Category: Colombia

So this was it. Time to head to San Andrés my last destination. It felt a little bittersweet. I was excited to visit there, my first Caribbean island, but I was also heading home and right now I was done with travelling. I had completed my journey and I kinda knew that when I crossed the border into Colombia 5 weeks earlier and when I’d reached Cartagena I knew it was over. I was sad to be leaving too and I finally understood how the Irish guys were feeling in Buenos Aires. Yes I could afford to spend more but really now I was just counting down the days until I had to fly back to London. Not really with excitement anymore, I admit there was a time when I had, but at this stage all I wanted was a Sausage and Egg McMuffin from McDonald’s and a decent Ham sandwich.

I’d had a good inning. 312 days, 8 countries, 18 flights, hundreds of bus journey and hostels and hundreds of kilometres travelled and hiked. At one point I was going to add up all the statistics but I realised when I was here I didn’t really care anymore. I’m not sure how others feel but I think it gets to that extent. I didn’t feel like I belonged anywhere. I had no home in London, I don’t feel that I belong where my parents live but also I felt less connection with the UK. It’s weird but I’ve felt just because I happen to be born in the same country as someone doesn’t mean I have to feel anything in common with them. Obviously the concept of countries is arbitrary. But if anyone attacks it, and I’ll always admit the imperfections, I’ll defend it to the end!

As usual I’ve digressed. But as I said in the last post there isn’t a big crescendo when you go home. Some people don’t and I was slightly sad I hadn’t found a reason to stay. But I had. And I knew I had to leave so that I could find a way to return. It’s just that it felt daunting and I was tired. I wanted to sleep, go home and eat cheese.

So I woke up in the morning and killed time at the hostel until it was time to fly. I jumped in the taxi, checked in at the airport and was happy to discover that there was a Subway so I helped myself to another. The flight was fairly uneventful, largely because I left all my items in my bag and then forgot exactly where I had stowed it so I had no music to listen to and nothing to read. Anyways i was soon at the airport the other side and I walked past the taxis, all of whom said that I wouldn’t get my bags on a bus, and waited where I thought the busses might come. I asked a guy who said this was the right place but I really wasn’t sure. But a bus did come past and I jumped on hoping it would go where I needed it to. Alas I did and I was soon at the hostel.

The hostel was really friendly and as I was checking in the guy was talking a lot about diving. After my snorkelling I considered doing it but really all I wanted to do was sit on my ass on the beach but that wasn’t to happen. I had wanted to book private rooms but all of them were expensive and none of them looked great so I had decided to spend two nights at this hostel and see what happened but it was so friendly I decided to stay for the duration.

Everyone seemed to have brought food but I was still eating out. The hostel owner told me about a burger cart around the corner but I didn’t really want one having had two the day before. As there was nowhere else to go and I opted for a random assortment of fried meat and vegetables which might have been why I didn’t eat a decent meal for the next few days.

I woke up the next day at a little of a loss as to what to do. I sat having breakfast with the Geordie guy and Irish Guy I’d met the night before. Sorry but I’m way past using people’s names now. The hostel manager came up to us and told us that some girls from the hostel had hired a gold buggy and were going on a tour of the island, so the six of us split the costs and jumped in. First stop was the beach so off we went.

One of the best parts of the day was when we suggested to the American girl who was drinking that she should beep the horn more and it was stuck on for a good few minutes before we worked out how to turn it off. You probably had to be there but it was pretty funny. Especially the reactions of the locals. Anyways I’ve rambled enough. Check out the beach!

The island had the vibe of Iquitos, which is essentially an island. There were lots of bikes, no cycle helmets and lots of noise.

We headed up to the top of the island to visit the only non-Catholic church in South America and after a short introduction video and purchasing yet another hat as I’d lost mine yet again we climbed up to the top of the tower. Crazily the stairs were so scary this was one of the most perilous climbs I’d done. But it was worth it for the photos.

After we went on a proper tour of the island. It’s only around 30km to drive around it so it’s easy done in a day. We found a place to snorkel and I got to feed some fish and take a water slide into the sea. I forgot how much I hate salt water, I have a tendency to drink any water I’m submerged in and salt water is my least favourite next to swimming pools.

After we took a larger tour of the island and stopped off at a few beaches as the sun started going down.

The guys went for another dip in the sea but I decided to photograph some crabs as the sun went down.

We had one more stop to head to watch the sun set. Being a Tuesday eve throng closed but we were treated to this beautiful view.

We returned to the hostel and sat chatting with everyone, it was a really friendly hostel and I had an early night.

I had decided not to go diving. I didn’t want to spend the money and I was happy doing nothing. A couple of the girls from the day before invited us to the beach but the Geordie guy and I needed to go into town first. We did that and wasted the morning away before heading to the beach. I got us to jump on the first bus which took us pretty much everywhere around the island but where we actually wanted to go. The bus driver dropped a off and we decided to walk across the island to the beach. Luckily on the way we were picked up by another bus and made it to the beach.

By this point our friends had gone but we met some others from the hostel, it’s a small island, and sought shelter in a restaurant during a storm. I also made a new friend.

We stayed until dark and then had one more relaxed night at the hostel.

On my last day I decided I wanted to spend it at the beach. A few of us headed back to the restaurant for the day and I sat reading my book and having drinks. This was my view for the day.

And this was my lunch.

After a day on the beach i managed to spend a night playing video games and watching Netflix with a few guy from the hostel which was amazing.

The next day i took a taxi with the Canadian girl from the hostel to the airport. It was time to return to Bogata for my flight to London the following day.

The flight was uneventful other than we had to circle over Bogata and were nearly redirected to Medellin as he plane was running out of fuel. But it wasn’t.

I’d hired an Air BnB as a test for my last night. Angela came and met me at the airport and we had a fun night going for Chinese. I had two drinks and was so tired I wanted to go to bed so I called an early night.

The next day i spent watching TV and getting ready for the flight. I found a supermarket which had decent cheese, ham and bread which was amazing but did make a return to the UK even more pointless. And then it was time to head to the airport alone. I arrived had a burger, checked in and waited for my delayed flight. Then is was time to board and I took off leaving the continent of South America for the second time in 10 months.

I wasn’t sad. I was excited for many reasons I won’t explain here. But I’ve managed to complete this blog, in a half arsed way, but I never do anything properly and that won’t change. But I’d completed everything I set out to do. And i had a new mission. To return to the continent that has changed me in ways that i can never explain. I had left a part of me in South America, somewhere in the mountains and I know one day soon I’m going to find a way to come back and claim it. And put very simply “and that’s it”.

This is the second to last post I will write for this trip and this one is going to be different. I had two and a half weeks left and after completing my last hike, well last altitude hike but I’m not really sure it really counts as a hike anymore if its doesn’t take you over 4000 metres, in El Cocuy I realised I had completed everything that I’d set out to do. Its funny in a way as deep down inside you always thing the voyage is going to reach a crescendo, which it doesn’t. I started the trip on my own, I largely travelled on my own and I’d finish, for all intents and purposes on my own. There would be no big send off at the airport because all the people I had met were in different places. They wouldn’t all get together to say goodbye. But this is the nature of these things and I really should be saving this for the final post. But my point here is with 2 1/2 weeks to go I felt as if I had completed every thing. I didn’t want to hike again, I wasn’t bothered if I saw anything else and I wasn’t really into taking photos which is why it was the perfect timing for me to completly let go and see what fate brought my way. And if you’ve read the El Cocuy post you will know that I was on my way back to Bogota to meet Angela. I’d met her online and by coincidence she had some vacation time and wanted to travel, with me. As the bus moved sowly through the busy morning streets of Bogota I was excited and nervous at the time as I hadn’t travelled with someone from the country I was travelling in, we hadn’t met and I wondered if I would get on with her as much as I worried about whether she would get on with me.

