Colombia: Cartagena, Mud Volcano, The Lost City, Tayrona

Hello all,

Cartagena is colorful and surrounded by a walled fortress with towers and canons still aimed at potential pirates on the horizon

We took a day trip from it to the Mud Volcano El Totumo-20 meters high and, they say, a couple hundred meters deep

We found it squishy and a little bit gross but also fun to be that bouyant for a while

Next we headed to Ciudad Perdida.

The Lost City trek has kind of an interesting reputation and there are a couple reasons why a person might choose not to go on it.

One, several tourists were kidnapped on it in by FARC in 2003.

Two, it can be a grueling 6 day slog through rivers, mud and steep slippery trails (even the bus ride to the trailhead is enough to make some people think twice about continuing) - for example we met 2 solitary trekkers on their way back who told us they started out with a group of 7 ....

To us, this all just made it sound even more appealing.

And it lived up to everything we had hoped:

It was wet - 8 river crossings on the way in

and 8 out - even better because it had rained so much the river rose several feet forcing us to use a rickety flying fox across one nasty bit and ropes across another. it was heavenly

grueling - there are 1200 moss covered steps just in the final hour to the city

and it's filled with reptiles - this deadly fleur de lance was found next to our camp and initially we thought it was unfortunate it had been killed. with a bit more thought, however, reconsidered the possibility of crawling into an already occupied sleeping bag at the end of the day...

but mostly it was just wild and amazing

Our amazing guide Omar, who claims he was the guide for the 8 trekkers who were kidnapped

A small area of the city, but one of the most distinctive

Since the kidnappings, the Colombian military has been a constant presence on the trails. They clearly have a lot of down time these days and seem to enjoy giving rifle lessons to trekkers

Our most luxurious camp - complete with a roof, mosquito nets and plenty of space to hang up sopping wet clothes

The throne

After the Lost City we had some lazy time on the Carribbean at Parque Tayrona. There are no roads to it, so we hiked in with a bit of food, our bathing suits and little else.

Sleeping overnight in a hammock involves balancing between mosquito precautions, not too much covering in the heat, and how to get your rolled up socks to become the perfect pillow. We rented some on the beach and worked on the technique.

After Tayrona we headed back to Taganga to say goodbye to the surrogate family we had been traveling with for so long Kenya, auntie Helen, Megan and JP.

Then we headed back to Bogota on our last night bus to catch our flight out of South America.

Love d&j

Colombia: Pasto, San Augustin, Bogota, Villa De Leyva, Medellin

Hello all,

We crossed the border into Pasto during their black and white carnival. Two days when everyone, including police, spray each other with cans of foam and handfulls of talc and flour.

It's wicked fun until somebody loses an eye to a powerful jet of foam

Darryl´s new Colombian family bonding over shared griminess,

We arrived at San Augustin after an extremely bumpy bus ride from Popayan.
We celebrated Darryl´s bithday here by hiring some very fast horses to visit different archeological sites.

The statues are around 4000 years old

The one that looks happy about sacrificing a small child, still had color from tree pigments

That night we made Darryl a cake out of lots of love, and some fresh passionfruit

The official Parque Archeological had a huge collection of statues in the middle of the jungle.

a favorite, Mr. Burns


This little fellow was lost in the jungle,

This one had evil plans

and this one had a problem with muscle tone

Our most favorite hostel, Casa de Francois. Everything a (aged & married) backpacker could hope for, an amazing homemade breakfast, comfy beds, beautiful setting, lots of hammock space, hot showers, a clean kitchen to cook cheap meals and owners that are neither too inattentive nor anal retentive.

And they had midget doors!

Our next stop was Salento in the middle of Colombia´s coffee growing zone where Don Elias showed us the process from picking to drinking at his finca,

We ate ourselves stupid for 5000 pesos. Trout is a local specialty, as are arepas, platano, frijoles, the ubiquitous white arroz and jugo de maracuya.

The Valle de Cocora, full of wax palms that grow to 60 meters in a cloudforest, is very close to Salento

The reserve at the end of the hike is a hummingbird paradise. So drunk on their sugar nectar they don't care that you're a foot away inspecting each perfect feather

As far as eating was concerned, we were on a role, and so Bogota was mostly about trying new foods and visiting Botero artwork (everything large)-which had a kind of symmetry about it. .

Ajiaco Bogotano, made by a servant of a friend of a friend at grandmacita's house in La Zona Rosa

Obleas, head sized wafers bought on the street and filled with everything that is sweet and good

There was also an amazing gold museum (this is the bat god)

an underground salt cathedral nearby

and a view of 8 million Bogotanos, possibly worth the 14000 pesos out of our dwindling funds it took to get up there by furnicular

Villa de Leyva is a perfect colonial city several hours away from Bogota. It's hard to put the place into words, but if we had to try we might say; taste sensation, muppet, band meeting, chifle and wilson; which of course won't make sense to anyone but those who were there at the time, like Muppet who sits in quiet contemplation of his beautiful surroundings.

Next in Medellin, formerly home to Pablo Escobar's cocaine cartel, we celebrated Australia day complete with bbq, pavlova and lots of beer.

We started to look more and more like Botero's bronze statues. . .but kept eating anyway

Next we rolled ourselves up to Cartagena

Love, d&j