Saturday., 17/02/2018
We leave to Luxembourg
Airport
It is dark when we arrive in Colombia
Sunday, 18/02/2018
Today’s excursion is planned with some bikes. Bogotá closes every Sunday
many roads to the “Ciclovía”, the bicycle day ! We wait for our guide, Mike
Caesar, who shows up a bit late, since there has been some confusion with the
hotel names…We follow Mike to his shop, get our bikes sorted out and ride
straight to “Plaza de Bolívar”, one of the main places, with the Town Hall. The
streets are extremely busy : cyclists, pedestrians, joggers, people on
rollerblades, anybody who feels like moving is on the road. So we have to watch
out for that traffic, try not to loose Mike and cope with our bikes….We pass
Cathedrals, big buildings, Museums, and stop at many graffiti paintings: this
street art is famous, the artists even get paid for their work and it does enrich
the otherwise sad and grey house gables…In Parque Nacional we find big part of
Bogotá’s population busy with sports, games, paseo (strolls), food stalls etc….
all in all good vibrations. We see our first Botero statue, Colombia’s most
famous sculptures.(it is Botero’s son on a chubby horse, you have to like the
style….), we ride through red light district, see the copies of St Augustin
statues, all pre -Colombian, and get to “Mercado de Paloquemao”, a fruit and
flower market right in Bogotá’s centre. We have a great taste of many exotic
fruits like “granadilla, guanábana, gulupa, lulo, mangustino, maracuya, papaya,
pitahaya (Columbian dragonfruit), tomate del
After the bicycle trip we got some time left to visit the “Museo de
Oro”, the Gold Museum, holding the pre- Colombian treasures….The entrance is
free on a Sunday .We admire the beautiful golden artifacts, all exposed behind
solid doors. Unfortunately people had tiny fingers at that time, so no copy
fitting to Anita’s (or my own ) finger, too bad! A little deserved rest at the
hotel and dinner in “La Bruja”.
Monday, 19/02/2018
We leave the capital to get to the Amazonian area, to Leticia. We fly
with Arianca Air Company and on arrival pay a tax of 32.000 p per person.
Transfer to Hotel Amazon B&B. We get little cabins, set in a lovely garden,
very pleasant. We stroll through Leticia, get some money and shop at a local
supermarket. On the way we pass Parque Santander where we see our first giant
waterlilies, the “Viktoria Regis”. We have a modest dinner on grilled chicken
and have a rest.
Tuesday, 20/02/2018
Breakfast at 7:00 and leaving at 7:30 in a mini van to a village of the
“Tikuna” tribe. We watch the procedure of producing “Acai” juice, a new
superfood , strong on vitamins and antioxydants. It is a hard job since only
the skin of the berry is used for the juice. Then we get a medical drink: the 7
roots (7 raíces), good for digestion. We walk to our canoes (accompanied by
millions of mosquitoes…) get into the boat and start to paddle…: we silently
glide through a rather noisy jungle: so many birds screaming and screeching. We
see many strange plants and trees, for instance a tree “murdering” the other trees, by
simply taking over the host tree…Many trees drop their fruit into the river and
feed the fish that way. There is a whole collection of interconnected lakes
that we cross, to get to the “Viktoria Regis” waterlily lake.
This is the biggest waterlily in the world, its size is amazing! After that we paddle back to the “Yahuarcaca “lake, hear the blowing of the dolphin river, but cannot see it. On the boat we snack on “zapote”, a pumpkin like fruit. After landing we backtrack through the jungle, and come back to the hotel dirty, sweaty and very muddy! Get cleaned and a rest and plan the following day: a full day excursion across the Amazonas river, all to the Peruvian side, with a bit of everything: lakes, paddling, jungle trail, animal watching etc.
This is the biggest waterlily in the world, its size is amazing! After that we paddle back to the “Yahuarcaca “lake, hear the blowing of the dolphin river, but cannot see it. On the boat we snack on “zapote”, a pumpkin like fruit. After landing we backtrack through the jungle, and come back to the hotel dirty, sweaty and very muddy! Get cleaned and a rest and plan the following day: a full day excursion across the Amazonas river, all to the Peruvian side, with a bit of everything: lakes, paddling, jungle trail, animal watching etc.
Dinner at San Angel’s.
Wednesday, 21/02/2018
4:00, get up and early breakfast to leave from Leticia’s “Muelle”
(dockyard) with our boat. Close to Isla Santa Rosa we are at the
3-border-point: Colombia/Brasil/Peru. We follow the Amazonas river until it
splits into Amazon-River Yavarí.
