adventures episode 2 - Taganga and Tayrona

I am loving Colombia, it´s heaps of fun!
After leaving Venezuela Kate and I hit a small beach town called Taganga, on the edge of the Tayrona National Park.  Its just over the hill from the city of Santa Marta but a world away in terms of atmosphere.  There are a few thousand people living there, you can walk everywhere along the unpaved streets, get 2 for 1 cocktails on the waterfront and party late into the night.

Which we did.  Repeatedly.  There was a bar up the hill alongside one end of the beach called the Mirador, which had music and dancing out on their terrace overlooking the beach, an amazing breeze and a lively joyful atmosphere.  When that closed there was always an 'afterparty' somewhere in town.  The first night it was an empty lot where there were the ruins of an old house.  Good music and cheap drinks but strange little brick walls poking up in unexpected places.  I tripped over one and was kindly caught by a fellow aussie, Dougie (didn't even spill my drinks!).  Kate and I ran into him again the next night and for the next week our travelling aussie duo became a trio.

Besides partying in Taganga I also managed to squeeze in some scuba diving, it was cool! I was worried I may have forgotten how but I had the divemaster as my buddy so he refreshed me on everything, plus showed me lots of cool stuff and took photos.  There were a lot of multicoloured coral, and so so many beautiful fish.  Angelfish and various triggerfish, pipefish, rockfish, spotty moray eels, lobster...so many more too that I don't know the names of.  Tiny little black and white ones, bright blue and yellow ones, big, slow moving black ones.  At one point I was completely surrounded by a school of bright bright blue ones, that was really cool.  The whole experience just reminded me of how much I love fishies and the ocean in general, its so lovely down there, I must get back more often.

After another night of partying the three of us managed to drag ourselves out of bed early enough to make our way to the Tayrona national park.  It was a colourful bus ride, with some people preaching about Jesus in the aisles, a rocking horse sat down beside Kate, and the general crazy colombian driving style.

When we arrived we were greeted by a line of little leaf cutter ants, streaming past with their little leaf pieces. Okay that doesn't sound that cool, but it really was cool to see!  From the park entrance there was a short bus ride to the top of the walking path, then a one and a half hour walk through the beautiful beautiful jungle to the beach.  That walk was really lovely.  You know when you just step into a forest and suddenly everything inside you just relaxes and you feel at peace and content?  Like it's where you belong.  Well that's how I felt, anyway.  The trees, vines, plants, bird songs and cute ants all around, it was bliss.

At the end of the walk was a beautiful long white sandy beach.  Treacherous to swim in apparantly, several people have died there caught in the undertow.  So we just admired it and walked further along, past the big rocks, had a rest and some arepas.   We were going to camp at the Cabo beach so we made our way there, found our hammocks, then jumped into the beautiful beach there - just the thing after a long walk!  And there were waves!  Hardly any beaches I've been to in South America have waves to play in, so swimming at the beach isn't as much fun.  In fact the whole time I'm constantly reminded how lucky we are to have such awesome beaches back home.  Anyway, this beach was small, but great.  There were cool rocks to climb on, it was fun.  And who pops up but the three polish girls we met in Venezuela!  There were big hugs and playing in the surf, then we all played uno together.  It was a pretty quiet night (except for the donkeys eye-oring which threw some people into fits of giggles) and I had a good sleep in my hammock.

The next morning I joined Ana and Marta for a mega hike up the mountain to El Pueblito, the ruins of an old city which dates back to the year 450.  The walk was nice through the forest again, but also a bit hairy at times, quite steep!  It was certainly some good exercise, but there were some nice little streams along the way and when we got to the top it was interesting seeing the ruins.  The three of us just chilled up the top for a while before making our way back and having another swim.  At the end of the day it was time to head back to Taganga so the three aussies hopped on a speedboat with a bunch of other tourists and sped along the rough waters off the coast, got splashed, laughed at other people getting splashed, and enjoyed one last night in Taganga before heading to Cartagena.

The adventures of Erin and Kate episode 1 - Angel Falls

Since leaving Brazil a little over a week ago, my awesome buddy Kate and I have had some pretty cool adventures in Venezuela and Colombia.

We left Manaus and travelled via bus (two 12 hour days, pretty gruelling but that's travel in South America) to Cuidad Bolivar in Venezuela.  From there we´d arranged a tour to Angel falls, the highest waterfall in the world, set in the beautiful Canaima national park.