It seems that the busses travel are all timed to arrive at the station in Bogota at 7am. And why not arrive a different times, its fun to have everyone arriving at the same time, probably saves on administration. I was still with the Germans from El Cocuy and they got in the huge line for the taxi. I tried to explain that there were more taxis around the other side of the building but the didn’t listen so I said goodbye and headed off to explore. I  just needed to get to the tourist area and into my hostel, which I could’t check into until 1pm so I was in no hurry. I found a line of taxis and very few passengers and argued until the tax was less then the Uber fee which was currently surging and was off downtown. IT took longer than I thought and it was a cold but sunny day.

The hostel was okay but the were a little rule heavy and I found myself waiting, being over tired and confused, which is now a normality for me after getting off a night bus. I had treated myself to a private room and asked if it was ready. Soon I was shown upstairs and I went to sleep before realising I needed water and some supplies. I headed out for breakfast to a place that Angela had recommended for coffee, which was really good and empty until a group of 6 people came in and decided to sit as close to me as possible. I’ll still never understand this lack of personal space awareness whether is just normal, ignorance or just passes as an excuse for sexual harassment. I wasn’t and never have been sexually harassed in South America but I do know people who are. Anyways I still don’t understand why you would walk into a coffee shop and then sit as close to the only other person that is sitting in there. If you haven’t noticed this really pissed me off at the time, although I’ve just realised I have a lot of ground to cover in this post so I’m going to get a move on.

I arranged to meet Angela at a restaurant, which turned out to be a rather fancy restaurant, at least for me. She had already arrived, which I hate as I often struggle to recognise people, but this time there was only one person sitting alone, so I timidly asked if it was her. I was shown a lunch menu and very soon some bread was brought over. This is one of the best meals I can without a doubt say I’ve had on the trip.

The purpose was to decide where to go next. I had had a loose plan to go to Salento for the tall palm trees, to hang in Medellin for a week or so to get up to date with the blog (didn’t happen) and then head up to Cartagena to catch my flight to San Andres in just over a week and a half. As I said above I was pretty much done and happy to just chill. We spoke about several ideas but seemed somehow to miss creating a plan and just chatted. I was given a tour of the city and we went for a drink before just walking for about 2 hours north through the city, I’m still not really sure why we did this. It became dark and I was quite for from the hostel so before we went our separate ways we sat down on the street and tried to decide where to go. I think the final choice was between Medellin and Santa Marta. I used the coin to break the deadlock and Santa Marta won. There were some cheap flights leaving the next day so I went back to the hostel and booked them.

Angela had some things to take care of in the morning and ended up meeting me in town, it was here that I found our her sense of direction is not the best. We jumped in a taxi and drove to a coupe of places to drop off some papers and the taxi driver didn’t seem to know where to go which made me anxious about the fight, but it was all fairly non-eventful other than an hour delay and soon I was out in the blistering heat of the Caribbean coast. We avoided the taxis as I insisted I wanted to get a bus and after another hour not in any aircon we were in Santa Marta, stuck in traffic. I suggested that we get off and we brought some rum in the supermarket before heading to get the collectivo to Palomino, our first stop. This was another 2-3 hours, I really cant remember now, and it was about 5pm by the time we started the bus.

We arrived in Palomino in the middle of a storm. It rains really hard here in the evenings every day which kinda kills the atmosphere.  We ran off the bus to the nearest shelter and luckily there were a tonne of restaurants along the road so I ate fried chicken and waited for the storm to stop. It didn’t, so we walked along the dirt mud road trying to avoid the puddles which often covered the whole road to the hostel a kilometre away. We found out there had been a mistake with the booking and the hostel had sold it to someone else, so we had to go to a hostel next door. I was pretty annoyed as its the only time its happened on this trip but I had some more rum relaxed and had an early night.

The next day we went down to the beach and it was pretty special.

We walked along the beach until we reached a river that stopped our progress and sat in the cool river and sunbathed for the morning. I’ve not been good at doing this so I decided to learn and its part of the new relaxed me that didn’t need to go hiking. I stupidly tried to get some colour and succeeded in going a nice shade of red. We headed back for lunch and then I hid in the hostel  after for a few hours mourning my sunburn. We went for a quick walk in the afternoon heading down the beach in the other direction but the sky had turned a particular shade of grey and we knew it would rain soon. Alas it rained for the rest of the night.

There isn’t a lot to do in Palomino unless you want to sit on he beach and go to bed early. Its just hostels and a few restaurants catering to tourists, oh and a river ride which just avoid. No one looked happy when they were done. We decided to leave the next day after Angela had her surf lesson.

We left Palomino around lunch time on motorbikes. I was a little concerned as I jumped on with no helmet and with both my bags which seemed a little insane but by that point Angela was miles ahead of me and I didn’t want to get left behind. Luckily I’d lost enough things by this point so that the bags were not so heavy. Soon we were at the main road and on a collectivo to Santa Marta. We arrived, had lunch and jumped on another collectivo to Minca, which is about an hour.

Arriving around nightfall I was happy to be back in the mountains. It wasn’t so high but it was a nice feeling, although still hot it wasn’t the blistering heat of the coast. The hostel was amazing and is one of the nicest I’ve stayed in with a pool, giant hammocks and places to relax along with a decent breakfast.

The next day I wanted to go on a 15km walk, Minca is only 650 metres so technically its not even mountainous here, but I wasn’t sure we would achieve so we decided to head to some pools next to waterfalls. The journey started off perfectly fine and the sky was beautifully blue but soon we discovered the track was wet and full of deep mud. Then the sky turned grey and we found out why as the water fell from the sky. When we made it to the pool I felt there was little point in getting changed but it was empty as most people were hiding from the rain. I had no idea why. We just decided to jump in, and yes it was cold but refreshing!

We found a French bakery on the edge of town and greedily are all the bread and pastry’s I could get my hands on. As the dark approached we headed back to the hostel looking for a party for the night. We had a few drinks at the bar and were invited out to the towns only club with the girls that worked on reception. There were some duos playing live and a lot of reggaetón and salsa so I tried my hand at dancing again. I still didn’t have the grove.

The next day we had a slow start and headed out for pizza in the morning before heading out on a hike. I can’t remember where we were headed now but we didn’t make it and decided to head back before it became too dark. It was beautiful.

It started to rain a little and we took refuge at a shop where I drank a coke. There seemed to be an abundance of animals. There was a parrot and dogs trying to chase off the thunder. The shot where they are all looking is the best as they were all looking for it. As I was taking photos a cat decided that my bag was a good bed. When we walked away we realised there were two parrots chatting, of course in Spanish, and as the little dog was running around they kept saying “the dogs are coming!” which I loved.

