Medellin, Bogota

Medellin wasn´t great at all. The city has very little to offer but I´ve heard that maybe the highlights are to be seen in the countryside outside it. Zona Rosa is the main area with nightlife but it´s like going for a drink in Cafe en Seine or Ron Blacks with a similar pricing structure. It was 5000 for a beer here compared to 1800 everywhere else and the accommodation in Casa Kiwi was 60,000 compared to 40,000 here in Bogota which is the highest we have paid. The exchange rate here is 1800 Pesos to the dollar so we generally just half and take away the 000 to convert to dollar. The dollar is generally our benchmark here to decide whether we´re paying alot. Colombia has been the dearest country we´ve encountered so far. The lonely planet doesn´t give an honest reflection at all on prices and we´ve heard rumours that the lonely planet writers weren´t even in Colombia and judging by prices and the errors I wouldn´t find that hard to believe.

Anyway we headed for Bogota after here and naturally the 9 hour trip took 12 hours but that´s to be expected. We were very pleasantly surprised by Bogota. It´s the nicest capital city we´ve encountered so far. We arrived in late the first night so didn´t see much. we stayed in Hostel Sue which was really lovely near Platypus hostel. The first day was filled with museum visiting with us seeing the Museo del Oro (or Gold museum), Museo Nacional and also Cerro de Montserrate which gave a great view of the city. Plaza Bolivar was also very nice to see. Today we headed to Cathedral Sal in the morning which is a church-cathedral built into a hollowed out salt mountain and this afternoon we headed for the Museo de Policia which was very good. The sound guides here as much as the material made it. It was really interesting talking to the guides covering a broad range of topics such as FARC and cocaine production.

Tomorrow we´re headed for Cartagena on a flight. Santa Marta is our only other planned destination in Colombia but I´m sure we might stop in between somewhere. After that we´ll head for Venezuela where Maracaiba, Caracas and Angel falls are our planned destinations. If time allows we might also head for the Orinoco delta. We´re planning on being down to Manaus in Brasil to catch a flight to Sao Paulo on the 5th of June from where we´ll head towards Iguazu falls. That´s the plan but it´s open to change.

The latest photos are here:

Salento, Medellin, Bogota

Buenas Noches from Medellin

We headed to Armenia the following day and it was another hour from here until Salento. Salento is only a snall town but it was great here. The Salsa music and dancing was really cool not that we partook much with our limited talents. We planned on spending one night here but ended up staying 3. We trekked in the Cocora valley the first day. You can catch a jeep to here from the main plaza for 3000 pesos. We headed up to the lookout at Montana here which was amazing. I'll add photos in due course. The second day we headed for 2 coffee plantations which were really different with one being a modern mechanized one with the other being very traditional with everything manually operated. These were really good. We had planned on heading back for Armenia in the evening but the weather and the atmosphere in the town we stayed on for the third night. Was great atmosphere on the plaza with it being mothers day here. They had all tents set up on the plaza for food and drink as they do every weekend but it was probably busier again due to Mothers day.

We headed to Medellin today which took the 6 hours plus the extra 2 that always seem to be added onto any transport in Colombia. Here is the home of Pablo Escobar, the drug lord but that's a long time ago now. Looks a fairly modern city. It's meant to have one of the best metros in the world. To be honest I'm looking forward to getting back out of cities again. Probably spend 2 nights here before heading for Bogota. Piping hot here. Hope the weather has remained good at home.

Update from Cali in Colombia

Puert Lopez in Ecuador was our next port of call after Montanita. Not much to there but is nice and relaxing and the scenery around it is impressive. We spent 2 days here and the first day we got a boat over to the island of Isla de la Plata. We did a 10 k walk here which was really good. The blue footed boobys are the main attraction here and we also saw 2 Albatrosses. We also snorkelled here for half an hour and I was really impressed with what we saw. We headed to Los Frailes and Laguna Blanco the following day and as the photos will show the place was really pretty. We met a Ecuadorian lad from Quito on the boat trip the previous day and I must say Mucho Gusto to him if he´s reading this for driving us to Laguna Blanco and home again.

