Underwater Messing

It was Cartagena, an old colonial city 12 hours north of Medellin, that ended up being my next destination.  Cartagena is situated smack bang on the Caribbean Coast.  Finally I had made it!  And it was bloody hot!  So off came the shirt, out came the thongs and maybe just a couple of beers to cool down.  I tell you, it was hot!  Everyone was lucky I wasn´t strutting my stuff in my underwear!

Despite the heat, Cartagena was an amazing place.  The buildings of the old city were nicely terraced. Flowers hung from each, complemented by the many different colours and architectural facades.  It was truly beautiful.

 Cartagena Streets

Cartagena colonial square

Just chilling out on the city walls

Hunting around for things to do, I stumbled across the possibility of a boat ride over to Panama via a group of Islands by the name of the San Blas Islands.  All reports are that they are the absolute definition of the Caribbean.  How could I pass up the opportunity to island hop for 5 days on a sail boat if this was the case!  Though the trip is a little expensive, I made the decision to do it as a little gift to myself for my 30^th birthday which is coming around.  But prior to embarking on this adventure, I had a few other things to do beforehand.  One of these things was to visit the local mud volcano!

The mud volcano was a 30m high mound that was filled with pure, silky soft mud.  Together a large group of us made the excursion and indulged in some massages coupled with a few mudslinging capers.  The locals were a little less than impressed to say the least.  But we were having a ball!  The best part of the whole experience I would have to say was how you would float ontop of the mud.  With just the slightest push you could be manoeuvred around the place like a plane in a hanger.

Soon my sights moved on from Cartagena and on to the little dive town of Taganga.  Arriving in town, I had a one track mind, scuba diving.  Looking around at what was on offer, I took the opportunity to negotiate a cheap price to complete my advanced scuba certification.  The best bit of the deal was that I would begin immediately the next day.  Saweet!

Yay, sunsets

The first day was pretty uneventful actually.  I met my instructor, a local by the name of Dessie and we just dove.  The clarity and diversity of what I saw was pretty ordinary compared to what I was used to.  It was actually the second day though where things picked up.  After pressing for an underwater camera, they gave me one and I was off photographing everything!  I love underwater photography as it gives me the opportunity to explore and share with others what you find. 

Damsell fish

Snake eel cruising on by

Little sneeky eel

Big bitey eel.  This guy got a little angry at the attention I was giving him, so he tried to go me.

Cleaner shrimp

 Dissobedient sea horse.  Just take a proper photo!

Lovely seascape.

Having a bit of air to spare, Dessie and I took to lying on the sandy bottom at 20m having a bubble ring blowing contest.  He won......but he has had practice!

Winning bubble

My final day was pretty good as well.  I scored a free dive which was sweet.  On the boat this day was 3 new Open Water scuba students.  As a part of their assessment, each had to swim 200m in open water to prove their abilities.  We were all seriously worried for this one Irish girl who we thought was going to really drown.  Scuba is another thing Irish people shouldn´t be allowed to do......  She made it though, barely. 

After my first dive we had a 1.5hour interval as we waited for the three others to complete their assessment.  On the beach, both Dessie and I looked at each other and said “kip?”.  It was a consensus.  So with a rock acting like a pillow each, we pushed up to the shady part of the foreshore and slept snoring with our mouths open.  Awesome!  My Caribbean dream was actually happening.  

The next day I took the opportunity to make a trip to Tyrona National Park with an American Girl, Toni, I had been on and off travelling with all the way from Medellin.  Tyrona was a bunch of secluded beaches nestled amongst the rainforest to the west of Taganga.  What a mission it was to get there too!  Three busses, a two hour trek through the jungle, few!  But when we were there.....

Accommodation was via hammocks which surprisingly worked out well for a guy of my height.  The area was beautiful, but after a spot of exploring, rock climbing, swimming and lizard fishing we realised we had pretty much done everything we wanted to in only two days.  So back to Taganga it was.  On our return trek Toni picked up a lizard that I had been messing with and it jumped on her dashing into her backpack.  We still haven´t found it!  And we are now back in Taganga!

It is now two more days and I will be 30.  I don´t really understand if there are implications to that but eh, so what.  I think i am going to get a big cake and eat it until I am comatose.  Awesome!

  

Medelling Medellin

Well it only took us 26.5 hours to get to Medellin Columbia from Ecuador but according to all reports it was going to be worth it.  The trip itself ended up being quite interesting.  Collectively between both Sam and I we have done a lot of bus trips, but never quite like this one.  During our drive in, we saw four accidents.  The most memorable was a lady being skittled by a car from behind while on her scooter waiting at a roundabout. Immediately we came to realise, Columbians are really bad drivers, and we needed to really watch ourselves.

