Plump statues and the coffee zone Jan 16th to Jan 29th

So the Buddha hostel really wasn't very spiritual as the drunk person who met me at 6 in the morning immediately proved. Still, it was a beautiful location and I met some really nice people. Medellin was pretty big, as it is the second city in Colombia. The Sunday morning when we went into town, there were literally hundreds of prostitutes around at midday time. But I didn't think you'd want to see pics of that, so here's a nicer part of the centre.

And Botero, his native city, lots of fat statues. This was a nice bit of town, but when we set off on foot to go towards the botanical gardens, we very quickly felt pretty uneasy. Like Bogota, I didn't really feel comfortable here and despite seeing some beautiful things, I couldn't hugely recommend the place.

More of the nice bits of town.

Some of the art we saw was really interesting too. This is by another Colombian artist from Medellin, who may not have Botero's international renown but at least he doesn't only draw, paint and sculpt fat people.

Argentina and Korea provided my extremely well-educated and amiable museum companions. Hope you're both well, Josh and Flor, wheerever you are! :)

Having opted for the safer transport route to the botanic garden, it proceded to be beautiful and drenched in wonderful sunshine. The university campus next door also looked very swish.

Nice one of Vikki here who was excellent company.

And turtles too. Yay....

and flutterbies....

and my new hat form Montería.

And the obligatory Pablo Escobar story. A guy started chatting away to me and Vikki while we were having coffee and he only claims to have been Pablo's bodyguard. Had a reverence for him I'd been told to expect in Medellin. Despite him being a cocaine mafia supremo of the ilk that darkened Colombia's international reputation for years. And ruined the lives of indigenous and other people (watch Bruce Parry's Amazon series) whose lands were used for manufacture etc etc

One of the nice things the slightly-more-party-than-I'd-expected people at the Buddha Hostel did, apart from cook some pretty amazing meals (the chef had worked at that very famous michelin-starred restaurant in Spain that only opened two months a year or something), .... was to recommend me the Sweet Home Hostel in Pereira. Pereira's first joy was the outdoor swimming pool above was gorgeous and I hope anyone who knows me well knows how I feel about such things....

This rather pretty and opulent house in downtown Pereira....

...and this rather rough looking higgledy-piggledy set of shacks that were actually right next to each other, summed up Pereira quite well.  Not really very touristy, to Juan Manuel's (owner of Sweet Home) extreme frustraton, the city is full of contrasts.

This downtown park had its fair share of folk fallen on hard times, beggars etc.

Whereas this rather posh and spiffy downtown square only a few blocks away, wouldn't look out of place in any major US city.

The other great thing about Pereira is that it is in the zona cafetera where coffee is best grown at around 1500m above sea level. And a friend of Juan Manuel's was only too happy to have company along for his trip out into this lovely countryside with his son.

This view from the first lookout point where we stopped is so beautiful, I could have bought a house there on the spot.

This was much further on after a fair amount more gruelling climbing. We did around 45 kilometres in the day.

But the last part was mostly going downhill, thank heavens. Right up until I was gazing around and failing to notice that the other two had stopped. Cue me going over the handlebars. Ooops.

Pereira also has access to the incredibly beautiful Ucumarí National Park and the more famous Los Nevados national park. Went up for the weekend with a beautiful Colombian girl called Paola with whom I had some great chats about the important things in life. Considering I'd hardly heard a word she said in the bar the previous night when we'd been introduced by Juan Manuel, we got on like a house on fire. She had to go back to work the next day, whilst I stayed to take on the mighty climb to the Laguna del Otún. As I was already at La Pastora, a place of surpassing tranquility, no electricity and nearby freezing waterfalls,...

it was just 6 hours and 17 kilometres.

easy...

but well worth the 5 and a half hour climb... (I had no tent or stuff, so it was easyish going.)

The local tapirs are known to eat any long-legged badgers that stray onto their territory.

Also, as you get up high, the fauna changes to the paramo, or mountain plateau/moor. And you get to see the frailejones, which look like cactuses on a pillar.

This was my one hour stay at the Laguna. Very tired and out of water but full of lovely food made by the caretaker of el rancho.

Just next to hear I collected sand and rocks to use as a Bear Gryll's style water filter.

And on the way back I may have had my first glimpse of the Andean condor. I also got to nearly die, have a heart attack and break both ankles as it was dark for the last hour of the descent and pitch black for the last 20 minutes. Good job I didn't take the torch I had just managed to fix just before I left. Ahem...

 A truly amazing 8 days in Pereira. Huge thanks to Juan Manual at Sweet Home for being a great guy and a great host. If you're in Colombia, stay there.... http://www.sweethomehostel.com/

Beach, bubbles, monuments and monkeys Jan 5th - 15th

So this was the Caribbean, and it was gorgeous. Very, very busy, but lovely. Half of Buenos Aires was on holiday looking for a decent beach. I met a couple of lovley Brits on the bus up and ended up hanging out with them for the next 4-5 days. Vikki wanted to do some diving and when I thought about it, I realised I could do my PADI. So I did it. And I loved it.

Had a superb instructor called Victor, who was a Catalan and therefore trilingual. Saw some great coral, some beautiful fish and learnt how to move around safely underwater with a tank of air. Thanks to Octopus Diving who I would heartily recommend.

The hills framed the beach beautifully and the fishing fleet gave the place a real proper fishing village atmosphere. Had superbly tasty choclo three times (maize mash) from a street vendor for 50p each, two being a solid meal.

