Taganga

Day 1 – Dusty Little Town

We had booked a bus that picked you up from your hostel and delivered directly to your hostel in Taganga which was a result. So at 8am we boarded a tiny mini bus where we discovered there was even less leg room than usual (pic doesn’t do it justice) so we crammed in for the 6-7hr journey (Glenn hardly complained).

After a midway pee/pit stop, we arrived in Taganga around 2:30 and after the driver getting a bit lost (it’s only a tiny village) he set us off the bus and pointed in the general direction of where he thought our hostel was.

After a bit of bumping our bags along hot dusty roads, a kindly local took pity on us and walked us to the hostel. The hostel itself was pretty basic but a nice vibe with low level music and hammocks. It was blisteringly hot so we decided to have our ‘welcome to Taganga’ beer at the hostel before venturing into town.

 

We got chatting to a fellow brit called Bev, who was a teacher from Brighton who was traveling South America on her own. Before we knew it, it was evening so we walked into town with Bev as she pointed out the best places to eat etc and said our goodbyes as she was catching a night bus.

We then headed towards the beach area to find something to eat, as it was a Friday, it was pretty packed with locals from the neighbouring town, Santa Marta.  We had a bite to eat and decided to call it a night and agreed we would explore Taganga properly in the morning.

 Day 2 – Bookings

Getting up at a reasonable hour we went to the communal area/kitchen where we heard that it was a self-service breakfast, which would be OK apart from we seemed to be last in the queue to use the cooking facilities (a hot plate over a couple of gas hobs).  About ¾ hour later we finally got to cook ourselves some fried eggs on toast.

Breakfast done we then headed into the town with the mission of booking ourselves a scuba diving trip as Tanganga was renowned for being the cheapest place in South America for diving.  So we checked out a couple of places which were highly recommended on trip advisor, then tried three or four more places that were a bit cheaper.

After walking around getting very hot we stopped for a quick drink whilst we made a decision on which company to go with.  In the end we decided to go back to the highly recommended outfit and managed to get them to come down on price a bit, so we booked two dives with them for the next day.

As we had sorted that out we noticed a small travel agency close by so we decided to check out what information they had on the National park (Tayrona).  It turned out the lady in there had very good English and she told us all about the National park (we were lucky as it was closing for a month at the end of January) and also about a small town up the road (Palimino)from it that was worth a visit.  She recommended that we just booked a bus ticket to the park and then make all our other arrangements when we got there, so we just bought the bus ticket for us.

It was now early afternoon and blisteringly hot (in the 30’s?) so we headed for the beach and quickly found a beach restaurant/bar that did fairly cheap beers.  So we found a seat in the relative shade and ordered some drinks and sat and people watched.  As it was a weekend the beach was very busy with locals and only a few tourists.

 

Once the heat had got too much for us we stripped off and went for a swim.  The bay was a pretty little crescent shape with very calm water, which was also a very refreshing temperature. So we splashed around in the water for a while until we had cooled off a bit.

Still being very hot we dried off on the beach before heading back to the shade of the bar whilst supping a few ice cold beers.  Whilst we sat there we were entertained (not) by some locals practicing their circus skill’s, a dancing hobo/rubbish collector picking up trash from the beach with his feet and a very large Iguana that had taken up residence in a nearby tree.

 

 

We sat there until the sun went down and the bar started packing up for the day at which point our stomachs were rumbling so we headed off in search of food.

Being lazy we headed towards our accommodation and found the restaurant championed by our hostel that we got a free cocktail for visiting.  It was an Italian (Not cheese hating Shell’s favorite cuisine), so I settled for a fairly decent Pizza whilst Shelll tucked into some non-cheesy pasta.

With our appetite now satisfied we headed back to the hostal where we had a couple of beers in the common area before heading for a fairly early night as we had diving in the morning.

Day 3 – Dive 13 & 14

Getting up early and skipping breakfast we got ready and headed down to the dive centre.  We were introduced to our dive master, Ja from Egypt and then we were taken to collect all our gear and put our wetsuits on.

We waited around for around ½ hour whilst everyone got ready and then we headed down to the beach carrying our kit and then boarded the boat with about 10 other people.

The boat ride was a bit bumpy but not too bad and soon we were pulling up into a shallow bay where about 4 of the divers were getting out as they were doing their PADI course.  We then headed across the bay a bit further until we pulled up near a rocky island where we were given the dive briefing.

After the briefing we set up all our kit and it wasn’t too long before we were putting it on and rolling backwards over the side of the boat.  On the first dive there was three of us, the dive master and an Irish lad who was assisting the dive master as he was training to be one.

On the first dive it is always where Shell and I remind ourselves of what we should be doing as its usually been a couple of months since our last dive.  We had been told that the water was very cold here, but at 20 degrees we didn’t find it that bad.  Floating at the surface waiting for everyone to get in, Ja pointed in the direction we were going to go, only to be corrected by a dive master with another group, slightly concerning as Ja had only been working at this centre for three weeks.

Once we were all in the water it was time do descend.  The water was fairly clear and we started to swim across the coral reefs, unfortunately it wasn’t the greatest of reefs with quite a bit of bleaching.  As we went along we saw the usual reef fish and the tail end of a Moray Eel but nothing that we hadn’t seen before.

About 20 minutes into the dive we encounterd a moderate current that Shell and I hadn’t really experienced before but we soon learned to drift with it instead of trying to swim against it.  The dive continued for another 25 minutes until JA signalled for us to do the 3 minute stop before ascending. Amazingly I still had a decent level of air in my tank, although as usual Shell had far more than me (I think she has gills!!).

At the surface, Ja signalled to the boat to collect us and we were soon hauling ourselves back on board.  When we were all aboard we then headed back to the shallow bay and got off the boat and went to shore.

Before our second dive we were going  to have a rest and a few snacks and were led up to a picnic area up on the rocks.  Here we were given a sandwich and some fresh fruit to eat whilst we relaxed for an hour or so.  As we sat there admiring the view we noticed a couple of Iguana’s scaling the nearby rocky cliffs, unfortunately the Go-Pro had run out of juice so no photo’s.

