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2 weeks on and so much has changed. I finished my spanish course at the university, which i passed, I now have retainers for my teeth. I have left Medellin where I had spent a month and a half and now I am writing from the from the border between Peru and Ecuador.
After finishing my course I started travelling for the first time in several months. Myfirst stop was Manizales in the coffee growing area of Colombia. I spent 4 days there and had a really good time. The highlight was a night out with a group of Colombians and even more a trip to El Nevado de Ruiz, a nevado being a mounain covered in snow. I got the bus at 6am and went up o 4800m in the bus befor ascending to 5125 mtres by foot. I never imagined how hard it would be at such an altitude. Was really amazing to think that this is the highest altitude I have ever experienced, not to mention the fact that there was a snow storm and I was wearing completely inappropriate footwear. The descent was much asier as we sat on a plastic tarp and slid down the steep decline. After my time in Manizales I spent 30 hours in transit to arrive in Quito ecuador. The trip took about 8 hours longer then it should have owing to the fact that on one bus trip the highway was closed from 12am til 5 am meaning we had to sit by the side of the road waiting for it to open again. The problem was due to a menifesation by the indiginous population that saw them blocking the way. On th border with ecuador i met a couple of german guys who were also travelling to quito and was really lucky to find that they too wer couchsurfers and had a place to stay in quito to whch they invited me to stay. I was quite lucky as I hadnt organised anything before arriving and due to the delays we didnt arrive until 10 at night. We spent the next cuple of hours driving around quito in ataxi as they didnt know the address of the guys we were going to stay with and there was no internet available and the whole district of the bus terminal was without elecricity. Finally we found a place with internet and arrived close to 11.30. In the house were 5 germans, a brasilian and 2 australian girls, meaning that my spanish really didnt help me communicate with them but it was a couple of nights. We spent one day looking around quito and then in the night time found a really good reggae club and had a lot of fun. Yesterday we just hung around the house and played a bit of basketball in the afternoon bfore I got on the bus from Quito to the border with Peru. I arrived at the border at 6am and without doubt it was the easiest border crossing I have done as I was the only person crossing over so early. I then go a moto taxi to the nearest town where I booked a bus for 1pm to Lima arriving tomorrow morning... another 20 hours in bus. And thats where I am now. Trying to fill in time before the bus leaves. I am really looking forward to the next few weeks. I need to arrive in Argentina in 2 weeks so I am a little short on time but Peru and Bolivia are sure to be highlights of my trip. I will keep you updated.
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