Our accomodation – La Villa Atitlan– was lovely. 2 bedrooms, a pool and lawns leading to the edge of the lake. A perfect spot to chill for a few days and rest our weary legs. First stop was the laundry and then a supermarket to stock up on brekkie and booze. The nearest supermarket was a bit of hike up the hill – not ideal after walking 47kms – but we got to explore the village of San Pedro. As soon as we arrived it started bucketing down (you can set your clock to the timing of it every day) so we huddled under a canopy of a street stall and had the best fresh tacos ever. A$6 for 3 each. I then grabbed some hot chips – she held up fingers saying they were 2, 3 or 5. I thought she meant 20Q etc. No, she meant 2Q – 40c. That night we enjoyed the luxury of going to bed early tucked between nice clean sheets with it bucketing down outside.
The next day we did very little. I caught up with the blog while Deryn explored the town visiting the local market and wandering around the many little laneways. We were both still tired from the trek so enjoyed just lazing around on the hammock and outdoor chairs with the odd dip in the lake. We tried Jamie’s recommended falafel restaurant – Ha Falafel– and were not disappointed – fabulous. Deryn booked in a horse ride for the next day – 80Q ($16) for a 2 hour ride.
The horses and our guide met us a 100m from out villa and we proceeded to ride through the town. It was brilliant – dodging signs, tuk tuks, people etc. Before long the traffic thinned out and we were in the forest around the lake edge. Pedro our host’s English was very good so we got to hear a bit of history of the place. The water of the lake is rising because of the introduction of Black Bass by PanAm in the 50s – they thought they could sell the fishing to Americans. The introduction damaged the natural ecosystem. The bass ate all the local fish and none of the algae which in turn meant the algae bloomed. The algae plugged the vents at the bottom of the lake which helped drain it. Now the water is rising. Go figure. We headed out for 75m, taking only 45 to return. It was brilliant cantering along the paved roads and then winding our way back through the village. Best $16 we had ever spent. We stopped at Ha Falafel for another falafel on our way back to our villa. Spent the rest of the afternoon chilling before heading out around 4 to the hot springs on the other side of town. We were told upon arrival that they needed 30 minutes to heat the water up (not geothermal then) so we headed to a local bar for a quick couple of bevvies and a game of cards. Upon return the water was ready and we got to spend a lovely hour chilling in the hot pool, punctuated by a quick dip in the cold pool . Bliss.
We grabbed a boat the next morning to take us across the lake to San Marcos. It was sad leaving San Pedro, we really enjoyed the back packer vibe of the place. We waited at a local cafe to be picked up and taken to our new home as it was a wee way out of the village. San Marcos is known as the hippy haven on lake Atitlan and we could certainly see why. There were quite a few older, bedraggled and guant westerners around the place – maybe they looked worse before they arrived?? The village was cute. Eventually our host arrived to take us in a tuk tuk to our accommodation – about a 1km out of town. Baraka Atitlan was perched on the side of the cliff with stunning views of the 3 Lake Atitlan volcanoes – Atitlan, Pedro and Toliman. There were steep steps down to a small wharf to jump off into the lake. Magic.
After relaxing and taking in the serenity we headed back into town to grab some food at a Restaurant Fe – pizza and salad. We bumped into both Oded and his girlfriend as well as Teal and Brook walking past the restaurant. Deryn headed home while I travelled for an hour in a tuk tuk to meet a local person. 200Q tuktuk ride. I think I was ripped off but in the context of the bigger picture, not too bad. We did however have a fun night playing cards, boozing and interspersed with some vigorous debates. The next morning was spent enjoying the tranquility and view of our accommodation. Apart from the 2 climbs down the steps for swims and having to move from the upstairs apartment to the downstairs one on account of us being put in the wrong one, we did little activity. The downstairs apartment was still really nice but did not have the deckspace and as much sunlight. Best view from a toilet ever though. Around 4 we headed to Cerro Tzankujil (Nature Reserve) for the well know jump off the platform into the sea. It was 20Q entry fee and then we followed the path along the cliff face until we came across the platform. It was probably about a 10m jump, so not easy. I did a couple of jumps, including a back flip and even Deryn after some deliberation plucked up the courage to jump but landed slightly off so had a bit of a sore bum. We bumped into a couple of Kiwis from the Naki which was nice. I jumped again to encourage a small kid to do it – which he did. Brave wee fella. We made it home just before the heavens opened.
The next morning we grabbed a boat to take us to the town of Santa Cruz – known as the vertical town. The boat trip there was lovely – stopping at smaller towns and wharfs on the way and marvelling at some of the houses built on the edge of lake. Expats or locally owned we wonder? The climb from the wharf at Santa Cruz to the town itself was over 200 metres. There was music blaring from the top of the town – purpose unknown but certainly the speaker system was impressive. The actual town itself was a lot more indigenous than Pedro or Marcos. It was fun winding our way through the little alleyways and streets avoiding the copious amounts of dog poop. We found a tienda selling locally manufactured goods so stocked up on a few local wares.
On the return journey on the boat we bumped into some Aussies from Perth although one of them was now living in Mairangi Bay in Auckland. Small world indeed. We stopped at Restaurant Fe again for the same pizza and salad. The owner recognised us from earlier and returned Deryn’s water bottle which she thought she had lost. We returned home for a kip, followed by our now regular daily exercise routines then it was into the cards and booze before our favourite home made meal of taco shells, tomato, onion, cheese, avocado, jalapeños and spicy sauce. Yum!! It was a reasonably early bedtime to start watching the next series of Mindhunter.
We had 1.50pm flight to Guatemala City so it was a leisurely start to the day. It was another stress free flight with minimal effort. I was a bit nervous about flying Volaris Airlines, Mexico’s biggest budget airline, but it was fine – I guess people with something to moan about tend to post. We grabbed a 6 Gig Guatemalan Tigo SIM card for $50 and was at our B&B Oh Espana within 20 minutes. It was located in a Johannesburg like restricted gated residential zone where you had to enter through a boom gate. The B&B was lovely with the owner going out of her way to help us. Suddenly I was excited about traveling again.
A few days earlier in Costa Rica I had started to feel like I was getting over all the traveling. After 135 days on the road I was finding it a bit of a chore and wasn’t getting excited about the journey ahead. After a bit of a discussion Dits suggested we slow our travels down – spend a min of 3 nights in desired locations and not head up through Belize to give us more time in Guatemala. A great idea. I am writing this a week later in San Pedro on Lake Atitlan in our lovely AirB&B, its a sunny day and the views across the lake are stunning, set off nicely by some lovey tunes that Jake Casella has loaded on Spotify for me. I am just loving being on the road again and really excited about the travels ahead. Guatemala really is special. Anyway, back to the journey to here.
We asked our hostess to recommend a dinner spot. She recommended Ciudad Cyala. We had to wait for the traffic to ease before grabbing a 40 min Uber ride to what turned out to be an upmarket shopping/dining area. We felt like we were back in Costa Rica!! We grabbed an expensive, but good, Mexican meal before heading home. It was an early(ish) start the next day so we could get a 10.30am bus to Quetzaltenango, more commonly referred to as Xela (pronounced Shay-la). We got to the bus station around 9.15 and after a slight language battle managed to booked out tickets. We had an hour to kill so headed off for a wander. We found a farmacia so grabbed some sleeping pills and then headed into McDonalds for some coffee. Even though we had days of breakfast at our B&B, I could not help myself and grabbed an egg McMuffin and hash brown.
After a 3 hour pleasant bus journey we arrived in Xela and grabbed a taxi to our hotel Lar Antiqua Hotel. The location was great but the hotel appeared as if it was in the middle of a renovation. We chose a room on the third floor for the view which meant plenty of stairs – get us in shape for our next trek! We headed out to explore Zona 1 of Xela and, as Deryn described it, “felt like we were back home”. It was so nice being in a town that oozed indigenous culture. We walked to the Quetzaltrekkers office to pay for our trek, Xela to Lake Atitlan Their office was in a run down hostel full of animals but the people were lovely. Quetzaltrekkers support a charity that educates village, and sometimes homeless, children – I think they said about 170. It was A$300 total for a 3 day / 2 night trek. The weather was a bit miserable so we grabbed a lovely Indian at Sabor de la India and headed back to the hotel to watch a movie.
Deryn’s research found us a decent place for breakfast called Mandarina. Turns out its run by a Melbourne lass called Alice who has been living in Xela for nearly 5 years. The restaurant helped fund her charity called The Dox Project which took stray dogs off the street, nourished them, neutered them and then found them a home. The place was full of dogs (clean and nourished) but we had a genuine Aussie breakfast including 2 fantastic lattes! A seed has been planted in Deryn where she is going to come back for 3 or 4 weeks, learn Spanish and volunteer with the charity.