 

 

After the break, we then went back to the boat and headed for our second dive spot, which was along the coastline and was going to be a wall dive.  We switched over our air tanks and had our second dive briefing before getting back in the water.

As we descended, we noticed that the visibility had deteriorated markedly, with only about 5 metres visibility Shell and I (only us 2, dive master and Irish guy on this dive again) ensured we stuck pretty close to Ja.  Luckily we had already had experienced worse visibility than this on one of our dive in Malaysia so we were not fazed by it.

The visibility not being great meant that we did not see too much on this particular dive.  The only thing of note which was quite eerie was when we came up to a submerged small statue of an angel with an inscription on, possibly where someone drowned? (the guides did not know).

Once again after 45 minutes we were coming to the surface again with plenty of oxygen left in our tanks, which makes a change for me.  Although the dives were not fantastic it was good practice after not having done it for over 3 months and it helps to build up our experience.  We are hoping to do a couple more in Mexico (where it’s supposed to be amazing)  before we return home, so this was a good refresher.

Getting back into the boat we collected the other groups before heading back into Taganga bay and dry land.  We headed up to the dive centre and washed all our kit off and then sat down with Ja to fill in our dive logs, that was our 13 & 14 dive which we are quite proud of seeing as we only learnt to dive on this trip.

Leaving the dive centre we headed back to the beach to our favorite bar/restaurant where we spent the remainder of the afternoon having ‘welcome back to diving beers’ until the sun went down.

 

 

In the evening we went back to the hostel to get showered and changed before heading out to a restaurant to get some dinner.  We chose quite well for a change and had quite a large meal that was Chicken/Beef Skewers (Shell) and a large Pork Chop thing (Glenn).

We had a couple more beers before heading back to the hostel for an early night as we had another early start the next day.

Cartegena

Day 1 – Still the longest day

So still at the airport we were still waiting in the early hours of the morning and we were getting slightly concerned as there still wasn’t any sign of our flight on the board and the airline we were travelling with check-in was still shut, so we had to continue to wait….and hope!

Still waiting and still no sign of our flight we continued to worry until we noticed some people who appeared to be on the same flight as us and looked slightly concerned.  Our flight still wasn’t showing when the general check-in desk came to life, so we just went to the check-in where they promptly gave us boarding cards….our flight did exist.

We boarded the flight around 4am for a shortish flight of around two hours and we were soon arriving in Cartagena, or so we thought.  We waited around for about ½ hour whilst we waited to disembark, but with our limited Spanish we were unsure what the announcements were about and why we were not getting off the plane.  The plane then started up again and started moving, maybe we were moving to a different terminal, no we were back on the runway and taking off again.  Slightly worried about hijacking I looked at the air stewardesses who looked unconcerned, we deduced that for some reason the plane had stopped for refuelling.

Just another 5 minutes later we landed, we hoped, in Cartagena and we were soon getting off the plane into a very hot temperature and it was only 7am.  We passed through customs fairly quickly and soon found a taxi outside to take us to our hostel.

 

 

At the hostel it was too early to check-in so we just dumped our main bags there and headed out for our first proper look at Columbia.  Cartagena is considered to be the Crown Jewel of Columbia and was founded by the Spanish in 1533 and soon became the main Spanish port on the Caribbean coast and the major northern gateway to south America.  In the 16^th century the city came under numerous attacks and sieges, one notably by Sir Francis (considered a pirate in these parts) who in exchange for not burning the city to the ground accepted a 10,000,000 Peso’s ransom which he took back to England. 

 

 

In order to help defend these attacks the Spanish built a huge wall around the city, which is now the major attraction in the city which has expanded greatly outside of the wall and is where we decided to head for first.

On passing through the old city wall we could see why this was the number one attraction (and a UNESCO heritage site) in our guidebook.  Inside the walls it was all narrow streets, pastel coloured colonial buildings with wooden balconies, churches, plaza’s and colourful flowers and trees.

 

We wandered around these pretty streets for a while until we found a square that had restaurants that had tables and chairs outside, so we thought we would stop and get some breakfast.  We both opted for a traditional Columbian breakfast which was different (with a plantain type of potato cake) and pretty good too.

 

 

After breakfast it was still too early to check-in to our hostel so we headed for the starting point for the free walking tour we had read about.  At 10am there was no sign of the walking tour so we quickly walked to another square where we believe another tour started, fortunately we found it and joined the group.

 

 

By now it was very hot and the guide made a point of moving from shady spot to shady spot.  We got led around the streets and plaza’s being given information on various subject, however we were a bit disappointed that he seemed to skim over Cartagena’s vast history.  Instead he seemed to give some tit-bit’s and then later turn it into a bit of a pop quiz on what we remembered of Columbia in general (you won a postcard if you got a question right).  It may have been that we had now both been awake for over 24 hours but we found in not as informative as we would have liked and considered it to be one of the poorer city walking tours we had been on to date.

 

 

Once the walking tour had finished and the sun now scorching we headed back to the plaza where we had breakfast to get ourselves a ‘welcome to Columbia beer’!  However the beer price was extortionate here so after one drink we headed out of the walled city and back towards our hostel.

On the way back we saw a café/restaurant with a shaded courtyard in the back and on checking the beer prices we found they were half the price of our previous one.  We took advantage of the shade and stayed there until it was time that we could check into the hostel.

Along the road back to the hostel we noticed that there were a few tour agencies so we took the opportunity to book a trip to the nearby Islas Del Rosario for the following day. It took a while as we talked to three agencies, the first two struggling with the language barrier before booking it with an agency right next to our hostel.  The guy could speak reasonable English and we could finally understand what the trip involved, and it was the cheapest!

Finally, we could check into the hostel, although it looked alright in the common area’s we did find ourselves in a pretty pokey room.  Never mind we were glad to get a refreshing show and into some clean clothes, after which we spent an hour or two relaxing in the common area’s balcony area whilst watching life go by below.

In the early evening we walked around the immediate area in order to get some more cash and find a chemist to get some sunscreen.  Job’s done we headed back down a little street near our hostel where there were lots of restaurants. We found one with a rooftop where we had a couple of drinks whilst watching the vultures on the surrounding rooftops.

