Pics as requested

Santa Monica Pier- where I spent my day in transit in LA.

View from a lookout in Quito ( I can´t figure out how to rotate it)

The streets of Cartagena, Colombia.

Centennial plaza in Cartagena, Colombia.

Being a tourist.

The shores of Playa Blanca, our first pristine Caribbean beach.

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If this is all I have to complain about, things are pretty sweet

Yesterday was one of those days where nothing could go right. We were all set to check out of our room and be on a bus by midday. But things didn´t work out that way. First of all we wanted to buy some T-shirts, but after 15 minutes figured their eftpos machine wouldn´t work and we would have to come back in an hour. Then the next shop we went into processed our payment, but were´nt sure if it had actually gone through and spent at least half an hour calling the boss, calling the bank, finding access codes and finally putting it through again. Then we went to send these shirts back to Australia, but they wouldn´t let us use Hanks FedEx account without a written authorisation on company letterhead. When we finally got back to the hostel to get our bags they tried to tell us that we had to pay for our last night there. There was no way they could check their records, even though it´s all computerised- just because someone didn´t write it down in the book. A couple of days before we had made friends with the owner of the place, but he wasn´t there to save us now, so this time we spent close to an hour sitting there saying " We paid" and them saying "No you didn´t" until finally they just let us go.

After all this kerfufull I didn´t feel I had time to go to the toilet, so we caught a cab straight to the bus station, but then got straight on to the bus, and although we were heading to a place called Baños (Spanish for toilet) they didn´t have one on the bus, and my pack wouldn´t fit on the overhead luggage rack so I had to have it on my lap, pushing against my bursting bladder, for a two and a bit hour journey. I thought I was just going to have to piss my pants there and then. But by some miracle I made it to the bus terminal in Ambato, where we changed buses, and caused a little confusion in trying to find the toilet and the right bus to get on in the same conversation.

It all seemed worth it though when we rounded a corner and saw the Tungurahua Volcano spewing smoke happily above the town. I actually got a good photo out of the bus window, so I´ll put it up soon. So now we are in the happy spa town of Baños staying in a $12 hotel, so much better that the one we were staying in in Quito for $15, and it has the best shower I have experienced in South America!

Quito

Back in Ecuador we checked out the Old City and the virgen of Quito statue at the top of a hill overlooking the capital. We also found a band playing tradicional folk music in the square, including a heartrendering rendition of ´My Way´and a guy singing, as far we could tell, about how all tourists were motherfuckers. Needless to say we didn´t hang around there for long.

We made our way to a restaurant famous for it´s roast chicken, and when they didn´t have it we struggled to find something else on the menu which didn´t risk being served up a plate of offal. While we were in there the daily rains came down and we were forced to walk to the trolley bus station getting drenched.

These buses are a hybrid of a tram, running on overhead wires, mostly in their own special lanes, running north to south along the length of the city.

Correction

Taganaga doesn´t have any water because they´re working on the pipes between Santa Marta, and on our last night there it was so windy that trees fell and took down the power lines. So we slept absoloutly sweltering in our hotbox of a room, that by that stage we had to share with two other couples.

Scuba Scuba

I don´t know how you land lubbers do it. I´m feeling the earth move all around me after being in the boat today.
We had a couple of dives and then did our test, but don´t finish our classes till tomorrow. They have a strange way of doing things here in Colombia.

We´re staying at the dive centre while we do our course- but there´s no water. Irony much?
Actually there´s no water in the whole town. It hasn´t rained here in Taganaga for about a year so they truck water in, but still hose down their concrete. Us Aussies could teach them a thing or two about water conservation me thinks.

I don´t get out much

On one of my infrequent walks alone in these foreign lands I got wolf whistled at by the policia as I walked past the station.

Cabo San Juan del Guia

That dammned Chavez, always ruining my fun!


On the morning we were leaving to go to Ciudad Perdida we got he call from above to say it was too dangerous to do the trek. The mountains in the area were crawling with Colombian military and it wasn´t worth getting caught in the middle of it. At least theytold us and didn´t let us walk into a battlezone blissfully unaware.

It really turned out to be a blessing though, ´cos instead of a six day hike to see some ruins we walked for about three hours to see a mini version ´Pueblito´and then spent three days chilling out on the beach in the national park. It was absoloute bliss- white sand Palm trees, coconuts everywhere, a restaurant to eat every meal at- that is until we tried to sleep our first night. We decided to go the expensive hammock option for 20 grand, right up high under a cabaña on stilts with the most amazing views of the rocks and oceans, that is until it got dark and cold and windy as hell. All the spray from the ocean came up and slightly dampened evrything and then the wind had the most amazing air conditioning effect. I did have my sleeping bag so I was a bit better off than Trent, just in all his clothes, and Justine who is four and a half months pregnant in the same situation. After that hellish experience we opted for tents, which still wasn´t ideal, but a hell of a lot better than up in the crows nest. It would be great to go back there prepared for it all and take a whole lot of food a drinks and really settle in for a while, except for the constant threat of ticks.


The way back we walked up the beach past all the other ´resorts´(a camp ground and restaurant) and were glad for our choice of Cabo and that we had a beautiful safe beach to swim in every day. The beach up the coast a bit, arriceffes has really rough seas and strong currents which people regularly get swept away in.

We´re offon our next Colombian adventure to Taganaga for more beach and possibly a diving course.

Lost City

Still in Colombia. We´ve headed further north and are staying the night in Santa Marta before a six day trek into the jungle to go see ´Ciudad Perdida´, the lost city of the tayrona indians. Sleeping in hammocks and crossing rivers up to your waist. Sounds like a lot of fun- Indiana Jones stylee.

It looks like the war is off. Everyone has come to some sort of agreement, but in Spanish so I don´t really have any idea of the resolution. At least we know we´ll be able to get back to Ecuador without too much hassle now. It´ll just be going through customs in the us after being in Colombia that could be interesting.

Cartegena is hotting up!

Buenos,

It´s nothing but sunshine here on the Carribbean coast. Every morning you´re already in a sweat when you wake up, and it´s not till the sea breeze kicks in that you start to get some relief in the shade at least.

After a long haul flight of 40 hours in trinsit from Melbourne I made it to Ecuador, and after two days spent mainly in our exclusive ´Love Den´, Trent and I headed out again on a (10 hours for two one hour flights) trip to Cartegena, Colombia. When we first arrived we were freaking out, and even the taxi driver told us it was a dangerous place to stay. Walking down the street with all our belongings on our back, the first hostel we went to was full, and then being ushered silently into the next one we found, one room with a celing fan, no seat on the toilet and a pipe out of the wall with cold water for a shower. Trent and I sat down and just had to concentrate on breathing for a while.

Now, three days later we can walk around town with smiling faces, driping with sweat, casually brushing off the street vendors trying to sell us all sorts of touristy crap, used to ignoring the sounds of taxi´s horns reminding us that we are in fact walking, even climbing the murella and talking photos of monuments.

You´d feel pretty safe if you didn´t realise you were in Colombia.

So now we just need to concentrate on avoiding getting ourselves into a war, and watch out for the miracle fishers.

Hasta Luego

p.s. According to Colombian pesos I´m a multi millionaire!