To the end of the world, back, and everywhere in between

Bagan.. possibly the most charming place in the world (if you manage not to get lost)

kamzam — Thu, 27 Aug 2015 01:25:00 GMT

OK mini bus was good, and conditioned and comfortable, and drop us of in Bagan. This is where things got a bit tricky as we were let put in Old Bagan and had to change to the horse carriage (part of the ticket) with which we went on the search for the hotel.

Now, most people generally don’t have a problem with horse carts – I do. Two large Europeans, one Burmese bloke, plus our luggage is a bit much for the horse, especially as we did not have anything booked so kept going up and down the 2km stretch trying to find accommodation.

There is a mix of place, you can get $18 bargains (unfortunately was full) and $20 hell holes.

After about an hour we finally found a place that was expensive $35 but HAD A BATH TUB!!! And TV.. but really, the bath tub sealed the deal.

We settled in for a night with lovely ice cold beer (and a bath)..

Next morning it was time to hit the temples. It’s more or less 10km stretch around the Bagan where the temples are located so, both being regular cyclists, we decided to rent the bikes… That was VERY silly!

There are electric bikes available: just go for that. People who chose these had much more relaxed look on their faces…

Bagan is humid, hot and with very little shade. Visiting the temples takes a lot of time: think about 6 hours in sun every day. Sufficient to say our speed decreased as the day went on and our cold drink stops became more frequent. Things were not helped when about 1pm (in the hottest sun) I have decided to take a short cut that led us into a middle of a field from which the only way to get out was to drag our bikes through a corn field (trying not to destroy too much of the crop).

After that I stopped being allowed to be in control of the map.

Rent your bike early. We did struggle on our second day when we slept in and at 9am there were no bikes left so we got really crappy ones from a random person.

Bagan has a steep entry fee but we did not manage to avoid it as our hotel owners did point out all of the security points in the area so we managed to visit the whole site without paying.

(At this point I need to clarify something: I do not mind paying to see historical sites when my money goes to protecting and improving it or helping local population. Unfortunately, that is very often not the case in Burma when your money goes straight to the pockets of the corrupt government.)

So about the site: IT IS AMAZING! Plenty of beautiful views from the top of the temples (you can climb many of them) and due to the enormous size of the area you rarely feel surrounded by tourists. Apart from the most important moment of the day: the sunset.

If you do choose one of the more popular pagodas to see the sun away, arrive early!

Its an absolute pleasure to just spend few days wondering about the pagodas, eating delicious food, we even saw white elephants (on the truck).

Because of the time span of when the temples were being constructed many of them are truly unique and you don’t feel like you keep seeing the same one over and over again. Most popular temples have refreshment stops which is crucial in this weather.

Old Bagan in itself is quite pleasant, pretty much just one road and then one side street with the tourist backpacker restaurants and bars.

We spent 3 nights there (I personally do get tired of temples are a while) and it was a truly wonderful place to visit.

Mandalay and the old capitals

kamzam — Wed, 26 Aug 2015 22:56:00 GMT

Because of the Kipling’s poem I also initially thought of Mandalay as of this charming, long forgotten Asian city… Luckily I did consult people before going there and one thing became most apparent: the best thing o do in Mandalay is get out as soon as you got in.

Our night bus journey was surprisingly quick. We were meant to get to Mandalay at 5am but arrived at 3am someone confused as to what to do now.

As always a bus was met with lots of touts but we hooked up with some other travellers also in need of hotel and managed to negotiate a fair price for the ride to centre. The hostels listed in the lonely planet were awful, really, really horrible (dead cockroaches on floors, sheets that have not been clean for I don’t know how long…) but we finally knocked on the door of a random place and the rooms where respectable, even with aircon.

Which left us negotiating the price… As we arrived in the middle of the night they wanted to charge us full whack but after a bit of a standoff we agreed to half price (if you are on a tight budget, stand firm, the hotel owners are more than likely to change their minds). We ended up paying $20 per night which was the cheapest we had paid so far.

Having arrived much earlier than expected we decided that the best thing is probably to just stay one night see the sights and head out the next night to Bagan.

So after a quick sleep and hotel breakfast we decided that even though it is possible to see the sights by public transport, and realising that the temperature outside has reached 40 and it was only 9am, we decided to hire a taxi for a day to see all the sights.

Right move!!!! It was $23 for day for both of us but air conditioned, taxi driver spoke English and was a brilliant tour guide. He also managed to save us a lot of money on visiting sights as he stopped at local entrances were tickets were not needed.

The best bargain ($5 added to the overall hire charge) was at Inwa as it turns out that you can actually drive there , therefore avoiding the rip off horse cart issue and allowing you to visit many more sights!

All in all I would say it’s all well worth it and gets you away from the hellish heat of Mandalay.

The tour starts at the Buddist school, the biggest one in Burma, where tourist queue to see monks form an orderly line before heading for breakfast. It is a very bizarre experience as if being in a ‘monk zoo’ and really best avoided even though the school itself is a lovely setting.

From there we headed to Sagaing Hill and bravely climbed the Soon U Ponya Shin Paya. Now, there are elevators and an easier access but we were dropped off at the ‘local’ entrance which meant no fees but a very, very steep climb.

The views, once you have caught your breath, are stunning at it is a beautiful temple. From the top you cans see the dozens of golden rooftops of other temples.

After that it was time to visit the old capital – Inwa.

As I mentioned, we got a real bargain here and managed to see a fair few palaces, temples and forts around the village. It is really beautiful, with the air of a culture abandoned. The main sight is the princess palace with the Brick monastery inside. We were advised by our guide that even though the exterior of the monastery is impressive, the inside is not (once you have seen some temples) and there is hefty fee to go in, so we just looked at it from outside.

Very impressive indeed.

After that we drove back to Mandalay and having a fair bit of time before the sunset (to visit the bridge) we visited a more local temple which had a miniature Golden Rock. After seeing the miniature, I have decided that I have an idea of what it is and therefore no need to make the journey – will opt in for more days on the beach instead J

The market around the Amarapura bridge (U Bein’s Bridge – at 1.2km, the longest teak bridge in the world) is actually quite pleasant and having still fair amount of time we settled in for some beers at the riverside restaurant. Food there was not very appealing but beer was cold and the views were good.

At the right moment we did the sunset walk, which I think is far more romantic when you do it with a partner rather than a mate but the sky was beautiful and it was a lovely way to finish of the day.

Our driver has also helped us find the best bargain bus to Bagan – it was actually a minibus but as the company just started they had promo prices and they did do hotel pick up, they are called OK Bus. We decided to head to Bagan next afternoon and as the journey is not too long we were going to get there around 11pm.

After getting much needed sleep we decided to spend the second day in Mandalay trying to get to the famous Mandalay hill, by public transport. I am pretty sure that there is a much more direct bus route that what we have done as it took about 45 minutes to get there. The first bus drops you off at the bottom and you need to get another truck to go up. Please bear in mind both should be roughly the same price, they will try and charge you more to go up but stand your ground it’s a normal price.

It is a nice view from the top, but nothing spectacular, and the temple itself is also not that amazing.

We did not go to the palace as didn’t really have the energy, was too expensive and didn’t get that great reviews.

After getting down from the hill, we tried to find a bus to get us back to hotel but it was proving too complicated and we were just too tired, so found a cheap taxi instead. Back at the hotel we impatiently were awaiting our Bagan pick up.

Trekking in the hills of Inle

kamzam — Fri, 9 Jan 2015 22:40:00 GMT

Next day we headed out for a 2 day trek round the surrounding mountains. We were originally planning to do the famous Inle to Kalaw trek but where convinced by the many locals that the surrounding nature is just as beautiful and if you do not have a real need to get to Kalaw there is no point of doing that particular trek.

And so early in the morning we met with our guide who took us through rice fields and pagodas up the hills filled with plantations of tobacco, sunflowers and other crops.

It is not the most impressive route, there are no spectacular views to be seen, instead it’s a stroll through local villages and the real rural life of Burma. Its charming and hot but not incredibly demanding. Having said that, I did really enjoy it and would certainly do it again.

For our night accommodation we arrived at our guide’s home village. Met his lovely and very hospitable family and greeted with the news that we have arrived just in time for the full moon, end of Buddhist lent celebrations and we were more than welcome to join in the fun.

Of course we said yes…

But before we could eat and get ready for the night we were invited to shower… I have to say, I am quite used to washing in interesting conditions, there were rivers, pipes, freezing cold mountain pools… what I was not prepared for to take my shower in full view of the village which is when I first understood the importance of longyi (tradition skirt). In traditional villages everyone washes at public baths, and what is meant by that is: there is a pipe in a middle of a village where you can shower and wash your clothes. It is visible to all villagers and passer-by’s. There is no such thing as changing rooms so the idea is that your wrap around in the longyi and wash yourself wearing it…As this is a conservative environment, swimming trunks are acceptable for use by men but girls need to keep pretty much covered during the procedure. I did not know that this is what I am to experience and so proceeded to the shower with just my tiny trek towel… Sufficient to say the whole thing was a challenge and I might have stretched the decency laws a bit… And yes the water is absolutely freezing..

After that little adventure I was pretty much ready for whatever the night will bring and it brought A LOT of green tea drinking.

It turned out that the celebrations of the end of lent mean visiting all elders in the village i.e every head of the household and bringing them gifts and in turn being treated to snacks and tea.

There are 27 homes to visit and I have quickly figured out that it is absolutely necessary to eat and drink something at each one of them. It is a great fun and privilege to do this as you get to know the whole village, walking from home to home with all of the youngsters and children, many of whom have not seen a foreigner in their lives and in the process being 27 times blessed by the elders. It’s a unique window to the life of the tribe, being able to visit the rich and the poor and by the look of the house see which class they inhabit in the village life.

I have to mention here that all of the electricity in the villages in Burma is supplied through the use of solar panels. It is, possibly, the most eco friendly place I have ever visited…

So now an admition: first 5 houses where real fun but it is tiring experience, and by house 10 you end up with artificially glued smile, real need to for toilet and a sensation that this will never end…

Next morning after a hearty breakfast we headed down the hill back to the town, again passing through plantations and strolling through bamboo forests. The final stop is at a water reservoir about 2 km from town where you can swim with the locals and their horses. I did… and then stepped on a broken bottle, ripped my foot open and was a local sensation for about 15 minutes as dressed in a bikini tried to stop the bleeding… luckily I always trek with some sort of first aid contraption… It was a bit painful walk back and I have to say that it was quite a bad cut that in the end took 4 months to heal - lesson: only swim in places where you can see what you are stepping on J

On return to our hostel we had some time to take a shower (normal one this time), eat and get ready for the overnight journey to Mandalay.

Magic of Inle Lake

kamzam — Fri, 9 Jan 2015 21:57:00 GMT

The overnight VIP bus dropped us from Yangon to Inle Lake, or more accurately, Nyaungshwe. This is the city to which you need to buy your bus ticket and where you are most likely going to stay as it has most accommodation food options.

