Back from the Fire Swamp

I just returned from 4 days in the Fire Swamp otherwise known as Los Llanos, Venezuela. It is home to many rodents of unusual size - the capybaras - and hence the above princess bride reference. The capybaras are the largest rodents in the world and are about the size of your regular household dog. Day one of the excursion was spent mostly driving from Merida to Los Llanos, but along the way we say all kinds of Caymen (crocodiles), a herd of Capybaras, and and a gigantic Anteater. Day two we took a river boat safari where I was able to swim with the pink river dolphins (they're too fast to get a picture). In the evening we went hunting for Anaconda. After several hours we ended up finding a 5-6 meter (18 ft), 250 kilo (500 lb) Anaconda. However, I managed to accidentally erase half of my pictures from the trip. So you all get to see the picture of me holding a two foot baby alligator as opposed to the largest snake in the world. (Hopefully one of the other people in my group will see this and send me a photo of the Anaconda cbwarner@gmail.com ) Day three we went back to the river to do some Pirhana fishing. Well....everybody else did some Pirhana fishing. I was only there to feed them the meat on the end of my line. Which only added insult to injury seeing a tree branch scraped up my eye while I was riding on the roof of the jeep to the river. That evening we went on a horse ride through the plains. It didn't really beat catching a gigantic Anaconda. Today we left early in the morning and now I am in the bus terminal waiting for my next bus to Santa Elena where I will go on another six day hike to the top of Roraima.

Until next time,

Cristobal

Venezuela is the SH$@

Canyoning in Merida, Venezuela: Extreeeeeeeeeeme!!!

Ciudad Perdida

After leaving Cartagena I headed for Santa Marta. There I arranged a six day hike through the Columbian jungle to Ciudad Perdida (literally the Lost City). The area was first colonized by the Tayrona in 500 AD and continued until the Spanish arrival in the1600s. The spanish exterminated all of the Tayrona people in the lower valleys of the jungle, but were unable to reach the capital that was built deep within the Sierra Nevadas. However, mysteriously the city was abandoned. Its possible the people starved once they were unable to trade with the lower valley, but the spanish horses were unable to reach the city built on the peaks of the Sierra Nevada. The city wasn´t discovered until 1973 after being completely covered by the jungle for 300 years.

I spent the last six days hiking through the Columbian jungle, surrounded by paramilitaries that protect the cocaine plantations, to reach Ciudad Perdida. It is the most difficult hike I´ve ever done, but one of the best experiences I´ve had on this trip. The two days of rain to the summit only made the hike that much more difficult. The city has a mystic and spiritual quality to it. I am pretty sure I had some semi-lucid dreams the third night that we spent at the top of the city. I was with Mark, my buddy from spanish school in guatemala, three other aussies (Geoff, Damien, and Curtis), Swiss Chris (who was on the Swiss National Skydiving team), Irish Alan (who lives in Switzerland) and two Canadians. We had a crazy little guide named jose who must have weighed 90 lbs, but could carry the same weight on his back (and also loved Uno even though he kept trying to make up his own rules).
The trip was topped off on the way back when we got to go to a cocain factory and see how it is made. I have the recipe if anyone wants it, but first you are going to need 1000 kilos of coca leaves to make 1 kilo of cocaine. The coke money definitely doesn´t make its way to the plantation because this guy only gets a little over a thousand dollars for a kilogram. And he only makes 10 kilos a year. I think he makes more money from showing us how its done than he does from the cocaine. Either way it was pretty interesting.

I´m staying in Taganga, a small fishing village next to Santa Marta right now. Tomorrow Mark and I leave for Venezuela. We are taking all precautions for the ¨lawless¨ border crossing. Going to do some paragliding in Merida and then book it through the Amazon in order to get to Brazil for Carnaval.

Cristobal

For You...I would Kill the Bull

Cartagena, Columbia!!!


I have arrived in Columbia to the beautiful Columbian port of Cartagena and so has everybody else. It is vacation time here and it seems every single columbian goes to Cartagena. The original plan was to have a month of Spanish school here, but we all know those plans changed. So as soon as I had set my bags down in my hotel I went off to find Volcan de Lodo El Totumo. It really is more of a hill than a volcano, but instead of lava it spews mud. It was a rather bizarre experience swimming through mud and receiving a mud massage while immersed in a volcano. But I enjoyed the experience and we spent the rest of the day at the beach with fresh fish for lunch.

The next day I headed out to the islands that surround Cartagena and the famous Playa Blanca. At the first island, where the president of Columbia owns a house, we did some snorkeling. Then we headed over to Playa Blanca, which looked like the Columbian version of spring break. It was also fairly evident that Columbia is one of the world´s leaders in plastic surgery (as well as anorexia and bullemia). After a couple hours at Playa Blanca we went to our third island for the day and had some more fresh fish for lunch.

My plans to go to Santa Marta the next day were interrupted when I heard the words: BULL FIGHT! Not only would it be a bull fight, but they were the smaller bulls with inexperienced bull fighters. Which meant there was the opportunity to see some mishaps. I paid for another night, went and saw the castle of Cartegena in the morning, and attended the bull fight in the evening. I have mixed reviews. One of the bullfighters was very entertaining and really got the crowd going. One of the bulls completely destroyed a barrier that the bullfighters can stand behind for protection. But otherwise it was a bit monotonous. I think six bulls was too much. Glad I saw it, probably won´t go to another one.

Now I understand why everyone who has ever been to Columbia loves it. The people here are amazing. They will go completely out of their way to show you around their country. I think because there is less tourism here they are more excited to see foreigners. Columbia is now up there with Guatemal and Nicaragua as my favorite countries so far.

Out of Nicaragua, Central America and 2006

New Years!!! After making the split decision to stay in Nicaragua and learn spanish for a month it was finally time to leave. Ingrid and I spent new years on the beach at Poneloya with fireworks and Champagne.

The next morning was a new year and it was time for me to find a new country. After a difficult and heartfelt goodbye to Ingrid I started my journey towards South America. Apparently everyone else in Central and South America began their journeys at the same time, because every bus I had to take was already booked. In Managua, Nicaragua all buses were booked to Panama and Costa Rica. But after waiting in the terminal from four in the morning I managed to get a standby bus ticket to Costa Rica. Arrived in San Jose around 5 pm on the 2nd to find that all buses to panama were booked. I tried to do standby for the 10 and 11 o´clock buses without luck. So I slept in the bus terminal, took a taxi to another bus station at 4 in the morning and caught a bus to the border at 5 am. After 2 hour of arguing at the panamanian border I managed to get into the country with a printout of a fake plane ticket from expedia.com (thanks for that tip Ben). Two buses and a taxi later I made it my hostal in Panama city at 1 am on the 4th. I spent the 4th trying to arrange a boat to Columbia. While waiting for replies from several boat captains I took a few hours to visit the Panama Canal. All boats to Columbia were full except for the one with the drunk- theif captain. I gave up and bought a plane ticket. So after exactly three months of travelling I left Central America and arrived in Columbia on the 5th of January.