We had decided to move on the next day so went out for some Turkish food and had an early night. The food in Minca is delicious and there is a lot of choice. It’s an interesting place that’s a mix of tourists and locals and half in each world. It probably wouldn’t have been on the map about 10 years ago.

Our next stop was Cartagena a four to five hour bus ride from Santa Marta. So we headed back there for one last time but this time straight to the main bus terminal. We arrived and took a taxi to the hostel which seemed to take forever and the roads outside of the bus terminal are some of the worst I’ve ever seen. That night we walked around the centre of town which is beautiful and people watched on the towns walls.

Cartagena is an interesting place. It has a lot of money and is full of US tourists as well as there being very poor areas. The next day we went on a boat tour and I tried snorkelling for the first time. This is where I learnt that I should really wear water shoes and how hard it can be to stand up in the sea. It was fun and we spent some time at the beach before heading back.

The whole city is full of restaurants so you can really take your pick and that night we went out to a seafood restaurant and I ate as many prawns as humanly possible before going drinking and dancing.

The next day I had a late breakfast before realign I was hungover and couldn’t really do anything. We ended up going to the mall where I brought some new clothes I desperately needed. I knew the clothes I’d been wearing for 10 months were is a bad state but I hadn’t realised how much and I’d not really packed much for the beach which was starting to show. I had ice cream and went to the cinema. I was actually in heaven as it was normal life again.

The next day it was time to do something cultural so we jumped on one of the city tours. It seemed that everyone in the city was on a tour this morning and I couldn’t believe how many people had paid for a private one. There was so much money here. Still the city was beautiful.

In the afternoon we decided to visit the historic fort and ended up there for the sunset.

The following day we headed down to where all the tall buildings were for a day at the beach. We rented an umbrella so I could keep my precious skin out of the sun and delved into one of my books which I’d been neglecting. This wasn’t really made possible by people trying to sell me anything and everything under the sun. Angela managed to order us some Thai food to the beach which we had tried before, after we saw some others with pizza on the beach. However we found a Domino’s a few streets away which is where they must have found it. The sunset was beautiful and as it turned dark we went back to the town.

It was Angela’s last night so we went out dancing in a much busier town and did a little shopping in the morning before having a burger and saying our goodbyes. I fund it quite emotional as it was the longest that I’d travelled with one person and I was on my own again with one night to spend in the city. I was also pretty exhausted so I swapped hostels, went and had a shitty chicken burger and then  went to bed early ready to head to San Andres the next day.

I was a little crushed as soon as I found out this upcoming weekend was going to be a holiday. Those are the best weekends topend in cities and to plan ahead where the parties are the best. So far I’d missed everyone and ended up in a hike or in the case of Baños and ended up in the worst hostel. So having left the others by staying an extra night in Villavicencio and finding out they were now in Medellin I was a little crushed. But I reminded myself I wasn’t here to party and my gut was telling me I had made the right decision to go to Wl Cocuy, although this wasn’t helped by the hostel owner who was trying to be helpful but convinced me that all the busses and hostels would be sold out. This wasn’t the case but it was close.

In doing my research the day before I found out that I was going to have to find a group to hire a guide but I decided to head there anyways and let fate work it’s way out and this is where sometimes if you set balls in motion and leave life to chance it can pay off. But you do have to set the balls. I read a blog online which recommended a hostel run by Martha, who is also a guide, so I messaged her in the morning. I could see the message hadn’t been delivered so I decided that when it got to 4pm I’d book a room. Until then I tried to chill in the hostel and wanted to check out around 12pm as I know the bus wasn’t until 8pm and I didn’t want to send hours at he bus station.

A Colombian girl who was staying at the hostel was leaving at the same time so we shared a cab to the bus station and took the same bus to Bogata. We chatted most of the way and she helped me when I held up the bus as a ran to the toilet before boarding. We said goodbye at Bogata and I declined her offer of help finding the next bus, I already knew where to go and she had been working all week, and soon I had a ticket, but no accommodation. On booking.com I found one hostel which had an experience double room, at around £20, so I took it and then found an Asian style restaurant close by so headed there to use the WIFI for the next few hours until the bus. I had a delicious juice and rice dish.

As for El Cocuy I have the numbers for two guides Winston and Martha who I talk about in the post and if you want them leave me a message and your email or WhatsApp and I can send them to you. I don’t want to leave them on this post.

I returned to the bus terminal, found my bus and settled in for the night. The bus took a long time to leave Bogata, and made a couple of stops to pick up more passengers and as it did I played on Tinder and generally with my Phone. I received a text from Martha saying that she did have a spare room. I was kind enough to reply and say thanks but I’ve found another place and she got back to me saying that some people in her hostel wanted to go hiking tomorrow and that we could form a group. I said thanks and I’d go to see her in the morning. After that I watched Neflix and went to sleep, as much as one can.

I work up early as usual and after watching be bus crawl around the mountains I went back to my phone and saw I’d been super liked. I normally reject them but I can’t remember if I was still saying yes or if my finger slipped as the bus went around a corner but I said yes and got a response back straight away. Turns out Angela is an early riser and we had a fun conservation which led to her saying that she had a few weeks vacation and I soon had a travel buddy for the next two weeks. All we had to decide was where to go when we met in Bogotá in a few days time. I was starting to think that maybe I had made a good decision. But still there was the problem of getting myself on some hikes.

I arrived at the hostel and couldn’t see anyone around, or find a way to call anyone. So I waited and soon a guy showed up and checked me in. I was exhausted so tried to sleep in my room which was spread over two floors and had five beds before taking a shower and deciding to have breakfast. It was still only around 10am. I asked the hostel owner for assistance but he didn’t really seem to want to help and just told me I’d need to find other people. He made no attempt to help me meet others but luckily I didn’t need his help.

I had a quick breakfast and then went to see Martha, her guests were out on a hike and she knew two Germans staying at another hostel who wanted to join. Problem is that they were not here right now. So I agreed to come back later and went to visit the park office. We didn’t really understand one another but they told me to come back at 3pm and it was suggested they would help me join a group. So with nothing much more to do and being shattered I went back to the hostel and waited.

At 2pm I went back to Martha to meet the French couple. We chatted for a while and decided to take one trail the next day and waited for the Germans. They arrived just as we were giving up hope. We decided to take on the Laguna de La Sierra Trail the following day and then the Germans and I would take on th Ritacuba Trail. The Germans had a guide, Winston, who was giving them information from there hostel. So we went to the park office and paid for the fee for the entrance, then across town to buy the insurance and back to the office to watch the video. Winston showed up and told us we would need to meet at 4am the following day and it was now about 5pm. I ran around town getting supplies and had dinner in my hostel contemplating how this had all falles into place. After reading the blogs I was really worried about how to organise it all and no one here really spoke English and my Spanish was terrible but luckily I had found Spanish speakers and yet again fallen on my feet.

So I awoke sometime after 3am, grabbed my small bag which I left in the hostel and walked to the meeting point for my second to last hike in South America. We drove in darkness for an hour and then my friends came to see me as the sun rose. It felt so good to see those snowy peaks.

You can either stay in the towns or in refugios near the trail heads. The Germans had stayed in one the night before and we would stay in another tonight. Everyone met here and it was busy as this is the most popular trail and also being a bank holiday it was busy.