Our next stop was Banos which was west of us but it weas really awkward getting here as due to the state of the roads we had to head back down south to Guayaquil to get here. We left at 9 in the morning and only arrived in Ambato which is an hour from Banos at 10 at night. We hit for Banos early the next morning in the Colectivo which is really just a mini bus of sorts. Banos was beautiful. It´s built in a valley with the mountains appearing to be at all sides and there´s a volcano just outside it. We did a 12 k cycle here to Aguas Verdes which was really nice with loads of waterfalls but on the down side we were covered in muck from head to toe. Bar this we took it fairly relaxed here. It´s a spot I´d definitely recommend to ther people though.

Quito was our next stop and our final stop in Ecuador. All the rest of Ecuador was amazing but Quito was very bad. We always felt that we had to watch our back here and in the evenings we really clocked up the man hours on the telly here. We stayed here 3 nights in total. The first day we went to the old town to see all the churches. It was a really nice place to walk around in. I must say that it´s the new town that has the reputation for being dangerous but maybe the old town could have been different. The second day we headed to Mitad Del Mundo or centre of the earth aka the Equator. Inti Nan Museo Solar was recommended to us here as opposed to the Mitad Del Mundo complex as it´s at the real equator whereas the other place is 300 metres off. This was really good and I enjoyed it alot better than expected. We headed back for a salsa lesson that night which again was really good once you got into it. It was run by a Cuban lad who was really good.

The following day we arrived into Popoyan in Colombia after a 16 hour bus journey from Quito. Still living the dream as you can imagine. We arrived to Tulcan at the border after 5 hours and the formalities at both sides were handy enough. Colombia was a cake walk. I was able to check Caroline through immigration without her even coming to the window. We arrived into Ipiales on the Colombian side and we then organised our bus to Cali which was meant to get in at 10. With all the delays we decided on staying in Popoyan that night as we only arrived into here at 10 with Cali being a further 3 hours away. Popoyan was lovely with all the walls very white looking. Churches are the main attraction here and after the old town in Quito I've seen enough of these but very nice to have a stroll around and very safe.

We headed for Cali the following day. Cali was meant to have super night life but it wasn´t evident last night. Maybe it´s the weekend that things get busy. We headed to the Zoo today which was absolutely amazing. There are lots of photos from here you can check out. We headed south of the Rio Cali after this to have a look around town but bar churches there wasn´t much on offer. The scenery in Colombia has been very impressive so far. Tomorrow we´ll head for Armenia and Salento and probably only spend one night here. At the moment our plan is to head for Bogota after this followed by Medellin, Santa Marta and Cartagena.

The latest photos are here:

Montanita, Puerto Lopez, Banos, Quito, Popoyan, Cali

I believe the weather is very good at home so here´s hoping it lasts till June. Hasta Luego.

Update from Montanita

I came back to Cuzco after 2 days seeing Macchu Piccu and the town of Aguas Calientes. Aguas Calientes is very over priced relatively speaking to the rest of Peru and there´s alot of price fixing going on. They have hot springs here where we went to the 2 days we were here. This was nice enough but there wasn´t a whole lot else in the town to do. The first day it was raining so we didn´t do a whole lot and we also missed out on the climb up Putucusi which is meant to have a great view over Macchu Picchu but with the rain all we would have seen is mist anyway. The second day we headed into Macchu Picchu which is really good but it´s got very expensive. According to the lonely planet it was meant to be $21.50 but now it´s gone up to 144 sole which is the guts of $48. Also for a place that has so much walking about they know how to charge for water it is 10 sole here for a small 300 ml bottle whereas the normal price is 3 sole everywhere else in Peru and 4 sole in Aguas Calientes for a 2.5 litre bottle of water. The site here is very impressive when you look past all the overcharging though. I climbed Huayna Picchu at the back of the site while I was here. The last time I did the Inca trail the other lads climbed this but I got a bit of the vertigo so chickened out. I was lucky to get to climb this at all as I was 399 of 400 allowed to climb it per day. It´s alright the first stretch of it where you´re not looking down at all but the bit at the top is scary as. I nearly chickened out but I said feck it seeing as I´ve climbed it this far. Whatever it was like going up it was terrifying coming down as the steps were small little steps with barely enough room for your feet and steep as. I managed it alright though in my hands and knees.

In Lima before this we stayed in Miraflores, kind of the posh part of Lima. Very nice spot and the views from the Larcomar are very impressive. We headed into the center of Lima for a look around the Plazas which was good. We got a look at the changing of the guard at Palais Nacional. We got a tour guide here who brought us around the various churches.

