Hi Gang,
Last time we talked Natalie and I just finished a 30 hour bus ride (due to over sleeping and our lack of Spanish speaking skills). As a result of this we came to the decision that one of us had to learn some Spanish. Since Natalie took French till grade twelve she had a big advantage over me. We decided Otavalo would be a good spot to take some lessons on the recommendation of a friend from Colombia. We decided to stay at hostel up in the mountains so from town we caught a cab.
Up until this point we have had little need to book a place to stay in advance. Rosa, the owner of the hostal let us know immediately that we probably should have booked in advance as she opened the gate to her property in her pj's.
Rosa Cottages was an interesting experience in a beautiful place. Rosa herself is a cute little Ecuadorian grandmother type who while being very nice is totally CRAZY!!! She had some funny little ideas about how to run a hostal. Case in point: telling us that there was no room in the fridge and to put the beer outside to chill. Hmmmm...obviously doesnt understand the Canadian need for COLD cervezas.
Otalvalo itself is a charming city. Many of the locals dress in traditional dress and are a maximum of 5ft tall. The city has the largest market in South America on saturdays along with an animal market. Everything form cattle to guinea pigs was available for inspection by people looking to buy dinner...or lunch or whatever. Natalie was explicitly told not to buy anything!
Despite Natalie's run in with a bad chicken sandwich and the ensuing 3 day illness the Spanish lessons were helpful and Otavalo was a great time.
Natalie's Spanish teacher was able to help us set up a trip to the Galapagos Islands. The only catch was that the payment had to be in cash and trying to withdraw large amounts of cash in South America is to say the least a challenge. We discovered that it was impossible to do this in Otavalo so it was off to Quito. We ended up traveling to Quito with an entertaining pair of Brits. Quito is a huge city built in the mountains so the views are quite spectacular. We were able to quickly resolve the cash issue and are now booked to go to the Galapagos this Friday!
While at the language school we decided that a trip to Ecuador would not be complete without biking down a volcano! We booked a trip to go mountain biking in Cotopaxi National Park. Cotopaxi itself is about 4,800m high and just as the guide books say it literally takes ones breath away. We maybe should have put a little more thought into booking a trip to this altitude as the weather in Quito was pouring rain so therefore SNOWING, yes SNOWING on Cotopaxi. Despite this, us and two other Canadians braved the elements to go biking.
It was a wonderful day speeding down hills, struggling up tiny inclines due to the altitude and looking at the wild horses playing in the wilderness. The landscape in Cotopaxi is spectacular with views of massive volcanoes set in the tundra-like land. Altogether a wonderful day.
We are currently in a town called Banos. It is a completely touristy place but fun because of the variety of activities and the thermal baths. We only have one night here and then off the the Galapagos.
Hopefully at our next post we will be fresh from viewing all the weird and wonderful sights the Galapagos has to offer!
Wednesday, October 20, 2010
Thursday, October 14, 2010
The end of Colombia to the beginning of Ecuador.
From the last time I blogged Natalie and i have made a few changes.
One we did not make it to the Salt Cathedral in Bogata, we decided since we are going to visit the salt flats in Bolivia our time and money would be better spent not seeing the Cathedral. We also heard that the it was kinda a waste of time.
Second - We decided that we wanted to see some of the coffee region of Colombia. We picked a place called Solento and a hostel called The Coffee Plantation. This turned out to be a great choice, the town looked like a miniture version of Swizerland.
Once we got (9 hours later) there some packpackers were going on a horse tour. This was really cool so we asked them if it was alright if we joined. Out of the six that went only three had any experience with horses. I was not one of them. Ben (one of the six) was extremely nervous about the whole thing and happened to get the most exciteable horse. Mine was awesome, really chill and did everything i asked. The only problem that I had was I just could not handle going more then a trot. Everytime we went faster then that I had the unshakeable feeling that was about to fly right out of the saddle. During the ride we saw some really cool landscape.
The next day we went on a hike of the local mountain. At the top for 3000 pecos we were given a cup of hot chocolate and some cheese. We were told to put the cheese into the hot chocolate and allow it to melt. This turned out to be an awesome way comsume both cheese and hot chocolate. Later on that day Natalie fell ill and i went on a coffee plantation tour. The tour was a lot of fun and i learned a lot about the process of making coffee. From the fruit from the tree to the roasted coffee bean you grind up a home.
Once this adventure was done we went back to Bogata to hook up was to Ozzie girls for a night on the town. We were going to go to a bar that was suppose to be full of drag Queens and midgets but we were told by some local Spanish english students that it would be a little over the top. Basically we would not be able to handle it. Instead we conviced them to take us out on the town. This turned out to be a lot of fun. Its funny once a Colombian male decides that he is going to look out for you, they take it as their personal mission to make sure you are safe. It turned out to be a great night of drinking and dancing.
The next day Natalie and I decided it was time to start the move to Ecuador. We went to the bus station in the morning with the intention of going to San Agustian. We quickly found out that we had arrived there way to early the only to times that buses left for this destination as 5pm and 9pm . We didn`t want to wait that long so we bought a ticket to Popayan which is just a town on the way to the border. It was like a 20 hour bus ride. Unfortunately we both slept through our stop, the man beside us had a hard time figuring out that this was not a bad thing because the bus was actually going all the way to the border anyways. So at the next town we bought a ticket to Ipiales. The bus driver and the other people on the bus thought we were nuts. By the time we reached the border we had been on a bus around 24 hours.
The long trip did not stop there, we had a little further to go. After a wee bit of confusion at the actual border crossing we were on our way to Otavalo.