Laguna de La Sierra Traíl

This is a 21km trail which is not easy and does take sometime. It is open from 6am and you want to get moving as the weather is good in the mornings but quickly gets cloudy after lunch. You’ll see from the pictures. The beginning of the trial is the muddiest I’ve seen outside the UK and it really as walking across water soaked fields with deep puddles. Which made for slow going and we were held back by the poor French girl in our group who really struggled with the altitude.

I’ll never get annoyed by anyone going slow when hiking especially at high altitude but at this stage in the trip this was not high for me and I decided to push ahead especially later in the trek as the clouds came closing in. But for a hike like this i don’t need a guide. It’s just because you have to as per the rules.

I was excited to see some cows in this beautiful valley.

The path wound it’s way up and around several huge valleys as the sun was rising. Due to the amount of people it was slow going but my group was the slowest so each time I overtook them they over took us as we waited for everyone.

I was particularly fond of the plants which are exclusive to this region. I hadn’t seen anything like this in the Andes before.

By this stage I was worried about the clouds closing in and having seen that I could handle myself Winston our guide was happy to let me push ahead. He was amazing actually as he stayed with the slowest member of our group and looked after her. Some guides would just push ahead but Winston was amazing.

I waited by this lake to rest and for the others to catch up. I nearly gave up but then I saw the Germans. I told them I was going to push ahead and I’d meet them at the top. For me it was now a race against time and I curses as I reached false summit after false summit just desperate to see the white mountains.

And then suddenly I was there in my happy place. Up around 4600 metres looking at blue lakes and white mountains.

This wasn’t quite the end of the path. But I ate my lunch and waited for everyone here regardless as the clouds came in.

After everyone arrived a few of us decided to walk to the glacier. You can see how cloudy it is now.

It was really cloudy by the glacier and started to get very cold. We didn’t stay long and headed back meeting Winston along the way. He guided us back on the long journey and it rained heavily a few times until we were low enough for the sun to arise. I was feeling the effects a little especially as I’d walked up so fast but I was happy. We finished around 4pm and it has been a long day.

The French couple were heading back to town and two Israeli guys joined us for the hour journey to our camp that night. We go there just before dark and I was happy to find I have a room to myself. It was freezing and I was glad I want camping as the Israeli guys were. We had an early dinner and I took myself to bed as I was still feeling the altitude effects. The Germán lady had decided not to come on the hike and I was very tempted to join her but this was to be my last hike and I couldn’t bail on it. I was exited and sad.

So I was up sometime after 4am and had breakfast and was walking sometime between 5 and 6am. Today I was exhausted and walked slower than the others. I was also hindered by taking photos but I couldn’t find the energy to move fast although this has the effect of me not getting altitude sickness for the first time which was a huge win!

The sunrise was stunning and soon I was way above the valleys below which themselves were around 4000 metres.

As usual the vegetation changed the higher we climbed and we started to see the snow capped peaks.

Then we really left the vegetation behind and just had the rocks. I was finding it really hard to breath and still had no energy but my pace was really helping me.

And I was lucky it was so beautiful and the weather was good. I was excited and happy to keep pushing forward.

And then as always you reach the top and I was so happy. I can’t describe how beautiful this was and it’s one of the most beautiful sites I’ve seen on my journey. We had made really good time and I’d reached the end point of my final hike. All there was to do now was to go back down and the way back was just as stunning.

Obligatory photos at the top.

Glacier closeup.

And after it became stupidly cold we headed back down. It was just as beautiful and I felt at the top off the world.

We made it back to camp in record time. I had read this trek took eight hours, we did it in around 5. After a quick shower Winston drive up back to town. There was a tiny issue getting bus tickets which Winston sorted out. He let me hangout at this hostel after the owners of mine were unwelcoming even though I brought lunch there. He looked after me all afternoon until the night bus was due and even messaged me the next day in Bogata. Honestly if you are going here contact Wilson he’s the best. I have his number so message me if you want it.

I spent the rest of the day killing time to get the bus buying chocolate and eating a local burger before getting the overnight bus to Bogata. But I was now relaxed as I knew I’d be meeting Angela the next day and I’d have a travel buddy again, but this time one who knew the country.

Katha woke me up early by swinging the hammock to see how I reacted. I awoke with a start and found that everyone else was already awake. I hurriedly got ready and having packed most of my things the night before grabbed my bag. I had a few things hanging up and would later realise that I forgot to grab my hat and solar panels, partly because a load of other people had moved in and placed all of their things around mine.

We are pineapple while we waited for the tuctucs to arrive and were on the road by 7am. We had picked up a Belgium girl who had shared a room with the German guy from the previous day, but alas he was staying behind. After the tuctuc journey we swapped into a collectivo at Villavieja and after another hour we were in Neiva buying bus tickets for Bogata. Diana was a great help as being from Bogata she new the best and most cost effective way to get there. It was still around 7 hours to Bogata from Neiva and we arrived in the bus station around 3pm. The 5 of us were going separate ways and Katha and I needed to get to Villavicencio to meet with our Italian friends.

Katha and I found a bus heading there and got supplies in Dunkin Donuts and Subway, it was the first western food I’d seen in over a week and I was desperate for a sandwich. And you know when you start seeing Subway as decent bread then you’ve really been deprived. As soon as we got on the bus we were told that it would be 4-5 hours and not the 2 hours promised. As it was a bank holiday one of the tunnels was reversed allowing all traffic to move in one direction. Which meant that we had to wait for it to be set back again in a massive traffic queue. I was tired and a little grumpy to say the least. At one point I got off the bus and had a little walk. Just after I got back on it started moving and I was thankful that happened when I got back on.

Katha got us off the bus at the right spot and into a taxi which took us to the hostel and waiting in the garden was Roberto, Nick and Debbie. We had to be at the airport for 7am and after travelling for an entire day I just wanted to sleep. It was still hot so I had a cold shower and headed to bed.

We awoke the next day and took as much money out of the cash machines as we could, because there is a chance that the cash machines in El Macarena would not work. To get there you either need to fly or take a 24 hour journey by road. You can take the flight as part of the tour or you can charter the flight. As there were 5 of us we opted to charter and the reason we didn’t fly all the way from Bogata is because it’s much more expensive. However if you are on a tight budget I’d not recommend taking this trip as it’s not cheap. I did it for four reasons, I was still saying yes, I wanted to get on a small plane, I wanted to hang with some really fun people and it was something that not many others did.

So we arrived at the airport, weighed in and then paid. Otherwise it was fairly similar to taking a normal flight but everything was much quicker and soon we were on the tarmac in the hear where I realised I didn’t have a hat or any sun lotion so I covered up in my own unique way.

Soon we were on the plane, which felt completely normal again and on the runway taking off. Being on a small plane is different to a jet, no food or entertainment for starters, but it’s essentially the same. Just you have better views and the plane is blown around more by the wind. That and you fly much lower. The flight was only around an hour and o can’t remember the cost, I’d guess around 300000 pesos, and we only had to give them a few hours notice for when we wanted to return. But the views were stunning as you can see.