Soon enough we were checking into a really cool hostel by the name of Casa Kiwi.  There was nothing Kiwi about it other than it´s big barbeque and an awesome deck.  This place was rammed with gringos from all walks of life and proved an awesome place to meet people and swap information.  It wasn´t long before we were having a few beers and finding ourselves on the end of another big night.  What a big night too!  We ended up at this bar called Mangos where they had a valet midget, dancing girls with a few plastic bolt on enhancements and some wild memorabilia.  I do remember the night ending (at 4 am) with a break dancing midget and a topless guy spraying the crowd with toilet paper using a hand held leaf blower....   Sweet as.

The next morning started pretty slowly.  It was only in the afternoon that we managed to string together enough motivation to gather up a large group and trek on off to a local soccer match.  Happily, this experience was not as intense as the match I went to in Lima.  Though there was a fair few riot police, everyone was well behaved and the scene was quite controlled.  One hilarious observation we immediately made about the general population of Medellin was that they LOVE the mullet!  Apparently it is a new fashion for the city and there are some absolute crackers getting around!  Bogan Australia would be more than proud.  There are even bouffant fringed mullets mixed in.  Wicked!

 

Mullet!

Another observation is that the people here really get interested in gringos! As I found out, they especially take interest when you are tall and they have a TV camera.....  During the half time interval we had so many women taking group photos with us it almost became a chore.  But they are sooooo nice and enthusiastic you can´t help but go along.

Riot Police

Needing a little more physical activity in our lives, the next day Sam and I went to the local water park with two of the girls from our dorm.  Like little children, we lost our stuff at the 10 something slides on offer!  And being the idiots we are, we basically did everything you weren´t meant to in our pursuit of the ultimate slide experience.  We were running and diving down slides, doing tandem runs, fighting each other on the way down etc.  It was awesome!  By the end of the day we were battered, very bruised and highly content with ourselves.  We had squeezed every ounce of fun we possibly could out of the place. 

Leaving the water park we returned to hostel.  The two girls we were travelling with, like other girls I had met, had been telling us how they get harassed pretty badly by the local blokes here in South America.  Up until that day I had never seen any sign of this because it usually doesn´t happen when a girl is with a bloke.  But holey crap, travelling with two blonde European chicks really changed that little rule of thumb.  I seriously could not believe how many blokes were boarder line sleazing onto these girls at every exchange!  What an eye opener!  Glad I´m a guy, all I have to deal with is a few intense stares from random women and the odd kiddie that looks at you like your a zoo animal.

Back in the hostel, the days banter continued as both Sam and I presented our larrikin best.  It wasn´t long before our pranks and banter had us a reputation as the two Aussie guys doing it better than the rest.

The next day, we pulled together a crew of people and headed off for a trip on the local cable car network.  Packing a six pack of beers each and an AFL footy our day was set to rock.  Unfortunately, this quickly turned around when we found out the cable car network was closed for general maintenance.  Rrrrrr!  Well, we still had a footy and beers, so we needed a place that would allow us to kick a ball.  It wasn´t long before we spotted a soccer stadium that fit the bill and after getting in good with the venue administrator (Walter) we were booting a ball and putting on a show for a heap of locals who were loving it. At one stage I actually had a girl jog past me and very nonchalantly announce her name to be Claudia before suggestively jogging on.  Hilarious!

After about an hour of goofing around, we stopped to rest in the shade of one of the stands.  A group of about 10 young girls came on over to us promptly and started trying to make friends.  Little did we know, these girls were in drug rehab and each had a pretty ordinary story behind them.  Most were from broken homes and most had been stuck on some pretty heavy drugs. It is unfortunate but drugs are very abundant here in Columbia.  In total we spent over 2 hours with these and other girls who would just pop on by.  During this time we trading little trinkets and listening to their stories which touched us all.  Trying to leave, we couldn´t make any move without soooo many people coming up to us and wishing us well.  What an unexpected day!

 Us after playing footy.  Walter the administrator is in green

Even the big bad guard dog loved us.  What a softie!

Backing up one awesome day with another, we got together another crew and headed for the science museum.  It was one of those interactive kinds where you get to do your own experiments etc.  Making science fun!    

The parana tank in the aquarium part of the science museum

This fish would follow you around and stare blankly into your soul.

Group photo.

The next day had to be more laid back.  Luckily we had two friends show up that day and this was the speed they were chasing as well.  To celebrate their arrival the four of us took to the big barbeque on the deck with a ridiculous amount of thick cut tenderloin steaks, sausages and pork rashers.  It was a monster barbie afternoon and the addition of beer made it the envy of the rest of the hotel.  Ever been in a meat coma?

Meat head on the barbie

Boys n FOOD!