I did hear that some of the buses leave people on the junction 7 miles away from Nyaungshwe on the road to Taunggyi. I kind of assumed that this is what was going to happen to us as well so was very pleasantly surprised when we were dropped off at the gate to the city and from there picked up by a truck that brought us to town.

They did of course drive us straight to their recommended hostel but to be fair it was a lovely place and at a price tag of $20 per night for two people, with bathroom, air con and TV, we decided to stay there (Princess Garden Hotel). There are cheaper options too, you can get a bed for $7 but its pretty grim and I would only recommend that if you are on really tight budget.

Being quite tired after the travel we decided to postpone all the attractions to next day when we booked the private boat (meaning only us two in the boat and also freedom to choose where you want to go) at $18 per day. You can also join a tour for $10 but it does only take you to few places and we wanted to include the ancient city of ruined pagodas at Indein.

We were really lucky with the timing of our visit to Inle as we arrived just as the Hpaung Daw U Festival was in full swing. Basically, every year, for about 3 weeks, every early morning a big boat housing the statue of Buddha makes its way from one village to next on the lake.

Its pulled by long decorated boats with dressed up worshipers performing their one leg rowing routines as well as singing and dancing and general merriment. It’s a beautiful experience especially as not many tourists can be bothered to get up at 5am to experience it. It all happens as the sun rise over the lake and the mist lifts over the water.

During the rest of the day we visited many local villages built on stilts on the lake, craft shops, pagodas and the floating plantation of tomatoes and other produce. Inle is where most of Burmese tomatoes comes form and I have to say its pretty impressive to see how precariously these are grown. If you thought growing your own greens is tough, try doing in o the water…

Big highlight of the day was a visit to the village of Indein which is a place where you can wonder among hundreds of ruined pagodas and get lost in the time that was.. It’s very charming and on a smaller scale reminded me of Angkor Wat (ok…much smaller scale).

We have also made a visit to the Jumping Cat Monastery where even though cats were not performing that day we sought shelter as huge storm was on its way.

The most famous pictures from the lake are of course of the fisher man perfecting their on leg rowing technique whilst finishing. We have passed a few and luckily, unluckily they did not feel comfortable being photographed. And that is fine – not everything needs to be spoiled by a tourist with cameras, this is their livelihood after and just think how would you feel if bunch of people would show up to take pictures of your at your work every day. Nevertheless it is a beautiful skill and joy to watch. I think it adds to the spirit of Burma…

We came back at sunset and starving indulged in the Burmese curry dinner. Which brings me to the issue of tackling the Burmese food. I have heard so many times that the food there is awful and well… IT IS NOT.

OK, it is not Indian or even Thai standards but it is delicious and I absolutely love the way your curry always comes with lots of other small dishes to try out. Also, I have absolutely fell in love with the tea leaf salad! I wish I n=knew how to make it!

Just a warning – when you order a fish – that is what you are going to get – a whole fish, plus lots of little additions…Its fair to say – you will not go hungry in Burma!

Inle is THE backpacker hub of Myanmar. Nowhere else will you find so many foreign tourists, hotels and places to eat and drink. But even there, most hostels have 10pm curfew, which really will not bother you much, as the town pretty much shuts down by then anyway. In general, if you have come to Burma looking for a party, you came to the wrong place! (even if government is trying to change that with rumors of big Casinos potentially being built around the lake, I hope that never comes to pass).

Next day we followed the advice of our hostel owner and we rented bikes to explore the area. Your hostels will recommend a visit to the local springs. We were initially told that there are two: private and public and the public one is free. It’s not. They charge $8 for the public and $10 for the other. The difference between the two: only foreigners are allowed in the private one.

We skipped the springs.

We were also tols we can get a boat across the lake from about 1 mile from the springs to the other side of the lake to visits another lake village with a very long pier. That was meant to cost $2, in fact the boat man was trying to charge us $8.

On principle we refused and cycled back to town and circled to the other side of the lake on bikes. Yes, it does mean that we cycled 1.5h for nothing but we consider ourselves backpackers: read: we will sweat a lot to save any kind of money…

Having said that the ride is lovely, through rice fields, watching water buffalos and all that you can expect from the Asian countryside.

The other side of the lake was more exciting in terms of attraction. We went all the way to the village with a long pier (Maing Thauk) were we had a tasty lunch at the local restaurant, a walk around this pretty village and the pier.

On the way back we stopped at the Red Mountain winery. It was somewhat surprising to encounter a winery in Myanmar and I have to say that I was a little suspicious of the quality but it is run by a French couple and offers not only good wine (few types of reds, whites and a rose) but also amazing views of the lake and the surrounding valleys. Perfect stop for some sunset drinks.

Steamy walking in Yangon

kamzam — Tue, 9 Dec 2014 22:33:00 GMT

I missed being in Asia, having spent most of my recent travels on the other side of the ocean it was so nice to come back here. As soon as you land at the airport the humidity hits, the smells surround you and you find yourself in a completely different world.

Myanmar has long been on my places to visit list but due to the travel ban and general political issues I have not had a chance to go there until now.

I have started the journey in Yangon. It’s a busy, classically Asian city, chocker blocked with traffic, falling apart colonial buildings, delicious street food.

The unique addition to Yangon street is the spots of red spit everywhere (product of paan chewing) and the wonderful tea houses where you can hide from the heath and rest your feet for a bit.

With my travel buddy Michel we have spent the first day in Yangon walking… there is no reason to do it, taxis are everywhere and dirt cheap but we both agree that the best way to see the place is to walk it, get yourself integrated into the street life. Now, with 40 degrees and 80% humidity you may think its complete madness and opt out for more comfortable mode of transport…

And so we walked, for 11 hours, visiting the charming old colonial town, the ruins of ministry of information, the Sule Pagoda at the centre of the roundabout and of course the Shwedagon Pagoda with its enormous and impressive stupa. We also has walk around the Kandawgyi which was a charming spot to see the sunset over the Shwedagon Pagoda.

On our way back to downtown we chanced upon the night street food market which was super cheap and the food was amazing! At the market we have also found the best travel resource for Mynamar – Kitty, 60 odd year old English teacher, former travel guide who over a cup of tea have drawn up for us the best ‘must visit’ map of the country. Pointing out the spots that we should really not bother with as well.

This is one of the many wonderful things about Burma, people will stop you on the street, but they sop to have a chat, to find out where you are from, what you do and to practise English, never to see you anything. This is one of the few places in the world still not spoilt by greed that the mass tourism brings (of course I am well aware that by the fact of many more people coming, including myself, I will be parting responsible for spoiling it too).

After 11 hours of walking we really were not in the mood to even consider discovering Yangon night life but in general it’s worth noting that such thing does not exist. Pretty much everything everywhere in the country closes t 10pm the latest. This is not a place to come if you are seeking a party…

We were staying at Motherland Inn 2, which at $30 a night for shared bathroom was a bit steep but had added bonus of free airport pick up. The staff there are extremely friendly and can arrange all onward travel but they do work with only bus company so when the seats sell out you need to go to Aung sa Stadium to secure the tickets which is what we needed to do, the good thing about it is that you will get a free pick up to the bus station which is about 8km outside the city… When people tell you that you need to leave 4 hours before you bus leaves to the station, DO IT, traffic in Yangon is the worst I have ever seen and it does take at the very least 2h to get to the bus station from the stadium, its longer if you leave from downtown…

2 days in Yangon was enough for us. It is charming and pleasant but a large bustling city and I just came from one, nature was what I was craving and so we headed to Inle Lake on a VIP overnight bus (well worth it - $18, but 3 seats in row, lots of space and near flat reclining).

Back to Europe (Andalucia: Malaga, Grazalema, Arcos, Jerez, Cadiz, Tarifa)

kamzam — Mon, 30 Jun 2014 00:57:00 GMT

So it’s been a fair while since I have posted but that doesn't mean that I haven't been doing a bit more exploring over the last year...Wow, its actually been 15 months since I returned to the 'normal' life. Unfortunately at the end of the day, I need funds to pay for the next adventure so until that time (it is coming very, very soon) I had to satisfy my itchy feet with smaller scale adventures...

Anadalucia 2013

And so in February last year, just before starting a 'proper' job again I head out to Anadalucia for couple of weeks.. I absolutely love that area of Spain, have been there before a few times before but this time decided to take a road trip through a few less known places.

I have thought about doing this journey using public transport but to be perfectly honest after investigating the infrequent buses and not very convenient train connections, and travelling with my sis, we decided that car rental is the way forward, at £180 for 10 day with unlimited mileage - is a bargain!

We started off in Malaga which I have to say charmed me this time around. I always thought about it as a rather unattractive city but this time, staying with some friends and having some time to explore the new harbour and the castle, I must say I rather liked the experience. There are also some really nice veggie places to dine in which always brings a smile to a vegetarian traveller J

But the whole point of this journey was to get out of the city (after just a month in London, filled with looking for an apartment and a job, I felt like the city is suffocating me) so after a day in Malaga we picked up our car and headed for the mountains. I love the mountains around Sierra Nevada, although the main range is very popular among the tourists, the smaller ranges are fairly unknown so you really tend to be the one foreigner in town.

On the way we quickly stopped at Ronda and it’s beautiful gorge – well worth visiting even if just for a cup of delicious chocolate at Café Chocolate.

We stayed in the most charming town of Grazalema from where there are plenty of shorter and longer walks through the surrounding ranges (up to 2200m). These are quite chilled out which suited me just fine as one of the surprises that waited for me at home was that I have managed to break a toe and a base of my foot when climbing in Bolivia and the bones did not set right so prolonged climbing was not really advisable as I was waiting for an operation.

The day after arrival myself and my sister have set out on a lovely leisurely walk in the mountains. What we were planning to do was the loop walk that would take about 3 hours, was not too high and not too challenging… Reading a map proved to be too challenging though and with fairly confusing track markings we actually ended up on a top of mountain with me politely asking fellow walkers where the hell am I and how to go back to town! It turned out that we did totally miss the loop but climbed 1600m in the process and the view was amazing (even if my foot did suffer in the process)!!!

We spent the evening in the best possible way – drinking local wine and eating some delicious cheeses, olives and other local produce – you really can’t go wrong with food in South Spain even if you are vegetarian. I totally fell in love with Grazalema, it is beautiful, charming and full of lovely people.

The drive through the mountains, though filled with some rather scary moments is absolutely amazing and well worth the detour.

From Grazalema we headed for Arcos de la Frontera. Again not really a place that sees lots of tourism (especially in February) but the old cathedral and the view from the wall down the gorge is truly breath taking. There is a slight problem with staying inside the old town if you have a car (no parking and dangerously narrow streets to navigate – my sis was not impressed!) so we settled for a comfy place just outside with parking spot right in front.

