The End of Colombia and Beginning of Peru

Wow, I swear I had made a post in the past month, sorry about that. Last off I was in Colombia in the town of Santa Marta having finished the Lost City. I’m writing now from Peru, two days from starting Machu Picchu so I’ll fill you in on the rest.

            I spent the week around Christmas in Santa Marta where we celebrated Christmas by sitting on rooftops talking until the sun came up and then running down to the beach for a morning swim. Somewhere in that process my sandals disappeared, so I spent Christmas barefoot as the entire city of Santa Marta was a ghost town.  Colombians are famous for their revelry but everything was quite on the 25^th because Christmas was actually celebrated on Christmas Eve with Christmas reserved for family time. So I spent Christmas with our big hostel family of English, Danish, Australians, etc. After a couple more relaxing days in Santa Marta I headed to Medellin.

            Medellin is the second largest city in Colombia and possibly the most well known due to the recent turmoil surrounding Pablo Escobar and the drug cartels. After a sixteen-hour bus, I rolled into the enormous valley that held Medellin. The green hills were painted red from the clay houses that covered the valley. I spent the better part of my first day looking for a hostel as every South American was on vacation so every hostel was full. I finally found a bed in a decent little hostel. The part of Medellin where I was staying was a bit upscale so there were beautiful parks and walkways lining the streets. I woke up on New Years Eve with conjunctivitis, which put a slight damper on the festivities. All of the celebrations that night would take place in a 4-block area that was nothing but bars, restaurants and clubs. As we walked around at about 11pm we realized everything was dead, we learned another Colombian tradition of not going until after New Years as midnight was for family. So we headed to the central park where we rang in the New Year with over five hundred other backpackers. Following that long night of celebrating, I spent New Years Day trying to clear up my eye and my head.

After a restful day it was time to be a tourist again. I went and visited Pablo Escobar’s grave, office and one of his safe houses. At his safe house we met his brother, Roberto who had been responsible for cartel finances. Upon meeting him you would not have know this had been the face of a multibillion dollar drug cartel responsible for the murder of thousands of people. He had negotiated his release from jail and spent his time today helping out on this tour. I still am unsure about the tour as I was essentially paying for a former murderer to tell his story and talk to us about how his brother could be a really nice guy as long as you did what he said. It was surreal to say the least.

Afterwards we took a cable car up the side of one of the surrounding mountains where we passed over the favelas that the Escobar’s funded the construction of. We went and wandered around the favela, talking with a few locals who recommended that we probably should get on the cable car before dark, as it was a seedy area. Until the sun set, we wandered around sampling street food and watching the kids ride their bikes. It reminded me a bit of my own summers’ as a kid although I had to be inside when it got dark because it was dinnertime. That night I met with some friends at their hostel where they had met a Colombian family. The entire family brought us out for some salsa dancing where the mother proceeded to pull me around the dance floor and make me look silly. I headed home to rest my two left feet and to get some sleep before another travel day.

The following day I jumped on a bus to Guatape, a large group of lakes near Medellin. After a relatively short 3-hour bus ride through rolling farmland, an enormous monolith emerged, El Peñon. This enormous rock looks over all of the lakes and the next day I would climb it. After throwing my bag in a great hostel that overlooked one of the smaller lakes I went out for some dinner. I ordered blindly off a menu as there was no description of the food but I got chorizo, eggs, steak, pork belly, salad and rice; so I was happy to say the least. The town was bustling with Colombian tourists who were savoring the last days of vacation before heading back. The next day I wandered around the town looking at the colorful buildings and planning for the next few days. That afternoon I decided to walk to El Peñon because I thought I had a long bus ride ahead of me and wanted to burn some energy. Well after the 3-mile walk there, the 750 steps to the top looked a bit daunting. The reward after climbing the 750’ to the summit was amazing and from 7000’ feet you could see all of the surround valleys and lakes. After sticking around until sunset for some pictures, I rushed down to grab a tuk-tuk back to Guatape. From Guatape I jumped on a one-hour bus to a bus terminal where I planned to catch a bus. Unfortunately all of the other Colombian tourists had the same plan and the bus was full by the time I arrived. So I found the first burrito I had had since Nicaragua and went looking for a place to stay until my bus in the morning. A friendly police officer sent me in the direction of the cheapest place he knew. I probably shouldn’t have asked for that. I think I was the first person to stay more than one or two hours at the place as indicated by the couple leaving around 11pm. After scrubbing the hotel off me in the morning I jumped on a ten-hour bus to Bogota.