That morning we set off from the airport - the two of us along with three polish girls on our tour Ana, Marta and Ola -all of us piling into a tiny six seater Cessna, flying to Canaima. When we arriving we hopped in a little boat with an American and his Venezuelan son in law, and began travelling upstream to the falls.
As the scenery  unfolded it was breathtaking.  The park has a beautiful forest with these tabletop mountains called tepuis jutting up out of the trees, with cloud covered jagged peaks.  So we sat in this little boat watching the landscape, occasionally getting splashed as we sped through some pretty fun rapids.
Once we arrived near our destination we began a hike to the base of the falls, through some absolutely gorgeous jungle.  Green broad leaved plants and towering trees with winding root systems, it was just beautiful in there.  After an hour or so of walking we arrived to the base of the falls and I had a swim - cold but so much fun.  The top of the falls are so high up that the clouds obscured it for most of the time, but while floating in the pool beneath, the clouds cleared and I could see the whole height of it and it was spectacular.

That evening we camped in hammocks nearby and our local indigenous guide told us the legend of how the falls formed.  A shaman had a vision of foreigners invading the land near the coast, so he sent his son to find a new place for their people to settle.  With him the son was carrying a magic potion that could heal all wounds, and when he came across an injured falcon he gave it some of the potion and in return got to fly on the falcons back to explore the area, eventually reaching the top of a tall beautiful tepui.  He was so excited to see the place that when he was running along the top of the mountain he tripped, spilling the potion and it turned into the waterfall.

It was lovely waking in such a place the next morning- fresh air, the raindrops quietly falling on the tin roof and the sounds of the forest.  We got back in the boat, had a little swim in the tea coloured river, then moved to a new camp where we had a little siesta before exploring the waterfalls in that area.  The first one we viewed initially from the top, then walked alongside it then got absolutely pounded by water and saturated walking behind it - SO much fun!  The sheer force of the water was incredible, so fast and loud.  Afterwards we had a swim at the little beach below, then walked through the trees to another waterfall, again walking behind that, getting saturated and giggling like silly.  That night back at camp we had beers and a little rum with the polish girls, but after such a day it was early to bed.

I woke ridiculously early the next morning so decided to wander down to the little beach near our camp.  I watched the moon set and sunrise there at the base of one of the waterfalls, a great start to the day.  After breakfast Kate and I swam and lounged on the beach a little before it was time to leave beautiful Canaima, sigh.

We had a bit of travelling to do again to get to our next destination Taganga in Colombia: catching freezingly air conditioned planes, a big old taxi driven by a devout Catholic called Mercedes who cranked the Venezuelan music to the six of us piled inside (I think she was devout anyway, she crossed herself as we left Maracaibo but maybe that was in the hope that the ancient Lincoln she was driving would hold together for the journey!), a freezing bus that seemed to go in circles at one point, and finally a very helpful taxi man who dropped us at our hostel in Tangana - party town:)  More on that later...

The Amazon

Last Tuesday we began our adventure into the Amazon, jumping aboard a ferry to take us from Belem at the mouth if the Amazon delta all the way up to Manaus, the capital of Amazonas way way upriver.

Our little Drago family were put up on the top deck, 17 little hammocks all lined up together (Well 15 actually, they forgot two).  It was pouring with rain when we jumped aboard, but the rain had cleared, the sun had set and several drinks had already been drunk by the time they finished loading the seven thousand boxes of tomatoes onto the bottom deck.  It was quite exciting to depart, you could almost hear the cheers of joy above the noise of the engines.

The days and nights on the boat all kind of blur into one.  We did bring a shit tonne of alcohol with us, so maybe thats partly to blame.  The nights consisted of talking shit and laughing, playing uno and shithead, mafioso and therapy, and dancing to the god-awful brazilian music (the same 10 cds over and over, including a chipmunks version of rolling in the deep. I'm not even a huge fan of the original version) with brazilians of somewhat questionable character.  The days involved waking too late for breakfast, staring out at the river and the trees and trees and little houses and 5 year olds driving their boats and trees,  laying in the hammocks attempting to read but falling asleep to the rocking of the boat, playing more cards and dominoes with the kids on board, scouring the wide water for pink dolphins (did glimpse a few!) I had such grand plans for my time on the boat (do some spanish study, read a bunch of books, organise photos,  plan the next stage of my trip) but very little of it happened, I just surrendered to laziness and it was quite delightful.  In that time the forest just went on and on, and the river never really got any narrower, although we did weave around a bunch of islands and flooded forest.