There is not much to make you linger in town so after an afternoon walking around the old town we decided that it’s pretty but not really worth staying another night and so next day headed for Jerez – the capital of Sherry!

As you approach Jerez it actually doesn’t look that attractive but once you get into the small streets of the old town, tiny sherry bodegas, the sounds of flamenco and of course the obligatory visit to Tio Pepe site.

We were in luck as we arrived at the time f the International Flamenco Festival and managed to get a ticket to an amazing, modern flamenco performance.

But for me the charm and spirit of Jerez is in walking round the town, sipping sherry and looking through the windows to see the practicing flamenco dancers and listening to music played on pretty much every square.

It was a very relaxing place and after few days whiled away, we headed for Cadiz.

Cadiz doesn’t seem to get that many good write ups. It seems to be largely omitted from travel guides but we were pleasantly surprised. Of course the cathedral is very impressive, no doubt about it, but so are the winding streets of the old town, great walk around the sea promenade, amazing, delicious food, lovely people… It was a true surprise of how nice the place was. Being rather large city is till retained nice and clean long beaches and was a pleasure to stroll through. Oh and the food!!! Food was amazing mix of Moroccan and Spanish influences – great stuff!

But it’s still is a city and so I was really keen to get out of there after a few days and get to our last stop – Tarifa. Now, that is unfortunately more of what I got to know on the Spanish coast – a very touristy place, overrun by English and German expats. Nevertheless it is beautiful, easy going with long beautiful beach (braved by two sisters in some horrendous winds, nearly turning us into kites) and of course a perfect place for wind and kite surfing.

We stayed in a great little b&b (there are plenty of those) and with abundance of charming places to eat and drink (amazing falafel place!!!) we were more than happy to spend a couple of days winding down before the inevitable return to ‘reality’.

We drove back to Malaga by the way of the coast – a bit longer way to take but definitely more scenic and of course you get to go past the Gibraltar rock. We of course nearly run out of petrol I the middle, running late for our car rental drop off point but in the end managed to get there on vapour and then safely return to England and Poland (my sis)…

And then I started to work again…

The end of the road – Northern Chile (San Pedro de Atacama, Copiapo, La Serena, Caldera, La Serena,

kamzam — Mon, 31 Dec 2012 02:44:00 GMT

Crossing into Chile from Bolivia is like crossing into a different world. After 20 meters there is an actual paved road, border crossing no longer consists of make shift building in a middle of nowhere and there are pavements.

Civilization has its price of course and so there is a clear jump in cost of anything.

I have been warned that due to the restrictions on bringing in any kind of plants or food to Chile the queues can be very long but we were quite lucky and were out of there in an hour.

San Pedro de Atacama is beautiful. It is also clean, organised and very touristy but after 3 weeks of the Bolivian desert and general mess we really didn’t mind. Our hostel came with lovely hot water, towels, and hammocks, it was finally over 25 degrees all through the day (being the driest place in the world you can count in pretty stable weather) and felt like we were in paradise (OK, unless you permanently live over 3000m it does get a bit tiring after a while so getting down to sea level is always a welcome break).

Since it seemed that there was actually enough to do around the place we decided to stay there for 3, rather than 2 nights.

We rented some bikes and headed for Valle de Luna. Most groups head over there for the sunset and so we went during the day to avoid the crowds. If you haven’t seen good desert sun sets it’s pretty spectacular there but after salt desert not much can really compare.

The only real problem with going during the day is that it is incredibly hot and even though the cycle is not very demanding you need plenty of water and determination.

I was not blown away but the place – there are some good rock formations and a lot of sand (surprise, surprise) but its not the most spectacular or moon like valley that I was expecting.

Nonetheless, it is a worthwhile trip.

We also cycled over to the other side of the town to visit some pre Inca ruins and canyons but again - it’s pretty nice but if you have already seen more spectacular stuff it only makes for a nice ride.

At night we went to see the starts and it was quite interesting. I don’t think we chose the best tour company but it came with mate de coca and biscuits so I was happy. And we got to see Jupiter and Milky Way.

San Pedro also turned out to be the best place for empanadas. After Bariloche they came a very close second.

I felt I had another 6000m mountain in me and so decided to get off the tourist track and head to Copiapo and to the Parque Nacional Nevada de Tres Cruzes.

Unfortunately that part was met with bitter disappointment. It all started with the problem of leaving luggage in San Pedro. Pretty much every hostel there charges for luggage storage for when you wait for your overnight bus. It then first hit me that I am off the backpacker trail and new rules apply – the regular tourism rules.

The bus journey to Copiapo was OK, expecting Argentinian quality of the buses however, we were met by a rather uncomfortable thing and arrived pretty tired and fed up.

And then we encountered the most frustrating part of travelling in Northern Chile – the hotels and hostels do not open before midday. Not even to tell you whether they indeed have place for you later on. In the country of many overnight buses this is not an ideal situation and highly annoying.

There is also the lack of the usual Latin American friendliness and openness. It is quite difficult to organise anything and people are not really helpful. This attitude made first days in Chile very hard to the point of me wondering whether it wouldn’t just be better to head to Argentina. I was, however, still determined to catch the last glimpse of the penguins before heading home.

Apart from that it turned out that the climb to Tres Cruzes takes minimum of 12 days and the tours to the national park only leave when prearranged and so we did not actually manage to visit anything else but the not so exciting Copiapo.

The most interesting thing about the city was that it was the scene of the recent mining tragedy which was watched by the whole world as the rescue operations took place and all miners were brought to safety.

Having failed to go to the mountains we decided to head to the sea and to Caldera and Bahia Inglesa.

It was a much better experience. Beautiful crystal clear water and few days just chilling on the beach. The only trouble was that being there out of season there was a slight issue of finding a place to eat but there are always empanadas.

We then headed out to La Serena. The second oldest city of Chile. After initial problems of finding the accommodation we spent the day enjoying the charming old town. It is a lovely place to just wonder around. But the main reason for us being there was to visit the nearby penguin colony at Punto Choros. So the next day we headed out there and it was an amazing day watching the animals so close and personal (it’s very easy to arrange the tours from La Serena and in the main season to just show up and take the boat from Punto Choros itself – the only problem of doing it on your own was finding a bus to Punto Choros as no one was able to tell us at what time exactly does it leave).

After another day of just chilling on the beach we headed to Valparaiso. Of course upon arrival early in the morning we were not able to find a hostel that was open or had spaces. It has been such a frustrating issue finding a place to sleep in Chile. I am not really sure why and it was not lack of experience (I’ve been on the road for over 10 months by that stage).

But Valparaiso charmed the socks out of us. It is beautiful, bohemian, with nice bars and really good food. Perfect for extended walks, culture and going out at night. And right by the sea…

As these were my last days in South America I focused on enjoying every minute and Valparaiso turned out to be perfect for it.

The very last day and night of my travels I spent in Santiago. Being warned about the city not being very pretty I kind of ignored it but upon arrival found a very interesting place with lots of culture and plenty to do so actually regretted that only planned to spend 24 hours there.

After a day of eating, wondering around the old town and final shopping trip we headed out for a night of cumbia to say my goodbyes to the continent.

The very next morning all I had time for was to pack my bag and grab an airport bus. And that is how, unbelievably, unexpectedly and surprisingly I was on the plane to Europe. Culture shock of gigantic proportions!!!

And so one adventure has ended but…the planning has already started for the next one. There is no denying that I have fallen in love with this continent and its people and so I will be back…

Southern Bolivia - Sucre, Potosi, Tupiza and Uyuni tour

kamzam — Tue, 20 Nov 2012 03:23:00 GMT

I had great expectations from Sucre. I have heard from so many people about how charming the place was and I was really looking forward to spending few days there.

The bus journey was awful. I was on the bus that kept getting flat tyres and then in the middle of the night just stopped for 2 hours on the side of the road. Eventually we made it to the suburbs of Sucre and that’s where the driver finally gave up and unloaded us all. No wonder he did that as the wheel had a gigantic hole and it was clear that the bus was on its last legs.

After a combi ride to centre I settled into the Wasi Masi hostel.

The luck was not with us…There was no water in the place and we could not check in until much later since the whole of the dorm went out the previous night and was nursing their hangover…

So we decided to go and discover the city. There is no denying that the place is lovely but it’s also quite small and one day is sufficient to get the feel of it.

The next day was a market day in the nearby Tarabuco. To be honest I really think that by that stage I have seen too many markets and was not massively impressed. It was, however, a perfect opportunity to do some Alpaca shopping as well as listen to something that seemed like indigenous people talent show…

With not much more to see or do in Sucre we set out to the mining town of Potosi.

The main attraction and indeed reason to go there is to visit the mines.

I had really mixed feelings about it. For one I don’t particularly like small spaces and although I have never had a real panic attack I wasn’t sure that testing that theory 2 km under the ground was the best idea.

Secondly, I really wasn’t convinced that the tours were not exploiting the local miners. As these are real working mines I felt that the whole idea was similar to visiting a Zoo. It just didn’t sit right with me.

But, I did get convinced to do it. The fact that you bring presents to the miners and that the whole site is owned by them rather than some big corporation made me more at ease.

It was an interesting, if uncomfortable, experience. I somehow thought that the conditions were going to be much worse… It wasn’t exactly a picnic but there are oxygen lines pumping the air, there is not that much of a danger of gas leak, miners work on their own account and even though it’s hard manual work there are some retractors to get the stones out of there…

But, I would not make a good miner as the tight spaces and the fear of cave in made me not want to linger down there for too long…

Potosi itself is quite a pleasant place. It is a ‘real’ city where people live and work rather than a backpacker central. And… comes with a cinema. So, for the second time in my travels I got see a film!

The next morning we left for Tupiza.

I loved Tupiza. It’s a dusty, Wild West kind of place, where there is absolutely nothing to do but ride horses in the nearby canyons. The scenery is amazing with red rocks surrounding the town and the occasional sand storm.

So of course we spent the day exploring the environs of the city. We did the ‘triathlon’ which combines jeep tour, horse riding and mountain biking. It’s a whole day thing which lets you experience pretty much everything there is to see.

And it was awesome, we had really good fun and the views were wonderful. We also had a great guide who told us a lot about the history of Bolivia and Tupiza. And we got to play cowboys - perfect kind of day!

Then it was off to more desert fun at Uyuni.

Now, you can actually do the salt flat tour from Tupiza and avoid going to the horrid town of Uyuni. But it is much more expensive (BOB1200 vs 700), and you cannot connect to San Pedro de Atacama unless you go as a private tour (again, more cost). Now, this is only the case in low season as when there are more people you can get to Chile for the price of the tour which is BOB1200. If you don’t want to go to Chile I would really recommend paying more and doing it from Tupiza. You go in smaller cars and slightly different route to the rest of the tours which means that you avoid the crowds.