After breakfast we grabbed a local chicken bus to Zunil village (5 Quetzel each – $A1) and then a tiny car (30Q) up the hill to Las Fuentes Georginas – hot springs. The road was steep and windy – I was glad we did not get a tuktuk up although Dits was adamant our car was a tuktuk in disguise – it also got very foggy near the top. It was 60Q for each of us to get into the baths plus another 15Q for a locker key – not a cheap outing. However the baths were lovely, especially when the place was shrouded in thick fog. We managed to hitch a ride in a tuktuk back down – there was 6 of us crammed into it – and got dropped off in a different spot to grab a bus back to Xela. We should have realised that the bus would be going to a different part of Xela so after a few conversations with the bus driver, they dropped us off at a petro station and then flagged down another chicken bus which took us into Zone 1. It was an unintended and not particularly interesting tour of Xela.
We grabbed a tapas meal before heading back to the Quetzaltrekkers office for our 6 pm briefing. We met our guides – Will and Jamie, both Australian. Will was from Melbourne and Jamie from Cronulla. There were 6 other trekkers – Blake and Teal from Portland Oregon, Riley and Ellen from Vancouver, Oded from Israel and Katrin from Germany. At the briefing we found out we had to carry all the food and were allocated our share. We also grabbed our sleeping bags and mats. Packing was going to be a real problem so we decided to take my large backpack and Deryn’s smaller one. Even then it was tight. We had to be back at the office by 6am the next morning so it was back to our hotel to sort out the bags, grab some booze (it is so cheap – $6 for a 375m of 5 year old rum and the same for a bottle of red) and try get some sleep. Neither of us slept well – I was awake most of the night, not helped by following the second Bledisloe on the NZ Herald web site. Glad to see normality restored on that front.
It was a bit of an effort hiking through Xela at 6am with all our bags but we got there. Breakfast was great which helped offset the annoyance of being told that we had even more food to carry. The weight of my bag was getting ridiculous. Around 7am we left and walked across town to grab a chicken bus from the Lo Rotunda bus stop. It was then a 25min ride to the start of our trek at Xecam. We immediately started climbing out of the Xela valley and for the next 2 hours it was basically up. Deryn and I both struggled, partly due to the weight of our bags but also because of the poor night’s sleep. We reached the highest point Alaska (3069m) at 10.30 and then spent the next couple of hours in a slow descent through the beautiful lush cloud forest. We stopped in a clearing for lunch – thick crunchy taco shells, fresh tomatoes, guacamole, peppers, spices, beans and lovely sauces. Delicious. The speed of the group was quite fast paced so we reached our first day destination, the village of Antigua Santa Catarina Ixtahuacan by 3.15pm.
The last hour or so was really tough so Deryn and I were pleased to collapse onto our straw mats, on concrete, in the village hall. After a coffee we headed to the wonderful session in the village temescal– basically a sweat bath/sauna that is the earliest of its kind in the world. It was housed in a tiny shed, inside were hot coals, a heated urn of hot water, a bucket of cold water and a bucket to mix the hot and cold water. You had to duck down to enter the temescal, quickly close the wooden door and once inside remove your clothes in a near pitch black environment. It was also very smoky. You mixed the waters, washed and then poured it over yourself. It was magic. Deryn lasted 13 minutes, I did 15. All the aches and pains of the trek vanished. We walked 16km and climbed 911m over 7 hours. Throughout the afternoon it was fascinating watching the clouds rolling into the village. By 6pm it was completely engulfed in cloud which gave it a very eerie feel. We were asleep by 745 after a fantastic meal of pasta and lunch leftovers.
Sleep was OK – my pillow was the sleeping bag cover stuffed with clothes and the ground was damn hard – but we were that exhausted that nothing would keep us awake for too long. We were awoken by Will at 6.15 am to the sound to cheesy classic greatest hits before waking across to breakfast at a local comedor (restaurant). The coffee, beans, rice, and veggies were really good. We were on the road by 8 for a gentle walk through the village before reaching Record Hill just before 10am. It’s called Record Hill because its basically a time trial to see how quickly you can climb the 600m (200m height) distance. The quickest time (a local – we did not not know whether he was carrying any gear) was below 7 minutes. Anyone getting sub 10 minutes was treated to a free ice cream at the upcoming “ice cream village.“ Will had seen a guest do it in 9.45 but anything below 15 mins was regarded as impressive. I came a respectable second in a time of 13.40 behind Blake who did an impressive 11.25. Dits did 16. It was a brutal climb but at least it made a challenging hill a bit of an adventure. At the top our guide Jamie gave us an impressive and fascinating summary of Guatemalan history and politics while we all got our breath back. We kept on gradually climbing until we reached Ice Cream Village (Tzucubal) for a well earned ice cream (no freebies).
We noticed most houses were not quite finished – turns out it’s how to avoid paying tax. You need to pay when the house is finished. It started raining soon after leaving the village so bag covers and raincoats were rapidly engaged. Next on the route was the “Corn field of Death” so named because it was a slippery downhill followed by a steep uphill. We were planning on having some lunch but decided to keep moving in the hope the rain eased at a suitable location. After a couple of river crossings the rain stopped so we found a nice spot by the river for lunch. The rain started up soon after lunch, but we weren’t too concerned as our home for the night, Don Pedro’s casa allegedly had hot showers and a fire to dry our clothes. We arrived at Xiprian at 3.15 and Don Pedro’s soon after. Today we walked 17.6km, climbed 833m over 7.35 hours.
The fire was certainly welcome but unfortunately the shower was freezing. Not to worry, it was still nice to wash off the mud and sit in front of the fire. Will had phoned ahead and ordered us either strawberry or pineapple drinks which went down very well with my rum. The rest of the group headed to the local shop to grab beers (no wine) while Dits and I got stuck into our carried booze. Deryn ended up sharing a lot of her much appreciated wine with those in the group that missed out on buying some. Don Pedro’s dinner hit the spot and once again everyone was in bed by 830. The roosters crowing, dogs barking all night and our impending 3.15 am wake up made sleep difficult – I have no idea why the Latino roosters find it so difficult to crow at dawn??’!!
It rained hard during the night so for a while the 3.15am awakening looked less likely. But no, 3.15am and Will was in there rousing the troops. Normal routine – toilet, teeth and pack up, ahead of climbing to the mirador for breakfast and hopefully some volcanic eruptions. We had a 45 minute walk up to the mirador, mostly along a well lit the road. The last 300m was through thick woods, before arriving at a paddock with apparently great views of Lake Atitlan. It was pitch black with loads of cloud when we arrived so we all grabbed our sleeping mats and lay on the grass waiting for dawn or an eruption. Unfortunately the clouds remained and the rain got us first – you could hear it working it’s way through the forest. Thankfully we had a small covered area which we all cuddled under for breakfast. When the sun rose and the clouds dispersed the view was stunning- we could see most of the lake, the villages of San Pedro, San Juan and San Marcos to name a few. Blake took the chance to fly his drone for some photos.
A couple of armed security guards appeared. They had in fact been there the whole time keep an eye on us and escort us down to the village of San Juan, 90 minutes away. They are hired by Quetzaltrekkers for every trek as it could be a bit tempting for some to know that there were, pre dawn, a dozen or so tourists every Monday and Friday huddling in the bush 3km out of San Pedro. Fair call I thought. The walk down was quite difficult as it was steep, but the views were amazing. We arrived at a little look out just above San Juan just before 10 and so had to kill an hour before the coffee cafe opened in the town. We lulled around the mirador before slowly strolling into town and the El Fondeadero cafe and coffee store.The coffee was great, as was the carrot cake and pineapple. A short walk today of 6.4km, climbed 142m over 5 hours.
Afterwards we all piled into a Ute for the journey over the hill to San Perdo and lunch at a local cafe. The restaurant was perched 8 or so metres above the lake with a gate you opened to then jump into the lake. I loved it and had to show the crowd my full repertoire. Lunch was a chicken sandwich for me and fish for Dits with a side of guacamole, rice, vegetables and chips. Once the rums came out it was bliss. Will took me on a wee tour of the town before we all said our sad goodbyes. It was so nice spending some quality time with a lovely, diverse bunch of people. I often saw Deryn chuckling away to herself as i regale these poor captives with my enthralling stories. Thanks Quetzaltrekkers! We grabbed a tuktuk for the 120m trip to our lakeside, 2 bedroom lake side apartment. Luxury!!
