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Colombia. A country which is the same size as Spain, France and Portugal combined (Lonely Planet, 2010). Something which I am only too aware off after travelling the length of it.
So, at 10.30pm I set-off to start travelling on my own. Things started off well as the taxi driver actually knew of my destination and I didn't have to spend 5 minutes showing him a map, for him to then still not actually have any better idea. However, things quickly went down hill from there.
At the bus terminal we were told that the bus had broken down and wouldn't arrive until 4am. In the mean time they would put us up in a hostel, which I really did not expect. Also, if I am completely honest, I didn't really mind as I was feeling pretty rough and a bed sounded lovely. Although the situation was slightly awkward as I had to share it with a fairly old Spanish guy. This turned out to be a blessing in disguise as he spoke very good English (his son even lives in Lancaster) and so helped me a lot when I didn't have a clue what was going on, which happened a lot.
At 5.30am we were woken-up and told it was time to get the bus. The bus finally left at 6.30am Friday morning, nearly 8 hours after it was meant to. We arrived at our destination, Cali, at 3.20am stopping off only at a few roads side restaurants which make motorway service stations look hygienic.
Arriving at 3.20am in a new town is bit of a b****, and as I wanted to get to the Caribbean coast as quick as possible, I decided to join the fairly old Spanish guy and get a bus to Medellin. Although it wasn't leaving until 5.30am, so I had a few hours to kill... by doing nothing. I finally got to Medellin at about 6pm, by which point it was nearly 44 hours since I had left Jordan. A bloody long journey to say the least. As it was absolutely chucking it down, everyone holed themselves in the bar and spent the night playing pool and watching football.
The following morning I got up early to do some shopping and explore Medellin city centre. Turns out it is bit of a dump and has pretty much nothing of interest to me. Maybe it was because it was a Sunday, I do doubt it though. After a couple of hours of exploring and sensing the heavens were about to open again, I decided to jump in a taxi and head back to my hostel. The evening and night was very reminiscent of a Sunday at uni, as it was spent just chilling out with the lads.
The next day I went on a Pablo Escobar tour with three lads I had made friends with. We got to see his grave, the flat where the police shot and killed him and visited where his brother now lives (where we also got to meet his brother). Chatting to the brother was all a bit strange to be honest!
That night I was planning on getting an over night bus to Cartagena on the Caribbean coast. At the last minute, however, I changed my mind and travelled with the three lads from earlier that day to a place three hours away, a place called Rio Claro. The lure of being able to jump of a 15metre high cliff was just too strong.
Rio Claro is a jungle nature reserve. We got dropped off by the bus at 11pm, pretty much in the middle of no where. Luckily the park director saw us and provided us with a lift to a hotel actually inside the nature reserve, Our room in the hotel was unusual to say the least. Instead of having exterior walls, it was just open. So you are basically sleeping outside in the jungle, and the jungle is noisy. It was one class experience.
The next day we went hunting for the 15metre cliff but just before setting off we were told that the river was too strong to do it. So instead we just went swimming in it, which in reality involved holding on to a rope which went across the river for dear life. Later that day we decided to go fishing with our own homemade rodes. I can proudly say I was the only person to catch something, which we then took to the hotel kitchen and kindly asked them to cook it for us. This did delay us in leaving the park, which had a slightly annoying consequence...
After leaving the park, we got a bus back to Medellin where we wanted to get an overnight bus to Cartagena. Annoying, eating the fish meant we got back to Medellin too late and would have to wait until the morning. As it was 11.30pm and the first bus was at 5.30am, we decided it wasn't worth going to a hostel for a few hours, so just waited it out at the bus terminal... by doing nothing. Again.
We got to Cartagena at about.nine pm. Annoyingly the bus terminal is 6km out of the city centre, meaning we had to get a small local bus to it, and just as we were about to get off this bus, it started pouring it down. We were told by some locals the hostel we were looking for wasn't far, so we decided to walk it. In the end it took about 10mins, we were wet through and had spent that 10 minutes walking through sewage water. This called for a drink. or two. Sleeping that night was impossible as our room did not have air con. I really cannot explain how horrible it was.
The next day I went for a wonder around the beautiful town. I also finally managed to buy an English book to read when I'm bored (I had long finished the ones I took with me). I then caught a bus along the coast to Santa Marta. I'll leave that for next time though.
Quick update of my plans: tomorrow I am going on one final trek - a five day trek in the jungle which takes you to a lost city. I'm sure it is going to be disgustingly humid but hopefully it will be worth it. What it means though, is that I will not have Internet access until Wednesday evening at the earliest.
So until then,
Michael
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