 

 

It was then time to find something to eat and wandering up the street we noticed a basic locals roast chicken café, so we decided to try it for some cheap eats.  The food was pretty nice but I was feeling a bit uncomfortable as a beggar we had refused earlier was stood in the doorway watching us eat.  We felt a bit sad as when we had finished he came over and asked for our leftovers and quickly swiped the chicken carcasses and left.

We then headed back to the café with the courtyard for a couple more drinks before finally going back to the hostel and bed after being awake for the last 36 hours!

Day 2 – Bumpy Boat Tour!

Up early again and after a quick coffee we were ready to start our trip.  We were picked up by taxi around 8am and transported to the nearby Marina where we were taken to a ticket booth to register.  We then had coloured stickers affixed to us before being led to another counter to pay the harbour tax and then we were led to a very crowded dockside area where we were told to wait.

 

 

Waiting around with hundreds of other tourists it was very confusing to work out what was going on.  Occasionally someone would come around shouting names but not very forcefully, some people were boarding boats, but we couldn’t see one with our name on.  All we could do was to check for people with the same coloured stickers as ours or the same boat ticket in their hands.

After sitting around anxiously for about an hour we noticed the lady that had led us through to the dock with a list, so hanging close to her we were relieved when she called out our names and we were led to a nearby boat that we boarded.

 

 

Although on board it seemed like another 30-45 minutes until we were finally on our way.  The journey started off quite calmly as we travel down the large river estuary.  At the entrance to the sea we stopped for a bit to have a look at a scenic fortress that protected the city in days gone by. 

 

 Whilst stopped, we noticed a couple of entrepreneurial youngsters who were knocking around in a nearby canoe who were paddling up to any stopped tourist boat and seeing if they could get a few coins from the passengers.

 

 

We then continued out of the estuary into the Caribbean, the water changing from a muddy brown to a crystal blue.  Also the water had started to get a bit more choppy with the boat banging up and down.  Half an hour later we were pulling into Playa Blanca which confused us as we thought we were going there later.  It turned out that we were just dropping people off there, literally! As there was no jetty here the boat just pulled into the beach and people had to take their chances, jumping from the side whilst the boat rocked around in the surf with some assistance from the boat crew.

Leaving Playa Blanca we then headed towards the Islas del Rosario but the water was getting choppier and choppier with the boat coming down hard off the waves and jarring our backs (and my knees against the seat in front).  People were starting to scream and get scared in general, I must admit to being a bit nervous when a wave came towards the boat that I thought might swamp it.

About an hour of bumpy crossing and then we found ourselves motoring between some very pretty Islands with crystal blue water surrounding them.  Eventually we stopped just next to one of these islands where the guide discussed the activity options we had, this was totally in Spanish and seemed to go on forever but boiled down to snorkelling or visiting an aquarium with a dolphin show.

 

 

We had been prepared for the snorkelling,  bringing our own mask and snorkels with us and were disappointed when we were asked for an entrance fee for the snorkelling (I think we got £4 off for having our own kit).  After dropping off people for the aquarium island we then pulled up alongside another island to begin the snorkelling.

 

 

Jumping over the side of the boat we were joined by some of the other passengers and were told we had to swim around in a group.  It wasn’t great as some of them had problems just swimming with a life jacket on, whilst others were towed round with the aid of a rubber ring, so we tried to keep some distance from them.  In honesty the coral was not that great and was fairly bleached and we did not see anything we had not seen in other places we had been, except one blue fish with neon blue spots.

 

 

Forty five minutes later and we were back at the boat but it was a bit of an effort getting back on-board as the crew just slung a rubber ring over the side and you had to use this as a sort of ladder, Shell struggled on-board with no help from thee crew (those gym sessions came in handy).  Once back on board we headed over to the other island to pick up the aquarium party before heading off again.

Once again, the journey was very bumpy with people not exactly enjoying it.  We returned to Playa Blanca where we thought we were going to spent the rest of the day, this time we all had to do our best to jump off the boat in very wavy conditions.

Off the boat, we were pretty disappointed with the beach as it was pretty much jam packed with people, tents, unbrella’s and full of beach traders.  The guide then took us to some tents where we were given lunch which was OK, some local grilled fish and salad.

During lunch, we learned we were only going to be here for about an hour and a half.  We also learned that there was another option to go back which was to pay extra to get a bus back and give us another 1 ½ there, some of the group took this option as they very nervous about getting back on the boat.  We opted to get the boat back as we did not want to pay the extra and the beach did not exactly live up to the hype/paradise shown in the picture.

We had a quick paddle and headed back to the boat as it was pretty un-organised and we weren’t sure when it was leaving.  Ten minutes later and we were asked to get back on the boat which was a pretty un-glamorous affair as you had to haul/be pulled over the side of the boat as it rocked up and down in the surf.

Having learnt from the previous crossing we managed to get some padding for the seat and I wedged a spare life jacket in front of my knees.  The rest of the journey to the estuary was fairly bumpy but not quite as bad as before, the extra padding coming in handy.  Once back in the estuary it calmed down again and another half an hour and we were pulling into the dock.  In all we did not think the trip had been that great.

 

On the way back to the hostel we popped back into the courtyard café where we had a couple of beers before heading back to the hostel for a shower and freshen up.

In the evening, we decided to head back to the walled city as we thought it would be very pretty lit up at night.  As we walked along the streets were a lot more busy and alive to the sound of salsa music, we wandered around the streets taking in the sounds and smells of the city. 

 

 

It was quite lively and it was nice as when we entered one of the plazas, there was a troupe of traditional Caribbean musicians and dancers putting on a very lively show.  One of the drummers could only have been around 7 or 8 and he was bashing away like Animal from the Muppets.

 

 

As we knew it was expensive in the old town, after wandering around for a bit we headed back to near our hostel where we found another hostel with a courtyard in the rear. So we stopped there for a couple of drinks before heading back to ours to go to bed.

Columbia – Getting There….

Day 1 – Longest day Ever

We woke up fairly early as we wanted to do the waterfall trip before we left Mindo at 2pm. On checking our E-Mail’s we discovered that one of our flights for this evening had been re-scheduled so we had been put on another flight at 4am the next morning.