We soon landed safely and upon exiting the plane i realised I was back in the jungle heat. This end there wasn’t really much security but we had to pay a tax for entering the town which was around 40000 pesos. With that paid we collected our bags and walked a couple of blocks to the hostel. There was a little lizard hanging about so we did a photo shoot.

That day we decided to take bikes out for a day trip and sort out our trips for the next few days. I brought a sunhat and got some supplies. The town was different again and there was a big military presence as this is one area where there is still a risk of terrorism.

With the supplies sorted and tours booked, we just asked people and ended up choosing one in a local shop, I’ll detail the tours a little later, we headed off on the bikes. We were told that we could cycle to a restaurant with a pool where we decided to have lunch. Upon arriving it turned out that they didn’t do food on the site but they could order in and it would take 40mins. We did this and jumped into the Pool to cool off. Over an hour later the food still hadn’t arrived and we were not given a time so we decided to pay for our drinks and leave. The others were fed up with being messed around and it wasn’t so far form the town. Instead we found a panadería and had a snack.

We all wanted to head out to see more on the bikes and with the evening sun pressing we decided to head out on a beautiful cycle.

On the way we met a lot of Colombians who were on various tours. Yet again it seemed to only be the griegos who were cycling, although this was good as we needed to ask for directions several times.

And here we are on our bikes.

And this little dude we met and had a chat with on the way.

After around an hour we were hot and sweaty and tired but we arrived at our destination only to find everyone else there already. So not really knowing what to find I took some photos and then jumped into the Pool to cool off.

We had about 40 minutes of light to get back so we cycled off at speed to try and get back with the light. I had nothing but my phone to use as a torch. We managed to get back most of the way before the darkness kicked in. At the hostel the Italians whisked up a decent meal and then this happened. I can’t remember why now but it was fun.

For the Caño Crystals tour we had to watch an instructional video at 7am and then leave for the park. The park closes at 4pm so you have to do everything before that time. We watched the video and met with our tour agent before going back to the hostel. We paid 240000 for the day which included all the fees and guide. There is a short boat trip and they are really protecting this area so you are not even allowed to wear suncream, hence my new look.

After the boat there was a small check point where we had to sign in and then we were taken off road to the place we would start walking from. There were a number of sites and soon we reached the first point of the colourful river.

I’ve never seen water thus color before and it was honestly really impressive. There are plants that grow in the crystal clear water which make it look as if the water is coloured. I believe this is the only place in be world that they grow.

We saw a number of different sites and it was hard going with the heat and having to cover up.

After following the river we stopped by these waterfalls for lunch. We took some photos and then everyone seemed to fall asleep. I was tempted to explore but I didn’t want to get into trouble.

Gringos at the waterfall.

Soon after lunch the sky suddenly became very grey. And then the storm started. There was nothing really to do other than protect my camera and get wet. I’ve been pretty lucky on this trip and I think this was the biggest downpour I’d been in since Santa Cruz in Bolivia. The rain was stupidly heavy so we decided to jump in the river by the waterfalls. We were soon told to move on as the water started rising. It was crazy to note how high the water rose in a short time. There were puddles everywhere and one point we were standing near the river and could see the level rising as we stood there. By the time we reached the main part of the trip the water had risen so high that it was impossible to see the colours. Our guide told us that she had never seen the water this high before which wasn’t heat as it meant we missed the main part. But still we had seen a lot of beautiful things today and I was excited to have been in the storm.

And I took some flower closeups.

We went back the same way and pretty much headed back to the hostel exhausted for an early night ahead of our 4am rise the next day. We needed to get the flight back that day and the others wanted to go to Bogotá to get the night bus to a new place. I was still undecided and I hadn’t really been keen on doing the second tour. The early rise, and seeing animals on the river didn’t really appeal to me along with the 200000 price tag. The city of stones hadn’t been something I really wanted to see and this people is a lesson in listening to your gut. In this case I didn’t. The others actually said to me I didn’t have to go if I didn’t want, they knew about the yes, but didn’t want to tell me to go but I decided to say yes, but reluctantly.

We ended up on the boat and straight away it was evident the weather was not going tonne our friend. We took the trip up the river and saw some wildlife but not much and noting I hadn’t seen before.

We got out the boat and started hiking to the city of stones and saw a butterfly on the way.

And there were some pretty sites, but noting to rival yesterday and the grey sky didn’t help.

We posed on the rocks and then headed back to the village arriving at 11am immediately questioning why we needed to wake up so early. Lunch was included but we didn’t understand the huge price tag. Yesterday was more expensive but included the huge park entrance fees and was a full day. Today was a half day and we all felt ripped off. Lunch however was pretty decent so it was something to take away.

We headed back to the hostel and got te plane back. By this point I was exhausted and didn’t feel great. I decided I was going to stay in Villavicencio for the night. The hostel had decent WiFi and I could make a decision as to where to go tomorrow. The others were going to take a bus to Bogata and then probably a night bus to Medellin and I couldn’t handle another night without decent sleep. Also I wanted to head to El Cocuy and it made more sense to go now not to Medellin. So I listened to my gut which would end up having good consequences although when I found out this was a bank holiday weekend and I’d be in the country again and not Medellin I kicked myself. But always trust your gut. You’ll find out why.

I was so happy to be in the hostel and sort my pictures too tired to do anything. I got laundry done, visited the supermarket and relaxed. I was on my own again for the first time in over two weeks and it was good to take my destiny back for a short time.

By some miracle I was able to wake up, finish packaging and get into the taxi ready to get the bus for 7am. We brought our bus tickets and had time to pop to the bakery around the corner. It was incredibly cheap and I ended u buying too much, which I’d later be disappointed to find out wasn’t particularly tasty. I really needed to lean that Panaderias in are not making things to my tastes. But it was really cheap. For the next week I was following Katha’s plan. We had decided to travel together in Popayan and were hoping to rendezvous with our Italian friends in to fly down to the south of the country.

The first part of the journey was by car. I was shattered but Katha and I squeezed in the back. The car was packed and I worried that we might be stuck in this for the entire journey. Luckily we weren’t and after about an hour or so we swapped into a normal bus. I was stupidly tired and tried to sleep. It was fairly uneventful until we stopped at some road works for what seemed like an age. I started to worry that something was really going wrong until eventually the oncoming traffic passed us. Soon it was our turn to go and everyone sped off taking up both lanes as if it were a race. I now understood why it took so long for the traffic to pass. We drove for what seemed like ages, until eventually we reached the part where a landslide had taken out some of the road and it was being repaired. I just wasn’t sure why they had stopped the traffic so far back either side.

After the roadworks we started going back up hill and I was excited to see some giant mountains in the distance. The whole area was beautiful and I decided to shoot some bus photos to capture it which I hadn’t done in a long time. It was a challenge as there was a lot of foliage along the road but I think I did it some justice.

I think the bus windows must have been tinted which is why there is a weird colour to the photos but I particularly like the one below as it just looks fake.

After a journey of around 7 hours we reached arrived in Neiva where we would need to swap into a collectivo to Villavieja. Katha did all the investigating as I was too tired and was largely still a mess, however, I should point out that at this point I was just tagging along. All I knew was that we were going to the dessert for a few days. I’d spent a lot of time in deserts but Katha hadn’t, as this trip for her was Ecuador and Colombia and she wanted to visit the only desert in Colombia. I was being lazy and hadn’t decided where to go so I was tagging along. Also excited to visit a red desert and Katha was good company.

