San Gil

Juan Cari Waterfall

El Camino Real

Fossils

I made it explode!!

Towns only get better and better, I am definitely a small town girl :) I don't need big cities and crouded hostels. Only the outdoor stuff - bungee jump, rafting, paragliding, trekking, waterfalls, abseiling, kayaking, parks and mountains.

Night bus from Mompox(12h) was very comfortable (but cold), haizy sunrise at Chicamocha Canyon was awesome, those red cliffs! After walking along the streets in San Gil, up and down, turn after turn I had a very funny feeling. I wasn't sure am I in Colombia or San Francisco (steep hills and wynding streets) or Nepal (red roof tops plus mountains)? I was smiling for myself, it felt so surreal. I liked tge town immediately, lots of sports options or just relaxing in our hostel jacuzzi :)

We did some heavy rafting. Our boat was the professional one, of course when there were two Finnish vikings! Yes, we met another Finnish traveller :) Nobody fell over or the boat didn't flip. We actually rescued one of the other groups safety kayaker. He got stuck between two rocks and water was just floawing over him. It looked really scary, and we could see that our guide and the guy under the water were really scared. We picked him for our boat and had a rest on shore. Rafting wasn't as hardcore as in Uganda but still very nice daytrip. Evening was the best, we went to Gringo's Mike. The best blackbean-pesto-bluecheese burger! Hallelujah :D Chocolate brownie with ice-cream for dessert, not bad at all. Now back to the local food.

Monday Rob went mountain biking and I went town hopping. So nice little towns, fossil rocks, El Camino Real paths, old man bearded trees, colorful birds, friendly people,.. Oh the list goes on and on :) I took bus to Barichara and from there walked to another small village, Guane. I love these small stone paved streets with beautiful houses and bright red roofs. Tuesday was gringos Tejo night! Colombian game, kind of like our petanki/bull, but this one involves gunpowder and explosions.. Yes, I know, crazy! I was the only one who hit the gunpowder and made explosion! And Rob hit the bulls eye, so we won!! :D 

San Gil has so much to offer if you have the time and the money. I am happy for our rafting experience, Juan Curi waterfall and pool was great also even though there wasn't much of water, Rob enjoyed his biking and El Gallineral Natural Parque was amazing! And yes, hot shower! This is our 5th week of traveling and Macondo Hostel was the first place to offer a hot shower, not just air warm tank water :) You don't need hot water here cos it is so hot anyway, but surely you appreciate one when you get one!

Mompox

Yes!! This is the place! :) Beautiful, peaceful colonial town, next to the river, without tourists or backpacker hostels. I am in heaven.

When we arrived here on Wednesday, I felt it immediately. I belong here. It feels safe to walk on the streets, no big boy groups yelling and slacking in every corner, no tourists (except us) taking pictures every church and colorful house. It is just so relaxed in here. Basicly it is only two streets so walking through the town takes less than 15 min. Nothing to do except chill, I like. Only minus part is, that it is f¿@#ing hot in here. Sorry about the swearing and I know it is cold and grey in Finland and England, but this is too much. I thought Punta Gallinas was the hotest place, but this takes the lead. Morning temperature 6am is already +37, when you get out from the air conditioned room, wall hits you and you start swetting immediately. Rob said yesterday when we walked back to the hostel in afternoon heat (close to 50) - this is painful. Just painful.

Small doors

Sunrise Rio Magdalena

The most beautiful house

Empty streets

Electricians at work

Cemetery

Ciudad Perdida - Lost City

Wau! Absolutely amazing!! Very tired but happy :) Where do I start.. It is not possible to do this by your own, you have to go with a tour company and we went with Magic Tours. Colombian time and style, they picked us two hours later.. Mañana mañana. We met the others at a village called Machete (like the knife, because there has been so many fights) and after lunch we hit the road. Very dusty, sandy path with 45min uphill. We could see the mountains and jungle but didn't really reach them yet. At the camp one there was a refreshing natural pool waiting for us. The food were amazing, but something went wrong on the last night.. Our chef, Elizabeth prepared the meals, cleaned the dishes and walked very fast to the next camp to prepare our next meal, everyday! We saw so many mules carrying all the food products from camp to camp.