 

 

The new flight time meant that we would have about a 7 hour lay over in Bogota so we would have to try and sort this out after breakfast.  We went down for breakfast which was very good and set in the hostels gardens which were pretty with lots of feeding posts where dozens of humming birds were flying around.

 

 

After breakfast ,we started to try and sort out the flight and got into an on-line chat with the flight agency.  Trying to sort out different arrangements was very time consuming, in fact in took until midday and still ended meaning we would have to get the 4am flight.  It also meant we no longer had time to do the waterfall trip which was a shame as we had not really done anything in Mindo.

 

 

So we had a hour or so to kill so we just went to have a drinks before heading up the road to catch the bus back to Quito.  The journey again was around 2 hours back over the picturesque mountains arriving back at the bus station around 4ish.  From there we quickly caught a taxi to take us to the airport which took another 45 minutes.

At the airport we went to the check-in for the first leg of our journey to Bogota but were told by the lady (computer says no!) that we must provide evidence of an exit ticket for Columbia.  We had hoped our final Mexico to UK ticket would do the trick but she wasn’t having it.

We then had to find the Wifi area of the airport to try and book a ticket online to Guatemala, once we had found one we thought we would be able to book it with the airlines sales kiosk inside the airport.  However when we tried to book the tickets we were told it would cost £500 each instead of the £150 each we could buy it online.  So we had to go back to the Wifi zone and spend the next 45 minutes anxiously trying to book it online via our phone.

Eventually we sorted it out and got an email confirmation to present at check-in, which was accepted and we were allowed to go through to the boarding area.  In order to use up our last US dollars we went to a burger restaurant to fill-up as we still had a long day ahead of us.

The flight to Bogota wasn’t that long and we were soon arriving around 9pm, we had arrived in country number 18, Columbia.  After passing through passport control we went to an ATM to get some local currency, at 3,700 to the pound it’s going to take some time getting used to.

Getting some directions we made our way to domestic departures in order to wait for our connecting flight to Cartagena in north of Columbia.  As it was early when we got there and checked the departure boards and could not see our flight there yet.  So we walked around the airport and found a kiosk where we managed to sort out a local simm card for Shell’s phone, which was good as we didn’t manage to do this in Ecuador.

We had about 6 hours to kill so we managed to find a restaurant where we grabbed a coffee and took advantage of their power points to recharge our electronics and also spend an hour or two blogging until it appeared they were shutting up around midnight.

Checking the boards our flight was still not up there so we just had to find some uncomfortable seats to sit, wait and read……

Shell’s Ecuador Round-Up – A beach, a jungle and a city

Ecuador, the equator, real middle earth! We didn’t see much of you, did we?

Having booked our Christmas accommodation, and then rushing the last part of Peru to make it in time, we were ready to settle into our beach house and do absolutely nothing, and that’s exactly what we did!

Ecuador doesn’t look/feel that much different from any other South American country, if you hadn’t spent hours crossing the border you wouldn’t know you were in a new land. The food (apart from the ceviche which is stunning!) is the same beige and bland fried stuff and no nice bowler hatted ladies, or gents in poncho’s or sombreros (am I asking too much?)

There isn’t much poverty either. Even in the capital of Quito, we didn’t see many homeless or beggars, although they may clean them out of the city to make it more appealing for the tourists (like we did with the Olympics in London). Plus, the access to free healthcare and benefits (we are told) are pretty good here too.

So, it’s surprising that the crime rate is so bloody high! I had read it was a little bit dodgy so made a point of not reading the Foreign and commonwealth website so I wouldn’t be scared and instead have an open mind as we had our hearts set on Ecuador. Despite this, everyone we ran into told us not to travel at night unless we had to, be super careful after dark in Quito (the significant presence of police did nothing to comfort us) and the majority of stories of muggings and kidnappings we were told by fellow travellers were in Ecuador! Particulary Quito, having panic buttons and cameras in taxi’s are a little unnerving, not to mention being buzzed through two security screen doors just to get into a bloody tourist office and book a trip!  I think it might have spoilt it a little for us?

However, we loved our little beach house in Ayampe and being able to chill out and do nothing for a while. But, we probably stayed too long as we didn’t feel like tackling Quito at New Year. Plus, it seems (to us) that the more you do nothing, the lazier/more tired you get?  We never got to rent that surfboard and It was an effort to finally leave but once we did, we wished we had done it sooner as Ecuador really is stunning.

 

We loved the Amazon and wish we could have stayed longer, I’ll never forget Glenn’s encounter with the Shamen J , going to sleep to the sound of the frog chorus, waking up to the jungle noises and birds, canoeing through the flooded forest and spotting pink dolphin, how can it be beaten? Even the rain didn’t put us off.

Despite the stories and the warnings (or because of them), we made it through totally unscathed. The buses are clean, the people are friendly and the country is beautiful! and all of the top to do’s are in pretty close proximity. We just didn’t get to do them all…this time!

Mindo

Day 1 – City Escape

Waking up a bit fragile and early, Shell enquired about what we wanted to do today and wasn’t overly enthusiastic when I said we should go to Mindo, a small village in a jungle area which had been highlighted in our guidebook.  It was that or stay in the not overly welcoming Quito for another day and find a museum to visit, so begrudgingly she agreed.

After packing and getting our breakfast we then checked out the hostel and quickly found a taxi to take us to the bus terminal, fortunately Mike from the bookshop had given us good advice about an easier bus station to get to Mindo from.

The taxi ride was only about 30 minutes and when we arrived at the bus terminal we purchased some tickets that were departing for Mindo in around an hour.  So whilst we waited we grabbed a coffee and read for a bit.

 

The bus departed promptly and it was about a 3-4 hour journey to Mindo that crossed the equator line and then rose high up into the mountains, which once again had our ears popping.  During the journey we had some spectacular views and we also took the chance to read and doze  the time away (a 4 hour bus journey is nothing to us these days!).

We then descended the mountains and soon found ourselves in a dusty one road town surrounded by jungle.  Getting off the bus we wandered around for a bit trying to get directions for our hostel, about 15 minutes later we found it.

 

Our hostel was pretty nice as it was surrounded by thick vegetation and had an orchid farm attached with Humming Birds flying around.  The room itself was also quite nice and spacious and had a lodge feel to it.