The collectivo was more of a jeep and despite there being seats inside I wanted to jump in the back, so we did, as it was only in South America where you can get away riding in the back. This one had seats and a cover so we didn’t burn in the sun. And as soon as we had arrived in the town the heat was blistering which was different to the mountains. I’m always shocked about how you can just jump on a bus for 7 hours and not end up in completly different scenery but also the whole climate has also changed. But here we were making friends with some Colombians, driving through the heat in the middle of the desert stopping for fresh pineapple on the way. After another hour we arrived in Villavieja, which is a small town in the desert and it is possible to stay there and enjoy the desert, however, we wanted to go further and stay in the desert itself so we continued to Tatacoa in a tuktuk.

There are a few different hostels which offer various different levels of accommodation but unless you can find a room with aircon its more advisable to sleep outside. Katha had done her research and found a hostel with a pool and some hammocks. I hadn’t slept in a hammock on this trip yet so decided to give it a go despite my reservations. You do ave a locker and there is a small room inside to keep things but there is something strange about sleeping outside under a cover with no walls rather than in a dorm room. In reality there isn’t any difference except being outside and there is much more sand. The views from the hostel were beautiful and I’ve never seen such an interesting sky.

After we had “settled in” we decided to go for a walk in the fading light. We saw some people riding horses off into the desert and thought about joining them the next day but I decided I’d had enough of riding for now.

After reaching the main dirt road we crossed it and took our chances walking through the desert. There was a small hill so we decided to get a panoramic view.

Whilst we were up there Katha gave me some photography lessons and I learnt how to use the automatic mode that lets you take better close-up pictures. ITs ac

Afterwards we went back to the hostel as the sun set and then went out for dinner. I had eaten a big late lunch which is one reason why it took us a while to get out so I just had a drink but Katha had the usual pollo con arroz y pappa fritas of which I was pretty jealous. Afterwards we headed back to the hostel, stayed up chatting until the lights went out at 10pm. Then it was time to sleep in the hammock.

It was a weird nights sleep. I kept waking up and couldn’t really find the perfect place to sleep and the swinging was both relaxing and made it difficult to sleep. Although when anyone moved it seemed to affect the whole structure to which we were all attached. But it was fun and we woke up pretty early so we could explore in the heat.

After a quick breakfast we headed out into the desert at the same time everyone else does. We were told that by around 9am it would be too hot to walk. I had found some trails on maps.me pretty near the hostel and we headed off to these. There were others on the trail getting in the way of my photographs which I wasn’t pleased about but mostly I was a little grumpy as my back was starting to hurt from sleeping in the hammock. Luckily for me Katha was really understanding about this. But then the clouds started to clear and I was in awe about the beauty around me.

We saw a couple of other guys walk off the path and come back and not having seen the signs that said we would be fined if we left the path, we left the path and began to explore the desert. My advice is not to do this. Luckily we weren’t spotted, but I the rules are there to protect the ecosystem. Something I wish I’d followed more closely.

The day was becoming hotter and we had been walking to try and find the path for some time. After wondering around and over some of the hilltops we soon found it again and were back in the safe zone.

There was a surprising amount of wildlife, but then again if you look carefully, deserts are always alive. We met a fair few lizards and this little guy was our first friend.

Then it was back to walking and the day was getting really hot. We were seeing more and more tours and I honestly couldn’t believe they were just arriving to walk around the desert.

Soon it became too hot and all the shade was disappearing so we found our way back to the road. There was a giant group of people headed into the desert as we were leaving. They were laughing at how hot and sweaty we were but I thought they were about to learn what this felt like. Katha and I stopped for a refreshing snack. Its kinda juice with a lot of fruit, but it was cold and liquid and that’s what I needed as my water had run dry.

We headed back to the hostel to get out of the heat. Katha opted to chill in the hammock but with my back that wasn’t an option so I headed to the pool, jumped in to cool off and sat reading for the rest of the day. Whist there Katha joined me and we met a guy from Hong Kong, a German guy and Diana who was Colombian. I also discovered what they meant by lack of personal space as Diana sat far to close to me for my liking before we actually met. IT was really distracting but I did manage to read some more of my book. We went out for dinner and had goat, with fries as usual, and then returned to the hostel for a beer before bed. The lights went out again early but it was welcome as we had to be up around 6am again to get the bus to Bogata.

My next planned stop was San Agustin, the village with the unexplained giant heads. Whilst I was heading back south I read about there being giant heads in the country side, sadly which are now unexplained and the history has been lost. Katha asked if she could join me for the trip and of course I had agreed, as afterwards she wanted to go to the desert and also had started to put a plan together for Cano Crystales where we would have to charter a plane with our new friends Debbie, Roberto and Nick (who was still in Italy at this point) but we will come to this in a later blog.

We were told the journey was around 4 hours from Popayan (the busses go all day so you don’t need to worry too much about the time) so decided to catch the 9:45 am bus so we had a little lie in after the early rise the day before. We were soon at the bus stop and on the bus, well mini bus. I had read a lot of blogs about the journey and they had all complained about the bumpy ride. Two hours in I was laughing as although it had been bumpy it was nothing out of the ordinary but pretty much as soon as I said this to Katha the road got bumpy. The fun of this was added by a storm overhead which dumped rain all over the road. Yeah, prepare for a bumpy ride and yes this probably is the worst road I’ve experienced in South America, well ever, and by this point I’d traversed most of the continent and survived Bolivia. It was slow going and by the time we were all ordered off the bus at the military checkpoint I was grateful for the respite. Looking like a gringo I was spared the pat down but they did take a look at my passport but not for long. Soon we were on our way again and now on tarmac but it didn’t last long as we stopped for lunch. 

Soon we were back on the bus and the journey was much faster. The bus itself doesn’t go all the way to San Agustin, however don’t worry, as the driver will tell you where to get off and we switched to a 4×4 car to take us the rest of the way. Katha and I had opted for a hostel out of town which was really nice and upon checking in we agreed that we could easily stay here for a week. But alas we didn’t have time and instead opted to stay for two nights. On the way I had gotten talking to Nathalia who works as a local guide and had offered to take us on her bar tour, of all 4 bars in town, on Friday night. It took me a while to establish if this was an organised tour or just her tour. Turns out its not organised and I got the impression we wouldn’t be the first tourists to take this and it helps her practice English so everyone wins. But back to Thursday.

We relaxed in the garden and decided our plan for the next day. There are three was to see the faces, one is a horse riding tour which takes you to four sites, another is a national park that you can walk to from the town and the third is a car tour that takes you to some of the more remote sites. Having spent my life practically in moving vehicles all day for the past 10 months I decided that that another day in a car wasn’t for me, so we opted for the horse tour which was recommended by everyone else at the hostel. So we opted for it and paid 50000 pesos.

That night we headed into town and went to a recommended restaurant. I have no idea what it is called now but we were offered a limited menu and I devoured the steak.