The bus to Bogota was fairly beautiful but slow and I did not arrive in the Colombian capital until rush hour. I quickly jumped on a bus headed towards the section of town where I needed to go but missed my stop and took an hour-long drive up into the suburbs. I assumed the bus would loop back but the driver was done for the night so I found another bus back to the city. After 3 connecting buses and some great directions from a kind older woman I found my hostel. I only had one full day in Bogota so I made the most of it. The next day I went and visited the Gold Museum, which had some tens of thousands of gold pieces from Colombia’s past. Afterwards I went to go buy a jacket because temperatures dipped down to the 40s in Bogota and some of my upcoming cities. That turned into an ordeal as there are few jackets made for my size, after at least an hour in the most insane market I’ve been in I found something that fit. As well as a Patriots hat! After a night of wandering around the city, I headed to bed because I had a flight to Peru at the crack of dawn.

After a short two hour flight to Lima, Peru I set out to find a hostel. Lima was a bit of an eyesore after Colombia. It was a dusty, gray city even though it sat on cliffs overlooking the Pacific. I decided I did not want to be there long so the next morning I jumped on a bus to Huacachina, a little desert oasis. I arrived in the night and saw little of where I was but when I awoke I was surrounded by enormous dunes, which encroached on the small lake and surrounding village. That afternoon we skipped what sounded like a very exciting Patriots game for a very exciting time in the dunes. We climbed into a homemade sand buggy and our driver tore off into the desert. After a rollercoaster like ride over the dunes, we climbed to the top of one. We jumped out and strapped on snowboards before hurtling down the enormous dunes. After filling every orifice with sand, we headed back for another heart pounding ride over the dunes. We returned to the village and a few of us climbed the neighboring dune to watch a spectacular sunset before returning to the hostel for an all you can eat bbq. The next day I relaxed around the oasis before boarding a night bus to Arequipa.

After a pretty poor ten-hour ride to Arequipa, I found the hostel where some friends from Colombia were staying. After a couple nights in the Wild Rover, I set off at 3am to hike Colca Canyon; one of the deepest canyons in the world. After a cold bus ride through snow and ice at 18,000 feet we arrived back in the desert. We hiked 11 miles down into the dusty canyon where we stayed at a glacially fed oasis. The oasis was an amazing respite from the dry dusty desert that we had been hiking in. The next morning we woke up at 4am and hiked the 3000 feet up out of the canyon. After a day of looking at llamas and all of their relatives we returned to Arequipa. The following day I went to a museum that held a frozen mummy known as “The Ice Princess” found at the top of one of the mountains. It was how I imagine Ted Williams is being kept currently so a bit creepy. After a weekend at the Wild Rover I was ready to head to Cusco. Unfortunately after the Patriots great win over the Colts, I came down with food poisoning. So I have been stuck for the past two days in Arequipa waiting for this to pass (or stop passing?). On the Brightside it gave me time to update the blog, read Dune by Fran Hebert and make it on to what will hopefully be my final interview for a job in Boston. So it looks like I will be spending the weekend hiking the Salkantay Trail about 40 miles to Machu Picchu.

Wifi is slow here so all of my pictures through Huacachina can be seen here.

Sailing and Trekking

Made it to the Lost City

      Last time I updated this, I was 24 hours from leaving Central America for South America. Well, plenty has happened since then and I’ll try to cram all 3 weeks into this post. I spent my last day in Central America exploring the town of Portobelo; the former hub of gold trade in Panama. I hiked up to the fortresses that defended the port from the pirates of the Caribbean where I could see the Mintaka, the boat where I would spend the next five days.

            That evening we boarded the boat and had an excellent Italian dinner, prepared by the German captain and his wife. Petra and Manfred had been living on their boat for the past twenty five years and unlike some of the other boats that made the same trip, they cared about the state of their boat. The boat was run with German efficiency and throughout the tip we were reminded of that. Besides for the captain and his wife, we had 4 Swiss and 3 English, so most conversations were a mix of English and German. After dinner on the first night, we pulled up the anchor and set sail for the San Blas Islands. After sailing for ten hours, we reached our first island where we would spend the next day.