But since we wanted to go to Chile we had no option than to start from Uyuni.

The bus journey from Tupiza to Uyuni might be scenic but there is no real road so it’s pretty painful.

On the plus side you get to stop and the world’s worst shithole. I cannot remember the name of the place but if you ever pass it you will know what I am talking about. Uyuni is pretty and full of life in comparison.

As soon as we got to Uyuni we were on a mission to find the tour and get out as soon as possible. Which is exactly what we did…

I loved the tour of the salt flats!!! We did 3 day option and as far as staring into the whiteness of the desert, that was enough for me.

1^st day was all about salt and taking the ‘creative’ pictures. It is amazing to see that much salt and when you walk away from the crowd a bit, the vastness and emptiness of the place just hits you.

We watched a most beautiful sunset over the desert and then spent the night in the Salt Hotel.

2^nd day was all about the standard kind of desert and the lakes and the flamingos. We got up early to see the sun rise and, hand on heart, it’s been one of the most amazing ones I have seen on my travels.

I thought I have seen enough high altitude lagoons to last me for a lifetime but Laguna Colorada is just breath taking and spectacular. I stood at the shore for ages taking in the amazing beauty.

The next day, after a ridiculously early start at 4.30am, we went to the geyser field. It’s really fun to see and the fog makes it look otherworldly and mystical.

After that we jumped into thermal baths and after couple of hours of chilling we went to see the perfect green of Laguna Verde and then were dropped off at the Chilean border.

Photos: Bolivia

kamzam — Mon, 12 Nov 2012 01:08:00 GMT

Bolivia; Lucha Libre and my first 6000m climb (Isla del Sol, La Paz, Huayna Potosi)

kamzam — Sun, 11 Nov 2012 00:56:00 GMT

After incredibly painful overnight journey I arrived at the border with Bolivia. Considering my previous experience with border crossing this has turned out to be pretty easy and painless.

As I was alone again after leaving my international trekking team in Cuzco I was really happy to meet some people in the line for the visa who were heading in the same direction. My initial plan was to stay a night in Copacabana and then a night at Isla del Sol but got convinced that I will not be missing much skipping the town.

Isla del Sol is incredibly peaceful and relaxing. Not many people actually stay the night and so after the last tourist boat left there were only a few of us there. I was also really glad for company as otherwise it’s pretty difficult to meet anyone.

The sunsets were incredible! I can’t speak of sunrises as I didn’t manage to wake up… well, going to toilet and vaguely noticing the fact that the sun is rising and that my fellow traveller is manically taking pictures, does not count as watching the sun rise.

We went for a walk around the island which takes about 5 hours and it is OK, I wouldn’t say it’s a place for amazing scenery; it’s more of a tranquil and meditate kind of place. But it is beautiful and comes with amazingly tasty trout.

After couple of days on the Island we headed to La Paz.

It is not an attractive place. The way in is horrible, driving through the chaos of small local markets, rubbish and endless stream of combis. It doesn’t get much better closer to centre either. La Paz, however, as a redeeming feature has some great hostels and a lot to do in vicinity.

My plan was to stay there for couple of nights and head out to Sorata, a much more pleasant location in the mountains.

The first night, however, I run into some old friends from Peru and it turned into a bit of long night fuelled by endless free shots (oh so dangerous!). And so clearly I did not make it to the ruins of Tiwanaka next morning but instead found out that there was Cholitas fight (Bolivian Lucha Libre that involves women fighting) that afternoon and as seeing one was on my long to do list for South America I decided to head there instead.

It was also a Foundation of La Paz day with a massive parade rolling through the city. Unfortunately it seemed to start right in front of the windows of my hostel making it impossible for me to sleep through my hangover. So instead I headed to town to see what else can be done around La Paz and after already being tempted the previous day, I booked my first 6000m climb to Huayna Potosi.

Late afternoon we headed to the Cholitas… It was, without a doubt, one of the strangest things I have ever seen. I have watched some wrestling before but it was a rather more professional performance.

The show started with 2 guys, pretty standard kind of thing… Then there was another couple of man until we started to get to the main attraction of the evening… First up was a girl fighting the clown… We were previously advised not to sit in the corners or in front row if we didn’t want to be involved. It was a sound advice as otherwise you get covered in water, coke, popcorn and whatever else the fighters choose to throw at each other.

Although it’s clearly mostly arranged (especially the acrobatic parts) it does get very aggressive at points, like when the clown started bashing the girls head against a metal pole… You can see from the expressions when the real pain happens and in most of the fights someone did walk away injured…

After the clown came a couple fight which was a complete mess…and one of the girls ended up actually hurt. What followed were two women match, and finally, the most ‘exciting’ fight, in the ring of fire.

The whole thing goes on for about 3 hours and the last hour gets a bit same old same. The locals do love it though and get involved by booing, throwing popcorn, chicken wings and whatever else they have in hand. One of the contestant ended her fight proudly stating that finally women can participate in male fun but for me it was more a really bizarre display rather than liberation of women kind of thing…

Nevertheless I am really glad I went even if I left a bit disturbed…

The next day we went to Tiwanaku – the most impressive pre Inca ruins in Bolivia. I don’t know enough about the Tiwanaku culture to be able to fully appreciate it so even though the site grew on my (initially all I saw was a disappointing pile of stones with some mud) I didn’t really understand the significance – you really need a guide for that.

Upon return to hostel I had to prepare for the climb and the nerves started to set in. I was the only person doing it from the hostel and so I decided that I must be completely insane - I could have just gone to Sorata, relax, do some hikes, but no, I decided to climb the mountain… I started doing research and it finally occurred to me that not everyone makes it to the top…

But it was too late to change my mind so after a night of no sleep I got picked up in the morning and driven to the first camp.

I opted for doing the climb in 3 days. There is a 2 day option but only 50% of those who attempt 2 days make it to the top as you need to be very well acclimatised.

The first day is rather relaxing, we spent few hours on a glacier practicing ice climbing which was actually a lot of fun and put my mind at ease about being able to go over the couple of walls we encounter on our way up.

The second day we moved to the hire camp. The difficulty here is that you are carrying your all equipment but the trek itself is only 3 hours and not too challenging. It gives a chance to the guides to see how fast you are walking and whether you have a chance of making it to the top.

After the trek it’s all about eating and resting. At 6 pm it’s time to go to sleep, or at least attempt to.

Wake up call is at midnight (or 1am for those lucky buggers who are staying in the next shelter about 300m above) and after a small snack and some coca tea it’s time to set out at 1 am.

Obviously its pitch dark and all you can see is about a meter ahead of you and then the flashing lights of your companions.

I was trekking with some experienced mountaineers so after about 4 hours and when I was starting to get tired we separated and I chose to go at my own pace.

It’s hard work going up. It’s cold (-15), there are no views, all you have to do is keep putting one foot in front of the other and keep thinking that getting to the top is totally worth it.

There are few beautiful moments though. When you get to Argentinian camp you can see the lights of La Paz down below and about an hour later the sky turns red as the sun gets ready to rise.

Apart from that there are some water breaks – my guide was very insistent on my drinking water even though it was freezing cold and more of a pain than refreshment. I have to say that I did not drink enough and also didn’t take time to eat anything which did actually make a huge difference in the last hour when I literally had no energy left…

There are a few of more challenging bits when you need to scramble up the ice wall or jump through crevices.

I was warned about the last couple of hours when you need to climb up 200m of a glacier and yes, it’s hard, but mostly because it’s still dark and cold and you have already been walking for 4 hours.

And so after 5 hours and few meters from the top the sun rose and I made it to the top!

It is so beautiful there. No clouds, sunshine, snow and all the other peaks below you. It was amazing!!! Totally worth the pain…

After about 15min on the top it was time to head down. The climb down takes about 3 hours and I really enjoyed seeing what I walked on. There are beautiful ice walls and other formations. The snow is sparkling in the sun and you are coming down with a great sense of achievement… Amazing stuff.

Things got a bit hard for me in the last hour of going down as I sensed that I cut my foot and my snow boots were rubbing against the wound so it was a bit of a slog down from that point on but I couldn’t do anything until I got to the camp…

All in all I was somewhere in the middle of all the climbers. The fastest made it 20min before me but, in my defence, they had 5 years of climbing experience. 4 people from our group did not make it to the top and 2 people struggled to come down.

The very worst part of the whole experience was, after only 15 min rest in the second camp, having to pack all the gear and walk down to the 2.5h to the first camp. We still had no proper food and only a cup of tea to drink. My legs were hardly working and it’s a really slippery path.

But, upon arrival to La Paz we were handed the victory T shirts and I headed to my hostel for a big fat victory veggie burger J

The rest of that day was pretty much spent trying to get few hours sleep and generally recover.

Next day I have decided to change my plans - I was meant to go to Cochabamba but after hearing that there is nothing there to keep me I opted for going straight to Sucre.

The world’s deepest canyon and the road to Machu Picchu (Arequipa, Colca Canyon, Cuzco, Salkantay)

kamzam — Fri, 26 Oct 2012 12:33:00 GMT

I didn’t do justice to Arequipa. I only stayed there for one night but I really like the city. It was themost charming place I’ve seen since Cuenca. For me however it was a launching pod to Colca Canyon. In Arequipa I reunited with Kalypso and we headed together for 3 day trek in the valley.

As we are girls who do not choose the easy way, we decided to do it ourselves and on arrival to Cabanconde chose the least popular route. We trekked to Llahuar and from there to Fure and then down to San Galle. This is supposed to take 3 days but we opted to go for completion in 2 days. The canyon is hot. The trekking maps for the area are no existent as the agencies want to make sure you book through them. There are also no signs on the way. So of course we got immediately lost…

But regardless of that the walk is beautiful. The road to Llahuar is easy – about 4 hours walk down the canyon. But we were carrying all of our stuff and a massive supply of water as we were told its crazy expensive down there. And so after getting to the bottom we felt we deserved an evening of chilling in the thermal spa. When we got there we immediately knew we made the right choice not following the tourist route.

There were hardly any people along the way and the sight is amazing and peaceful. After a relaxing night we decided to walk to Fure which we heard was also a very special spot and then proceed to the oasis of San Galle.

We got the directions from our host who was insisting that the road is flat… So it came as a bit of a surprise that the first thing we had to do is climb a steep mountain to the next village… We were the only gringos on the way and the local were incredibly helpful at showing us the way. It turned out to be a pretty hard trek all the way to Fur with only about an hour worth of flat surface. Fure lies among the waterfalls and even though we did not go to the biggest one the one just on the road to town was pretty impressive. After a coffee and a snack in the village we continued on… It was hard 4 hours of hills and then steep decline to the oasis of San Galle. The work was rewarded by a relaxing swim in the pool.