Here we get to the lakes and hope to
discover (and actually do!) Amazonian dolphins, the common
little grey dolphin and the rose coloured Boto, i.e. the Pink Amazonian River
dolphin!! This is a sacred animal to the tribes and not easily spotted! After
that wonderful experience we head on to a place that rescues jungle animals:
squirrel monkeys, parrots, spider monkeys, capuchin monkeys and some more. They
are tame, friendly and very keen on bananas!! They even jump on our shoulders
and seem to be used to humans. There is an Anaconda snake, a “baby” of 30 kilos
and 4 meters. We can touch it and even lift it up! In a large pond we discover
a prehistorical kind of fish: the pirarucú. This is a giant fish, having both,
lungs and gills. It ponds eggs and feeds the little ones with milk, like
mammals do, but are still fish. Their bodies have a layer of scales, on the
outside as well as on the inside, which makes them almost as safe as a tank! No
other animal attacks this fish that can survive for 3 hours on land. The
pirarucú is carnivorous and a kind of cannibal: eating its own babies balances
the living number of its own kind. On the whole an amazing animal. We can even
tease it with a bait and watch how powerfully the fish throws itself on
the fishing rod!
We continue on our boat to get to a little dock where we start our
jungle trail. Millions of mosquitoes, a heavy, moisty heat and a very muddy
track turn it into quite a hard walk. Later we go back to the little centre to
get a deserved lunch. There is a little platform at the river bank and they
teach us to fish tiny little pirhanas!! Then the skies open up and we witness a
real jungle thunderstorm! The heavy rainfall is almost deafening! After a
little siesta in some comfortable hammocks we return to Leticia by boat (2
hours ). Dinner at Angelo’s again and a good rest after the eventful day.
Thursday 22/02/2018
We get up fairly early to use the last half day for a visit of “El Mundo
Amazonico”. The place is +- 8 km outside of Leticia so we take a taxi to get
there. It is quite muddy in this botanical garden and there is the ever
presence of mosquitoes…There are themes one can choose from and we start with
“medical plants”. Amazing trees, shrubs, hedges and low-growing plants with all
sort of leaves, seeds, flowers and barks are turned into paste, infusion,
liquids, gels and creams to treat any kind of ailment you might think about.
These tribes have a knowledge that is priceless! We have a taste of a medical
drink, see the bows and arrows of the tribes as well as the famous
“cerbanatas”, the blowpipes. They show us their aquarium with many kinds of
river fish. We get disgusted by the display of the various worms, maggots and
parasites that can be extremely poisonous and kill you.
After the garden we return to the hotel and head towards Leticia
airport. Unfortunately a heavy thunderstorm delays all the flights and we spend
7 miserable hours at this shabby airport until we get to Bogotá. We get our
tranfert to “Muisca Hotel” and the bad day turns into a REAL bad day: Muisca is
a historical place, close to the Candelaria, but the rooms are ridiculously
small, no space at all, like a moisty dark cellar room. The heating is too weak
and my personal belongings are soaked from the rain (my bag was standing outside
at the airport), I desperately try to make some room for drying my clothes. Our
spirits are low, we are shivering in the cold and spend a chilly night under
the thin blankets.
Friday23/02/2018
Early in the morning we start handling our situation: “Neptuno” company
doesn’t pick up the phone so we decide there and then to inform Miller Reisen
that we book a new hotel and leave Muisca hotel after our rent a car reception.
Receiving the car is a bit of an adventure since the owner of the car seems to
worry a lot that we might damage his car. But all turns out well and we leave
Muisca to get to Usaquén (Northern Bogotá ) to
Hotel Santa Fe. The hotel has a private parking which is very welcome (in the
Candelaria we had to find a public parking space…). Our new rooms are spacious,
dry and warm. What a relieve! It is already past miday and we hurry to leave to
Zipaquirá, the salt cathedral.
This is an underground cathedral, carved out of
salt and, together with 2 other similar structures, unique in the world. 180 m
below there are 14 chapels with a main nave and a giant cross as its crown
jewel. The mixing of religion and salt has some logical roots: work in the salt
mines was dangerous, so altars were made.
We stay for the rest of the day in
the mystical place and return to Bogotá. No time left for Laguna de Guatavita
before nightfall. Dinner at “Archie’s”, a nice
Italian restaurant and a good rest.
