Travel to Colombia, Risaralda, Pereira.

For our last week in Colombia, we were staying with Alex and Claudia, friends from back home who had kindly offered to have us stay with them at their house in Pereira. We took a bus from Medellin, that traversed over steep mountain ranges with magnificent views over the valleys beneath. In places there was only the road, a few houses, and then sheer drops of many hundreds of metres on either side. We had opted for the front two seats, which made for some interesting viewing, not only of the vistas, but also of the overtaking manoeuvres employed by our driver. As the majority of the road was single lane, the bus driver had to overtake numerous slow trucks, many times on blind corners as there was not a straight stretch of road for more then 30 seconds at a time. Somewhat nerve racking at the beginning, we soon got used to it, as every driver on the hair pinned roads did it. There seems to be a common understanding amongst the drivers, as in the opposite lane they all slowed down to either let the bus overtake, or if in the originating lane the driver would slow down and let the bus slot back into traffic

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Travel to Colombia, Cali.

Before arriving in Colombia I had heard nothing but positive reports from other travellers that had recently visited, with many saying with a knowing look that I would end up spending a lot longer here than I expected! I hate to pander to the stereotypes but they were exactly right, as I've already been here 6 weeks and this may be the first country where I have to do a nifty quickstep across the nearest border to renew a visa, as the three months I was given doesn't look like its going to be enough!

The trip didn't start too auspiciously with a looooong bus (close to 24 hours instead of the expected 14-15) from Ecuador, which reached the southern town of Popoyan so late in the day that all the buses to my intended destination of Tierradentro had already upped and left!! Anyway, for a town I only visited by accident it turned out to be very pleasant, with its nickname of the “white city” earned through its well preserved historic centre which was great to wander around. It was also very close to Volcan Purace, a 4,750 metre peak supposedly offering superb views.

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Travel to Colombia, Leticia, Rio Yavari, Amazon.

We arrived to the place of 3 frontiers before lunch time and were dropped at the bank of the Amazon on the Peruvian side, we think. It was hard to tell because there was a lot going on around us and to get anywhere we had to take a water taxi anyway. We negotiated a price with a boatmen and he took us first to the immigration office so that we could be stamped out of Peru. As it happens water is too low for the barca to go there so you have to really deal with the extra cost. It was not much anyway and the guy waited for us to take us to Leticia, port of entry to Colombia…ah, finally.

People say it is not pretty but we found it rather nice. The streets are nicely coordinated; it is very green and very, very lively. It is hard to say how, but this place is so much different to Peru. It is probably not solely thanks to the people, as this place was a dispute between Colombia and Peru for decades, hence a mix of cultures live there, but maybe the ‘inland’ Colombians, who relocated here, brought with
from the viewpointthem the vibe, the colors and the music of Colombia. The salsa music was to be heard everywhere and people were obviously in festive spirit. As we almost forgot about Christmas we also forgot that it was the New Years Eve time the next day. We really wanted to move on to Puerto Narino but decided that Leticia might have more going on.

We were shocked with the prices of rooms that were quoted to us. We know, we know, it was a holiday season but still 30$ for a crappy room was a little bit too much. We walked around for ages trying all the budget hotels and when we were about to give up we found a nice private room with a kitchen use for 35,000COP/18$ which was ok. Not the first time that our patience paid out. We went for a stroll to check food prices in town and then to the airport to get stamped in (they wanted 7$ for a taxi). That is another inconvenient thing about this border crossing. None of the immigration points are on the way or in town. We walked the 3,5km to the Airport Immigration office as apparently staying
in the junglein the country for 4 days without stamp is illegal….

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Travel to San Gil, Colombia.

Country/Town Visited: San Gil, Colombia
Date of stay: 8th - 12th Aug 2011
Where you stayed: Sam's Hostel
Tour or pre planned: Tour

Backpacking through Colombia was an experience I’ll never forget, and the 4 days spent in San Gil were amazing. I stayed at Sam’s hostel in San Gil, Colombia. The hostel offers some adrenaline packed activities which I decided to partake in. Here’s a day by day review of the activities I did.

Day 1: 1pm-5pm: Tandem Paragliding
Lovely day for a fiesta in the sky. My tandem partner was a little advanced in years, but I wasn't going to hold that against him. He did a wonderful job of uplifting himself and I high above the dense, jungle canopy into a world of free-floating and weightless green bliss. I think he fancied me a bit ;-). We glided for what seemed only a minute. We would suspend, as if completely halted in mid air, then spiral downwards left and right like a pendulum. A sensational feeling of flying, as if nothing is holding you. We had already ever so ungracefully landed before I even realized our romantic rendez-vous was over. I tumbled hard into the groin of a man twice my senior, smack dab in the middle of a tobacco field. 

Day 2: 8am-1pm: Rappelling down a 60m waterfall (see photo below)    
The Juan Cury waterfalls, located a short bus ride outside of San Gill are absolutely beautiful, but you don't really have time to sit back and enjoy the scenery as you slip-slide on rock, heavy volumes of water pelting down on you while belaying yourself for 60m. You do this by yourself, the guides are merely watching you. No experience necessary, there’s no crash course. You are wearing a bracelet to identify your body if worst case scenario happens and you are washed away. I must say there is a certain liberating feeling that comes with that. 

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