The next morning we decided to get up early and tackle the 3 hours steep climb up back to Cabanaconde. And that’s were things went a bit bad… We heard that ‘normal’ people make the climb in 3 hours, fit in 2 hours and sportsmen in 1.5 hours. So we decided to go for 2 hour challenge. What we did not count on is our hostel feeding us half cooked pancakes for breakfast which unfortunately made their reappearance during the climb.

But even with that little obstacle we made it in 2.15 hours so not too bad… Not wanting to wait for the scheduled bus I had a bright idea of picking a ride with a tourist bus… What we did not realise that the bus had many scheduled breaks along the way, including an hour stop in ‘tourist’ thermal baths and another one for lunch… So even if we travelled in more comfort (on a previous bus we had a doubtful pleasure of travelling with a neighbour that was giving out the most disgusting farts and that was combined with the non-existent, windy road) we ended up arriving in Arequipa later than the normal bus…

We were hoping to have a bit more time in Arequipa but as a result of bad travel choices all we had the time for was a shower and few emails before we jumped onto a night bus to Cuzco. We were not lucky with that one either… Right behind us sat a family with a lot of overexcited kids who would start shouting every time we stopped: ‘Are we in Cuzco yet?’, waking the whole bus up..

Tired we arrived to Cuzco, hopped in a cab to our hostel which couldn’t check us in until 13.00pm (we were there at 7am). So we went for the best croissants coupled with decent coffee to lift our moods. Then we run around town looking to book the Salkantay trek and so once we finally checked in, it was time to sleep and recharge batteries.

I loved Cuzco. It has the beauty of a colonial town, tiny little streets on the hill of San Blas, good food and good vibe. Booking the trek in 2 days time (rather than my usual sleep and go next day) gave me a chance to really appreciate it and I had an awesome time there.

Cuzco of course is the main place from which to visit Machu Picchu and so with the Salkantay trek booked (it drops you off at the bottom of the ruins) I was ready to see some spectacular Inka stones… Salkantay is famous for being the toughest way to get to Machu Picchu. You are warned right, left and centre that you need to be acclimatised and fit to do and with such a hype surrounding it, it was bound to be disappointing… OK, I have to admit, I was a bit tired of trekking, got a cold in Cuzco which made me feel crap, so that might have influenced me opinion of the trek.

The first day was plain boring for me – we walked for 7 hours along the road to the first camp, granted, at the foot of Salkantay, which makes for a beautiful site. Second day is the hardest one – you are going over a Salkantay pass at 4750m and it’s a 3 hour climb to get there, from there you go down for 5 hours to the camp. I was not well… Got really sick in the morning so most of the climb I was focusing on not being sick… Even with that when I arrived at the highest point I was disappointed at how easy it was. We were also out of luck and the clouds have settled so we couldn’t see the peaks. We then went down through the misty canyons with the weather slowly changing for warmer, more tropical one. That part, I must admit, was pretty amazing.

After lunch things got worse for me as I started to pick up fever. Wanting to get into bed as soon as possible I pretty much run all the way to the next camp. Throughout the journey the canyons were substituted by more vegetation and the rise in temperature. That night it was off to bed for me pretty soon as the fever spiked and I was feeling real bad.

The next day I was not better but luckily it was only 5 hours walk through the warm jungle to the next camping spot. With the jungle vegetation came abundance of wild strawberries so I pretty much stuffed my face all the way to the camp. We slept in Santa Teresa which is home to really nice thermal baths so we sent the afternoon chilling and healing our trekking wounds. At night we had kind of strange party with bonfire and disco combined…

Last day of the trek you have an option - take a bus half way through to Hidroelectrica or just walk all the way. Of course we chose the second option and we did not regret it. It’s a really nice walk through the valley with amazing waterfalls. Once you get to hidroelectrica it’s an easy, flat walk around the Machu Picchu mountain. The railway track drops you off at Aguas Calientes aka Machu Picchu town.

It was time to get a shower, proper dinner and get ready for visiting the site next morning.

I heard from many people that it’s really worth getting to the top at sunrise and getting inside as a first person in. And so we got up at 4.30am, got to the bottom as the gate was opening, run up in 40min to be at the main gate before it opens at 6am. I was the second one through the gate and sprinted up the remaining steps. Thanks to that I was one of the only 4 people up there for the first 20min and that moment is breath taking, with the sun rising over the ruins, no tourist insight, is just amazing!!! After 20min other visitors started to pour in and it was time to join our tour of the site.

We also booked the tickets to go up to Huaynu Picchu which is a mountain overlooking the main site. So after few hours of wondering around we headed up. It’s steep!!! Takes about 40min to get up tiny steps but the views are amazing! After that we were pretty ready to get back down… Decided to take the final group photo and I handed my camera to a teenager who proceeded to push the lens back in thus breaking my camera!!! I could not believe it! It was third time that my camera got broken! Luckily it was at the end of the visit to the town otherwise I might have thrown him off the mountain. And so we proceeded to get down, had a relaxing swim in river and then waited for our train back to Cuzco. For me personally Machu Picchu was the best thing about the trek, although there is something special about walking to the site rather than just taking the train. It somehow connects you with the Inca’s more and you appreciate it more.

Back in Cuzco I decided to spend another full day there, recovering from the trek and enjoying the awesome city. After that it was goodbye to Peru as I was heading for Isla del Sol and Bolivia!

Photos: Peru

kamzam — Wed, 10 Oct 2012 03:03:00 GMT

Peru – finally seeing some ruins (Chachapoyas, Trujillo, Santa Cruz)…

kamzam — Wed, 10 Oct 2012 03:00:00 GMT

I was incredibly happy to finally get to Chachapoyas. And I was not disappointed. It’s a lovely city with white washed buildings and the star attraction of pre Inca ruins in nearby Kuelap.

There are plenty of other things to do around Chachapoyas and maybe if I had a bit more time I would have hanged around for longer but decided that there were other things in Peru I wanted to dedicate my time to.

So after a chilled out afternoon spent eating and drinking a lot of delicious hot chocolate I set out in the morning to visit my first proper ruins.

Kuelap is a giant city perched on a steep mountain cliff. Even though, as expected, not that much remains it still is an impressive location. What had withstood the time are the amazing walls and the foundations of many homes within the city. Every home was round, as oppose to Inca homes which were rectangular, had a space for guinea pig channel (the most common food) and the dead were buried within the house.

It was an interesting introduction to Peruvian history.

That same night I headed out to Trujillo as after couple of weeks in the Andes I could not wait for some sun and beach time.

I actually stayed in the town near to Trujillo - Huanchaco. It might not be the most beautiful beach or town, but I have been so starved of sand action, that I didn’t mind. The place also kind of grows on you. So it was a couple of lazy days of reading and sun tanning and stuffing myself with ceviche, only broke by the visit to nearby Chan Chan and Huaca de la Luna temples.

Both are really impressive. Chan Chan is the largest adobe city of the ancient world and it is gigantic. What you can see now is the palace but the city stretched for miles and miles – it is amazing how something essentially constructed of mud could have survived for such a long time.

Huaca del Luna is even more amazing as the original colours of the wall paintings are preserved.

Both are examples of the pre Inca cultures that were later invaded and dominated by Incas.

We visited the temples from Huanchaco and I have to say it’s a bit of a mission involving a lot of combis – there is no direct route but it is really worth to make the effort and see the temples.

With batteries recharged I was ready for a trip to Huaraz for some hiking.

Huaraz is a bit of a strange place. It is not exactly overrun by tourists, even though it’s a launch pad for a very popular Santa Cruz trek, but there are plenty of restaurants and cafes that cater for foreigners. But the tourist do seem to blend well in and so Huaraz is undoubtedly a Peruvian city.

For me it was a place to do some trekking but since 8 day treks were far beyond my time limits I opted for the Santa Cruz.

I was really happy with my choice. It’s not the most technical of treks but also not the easiest with the highest point of 4750m, it is beautiful.

The first day is a 6 hour steady climb through Andean villages. Unlike in Ecuador, the indigenous people here are much more curious about foreigners and so more open to chat and accompany you on sections of the road.

The first camp is at the 3800m giving everyone a chance to acclimatise. You also get the first glimpse of the snow capped mountains ahead and the route to the Punta Union – the highest pass of the trek.

The second day is the hardest altitude wise with the 4 hour climb to Punta Union (4750m) but it’s also the most amazing point of the trek. We were helped by the weather which on the camp side of the pass was gloomy, cold and dark but as soon as we crossed the pass we were greeted by sunshine.

It is a beautiful moment of the journey. There is no denying that the views are magnificent with the perfect blue glacial lake at the bottom of the pass.

From there it’s an easy 2 hours down to the second camp at the foot of the Alpamayo (apparently the world’s most beautiful mountain) and the summit made famous by the Paramount Company as they chose it for their logo.

It is an amazing valley and with the sun shining it was a lovely afternoon to chill out and get ready for the most challenging day of the trek - 9 hour walk to the next camp.

Now, I am not entirely sure why we ended walking for 9 hours. We did choose to climb up to another glacial lake at the foot of the Alpamayo which is an optional 3 hour extra trek, but I did not figure out why we added another 2 hours and slept in a camp much lower than originally planned… Oh well, it was a pretty spectacular location.

Although we were quite lucky with the weather, Alpamayo did not do us a favour and kept being covered by clouds, we did get to see the Paramount Mountain in its full, famous, glory and it was amazing.

We also trekked through the part of the trail which was destroyed by the landslide in February. It’s quite amazing what an impact it had on the nature as where used to stand trees and lakes was nothing but sand and stone.

For the rest of the day we trekked through the beautiful valley and it also slowly started to get warmer.

The last day was a very short 2 hour trek to Cachapampa following the river and the vegetation changing from cactuses to eucalyptus trees.

It were beautiful 4 days and am really glad I did it even though I did struggle a bit with altitude (day 3 was a bit painful). I used Galaxia Expeditions and they were really good – lovely guide, good equipment and the food (considering where we were) was truly amazing.

After well deserved burrito in Huaraz I headed over to Ica and Huacachina for few days of desert rest.

There is nothing to do Huacachina. It’s a tiny desert oasis, completely dedicated to tourism, but it’s hot, has plenty of swimming pools and is surrounded by beautiful dunes. I spent 2 nights there and pretty much did not move from the side of the pool – only to eat and drink. I did not choose the time to arrive there very wisely – it turned out to be the national holiday and so the village was filled to the brim. Luckily I only had to deal with that for one day.

The real shame is that the sand dunes are basically rubbish bins. It is very unfortunate that there is no culture of putting your rubbish in the bin here, instead it just ends up on the street, side of the road or top of the dune…

It is very easy to arrange Nazca flights from Huacachina but after hearing from so many disappointed travellers I decided to skip the lines and go straight to Arequipa.