While writing this I heard another very loud cracker (I assume) explode, a lot closer than normal. We have been hearing them a lot in Central America but today we must have heard 9mor 10. However the latest few are really close. We must find out what they are about.
And to finish with some dogs. This pack suddenly appeared in Xela, in a real hurry to get somewhere.
We headed off to Manuel Antonia park. The drive was just over an hour along a narrow coastal road. The traffic wasn’t as bad as previous days so it was a pleasant hour. We arrived at our accommodation – Manual Antonio Park House– in a stretch of coast that was packed with accommodation. The house used to be a restaurant but was turned into a guest house. It was run by a Dutch local called Michael who did a great job of making the place feel like a family home. It had a huge pool and was completely surrounded by national park – so we got to see monkeys and Agouti (guinea pig) while chilling around the pool or in the very comfortable lounge. We went for a walk to explore the area and I dropped off a load of washing at a local hotel that did laundry – I was told it was 1800 colones a kg which was reasonable so I was a bit pissed off when they said they had a minimum charge of 5000 colones (A$15) for my 1kg.
Michael offered to cook us dinner – he used to own his own restaurant in the area. I had the veggie lasagna and Deryn had the chicken pasta. Delicious. Micahel was amazed I could manage seconds!
We were planning on getting to Manual Antonio National Park ahead of opening at 7am (it’s Costa Rica’s Mostar popular national park) but Michael said that is the busiest time, its best to turn up around 10 when the early arrivers start leaving. So we grabbed a local bus at around 9.45 (340 colones each/$1.20) and was in the park by 10.30. It cost $16 each. Most of the early path were wheelchair accessible so it was easy walking. It wasn’t too busy but it certainly was hot so at the earliest opportunity we headed into the sea. The landscape was stunning, tropical rainforest surrounded by stunning beaches on both sides. There were plenty of animals (monkeys and iguanas) as well as birds and butterflies. We spent a fair bit of time at Playitas Beach which was at the northern tip of the peninsula.
We spent about 3 hours in the park and walked over 8kms so were happy to head home to the pool and get out of the heat. We spent a pleasant afternoon chilling by the pool reading. We were treated to another of Michael’s meals for dinner – he gave me a massive plate of pasta and again was astounded that I finished it. Having the munchies certainly helped.
We had a leisurely start to the day as our next stop was the nicely named Cool Vibes Beach Hotelon the reasonably well know surf beach of Dominical. The drive was very easy and within the hour we were checked in to a well run and busy Cool Vibes hostel. The pool was tiny but that was fine as it was only 100m from the beach. The surf was obviously good as the place was packed with surfy types and there must have been 20 surfboards on the rack outside our room.
We headed down to the beach for a swim and to explore the area. The beach was pebbly with dark sand but pretty impressive. The surf was very choppy but the water temperature was perfect. We walked down the river at the end of the beach and had some fun diving into it and floating back towards the ocean. The town itself was tiny with half a dozen shops and the same number of restaurants. We grabbed a drink at Coca before heading home for another swim. It started absolutely bucketing down so we headed indoors for several hours to wait the calm. It never came so we drove back into town for dinner and an early bed.
The next morning we drove the 3 kms down the road to Hacienda Baru, a private natural park. Another $15 and we were enjoying the tropical rainforest once again. It was almost deserted which was a treat after Manual Antonio. We saw the usual monkeys, Iguanas and birds but not anything new which was a tad disappointing. After really enjoying the drinks yesterday, we headed back to Coca for lunch. Very good. The afternoon was spent chilling again before I cooked our leftover spaghetti and vegetables for a tasty wee dinner. That followed by another shite Netflix movie – our hit ratio has been sub 30% on the tour to date. Terrible recommendations from the online critics.
Deryn spent most of the following morning trying to sort out her phone. We’re not quite sure where it is – either at the DHL office or customs. We’re going to start with the DHL office and work our way from there. We were going to drive back to San Jose via route 2 (very mountainous) but decided with all the rain around visibility could be a problem. Before heading away we went for our last swim in the ocean for a while. It was absolutely teaming down which made it even more special.
We stopped at Ridiculous (priced) Burgers again for another overpriced burger as we passed through Jaco. After that the traffic wasn’t too bad until we got close to the airport and the DHL office. Initial discussions were promising but soon turned to dust and it now looks like Deryn’s phone is a lost phone. Incompetence. The drive to our hostel Finca Escalante– was slow but it was peak hour.
The hostel was lovely. It used to be a wealthy family home and was converted to a hostel a few years back. It was in the heart of the gastrointestinal area of San José so their were plenty of decent restaurants in the area. We met a friendly local so spent the evening playing cards and finishing off our alcohol. The next day was very slow but we did venture our for a walk for lunch before retreating back to the hostel for movies and sleep. We headed out for a meal – best meal on tour so far. I had sweet potatoes gnocchi and Deryn had tuna.
Our flight was at 1.50 so it was a leisurely start to the day before heading off to the airport at 10.
Our first night’s sleep in Costa Rica was punctuated by fireworks going off at 10pm (OK) and then 4am and 530am (Not OK). The only reason given by Charles is that there is a firework factory nearby – not sure of that marketing strategy.
After an amazing breakfast – fruit, eggs and potatoes we started out for our 3 hour drive to Fortuna. The roads were really busy because it was the Black Madonna public holiday. The roads reminded us of NZ – hilly and windy. And slow. But it was lovely countryside to be driving through although it got a bit dodgy when we hit a really foggy patch at the highest part of the journey. We stopped for a coffee in a little town on the way and to get a break from the really slow traffic. We finally arrived in La Fortuna about 1.30pm and spent a fair bit of time trying to find our backpackers – Hostel Packpackers La Fortuna– basically because they have 3 hostels in the town. The hostel was pretty cool, you are given a wristband which then gives you access to the facilities at all the hostels which include a pool and a hot pool. We unpacked and them grabbed a feed at the bar across the road. I ordered a local beer thinking it would be cheaper – no luck, $9 for a pint. Amazing how expensive everything is – most people coming to Costa Rica are from the US, Canada and Europe. They usually come for 2 weeks and pre-book everything so are not really noticing the pricing. We on the other hand have been backpacking through cheap counties and have got used to those prices. We decided after that to cook more of our own food while here in Costa Rica.
We booked our canyoning for the next day – US$80 each. On our way to dinner we met a local with whom we had a bit of fun with. A few games of cards and some rum/wine before we headed to the pool table to teach the other travellers ‘NZ rules’ at the pool table. We were tucked up in our beds by midnight ready for our early start. We were picked up by Pure Trek Canyoning at 7.30 – and they arrived on the second. Deryn assumed Costa Rica would be similar to our Colombian experience – we now know different! It was a short drive to the start where we changed into our wet weather gear and given a helmet and a heavy duty set of gloves. Our adventure included 4 rappels (3 waterfalls and 1 rock wall), monkey drop and a rock climb. The first rappel was over 50 metres so it was in at the deep end! Being dropped into a pond and rappelling through waterfalls was pretty amazing but there wasn’t really the fear factor Deryn and I were expecting. They wanted US$30 for the photos they took, but the twotightnomads just couldn’t spend the money. The bus took us back to their head office for a traditional Loi local meal – beans, rice, salad and chicken, topped off by this incredible sauce called Lazana Salsa.
After that excitement we headed back to our backpackers for an afternoon chilling around the pool before driving 5km north of the town to some hot baths. It was 5000 colons/US$10 to enter but the facilities were pretty good. Including a couple of water slides that Deryn and I had a go on. There was only 1 really hot pool, the others ranging from tepid to cold. Still it was a couple of pleasant hours – would have been amazing if Arenal volcano has popped through the clouds for a bit longer.
We headed out for an early meal before getting back into the routine of a few games of cards and the rum/wine. We popped out and saw our new local friend after a couple of hours but were in bed by 10 as we planned a hike the next morning. We picked the Arenal 1968 walk (that was when it last had a significant eruption – its been erupting regularly every few years since – nothing as major though). It was a 35 min drive from La Fortuna, and then US$16 each for the hike! We got there at 9 to it wasn’t too busy. It was a 5.1km walk around a lake and then up to a lookout where you had a great view of Arenal Volcano (assuming there is no cloud). We saw a few birds, but the highlight were these inedible ant trains carrying chopped off leaves as fuel for the fungi in their nexts. Amazing. The walk was OK but sorry to sound like a stuck record, but not worth the US$16 each. The walk was basically natural with very little human involvement – be good to know what they do with the money?