We saw lots of birds, including a humming birds and green tucans, lizards and maybe the coolest thing ever - spider running for his life, followed by a wasp which stung and paralyzed it and enjoyed it for his meal!! River Bukari made the hiking much more pleasent, cleaning our dusty feet and sweaty hands once in a while for streams, dip after lunch or cooling our feet when we had to cross the river without a bridge, was so nice. The third day we climbed up the 1200 steps to the magnificent Ciudad Perdida. Built in 700 AC, discovered again 1501 and finally 1976 constructed by archeologists. Well, 35% of it what has been found. There are so much history and forgotten stories to be told, but which the indigenous people wants to keep to themselves. Tribe called Kogi, are still living at Sierre Nevada National park the same way as they used to live hundreds of years ago. We got to meet the Mamo, leader and the elder of this tribe. It was so fascinating to see and hear their believes and lifestyle. This city has been built by man hands years ago, and it took 260 years to finish it. It has been abandoned and discovered again. There are hundreds of lost and found indigenous villages in South-America. Next huge one will be Machu Picchu. I am totally speechless in front of these natural miracles/wonders!

Last day wasn't so pleasent. Obviously it was some kind of food poisoning, five from our group were sick. Rob being one of them. I woke up four time not feeling so well but luckily I wasn't sick. Half of the people skipped breakfast, one girl was so sick that they called donkey to take her to the first camp. From first camp you could take very scary ride back behind a motorbike, three took this option. The hike back was very slow, sweaty and painful. All that downhill was killing my toes. I already had few blisters but my pinkytoe got totally crushed, bye bye toenail :( There was lot of tics in the jungle, one day I found four crawling on my leg and today I just removed one bastard from Robs leg. Luckily they don't carry borreolis disease in here.

I am very happy we did the trek. So many beautiful landscapes once again, Ciudad Perdida being the best one obviously. We met so many nice and helpful people. When you travel and if one gets sick from the group, it brings everybody closer together. Everyone helps, starts looking for sickness tablets, brings water and helps to carry your stuff. Huge thanks for Toby and Joy for that! Now, no more hiking for while :) Tomorrow we will head down to Mompox, another beautiful colonial city.

Very dusty uphill path

I wouldn't want to drive these roads

We made it!! 46 km hike

Coca leaves

1200 steps to the Lost City

Mamo

Cooling down time

Tayrona National Park

First hike done with all the stuff in our backpacks! I can tell you it wasn't pleasant. I, very vise girl, got a brilliant idea to buy huge mangos just before entering the park. At the park there is no roads, only small paths to walk. You can hire a horse to carry your stuff if you feel you can't do it yourself. We started our one hour hike in midday heat, temperature more than +30, humidity close to 100% and not a single breeze! Good luck :) 

Tayrona is jungle with beautiful bays. We had chosen to stay at Arrifices and it was as beautiful as we had heard. And now afterwards I am really happy we stayed in Don Pedro campsite. Best location, food places around us, cooking facilities and the best food! None of the other places seemed so good. First days we felt exhausted from the hike, my calfs were killing me, so we just looked around the closest beach options. Aranilla and Piscina being the most popular ones cos you could actually swim there. Closest one to us had too big waves and dangerous rip curls so it wasn't allowed to swim in there, too many people had lost their lives on that beach. But all the beaches were so beautiful with huge rocks and palm trees around the bay. Finding the right path was little trickier, not so many sign posts. But we enjoyed our walks in the jungle, saw many different colors butterflies and birds, lizards, snake, parrot, monkeys and a proper ant highways!

Wednesday we got up really early and headed towards El Pueblito, lost city from thousands of years ago. Hike was steep, rocky and very hot and sweaty. We got to the top after nine and we were boiling! Thousands of years old rock formations in front of us. We saw some indigenous people around the site still living in their huts. This site was small, compared to Machu Picchu or Ciudad Perdida, but still so amazing and left me without words. Who has found that place? Who has built all those roads and houses? How long ago and how long it took? How different is their lives compared tobours? Rest of the way we chilled again on the beach. Cabo San Juan is the busiest campsite, and I can see why. Being next to the beach is great advantage, but it was way too busy and crouded. And the food wasn't made with love.

Sleeping inside the national park, outside in our hammock listening the different sounds of the nature was great. Mosquitos weren't a problem but sandflies were!! It was definitely more relaxing to sleep outside listening crickets than party music from the roof top bar in our hostel! Taganga, where we came yesterday for a dive is more like laid back hippi town, with free life and lots of weed smokers. Reminds me a lot of the Bay Islands in Honduras. People dive during the eay and party all nights. But it was great to see the national park from the sea. It has been too long since my last dive! Oh my! Underwater world is so amazing! We saw murenas, eels, huge lobsters, scorpion fish, trumpet and box fish, angel and parrot fish, duster worms and for me the first time, fire worm!

El Pueblito

Local juice bar

Wildlife of the Tayrona

Very sweaty hike indeed