Trying my luck with another volcano and the saga of getting to Peru (Banos, Rio Bamba, Cuenca)

kamzam — Tue, 2 Oct 2012 04:43:00 GMT

Banos was meant to be a break from walking. But then I forgot that as the main attraction it had a lot of adventure sports. Mindful of it supposed to being a relaxing destination I opted for the 70km bike ride to Puyo through the waterfall valley. I heard it was mostly downhill and on the road so suitably relaxing. Of course I did not listen to the part that said that only the third of the road is downhill and then it gets progressively uphill. Even with that though it was not a huge effort and made for a lovely ride from the mountains into the jungle. About half way through the weather changes and becomes nice and sunny. The waterfalls are also beautiful and so all in all it was a pretty stunning ride with some much needed ice cream breaks. We finished off the day with a nice bath in the thermal springs and I have to say that my body really thanked me for it. I could have easily spent a bit more time in Banos and enjoyed the views and really great food but my schedule is now very strict so after just 2 days I left for Riobamba. It was a pain to find a nice hotel in Riobamba. The city itself is quite pleasant but somehow lucks in decent budget options. After walking around for an hour I decided to splash out and get myself a proper single room with double bed. And it was totally worth it - I also realised that it’s only for the second time in my travels when I decided that I’ve had enough and really needed a break from dorms…so thought that I doubly deserved it… In Banos I have already done my research and knew that unfortunately there was no way of me climbing Chimborazo (well, at least past the refuge) as it’s a very technical and difficult volcano and so I decided that if I can’t climb it I am going to bike it. I found great bike agency - Probici – with really good equipment who did rides completely off the road rather than the usual straight down the road ones. I have never felt more secured on a bike in my life - it came with pads, helmet, gloves, riding instructions and support car. It was an amazingly exhilarating ride down, with some tough bits and one painfully steep moment. The scenery is just breath taking and we were in luck as there was no cloud in the sky so we could photograph Chimborazo in all its glory. The one downside was that being this high it did get bitterly cold and windy. The whole thing takes 9 hours so it’s not exactly a walk in the park and I also did not realise that my knees will end up taking that much impact (silly, I know), so unfortunately it was back to the hotel room for me with ice packs and hot compresses and a promise to take a few days off from any knee involving activities… And there was a good chance of that happening as my next destination was Cuenca – arguably the most charming city in Ecuador. I got there on Sunday which turned out to be a little unfortunate as it was my namesday, Sundays are dry in Ecuador and 90% of restaurants were closed. But it did provide for peaceful wondering around the streets and the city is indeed enchanting. It is colonial yet working town with beautiful squares and so many churches that I gave up counting. After hearing the reviews of the nearby Inca ruins from different travellers I decided not to visit Ingapirca but instead enjoy Cuenca and indulge in some retail therapy…and a lot of ice cream… Couple of days later (rushed again by the impeding schedule) I headed down to Vilcabamba. I have very mixed feelings about the place. It is nice and beautifully set but is also very bizarre mix of hippy communities looking to connect with nature and elderly US retirees pricing out the locals out of their land and town… I stayed with a friend at a very pleasant Ecolodge just outside of the town which comes with its own organic garden and relaxing walking trails. But of course we opted for a more adventurous way of spending our day together and headed in the search of a waterfall in the nearby Podocarpus National Park. Technically you get a map with where it is and technically it has distance written on it but neither of the maps that we had seen seemed to agree on either of the points. So we got our knowledge from the tourist office and headed out. Very soon, at the exit out of Vilcabamba there is a reassuring sign saying 2.5km to the waterfall. Now, that distance, even in hot midday sun, is not really much. So we went, carrying next to no water and expecting an easy walk. Turns out that its 2.5km to where the track to the waterfall begins and from there it’s another 2 hours climb to the waterfall. Apparently not many people make it there… No surprise – we only found the trail cause we bumped into a local farmer. The trail itself is not hard at all, yes, you do need to go up to 2000m but that’s not that much. Our problem was that about half way through we run out of water and were walking with no shade cover. There were moments when it looked like we might turn back but despite doubting that the bloody thing actually exists we did eventually made it and met some lovely people who much more sanely did the whole thing on horses and shared their water with us. We also stole some incredibly sour oranges which only made us thirstier. The waterfall was nice, there was a place to swim and the guide of the group on horses told us that the water was potable and so we were saved  The walk back was pretty much a race to the nearest shop to get some soft drinks and well deserved ice cream. The next day I decided to make my journey to Peru. My original plan was dead simple: get a bus to Loja and then from there to Piura and cross the border on an international bus, nice and simple. Whilst in Vilcabamba I spoke to a lot of people who suggested that I should just go to the local crossing at La Balsa as my first destination was Chachapoyas which is straight down from Vilcabamba. I was repeatedly reassured that even though there never used to be, there is now a direct bus from San Ignacio (first town on Peruvian side) to Chachapoyas. To double check I even went to the tourist office and got the same advice. So I changed my plans and opted for the La Balsa option. I set out at 6am to Zumba, the nearest town to the border on the Ecuadorian side. You have to leave on the first bus otherwise you have no chance of making it to the other side. Now, I am partly to blame for a bit of the events that follow as I did not stop to take more money out in Vilcabamba and I set out on this journey with $14 in my pocket. The cost breakdown (again confirmed by the tourist office) was supposed to be: $7 bus to Zumba, $2 truck to the border, $3 taxi to San Ignacio from the other side and then I am in town with cash machines and banks – so I had $2 to spare. There is no road to Zumba. It’s a dirt track that is stupidly narrow and runs alongside the mountain. The journey is stunning - it does go through literally middle of nowhere. You are in a middle of a jungle, only with locals, passing by small villages that you did not even suspect would have been there. The nature changes from stern plants of higher mountains through cloud forest into a lush jungle of the Amazon. About 2 hours from Zumba (the journey takes 6 hours) I redid my calculations and thought that maybe, if I have a chance, I should look for a cash machine in Zumba, just to be on a safe side. I was dropped off at the Zumba bus terminal which is 2km from town, has no place to leave luggage and it was now 40 degrees heat. There was no way I would walk all the way to town and back with all my luggage and potentially no way of buying more water (I had with me 3 croissants and a small bottle of water that would have to last me all the way to San Ignacio). I have, luckily, negotiated with the local taxi driver who offered to take me around the cash machines and only pay him if I indeed managed to withdraw some money. I did not manage to withdraw any money and so was getting slightly anxious about my situation. I didn’t have enough to go back to Vilcabamba so my best option seemed to just press on. After 2 hours wait I got a ranchero (truck) to the border itself (1.5h drive on even less existing road). The crossing at La Balsa is sooo picturesque; there are literally 4 buildings on each side and a beautiful river flowing through the valley in the middle. As border crossings go, this was the most attractive and hassle free I have ever encountered. I didn’t have quite enough to pay the ranchero driver but he did let me off with a little discount - I wanted to save my very last $5 bill for the other side. Straight after the migration procedures I found the taxi going to town and here I encountered the first real problem: the taxi was 37SOL and after exchanging the money I was left with 13SOL – so just a little bit short. I must have looked pretty tired as the taxi driver agreed to take me to San Ignacio for whatever money I had, and also reassured me that the town is rather large and has several banks. And so I spent the journey chatting away to my travel companion, 70 year old gentleman who was very curious about what we have there in Poland. I swear we run through all the fruits and vegetables as well as farm animals. We got to San Ignacio at sunset and directed by the taxi driver I found myself hotel for the night. Immediately I run out to the cash machine in search of some money; I was thirsty and starving. And then my card didn’t work. Luckily the bank people were still there and called the central bank to restart the system and reassured me that these things happen quite often and when I come back in an hour all will be fine and dandy. A bit anxious but full of hope I returned after an hour to find the bank closed, still not being able to get money and also managing to enter the wrong PIN on my other card and it ending up being swollen… I was hungry, tired and really freaked out that I have actually now no money to pay for the hotel room or even to buy a bottle of water. So as every girl in my place would do – I started to cry… As I was walking away from the bank with tears streaming down my cheeks I run into the taxi driver who brought me back from the border. He decided to help me out and drove me around the town in hope of finding other cash machines that would work. Failing that he secured a transport for me for the morning in a car to next, bigger town with a promise that I will pay on arrival, spoke to my hotel manager and convinced him to forget my debt if I do not manage to get money out in the morning from the bank and bought me water and food and told me to go, rest and relax and that tomorrow will be a better day… Honestly I felt like he was my angel that day and I will never, ever forget how much a stranger did for me that evening. At 4am I got a call from my bank’s fraud department and it turned out that it was them who blocked my card… So all got solved in the end and at 7am I run down to get cash and got myself a breakfast fit for a queen. After all the adventures I was really looking forward to getting on a direct bus to Chachapoyas… Of course it doesn’t exist! So it was a combi from San Ignacio to Jaen. From Jaen I found one company that was running taxis to Bagua Grande (with a massive help of a Peruvian guy who I met in the combi), after waiting for 2 hours and getting to a stage of paying for the full taxi (I had to wait for the minimum of 4 passengers) we finally left with the craziest driver I have ever met, he was overtaking with 100m spare and I really thought there is no way I will make it to Chachapoyas, ever. From Bagua Grande there was last change to another taxi, this time direct to Chachapoyas. It really felt like I finally reached civilisation after 36 hours of hell – there was good coffee, cakes and internet. I was finally, truly in Peru.

Photos: Ecuador

kamzam — Tue, 18 Sep 2012 10:36:00 GMT

Ecuador – the land of volcanos and the indigenous people (Otavalo, Quito, Latacunga)

kamzam — Mon, 17 Sep 2012 10:19:00 GMT

Crossing the border to Ecuador turned out to be quite simple, if a bit long and painful, process. After a really bumpy journey to Ipiales, we swapped for a mini van to the border, quickly got our stamps, then another van to Tula, where we finally hopped on the bus to Otavalo. Even though the journey was supposed to last only 2.5 hours, it quickly became clear that there is no way we were going to make it. We seemed to be stopping every 15 minutes and moving at a truly snail pace.

But eventually we arrived at Otavalo. The whole journey took merely 16 hours!!! It was late and we were exhausted (we got up at 4.30am) so after a quick dinner it was time to sleep.

The next day was a shopping day, Otavalo being the most famous market town in Ecuador… Even though I was not there on the main market day, it was still pretty huge. It was also my first chance in a while to get some new clothes!! And I did love the idea!!!

Apart from the market there really is very little to do in town. The only other thing is to sit and watch the indigenous people go about their business in their beautiful handcrafted clothes. But it did give me the first glimpse of the country and the good food that was awaiting me. Unfortunately the beer turned out to be disappointing and actually even worse than Brazilian…

The next day I headed for Quito. It was also time to say good bye to Michel as after nearly a month of travelling together our schedules separated.

When I got to Quito I got my usual big city reaction of annoyance and general wishing to get out of it as soon as possible (which actually begs the question how will I settle back to London…). So as soon as I found my hostel and dropped my bags I decided there was no time to waste and headed for the Old Town.