I arrived into Tumbes late about 2 days ago after our flight from Cusco via Lima and Piura although here we didn´t even get off the plane. Tumbes hadn´t much in it and we didn´t get up to much here bar going for a bit of breakfast in Plaza De Armas.

We headed onto Guayaquil in Ecuador about lunchtime that day which was about 5 hours away. We did the border crossing ok and arrived into Guayaquil that night. We scored with the Sander hotel here which had our own tv for only $12 although almost every channel was in Spanish but a tv none the less. We got a lovely seafood platter kind of thing which was a nice break from the Peruvian cuisine in the Malecon 2000. The food in Peru wasn´t up to much and it hardly varied from place to place. It was like they delivered the same menu to every place in Peru but the Ecuadorian food is alot better. By the way Ecuador is so named because of it´s position on the Equator. The Malecon is a lovely shopping / financial / park area they´ve developed right on the waterfront. Bar the Malecon Guayaquil hadn´t a whole lot to offer but it more than served it´s purpose as a stopping off point. By the way Guayaquil while not being the capital is Ecuadors largest city.

We headed onto Montanita then where we are still which is a surfing spot as well as being a bit of a party town. It didn´t let us down on either front as my head can testify to today. We ended up meeting a guy Sean from Kerry who´s in Ros na Ruin and an Israeli that we ended drinking with last night. It´s a nice little town here with plenty happening and we´ll probably spend 2 more nights here before heading for Puerto Lopez which connects to Isla De Plata which is referred to as the poor mans Galapagos. However almost everything here with any bit of wildlife here is referred to as a poor mans Galapagos. In total we´ll probably spend about a week on the Pacific coast before heading for Banos and Quito.

Here are some photos since the last installment:

Cancun, Huanchaco, Lima, Cusco, Macchu Picchu, Guayaquil

Huanchaco adieu

Well Muchachos,

¿Esta Bien? Good 10 days of surfing was had in Huanchaco outside Trujillo. For any surfers there when the swell is good about the 2m it´s very good about the pier but if you go right from the pier down towards hostal naylamp it´s absoluely amazing. It´s like being on a rollercoaster except you´re not on any tracks. Absolutely brilliant and very safe in case there are worried relations out there. Hostal Naylamp is a great spot here but the nightlife is almost non-existent no it is non-existent. Sabe´s 4 or 5 doors up from Naylamp has the only small bit of activity but almost all days 2 people is the most you´ll see in here. I met a Carlow lad, a couple of New Zealanders, an Arbentinian Belgian and other odd stragglers which broke up the evenings. The Trujillo is the local beverage here which is tasty tack and only a dollar a 620 ml bottle.

I came back on the night bus from Trujillo last night and will head for Cusco on the 16th for probably 4 or 5 days for Macchu Picchu. After that we´ll be making tracks for Ecuador. Not sure of our route yet but I´ll let you know in time.

Any Bertie bashing be sure to give me a shout.

On a more sombre note Trevor Deely´s mother asked my mother to put this picture about of Trevor. If anyone has any news contact me or the number on the poster.
Trevor Deely

Cancun, Lima, Huanchaco

Cancun turned out to be alright. It's very developed with 24 km of concrete and there's also a bit of segregation in the resorts with alot of the gringos in the nice pools and the Mexicano on the beach. It's a bit sad for the Mexicans also as I'd say they have trouble accessing the beaches. The only way to get to the beach is via the hotels and I'm told the hotels generally stop Mexicans. I went to a fantastic nightclub here though called Coco Bongos. They have different acts on stage all night and they have trapeze artists swinging down onto the bar. It was $63 in but it's free drink once you get in which seems to bring on bouts of headaches the next morning. All in all I'd recommend anyone to go there.

I arrived into Lima about 1 in the morning and spent only the next day there. I took it fairly handy there and only hung around for the day and also had a look down at Miraflores. I took the overnight bus (10 hours) to Truquillo that night and got the colectivo to Huanchaco. This is basically just a big outdated minibus that drops people off and picks people up along the route. It's entertaining enough looking at the guys hanging out the door trying to pick up a fare. This spot I'm in is a small fishing village which doubles as a surfing village for the tourists. Good surf here. It's about 2m alot of the time although yesterday I must have picked the only calm part of the day. I'll head for a surf now after my Desayuno or breakfast. I'm getting by with my limited Spanish but I could do with alot of improvement.

