Monday, November 17, 2008

ECUADOR

ECUADOR

Quiotola Crater lake, Ecuador



Straight from the border of Colombia, a fellow traveller, Travis and I journeyed to the Andean mountains of Ecuador to province of Latagunga to visit the Quiotola crater. Many years ago a volcano this volcano imploded and the result now is this beautiful green turquoise crater lake some 3500metres above see level. On the first day we walked down to the waters edge and chilled out and caught our breath before walking back up. On the second day i walked around the carter itself, some 4hours with a group of travellers i met the night before. As you will see the views were stunning from all sides and it was even possible to see the volcano Cotopaxi at 5900 metres.




Banos, Ecuador
Banos, known for its spring baths, well hardly, man made swimming pools filled by natural springs, Banos is also known for its outdoor activities, one of them being the big the 60km bike ride from Banos to Puno. Well of course i could not resist. A group of us left early one morning on mountain bikes riding partially on tarmac and off road. The road being both up and down, sometimes a killer going up. However the scenery is well worth it. Huge mountains covered with pristine rain forest, waterfalls falling from the side of the road as we cycled along.


We stopped and visited the magnificent ¨Devils throat¨waterfall, of course the pics don't so it any justice but just the scale of water falling per second was so powerful. Later on we found this ¨Banos Natuaralles¨which is a basically a beautiful rock pool swimming area beside the Rio Verda (clear water). Just beautiful. We stopped here for lunch and chilled. We then carried finally reaching Puno some 7-8hrs later. We got the bus back to Banos. We were shattered!

TENA, Ecudaor


I met up with a friend, Zoe, and we travelled on to Tena, the white water rafting capital of Ecudaor and also home to the Amazon rain forest. We found a nice hostel in Tena and sorted our rafting trip for the next day. Well it was decent Class III rapids all the way. We had an excellent guide who managed to get us soaked whenever possible. The scenery was of course just beautiful and even Zoe who was slightly apprehensive to start with loved it. On another trip into the jungle we visited an animal rescue sanctuary by boat, thought i would share some of the animal pictures with you, aaahhhhh.




From there, via via, i managed to get in contact with a local guide named Juan, who let us stay with his family in their village in the amazon. Juan took us for walks into the jungle explaining all the different medicinal purposes of several different plants. Juans´father being a Shaman and his fathers close friend, Franciso, being the President of the Ecudorian Shamans, well lets just say they had vast amounts of knowledge between with regards to the plants in the forest and their properties. On that note i was introduced to ayahuasca (see http://www.ayahuasca.com/). A drink produced from mixing a vine from the forest with a particular green leaf called Charlie, used to enter the spirit world. Well it would have been rude of me not to have partaken, so i did!. Honestly, i didnt have the visions they spoke of, a little numbness but no hallucinations. Oh well, we shall see what happens next time!

So much so in fact that Francisco is working with the Ecuadorian government to secure a tract of rain forest whereby a university is going to be set up and all the knowledge that he and his peers knows will be properly captured and documented. A very interesting and worthwhile project i think, certainly before all the rain forest is destroyed. (Funnily enough i met an American doing the same thing, documenting the plants, i will bring them in contact with each other).

Below, these were the local village kids that performed a dance for us in their traditional dress.

And here below i did a little video diary below at the crater lake, aaahhhh.



Sunday, November 9, 2008

COLOMBIA

Cartegena, Colombia
Arriving in the port of Cartegena having been at sea for five days was a huge reality shock. Large tower blocks, cargo containers, people, traffic, the lot. Not very nice. That being said, Cartegena is a beautiful colony town. The old town is full of colourful Spanish architecture and history. I stayed in Cartegena for a few days and met some really nice people at both my hostel and on this strange mud volcano tour (see pic). Finally Ben, Alex, Zoe, Rowan and myself all decided to go to the national Park Tayrone on the Caribbean coast. Oh dear, more harsh times ahead! God, the life of a traveller, i tell you, ....you should try it!


Park Tayrone


We stayed in a little fishing village, Taganga for one night before taking a 1hr boat ride to the park. When we initially got there is was full of tourists, again! However, then next couple of days a lot of them left and it was a lot more peaceful. We went for walks to nearby beaches, did some fantastic snorkeling and generally had a really great time. Apart from the last night. I managed to get us all in to the top chalet location over looking the sea. Just beautiful, except for that night one of the hardest storms in recent weeks hit the coast we everyone got drenched. Hard rain coming in horizontally. We laughed about it afterwards.


Medellin, Colombia


After being about a week together the group split and Ben and I headed for Medellin where we meet up with a local Colombian friend of his Felipe. Medellin is buzzing, as busy as any modern city with friendly people and well the women, say no more. Silicon Valley! Felipe was such a nice guy, we stayed at his place, he should Ben and I the nightlife of Medellin including the famous Mangos nightclub that was coincidental holding the ¨October Beerfeest¨ that night (see pic!). We had a blast!
A little hungover the next day, Felipe showed around some neighbouring towns of Medellin. It was a great couple of days.

La Salento, Colombia

Thereafter I headed to the mountains, to a very special coffee growing village called Salento. It´s one of my favourite village towns in Colombia. A quiet, beautiful, colourful town and within its rain forest the unique wax palms. Unique to Colombia and unique only to Salento the wax palms grow up to 60metres tall and can be a 100yrs old. I met some other travellers and we made the six hour hike through the rain forest in a loop round to the wax palms. I felt the Corcoa valley to be a very magically valley with a very special energy. Calm and peaceful, perfecting for meditating if you were on your own. The pictures don't do the valley justice, i am not sure the video does either but i hope you enjoy.



From Salento i passed through Manizales and visited the snow capped peaks of Park Los Nevados. I stayed in Cali for a few days, saw more silicon valley and then from there i did a day trip with a mate to a beautiful river however the main attraction was getting to the river. A motor bike attached to a train track packed with far too many people. Dangerous. We couldn't really believe our eyes or what we about to embark upon. We sat on these wooden planks attached to a motorbike that was attached somehow to an old disused railway track. It was a little crazy, certainly when we saw others come off the rails and we ourselves almost hit another bike and of one of the passengers got hurt. Check out the crazy video below.



Ipales, Colombia


I headed further south towards Ecuador but first visiting the border town of Ipales and its famous church. There is a very special church built between two valleys, over a river with its own waterfall. When there I learnt that the local priest saw a vision many years ago of the Virgin Mary on a rock nearby. With that the priest gathered the support to build this magnificent building. I think its the most beautiful church, both architecturely and location wise that i have ever visited and trust me, i have visited a few churches in my time.