As you can see below, the beach did resemble Bournemouth when the temperature hits 30 on a bank holiday, but it didn't bother me in the slightest. Let the people enjoy the beach is what I say :)

The view of the hills walking up the road to the hostel I ended up staying at. For the first time in any place I was caught in the holiday rush and actually had to move out of a hostel beause they had no more room when I came to pay for the next night!

Having successfully completed my PADI, I set off for Cartagena via Baranquilla (see below) which is where Shakira is from. The road was quite straightforward after some of the mountainous odysseys I´ve had but when we got to Cartagena we found the hostel booking we'd made online hadn't worked....

But, we managed to go to another hostel after phoning them. But when we arrived, .... they said they were full. Great! So we ended up walking around with backpacks for a while until finding a cheap hotel. The benefit of having a friend along being that hotel becomes almost the same price as hostel. After a good meal out, we set off into Cartagena's UNESCO heritage centre.

And it really was pretty. And hot. Even hotter than Taganga. So a couple of days of looking around followed, plus a visit to the DAS for a visa extension.

The ramparts of the port reminded me a lot of St Malo, which is where we went with the kids on the exchange several times. Reminded me of home, and work, and despite looking back on lots of good times, I certainly couldn't say I regretted the decision to come away.

The main square....

And the modern art museum just round the corner with some cool sculptures out front.

Having done quite a lot of touristy stuff, I really just wanted to get away from that and do some studying. Which I did in Montería which doesn´t feature on any of the tourist maps but was recommended to me by the guy in the hostel in Cartagena as being nice enough. Got the taxi driver to drive me round a few hotels before settling on one which was decent enough.

I then set about looking around. Feeling a bit uncertain as I was on my own after being with people but it was fine. The boardwalk by the river through the centre of town was quite lovely and devoid of tourists. So I had ice cream and studied. And walked around. And studied. And walked around. And studied. Was nice. Oh, and dodged iguanas. Who also like ice cream.

Look. Evidence of study. Honest. And the boardwalk. With kiddies stuff and all. Saw some impressive street dancing of which I have video.

The local tourists couldn't resist feeding the monkeys. Which I wish they didn't but it did make for a good pic.

After failing to get my laptop fixed I thought I'd set off for Medellin and the Buddha Hostel.

Bustling Bogota 28 Dec-4 Jan

And so it was that I arrived in a new continent to the very party-minded hostel, Musicology, which you can see someone just arriving at below. Some great staff (Nicole, Adriana etc thanks :) and guests made for an excellent couple of days and the first test for my new year's resolution which I'd already started - no booze :)) 

Went on a bike tour on my first day on the recommendation of Pat, an Aussie I'd met in San Cristobal and who I was delighted to see again randomly in Colombia. Got a great tour around various parts of the area of Bogota which is close to the mountains on the east side and south, i.e. Candelaria and beyond. The emerald market below was one of the first stops. This, if memory serves, is the less 'official' of the two that are side-by-side.

The tour continued with some amusing facts about the previous president Uribe's inauguration in this square below. He had promised to deal with the 'narcos' as they call them here and to show him what they thought of that, they fired two rockets at his opening speech. Neither landed very close, but, for impact, it beats people throwing eggs at Michael Portillo, that's for sure. Although several people have told me he was the 'worst president ever', they seem grudgingly to accept his huge increase in army presence has increased security.

The tour also included a trip round the museum dedicated to Jorge Eliezer Gaitan, a lawyer and Colombian national hero, famed for defending the interests of the poor. When told about his most famous case, I realised it was identical to the situation I had just read about in '100 years of solitude'. This was indeed deliberate, but Marquez never mentions any of the real names. A really geek-tastic 'literature-meets-life' moment, especially as my (young) guide hadn't made the connection.

Candelaria is just up from the presidential square and therefore has some very big posh government buildings nearby. It is a bit on the shabby side itself and certainly not safe to go round at night. One friend got robbed at knifepoint within 20 minutes of arrival! Anyway, after the bike tour I set out to explore it on foot during the safety of daylight over the next day or two. Some of the graffiiti was stunning.

And I liked the Banksy-style sculptures :)

Went up to Monserrate, as most tourists do, to get a panoramic look over the town. Went with a Mexican girl, Monika, who spoke excellent English and was also able to appreciate my hard-earned Mexican slang, the majority of which is utterly useless in Colombia.

New Year's Eve involved some of the typical fun of the 'party bus cancelled, long walk across town, unable to get into club despite party bracelet, disappointing music' type, but on the plus side, the club was on the thirtieth floor and had an amazing view of Bogota. A few good boogies to tunes I liked more and the fact that Colombian ladies are ridiculously beautiful made the whole night generally enjoyable.

This square was just up from the hostel and was a beautiful spot for coffee with two lovely Argentinian girls (whose good looks are generally well known amongst travellers), and these were no exception. Bogota was also good for top-quality museums, the Gold Museum, the National Museum etc and I learnt a lot about the history of Colombia's indigenous peoples in great company. The Botero museum has lots of pictures and sculptures of fat people by Botero (like the Mona Fatty here), but a good international collection too.

A quick scurry round town when I took all the photos above and that museum, and it was off to the bus station as most people had left after New Year and some poor weather set in.

I decided to follow the crowd up to Taganga as it is a beach and would be my first time in Caribbean Sea. So why not, I thought...

On which note, it's time to go to work, yippeee :)))