AdventureCPA

Quito to Mindo....then back to Quito and out of here for Europe. Shortly before leaving the US the Wall Street Journal had an article on the bird watching capital of Ecuador...Mindo.  Only a two hour bus ride away from the capital ($3.10 per person) so with a few days left we took the city bus to the bus and arrived in Mindo Monday morning. Mindo is high in the mountains East of Quito so it appears to be technically in the Cloud Forest.  It certainly has plenty of clouds and rain.  Typical weather is morning sun until about Noon followed by mist and rain the rest of the day.  I guess the birds like it as it has become a birder destination.  Very much a tourist town with the required restaurants, taxi drivers etc.  We chose to stay during the week as it is said to be popular with Quito residents escaping the city on weekends so rates are down. Obviously, rain equals rivers so there is also tubing, butterfly attractions and hummingbirds.  Think I...

Ecuador ....first to Ibarra and Octavalo, then Quito. Upon arrival in Ibarra on a Sunday afternoon we walked to one of the city parks and came across this city band concert.  Nice afternoon although all the music sounds the same to my ears. Ibarra is a midsized city that we stopped at in order to consider a detour to the Ecuador coast . (New road built within the last few years).  Unfortunately the new road did away with the old railroad that was a classic travelers story...decend a few thousand feet from bare mountains to the steamy seacoast with the adventurist passengers riding on the top of the train. But it is no more....now just the inside of a german built bus. However the day after we arrived there was a nationwide bus strike for all intercity bus lines.  Little dispute that the government mandates lower fares for students and elderly but has not reimbursed the bus lines to the tune of about $72,000,000.  Only a one day strike as they dont want taxi dri...

From Cali we  continued South to a few days in Popyan (Spelling ?),  one in Ipiales and across the border to Ibarra, Ecuador. From Popyan we did a day trip to Silva (Or was it Silvia).  Anyway a small town to happened to have their weekly market that day.  After the trading, men and women sit around the square I suppose to gossip about  kids, weather, etc. Southern Colombia is nothing to write glowing about EXCEPT for the geography.  Green mountains, passes every 20 kilometers  and spectacular vistas.  Other than that cities compete to have the most cell phone stores and shoe stores.  Not sure which one is winning.  Things seem to be a little more expensive here...perhap as it approaches Ecuador and perhaps due to transportation costs.  Still, anyone looking for an inexpensive place to spend a few North American winter months...Colombia should be on the short list.   (But a little Spanish skill is really needed.) H...

OK. I admit it.  I am not that fond of Big Cities....And Cali is another city with a population of four million plus.   Plus it is fairly hot, humid and of course busy.  But with full disclosure of my prejudices I feel OK saying two nights in Cali is enough.  And it is the most modern city we have found in Colombia.  Showers have hot water...public rest rooms have TP, some have hot water, some even have towels to dry your hands after washing and some have toilet seats instead of just the everyday round ceramic fixture. (Apparently more of that missing in Men than Woman facility.)  But it is OK. We went to the modern art museum which reminded me of a song by the Austin Lounge Lizards. "a truckful of art is burning by the highway....but nobody knows what it means."  Guess you had to be there. (But you can google it.) Hmmm. This Hostel PC doesnt want to recognize my camera so no pictures today.   But I did discover that the KTM 200 is a...

Eight happy hours on a curvy road in a big bus brings us to the North part of the "coffee triangle."  The area of Colombia known for the most coffee production.  Havent seem much of it yet, but very pretty area. Ive been in much of the US Rockies where roads are built in the valley or along rivers and every once in awhile we climb over a pass to the next valley.  Here it appears that small settlements were built high near the ridgeline....so the road follows near the ridgeline.  Lots of back and forth driving with limited passing opportunities.  But then hard to get more that 60 kph speed when you have to do a 90 degree turn every 100 yards. Manizales is a town of about 300,000 souls also built on a ridge.  Bus station is a bottom and two enclosed ski lifts (my term) will take you to the top of two separate towns...Manizales or MariaSomething.   Ride cost about US$.45.  This is also a University town so lots of young people around....