 

 

Once unpacked we headed down to the main street where we intended to see if we could do the river tubing activity they had here.  Unfortunately the weather had turned a bit overcast and was threatening to rain and together with the fact there had to be a minimum number to do the activity we decided against it. 

Instead we wandered around the little town and found the local chemist to get some more Mossie bite cream as we thought it might be a good idea in these parts.

 

 

With little else to do and being later in the afternoon we found a small restaurant and sat outside having some welcome to Mindo drinks.  As we sat there drinking we just took in the local scene and sounds, which was mainly backpackers and mangy dogs bickering with each other. 

 

Although we hadn’t done much here we planned to do a waterfall trip the next morning and we were please we had made the choice to get out of the city and enjoy the tranquillity of this town.

 

 

The sun had now gone down so we thought we would get a bite to eat and across the road we spotted a Mexican, which we thought would be nice for a change.  The food we got was OK, but Shell’s bowl of Chile Con Carne had nothing on my now famous dish!!

After dinner we headed back to the hostel fairly early in the evening and settled down to some TV downloads on Shell’s Ipad, before hitting the hay intent on adventure in the morning before we left Mindo.

Quito - Part II

Day 1 – El Presidente!

Getting up and having breakfast we discovered that the hostel’s internet wasn’t working so we headed across the road to a café to get a coffee and use their Wifi.  Once we had discovered where the Quito walking tour started from we dropped off our damp jungle clothes at a nearby launderette before jumping in a taxi across town.

As we had been a bit under the weather when we were first in Quito we were going to do the walking tour today and after driving around the houses for a bit the taxi eventually found the hostel where the walk went from.

After a quick meet and greet the tour guide was very keen for us to get to the main plaza as he told us that changing of the guard at the presidential palace took place on Mondays.  So we were quickly walked up a few blocks where we entered a pretty nice main square.

 

Finding a good place to stand, we waited until the changing of the guard started and it was pretty colourful. During the procession, there were flag bearers in traditional costumes, marching bands, drummers, trumpeters and colourful horse back riders that rode through the crowds.  It was just as good as the changing of the guard in London I recon, if not better.

 

The guide also told us to wait as either the vice president or president of the country would address the crowds from the balcony.  As the elections were coming it was actually the president that came out, apparently, he is very popular in the country (especially with the ladies as he’s considered a looker).

Once we had watched all the pomp and ceremony we were taken past a couple of churches and then we all sat down outside the national bank (which is now a museum).  The guide then told us about when Ecuador lost its currency and replaced it eventually with the US dollar.  Once again it was down to a corrupt president in league with dodgy bankers, for some reason he transferred all of the countries money into foreign banks/investments, leaving no cash available for its citizens. He went on TV around this time explaining to his citizens that the money in the bank was doing well and not to touch it.  The banks then failed and there was super inflation which left their currency valueless.  It was then gradually replaced by the US dollar (which Ecuador has to buy from the US as they are not allowed to print it). 

 

The president was deposed by angry mobs, he ordered the military against all the protestors that had gathered in Quito from all over the country.  The head of the military went on national TV and stated that he would not give orders to fire on its own citizens.  The military laid down their weapons and these were then decorated by the protestors with flowers (including the tanks).  The angry mobs then entered the presidential palace to get their man, only to be foiled by his helicopter escape.  He now resides in exile in the US where unbelievably he now works at Harvard university as a lecturer in economics!!

We were also told why the country was named Ecuador, although the equator runs through about 5 different continents, Ecuador has the mountains as well which makes it the closest point to the sun.  Another interesting fact, in Ecuador during a summer solstice at midday a sun-dial will cast absolutely no shadow.

Also, we learned that a foreigner entering Ecuador has exactly the same rights of employment, land ownership and free medical care, which was quite surprising. But the guide also told us Quito was extremely safe despite what the guide books told us (negative propaganda he said) and the very high police presence we noticed, so we are not exactly sure if he told us the whole truths on this tour.

From the bank, we made our way to our refreshment stop which was good timing as it had just started to rain (don’t forgot we lost our rain jackets the previous day).  As we had a drink the rain started lashing it down and all the tour party took cover in the restaurant and waited for it to stop.  Apparently, Quito is famously re-nouned for having four season’s in one day, therefore according to our guide there is no such things as local weather forecasts on the TV.

 

 

About 20 minutes later and the rain was still coming down so the guide said we had to move on, at which point he seemed to lose about 30% of  the group.  He took us to a few more sites including a monastery that had been converted into a museum, a view of the Angel on the Hill which overlooks Quito and then to a traditional road where it is good to eat and party at night.

The tour ended at the main plaza so Shell and I then went on a shopping trip to see if we could replace our rain jackets and toiletries that we lost.  After trying various stores, briefly stopping for a coffee and trying some more shops we had only managed to source some toiletries, so we decided to give up.

We caught a cheap taxi back to our hostel area and collected our laundry which we then took back to our room.  Next, we thought we would return to Mike at the English bookshop to swap our South America travel guide for one just on Columbia.

On entering the bookshop Mike was again very accommodating, swapping the book for us and then inviting us to sit down for a cup of Yorkshire Tea.  We chin wagged with him for around an hour about Ecuador and Blighty and he also recommended some other good books that we should try and read in the future.

Leaving the bookshop around 6.30 we walked down the road for a bit and found a bar that was playing some OK rock music so we decided to pop in for a drink.  The beer happened to be the cheapest we had found in Ecuador, although it was a bit disconcerting to be asked by the bargirl for passport ID before she would let us order (I’m sure it wasn’t for age ID issues!!).

Anyway, as we were enjoying the music and people watching, one beer turned into a few and we ended up remaining there all evening until we returned to the hostel for the night.

Cuyabeno (Jungle Adventure)

Day 1 – Pink Dolphins and flooded forrest

After a lousy freezing cold and sleep deprived overnight bus journey, we were deposited at a café in the town of Lago Agrio at 6am, giving us 3 ½ hours until we were due to be picked up for our transfer to the national park.  All we could do was drink a lot of coffee in the café whilst we chatted to Sebastian until our mini-bus turned up. Plus keep an eye on our bags as the town is pretty notorious for theft.