Saturday 24/02/2018
We start early in the day towards the Chorerra de Choachín waterfalls
with a planned walk and maybe Chorerro de Chiflón as an additional option. But
after a long and hard drive we arrive at the mountains and the weather turns
from bad to disastrous! We decide against the trail, too muddy, rain coming
down in buckets, all misty and foggy, no views at all. Disappointed we drive
back to Bogotá. I call Suescalada on the way, a climbing company that organises
tailor-made climbing days. The organising involves a lot of whatsap messages
going back and forth, but at the end we have a date: we shall meet Oscar, our
climbing guide, at the entrance of
Suesca town the next day. Anticipation!
Sunday 25/02/2018
Leaving towards Suesca. Although many roads are closed in Bogotá, due to
the Sunday Ciclovía, we manage to get out of Bogotá. In Suesca we do meet Oscar
at the Hostal Café Nómada and head towards the crack.
There is a railway just
next to the rocks, quite spectacular with the trains passing and whistling….The walk
is very short and the rocks very close. It is a beautiful place, the structure
of the rock offers a nice view, the face of the crack shows rough pockets and
big holds. There is a lichen kind of plant dangling from the rocks, it has the
appearance of a ´bearded man….We warm up in some easy routes and switch to more
difficult ones, unfortunately rather polished. The routes are all traditionals,
on friends and blockers, Oscar is leading them for us After some time there is
a chilly wind and we shiver at the base
of the routes. We decide to finish the day’s climb, happy about the nice
experience.
Return to Bogotá and dinner at Jen’s Pizza.
Monday 26/02/2018
Today we leave to Río Claro Río Claro
At sunset
we lie under our mosquito nets and listen to the most wonderful tropical
concert of birds, frogs, crickets and others. Some sound like a chainsaw,
combined with the roaring river sound, we are quite delighted.
Tuesday 27/02/2018
Get our breakfast as early as we can, waterproof bags, bathing suits and
shoes all ready for the Caverna de los Guácharos experience. The guides tell
us, there are no other clients today than us (no wonder, the excursion was
announced as being pretty strenuous). We start with a lovely jungle walk, on
both sides of the river steep lime rocks shoot up into the sky. The trees are
giant, we can watch some woodworkers handling the giant trunk of a fallen tree:
the trunk certainly has no European dimensions! Soon we get to the cave’s
entrance, wading through knee deep water for a while. The Guácharos, an owl
like bird possessing the radar system of bats, screech terribly after a few
minutes. These birds are unique in Colombia
Here we need to climb down a net and swim across the
river to the shore. Wet, a bit cold, but quite satisfied! We pack up, lunch at
the lodge and leave towards Guatapé, Hotel Guatatur. The hotel is right in the
centre of the town, at a lovely plaza, we enjoy a stroll through the small
town, taking pictures of the colourful bas-reliefs of the gables. Dinner at
Sam’s, an Indian restaurant.
Wednesday 28/02/2018
‘’After a modest breakfast we get the car from the overnight
parqueadero and drive off to the Piedra
de Peñol, the granite monolith. It rises in the centre of the Embalse Guatapé,
Guatapé’s dam and water system. A brick staircase with 670 steps rises up
through a broad fissure in the side of the rock. The climb is fine, at the top
we have a nice view of the lakes and hills around. There is a light breeze and
it is pleasant to watch the birds gliding through the airs.
After that we face a +- 2 hour’s drive to Medellín.
The busy metropolitan city is a challenge to any driver. Luckily we find
the sector El Poblado quick enough and check in at the friendly La Campana
Hotel Boutique. Rooms are airy and nice, we leave the car at the hotel’s
private parking and take a taxi to the town centre. We tour around on our own:
Parque Berrio, Candelaria, Plazoleta de esculturas (famous for Botero’s sculptures…) , Palacio
Nacional etc, Medellín centre isn’t very interesting or loaded with cultural
artefacts, so we drive back and organise the coming day: an Escobar Tour!
Dinner in Poblado, a nice area for a night out.
Thursday 01/03/2018
Our driver Roger picks us up for the tour. We start at a private house
of Pablo, close to the airport where he could watch the coming and goings of
the planes, loaded with money and drugs.
We get a whole tour, stories and
anecdotes , see cars and motorbikes, hidden “escape” rooms, hiding places for
money and drugs and some more. Roberto, his brother, is there and I buy his
biography. (I get it signed..) This man is old, nearly blind and deaf from a
letter bomb in prison. Roberto was basically a professional cyclist, and later on the manager of the Colombian cycling team. A direct involvement of Roberto in violent crimes of the cartel has never been proved by the police. He was Pablo’s account and served a 14 years’
sentence in prison for this. We see the Escobar graves and hear some more about
famous persons involved in the Kalí-Medellín drug cartel wars.