But for all the fun (and you only get the abbreviated version my dear readers), the decision was made to leave the next day.  We are now in Guatape, just two hours outside of Medellin.  There is a massive fresh water dam here that provides fishing, kayaking and other outdoor activities.  Everything two Aussie guys need.  I have to talk about the bus ride here though.  I know I keep on about the busses here, but they are so out there.  On our ride up, we had one guy selling jewellery and a few others selling the usual amounts of food.  The jewellery guy began by running a trivia gig and giving out freebies for the correct answers.  Everyone was loving the hell out of it.  He cleaned up!  The next guy was a potato chip salesman and after doing a rip roaring trade he jumped off the bus running while it was doing 30km/h!  And we know it was 30km/h because all the busses here have digital speedos so that the passengers know how fast they are going.

    

Baños to Columbia, The Drug Route

Well the adventure side of our travels in Ecuador began with a mountain biking trip around the local waterfalls.  Many days of rain had them at full glory.  The highlight of the trip was our trekking behind a massive waterfall and our scoring of a ride home in a locals utility.  The whole trip had me feeling like I was back in Cairns moutain biking again. 

The A team

Samuel and the crew at the largest waterfall. 

 View from behind the waterfall.  The power was amazing!

A waterfall double-up

Two Aussie blokes ignoring better advice to get to the otherside of a waterfall

 Otherside celebrations

 Ute ride home

Seeking a bit more adventure the next day, we teed up a half day of white water rafting.  It didn´t turn out to be the extreme adventure we had hoped, so we made our own fun wrestling each other in the boat.  We might have also paddled the boat into the more dangerous areas of the river against our guides express wishes…..  This is what you get with a boat full of Aussie lads.  A little later in the day we talked to our guide about doing a more extreme rafting adventure, but he advised against it cause that week alone it had claimed two lives.  It was back in the bag with that idea!

For the later half of the day six of us hired a jeep and drove up to a local tree house look out.  From the tree house you had amazing views of Baños´s active volcano which Smart traveller had been advising us to keep as far away as possible from.  Apparently is is going to blow or something….  Not on my watch.

The tree house

For our third day Sam and I woke up and looked at the one mountain near town we hadn´t climbed.  “It was your turn now buddy”.  Gathering up two others we set out in some rainy weather to hit the top of this mountain.  Midway along our trek we stumbled across a rasberry patch (you could have said it was a farm) and proceeded with an impromptue gourging.  Mmmm!  Karma came around though because soon enough we found our path blocked with a friggin massive bullock which we had to negotiate.  Not to mention being chased down the mountain by a few crazy dogs. 

Our final day commenced with yet an other shot gun decision to leave.  After a quick feed at the ol greasy chicken stand (the local market place) we bought our tickets and our plans were in motion.  Having a little time on our hands until the bus left, Sam decided to get a cut throught shave.  The lady perfroming the job was very particular about her work and after 25 minutes (!!!) she was happy that the job was complete.  Basically throwing the necessary amount of money at her we dashed out the door only to perform a flying leap to make our bus.  And hence we fulfilled Sams boyhood dream of jumping onto a moving bus.  Box checked.
After a five our bus ride to Quito we settled in a cheap and nasty hostel.  Obviously the hostel was recommended in the lonely planet.  I HATE that book!  Quito seemed pretty cool, it had cheap beers and food although it did take a little chasing.  It was also a fair bit of fun……Sam locked me out of our room leading me to break in (knock the door down).  Dodgeying up a half baked solution we proped up the door and lef Quito for Medellin Columbia.

Crusing around Quitos northern bus station, we met up with a friendly Columbian couple.  The girl spoke excellent English and was a big help to us.  Good ol Sam was a little smitten with her and had to be led around by his tonge haha! 

It was five hours to the boarder on the bus which was a bit of a driving carnival.  There were people/vendors and so forth jumping on and off everywhere creating a fair bit of confusion.  The food they were dealing was excellent though, especially when you are starving! Aside from the fun of the chaos, there was one point where the conductor was hurriedly yelling at us because he thought one of the guys who had just jumped off the bus had stolen one of our bags.  Pretty awesome.   
  
Luckily we crossed the border without incident.  We try to keep away from the drugs police though following our incident at the Peru/Ecuador boarder. 

On the other side of the boarder, we haggled a taxi driver for a lift to the Columbian border town of Ipiales.  To pay him we had to change our American dollars over to Columbian Pesos.  The guy doing the changing tried a sneaky short change which we quickly were on to.  I love this place, they are so rediculously blatant and when they get caught out they simply smile and admit to playing the Gringo game. 

It was a 19 hour bus ride direct to Medallin from the border.  Along the way we watched a few good movies on the laptop and giggled ourselves stupid (to the delight of the rest of the bus). Near the end of the trip, we exchanged details with the Columbian couple who offered any help they could “bar money”.  Bugger! 

I am now writing this blog on the bus just before we hop off.  I am contemplating my life as our bus driver tries to kill us all and Sam is being hit on by a 50 year old Columbian lady.  Haha!  The ladies like the ol Sammy J.  Seriously though, what is the ettiquite in a country like Columbia for knocking your bus driver the cuss out!