Our mini-bus promptly arrived at 9.30 and then we had a two-hour drive to the entrance of Cuyabeno river.  The countryside and scenery seemed nice but it was hard to keep our eyes open, both of us having little dozes along the way.

We were then dropped off at the staging post for our river trip to take us to our lodge.  First, we were introduced to our guide, Pedro, and then we sat down to a boxed lunch (not very appetizing, cold chicken, chips and veg).  Whilst attempting to eat our lunch we got chatting to what would be our companions for most of this trip, Juan & Carla (Argentinians) and Dana (Israeli/Ecuadorian).  While we were eating, we were entertained by quite a lot of pretty yellow weaver birds that were flying in and out of their hanging nests in the adjacent tree.

 

It was then time to get on our narrow motor boat to take us for a 2-3 hour trip, deep into the Ecuadorian Amazon Basin.  Soon we were motoring down a stretch of river which was quite low due to it being the dry season and it hadn’t rained for weeks, however the surrounding vegetation was very thick and junglely!!

 

About half an hour into the trip the guide noticed some movement in the branches overhead and he was soon pointing to Squirrel monkeys high up in the canopy.  We stopped there and watched them for about ten minutes and tried to get a few photo’s of them, but they were too quick and very small, hence no photo of them so you will have to take our word for it.

 

We travelled a bit further then stopped when Pedro spotted small black monkeys in the trees, but once again it was very hard to get a clear shot of them, so you will just have to be content with a nice jungle/river shot instead.

As we continued down the river it really started to seem special and you realised that you were in a proper jungle with large electric blue butterflies flitting around (once again too quick for me) and blue and yellow Macaw’s flying high overhead, screeching as they went.

In the final stretch of river before we reached the lodge we saw plenty of birdlife including what was locally known as a ‘Stinky Turkey’ and lots of terrapins that were sunbathing on logs along the way.  At around 4pm we pulled into Jamu Lodge which was going to be our base for the next three nights.

We were pointed in the direction of our room and were pleasantly surprised at how nice it was, a palm thatched room that was very comfortable and fairly big, even boasting a hot shower.  After unpacking we then had an hour or so to relax in the common area of the lodge before heading out for our first activity.

Around five we were taken back to the boat as we were going to travel back up river to the large lagoon, hopefully spotting more wildlife along the way and an option of a swim.

The agency that we booked this trip with told us that as it was the dry season the Lagoon would be almost dry and the river would be very low so we would not see the legendary pink dolphins.  So it came as a very pleasant surprise when we saw a couple of other boats loitering around 10 minutes away from our lodge and Pedro suddenly announced that there were some pink dolphins there.

 

We edged our way forwards in the boat and soon we saw the dolphins breach the surface, but unlike their cousins they have very small dorsal fins (to help navigate in the sunken forests they inhabit) and they are at the surface for about a second (so yet again no decent shots).  We were told by Pedro that they are the largest of the dolphin species and also practically blind due to the muddiness of the river making very poor visibility.  Another fact we were told was that their heads are not connected to their bodies with a spine, as this gives them more manoeuvrability through the flooded forest.  Even though two came up right alongside the boat it was so fleeting it’s hard to really see how pink they actually are, however it was great bonus to see them.

Leaving the dolphins, we continued to the large lagoon which as promised, was fairly dry with large dry islands all over the place.  We pulled up at the bankside and got out, where we were supposed to go swimming, but neither Shell or I fancied getting wet this early into the trip and the colour of the muddy water and bank were not inspiring either.  Instead we opted just to have a walk around and take some pictures and watch the impromptu game of football all the guides and locals seemed to take part in (I resisted the urge to join in).

 

After staying here for an hour or so whilst people had their swims and watching the sunset it was time to head back to the lodge for dinner, but along the way we were going to be Caiman spotting.

It was now dark so Pedro had his torch out searching the riverbank for the tell-tail reflective eyes shining back at us.  It took some time and we were beginning to give up on them, but just before getting back to the lodge some eyes were spotted under some branches of the riverbank.  Our driver carefully negotiated his way so close to the caiman that you could practically touch it.  You could only see its head poking out of the water but Pedro told us it was a Black Caiman and he reckoned it was around 2-3 metres in length.  Surprisingly it did not move a muscle and just waited it out until we had to leave.

We then returned to the lodge where we just had time for a quick shower before sitting down to our evening meal.  The food there was pretty decent, a three course affair with soup, a chicken dish and a desert, not bad considering we were in the middle of the jungle!!

 

Dinner done we then went to the bar area where we got a couple of beers and relaxed chatting to the other guests, around that time the heavens opened and it started to pour down. So much for the dry season!

As we had a very early start, lack of sleep the night before and a busy day we were soon heading to our room for an early night.  However, the rain had brought out the local frog/toad population so we were going to have to go to sleep to Ecuador’s version of Paul McCartney’s frog song (and someone snoring next door!).

Day 2 – Rain! Forest

After possibly one of the best night’s sleep we have had for a long time we awoke refreshed and went for breakfast.  Once again, the food on offer was really good with cereals, bread and eggs and a fresh fruit salad, the only thing spoiling it was that it had started to rain again.

Nether the less we were heading out in the boat again on another expedition, however we had been kitted out in rain poncho’s and wellington boots.  At 9ish resplendent in our new fashion accessories we jumped in the boat and motored back up to the lagoon. Just before we got to our destination the driver moored the spare canoe we would use to paddle back to the lodge (we all agreed to do this before seeing the weather).  We then motored a little further and spotted a reasonable sized white caiman just entering the water from a mud bank, before pulling into the side of a bank and getting out of the canoe.

 

We were already fairly wet at this point but the rain had eased off a bit as we started our hike into the primary forest, passing some nice lush grassy area’s with Pedro pointing out various plants along the way.

It was then time to enter the jungle proper on foot and one of the first things Pedro pointed out was a termites nest attached to a tree, apparently they do this and then set about eating the inside of the tree.  Pedro then scratched the bark of the tree and some termites started coming out, at which point he told us that termites were high in protein and offered us a munch on them.  Shell was very keen and was first up, after pinching a termite and putting it in her mouth she agreed with Pedro about the taste – not bad!  It was then my turn, picking out my termite I put it in my mouth and to my surprise termites taste strongly of carrots…who knew!!

