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Coffee and Colombians
I don't know how many times you have to say it but Colombia is safe, very safe, much safer than the likes of Peru and Ecuador for example.
I spent 7 weeks in Ecuador in the end, not sure how but it has been nicer travelling slower now that the trip has been extended. The last few days in Ecuador I spent in the Amazon Basin, many many hours from anywhere despite Ecuador being a small country. After a long bus journey we took a long oat to a lodge where we were staying with no roads at all. It was great gliding past the river banks seeing the occasional monkey, bird, or snake. Must admit though we didn't see an awful lot of animals, they seemed to be well hidden in the depths when we were there. I guess we spent half the time trekking through the muddy jungle in our wellies and half the time in the long boat. What I did not expect to be doing which was quite cool was swimming in the rivers, our guide was quite relaxed about it despite there being plenty of anacondas, caimans, and piranha swimming about. I am glad the water was murky, I did not want to see what was beneath it's surface. After swimming one time we went a couple of hundred metres upstream and fished for piranha. I can say that is the first time in my life I have been fishing. Quite a comical picture seeing 8 gringos fishing off a long boat with a cane and some rudimentary line. We caught 5 fish though, one of which was massive so we decided to eat that for dinner. Delicious. I thought I was being clever after the trip in finding a bus that used a road that was not on any of the maps to take me direct to the Colombian border, unfortunately it was literally a track and prone to mud slides. I spent many hours on that bus waiting for bulldozers to appear and clear the blockage.
And so Colombia. Love it. Although it has not got the sites like the Galapagos and Machu Pichu it does have simply fantastic people. I was taken back on how friendly people were when I arrived. People would approach you on the street just to say hello, I was quite defensive when I first arrived. Definitely the friendliest people in South America. It all seems very affluent as well, a bit similar to Argentina. The people, especially in the cities, all look pretty dapper with their designer clobber on. If there is one thing the Colombians love it is shopping malls, I was walking round Cali one Sunday, absolutely dead on the streets, walked to a shopping mall and literally thousands of people milling around in their designer shades eating ice cream cruising shops like Diesal and Zara.
My time has basically been split between cool cities and small rustic colonial towns, one of the favourites being Salento, a town famous for its coffee production and billiard halls so it seems. Days cannot be beaten hiking around rolling plantation hills, or sat on top of a roof of a 4WD cruising around the countryside followed by a few beers with some locals playing billiards. Incidentally unlike countries like Indonesia and Kenya, you can actually get superb coffee on the streets in addition to what it exports. A lot of the places I have been staying have had free filter coffee on the go. A god send.
The capital Bogata is not everyone's cup of tea but I loved it. The historic old town surrounded by some edgy suburbs, some cool suburbs. Superb nightlife too, Colombians definitely like to party. Went to one club and saw that it was 23K to get in (about 8quid) and started moaning on how expensive it was in typical Gilbert styly, got closer to the kiosk and noticed the 'Barre Libre' sign. Happy days, as many spirits as you could drink! Needless to say that was quite a messy night. Probably the best club I have been to, room upon room of different bars and music with some cool outdoor spaces as well. In Bogata there is also a cathedral underground carved out of salt which is pretty damn impressive. Huge endless cavernous spaces superbly carved and then lit, certainly something a bit different to your normal effort on the plazas.
I guess I have to mention the cocaine connection when in Colombia. The country still has problems dealing with the cartels, cocaine is something every Colombian I have spoken to is vehemently against as the cartels confiscate land from families promising to kill their children if they are reported to the authorities. I was chatting to one girl whose family had their fruit farm taken from them, what shocked me more was how nonchalantly she told me this as if it were part of daily life. There are still problems here beneath the surface. Unfortunately Colombia seems to attract quite a lot of 'cocaine tourists', dickhead backpackers quoting the line 'when in Rome...' Say no more.
The Andes finally ended for me last week after 5 months following the line of them. Reached the Caribbean coast and the hot humid weather that goes with it. Lots of intense heat followed by terrific downpours at the moment. Managed to do my first scuba dive since I did my Open Water certification 8 years ago, bit nervous about it but it all came back to me and we had 2 really good dives seeing plenty of fish, coral, eels, and snakes. Enjoyed it a lot more than I remembered and will have to try and go a little more regularly now.
Just got back from a very challenging trek to the 'Lost City' in the depths of the Colombian jungle. A great little adventure. 4 days trekking in incredibly humid conditions wading through rivers slipping around on muddy tracks and sleeping in hammocks. Mosquitoes apart it was a class experience and seeing the Lost City at the end of it made it all worthwhile. Basically a hidden city that was only discovered in the '70s buried deep in dense jungle dating back to before 1000AD. Probably not a good idea of mine to do it in sandals though.
I feel like the Colombia blog is lacking somewhat in random crazy stories but that is just it, it is a very normal kind of country.
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