After we headed to bed to be ready for the horse adventure in the morning. Breakfast was pretty decent and I had eggs yet again and soon we were picked up from the hostel. There were 5 of us in total from the hostel and 9 in total in the whole group. A fair few of the guys had never ridden a horse before and I have some experience having ridden a little as a child and I last rode in Namibia last May, so I was given a harder to ride horse. I soon found out what they meant as the horses started walking off at a slow pace. It was all fine until another horse tried to overtake mine and there was a race for the front. Initially my horse was desperate to be first and I soon found out that there was little I could do. He (at least I think it was as I never looked to check) pulled out in front and ran anywhere he could. The first set of faces was at least a 20 minute ride away and most of it was on the road. The horses didn’t go any faster really than a fast walk at this stage and but I was a little nervous when we hit the gravel road and started going down hill. Luckily I was given a helmet but I still didn’t fancy falling off and going down hill made it feel that I was a long way off the ground. It was pretty overcast but the weather was really hot and I’d decided to wear my camera, I decided that I wouldn’t do this for the next part of the journey.

When we disembarked from the horses we met with another riding group and went to visit the first set of faces. I have really no idea what the history was as it was all in Spanish. I know but meh, go yourself if you really want to find out. I was busy taking photos, trying to understand any Spanish that I could and recovering from the ride.

Soon we were back on the horses and this time heading down a step hill. I was still a little nervous but after crossing a stream the two horses that had decided they wanted to be in front started running up hill and mine followed, at a slower pace, and our guide encouraged the others into a trot and soon we were all racing along for a very short distance. I encouraged my horse to move faster as I realised I enjoyed the ride and soon we caught up with the two out in front and we soon arrived at the next stop. It was really evident the horses knew what they were doing even if we didn’t.

We jumped off and waked a little way to get an overview of the valley and see some more faces. Oh and this is my horsey below.

We jumped back on the horses and it was a long way until the third group of faces. We left with the slower group but my group was much more adventurous and we got our horses trotting overtaking and mixing in with the other groups. Again the horses seemed to want to all be in front so there was a little jostling for places and I was a little concerned about how fast along the road they wanted to move. But I manage to stop my steed at the roadworks. We were given the green sign and took a left up a small track at which point our guide whistled to the horses and then they really were off. I don’t know if it was galloping or cantering but its the fastest I’ve ever been on a horse and was really fun. They still wanted to be first but some of the slower horses started to fall behind. It seems that the horses have been taught to run uphill and on the flats and to walk downhill, which worked perfectly until a horse ahead reached the uphill part and started running, at which point the horse I was riding wanted to catch up so ran downhill. 

A few members of our group went pretty far ahead, largely due to the horses they were riding and when we caught up with them somehow they had lost a watch. We all stopped to look for it but it wasn’t found. Soon after we reached the final stop.

The sky was starting to clear and become sunny and I realised in my stupidity I had forgotten to put on sun cream so I improvised with my jumper. We were told it was a 30 minute trip back town. And to begin with there was a fairly steep down hill. The horses walked slowly, one of which took his rider through all the bushes, but as we approached the bottom they all jostled for places and then they were off. And this repeated for the next 20 minutes. I did my best to bounce in time but I realised my horse was tiring, so I let him go slower although he seemed desperate to win. We ended up on the main road and the horses started walking until the guide came up form nowhere with the stragglers and they all wanted to be first again. Although it was probably the whistled signals they were given. Interestingly cars and lorry’s didn’t really slow down for the horses here and they don’t seem to bat an eyelid at the traffic. Its the same with all the animals here. Dogs can cross the roads by themselves, cats do what they want as always but animals are much less scared of loud sounds and humanity which I think is a good thing. I mean South America is a dogs paradise as they can just do anything they want. 

So here are the riding pics that I didn’t shoot.

We all went back tot he town and had a menu del dia before retiring to the hostel for the afternoon.

That night we went to get supplies for the next day and then went to a bar to meet up with Nathalia. She arrived with a Mexican friend and I was glad that most of my new friends could speak better Spanish than I could. We had a 6am wake-up call for the bus the next day so most people didn’t stay very long but I wasnt going to turn in early. We went to a second bar, well collection of bars which had a live band outside. Its kinda hot here all the time so no one sits inside and this was interesting as there were several small bars together selling the same drinks for the same prices and you chose which one you went to. There didn’t seem to be anyone who cared which bathroom you used or where you danced. People were dancing on the street, around the tables and anywhere. Nathalia tried to show me how to dance but it did’t work. We soon moved on to another bar where there was more dancing and chatting. But soon I realised it had gone 1am and I needed to get some sleep ahead of the morning, it might have been later, which was a shame as I was having fun. I said goodbye and headed to the hostel ready for the next trip.

 

On the Monday i has decided to go to Popayán, but as it was only a 3 hour journey I wasn’t in a huge rush. I took my time in the morning and arrived at the bus station around 10:30. The uber driver flagged the police as he dropped me off asking them to direct me to the bus. I knew where to go and was keen to get moving. I waited as they had guns and I didn’t want to cause a misunderstanding. One of them spoken some English and was proud to talk. I went up the stairs and on the advice of the Uber driver decided to book a collectivo, it was supposed to be much faster and I was told it would leave in 20mins. I went outside and realised I’d been lied to as I was currently the first passenger. It was more of a car than a minibus and I waited in the heat getting more and more annoyed as it slowly filled up. I was on the back seat and a huge guy ended up sitting between me and another guy, squashing me against the side of the car. Luckily for me he jumped out at one point and a much smaller woman came along. As the others tried to tell her that the seat was taken I quickly saw an escape and told her she should sit there. And this is why I need to remember that i should always take the bus!

The traffic leaving Cali was terrible and after we made slow progress through the city, even taking backstreets, I could imagine that this was probably a quicker method even with the delay. A few hours into the journey I was rereading messages and was sad to realise that Shirley wanted to meet up again and I had misunderstood. I felt bad as I realised it then just looked like I had ignored her. Luckily I was able to explain but it still felt like a stupid thing to do.

Arriving at the bus stop, which as always was about 2km out of town, I toyed with ordering an Uber or getting a bus. For some reason I didn’t want to get a taxi. The Ubers were taking ages and the busses were tiny so I decided to walk through the rain. It was cold and by the time I reached the centre I was soaked, as it seemed wise not even to bother stopping and putting on my coat. 

The staff at the hostel were really friendly and I soon discovered that I would yet again have a 4 bed dorm to myself. I went to the supermarket across the road as directed and was excited to find out is was huge and after not being able to find stores throughout most of Peru and Ecuador (Quito excluded) it had lots of things that made me excited. So I stocked up went back to the hostel for a 4pm lunch and crashed in my room to plan the next day.

I had wanted to climb the Purace Volcano which meant a 4am rise but I was talking to  Katha, who I’d met online in Ecuador, and by coincidence she was going to be in Popayan the following day and convinced me to hold off on the hike. Which I’m actually really glad that I did-you’ll find out. I needed a rest anyway after a hectic time in Cali and I just stayed in the room, not even going out for dinner and enjoyed a sleep.

I had read that Popayan was a beautiful city and to be fair it lived up to its name so I took advantage of the free tour at 10am. Although I was a little aghast to find that yet again I was the only person on the English speaking tour. There were about 10 on the Spanish speaking, and I would have not just one, but two guides. I can’t remember their names now but they were both in their early 20s and studying at university and I was happy when they thought I was much younger than they were. I also helpfully explained that the word “can’t” needs to be pronounced in a different way to how they said it which was closer to the worst word you can say in the English language. I’m always hesitant to teach swearing in English, which means I must have maturated at least a little, but I felt that in this case it was important.