The following day we snorkeled for a majority of the day before taking the zodiac to one of the surrounding islands. The San Blas islands are comprised of about 400 islands, inhabited by the indigenous Kuna people. The Kuna’s had been forced from Panama when the Spanish conquistadors arrived and have lived there ever since, speaking their own language and ruling themselves. We went to a local island where they use a mix of Panamanian currency and coconuts for trade. We played beach volleyball and relaxed before returning to the boat with our recently purchased lobsters.  After a fantastic lobster dinner and restful night aboard the Mintaka. We spent three hours in the morning sailing to a different group of islands where we spent the day snorkeling on a beautiful coral reef. Afterwards we swam to an island where we traded for coconuts so that we could make Coco Locos, which is just rum and fresh coconut. After a steak dinner we set sail for a final group of islands where we would spend the day snorkeling and relaxing before setting sail for Colombia. We had one last meal on a level boat before spending the next 38 hours at a 30* tilt at the open sea. Half the people spent the next two days sick in the bunks while I slept soundly and ate well. I awoke after two days in the beautiful port of Cartagena where I would spend the next few days.

Lobsters for Dinner

Sunset from the Mintaka

One of 350 San Blas islands

40 hours at sea

The port city of Cartagena is considered one of the oldest cities in Colombia. The colorful walled city is a popular destination for Colombians, and backpackers alike. Therefore it was a great place to interact with local Colombians and swap tales of with backpackers heading in the opposite direction of me. On our second day it began to rain, and I mean rain. I thought I was still on the boat, as I was surrounded by water, with over a foot flooding every street and not dissipating for two days. We walked in knee-deep water throughout the city which was a pretty disgusting feeling.  After three days swamping through Cartagena, I headed to Santa Marta with a German guy I had met in Cartagena. After a day in Santa Marta we headed to the small fishing village of Taganga. Someone had recommend a hostel to us, Casa Moringa, so we booked beds there for the next few days. The hostel was the villa of a Colombian governor who had been arrested for corruption. He rented his villa out in order to make some money so we had the opportunity to stay in a beautiful house overlooking the beach. After a few days lounging around the villa and sitting on the beach I decided I needed to be a little more active. So we went on a trek to Tayrona National Park. A beautiful Caribbean reserve with white sand beaches. We rode in on the backs of motorcycles and spend the afternoon cliff jumping and snorkeling before returning to Taganga. That trek had not been enough for me so I signed up for another trek to Cuidad Perdida, the Lost City.

Flooded streets of Cartagena

Cartagena's wildlife

The walled city of Cartagena

Arepas

It rained a bit

Some rain

The next morning I packed up my things and set off for the Lost City. While I expected the adventure to begin after we reached the jungle, it began about an hour prior. Our van was stopped and immigration asked for all of our passports. The passports that we left in Santa Marta because the guides said they would bring copies. They didn’t. Luckily the police let us go on without too much hassle and we continued towards the jungle city of Machete. The final leg of the van ride was an hour of off-road driving until we reached Machete. After a quick lunch we set off on the first leg of the trip. The trip would be a four-day trip into the Colombian rainforest to the ancient lost city and back to Machete. The trek to the Lost City had only become available in the past decade, as the FARC guerillas had been pushed out of the area for the most part. The total length of the trek was about 30 miles but on the first day we only had about 7 miles to hike. Well, we got a late start and torrential downpours because after an hour. These turned the hills into slick mudslides where we all slid down and struggled to clamor up. Soaked to the bone including my backpack we made our ways to the first camp under the cover of night. We had a warm dinner and climbed into hammocks for a short nights rest before leaving camp at 5AM. We hiked 16km on the second day, including over mountains and through rivers. We reached a camp only an hour from the Lost City where we cooled off in a river before resting for the night. We woke up at 4AM for a hot breakfast before climbing 1500 steps to the first terrace of the Lost City. My knees were just about done when I reached the top and was disappointed by the city at first. I learned that we were only at the location of the poorer village. The city was founded about 800 years prior to Machu Picchu (visiting shortly) on a series of terraced mountains. We hiked up to the summit of the city, where we were greeted with breathtaking views.  We explored the city for the next two hours before hiking back down the steps to our basecamp. After a short lunch we headed back towards a camp where we swam and slept until 4 AM when we hiked 18 kms out of the jungle. After a lunch in Machete, we all crawled back into the van, exhausted but happy. Our trip almost over, but that would have been too easy. We reached a tollbooth where we were pulled over and after half an hour the police had been paid off for the extra people in our van and we headed back. After getting back to Santa Marta, I needed sleep and rest so I found a hammock on the roof of a hostel and slept. Next up was Christmas in Santa Marta and probably Peru afterwards.

