Don´t drink the Aguardiente
Trip Start
Feb 01, 2009
1
9
35
Trip End
Apr 30, 2009
Where I stayed
Armenia, Colombia
Sunday, February 22, 2009
Went to bed last night full of good intentions (despite a fair bit more beer and rum) and managed to get up at 6.30 in the morning with the two other guys in my dorm and took a jeep to Corcora then went hiking all morning. Have also toured the coffee farm run by the owner of this hostel, so think I have caught up on the activity front after yesterday.
Salento is a really beautiful spot, about 2000m up so it has a very temperate climate and is very green and hilly, and the town itself is very pretty with a colourful square. On the walk from Corcora today we saw lots of hummingbirds of about 10 different types which was great, have some good close up pictures as they are not very shy.
I havenīt really written about the last week so here is a brief summary, hopefully will fill this out with pictures when I have nothing to do and a decent internet connection.
On Monday, headed to Tayrona with some of the guys at my hostel. It is an absolutely beautiful place, with mountainous jungles sweeping down on to beautiful huge sandy beaches. However when we finally got to the second campsite after about 3 hours walking it was absolutely full of backpackers. I think this was probably because a lot of people were congregating on the Carribean coast to go to the carnival at Baranquilla which started yesterday. So it was difficult just to get a hammock and the price of the hammock and food and drink were rather high by Colombian standards.
Slept reasonably well in my hammock then hiked up to an old Indian city in the hills nearby before returning to Taganga in the evening.
On Wednesday, took a daytrip to Minca with Lilly, a girl from Cali I met in the hostel in Taganga. It is a quiet little town in the hills above Santa Marta and there is a river and waterfalls that you can swim in with whirlpools which was lots of fun. We missed the last car home so had to take mototaxis back which was fun, downhill all the way, but a bit scary with shorts and flip flops on (I am a bit of a wuss).
Tomorrow going to head to Cali and hopefully meet up with Lilly again and maybe my sister Isabelīs friend Ben who teaches English there I think. It takes about 3-4 hours so if I leave early should be there by lunchtime. After that apparently the route I had planned to take is daft due to the quality of the roads, so will probably head back to Armenia (near Salento) before catching an overnight bus to somewhere or other near San Agustin, and will then continue my way south via Popayan and head for the Ecuadorean border to be in Quito next Saturday.
Enjoy your week!
Nick
