Colombia

I'm in Santiago and have my flight to New Zealand tomorrow!!! No more speaking Spanglish for me. Anyway, going to see if I can catch up before I fly out tomorrow... We'll see

There was some religious weekend going on while I was in Bogota which envolved everyone trawling around the churches to do something or other. Not being a fan of religion in general I tried to escape this by heading up a hill to get a view of the city. Of course after getting off the lift I found a church up there. No escape that day…



Went to a Botero gallery which was good. He’s famous in Colombia for his painting and sculptures which always make people look fat

Also went to an amazing restaurant called Andres Carne de Res, possibly the best restaurant I’ve been to so far. Great steak and crazy place. Stole a picture but it doesn't help explain the place

Anyway, got out of Bogota after a few days as wasn’t into the place and headed to a place called San Gil which has lots of adventure type things to do. Went rafting again although this time on a class 5 river. I don’t really understand these ratings but I wouldn’t do a class 5 again, the boat tipped again on the biggest rapid and I choaked on alot of water. Ooh and I got a free souvenir

Also did paragliding which is pretty fun

Went to a town nearby where they had a famous steak restaurant. I was happy there, although it's famous as they serve it with ant sauce.

Then took a bus to Taganga which is on the Carribean coast. Chilled out place. Did my open water Padi course there. Also went to a national park called Tyrona. Sleep in hammocks and go to the beach… nothing else to say about that really

Only photo I took in Taganga, sums the place up really

Cartagena… Got an amazing write up in the guide book I have. I think whoever wrote this couldn’t have been there. Horribly touristy, never trust a place where they ask you to pay for things in American dollars. They did have a volcano made of mud nearby though


I opted out of having the dirty little local man rub me for money

Medellín, another big city really. Maybe I’ve been away too long but I wasn’t really impressed with the place. Quite European I guess and there was a nice supermarket near the hostel. I went to a artisan market (full of crap) one day which was next to a place full of ladyboys and other such nasties. I sat down for a few minutes and some crackheads started chatting to me asking if I wanted to share their coke with them, in the middle of a square in the day… “no thanks lads!”

Day trip from Medellín, the giant peble! You climb to the top. Why? I don’t know

Colombian people are friendly that is certainly true, when you meet them at touristy places they always want photos with you. I wouldn’t want photos of a scruffy English guy in my holiday photos but hey

Coffee district, Manizales. Stupid hat number 27... On a coffee tour

Coffee and overenthusiastic tour guide. Turns out all good coffee gets sent to Europe and the United States so you can't get good coffee in Colombia. They get the crap beans left over! haha

Saddest clown in town. If you ever think about how much your job sucks think about this poor clown standing at traffic lights in the hope that a passing motorist buys some crap biscuits from you. 30 mins, one sale. This wasn't a tourist town, he just dresses up every day like this. Looked miserable


Up a real volcano. Yes, cold

Left for Cali after Manizales. Went to a place called San Cipriano three hours away in the jungle, people go there as there`s a derelict railway line that the locals have taken advantage of for transport to and from the village. It was actually quite scary when we were moving. Faster than I wanted to go on that contraption

You get to go for a swim on the other end

More tomorrow I think