On the way back we stopped at the Scratch River for its famous free hot water pools. It was really busy so you had to use some local parking lads who charged you a fee for their advice and to clean the river. When asked how much he said between 3000 and 5000 colons (US$6-10). I gave him 1400. You had to walk under an over bridge to get the pools but it was definitely worth it. It was busy – the damn Black Madonna – but still easy to find your own spot in the river. We hung there for 30 minutes to so before heading back to our backpackers. We chilled for a few hours before heading out for dinner – Dits did a scout run returning empty handed saying she would rather buy some pasta in the supermarket and cook it ourselves. Which is what’s we did and it was really good!! Then it was back to cards and rum/wine. I ran out of rum around 10pm so we headed out to buy some more and had a bit of wonder around town. There were quite a few weirdo’s out and about, including a very pissed local who enjoyed a swig out of my bottle of rum. We got quite a few offers of cheap cocaine from various drunk locals. Thanks, but no thanks.
It was a bit of a slow start the next morning but we managed to get away just before our 11am checkout time for our 2 hour drive to Monteverde. Amazingly the town was 26km as the crow flies but over 110 km by road. It was a lovely drive around the western bank of Lake Arenal and then into the hills of The Children’s Eternal Rain Forest. The last 45 minutes was on dirt roads which made for slow going. Monteverde on first impressions was a lot more laid back than La Fortuna. Our hostel, Cabinas El Puebla, was near the centre of town, and given the prices we had been paying in Costa Rica, incredibly cheap at $26 per night. We had our standard Costs Rican lunch of cheese and salad sandwiches in the hostels cute kitchen and then chilled for a few hours. Deryn booked us a zip lining session the next morning with Extremo Canopy after which we headed out for a late meal (for us) at 7pm. The place was packed with northern hemisphere tourists so it took 4 goes before we could find a place we could eat.
It was a 20 minute drive to Extremo. We got there at 10.55 to be greeted by 20 people standing in the queue to check in and another 10 or so already checked in. We had read about the crowds but hoped for better. We finally got checked in, got our harnesses on and the went for our briefing. One for the English and the other Spanish. There was about 20 in each group. The Spanish finished first but waited for the English group to go first – tourists are more likely to complain on social media? I made sure I got to the front of the queue so for all 12 zip lines it was Deryn and I first and second! It was a real blast. 4 of the lines were over 400m, one superman line was 750 (you lie down with your feet in a harness for the superman zip). A couple of lines Deryn and I went together. We finished with a Tarzan swing where you are 100ft up a platform and drop into a huge swing. A real adrenalin buzz and not too bad value at $50. We met a young English couple – Jack and Yasmin – who had a phone and took some photos of Deryn and I. In return we dropped them off back at the village so they didn’t have to wait 45min for the tour bus. Before we left a couple of Scarlet Macaws took a liking to Jack and chased him around the Extremo office. Hilarious.
We spent the afternoon investigating some free walks in the area but nothing was that inspiring so decided to flag it. I headed up the the very popular Taco Taco Taqueriato grab an outdoor table about 5.30 to wait for Dits while she did her daily yoga. Tried a few local beers and then a spicy margarita – nearly blew my head off. The meal was ok – not sure why the place was so popular? We managed to get away reasonably early but had to detour to a local cafe to access wifi so we could cancel our booking in Playa Hermosa as it was the wrong Playa Hermosa nearly 300km from where we wanted to go. We found a place in Jaco and headed off.
The drive was pleasant – again the roads reminded us of the back roads in NZ. We stopped briefly on Crocodile Bridge over the Tarcoles River to marvel at the many very large crocodiles cruising in the muddy waters below. We arrived at our Beach Break Resortin Jaco just after midday. The place was very ‘resorty’ but perfect to chill for a day before we headed up to Manuel Antonia National Park. We headed into town for dinner at the famous Ridiculous Burgers before heading home for a Netflix movie.
The next morning it was a buffet breakfast with the American tour groups before Deryn headed off for the oldest surf group lesson ever. I finished “The Power Of The Dog” (incredible read) and chilled by the pool after a quick dip in the very warm sea.
It was a lovely night sleep in clean sheets and an air conditioned room – for me, not so much for Dits who gets cold with the air con on 24 degs! We ended up back at Nomada Eatery for breakfast – the food really was good – after putting our clothes in a washer at a nearby laundromat. I couldn’t believe they didn’t do a drop off so I had to dash back after 30 minutes to put the clothes in the dryer.
We then headed to the Canal Interoceanico de Panama in the old city to see the history of the Panama Canal. It was $10 each to get in but well worth it. They had a big globe which showed the movements of the continents from 380m years ago to today. Incredible. I had no idea how much the continents had moved and that the creation of the Central American Isthmus had such an impact on global weather and ocean currents. The building of the canal was a phenomenal achievement, but at a huge cost. The French first built the railway line at a cost of 12000 lives and then started on the canal. Over 20000 died before they gave up and went home – mostly of yellow fever and malaria. The Americans took over and first thing they did was improve sanitation and eradicate yellow fever. They lost few thousand lives but far less. They also used more dynamite than they had used cumulatively in their history. It was fascinating. I got a bit bored with the politics so moved quickly and in the process lost Dits. Thankfully I found her 20 minutes later wondering around the square outside. We had a wander around the old town before heading back to the sanctuary of our air conditioned room. The amount of upgrading of buildings in the old town is incredible – a function of the world heritage listing. The place is going to look incredible in 5 or so years. I spent the afternoon writing the blog and updating our expenses (South America is not that cheap!) while Deryn started planning Costa Rica.
We had an early dinner at a local bar and the headed back to the sanctuary for another average Netflix movie. We tried to sleep without the air conditioning but a rave next door meant we could not open the window. Thankfully the rave finished at 2am so we got some sleep.
We had our now favourite homemade breakfast of muesli, banana and yoghurt before grabbing an Uber to visit the Panama Canal proper. We timed it perfectly to watch a boat work it’s way through the Miraflores Locks. It was $20 entry which included entry into the museum. The whole process of the boat moving through the two locks was commentated on by a guide which made it really interesting. It took the boat 45 mins to work its way through the 2 western locks (there is a eastern lock and a western lock – the eastern one was closed due to maintenance) – it costs between $80k and $120k depending on their tonnage. The museum again was well worth a visit. We then grabbed an Uber (Uber’s are a must in Panama City as they are cheap and the cars are modern – unlike the yellow cabs) to a local Mall to grab a few supplies and for me to get a burger! The mall has every top end shop you could imagine – I grabbed some shorts and new jandals.
We were going to climb a local hill for the view but they close it at 5 so we had to make do walking into the new city along the ocean. It was a lovely walk with plenty of sights. We grabbed dinner at an authentic little Indian restaurant owned by a former bollywood star. We over ordered on the starters – who doesn’t over order Indian? We walked a bit of the way home before jumping in a dodgy yellow cab.
We had planned to climb the hill the next morning but on reflection decided to enjoy our last morning of the sanctuary before heading to the airport at 11am for our flight to San Jose. We grabbed another Uber to the airport (a long way out of town). Checking in to our Avianca flight was a breeze and so we got to spend an hour in their lounge. The flight to Costa Rica was 90 minutes, customs was a coddle and within 20 mins we grabbed our Avis guy to go pick up our car. Deryn had spent hours trying to sort out the car, insurance and not paying for an extra driver – mostly to no avail as the rentalcars.com terms were not accepted by Avis. Still, we still got a very cheap (works out $65 pd) new Nissan SUV. We were on the road by 3.30 with our first stop a local mall to try get some money (no luck) and a SIM card (sorted but no idea how to install). The traffic was a mare until we got north of the toll booths on the motorway, after which it was just busy.
It took us 75 min to reach our guesthouse in Greacia – La Terraza Guest House. It was run by an American from Washington called Charles. It was really nice with large rooms with balcony views of the lush bush below. We had some burgers delivered and went to bed with the balcony doors wide open (although with the insect screen closed) to appreciate the sounds of nature outside. A lovely welcome to Costa Rica.
And now to finish with a beautiful tabby we bumped into on our walk into the city.
We were up reasonably early as we needed to be at the wharf by 8 for the start of our San Blas adventure. I avoided any food deciding to try starve this damn tummy bug. We had to waterproof our bags – with our big bags it required putting all our clothes in a plastic bag inside the bag and then putting the bag inside another plastic bag. Double bagged so to speak. Our day bags then had to be waterproofed as well. What have we got ourselves into?
Our big bags went in one boat and the 17 of us plus the crew of 4 went in another boat with our day packs. The boat was of reasonable size with 2 70 HP engines. The first part of the journey involved a 30 minute bolt to Armila in Panama to get our passports stamped and all our bags sniffed by a somewhat mangy old sniffer dog. It kept on chewing on bags simply out of hunger as it turned out. We were told is could take 4-6 hours so we were all relieved it only took 3 as the place wasn’t that pleasant.