The next surprise was when Pedro took us to another tree and he gathered the sap on a stick and then he lit it, the sap acted pretty much like kerosene and stayed alight for ages.  Pedro then plucked a thin stick like plant from the ground and told us we could smoke this, he lit it up took a couple of drags and then handed it around to the smokers in the party, it was a pretty smooth smoke!!

 

 

By this point it had started (and continued for the rest of the hike) to lash it down, which meant any wildlife we were hoping to see had taken cover and were not to be spotted apart from the odd spider and bird.

So we were having to concentrate on the flora and for Pedro’s next trick he found a plant that looked quite stick like and when he shook it the plant opened up/fell apart into strands.  Once open he took some of the strands and stripped it so it was like a cord/string (the local women use it to make necklaces) and once folded, proved unbreakable.

Before we finished the trek, Pedro had also folded and decorated a leaf using his teeth for imprints/patterns (now our guidebook book-mark) and fashioned a crown out of weaved palm leaves, to make Carla queen of the forest.

Now completely soaked we made our way out of the jungle and back to the lagoon where we picked up our canoe to paddle back in the lashing rain…nice!!

As we started to paddle back Pedro spotted a Caiman on one of the lagoon islands so we paddled over to have a closer look, as we got closer we noticed a couple more of them.  By the time we got within 20 metres of them we noticed more and more sets of little eyes poking out of the water all around us, we were really in croc infested water.

 

 

We then turned around and started on the long paddle back to the lodge doing some paddling followed by a bit of bailing out so we didn’t sink (it was raining that hard).  Apart from stinky turkeys I don’t think we saw much else or we were so wet we didn’t notice.  Along the way we actually past Sebastian who was staying at another lodge, so we had a quick chat with him as we paddled along.  Poor Sebastian only had the guide and a woman for company, so with our 5 man paddling crew we were soon leaving him behind (we also learned the following day that his lodge was a lot further away than ours).

 

 

Just before we arrived back at the lodge the sun decided to make an appearance and we all agreed the canoe journey would have been fabulous if we had this weather from the start.  Once back at the lodge we then sat down for lunch, which again was really good.

We were not due for another activity until later in the afternoon so Shell and I decided to take advantage of the hammocks in the loft of the communal area.  The afternoon was spent reading and dozing until it was time to venture out again.

 

 

Back in the boat we were supposed to go back to the lagoon for a swim, but as it was tipping it down yet again I think Pedro got the feeling that we would prefer just to do some wildlife spotting instead.  We headed down a few branches of the river where apart from a few stinky turkeys the only things of note were flycatchers and our first sighting of Toucans, although these were right at the top of the canopy so getting a decent picture was difficult.

 

We returned to the lodge in the pouring rain so weren’t so keen to do our night walk before dinner, so Pedro said we would consider doing it later if the rain subsided.  As we had our dinner the rain had calmed down a bit so Pedro told us to don our poncho’s and wellies and follow him out of the lodge to do our creepy crawly expedition.

Just walking along the gang plank Pedro had already found some nasties to check out.  Shining his  torch up the nearby trees he showed us a few Tarantula spiders and a couple of scorpions.  We then headed off into the nearby jungle to see what else we could spot.

 

It was very wet and I think the animals had the better idea of staying at home as we did not see a huge amount.  We saw some more scorpions and small spiders, most probably the best thing we saw was a small yellow/gold poisonous frog.  It is quite incredible how Pedro manages to spot some of these things.

 

Just before we left the jungle we saw another type of spider which was quite large and had long front legs with pinchers like a scorpion.  Amazingly there was a small make-shift shelter behind this and Pedro told us that sometimes when the lodge is full the boat drivers camp out here, rather them than me!!

Returning once again to the lodge we went to the bar area where we had a couple of beers and chatted to some of the new arrivals at the lodge before making our way to bed for another fairly early night.

Day 3 – I thought this was supposed to be the dry season!!

After another night of the frog chorus and another good breakfast, this mornings activity was motoring down the river to go to a village of the Siona Community of Puerto Bolivar.  Once again it was raining so the poncho’s and wellies were required.

About an hour or so motoring deeper into the jungle we were soon pulling up at the river bank next to a village settlement.  We walked up to the village where we met the village elder who welcomed us to the village and in fact thought he recognised Shelley!!

The ‘native’ village as it seems where ever you go now had more mod-con’s than expected, with TV satellite dishes and even a football pitch with rudimentary flood lights!!

We were then taken to a kitchen hut where we introduced to the bread maker for the village and she was going to show us how to make Yucca bread from scratch.  Firstly we followed her to the vegetable field where she proceeded to dig up the Yucca root vegetables.  She then handed these to us so we could assist her in peeling off the hard outer skin.

 

The first job done we then followed her back to the kitchen area in which we were joined by various dogs and chickens running around the place.  Here the lady flipped over a hollowed out log work bench and got out two very basic hand made graters and proceeded to turn the Yucca into pulp and again we took turns in assisting her, I wish I hadn’t picked out a large Yucca as it was hard work.

The pulp mixture was then sieved out to get rid of any lumps and then the lady spread this in a long material sling and took it to a post where she proceeded to twist it to remove all of the liquid (which is collected in a bucket to make the local hooch) from the Yucca.  The mixture is then taken to an open fire and spread out in a shallow round pan and carefully rolled into shape.

 

After a lot of hard work the bread that is created comes out pretty much like a bread wrap but without that much flavour and is pretty dry.  We were given some of these straight from the fire to eat with a rice dish, a tuna mix or Jam by way of our lunch.

Bread making done and eaten we waited around for a while (this was the guides village and I think he was taking time to say hello to his family), but as we waited we were told we could buy beer from the beer hut!!  So, as it was gone midday we took them up on their offer.

Leaving the village, we were then heading further down river to visit the villages local shamen.  Along the way our guide got the driver to pull up to the bank so we could take a close up view of one of the largest trees in the forest that had roots like walls.

