we had a wonderful time and met some great people along the way.

Here are some photos of our time in Bocas del Torro...


If you can´t see the above gallery, check out the link here - BocasDelTorro

San Jose and Puerto Viejo de Talamaca

For New Year´s eve festivities Lyds and I headed into San Jose and to the Hostel Pangea which was known as a bit of a party hostel. We got there on the 30th and after looking around, got the feeling that it was likely to be a fairly happening venue for the big night.

Not long after we got there, the guy at reception told us that in nearby suburb Zapote there was a big fair going on. Keen to check it out we headed over there and unexpectantly found a HUGE street party in a fairground type atmosphere with heaps of food stalls, beer tents, rides, fireworks and even a bullring. However our eyes quickly focused on the 3 massive marquee tent/nightclubs that each of the 3 main beer companies in San Jose had set up and were sponsoring. Each looked like they could hold about 5,000 people. The whole area was packed with people and we very quickly agreed that on New Years Eve the next night we were going to skip the hostel party and return back for what was likely to be an even bigger night.

The next day we did some sightseeing of central San Jose which had some nice parks, historical buildings and a shopping area that reminded us a lot of Bourke Street mall in Melbourne. We headed back out to the fairground that afternoon because we wanted to check out the Bull Ring where inside they were basically having a mini version of the running of the bulls. It was a great show where for about 2 hours they realeased a different Bull for about 20 minutes each to chase around 100 mad men (and the odd female). The photos below do it a lot more justice than any description I can write here. Suffice to say that most of the time the crowd seemed to be cheering for the bulls and the highlight for us was definately the times a couple of the bulls jumped over the safety barriers and proceed to chase down runners on the other side as well. Classic stuff!!

(Lyds: just an fyi that no bulls or people were hurt in the process... save perhaps a couple of sprained ankles and an ego or two)

After the show it was back to the hostel for our celebratory bottle of champagne. We became buddies for the night with another Canadian couple from Victoria Island (Shamus & Meagan) and stayed at the hostel until around 11pm. They knew about the fairground too and wanted to go. We headed off in a cab only to be absolutely shocked to find out the place was a GHOSTTOWN. Apparently in Costa Rica they all like to do quiet family events for NY's....not quite the Australian/Canadian way !!! We rushed back to the hostel just in time for the countdown...11.59pm....yikes, close one. It's safe to say we still salvaged a great night including homemade fireworks by the Hostel staff, dancefloor, and great cheap drink specials named after superheros...

Here is a gallery of pics from our stay in San Jose...

If you can´t see the above gallery, check out the link here - SanJose

After a quiet New Year´s day we headed out of town to the Caribbean coast for our last stop in Costa Rica - a little beach town called Puerto Viejo de Talamaca. We were especially interested in visiting here as it came highly recommended by a few friends of ours, two of whom chose to marry here a month before our wedding.

The place itself was beautiful with a lot of charm. Unfortunately the weather put a bit of a damper on our spirits and our activities, with three solid days of rain. The town was one of those places where you feel as though many of the residents probably came for a visit and decided to stay for a lifetime. It is pretty well known in surfing circles for the massive ´Salsa Brava´ break. We spent quite a few hours watching some of the locals riding this rather large wave, and dreaming of one day being in the same league.

Used to a lot of sun though it wasn´t long before we decided to move South and hit our last country in Central America....Panama.

Here are some pics from our time in Viejo de Talamaca...

If you can´t see the above gallery, check out the link here - PuertoViejo