It was back to the boat for around 75 minutes of bouncing around and stopping every 20 minutes or so to ‘sort the engines’ before arriving at the island of Atitub – a tiny little island. Here we cooled off, had lunch snorkeled and chilled out. After a few hours we then jumped in the local ‘yala’ and paddled over to the bigger island of Caledonia and our first taste of Kuna life. The yalas were quite hard going with steering proving a real challenge for dits and I. There were 900 inhabitants on the island of which 450 were kids. Their numbers were incredible – the place felt like a child care centre. They absolutely loved interacting with us and probably entertained us more than we them. The island itself was very basic with the highest point barely a meter above the sea – reminded me of Funafuti in Tuvalu. The island tour ended with a dance performed by some of the adults – they loved performing as it is a big part of their culture with competitions and performances on any festive occasion. We then had to play a game of rabbit goose with the kids. Loads of fun. Dinner was delicious and then Edi (a Ecuadorian volunteering with SBA) got out his guitar and sang some Oasis, REM and even his own songs. Very impressive. The youngsters in the group (mostly everyone bar Dits and I) kicked on until the midnight curfew. It sounded very wild.
We got hit by a hell of a storm around 2 am. I saw it coming so managed to close our door and window shutter before it hit. The lightning and thunder were incredible as was the rain. Most of our crew got wet one way or another so Dits and I were lucky that we didn’t. Breakfast was 7am to enable us to get most of the travelling done before the wind gets up in the afternoon. It was meant to be a 2 hour trip but turned into 3 with a few stops to sort out the engines. Stopping out at sea was tough for those that suffered from sea sickness. Charlie and Preston both took the opportunity to dive overboard to cool off. We arrived at a lovely little island called Tuplie which had been sent up for our sole use – multiple hammocks and even with a volleyball court setup. Lunch was an amazing selection of salads. I took the opportunity to do a number 2 in the ocean – quite easy as it turned out although I was a bit horrified when our Belgium couple decided to take a swim down current half way through. I let them swim in peace with no ill effect.
After a vigorous game of volleyball with local rules we spent an hour playing a drinking game called Piccolo – fun. The beer chilly bin got emptied very quickly. Around 430 we jumped in the boat for a 10 min ride to our home for the night on the island of Dubbir. Deryn and I managed to grab our own upstairs room with windows on 3 sides – makes for a nice breezy sleep! We had a walk around the island once again marvelling at the number of kids and how they loved interacting with us. We were told that we were not to pick them up as a few years earlier a guest had and broke the kids arm when they dropped him. It was bedlam apparently. Dinner was amazing again after which Preston borrowed Edi’s guitar and also impressed with his playing and voice. Deryn snuck off a bit early while I stayed around drinking Preston’s rum after polishing off my small bottle of 5 year old.
Dits and I slept through most of breakfast so it was only some fruit and cereal. The 75 minute trip the next island was pretty tough with us all getting soaked by the chop from the boat. However it was worth it when we arrived at our own little paradise called Coco Bandera. Everyone was allocated a hammock although again Deryn and I managed to only have to share our space with Tjeerd, our Dutch guide. The island really was paradise. The local Kuna owners cut down some fresh coconuts for us – made a great mix for our rum – and then a tub of lobsters were caught for dinner. We had a bit of a snorkel – it was tough getting out to the deep water because of the sharp coral – and then started drinking about 3.30. Our guides made this incredible punch which you got a glass of, plus some amazing potatoe fries once you said a few words about the trip. Then it was off to dinner to gorge on lobster and hit the rum again. Ailish gave a re-enactment of her Gaelic dancing mishap only to break her toe in the process. It was a late night but loads of fun.
It was a lovely relaxing morning on our little island in paradise. It was with a little sadness we left at 130 for our 90 minute trip to Carti and the end of our adventure. It really has been special. We reached the dock with no hassle but then spent ages trying to figure out who could go in which of the 3 cars to Panama City. The locals were the only ones ‘allowed to work’ so they had to do the logistics. Not a good idea. The Magnolia hostel crew jumped in one car for a cramped 2.5 hour drive. The road for the first 45 was really steep and windy. Our driver was grumpy and a very aggressive driver which made it interesting when we hit the traffic in Panama City.
The Magnolia Hostel was lovely and the hot shower, aircon, soft clean bed and laundry were a treat. We all headed out to a local burger joint for a group dinner and a received a gift of a San Blas Adventures singlet. It was sad saying goodbye to a great bunch of people.
It was a slow start as we had left Deryn’s iPad at the pub last night. The staff at 574 were really helpful with the owner’s dad driving me up to the bar just before opening to help me try track it down. Thankfully it had been found and was safely returned. We grabbed a metro to the northern bus station and for 8000 pesos each we were on our way to Guatape and its famous rock.
It was a pleasant 2 hour bus journey followed by a 5 minute ride in the local tuktuk to our Lake View hostel and a lovely room with a balcony overlooking the lake. We headed into town for some dinner (trout) before retiring to bed for an early night.
We hired a couple of bikes the next morning having decided to bike the 5 or so kms to the El Penon Rock. The rock is basically a bit of granite that has not been worn away – a bit like a mini Uluru. It was first climbed in the 1950s. Steps were built to get to the summit which now has several cafes and viewing platforms. Bike hire was 35000p each for the day. The ride was not too bad – not as hilly as we had feared – until the last km. We had to walk the last 300m because it was too steep to ride. Tickets to climb to the top where 18000p each which is quite ‘steep’ in the local context. It was roughly 750 steps to the top with some lovely views on the way up. Looking down on the circling condors was pretty cool.
The views from the top were spectacular. We both thought the views reminded us of the Bay of Islands with the multitude of watery inlets. Some of the houses looked very impressive. We cycled around the town upon our return. It was beautiful – every house was painted a range of different colours. I wonder what would happen if you dared to paint your house white. We both agreed that Guatape is a lovely little town that we both would have enjoyed spending a bit more time than the day and a bit. Most of the tour guides suggest a day trip from Medellin which does Guatape no justice.
We arranged for a taxi to take us to Medellin – 120,000p (about $55) as buses were a bit of a hassle involving several changes. We arrived nice and early and before long we had landed in Santa Marta – on the northern Caribbean coast of Colombia. The increase in temperature was noticeable. We grabbed a local taxi to take us the 30kms us to Minca. We got dropped off in the town square and then jumped on the back of a motorbike to take us to the hostel Finca Bolivar. Thankfully it wasn’t too far because sitting on the back of a motorbike with a heavy backpack on driving on a bumpy dirt road is not easy.
Our hostel was lovely, surrounded by huge trees and plenty of bamboo. Simon, the Swiss owner, talked us through the many activities available in Minca. Waterfalls and walks a plenty. It started to rain as he was wrapping up the intro which was a bit of a bugger as we were hoping to head into town for some food. We waited a couple of hours but no joy so we had no choice but to don our jackets and head into town. We stopped at the first place we found and both ordered garlic prawn pasta for 22000 each. What we got was a little bowl with 6 prawns in garlic oil, 2 crackers and 2 halves of bread. They obviously had no pasta! We will not be returning.
The next morning we had a bit of a wonder around the town and then spent some time chilling around the hostel, including having a swim (more of a dip). We got chased away by the noise of the guy doing the lawn so decided to visit some water holes just a wee walk out of the town. It was lovely. We had an early dinner on the way home and then played some cards and had a few quiets in our hostel – enjoying the fact we were the only ones staying in the hotel. We tried, reasonably well, to keep a lid on it as we had a big walk planned the next day.
We had our breakfast at the hotel with some granola, bananas and yogurt bought at the local dairy supplemented with fresh local mangoes grown at our hostel. Perfect. We headed out at 10 with plenty of water and some sandwiches. It took us over an hour to reach the waterfalls – basically climbing the entire time but at least it was on a dirt road. The waterfalls at Pozo Azul were pretty cool with some nice water holes to swim in. It was reasonably busy but thankfully not as bad as it could have been given the number of full vans that passed us heading down as we walked up. We both agreed that there was no way we could walk the full circuit as the heat and humidity made it really challenging. So we headed back to the hostel and went into town for an early dinner at a local restaurant that made its own pasta – Santa Isabela. Magic.