 

Walking around the tree and taking photo’s our guide scraped some bark/pulp off a nearby tree and mixed it with water.  He explained that it was like garlic and people take it when they have colds, so he offered it to us to try.  The method to take it is to snort the solution up your nose (it’s not what it looks like!!) and it was very garlicy and not very pleasant as you spend the next hour just tasting garlic through your nose.

 

 

Back in the boat we headed along the river but after a few attempts to dock to visit the shamen we couldn’t, the river was too shallow here so we had to motor on for another 15 minutes to find a suitable place to pull in.  From the river bank (still raining) we then had a 10 minute trek to the shamens hut/house deep into the forest. At this point, god decided to really let loose on the bucketing rain!... We discovered that Poncho’s aren’t torrential rain proof!

 

Once at the hut we were introduced to the shamen beguiled in all his ceremonial costume and he proceeded to tell us about his work and the natural methods and plants he used for remedies. We listened whilst swotting the many mosquitos which were taking refuge with us from the rain.

After finding out about his life and work and a quick translated Q&A, he then asked for a volunteer so he could demonstrate a healing ceremony/warding off bad spirits.   Carla volunteered as none of us were jumping forward and she did very well to keep a straight face as the shamen wafted a bunch of leaves around her whilst doing an incantation which included lots of blowing noises.

 

Next, the shamen asked if any of us had any pains and as my shoulder had been giving me a lot of jip recently I told him about this (may as well give it a go!).  I then had to strip my top off and sit with my back to him, he then produced a plant that was a cross between a stinging nettle and a cactus and proceeded to thrash me around the shoulder with it whilst doing his blowing noises (much to the amusement of Shell).  After a while it did start to hurt and when he finished I had a very red shoulder with lots of small spines in it.  I think it did stop the pain in my shoulder as it had gone numb a bit like tiger balm, but it did not last and I spent the rest of the day removing small spines from my shoulder.  I am still not a believer in alternative medicine!!

 

 

From the shamens house  we trekked back to the boat, almost getting lost as the guide had stayed back to get his own treatment, then we rode the boat back in the rain to the lodge where we had an hour or so to relax before our next activity.

Next up we were going back up river to visit the big lagoon again, but as we travelled along we spotted another tourist boat alongside the riverbank and found that they had spotted an Anaconda. We pulled alongside them to have a look,  it wasn’t the biggest of specimens (a baby at about 3 foot)  but we were lucky to see it as during the dry season it is very rare to see them.

We then headed to the great lagoon and we were surprised to see how it had changed after two days of torrential rain, it was now pretty much filled up.   The whole vista had changed and the lake had come back and claimed some of the trees back, which made for a much prettier scene than two days previously.

 

As it was dusk we headed into the lake and motored around and as it got dark and we were weaving around the trees the guide picked up another caiman submerged next to one of the trees.  So we went over and had a closer look at it, the guide was considering trying to grab it to get us a better look at it but he judged that maybe it was too big to risk it.

 

Heading back to the lodge along the river we continued to spot caiman eyes everywhere and went for another close up.  As we motored on incredibly the guide picked up some snake eyes in the forest next to us, but after trying to point it out and us failing to see it, he pulled into the bank.  He headed up the bank and then pulled some branches away and bought it back to the boat so we could get a close up view of the Boa snake he had brought back on the branch.  Again it was only a small snake but still nice to see and we appreciated our guides extra efforts to show it to us.

 

Returning to the lodge we then had another pretty decent meal before heading to the bar area where we had some drinks.  As we relaxed we started speaking to a couple of French guys who had been travelling for two years and so we had lots of stories to tell and advice to share with each other.

As we had enjoyed it so much we tried to see if we could extend our stay for another day, the guide told us it would be possible and was told that it would cost $100 for both of us.  However when we went to pay the people that ran the lodge they said it would be $100 per person, which was a bit of a rip-off considering what we had paid for the three night, so sadly we had to decline.

As we had an early activity the next morning before we left the jungle we said our goodnights and headed to bed and left the guys as it seemed they were set for a bit of a session.

Day 4 – Goodbye Amazon Basin!

Up bright and early for 6am this morning to go on our final bird spotting expedition and remarkably the sun had come out and it was dry for once.

Back in the boat we headed back up stream and spotted some more stinky turkeys, macaws and various other birds.  We then stopped as the guide had spotted some black monkeys in the canopy overhead, so we sat and watched them for a while.

 

Motoring along again the guide suddenly spotted the pink dolphins again (of David Attenborough fame) so we stopped and pulled into the bank where we sat and watched them for around 15 minutes.  We were very pleased to get a last chance to see them again.  After numerous attempts to get a photo, the below is Shell’s best shot (it’s a pink dolphin, honestly!).

 

 

A bit more bird spotting and then we returned to the lodge to have our breakfast before heading back to the room for showers and to pack our damp clothes (nothing dries as it is so humid here).  We then headed back to the jetty to get the motor boat to take us out of the park.

The ride back was very pleasant in the sunshine and you sort of go into a trance as you watch the jungle scenery go past, but there was little in the way of animal spotting as our guide had remained at the lodge.

 

We arrived back at the entrance to the park around 11am and then were given box lunches whilst we waited for our mini-bus to take us back to Lago Agrio.  After eating we waited around for the mini-bus that didn’t seem to be arriving, so some local taxi’s were rounded up for us and we then had a two hour drive in which we tried to doze.

Arriving at the bus terminal we were lucky enough to find that a bus was leaving for Quito in 20 minutes so we purchased some tickets and waited.  Boarding the public bus we were surprised to discover it was more comfortable than the tourist bus we had caught here a few days earlier.

Again, it was a long 8 hour drive back to Quito but we filled it watching the scenery, reading and sleeping.  Finally arriving back in Quito around 8ish we got off the bus and went in search of a taxi, moments later we realised that we had left a bag with our rain jackets and toiletries on the bus, but it was too late the bus had left (hope it’s hot in Columbia and we don’t need rain jackets!!).

We found a nearby café and bought some filled rolls to take back to the hostel and then we found a taxi and caught it back to our hostel.  We collected our main luggage from reception and checked back into one of their rooms.

We fell asleep quite quickly, I think we were actually knocked out by the stench of our now very smelly and amazon soaked sandals.