Two and a half hours from Tunja is Bogota, capital of Colombia and about Ten Million souls.  Like many big cities in the developing world it has overgrown it´s infrastructure (roads etc) but it is the economic powerhouse of Colombia.  We are in another 4th floor apartment (AIRbnb) with semi'hot water, cable TV and good Internet from the Cable TV provider.  What a choice!!! SuperBowl in English or Spanish! Among Bogota pluses are the recent emphasis on cycling.  Sundays major street are closed off for biking, walking, rumming, roller skating etc. 7AM to 2PM.  And many miles of bikelanes which are either separate from the roadway or part of expanded sidewalks.  When walking...keep off the bike path! We plan to spend 8 nights here.... Well, after 5 days in Bogota I have the following to report.  There is a garbage strike. Not that they quit making garbage...just quit picking it up.  TV has reports on it everyday with locals burning it sometim...

Three hours south of Guadalupe, Colombia is the University town of Tunja (That´s Tune HA). Tunja is a college town...said to be several in this busy city.  In fact just below our 4th floor AirBNB apartment in the Centro district is a green area with 4 cows.     I´m told they belong to the Veterinary school which seems reasonable since there also looks to be a milking barn in the field. From Tunja we visited an "authentic small colonial town" highly rated by Lonely Planet.  I would call it an overrated tourist town with over expensive restaurants and junk shops.  If you want junk souveniers I suggest the "China Mall" here in Tunja. Also did a day trip via public bus to Lago de Toto, which at 9,300 meters claims to be the highest lake in the world with a white sand beach.  I believe it.   And in town the trout lunch for a little over $US 5 was worth it!  Enjoyed this town much more that Valley de Leyva in the above paragraph.  ...

    Finally I found a small town before Lonely Planet!!!  (Or at least my 10 year old Lonely Planet Guidebook)    Guadalupe is a small town of maybe 1,000 population.  No heavy traffic, plenty of restaurants and hostels and great hiking.   Here you may see equine Horses, Motocycle Hondas or occasional Hyandi vehicles but many people walking about town and from their Finca to town.      A 40 minute ride in the back of a four wheel drive truck (Seats installed) with a soft serve cart on the tailgate (too heavy to put on top with that gasoline engine powering the air conditioner) takes us from the Main highway )Obija to Guadalupe.      School must start at 7AM, out at 12:30 for the day.  On one of our walks (about 10 miles a day) I spotted my idea house.  Here´s a picture. Looking at mountains, big porch surrounding the house etc.  Wonder if they have Internet? And a little more scenery. Thi...

    San Gil Colombia lists itself as the Adventure Capital of Colombia.  Popular options are rafting (from class 1 to 3 to Class 4 to 5), Hiking, Zip line, National Parks and more.     A few years ago someone decided there is an overgrown improved path from one mountain village to another.  Put up a few signs and tourist will come to walk downhill for about 5 miles from one small village to another.   Bus service between them and you have a beautiful, peaceful walk.  Makes one feel he is in the Tuscan countryside.     Next day we went to the new national park at the top of a pass between Bucaramanga and San Gil.  An interesting combination of  monument to the peasants of the region who started the revolution against Spain in 1812, amusement park with four wheelers going around a dirt track, swing going out over the open canyon and a gondola ride (Provided by PUMA) down to the bottom of the canyon and over to the other ...

     I believed I knew a little about countries and geography...but here is a city with 1,000,000 people that I had not heard of.      Bucaramanga is an industrial and market town in the heart of Colombia.  Growing quickly it has outrun it´s infrastructure with resulting horrific traffic, a little pollution trapped down in the Valley but friendly helpful people and many pretty plazas or parks scattered around the city.      We stayed at a Hostal for the first time during this trip near the ritzest part of the city and walked the streets seeing banks, Motocycle dealerships, Auto dealerships, very fancy dress shops and an enclosed four story Mall with central floor to ceiling atrium.  Among errands to do I needed to have a pair of pants shortened (forgot to do that before leaving Colorado) which allowed for local interaction.  One day service.....$2.50 US cost.                   ...

