San Gil and a very hospitable Colombian family

Have you tried fried ants? They are delicious and a delicacy in Bucaramanga. All along the highway there are people with bags of them for sale.


Saturday June 4, 2011: I am currently in San Gil Colombia on Ana Maria’s father’s farm. It is in the middle of the mountains and though it is only about a 100km from Bucaramanga it took all afternoon to get here. You have to go up and down and weave your way around the canyons and there are roads washed out. There was one really cool spot where a humongous bolder had come down the mountain in an avalanche. The boulder was about the size of five vehicles put end to end and if you stacked three vehicles on top of each other it would be about that high. It had come down and taken out a bridge in its path.

The ranch style house here is really neat. It is an open concept and can accommodate a lot of people. The kitchen is on an outdoor patio and it reminds me of one of the picnic shelters at the zoo with its high open beam ceiling. Different construction when you don’t have winters to contend with.

Yesterday was one of Juliana’s friend’s birthdays and we went to the chain Archie’s for lunch. It was excellent. One of the girls had a two year old with her. The staff took him with them to their children’s prep kitchen and gave him an apron and hat to wear and helped him cook his own pizza. He even ate it at the work station as the staff was caring for him. We were on the patio. I don’t even think the mother remembered she brought him with her as we hardly saw him for the three hours we were there. They even entertained him too with balloon animals and various creations. I was extremely impressed with their service and the attention they pay to the children. I thought it was an excellent idea having a prep area for kids to roll out their dough and make their pizzas.

Monday June 7, 2011: Colombian people are so generous they will even loan you their pajamas.

Sunday was Ana Maria’s great nephew’s Christening and Stephan was the Godfather. The celebration was something! Wow did I ever have a true Colombian family experience. Ana Maria is one of 12 kids so you can imagine the amount of people participating in the festivities. It was an excellent time. There must have been close to a hundred people at the restaurant for lunch. Fresh fried fish was my choice for the meal and I was not disappointed. I also tried the fried ants, cow tongue and stomach.

The booze was a flowing and these people were having a good time. It was a beautiful setting on a pond where large fish were being caught by the patrons. In the evening the party continued to the couple’s house where I was told they live in a typical Colombian house this is what we do in the evening and these are typical Colombian vehicles. I think it could have been in reference to the fact we did come into this small town and turn some heads in the BMW. Not the typical car around there, anyway totally not the point. The 26’s were a flowing and the men were enjoying their whisky straight and many, many a bottle was consumed. They welcomed me with open arms and I thoroughly enjoyed the experience. The music was a pumping and they were dancing in the street. Our late evening meant that it was too difficult and dark to get back down the mountain road to the farm and we were farmed out to sibling’s houses in San Gil. So I was dropped off and told we will pick you up in the morning. Hence my opening statement: a Colombian will give you anything even their pajamas. All of my clothes were at the farm so this lovely sister who only met me that day lent me a pair of pajamas and a bed for the night.

The family was so good to me and I was a novelty at the experience that was for sure, so I got to try my conversational Spanish out with them all and they “tried” to teach me some of their dance moves. I took a ton of pictures for them and you can have a look at them at the following link:

Click on this link for photos from San Gil Colombia

A little hiatus as I return home for a few weeks. Check back at the beginning July when the journey continues.

Having a relaxing time in Bucaramanga

This is a photo of Zammy, Juliana, Cristian and Ana Maria, my hosts while in Bucaramanga Colombia.
Thanks Carolina for letting me stay with your family. Wow what an incredible relaxing experience I am having. I wish you were here to enjoy it too. For the last few nights I have stayed with Juliana and Zammy (Carolina’s sister and brother in-law). They also live in Bucaramanga but on the mountain looking down onto the town. It is a neat setup. To access the mountain road you need to have a swipe card to enter the gated mountain communities. If your school uses the swipe cards for weekend access that is the kind of card it is. You drive up and around the mountain and there are 25 – 28 gated sub divisions with large homes. There are about a 1000 houses on the mountain and maybe 5000 people living up here. Juliana and Zammy have a lovely new home that they built a year and a half ago. They have two maids, one live in and one that comes six days a week. The house is spotless and constantly being cleaned. Today they took the area rugs outside and washed them by hand. The meals they make are excellent and at each meal there is a different kind of freshly squeezed juice. South American’s are big on their fresh juice. I am being treated like a queen.