There is where I discovered why so many people fall in love with Quito. The Old Town has the colonial charm, filled with beautiful churches and nice squares. It is lovely to stroll around and the only thing I noticed was the lack of nice cafes to rest in… Changing my long time habit of not visiting too many churches I actually made it inside most of them, as well as what is regarded the Ecuador’s most beautiful one - La Compana de Jesus. To be honest I didn’t really want to go into that one as the price of $3 seemed a bit steep considering that all the other churches were free, but a lovely security guard sneaked me inside and it is a truly beautiful place.

After walking around for 6 hours I made my way back to Mariscal where I found a real deal Indian restaurant and satisfied my appetite with a lovely Saag Paneer - the very first Indian I had in 9 months!!!! Upon returning to the hostel I got a nice surprise as it turned out that the old friend from the Sao Paulo carnival was also in town so it was time to get some beers and reminisce…

The next day I felt a bit sluggish and so it was a day of organising, lunching in park and general relaxation. So I did not go to the Mitad del Mundo or up the volcano, but it’s OK, sometimes you need to be lazy!

It was a good job I got a day rest as next day I headed for Latacunga with the view to climb the Cotopaxi.

Latacunga, although not really high on tourist agenda, is actually a pretty nice place to while away a few days. I stayed there in Hostal Tiana, which is an amazing, lovely hostel that comes with great breakfast and constant supply of tea and coffee – just what you need when you are out trekking the whole day.

The first decision I needed to make upon arrival was whether or not I will attempt to summit Cotopaxi. First of all there was no one to join me, so I decided that at the least I will look for someone to climb up the South side with me (much less popular approach as you need to climb up for 4 hours to get to the glacier rather than 45 min on the North side – trust me to pick the harder route). Initially I also had no luck but then I found someone who wanted to summit and was about to book the guide and equipment when I actually looked at the weather forecast and it did not look too great. So I decided to only go up to the glacier, as up to that level the weather was much more stable.

Oh how wrong was I!!!!

The day started pretty bad with our guide not being able to find the actual entrance to the path… It turned out that no one has been up on this side for 6 months and things changed… After that small obstacle we got to the refuge and began to climb. It immediately got really windy, but bearable…

We continued for about 2 hours when it started to snow. Snow combined with strong wind is not fun as it basically freezes on your skin. After another hour the wind became extremely strong, every step was made with huge effort and so we decided to stop before the last climb before the glacier – we had about 300m left… To be fair we were all up for continuing but after going another 20m and having to catch our guide before he flew off the mountain we decided that the sanest thing is to go back. I was really disappointed as I really felt that yet another volcano has defeated me.

The only consolation (I didn’t initially believe the guide, I thought he just didn’t have the motivation to go to the end) came from hearing that it was also bad on the North side and even with much smaller climb nobody made it to the glacier and those who set out to summit also had to return.

The next day I planned to go to see the Quilotoa Lake. I set out in the morning with a group from the hostel but since the journey took really long due to some road works, and since they were leaving the same evening and needed to get back earlier, we decided to separate as I wanted to do the full circuit and they simply didn’t have the time.

It was meant to be dead easy. There is supposed to be only one path around so after being asked if I needed a guide I figured that I can achieve following the one path around the lake on my own.

The first thing I did wrong was to go anti clockwise. Apparently you are supposed to go the other way… Oh well…

The trek is nice, the lake is this perfect green in the middle of a crater surrounded by peaks. I was the only one on the path, just me, some birds, random horse, nature and beautiful view. There is only one steep bit, the rest is quite easy to tackle. And so it continued for the first 2.5 hours. After that I got to the very flat bit where I could see only one path leading in the direction I wanted to go to, but it was going downhill… I had a good look ahead and thought that the path does go up after a while and so I decided to take it. After about 200m I realised that I am going far too low and the trail was supposed to follow the edge of the crater but since I could still see it leading in the right direction and not really wanting to turn back I figured that in the worst case scenario I can scramble back up as the mountain was not too steep.

After another 200m I heard a horse. I didn’t think anything of it as there are plenty of wild horses in Ecuador. But then I saw that it was a group of horses and the largest male was looking rather aggressive. I kept going but after a few steps I heard it again, this time when I looked back I saw it charging at me… It seemed that I entered their territory. Not really knowing how to handle a wild angry horse I decided that the best thing will be to run… And run I did!!! After another 200m I looked back and even though we seemed to be keeping the same distance between each other as soon as I stopped it began charging again, and so I started running again. Eventually I got to the rocky bit and I climbed over it, knowing that there was no way for the horse to follow. I stopped to catch my breath… even though that part was not steep I was running uphill for about 500m and felt pretty tired! But now I knew that there was no way of me turning back and trying to find the right trail. And so I continued on… Another 200m on I passed some kind of mound. As soon as I was on the other side of it I was attacked again – this time by two dogs. It was kind of a strange relief as dogs are something that I can handle, so after throwing some stones at them, they run away. I looked down (being nearly at the bottom of the crater by this stage) and finally saw some life in indigenous people working the field. Immediately I asked about the way out of here and, predictably, they pointed upwards - there was no other way but to climb 600m back… They reassured me that there were no more animals this way and off I went… When I got to the top I saw the life- saving sign pointing to Quilotoa! I was back!!! I have to say that even with my adventures I managed to do a whole thing in 4 hours (rather than the recommended 5)…

When I got to the parking lot I was tired and just wanted to get back to the safety of my hostel, so I did what seemed like the best solution at the time - I hitch hiked!!! Only after about 30 minutes in a car did I realise that maybe, just maybe, that was not the best decision for a girl on her own… Luckily stupid people tend to be protected and so I got back just fine. That night I rewarded myself with a nice burrito and beer and was ready for a more sedate destination of Banos.

Finally heading in the right direction – Cartagena, Medellin, Salento, Popayan

kamzam — Sun, 9 Sep 2012 08:13:00 GMT

With a bit of time in my hands in Parque Tayrona I actually managed to do some calculating and realised that I might be running out of time. That meant that I could no longer afford the luxury of overstaying and needed to get myself on the road and moving fast.

First stop after Santa Marta was Cartagena. There is no denying the beauty of this city. It has a proper Caribbean feel to it and at times seemed more like being in Cuba than in Colombia.

But with the cruise ships passing through the sea come huge amounts of tourist. It is definitely the most touristy place I have been to for a while and with that come much higher prices.

We spent the day wondering the charming streets of the old town - luckily it’s pretty compact and 1 day is sufficient to get to know it.

In the evening we did try to go out for few beers but after noticing the extortionate prices in the bars we settled for a beer in the square and an early night.

Next day we decided to take a tour to the mud volcano. It is a very, very bizarre experience which is sort of like floating in a pudding or melted marshmallows. All in all, it’s great, and I am really glad I did it but it is slightly weird. I have also proven that you can in fact drown there (I was told repeatedly that it was not possible), let’s just say that I was very happy to have other people with me…

Being on a tight schedule we left Cartagena for Medellin, on a night bus. I have to admit that it was a really stupid idea and that I should have not ignored the advice of many fellow travellers who told me that it’s much better to take the flight. Since I only decided to go to Medellin a day before the flights were too expensive but I now know I should have just paid the price.

The road is terrible. I am a very good night bus sleeper but it was pretty impossible to get any sleep on this bumpy, bendy, hell of a road. When I did finally managed to drift away, the bus stopped rapidly and I flew from my sit onto the floor. Needless to say, I was too scared to fall asleep again.

Matters were not helped by the fact that after 8 months of relative peace I finally got sick. I knew it was coming but this was not the very best moment. Luckily I was mostly in pain rather than having to run to bathroom every 5 minutes. But the terrible road was not much of a help.

And so I arrived to Medellin in not the best of moods, only to discover that it’s a large, polluted city – not what I was after at right that very minute.

We settled into our hostel, a very comfortable Blacksheep, and after couple of hours of rest I was ready to give Medellin a chance.

We walked through what remains of the very unimpressive Old Town, all the way to the university area. I have to say it did not correct my initial impression of the city. I was also, of course, a bit grumpy and feeling progressively worse. It was therefore a quiet night for me on the sofa, watching Harry Potter (yes, seriously).

The next day I decided that the best thing will be to just stay put, relax and hope that I will feel better.

And I did so the day after we went to a little colourful town of Guatape which is famous for the gigantic 200m rock and is surrounded by beautiful lakes. It was a nice day out with a perfect weather and definitely cheered me up.

In the end I didn’t get to experience the famous Medellin nightlife (we were there on Monday through to Weds) or the informative Pablo Escobar tour. Maybe if I did both I would have liked the place more. Instead I was really happy to be getting out of there and back to the quiet countryside of Zona de Cafetera.

Salento is in the middle of coffee country. It is slightly on the cold side but is surrounded by beautiful mountains and comes with constant supply of my favourite drug – coffee.

We stayed in a quiet Plantation House and of course after recovering from the journey the very first thing we did was to embark on the coffee plantation tour. It was very informative and the farm itself is also really beautiful.

After the tour it was time for the most exciting part of the day - we found this café run by US guy that served waffles and actual, real, peanut butter!

Next day we headed out to the wonderful Valle de Cocora, famous for its 60m palm trees. And just as we hit the trail, my camera broke. I couldn’t believe it!!! It was a brand new thing!!! Fuelled by frustration I basically run the whole way to the humming bird refugio - good work that my knee recovered and could sustain the mad rush…

It is a really nice walk, you keep crossing the stream through wobbly bridges and pass small waterfalls. Because I was well ahead of everyone I ended up enjoying the route alone and was also the first one to get my cup of hot chocolate and cheese and enjoy the view of tens of humming birds.

From there it was supposed to be a quick 1.8km up to the view point at La Montana. I was really happy that Michel joined me on this bit cause of course we got lost. We somehow missed the turn off and ended up walking 2 km back and then we had back track to where the sign was. So it was a good job that we were going pretty quickly (even though the 800m up was a struggle as I was fighting the frustration of getting lost and not concentrating on breathing) as otherwise we would have possibly run out of time to do the whole loop.

It was worth persevering as the view from the top onto the Valle is truly magnificent!!!

My original plan was to go to also visit Manizales which lies very near Salento and go up a volcano Nariz there. Unfortunately the route to the summit was closed due to the imminent eruption warning. Not wanting to risk it I decided to move on and leave the volcanos for Ecuador. And so the next stop was Popayan.

After bad experience with big city in Medellin, I was a bit weary of going there but I was proven completely wrong. Popayan is a beautiful place with some of the loveliest people I met in Colombia and charming whitewashed mansions lining the streets. Matters were definitely helped by the fact that I found a place to fix my camera and it was ready within the same day. I also received a gigantic portion of the local ice cream (I asked for one scoop but was awarded half a kilo) and so it was love of first time for me and Popayan.