     Sometimes you make your own adventure....whether you wish to or not. In purchasing bus tickets from Santa Marta I wanted to use my newer credit card (sign up miles bonus) but the young clerk wasn´t use to chip credit cards (What, no pin!).  So the transaction lasted 15 minutes or so with a lot of tries.  Once complete we left for the bus....not knowing we left credit card back at ticket counter. All is fine on the bus, a fairly new Volvo with seating to compare to Air First Class.  The conductor comes back with his cell phone with someone one the phone who wishes to talk with me. My spanish is not good, in Santa Marta they talk FAST and it happens passenger behind me knows Spanish and English so he takes phone and explains that they have card and will send it on next bus to our destination so stay at terminal for 2 hours after arrival to pick it up. So far, so good.  But at 9PM second bus is in and no one knows about credit card.  Come ba...

  As I have mentioned in the past, it is sad that in the USA unhealthy food is cheap and healthy food is expensive.  Here it is the opposite although the percentage of overweight people far exceeds the percentage in SouthEast Asia.   Fresh food is very inexpensive.  We purchased the following at the Vegetable Only, Campensino Market (several in Santa Marta) for US$2.50. Locals restaurant Meals can be cheap but involve a lot of fried products.  At tourist restaurants meals cost the same as Alamosa, CO (which is less than Denver but still not a bargain).  (But are very good.) Santa Marta has a number of high rise residential buildings (along waterfront and elsewhere in town) which are constructed and condoized.  I walked into one to view the offering.  Seems that $70,000 US will purchase a 550 square unit with balcony, one bedroom, one bath, kitchen/living room combined on about the 10th floor.  Condo fees are said to then be about $100 a...

    East of Santa Marta is Tyronia (Spelling) National Park which is said to have the best beaches in  South America along with lots of birds and wildlife.  We didnt go there  (Denyse forgot her berka).  But just past the park is a miles long beach at the town of Palamino.  Another hippy, young person hostel town just growing into it´s tourist future.  After checking the beach out we contracted for the river float and ended up on a two hour float down the Palamino river which ends at the Beach.  I believe I spend one of my nine lives on the back of a 125 cc moto driven by a 17 year old to take up to the put in point. Then two hours of minimum rapids and shallow water to the beach.  A number of the hostels also have space for camping either in your tent, their tent, their hammock, dorm room or private room.  This is a 1960s Carribean beach resort at a small fraction of the cost of any other Carribean island.

     After a four hour bus ride from Cartagena to Santa Marta, Colombia taxi to our second AirBNB.  Uneventful although surprised by the apartment which I am sure usually rents for a lot less than we are paying.  Its OK, still a good deal.      Above and behind a small tienda (combination small grocery, hardware and drinks store) but right on Avenue Liberador which is the main route into the Central City.  Buses will stop anywhere there is a passenger to pick up and cost is 1600 Colombian pesos or US 50 cents. Fifteen minute ride to Commercial Center, Beach or Market.      Santa Marta is HOT is time of year, but a 30 minute bus ride away is Minca, a throw back to the Hippie era of Backpackers and Hostels.  At 600 feet elevation  is cooler than Santa Marta and a number of water falls and swimming holes attact the crowds.     Not using the Motorcycle Taxis ( A monopoly) we also walked up to a waterfall/s...

Sorry, no photos yet, will be working on that. But Arrived in Cartagena, Colombia after 36 hours in transit so immediately slept 12 hours plus.  But it has now been a few days here so on with the observations. 1) Like Viet Nam, this country has been modernizing even when the USA spotlight is off of it.  WIFI and cell phones, modern autos and motorcycles. 2) What body of water is Cartagena on?  Yep, the Carribbean (or Atlantic if you are an ocean buff.) 3) For USA citizens, cost of living is low unless you expect tourist restaurants for every meal and upgrade to all US standards. 4) It would be quite difficult to negotiate Colombia without some Spanish.  In other South American countries residents will switch to English is you have trouble with Spanish but here very few residents know English, even among the tourism workers.  TV in our AirBNB has only Spanish channels.  In Asia usually one or two channels with English.  (Often BBC or RT (Russi...