When we finally got to Manaus a day late it was good to be on land, in a bed and get to eat something other than chicken rice and beans.  But I'm so so glad I did the trip, and especially with such great company.  In Manaus we had to say goodbye to each other, tough since I've spent the last 40 days or so in such a nice group.  But there was no time for tears as I set out tree climbing then on another little tour out into the forest to the Gero jungle lodge.

The tree climbing was fun.  I've never done any sort of climbing so even getting the harness and all the gear felt cool.  Clambering 30m up the rope and standing atop a branch overlooking the river was just magic, if a little scary!

The next day I set out to the Gero jungle lodge which involved a 3 hour journey out of Manaus via bus, speedboat, combi and another boat.  That last section as we set off into the trees was where I started to get really excited - The Amazon Rainforest! I was finally here!  The lodge was very basic, with wooden bamboo walls and thatched roof, and all the hammocks and beds together in one big room with the kitchen and dining hall downstairs.  After lunch we went out canoeing to spot some animals and saw sloths (including one up close, man those things are cool like a cross between an alien and a muppet but better), a bunch of hawks, terns and kingfishers, and pink and silver river dolphins.  Floating quietly under the canopy of the flooded forest was so fucking beautiful I almost cried.  We headed back to the lodge at sunset and had an early night, falling asleep to the (quite loud) sounds of the forest.

The following morning we went for a hike into the forest where our guide Mateus showed us a bunch of medicinal plants and the original coco tree that chocolate comes from, and we tried some of its fruit which was quite nice.  At one point four of us got distracted taking photos and lost the rest of the group.  Ah! Lost in the Amazon!  We went back and took what looked like another path, and just as we began counting our collective water supply and discussing rationing we found the rest of the group again, phew!  But hey, I was lost in the amazon (for two minutes) how many of you can say that?  The afternoon was spent piranha fishing, quite fun even though I didn't catch anything.  And at night we went caiman spotting, with the local guide catching a little one and bringing it onto the boat for us to hold (I just patted it - there there poor little caiman).

The next day we visited the house of some locals and saw how they make their canoes and process manioc from their small plantation.  The place we went to had just gotten electricity last year, and the hut was really really basic.  That afternoon it was time to go home, which was easier said than done because our captain had to drive our tiny little boat in the driving amazon rain - it got a little hairy!  As did the combi ride, we got very close to getting bogged but made it through.

So now I'm back in Manaus planning the next adventure - to Venezuela with my mate Kate - should be awesome.  But I'm definitely getting into the Amazon again, maybe in Peru, because I absolutely love it!

Boats dunes n party times

Ahh the fresh air and adventuring feeling of traveling by boat! It's been a fortnight or so of much time on the water, and quite lovely.

After Jeri the Dragoman family made our way to the Lencois Marahenses delta area. First stop was a remote windswept pousada set amongst the sand dunes of Cabure. It's the most 'in the middle of nowhere' feeling I've had so far, it was just us, the dunes and the water. We made our own fun though playing coconut Olympics (I won the long jump! Snap- still got it!) singing to the dixie chicks, playing pool on confusingly small tables, I never ever by the fire and roaming the dunes to some funky tunes.

The following day we hopped on a speedboat to explore the delta, stopping at a lighthouse nearby, a place in the dunes with naughty monkeys and a domesticated raccoon type creature which provided much entertainment by jumping into people's hammocks with them. That day on the boat listening to Kettel I had one of those blissful 'ah gees this is the life, I'm so fucking lucky' kinda moments:)

Barranheiras was the next port of call. There I had a nice dinner by the river and a pretty hilarious night out at a " reggae" bar- think earnest love ballads with a drum machine and synthesizer backing, not remotely reggae! But entertaining company through the night, even the part where Tyler, Julia and I got lost in the rain on the way home.

Next day was a rip roaringly fun 4wd journey through to some (more) sand dunes, including rolling down them into the lagoon below. After that we made our way to Sao Luis and had an absolute corker of a night out at a gay bar and another nightclub Candy drinking cuba libres, pulling awesome dance moves under the lasers and generally bonding with my fellow travelers.

The next day we ferried over to Alcantara, spent the night in a cool little pousada with a strangely decorated little garden (concrete mushrooms, chandeliers made of different coloured glass bottles and eggshells atop aloe vera plants) a pool, and stunning views. I tried to have a hula hoop there but alas my hoop finally died despite my best efforts to repair and re- repair it:( I'll have to learn how to live without hooping for the next few months, wah.

Belem was next on the agenda, a pretty ordinary city where we prepared for our trip up the mighty Amazon river. I think the next bit is probably a whole nother post so stay tuned...