We grabbed breakfast in town before negotiating for 2 motorbikes to take us to the Mirador at Los Pinos – 30,000p each. We thought it was a lot until we spent at least 20 minutes traveling over incredibly rough roads to reach our destination. We were both glad to get off the bikes and thankful that we didn’t try walk it yesterday. Also being a weekend the number of vans at the waterfalls from yesterday made us gla we did it then – everyone in Santa Marta must head up for a weekend drive. The views across to Santa Marta wasn’t great thanks to the mist/cloud. We then walked down to Casa Elemento with its famous large hammocks. It was 10,000 each to get access to the hammocks but we also got a coffee and a swim thrown in. Amazingly we bumped into a couple of girls from the Lake View Hostel in Guatape. Small world this backpacking fraternity.
Next stop was the Cascada de Marinka, some more waterfalls about halfway back to town. The walk was pleasant enough although after an hour or so we were both thinking ‘motorbike’ but soldiered on. Again they were very pleasant without being spectacular. And thankfully not too busy. We then limped back into town for a well deserved burger at my local favourite The Lazy Cat. 11.7km which took us nearly 3 and half hours. The heat and humidity made it tougher than the numbers. After a well earned kip we headed down the enjoy the famous paella at Casa Antonio. The hostel was lovely, we were very surprised that we were the only guests. The paella was everything we hoped. Another couple of episodes of Stranger Things before trying to get to sleep in our hot and humid room.
I had a tough last night in Minca as I was hit by a nasty tummy bug. Deryn also started to feel a bit dodgy when we woke early for our 630am taxi to Santa Marta airport for our flight to San Andres Island. We arrived at the airport at 715am to find the Viva Air counter not yet open for our 930am flight. More worrying was the fact that we could not find the flight on the departure board. We checked the tickets again – we had booked from Cartegena not Santa Marta!! Luckily the Latam office was open so we managed to get a couple of tickets to San Andres via a 6 hour stop over in Bogoata. Just what the doctor ordered when you’ve got a dodgy stomach. We let Roz know that she would be getting to the apartment before us. We tried to see if we could wrangle a refund from the now open Viva Air office but the girl behind the counter did not speak English so we flagged it.
The time in Bogota airport was tough with no lounge available so it was iPad TV and reading with the odd dash to the loo for both of us. We finally arrived at our apartment – Tamarindo Centro VIP Apartment– in San Andres at around 730pm. 13 hours of fun. Roz was there to meet us outside which was lovely. The apartment was right in the heart of the town at an incredibly busy intersection – the noise and heat were incredible.
We grabbed a pizza and beer at a local pub before hitting the sack. Roz has arranged to go diving the next day while Deryn and I planned to try get over the bug. Roz arrived home around 1pm with a lukewarm response to the diving. She felt snorkelling would be as good. We headed off to see if we could find a boat to take us out to one of fhe islands on one of the next couple of days – to no avail. We did meet a friendly local and Deryn arranged the hire one of the many Suzuki jeeps endemic to the island for the following day. We had a bit of a session that night teaching Roz the finer points of cribbage.
We picked the Jeep up at 10am. 175k pesos for the day. You pay for what you get. It was basically an automatic with 1 forward and 1 reverse gear, had a top speed of 30 miles an hour (sounded like it was going to take off at that point), no review mirrors or seatbelts. However it did the trick and we spent the next 6 hours traversing around the whole island of San Andres. We stopped at La Piscinita down on the west side of the island where for 5000p you could swim with and feed fish, dive off a diving board and also bomb down a water slide. It was fun but a bit busy although the water slide was a blast – Roz must have hit the water doing a 100km/h and was lucky to retain her togs.
We then drove to a beach a couple of kms down the road for some snoozing and sun bathing. Deryn and I were still struggling with our bug so we enjoyed the kip. On the return leg down the east coast we headed inland to La Loma (a waste of time) and then stopped for some more kipping and sunbathing at the famous Rocky Kay – an island that you walk out to for cocktails. We didn’t walk out there instead preferring to hang around the beach enjoying the recliners and shade. It was a bit of a shame that the Colombians love of loud music made sleep a bit of a challenge. We found somewhere nice for dinner (Peru Wok) and enjoyed a lovely seafood meal.
The next morning Roz and Deryn headed off snorkeling while I tried once again to sleep off the bug. They enjoyed the snorkeling – there was only 4 of them and it was only a couple of hours so they didn’t suffer the usual ‘island challenge’ of hanging around for hours waiting. We played a few more hands of cards before sitting out on our deck enjoying a tropical downpour.
Our trip the next morning to Cartagena was uneventful – once again Latam and South American airports being a pleasure. We checked into our lovely hotel – Hotel Casa Lola– very swanky and just outside of the walls of the old city. The air conditioning was the most pleasant part as it was hot and sweaty. Our Kiwi mates from NY, Dave and Jane Fanning arrived 15 minutes after us so we all headed up to the rooftop pool to cool down, downed a few Pisco Sours and have some amazing burgers. The tab of 435k pesos let us know that it wasn’t going to be a cheap weekend. We headed out at dusk to explore the very cool city of Cartagena, first wondering around the old town, before heading to a local restaurant for some amazing food. The girls were all in bed by 11pm but Dave and I kicked on playing cribbage until the early hours.
It was off to the San Felipe de Barajas (Castillo San Felipe Fortress). The fort was built in the 1500s and was meant to repel all invaders trying to get their hands on Cartagena’s slave based riches. It was impressive although again the heat made it a real challenge. Even deep in the bowels of the fort, the heat was oppressive. We stopped for lunch at a local pub and to watch the All Blacks take on Argentina. Deryn, Jane and Roz left early to look around the town and headed home through El Centenario plaza where they got to see monkeys, sloths and iguanas that live in the park. Next was a couple of hours to chilling in our air conditioned rooms. We found a well rated ‘local’ cafe on Trip Advisor. Not sure how it got the rating because while the food was OK it was overpriced and the restaurant was totally lacking atmosphere. We headed back to the hotel and got stuck into our duty free vodka while playing 10&1. It was past midnight while playing Ralph that a hand appeared at a window above us furiously pointing to their watch. We had no idea we were sitting outside a hotel room. So we snuck back to the party room (room 22 – Dits and my room) and continued chatting until past 2am.
It was a slow start the next day with none of us rising much before 10am, in time to get breakfast. With the heat and humidity it was simply a matter of avoiding it during the heat of the day. Jomo did a bit of research and found a decent restaurant in the old town so we headed out around 5.30, stopped at a roof top bar to try grab some Pisco Sours but had to do with majitos as they were on special and they did not serve Piscos. The dinner was really good although we over ordered with a fair bit of seafood casserole remained uneaten. Dave was keen to kick on but he was alone on that front so we were all in bed by 10.
Dave and Jane were on a 1pm flight back to New York so we said our sad farewells to them about 11am. We and Roz then headed into town for some lunch before we again sadly left Roz around 2 lying by the pool (her flight was 730pm) and we grabbed a cab to take us to the bus terminal for our 5 hour bus trip to Monteria. Deryn had been in contact with the bus company so we intended to head to their office but never made it as we were intercepted and convinced to jump into a minivan. It seemed like a good idea as it was cheaper, we could leave sooner and seemed comfortable. After 30 minutes of waiting and a few more passengers joining to van, we were thinking we had made a mistake. We left at 330 (instead of the 4pm planned bus departure). The trip was slow going with loads of road works resulting in periods of waiting for traffic to pass. We were then bundled out of our minivan into another far more crowded van for the last 90 minutes of the journey. We should have taken the bus!!
We had booked into a hotel – Hotel Florida Sinú– close to the bus station in Monteria as we had to grab another van the next day. The hotel looked pretty flash although on closer inspection it was like many of those second tier Chinese hotels. The shower drain did not work and the air conditioning only had one setting – full bore!. However the hotel did have an amazing burger joint across the road which did as good a chicken burger as we have had for a long time. We were woken in the middle of the night by an incredible storm – thunder like we have never heard before. It really did sound like explosions. We were back at the station by 10 the next morning and after an hour of waiting for the right number of passengers we were on our way to Necoclí. It took just over 3 hours. Necocli was a bit of a run down coastal town although after exploring the back streets we did find a lovely little square and some decent(ish) restaurants – shame we had already eaten some dodgy empanadas while purchasing some supplies for our trip to the San Blas Islands.
Our hotel – Hotel San Sebastián De Uraba– was a shocker. There was no blankets on the bed – I had to get up in the middle of night to go grab some from the front desk – plus the cafe next door blared music out until past midnight when I again went downstairs and asked the front desk guy to have a word. Colombians have this thing about deafening music. We were up early to grab our boat across to Capurgana – it was a 90 minute boat tide versus 1000km by car. The boat was a large speed boat with 3 300HP engines. Fully loaded there was about 30 of us on board and the boat did not mess around. The journey wasn’t too rough so Dits go to Capurgana without any serious sea sickness. We then had to grab another boat to take us to Zapsurro and our tiny little hotel called Hilltop Zapsurro. We didn’t get the name as there was not a hilltop in sight. Zapsurro was a sleepy little town with very few backpackers. We felt we were really integrating with local life. We struggled to find a place to serve breakfast or dinner outside of the official eating hours.