The took me on a three hour tour around the city which was really informative covering everything form holy week (Easter), which I’ve not heard about before so I don’t know if its a Colombian thing or across South America, and its much more important than Christmas, to the student protests and why everything is painted white. Honesty if you come all this way take the tour.

We walked a little way out of town and up the hill and as what seems to happen in this region all the time is that it had become cloudy, which is a shame as from here you can see the whole mountain range. Some of which used to be covered in snow but no longer are, again the weather here is all messed up. Yeah, global warming. And we took a photo together for their blog.

After the tour I headed back to the hostel and met up with Katha. We chatted for a while and then went out for lunch and got on really well. I was glad to have a friend to hike with the next day. After wondering around town and picking up supplies we retired to the hostel and agreed to meet for dinner. We headed to a delicious Italian restaurant where I devoured my first lasagne in a while and returned to the hostel for an early night.

Waking at 4am we packed and jumped in a taxi to the bus terminal with enough time to buy a ticket for the 4:45am bus (17,000 pesos) for the two hour ride to the volcano. After being a little confused with where to get off we managed to walk back to the trail head, brought the park entrance fee (40,000) and refused a guide, because seriously who needs a guide to climb a volcano 4600 metres. With all this in hand I started drinking my walking Coca-Cola and we headed up the road. At this point you could already see the clouds rolling into the valleys so I wanted to make good speed.

Our speed was hampered by the park ranger who insisted we hired a guide. We tried to argue but reluctantly agreed. The ranger went inside and we waited for 15 minutes before going to tell them that we would start walking and the guide could catch us up. The ranger refused to take the money saying that we needed to pay the guide directly and so we figured that we would pay him when he arrived. The ranger pointed us in the right direction and off we went. I can remember the starting point altitude but I remember that I found it a little hard going to begin with and realised that I’d been at around 2000 metres for a week and wasn’t used to being this high. 

Annoyingly right at the beginning of the trek there are lots of paths and we took a few wrong turns. If you do hike this then just trust maps.me and try to look for the path poles. If you don’t see any or drift too far from the trail on maps.me then you have chosen the wrong path and essentially you want to just walk straight up the hill. The wrong turns wasted about 20 mins and annoyingly made me start to wonder if we should have taken a guide but after the first few minutes when you are on the correct trail its really hard to go wrong. And Katha was a genius in finding the way. I’m not really sure that I could have done this alone so very glad I waited.

Soon we had walked pretty high above the valleys below. It was slow going and poor Katha was fining it hard and kept needing breaks. I was much more used to this and wanted to push ahead as we were told the final bus back was ta 3pm. We had lost over an hour waiting for the guide, buying the tickets and walking back to town so I was anxious to reach the top.

At one point the path leaves the open expanse of the hills and becomes a wet but very clear trail. You can see the road leading to the top of the hill, well it goes to an area where there is telecommunications equipment. At this point Katha wanted a break and we realised that we wouldn’t make the top if we kept going at this speed. Katha suggested that I keep walking and at a certain time I would turn around and she would continue until we met again. I powered on conscious of the time and wanting to take advantage of the good weather. I still couldn’t see the volcano let alone the top of it, but it wouldn’t be the first time I’d hiked to the summit and then the weather had cleared.  

I left the path between two pools and joined the road which I followed for a few more km. Towards the top of the road I spotted a car and soon afterwards I met a man. We had a brief chat and I told him that Katha was behind me and asked him to look out for her. He told me I was near the top and according to my map there was just under 2km to go. I relaxed as I assumed that he could give us a ride back to Popayan if we missed the bus and I then continued up a much steeper path. 

I stopped as soon as I was out of sight and had lunch. I knew I was going to need some energy to get to the top and all I saw in front of me was clouds. After the quick break I continued up to see what I would find. 

I was now pretty high and nearing the summit. You can see in the photos below the road that I was walking along and how high it is compared to previously. The wind was picking up and I turned around and saw the sky had briefly cleared so snapped the photos where you can see down into the valley, but this gap did not last long and the cloud soon closed in but I continued as I was still optimistic about it clearing. 

I climbed higher across the rocks and the path pretty much vanished but I was following rocks, as you can see in the photo below, that lay along the ridge-line. It was soon after this that the wind picked up, it started to rain and I realised that I couldn’t see more than about two metres ahead of me. I think its in these situations where you would need a guide but I’m not so stupid that I can’t find my way or know when to turn back. With the weather getting worse I decided today might not be the best day to reach the peak, and to be fair this is the first time on my trip where the weather has prevented me from getting to the end of my hike. I figured that is not a bad record considering I’d been here for more than 9 months at this stage. So I decided to walk back down. The rain really didn’t help since covering my glasses it made it much harder to see. I ended up taking them off in the end as the fog made it difficult to see far. So I’d rather see things being blurry than clear though extra misty glasses.

I walked slowly and carefully and found Katha very close to where I met the man. It turns out he was a guide who had driven up his party of one to this height and they went up form there. Katha had been having a fun conservation with him and she was very happy to have reached this height. This is the thing about hiking is its all about the goals you set yourself, its not a race and Katha was the highest she had ever been. I was very happy for her. We decided to head back to where we brought our tickets.

And I kept these photos in as it just goes to show you how different the weather can be in the mountains. On this day over 4000 metres was covered in clouds and at 3000 metres there were beautiful blue skies. So you really just don’t know.

We reached the rangers station really quickly. Going down was at least 2-3 times faster than going up, so if you try this trek then just remember you don’t need to give yourself the same amount of time to get back down. That does sound logical but its not the advice you are given at the start and the 3pm bus did make us feel that we had to rush. 

When we got back t the bottom we saw Debbie, Roberto and a Colombian girl form our hostel were waiting at the bottom. We joined them and started chatting whist we were waiting for the bus. We were then told by a local villager that the bus might not come at 3pm. It might come at 4pm or 5pm or whenever it felt like really. Which was even more annoying considering we had rushed the trek to be back by this time and no one knows when it will actually go…joy.

So when a cow truck dropped off a cow and seemed to be heading back to town Debbie asked if we could all get a ride. The answer was yes and we spend two hours experiencing the roads as cattle would. I’m sure its not so much fun for the cows but this is one of my highlights. I was able to look our the front and side and nearly had a bad accident when the truck turned a sharp corner and I wasn’t holding on. Thank God for my reactions is all I can say.

On the way I waved at everyone I could and received some big smiles, especially in town, when people noticed we were in the back of the truck.

That night Katha and I decided to go to San Agustín together and that became the beginning of nearly two weeks of travel. It was Halloween today and when we got back the whole town was alive and all the kids were dressed up. Evidently Halloween is a big thing in Colombia. Sadly we were exhausted and needed to return to the hostel. Later that evening we headed out to have some Mexican food and there were still plenty of people about in costume but mostly teenagers and it didn’t seem wise to start taking photos so we just headed to the restaurant instead and after went to bed early as we had been up since 4am. But it has been a fun hike and a great day.