Santiago - Chile

Preparing ourselves for home, we have spent the last 5 days in Santiago Chile where there are hardly any street sellers or Chiclets kids, there are road rules that people obey, and there is a movement and lifestyle similar to that of any modern European city. Sensing our immenient departure and a need to wind down, we have done very little in Santiago. It has rained everyday and the sky remains a constant light grey providing little inspiration to venture outside and spend money which we no longer have. The city reminds me a little of Vancouver in the winter, with a consistently cold temperature, snow capped moutains in the background, and a flair for dark, unobtrusive jackets and clothing. Unfortunatly though, there is not a coffee shop on every corner as in Canada, and finding a cup of anything other than Nescafe is a hard feat. Spending a month in Columbia and developing a addiction to great coffee has reinforced the fact that we changed countries and cultures. So if you cant get good coffee, why not just drink great wine?!!
Chile produces some excellent wine which is available for super cheap. A good bottle is under $5 in the supermarket and so we have sampled many and have not found a bad one yet. A grape now unique to Chile due to insect wipeouts in other places, is called the Camanere and we have enjoyed this alot. We have also indulged inmany pisco sours and have learnt how to make them so watch out for a taste sensation at our palce when we get back. As well as drink lots of beverages here, we have walked around the city and checked out the plazas, shopping malls, parks and clean buildings that make this city function. We have watched movies, slept in, cooked great dinners, and enjoyed being almost the only guests in a really cool, homely hostel. We wanted to go snowboarding but we are just a little too early for the base to be decent, but its snowing now and its certainly cold enough.
But now its all over, and we are getting on a plane in a couple of hours. I think when the time comes to go home, you are often ready for it because you´ve told yourself thats the way it is. I cant say im fully ready to come home but i am looking forward to eating food with spice in it again (a serious lack of flavour in most Sth American countries and so the first thing we will probably devour at home is a thai green curry with extra chilli. Ooohh so Ausrtalian!). It will also be unsual to not have to carry toilet paper around with you, and to be able to throw it down the bowl instead of a bin next to the toilet (SA plumbing cant handle paper). I will be happy not to have hours travellin on buses or planes for awhile, and it will be cool not to see statues of Jesus on the dashboard of a bus, and also cool to see a bus or garbage truck without flashing decorative lights or pansy music blasting from it. I will however miss the continuous food sellers who get on anywhere and sell you drinks, hot food, chips, anything! It will be a pain to have to wait for a bus at a bus stop instead of just hailing one from anywhere along the road. There are lots of thing i will miss, and we will certainly be back to this land of diversity and culture, friendly people and good times. But for now, we must say adios and head to the airport. Really, i have to go right now, like 10 minutes ago...

Bogota - Columbia

Topping off our Columbian adventures, we spent 4 nights in the capital city, Bogota. Once considered an dangerous place and somewhere to avoid, Bogota has cleaned up its act in recent times, and with police presence everywhere, it feels safe, clean and a cool place to be. Its a big modern metropolis with efficient transport, business and historic districts, and really intersting musuems.

We stayed in the old town area called La Candelaria which used to be the centre of Bogota. The area around the Plaza de Bolivar contains graceful architecture of the National Congress, the Presidents House, mayors office, judicial and goverment buildings, neoclassical cathedrals and charming restuarnts serving traditional dishes such as ajiaco which is a delicious chicken stew with corn, capers and 3 types of potato. Another typical Columbian dish is hot chocolate served with a wedge of cheese which i struggle to understand. The idea is that the cheese offsets the sweetness in the chocolate but i´ll take my cheese and chocolate seperately gracias!

As mentioned, Bogota has some world class musuems and we visited the Museo del Oro (Gold Musuem) which features more than 34000 pieces of goldworks from Hispanic cultures in Columbia. Delicate, intricate, and restored with dazzling shine, this was a unique and impressive musuem. Equally unique and impressive, yet for entirely different reasons, was the Museo Historico Policia which details the Columbian police force through the years, including a sizable section on the life and possessions of drug cartel boss and policitican Pablo Esacabar. This musuem is filled with guns, uniforms and police artifacts, and we were guided around by a young ancillary member of the force who explained to us that military service is compulsary for 1 year for Columbian men, and that opportunities are good for those who wish to continue on. This helped to explain the huge police presence of young kids with batons and guns and braces on their teeths, in various policing roles such as musuem guide, traffic police, etc.

We also visited the Botero Musuem, and again enjoyed the works of this prolific Columbian artist who paints, draws and scuplts fat people, fruits and flowers. The musuem is also home to lots of Columbian modern art, plus works by Salvador Dali, Picassio, Renoir and Monet. But of course it wasnt all high culture for us in this happening city! We checked out some reggae, jazz, and live latino bars and resturants, and spent a few nights seeing the sunrise at the hostel and missing breakfast/lunch the next day. We were thankful to roll out of bed one day to find a huge Columbian food exhibition taking place in the plaza, with tonnes of stalls selling things like BBQ meats (cooked on hot stones, directly on the plaza ground), weird juices, sweets, fruits, breads and meats, and with schoool students and music groups in traditional costumes dancing and singing all day, we were suitably entertained and well feed.