The sub divisions are around an 18 hole golf course. Yesterday Ana Maria and I went to the clubhouse and had massages and a steam bath. Then in the afternoon Juliana’s tennis lesson was cancelled so I went and rallied with her. I have not rallied in years, but I did a good job and who couldn’t when you have a ball boy to run around retrieving all the balls. That sure makes tennis enjoyable.

Today Zammy, Juliana and I road mountain bikes up and down and around the mountain checking out the different subdivisions and then followed it up with a trip to the clubhouse for another steam bath and massage. Today’s masseuse was amazing she got right up on the table and worked my back and ass. It was the best massage I think I have ever had and she exfoliated me too. We returned back to the house and Stephan and Ana Maria joined us for lunch. Then this afternoon I took the golf cart over to the supermarket to buy myself some more toothpaste. Not that you care, but the idea of driving the golf cart over is pretty cool.

So again thanks Carolina and Ralf for this experience.

For some more photos you can click on the following link:
Click on this link for more photos from Bucaramanga Colombia

Giron Colombia

Today Ana Maria, Pedro and I took a trip to Giron. It is a colonial town just outside of Bucaramanga and the buildings are all original from the colonial period. The town is complete with cobble stone streets. My hosts are more than hospitable. We are having a great time and Pedro (Carolina´s uncle) went a little camera happy with the personal photos, so hope you don´t mind the numerous ones of me.

Click on this link for photos from Giron Colombia

Bucaramanga Colombia

Would anyone like a little meat?
Friday May 27, 2011: I arrived to the airport today at 8am for my 9:30am domestic flight. I was waiting around for the check in counter to open and still at 8:50am there was no one around. I was able to find an information person who started looking into things for me. The departures board said my flight and posted it as going at 9:30am. The woman said the airport did not know anything about the flight and tried to call the companies office but did not get anyone. I thought it was a little odd that the airport was so segregated that they would not know if a flight was cancelled, coming, not here, whatever. Finally a woman showed up to the airport Easy Fly (that is the airlines name) office and with her little English and my little Spanish I figured out that the flight had been changed to 12:05pm. I could see on her computer that was name was on the list of flyers so that was good.

I am flying to Bucaramanga where my neighbor from Peterborough’s mom lives. Carolina is from Colombia and invited me to stay with her mom while I am in South America. I feel bad because her mom Ana Maria was inconvenienced by the late arrival. It was a little weird to be standing in a check in line with no one around you and no one working the desk and the flight to “leave” in 30 minutes. But it has all worked out.

I would say Colombia is an up and coming holiday destination for backpackers and all inclusive travelers alike. A lot of it is uncharted and beautiful. It is a gem of a place to come. The sites are spectacular, people extremely friendly; there is beautiful scenery and the sea. It is neat to because there is not much English around which makes me work harder and practice my Spanish. In the airport usually anywhere in the world they say things over the loud speaker in the native language first and then follow it up in English, but that is not the case here.

Sunday May 29, 2011: I am in Bucaramanga Colombia at Ana Maria and Stephan (Carolina’s mom and brother’s) apartment. They are lovely people and we are getting along nicely with the little English and Spanish that we each know. They are extremely hospitable and truly lovely people. It is great to have a real Colombian experience living with a Colombian family. Their apartment is a new large three bedroom apartment on the 10th floor that looks out onto the city. They have only been in it for two months. They have their master bedroom with ensuite set up as their guest room so I am living quite the life of luxury.

People’s preconceived conceptions of Colombia can be let at the airport it is a fabulous prospering country with good education, jobs, nature, history and tons to offer tourists and its citizens alike.