Sydney Adieu, Mexico

After doing my last blog entry in one huge chunk I haven't learned my lesson at all. I stayed one more week in Sydney and apart from surfing, the Tea gardens and the Cock and Bull not much else happened. The Paddys day parade was good craic and especially post parade in Hyde Park. Having said that I'm not sure whether there were many Paddys in the organising committee as the bar was diabolical. Paddys day wasn't great I have to say. The surf that day was highly enjoyable though. I stayed in Caroline's friend's, Breda Murnanes place. She gets an honourable mention if she's reading this.

After a week in Sydney I was off to Mexico for it's culture but I was to be cultured out by all the information. It was a very good tour none the less. We started off in Mexico city. I arrived the night before my Mam and spent the first night in a hostel/ hotel. It was good value at $20 for a double room and your own shower. This was the roughing part of it as I would be staying in hotels for the rest of the trip. We stayed in the hilton for the 3 nights we were in Mexico city. We saw lots although at times my mother was climbing the himalayas going in and out of metro stations. Taxis and walking on level ground was soon decided to be the mode of transport. There´s loads to see in Mexico city including Palacio Bellas Des Artes (Museum of modern art), Catedral Metropolitana, Plaza de Republica and Plaza Major (Major Aztec Site). The people of the city were very friendly I thought although the major hotels, the Sheraton in particular do their best to rip you off.

The second day on the tour we headed to Teotihuacan outside Mexico city. This is a former Toltec site. This would be my highlight of the archaelogical sites but maybe this is partially because this was at the start of the tour before I got Archaelogicaled out. We did the tour with caravan tours and although the guide was very knowledgeable sometimes a break from talking for a kip would have done me the world of good. The tour was made up of 44 people with the bulk of these being Americans although some had Mexican and Columbian backgrounds. If I had been told this before the tour I probably would have had a hernia but they surprised me with how sound they were and knowledgeable. By the way I'm not licking arse here as it'll be a miracle if any of them find this blog but I'm just saying it broke the stereotype I had of them. Back to Teotihuacan I climbed the Pyramide de Sol and de Luna here. These were nice climbs and weren't too difficult.

The next day we had a long day of driving to Veracruz. Veracruz hadn't much of note but it was a real party town with lots going on down on the beach and there was plenty of activity on the main square. We only spent a night here but it would have been great to have spent longer here.

The following day we were off to Palenque. By the way I'm struggling with names here so I have the Lonely Planet out constantly trying to find the names of the different places I was. We stopped in a lovely town Pueblo on the way. This is a UNESCO site but it is getting rundown due to lack of funding. They don't charge to get here like other UNESCO sites which I think is a pity. The government of Mexico is totally corrupt and the wealth of the country is controlled by 13 families. Also Mexico has natural resources of oil but the wealth from this doesn't filter down to the lower classes. Mexico signed the NAFTA treat with the US and Canada but it gets no benefit from this as the American multinationals come in as well as the cheap agricultural produce which kills the Mexican farmer. The Mexican government doesn't seem to show any leadership at all. We also visited Olmec heads in Villahermosa en route.

Palenque was lovely but it was also very similar to Teotihuacan. These sites start to get tedious after seeing a couple of them but well worth a look all the same. We had that afternoon off to laze in the pool or whatever and this was heaven after all the early starts and all the driving.

Two nights in Palenque and it was onwards to Merida via the ruins in Uxmal. Maybe with the passing of time I'll appreciate all I saw but not after only finishing the tour today. Merida was another nice colonial town and we visited Chichen Itza from here. The tallest pyramid here was really impressive as the photos hopefully will testify.

Today we came to Cancun on the shores of the Caribbean. The colour of the sea here is amazing, a nice turquoise colour. There's 24 km of hotels to ruin that though. I worry about people from the US that come down here as it's just another version of America. I'm here for 2 days until Monday so hopefully I'll get some snorkelling in. Then I'm heading for Lima and I'll head north of here to Huanchaco for a week of surfing before Caroline arrives back on the 14th of April.

Pictures from Mexico as well as footage of the supersaint here:

Mostly Mexico