We spent a leisurely day exploring the village and catching up on sleep before getting an early night sleep. Once again we were woken by an incredible storm around 2am – the thunder really is scary sounding. We now know it is wet season in Central America this time of year. We grabbed a boat back over to Capurgana for our midday briefing from San Blas Tours. There are about 17 on the tour with a majority of women and a lot of them Irish. Deryn and I are of course older than anyone by at least 25 years. US$450 for 4 days of back to basic on these isolated islands with the local Kuna people. I can’t wait!
We had a nice relaxing morning sampling some of the local coffee, wondering around the village and then booking our horse ride up the river. We got picked up at 1.10 and driven about a kilometre to the stables just outside of town (close to the Paremo trek office). Both our horses were amazing (compared to the older horses we usually get). There was only the 2 for us, 3 with out guide. We set off on the road for a fairly steep decline to the valley floor below. Our guide only had to make a noise with his lips (much like calling a cat) and the horses would break into a trot. It was quite hard work going down the steep road – I could feel the blisters building already where my thigh was rubbing against the saddle.
We reached the bottom of the valley after about 30 minutes and then headed into the river. It was a lot of fun riding up the river, at times heading into quite deep water. The horses were incredible – they obviously know what they were doing. After about 30 minutes walking up the river we started to head back to town, however this time it was up stone and mud paths. It was amazing how the horses coped climbing the very steep and slippery paths and before we knew it we were back in Salento, although on the opposite side of town. My horse was keen to get home so any opportunity and he was off. We were back at the stables in 90 minutes of a 2 hour ride, but that was great as our guide could see we could ride so he sped it up. Damn, my legs hurt when I first got off. Dits was a lot better. Our legs were taking a pounding with the hiking and now this. Best we go book in our mountain biking ride!
We went back to Salento Bikes and told the guy we were in for the single track downhill – he had spent some time trying to talk us out of it the previous day when we popped in. He even showed us a video. However he piped down when we showed him a video of Manly Dam. 150k ($A70) pesos each for ride. W e turned up the next day at 1.10 (after another fantastic feed at Brunch – my soup was a 3 course meal). The ride to the start of the ride was interesting, mainly because the van would suddenly lose all power. Our driver had to turn the car off and wait a while. The exactly same ailment befell our taxi on the drive up to the Teleferico in Quito. Weird.
We arrived at our destination – La Alegria single track. Rated hard and as a black diamond track by Trailforks. Nothing like a challenge. The first part of the track was on pine needles through a pine forest – with a smattering of eucalyptus trees. It was slippery!! Things were made a lot more difficult as well as the brakes were the opposite side to what we were used to. It was challenging but sort of fun. We both came off a few times so our guide knew what to expect. It was just so different to anything that we had ridden. After about 20 mins the terrain changed to paddock which was a lovely reprieve. We cycled through a fair bit of farmland with plenty of animals. It was the clam before the storm. The last 2 kms were slipping clay on tracks that were v shaped crevices. I went over my handle bars twice (the brake issue) but still loved it – it was the old story of ‘speed is your friend’. It’s just takes a fair bit of getting used to going sideways all the time. We made it to the bottom in 46 minutes, over our target of sub 40. They had a championship here a month or so ago in which the winner did 17 minutes. I have no idea how. Starva says I was the second fastest of all time (in the 55-64 age bucket!).
We did originally have plans for doing 2 runs but they amount of physical activity we take undertaken over the last 5 days just made it a bad idea. We would kill ourselves if we tried it again. So it was a quiet night ahead of our early departure to the airport and our flight to Medellin.
We caught the 750am bus to Pereira airport for our 11.55am flight to Medellin via Bogota. We arrived at the airport just after 9 so we got put on the earlier 10.30am flight which meant we got to spend 3 hours in the Avianca business lounge in Bogota. It was lovely – good internet and unlimited good food. Medellin was a lot greener and a loft wealthier than I was expecting – as it turns out it was just where we were staying – 574 Hotel in the Astorga area. The hotel was lovely with the guy at the frond desk being really sweet.
I had my Ayahuasca experience booked for the next day so I had to go meet my guide Orion, at a coffee shop at the Estadio Metro Station at 730pm. We decided to grab the metro there until we bumped into Maya (of Bogota fame) who said to avoid it. The line of people waiting was incredible. Most office people do a 730 to 5pm shift so starting out our journey at 530pm was not a good idea So we started walking until the rain forced us into a taxi. And traffic. We made it with 15 minutes to spare. Orion was there with his nurse partner – he is a doctor that does Ayahuasca experiences on the side. He believes completely in its healing properties. He asked what I was hoping to get out of it – a lot of people do Ayahuasca to treat mental and even physical issues. Mine was simply about going on the journey. He questioned Deryn a bit as to why she was not doing it, telling her it would be good for her.
I met Orion the next morning at 8 at the North bus stop (off Caribe metro station) and after a 40 minutes drive we arrived at our location. It was an incredible experience for so many reasons and I would happily share the note I wrote about it. Just reach out and ask.
I was back home by 3 and met Deryn who had been on a city centre walking tour with Maya and friends.
I’m sure exactly what I expected from Medellín but it is a noisy, chaotic South American city. After meeting the doctor who was taking Sean away for his Ayahuasca treatment I was comfortable he was in good hands so I signed up for the Free Walking Tour.
It was excellent. It gave me better understanding of Medellin and it’s Paisa people. We visited many of the attractions in Downtown Medellín – Botero Square was my favourite with all his statues in one square, but the most interesting part was learning about its transformation. Medellín has gone from one of the most dangerous cities in the world (economic suffering, crime drug trafficking, civil unrest) to being recognised as one of the most innovative. Poor and high crime areas have been revamped and transformed into beautiful areas. Low income neighbourhoods boosted with library, parks and community centres. The guide asked how many of us had family who were happy for us to be here. Several of us put up our hands. He said 3 years ago no hands would have been up.
Taylor had told us about a great local she had met when she travelled through Medellin 2 years earlier so we decided to meet up with him. He was a blast, so full of energy. We could see why Taylor enjoyed him.
The next day it was off to the famous, previously infamous, Comuna 13. Once one of the most violent spots on the planet. Now its a massive tourist attraction. I do wonder how the locals cope with not being able to move most of the year as the place is packed with walking tour groups. Like ours. Our guide was terrible so we bailed out once we got to the escalators (HK is the only other city in the world that has them). The upper levels were great. Plenty of buskers, food sellers and atmosphere. On the journey down we passed our tour group so had to take evasive action to avoid detection.
The next day we decided to take the gondola from the Acavdo Metro stop to Arvi and the national park up there. The metro in Medellin really is amazing. It transformed the city when it was built in 1995. It is a breeze to navigate with basically 2 lines – a north and south and an east to west. The gondolas run off various stops and head into the hills. Medellin won the worlds most innovative city in 2012 for the work that it is doing to integrate the different social classes and hence reduce crime. We had a brief walk around the park looking for a lake that was meant to be nearby. After 45 minutes of walking we gave up – nothing was signposted with a maze of paths making it impossible to find the lake. We headed home and wandered up to the funky Lalinde area for an early dinner and some cards in one of the many bars. For once we were the last to leave (it was a 10.30pm close!). We were off to Guatape tomorrow. We both felt like we had not really given Medellin a fair crack. It was probably because of the location – a wee bit from the city center and the nightlife spots and also because we were shattered from all the physical activity in Salento.
We had a day to chill before we headed off on our trek in the Los Nevados National park. We decided to walk to the two Miradors to enjoy the view and get in some altitude ‘training’ :). The walk to the view took all of 10 minutes but it certainly was impressive. It really is a beautiful part of the world. Apparently Salento was a bit of ghost town 15 years ago due to the number of FARC guerillas in the area; it is now a bustling tourist destination (local and overseas). We certainly would not be doing our trek. We had a local coffee – Salento is also known for its coffee with a lot of Arabic coffee grown in the area.
We headed off to the Paremo Trek office at 4 for our trek debrief. Fortunately for us, another trekker had just turned up which meant we could now do the 4 day trek for the price of our planned 3 day – as there was originally only 2 of trekking we had to pay for all guide ourselves, adding a third meant his costs were now shared 3 ways. She was Katrin from Switzerland. We were told to be back at the office at 7am the following morning.