I have met Carolina’s sister and her husband and her uncle and cousin have spent the last couple of days touring about with us. Today we went to Chicamocha National Park. It is amongst a canyon with beautiful panoramic views. I took a 20 minute cable car ride down one side of the canyon and up the other. At the top of the other side there are then many amusement park attractions. We were there with some big shot from the government and he was pretty heavily guarded by men with subtle guns on their hips. We didn’t make the connection until later so they probably didn’t appreciate me walking in and out of them as they were not moving too fast and I was trying to get by them.

Stephan is a lawyer, Ana Maria works in insurance and her sister owns her own boutique clothing shop. We can see Stephan’s office from the balcony and the clothing shop is a few blocks away. I cannot believe how first world it is here.
You can check out the photos from Bucaramanga and area at the following link;

Click on this link for photos from Bucaramanga Colombia

Cartagena Colombia

Check out his catch from the beach in Caragena.

Cartagena is great. The Old Town is lovely and the cobble stone streets and balconies are great to check out. Today I spent the day at the beach. The water was so warm it was like entering a big bathtub. It was over 30 degrees today but not muggy so you weren’t melting.

At the beach there were some fisherman collecting their catch. They must have pulled in a net for 30 minutes and we were excited because we thought they were going to pull in a huge swordfish like I had seen the other day when I didn’t have my camera with me, but it turned out to be shrimp and small fish they had caught. They were working pretty hard pulling so we were sure it was a swordfish but no such luck.

We have been visiting the Café Del Mar pub on the wall each night it is a magical setting. They make the best strawberry daiquiri I have ever had.

I was able to take some cool photos of locals today. Have a look at the following link.

Click on this link for photos from Cartagena Colombia

Taganga and Cartagena Colombia

This is a photo taken in Taganga Colombia
It is mighty hot now. I feel sometimes like I am melting it is so warm. The cloths I have with me are not for this type of muggy hot weather so today I chose to wear my bathing suit and shorts to walk around town. It did the job. I am currently in Cartagena which is a lovely town. It is large 1.1 million people living here. I am staying in the Old Town which dates back to the 1600’s and is walled by a huge stone wall. It is full of lovely balconies, nice flowers and cobble stone streets, a great place to roam around in this heat.

I spent four nights in Taganga a little fishing village of 5000 people prior to this and hung out on the beach. It rained one day I was there so I spent two and half hours swimming in the sea as it was warmer to stay in the water and really what else was there to do. I had a $2.50 massage on the beach the nice day and had a great shrimp cocktail delivered to my towel by a guy selling shrimp snacks from a cooler for $5. These Colombian girls befriended me and were having them so they let me try their “beach meat” instead of “street meat” and I liked it so I got my own Styrofoam cup full of shrimp and sauce and two soda crackers to go with it and presto. I didn’t get sick either.

In transit between Taganga and Cartagena the minivan/bus I was on had a little bit of a drama and the four hour road trip turned into six hours. It was a tourist minivan that cost $21 and was supposed to be locked at all times. It wasn’t however and when we were driving slowly through some flooded streets from all the rain we heard the back door open and shut and in that split second a bag was stolen from the back of the van. An older Colombian couple had their bag taken and it contained all of their documents. They were not pleased. We stopped two police officers that were close by but basically they said it was gone. The people were really mad because like I said they had basically paid a huge price for the security of a locked vehicle and didn’t get it.

Cartagena has the reputation of being the prettiest city in Colombia or South America and it sure is. It is a lovely place to stay. There are huge all inclusive places on the coast and hostels the like. The Old City and the wall are incredible. It is interesting to see the poverty and wealth right next door to each other.

Last night I went out with a few people from the hostel and we ended up at a pub on top of the wall looking out at the sea on two sides, big hotels on the other and the Old City on the other side. It was magical and as we came upon it the one guy had an interesting comment. There is corruption at work here with a pub being placed right on top of the wall. I thought it was interesting. You have to remember this wall is centuries old and then to place a bar on top of it just doesn’t seem right. But like I said a magical setting.

Here is the link for photos from Taganga and Cartagena Colombia. PS Cartagena was a port stop for those fans of the Love Boat.