We also visited Columbias number 1 tourist attraction - the salt cathedral at Zipaquira, which is about 2 hours outside Bogota. This is a huge labyrinth of underground chapels and tunnels built within the old section of the salt mines. They still mine there today, although in a different area. As you descend into the depleted area, the salt walls are mostly smoothed over and contain carved out crosses everywhere with marble blocks for pray and reference to the stations of the cross. The finale is the cathedral which is massive and eeringly beautiful. The tour was in Spanish so my understanding of the history is a little limited and im unsure if they actually hold mass in there now, or if its just a tourist attraction. Nonetheless, is was a visually fasinating sight.

Jeb tells me i have been typing away for ages, so thats enough out of me for now except to say that we arrived safely in Chile despite some airport hiccups involving customs and seeds inside an Ecuadorian musical instrument. At 4am in the morning, we were lucky enough to escape a $800 US fine, and reminded ourself that we are now travelling in the world of planes and not buses, and searches exist and are thorough. Anyways, more on Chile later.

Parque Tayrona, and Villa de Leyva - Columbia

Parque Tayrona is a national park at the north point of Columbia, encompassing ocean and land. After scuba diving in one small area, we set off to spend a couple of nights in the national park which is accessed via 2 local buses and a near 2 hour hike to the campsite after paying the park fees. Dealing with intense humidity and an outraegous amount of Deet to protect from mosquitoes and midgie bites, plus the added bonus of carrying kilos of water and supplies, we were hoping this would be worthy adenture. It proceeded to surpass our expectations.

The jungle trails were home to scores of big blue crabs on the route in, and we saw a huge yellowish green snake scramble across the forest floor in front of us. Reaching the coast, palm trees towered all around and the deep bays were accompanied with massive boulders making the scene beautifully picturesque. It really was like stepping on the set off a film clip, something like Castaway with Tom Hanks maybe but with more class.

The days were spent tanning and drinking rum with our lovely Irish amiga Jules who we´ve travelled with for the last few weeks. We slept in hammocks in an open cabana perched on the top of a hill, looking straight out to the ocean and feeling the wind blow us to sleep. The seas were quite rough on the second night and it was a little cold but damp with so much humidity. Probably not the kind of bed you would want for more than a couple of nights, but a cool experience.

Trudging back to civilasation, Jeb and i needed to make our way south as our trip is nearing an end and we apparently have flights to catch. Reality check?!! But no stress yet, we hit the highway in another overnight bus (or 3 actually), and eventually made it to the sweepìng countryside and colonial town of Villa De Leyva. We stayed in a great guesthouse with backyards and fireplaces and more hammocks, and enjoyed the peacfulness. Yesterday we took bikes out for the day and explored the region including the El Fossil which is a reasonably complete fossil of a 120 million year old marine reptile called the Kronosaurus. Next we visited the Muisa Observatory (El Infiernito) which dates from the early centuries and is series of phallic looking structures (actually to be clear, they were simply big stone penises, no confusion there). There are 30 or so of them, spread out around the park about 9m apart, and were used by the indigeous people to tell the seasons. Cruising along on our bikes, we passed a cool Terracotta house, but with a huge storm beginning to drop down on us, we hightailed it back to town only to get caught in the downpour. We got soaked to the bone, but thankfully managed to dry off by the fireplace all night. A remarkable feat itself seeing the wood was soaked, but that has never stopped Jeb before. With many beers for a new friend in the hostels birthday and a late start this morning, we unfortunately didnt get to fully explore the architecture and cobbletsone quaintness that this place has to offer. 4 hours on the bus today and a broken down taxi, puts us in Bogota right now, the capital of Columbia and our last destination in this country before a flight to Chile in 4 days time.

Taganga - Columbia

So now we are really on holidays! After months of hiking up mountains, down canyons, day long bike rides, and moving places every 2-3 days, we have arrived at the beach town of Taganga, where the hardest decisions we face are what unknown fruits we will combine in our juices. The sun beams down everyday, the water is torquise and the alcohol is flowing. Further to the several juices everyday, we have been enjoying small cups of tinto (sweetened black coffee) in the afternoons served directly to you on the beach, plus many cold showers (there is only one tap in the shower anyway, and is more just like a pipe sticking out of the wall than a shower head - this is the norm in northern columbia, and also unfortunately in other parts of Sth America where it is not so sweltering hot and not so well received). We have also been lazying about on a yellow lilo, floating about in the water and getting a nice tan too. Oh and of course, eating the freshest of fish straight from the ocean, and its delicious.

Today we stepped out of this lazy lifestyle that we are getting rather used to, and went snorkelling and scuba diving. Neither Jeb or i have dived before so we did what they call a mini course which consists of 2 dives at a maximum depth of 12m. Once we became adjusted to the apparatus and the concept of breathing underwater, we had a fantastic time checking out the stunning coral reefs, superbly coloured fish, octopus, and marine life. It astounding to think that so much of this planet is underwater and unexplored. It really is an amzing world of its own down there.

Tommorrow we are heading back to Santa Marta (which is also a beachside town, 20 mins away with more faciltities and people but little to do) and from there, we will take a bus and jeep into the national park of Tayrona where we will probably do much of the same above, with the added bonus of sleeping in hammocks for a couple of days. Ahhhh....