The only disappointing thing was that the trip to the local thermal baths sounded so tricky and difficult as described by my hostel that I ended up not doing it and later heard that the journey was actually pretty easy and the views amazing. Oh well; instead we went to the local indigenous market town of Silvia. It was a nice morning out strolling around the food market and pots and pans stalls. We also found out from the ‘health show’ on the village square that all your illnesses can be easily cured by burying a potato filled with a raw mash of potatoes, carrots and ginseng. After 1 night in the ground the medicine is ready to help you prevent cancer, high blood pressure and any other illness you can think of…

And so I have run out of my time in Colombia…

Santa Marta, Parque Tayrona and the Ciudad Perdida trek

kamzam — Tue, 28 Aug 2012 06:59:00 GMT

After slightly painful (Colombian roads are proving to be a bit challenging) overnight bus journey I arrived to Santa Marta. I was really lucky to be staying with a family of a friend there and in truly Colombian fashion they took care of all of my needs immediately. Jose took me out to see the city, his sister insisted on cooking every meal for me and his mum was just an unbelievably sweet.

It’s always much better to get to know the city through the locals so it was a great pleasure to stay with his family. They also arranged the Ciudad Perdida trek for me.

Santa Marta may not be as pretty as Cartagena but has its charming colonial centre and a beautiful setting. It is not entirely safe however. As soon as I arrived I was warned never to walk alone at night and got some confirmation of the rumours that paramilitaries are still very active around the area. They apparently swapped kidnapping for acting as a local mafia, extorting money for protection from local bars and shopkeepers.

It is no surprise then that the police presence is very welcomed. Colombia has so far been the only country I have ever been to in which people actively thank police officers for patrolling their street. It is also very common to greet the police on the roads as a sign of appreciation of them keeping everyone safe.

Apart from stocking up on essentials before the trek or visit to the Parque Tayrona there isn’t really much to do in Santa Marta. I took a day trip to the nearby Taganga, a small fishing village where basically all of the foreigners stay. I heard mix reviews about it but I have to say that personally I found it pretty horrible. It’s very dirty; the main beach - Playa Grande, is fine but again covered in rubbish and actually not that big. The town itself is full of backpacker amenities, bars and restaurants so if you just go there to get drunk for few days it’s a pretty good spot. For me one afternoon was enough and so I was happy to be staying in Santa Marta itself.

And so the next day it was time to head out for the 5 day trek to Ciudad Perdida. The trek is normally 5 days but Michel and I ended up doing 6 days as we were slightly cheated on the price. Because Jose’s family did the booking through intermediary and not agency itself we had to pay COP50000 more so we insisted that we will stay on the trek for 6 days therefore reducing the cost per night. The normal price is COP600000 and the trek is 5 days. You walk 3 days up and 2 days down.

The one thing I would say is that it is absolutely true that you stay wet throughout. Be it sweat, rain, waterfall – you have no chance of drying your clothes in those 5/6 days.

I was really surprised to see how well equipped the whole thing was considering that only 7000 people a year make it there. For starters you don’t carry your own food and hammock which is a massive relief. The only thing you need to carry is your own stuff. Which brings me to the most important tip for the trek – REMEMBER TO TAKE PLAYING CARDS WITH YOU – this cannot be stressed enough!

The places you stay in are also very comfortable. Only the first night is spent in hammock, the other two you sleep in dorm beds.

After the Amazon I was expecting way more mosquitos and I was pleasantly surprised to discover that there really weren’t that many. Normal repellent was also sufficient to deter them.

Each day you walk for about 4 hours (of course depending on your speed and speed of the group – I would say that we were average but we did manage do get to Ciudad Perdida by day 3 which meant that we could have completed the trek in 4 days), there is only one day with 7 hour trek but it’s mostly downhill. All in all, even though it’s challenging at times, mostly due to the heat, I think pretty much everyone is able to do it. For me the greatest challenge was the fact that my knee was still injured and so even 4 hour trekking each day was proving pretty painful. I also managed to fall 5 meters down a waterfall but apart from a sore bum I was totally fine. Most people make it without any accidents…

Each day walking finished pretty much after lunch and so you have all of the afternoon to rest, recover and pick up energy for the next day. There is, however, nothing to do apart from chatting to your trek friends or playing cards…and it is a great mistake if your group did not take a deck with them… Luckily we all got along really well. I can’t even imagine what it could be like being stuck in a jungle for 6 days with people you don’t like…

All in all I would say it is totally worth doing this trek, the journey is beautiful, some of the sights are truly amazing and you get to visit some indigenous Cogi villages (villagers themselves are not the friendliest but they do allow us to walk through their sacred ground so I guess we should be grateful). You do need to like nature to enjoy this hike - it is not the spectacular views from top of the mountain kind of thing. But you get to swim in crystal clear waterfalls, sweat a lot, listen to birds, learn about medicinal plants and camp in the jungle. And at the end of it you get to climb 2000 final steps to the city. For me, there was something truly enchanting to wander through the terraces of this forgotten civilisation (Tayrona) and reward myself with a victory beer at the top… Also after 6 days of being stuck together I have cemented my travelling friendship with Michel and also found a new friend in Andrew, who decided to stay with us the full duration.

The best thing you can do after 6 days of walking is reward yourself with few days on the beach, which is exactly what we did. After one necessary night in the hostel we headed out to Parque Tayrona the next day. I was thinking that after doing 4 hours trekking each day 45min walk to the camp site would be nothing but it’s hot, sweaty and it turned out that I was pretty fed up with going up all the time… Having said that, place is very nice. We ended up staying at Finca San Pedro which even though not right on the beach was really lovely and peaceful. We decided to sleep in the hammocks (the cheapest option). The beaches are nice and it was a great place to rest. I think after being beach spoilt in Brazil I did not consider the place as amazing as other people did. Thinking that the food was going to be drastically overpriced we brought our own supplies. What we did not realise was that we will need to make our own fire!!! But being with two boys who bragged about being former scouts I did not think it was going to be much of a problem… And so it only took 2 hours to make the fire but after so much effort even the simplest pasta with tomato sauce tasted pretty amazing!!!

Sadly the next day it was time to say good bye to Andrew who after 15 months of travel was heading home. I have to say that meeting him finally made me think about going home myself and realising that 8 months on the road is a fair amount of time and with just 3 months left I should maybe start getting used to the idea of normal life…

Michel and I sticked around on the beach for another day and then decided to make a move and head down the coast to Cartagena.

Photos: Colombia

kamzam — Sun, 26 Aug 2012 03:14:00 GMT

Getting to know the new country – Bogota, Villa de Leyva, San Gil

kamzam — Sun, 26 Aug 2012 03:11:00 GMT

A quick flight to Bogota from Leticia (there is no other route) meant getting a slight temperature shock on arrival. I went from close to 40 degrees to 15… It also meant getting further away from Brazil and settling into travel in a new country. After 3 months of living in an already familiar Brazil it was going to be a little bit hard.

All the blows were softened by the amazing Colombian friends who have welcomed me into their homes in Bogota and took very good care of me.

My time in Bogota was dominated by capoeira, guess it was bound to be as I was staying with two fellow capoeirstas. And it was so good to be back to regular training!!! The only think that presented a slight problem was altitude. I was fine when just walking around but training proved to be slightly harder. Luckily it does pass after few days.

I really liked Bogota. In many ways it reminded me (very bizarrely) of London. Especially the Northern part of the city looked very much like parts of Hampstead. There are even some gastropubs… It also has the same weather – constantly chilly and rainy. There is no doubt that the city is beautifully set in the mountains but is by no means the most attractive place in South America.

I have of course visited the Gold Museum and it really is worth spending some time there. It gives a very good overview of the Colombian history as well as showcasing beautiful golden artworks.

I also spent a day wondering around the old town which is really pretty and had plenty of nice coffee shops to escape to when it starts raining.

I felt very safe in Bogota but that was probably because I was with the locals most of the time and even they would not wonder around the streets at night - taxis are cheap and plentiful and really the most sane way of travelling round the city at night.

Unfortunately due to the sudden change of temperatures I got a bit of a cold so did not manage to make it to the salt mines near the city, I was also too lazy to climb up the hill to visit the monastery..

I guess I was happy to be staying in a normal flat again, have my own bed and be able to watch telly and laze around. I did make to cinema there as well and it was a real treat after 7 months break.

The one day trip I went on was to a nearby town of Chia to visit an old people’s home (it was for a charity event). It turned out to be surprisingly fun day with bands playing cumbia and salsa and the very exciting game of bingo.

And once again I have managed to stay in a place more than expected so after 10 days it was time to get on with it and so I caught a bus to Villa de Leyva.

Villa is such a pretty place. It has the largest market square in Colombia (which is empty most of the time) and is surrounded by cute white walled cottages. There is not much to do there other than wonder the streets, take few walks into the countryside and just relax. It also is warmer than Bogota. Oh, and for dino lovers there are a few skeletons to look at.

The one walk that I did there was through the sites recommended by my hostel. The sites were pretty disappointing but it was a nice 6 hour wonder through the countryside, greatly saved by a small shop selling cold beers at about 4^th hour point. And I was lucky enough to have a good company - you really need a good dose of sense of humour to stand and marvel at some of the ‘tourist attractions’. My personal favourite was the Big Stone - and it was, literally, a big stone…

Raquira, a small village about an hour from Villa, was a fun place to visit for a day. The first thing that hits you is the colours; it’s a good change after watching the whiteness of Villa for two days. It is also the clay capital of Colombia with some beautiful pots and pans (sadly I couldn’t buy any as I knew they would just get smashed in the next few months of bus travel). Apart from that it’s basically one street village packed with souvenir shops.

After 3 days at Villa it was time to move forward and as my next destination I chose San Gil. It’s an adventure sport capital and there is plenty to do - white water rafting, paragliding, mountain biking…

I went there primarily to do a mountain bike ride through the canyon which I heard was great fun. Unfortunately I have once again injured my knee in Bogota and the 6 hour trek in Villa did not help so I was facing a choice – do the mountain bike ride and give up on Ciudad Perdida trek or rest and recover. Since I had my heart set on the trek and knowing that there will be plenty of other opportunities of spectacular bike rides I decided to take it easy and just listen to what others experienced on their adventures. But since I wasn’t going to do any of the sports there was also not much point in hanging around there for too long. I did however go on the tour of the nearby town of Barrichara, beautifully set in the mountains. Spent a whole day there wondering the streets and in the evening joined the locals to play the Colombian bowling - it involves a piece of garden, metal balls, 3 sticks as a target and beer. The aim is to throw the metal ball and hit the sticks… It was pretty good fun enhanced by the fact that my team won 2 rounds of beer J Who would have thought that I would be so good at throwing metal balls at sticks…

The next day after a visit to the waterfall, me and my new travel companion Michel boarded the night bus for the coast. It was time to get some sun and get trekking!!!