On the trail to the Lost City

One of many rivers crossed

Traded berries for a photo of the indigenous children but my camera fogged

Map of the Lost City

Our guide

Our trek group

Over 1500 of these stairs

Indigenous

Camp

Take me down to Panama City

The following day I reached Panama City where I would be meeting Beth in the afternoon. I spent the morning exploring the city, which was a culture shock after the past month. Panama City is frequently called the Dubai of the Americas and I could see why. The city was full of skyscrapers in various stages of development and businesspeople in suits closing investment deals. After putting my bag in our hotel at the Grace Panama, I went out to the airport and picked up Beth. It was great to see Beth after being away for a while. We tried to find some local cuisine that night but we found that Panamanian food is fairly undefined. Panama apparently means “abundance of fish” so we focused most of our eating around fish. The first night we got some great sushi from Sake, a restaurant overlooking the mobs of Black Friday shoppers in the city. Afterwards we ventured into a casino and tried our hands at the penny slots, I managed to get up thirteen dollars but that quickly disappeared. Beth brought home the loot with a ten-cent payout. Afterwards we went to grab a drink at what seemed like a normal bar but Ora-Le was anything but normal. I can’t exactly describe it but for example, once they sat us down they used a staple gun to attach our brown paper tablecloth to a table.

Fish Market

The following day we headed out onto the Cinta Costera, which is a boulevard that laces along the coast of the city, tying together the skyscrapers with the old panama located on the point of the city. The Cinta Costera was very lively with bikers, soccer games and families. We walked down to the old part of the town, Casco Viejo where we explored the buildings that were built by the Spanish Colonists four hundred years ago. Eventually we stopped at the fish market where we got the closest thing to Panamanian food, ceviche. It was an amazing sight, about forty vendors all selling Styrofoam cups packed with ceviche for a dollar each. I ate mine and half of Beth’s. We had a great dinner where we started our addiction for

Before

After

caprese salads as we could get fresh tomatoes down in Panama.

The next day we splurged on brunch and went to the Waldorf Astoria for brunch. After my diet of rice, beans and a meat variant over the past part of my trip, this brunch was amazing. We dined on foods from every corner of the earth until our stomachs hurt. We decided the best remedy to a stomachache was swimming in the pool. After a tough afternoon at the pool we headed back to Casco Viejo because we felt like we had not explored the aged part of the city. We walked around and found all of the layers of the city such as a very old church sandwiched between churches that were two hundred years old. We found a beautiful square in Casco Viejo with musicians patrolling and tables scattered throughout for hungry patrons. We did not think that we would get a table until they unfolded on, plucked it down amongst the others and spread a tablecloth over it. We had a delicious dinner before watching the twinkling lights of the city from a rooftop bar.

On Monday, we found the city to be closed down. Apparently, they moved their Independence Day (from Spain) to Monday, as they did not want it to interfere with Black Friday. Therefore most of the city was shutdown but we managed to find some great food throughout the day. Additionally we went and visited the Panama Canal. After a harrowing thirty-minute drive where our cab driver appeared to be falling asleep we reached the canal. After a brief movie at the museum we headed out to watch a ship enter the canal. It was amazing to see an enormous freight ship lowered almost thirty feet in ten minutes and navigate through the canal. If you ever visit Panama be sure to get to the canal, considered one of the seven wonders of the modern world.

On Tuesday, our final full day in Panama City we tried to get up the coast to the beaches but the torrential downpours hampered our effort. We ended up poolside until the rain cleared when we went out and wandered around the sprawling city. We found a great place to eat where we dined on pistachio crusted sea bass and smoked salmon. Afterwards we went and checked out the nightlife at one of the local clubs where we were greeted with loud salsa music but a lack of people dancing. After sometime dancing, we headed back to hotel. On our final day, we packed things up and I sadly sent Beth off to the airport.

After gathering my bearings, I headed back across the country to Portobelo where I am waiting to board my sailboat that will take me to Colombia after five days sailing through the San Blas islands. I will be reaching Cartagena, Colombia later this week and will be updating upon arrival.