After the tour we get to the metro. Medellín’s metro is rather special:
you ride a train and then change for a cable-metro that rises you high up above
the city. We ride for an hour, all the way up to the mountains, Parque Arví,
the city’s escape to nature. Here we have a walk and get back to the town.
Medellín is rather impressive from these heights, we can see the favelas , the
barrios (slums) in the hills, connected by hundreds of stairs. We get off at
Poblado station and walk back to the hotel. Dinner at the nice area from the previous
night…
Friday 02/03/2018
Leaving Medellín without too many traffic jams and taking up the
serpentine road to the Andes . Of course this
isn’t anything near to a motorway, so our driver has a hard job overtaking many
slow lorries at risky places performing exciting manoeuvres!!! As if this is
not enough we find the main road to Manizales
But we get our reward: the hotel is very nice, in a very lonesome area,
stunning views straight into the mountains and valleys. Finca Mirador
Morrogachu!! The owner is friendly, we have a Turkish bath in our cabin and use
it with delight. The hotel provides a lovely dinner and we relax from the day’s
drive.
Saturday 03/03/2018
At 8:00 o’clock our guide arrives to take us into the Nevada Park Europe
and it is very interesting to discuss politics with her. Unfortunately the
weather isn’t on our side: PNN, Los Nevados is covered by a very dense fog that
prevents us from any kind of view. So we decide to drive up to 4500 m to see if
we might be lucky and get a glimpse of Nevada Ruíz (5321m ) , highest volcano
of the chain. Ruíz is active, its last eruption dates from 1985 so for safety’s
reason we cannot drive any further. The little distance is covered by foot, we
walk slowly, respecting the altitude and not pushing our bodies.
Ruíz stays
hidden, we have to return but at least richer by the 4500 m’s experience. We
drive back to Manizales Manizales
Sunday 04/03/2018
The night has been a very noisy one: a thunderstorm hunts the valley and
the rolling thunder prevents us from a sound sleep. In the morning a thick mist
hangs above the valley, with occasionally some green patches peeping out of the
milky fog.
We are off to Armenia Armenia Armenia Andes ,
as well as an insect department with all kind of creepy crawlies… At the end we
can enter the butterfly garden, hopelessly soaked by the rain, it is a challenge
to hunt the delicate insects with our cameras. At our return to the hotel we
hop into a local little supermarket, people making a point of being extremely
friendly, I think we are the only tourists that ever entered that shop! At the
hotel we dine and plan our Cocora trek for the day after.
Monday 05/03/2018
Breakfast at 7:00: the serving lady introduces us to Arepa, a flat round
shaped kind of corn bread. We get some buñelos, too, a little ball shaped dough
which is fried and very tasty. We head off to Salento village and find a good
road that leads to Cocora hamlet. No need at all to hire one of those WWII
“Willy”-jeeps mentioned in the internet. We leave our car at the parqueadero
and start the hike. We decide against renting some Wellington
Tuesday 06/03/2018
We pack up fairly early and clean the car a bit for its return. We still
have some time left and take a lovely walk close to the hotel: it is a
“sendero” (path) overgrown by huge bamboo, very green and impressive. Nice to
have a walk like that at your backyard. After a refreshing lunch on delicious
mango, pineapple and maracuya we drive to Armenia Airport Cartagena Cartagena
In Bogotá it is not so easy to find the correct terminal (domestic
flights), we ask our way along and are glad to get into the right shuttle and
find the correct gate…
Wednesday 07/03/2018
Today’s plan is to discover Cartagena
We
wander around, enjoying the beautiful colonial houses, with wooden balconies,
majestic gates, lovely patios that are shady and full of greenery. The whole
town is very pleasant and it is charming to stroll through its streets. The
walk on the city wall provides views of the sea and a welcome breeze. We
crisscross the streets until we are desperate for a cooling drink. Back at the
hotel we have a refreshing dip into the pool at the top of the building and a
little rest. A bit later we book a ride on a hop on and off bus and see the
outskirts of town, with the fortress and areas out of the wall. Finishing the
tour we shower off and go to Getsemaní barrio and get some fine dinner. After
food we have a leisure walk through Cartagena by night: the streets are
crammed, shops are open, street sellers offer their goods, in the park we watch
a life performance of an African dance group, all very nice and bubbling over
with life. We finish the day on the rooftop of the hotel with a tasty
Caipirhina….