We met our guide Freddy (aka Chuko – means Jesus) the next morning and got given some snacks for the 4 days as well as our lunch for the day. A bit of a challenge to find some space in our fully laden backpacks (we took our little ones – leaving the big packs back at the hotel). We then headed off for a hearty feed at a local cafe before loading ourselves into one of the many Colombian ‘Willis’ jeeps for a hour drive to the start of the trek in the Cocora Valley (2390m). It was here that we were meant to encounter lots of the famous Quindío palms – they can grow up to 300ft tall. While we certainly saw plenty of them, we didn’t walk amongst them as expected. It was a bit chilly at the start of the trek but it soon warmed up as we climbed, and climbed and climbed some more. Once we got above 2800m the trees thinned and we started to encounter the paramo de frailejones – weird looking cactuses out of a Dr Seuss book. It was here that Chuko gave us some of his cocoa & baking powder mix to provide energy. It was akin to sucking on chewing tobacco but it worked.
We finally made it to our “finka” for the night around 3pm – La Argentina at an altitude of 3400m – it had taken us nearly 6 hours to cover the 13km but in that we had climbed an incredible 1461m!. To say the hut was basic was an understatement but it had served the family living there for many generations so it was certainly good enough for us. There were plenty of animals around – cows, sheep, pigs, chickens, dogs – including a couple of shivering Chihuahuas!!. The family’s main revenue used to come from cheese making but now it was from hosting tourists. They built a room alongside the house to sleep up to 14 tourists in double bed bunks – thankfully there were only 7 of us to we got to have a double bunk each. There was no lights in the room – head torches were a must. The shower was magic if somewhat cramped.
When not in the sleepout, the time was spent sitting on a raised bench above the wood fired stove and kitchen bench to enjoy the warmth. It was certainly cosy with all of us in there. We all got given a bowl of lovely potato soup before settling in to watch the quarter final of COPA America. I snuck off for an hour kip before the Colombia v Chile game at 615. It was very pleasant watching the game and our hyper-busy hostess preparing dinner. The old owner popped in from a day out on the farm for dinner and to say hello. Dinner consisted of more potato soup and then a plate of beans, avocado, fried plantain(banana) and rice. Lovely. We gave up on the soccer at half time (Chile ending up winning on penalties) and headed to be at 730. It had been a tough day – Deryn had found it particularly so but had soldiered on like the trooper she is.
It was a restless night sleep with the wind howling, dogs barking, cows mooing and roosters crowing. I was also a bit dehydrated which did not help. We were told breakfast was at 630 so get up at 6. I was in the kitchen waiting for brekkie at 6.20 but only got anything at 650. Colombian time! Breakfast was potato soup (of course), rice, scrambled egg and a cracker. Plus a cop of cocoa tea followed by a coffee. It was past 8 before we got away for another tough day of climbing.
We basically climbed for the first 4 km to nearly 4200m – 800m in 2 hours. Brutal. We had a brief stop at the farm called Buenos Aires – no idea why these weird names – before continuing our climb. It was pretty cold and cloudy so we did not get to see the Paramillo del Quindío (4,750 meters) volcano but thankfully that was it for the climbing which meant we could start to enjoy the splendour of our remote landscape. Chuko was great at pointing out some of the stunning plants in the area as well as the odd bird. We were going to walk to base of the volcano but after climbing the hill on part of the journey, all decided to flag it. The cold wind combined with the distance put us all off. Plus we had a long day tomorrow.
It was a gradual decline until to Buenos Aires finka at 3800m – it was visible about an hour out – it was a long hour given how tired we were from the 2 days of climbing. I was also continually piddling as I was drinking so much water to avoid the dehydration from the previous day. I stopped 7 times during the day!
The farmhouse was situated in a beautiful valley with a lot more flat paddocks around it. The kitchen was a lot smaller than Argentina but a lot neater, the toilet even had a lid!. We all enjoyed the shower again, knowing there was no shower the following day. The kitchen was a bit small so we all ended up having a bit of a kip (and read) in the dorm before dinner. It also gave us an opportunity to try out the beds and to add another 3 blankets on top of the mattress to soften it. So for me it was 3 blankets below and 3 on top – Deryn had 4 on top – it really did get that cold overnight. We walked 11.4km climbing 888m in just over 6 hours.
Dinner was some lentil soup, followed by some fried chicken, avocado, fried plantain, some beetroot & onion mix and rice. Delicious. We were all in bed by 7 reading and asleep soon after. It wasn’t as cold as the previous night but we had the pleasure of the roosters deciding 430am was a decent time to start crowing. Including the rooster who lived on the roof above my bunk. Breakfast of course included a hearty potato soup. We managed to get away by 7.45 am with another climb of 250m to start the day. We now entered the National Park proper after our first 2 days of walking through privately owned farms. The trekking was a little easier then previous days as a lot of our gear was being transported to our next stop on a mule. It meant that Deryn and I only had 1 light bag between us – which I carried of course being the perfect gentlemen. After the 90 minutes of the climb, it flattened out and we really started to enjoy ourselves. The views were incredible and many of the paramo were in flower – the flowers showed why they are the same family as the sunflower. The varied landscapes made us all very glad that we had opted for the 4 day hike over the 3.
We finally made it to Laguna Otun (a lake) around 1. Chuko gave us each a bar of chocolate to celebrate the achievement and then cooked us lunch over a little gas stove. Powdered mash potato and vegetables – just add water and cheese. It was lovely. As was the coffee.
Our descent to El Jordan was brilliant. Chuko took us on his many shortcuts, some of them involving traversing incredibly steep banks, climbing over fences and crossing many streams. We also got to walk through some cloud forests with its NZ like palms and ferns. It really was magic and made all the hard work of the last 2 and a half days well worth it. We also got to share some of NZ’s favourite past time with Chuko. After 19.5km and over 9 hours, we made it to El Jordan. While we had only climbed 752m that day, we were shattered. I had won the days piddling contest with Katrin – 13 to 12. The farmhouse was lovely – although the owners were certainly a lot less friendly than our previous hosts. The views were incredible. The lack of a shower was compensated by some beers and spectacular views. Dinner was awful. Boiled spud, dry chicken and some rice.
Our descent to El Jordan was brilliant. Chuko took us on his many shortcuts, some of them involving traversing incredibly steep banks, climbing over fences and crossing many streams. We also got to walk through some cloud forests with its NZ like palms and ferns. It really was magic and made all the hard work of the last 2 and a half days well worth it. We also got to share some of NZ’s favourite past time with Chuko. After 19.5km and over 9 hours, we made it to El Jordan. While we had only climbed 752m that day, we were shattered. I had won the days piddling contest with Katrin – 13 to 12. The farmhouse was lovely – although the owners were certainly a lot less friendly than our previous hosts. The views were incredible. The lack of a shower was compensated by some beers and spectacular views. Dinner was awful. Boiled spud, dry chicken and some rice.
It was a much milder night with fewer disruptions so we all had a better nights sleep. Jeez, I can’t wait to sleep in a decent bed again! We got away our earliest yet at 7.20am – I guess Chuko wanted to finish early. Again it was a very pleasant walk (no hills to climb!!) and it wasn’t long before we started to encounter other trekkers – initially heading down – but soon more and more doing a day hike out o El Cedral. It was a long weekend in Colombia so it was busier that normal. It took us 3 hours to reach the Otún Quimbaya Fauna and Flora Sanctuary with its large, and busy, campground. We had a brief stop before pushing on to finish the last 6km. A lot of it was walking down a riverbed which thankfully was not too wet which meant it was comparatively easy. Certainly the walking poles came into their own in terms of providing balance. We made it to El Cedral by 12.10 – we covered the 14.3km in just under 5 hours. A bit too quick as our car had not yet arrived. He showed up at 12.30 at which point we agreed to pay 100k pesos ($50) between the 3 of us to get him to drive us straight back to Salento rather than the Pereira bus stop. The public holiday meant the bus station would have been a nightmare.
As it turned out the drive was brilliant. It involved navigating some pretty narrow and steep mountain roads – at one stage the 4 wheel drive car could not get traction on a particularly steep bit of road and had to back up and try again. We drove though some very fertile areas with plenty of onions and avocados being grown. We arrived back in Salento by 3 and went straight to Brunch for some incredible burgers. We said our fond farewells to both Chuko and Katrin before heading back to our hotel for a long shower and a change of clothes. After catching up with the world we headed down to the one Indian restaurant in town for a disappointing curry. The airy room and a soft bed was brilliant. Over the 4 days we walked 59km, climbed an incredible 3200m over 29 hours. Deryn and I both agreed its was the toughest tramp we had ever done.