Click on this link for photos from Taganga and Cartagena Colombia

The Cloud Forest in Nanegalito and Quito Ecuador

Wednesday May 18, 2011: Well she was an early start this morning. Not that the last week hasn’t been early each morning starting around 6am, but today it was 4am. There were seven of us left from our boat who decided that we would not sleep in on our last official day together but that we would get up early and drive to the Cloud Forest in Nanegalito Ecuador. A two and a half hour drive from Quito. It was great though. There were no clouds for us today though, which made for wonderful views of the surrounding volcanoes and mountains. The drive there was interesting. You have got to love the Hyundai minivan that took the seven of us plus the driver and guide and it actually had other seats and could have accommodated 12 people, four rows of three.

In the cloud forest we were able to bird watch. I have to say I really am not a birder, but they are cool to check out and there were tons of them and the sounds were excellent. I thoroughly enjoyed the vibrating sounds of the hummingbird’s wings. There were great hikes there through extremely thick vegetation a rainforest or jungle like natural setting. You know what? You can tell I am not a birder by my lack of camera lenses and the fact that my camera is not over two feet long.
Did you know that Ecuador has over 4650 different kinds of orchids? Also I think I forgot to tell you about when I landed in the airport and was coming through customs. I stopped twice and smelt two huge bouquet of roses and then after I did it and did the ah sounds after doing it I realized the old cheesy saying that we are to stop and smell the roses and that is exactly what I did.

We also saw a village today that exists inside a volcanic crater that was pretty neat to see. The crater has a diameter of 8km and is lush with vegetation.
My body is having a hard time adjusting to being back on land. I woke up in the middle of the night and felt like I was walking on a lean still. It is probably a combination of the boat and the altitude. So I feel a bit dizzy and off balance and so do the others. We would share our ailments and the others would say yes I am feeling that way too, or we would bend over too quickly and have a head rush and a woozy spell.

Thursday May 19, 2011: Well today has been an interesting day on a couple of fronts. I am in Quito Ecuador which is located 2850m above sea level so I am suffering a bit today from Altitude sickness. It really has interesting effects on your body. I woke up with a nasty headache and tingling lips and fingers. The tingling lips are the craziest sensation. I think because I flew in from sea level and didn’t have the gradual incline like in the bus that is why I have been affected this time.

You know some days when you just have a feeling something is going to happen, well today was one of those days for me. I just didn’t have the greatest vibe today. I headed out to the Old Town to see the sites with my day backpack and didn’t feel right about taking it, but I did it anyway. I had my camera in it and didn’t take it out very often as I just had this feeling I shouldn’t have my camera out in public so it stayed away for most of my walk in the area. The cab driver on the way to the Old Town had also given a warning about taking care of your camera and holding on to it tight. So I was standing out front of a park in front of the Basilica and I had liquid shit thrown on the back of me. Yep, it was a lovely aroma. I did nothing though. I felt and heard the liquid hit me and just remained in the same position not attempting to see what it was. A guy pointed to my back and the sky trying to indicate a bird did it. There were no birds in the air. Anyway I still remained calm with my hands in my pockets and didn’t move to see what was on me or attempt to take the bag off my back and kept a watch on the area and people attempting to come and wipe it off which I knew could happen, but it didn’t. Then a nice looking woman comes up to me and says “senorita banos” and points to across the street and attempts to walk me to a washroom. To which I just continue to stand there and say “no gracias.” This is their ploy to help you clean it off and rob you while they do it. I hailed down a cab and returned to the hotel where they said I was very smart and lucky to have done what I did. As soon as they saw me they said did they rob you this is what they do to rob you? I took my bag and cloths to get washed and for $5.50 it will be delivered back in three hours. So I guess that feeling I had was for real but I was alert to the fact something might happen. I will just chalk that one up to another experience I have now had.

Tomorrow morning will be another early start with a 4am cab to the airport. I am flying to Santa Marta Colombia at 6:20am. It is on the coast and the Caribbean Sea; I hope to enjoy a little rest and relaxation on the beach.

You can click on the following link for pictures from The Cloud Forest in Nanegalito Ecuador and the few I took in Quito.

Click on this link for photos from The Cloud Forest in Nanegalito and Quito Ecuador