One we did not make it to the Salt Cathedral in Bogata, we decided since we are going to visit the salt flats in Bolivia our time and money would be better spent not seeing the Cathedral. We also heard that the it was kinda a waste of time.
Second - We decided that we wanted to see some of the coffee region of Colombia. We picked a place called Solento and a hostel called The Coffee Plantation. This turned out to be a great choice, the town looked like a miniture version of Swizerland.
Once we got (9 hours later) there some packpackers were going on a horse tour. This was really cool so we asked them if it was alright if we joined. Out of the six that went only three had any experience with horses. I was not one of them. Ben (one of the six) was extremely nervous about the whole thing and happened to get the most exciteable horse. Mine was awesome, really chill and did everything i asked. The only problem that I had was I just could not handle going more then a trot. Everytime we went faster then that I had the unshakeable feeling that was about to fly right out of the saddle. During the ride we saw some really cool landscape.
The next day we went on a hike of the local mountain. At the top for 3000 pecos we were given a cup of hot chocolate and some cheese. We were told to put the cheese into the hot chocolate and allow it to melt. This turned out to be an awesome way comsume both cheese and hot chocolate. Later on that day Natalie fell ill and i went on a coffee plantation tour. The tour was a lot of fun and i learned a lot about the process of making coffee. From the fruit from the tree to the roasted coffee bean you grind up a home.
Once this adventure was done we went back to Bogata to hook up was to Ozzie girls for a night on the town. We were going to go to a bar that was suppose to be full of drag Queens and midgets but we were told by some local Spanish english students that it would be a little over the top. Basically we would not be able to handle it. Instead we conviced them to take us out on the town. This turned out to be a lot of fun. Its funny once a Colombian male decides that he is going to look out for you, they take it as their personal mission to make sure you are safe. It turned out to be a great night of drinking and dancing.
The next day Natalie and I decided it was time to start the move to Ecuador. We went to the bus station in the morning with the intention of going to San Agustian. We quickly found out that we had arrived there way to early the only to times that buses left for this destination as 5pm and 9pm . We didn`t want to wait that long so we bought a ticket to Popayan which is just a town on the way to the border. It was like a 20 hour bus ride. Unfortunately we both slept through our stop, the man beside us had a hard time figuring out that this was not a bad thing because the bus was actually going all the way to the border anyways. So at the next town we bought a ticket to Ipiales. The bus driver and the other people on the bus thought we were nuts. By the time we reached the border we had been on a bus around 24 hours.
The long trip did not stop there, we had a little further to go. After a wee bit of confusion at the actual border crossing we were on our way to Otavalo.
Sunday, October 3, 2010
From Taganaga to Bogota
Since the lost city trek Natalie and I have been busy. We meet up with some fellow Canadians and one Ozzie. Together we rented a boat and did a fishing trip in a park called Tayrona. The fish that were caught were then cooked for us. That was a fantastic meal. Unfortunatly while on these trip we are blown away by the amount of stray dogs that are everywhere on the coast of colombia. They all seem to be on deaths door or a meal away from it. Natalie has to physically restrain herself from adopting every dog we see. I totally agree with her most of them are really cute even thought you can see their bones sticking out of there skin.
The group of us decided it was time to leave Taganga and move further up the coast to a Town called Palameno. On the way we were approach by a cute Colombian woman that offered her house for us to stay in (with her husband). We haggled about the price and decided on 10 000 pesos (really cheap) would be good for nights accomidation. It also turned out that her husband ran a tour where you take a tire tube out on the river and ride it down for about two hours. So much fun.
This is were the group split up Phil going back to Canada, James to Santa Marta and Nat and I decided to catch a bus to Bogota. This was not a fun trip. It was 18 hours of sitting on your ass doing nothing but sleeping or reading. If we knew spanish there were movies playing but we do not. The bus driver also informed us not to puke in the toilet or any other smelly things due to the fact everyone on the bus would enjoy the smell for the entire trip. During the entire trip we had one stop for that purpose and to grab something to eat. One of the other passengers brought his dog on the bus but not inside with the rest of the people he had to sit under the bus with the other luggage. We really felt for him.
So we are now in Bogota and recoving from that long trip. As a relaxing tour we went to the gold museum here in Bogota. It explained alot about the history of Colombia and had huge displays of gold artifacts as you can well imagine.
Tomorrow we are going to the Salt Cathedral.
Stay tuned.......
The group of us decided it was time to leave Taganga and move further up the coast to a Town called Palameno. On the way we were approach by a cute Colombian woman that offered her house for us to stay in (with her husband). We haggled about the price and decided on 10 000 pesos (really cheap) would be good for nights accomidation. It also turned out that her husband ran a tour where you take a tire tube out on the river and ride it down for about two hours. So much fun.
This is were the group split up Phil going back to Canada, James to Santa Marta and Nat and I decided to catch a bus to Bogota. This was not a fun trip. It was 18 hours of sitting on your ass doing nothing but sleeping or reading. If we knew spanish there were movies playing but we do not. The bus driver also informed us not to puke in the toilet or any other smelly things due to the fact everyone on the bus would enjoy the smell for the entire trip. During the entire trip we had one stop for that purpose and to grab something to eat. One of the other passengers brought his dog on the bus but not inside with the rest of the people he had to sit under the bus with the other luggage. We really felt for him.
So we are now in Bogota and recoving from that long trip. As a relaxing tour we went to the gold museum here in Bogota. It explained alot about the history of Colombia and had huge displays of gold artifacts as you can well imagine.
Tomorrow we are going to the Salt Cathedral.
Stay tuned.......
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