We've been staying in the old town: huge white colonial looking buildings, beautiful plazas and so many churches, some are totally stunning especially the one with loads of gold which looks more like a Las Vegas casino than a church! It's a total contrast to the new town which reminds me a little of Khao San Road in Bangkok: little bars offering half price beer and $0.99 cocktails, loads of eateries that are trying to be hip and so many gringos! Needless to say we spent a couple of nights there!
We've been taking full advantage of the menu del dias available. $1.50 will get you a soup, a fruit juice and then a plate of meat, rice, potatoes and salad. Sometimes you even get a little slice of fruit or a tiny dollop of ice cream! Quito is definitely good for our wallets!
Thursday, 7 August 2008
Sunday, 3 August 2008
bit of a rant after another long bus ride, sorry.
so some guy thinks he sees mary on the water as he crosses a bridge, so they only go and build a church on it
Inside the church, the alter it the cliff wall (not sure if this comes out well)
nothing like 2 big heads infront of a chuch
think youre getting a bit bored of looking at the church now
so, heres a lama with a hat.
Hmm...... so it seems i got it wrong about the best parties being at colombian bus stops. The NEW place to be boys and girls is with a group of nuns at an adventure park watching a tradition historical show. Yep, they were nuts. screaming and shouting to the salsa music before it got going, they were all swaying and bopping about, then encouraging anybody in the audience to jump and dance about. Ive been wondering what they do with their national product!
After that experience we thought Cali would look after us. I beautiful working town with a great zoo and nightlife (lonley planet). Sadly after all the places wed been to, it wasnt all that, and the hotel was horrendous. it didnt seem the best when we first got there, but as we were there for a night we didnt think too much about it. Anyway after the zoo (the only good point of the place) we ran off to experience the nightlife. Think of your first teeneage holiday away from your parents in some terribly tacky cheesy spanish resort, and there is always one place which is so loud your ears bleed, and full of people wanting to get leathered. Right, now take that place and make it about 4 times the size. Thats your average bar/club. Then mutiply that by about 15 all down one street and then youre starting to get there. So after a few quick beers just to settle the nerves we headed home, only for me to find a number of large cockroaches in the room (1 on the bed). i tried to ignore this and didnt tell jude. then finally time to sleep only for a nearby telephone to be continually ringing ALL night. then the joys of being woken by a lady (i presume) who was enjoying herself a little too much and was happy to let everybody else know it (at least somebody was enjoying themsleves). Then at about 7ish the building work starts in a room next door and continues till after we leave. Im jabbing the keys with all my might whilst i right this still thinking about it!
So i implore you if you are ever in the region, dont go there.
After that we then had a lovely journey to ipiales to check out a crazy church (pics above)
Colombia conclusions and Ecuador beginnings
I can`t believe how quickly the time is going here, July has come and gone so fast and we´ve already left Colombia.
Colombia was so different to what I expected. I think all those mafia movies totally misguided me - we weren´t kidnapped by guerillas and didn´t see any drug taking, nor were we offered many, infact the whole three weeks we spent in Colombia were pretty peaceful (apart from the constant trips on buses).
As the trusty Lonely Planet says - now is the time to visit the country - there aren´t loads of tourists about and you really feel like you´re doing something a bit different. Most times we rocked up somewhere we were literally the only white people about (so maybe it`s no surprise that in San Gill a family with young kids asked us to pose with them so they could 'make a photo').
The towns and villages we visited are beautifully kept and pretty, the countryside was stunning and the food was amazing. I felt safe most of the time but maybe that´s because there were loads of armed police about everywhere we went (as tourists you can actually get armed guards to escort you around Botoga, talk about making yourself stand out!).
One thing that was a constant source of amazement was the amount of Colombians that had teeth braces, I swear half the population must be wired up, and most of them are adults. They also speak incredibly fast, even when it´s perfectly clear that you dont have a clue what they are going on about. It doesn´t help when you are offered random things like gloves in a resturant (when eating chicken they just don a pair of disposable plastic gloves and chomp away, I think they thought we were a little odd asking for a knife and fork!)
So we´re now in Ecuador. Straight away it does feel a little easier - the boarder crossing was nothing compared to Venezuela and we´re staying in a hostel full of westeners that has duvets on the beds and hot water (we spent most of Colombia with freezing cold water - I think i only washed my hair twice whilst we were there!) and a pizzeria downstairs. We´re leaving the hostel tomorrow in search of some real Ecuador (and a room that doesnt have bunk beds!)