Thursday 08/03/2018
Leaving Cartagena
The fruit’s shell is used for
handicraft (spoons, bowls etc) . The driver buys some Rosquitas from street
sellers, to give us a taste of these crispy ringlets with a cheesy flavour,
usually taken with some tinto (black coffee). We pass Baranquilla and see many
comunas or barrios, the Colombian name for slums or favelas. The driver tells
us that hundreds of thousands of people flee Venezuela ,
try to find a living in Colombia
Soon we have a very vague view (misty) of the highest coastal mountain
range of the world, the Sierra Nevada de Santa
Marta
Back at the hotel dinner and rest.
Friday 09/03/2018
Early in the morning our guide picks us up for the Tayrona trail. We
drive to Calabazo, right there is the entrance of the park, and start uphill.
The scenery is a lovely tropical one .It is dry and the sky is covered up,
rather convenient since there is already a lot of sweating involved….After a
long ascend we end up in Pueblito, an indigenous village. These people have
been living here from 400-1650 until the Spaniards came, trading salt and fish
with the tribes from the mountains. We see a casamaría, an assembling centre.
The chieftains are called los mamos, only men can be leaders. These tribes have
always honoured mother nature, leaving little ofrendas ( offerings like food,
flowers, crystal stones etc) on the boulders. We start a strenuous uphill climb
over the rocks (some of them are massive), realising that this coastal path has
been laid out 1500 years ago by the indigenous. We end up in Cabo San Juan and
get refreshed by the sea and a drink. The way continues along the coast,
passing La Piscina where we have another swim. We go on to Arrecifes where we
see some monkeys feeding on seeds and fruits, high up in the trees. At
Cañaveral our driver is waiting for us and takes us back to Palomino (after 9
hours of walking and touring…) The shower is a pure pleasure. Dinner and well
deserved rest.
Saturday 10/03/2018
Today’s program consists of a visit to the Kogui village. The Koguis are
the heirs of the pre-Colombian Tayrona people. On our way we enjoy some bird
watching. We see a spider that weaves the strongest thread in the world, we see
and hear birds, some of them of the family of the Quetzales, the cuckoo and
some hummingbirds….The sun is merciless and the heat turns the ascent into
quite a tiring one. Arriving at the village, we meet the first tribal families.
They are very small, our friend looks like a giant next to them. They are
extremely shy but loosen up a bit when we offer them our presents: some bread
and sausages we bought at the nearest village. They take the presents and give
us the permission to take pictures. The mamó, chieftain and father of 13 children,
has an eye on it all. He sits in front of his hut, sipping poporo, a tribal
kind of sacred drink, a mix of cocoa leaves and grinded shells. I buy a bag
from a woman, 4 months’ work, weaving purest cotton into a tight white bag. The
village people live from their cacao trees, we taste some fresh jelly from the
seeds. They grow cotton and a cactus plant, which fibres are used again for
some weaving (bags). One of the men takes us to their spiritual assembly place:
this is where they meditate, thanking mother nature for all they get. There is
a river nearby where they bathe and wash their clothes.(all in white) On the
whole they live a very simple and basic
life, selling their cacao in Santa Marta to get a very modest living. We thank them
for their hospitality and walk the whole way back.
Lunch of pineapple and granadilla (big version of maracuya). Swimming,
relaxing and walking along the beach…
Sunday 11/03/2018
Close to the Hotel Aité is a little pond with crocodiles, or caimans,
barbillas. Eventually they come out and eat a bird or even a little tourist???
7:30 and we leave for Minca for a mountain bike tour. We get the bike
and start the ride. According to the plan, the trek should be an easy one, but
we discover the cruel truth: the trail is very sandy, with big holes and cracks
and above all extremely steep. We start the ascend, and suffer under a blazing
sun! Never been sweating so much. We end up at our destination, the coffee
hacienda La Viktoria and get a guided tour. The harvest is over for some time,
so we cannot see the machines working and get only the theoretic part. But the
tour is interesting, we learn a lot about coffee, above all why coffee is so
expensive: it must be picked by hand (the beans) by the recolectores, the
coffee pickers. They need 40 kg of picking to get 2 kg of coffee at the end!
The bean itself has many layers that need to come off by various techniques.
There is a fermentation and drying process, The high quality coffee goes into
export and the low quality is turned into local coffee. That’s why we never got
a descent cup of coffee in Colombia
After the visit we ride down the trail and get some refreshments at
Minca. From here we drive up to (we cleverly voted AGAINST some more cycling)
the Cascades of Arimaca to get a refreshing swim.
Back to Minca again and on to the hotel. Here we enjoy our last swim in
the wild sea.
Dinner at the hotel and planning our trip back to Luxembourg.: Airport
Santa Marta, Airport Bogotá, Airport Charles de Gaule and finally Tuesday
evening landing in Luxembourg