Colombia was so different to what I expected. I think all those mafia movies totally misguided me - we weren´t kidnapped by guerillas and didn´t see any drug taking, nor were we offered many, infact the whole three weeks we spent in Colombia were pretty peaceful (apart from the constant trips on buses).
As the trusty Lonely Planet says - now is the time to visit the country - there aren´t loads of tourists about and you really feel like you´re doing something a bit different. Most times we rocked up somewhere we were literally the only white people about (so maybe it`s no surprise that in San Gill a family with young kids asked us to pose with them so they could 'make a photo').
The towns and villages we visited are beautifully kept and pretty, the countryside was stunning and the food was amazing. I felt safe most of the time but maybe that´s because there were loads of armed police about everywhere we went (as tourists you can actually get armed guards to escort you around Botoga, talk about making yourself stand out!).
One thing that was a constant source of amazement was the amount of Colombians that had teeth braces, I swear half the population must be wired up, and most of them are adults. They also speak incredibly fast, even when it´s perfectly clear that you dont have a clue what they are going on about. It doesn´t help when you are offered random things like gloves in a resturant (when eating chicken they just don a pair of disposable plastic gloves and chomp away, I think they thought we were a little odd asking for a knife and fork!)
So we´re now in Ecuador. Straight away it does feel a little easier - the boarder crossing was nothing compared to Venezuela and we´re staying in a hostel full of westeners that has duvets on the beds and hot water (we spent most of Colombia with freezing cold water - I think i only washed my hair twice whilst we were there!) and a pizzeria downstairs. We´re leaving the hostel tomorrow in search of some real Ecuador (and a room that doesnt have bunk beds!)
Friday, 1 August 2008
Cali
After Armenia we got the bus to Cali. We went mainly for the zoo, where we saw lions and tigers and bears,oh my! There were loads of different animals to see which you could get quite close to, Tim had lots of fun poking little monkeys with a stick, and there was a great butterfly enclosure where we actually saw a butterfly coming out of it's cocoon.
Apart from the zoo, I wouldn´t really say Cali has much going for it apart from a strip of bars and nightclubs which has some great people watching potential. Colombias all hit the dance floor dancing in couples, and there´s lots of booty shaking, completely different to how we do it in the UK!
Apart from the zoo, I wouldn´t really say Cali has much going for it apart from a strip of bars and nightclubs which has some great people watching potential. Colombias all hit the dance floor dancing in couples, and there´s lots of booty shaking, completely different to how we do it in the UK!
Manizales, Armenia, Manizales, Armenia....
We left Bogota and went to the transport terminal, fully intending to go to Manizales. We thought it would be a four hour trip but were told it would take 9 hours (which means at least 10 hours) which surprised us but we got our ticket anyway with 15 mins to go until the bus left.
We then decided we wanted to go to Armenia which was a little nearer (8 hours away, an hour makes all the difference!) and had loads of attractions. In our limited Spanish we tried to commicate this. We were told we could get the same bus but get off earlier, so we checked our bags onto the bus, then a woman (but it might have been a bloke - very deep voice, lots of make up) told us we couldn't. So we then hauled the bags off and tried to change our tickets, the desk was having none of it and we ended up running about the terminal like mentalists trying to sort it out as we knew a bus for Armenia was leaving in 10 mins.
Oh the joys of traveling!
Armenia was worth it though. We stayed in what could have been our nicest 'hotel´ to date and discovered 'chicken asado' - whole roast chicken with salty potatoes and arepas (corn bread) for about 3 pounds, and visted some great places - see photos below
We then decided we wanted to go to Armenia which was a little nearer (8 hours away, an hour makes all the difference!) and had loads of attractions. In our limited Spanish we tried to commicate this. We were told we could get the same bus but get off earlier, so we checked our bags onto the bus, then a woman (but it might have been a bloke - very deep voice, lots of make up) told us we couldn't. So we then hauled the bags off and tried to change our tickets, the desk was having none of it and we ended up running about the terminal like mentalists trying to sort it out as we knew a bus for Armenia was leaving in 10 mins.
Oh the joys of traveling!
Armenia was worth it though. We stayed in what could have been our nicest 'hotel´ to date and discovered 'chicken asado' - whole roast chicken with salty potatoes and arepas (corn bread) for about 3 pounds, and visted some great places - see photos below
Our first video....... not very interesting unless you were there I guess, but it was a bit eerie!
The cloud forest of Valle de Cocora with Palm trees popping up due to the closeness of the equator!
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