Colombia Part I

Well the start to Colombia was pretty awesome. After negotiating the border crossing with ease, I then caught the bus to Popayan. I was still a little tired from the previous nights journey from Quito but the views on the road, particularly from Pasto onwards, was stunning. I mean I have been travelling through the Andes now for a couple of months but the views of the mountains and valleys that fell away on either side of the bus was breathtaking. I arrived in Popayan fairly late on and the first thing I noticed after walking into the hostel was a picture of the Balmoral Hotel and Princes Street in the background. It turned out that the owners were from Scotland and had lived in Edinburgh before coming out to Colombia...the tv room was decorated with posters of the Fringe over the years. The city of Popayan is nice, with a pretty plaza and an interesting Natural History Museum. The students there were also protesting over the introduction of fees in public universities so it was fun to watch them blockade the streets and paint the walls with graffitti. There is a lot of great day trips from Popayan and the one I decided upon was to head to the small town of Tierradentro and explore the archealogical sites in the mountains that surround. Its a really cool place to go visit. There is no real road that leads to Tierradentro, they are currently building it and so the ride over gravel, stone and mud was fantastic, an adventure in itself. It is unknown who built the tombs in the area but whoever it was left behind a remarkable site. There is numerous tombs carved straight into the ground which are accessed by a spiral stone staircase, sometimes very steep. Inside the tombs are decorated with red, black and white paint as well as pillars, adorned with heads and various items of pottery. They are easily big enough to fit an entire family inside and in most cases, that is what they did. As well as the tombs, there is a collection of statues, not as impressive as the ones in San Agustin I am sure, but fascinating all the same. Paul Roberts can have his San Agustin gang, Ill have my Tierradentro one. Not only are the archealogical sites and finds impressive, the views of the valley and mountains around are incredible, I didnt make it to the top of the trail as it got dark but wow its a beautiful setting. There is little else to do in Tierradentro or the little village of San Andres at the end of the trail but its very peaceful and was a nice introduction to the friendliness of Colombian people. After my time in Popayan I made the short journey to check out La Ciudad de Salsa that is Cali. I only stayed for one night there but I can confirm that if you want to find a salsa bar and a gorgeous girl, then Cali is the place to go. It was also the last night before ellection weekend which meant no alcohol for two days, anywhere in the country!! I took this opportunity to head to Salento in Zona Cafeteria and enjoy some more downtime in amongst the valleys. Salento is set in the most gorgeous of locations, deep in a valley with towering mountains and rivers around and of course, acres and acres of coffee plantations. They didnt interest me so much but the hike into Valle de Cocora did and coupled with the mad jeep ride to it where there was 5 of us hanging off the back of a jeep, it was a great day trip. The walk up through the valley leads to a Hummingbird sanctuary where literally dozens of colourful birds zip past your head with a whirrr. Some of the colours on display were magnifincent altough trying to get a picture of these ever moving birds proved tough. It was here I tried for the first time, hot chocolate and cheese. Very different but somehow it works, the cheese is similar to goats cheese, its not like dunking a slice of cheddar in your chocolate but yeah it seems to work. From leaving the sanctuary the hike goes high through a section of cloud forest until suddenly the trees all change form to those of pine trees. Its surreal and truly felt like home due to the needles on the ground and the thick fog that had engulfed the hillside. From the top of the trek and inbetween the clouds, the views back are awesome. Fields puncutated by magnificent wax palm trees, some look like they are over 50m tall and only the thickness of a person...not a fat one like me but an average size person. Its incredible and their shadows through the fog was eery at times. Despite it being a non alcohol weekend, the locals still knew how to get their hands on some and after reading about a restaurant selling special juice this weekend, myself and a few of the people from the hostel headed there for dinner and our special juice. It turned out the restaurant was also selling beers which was great as the juice wasnt all that good. The day of the elections was also cool to see. Half of the population of the small town were all dressed in green whilst the other half were all dressed in pink. I didnt see any news on who won the election but judging by the party being had from the pink half, Im guessing it was there candidate, boy did they party, so much for a dry weekend! After Salento it was on to the party city of Medellin. Many people on my travels had said Medellin was their favourite city in Colombia, the best woman, the best nightlife, the best people and very safe...so it had to be on my list. I arrived their on Halloween and met up again with Dan and Rona whom we had travelled with in Peru. We went sightseeing together and there is some nice old buildings in the city center. Medellin is also the only city in Colombia with a metro system which makes travelling from the tourist barrio of La Poblado to Centro easy. The most interesting sights are probably the statues of Plaza Botero. All the statues feature very large persons or animals, most of whom are naked and the people of Medellin believe that it is good luck to rub certain parts of the statue meaning that they shine gold in the sunlight. We celebrated Halloween together in the city although it was surprisingly quiet considering the occasion, the following weekend was the big Halloween bash. The next day, Dan and I went on the Pablo Escobar tour which was extremely interesting, so much so I think I will write a blog on it...After we took the cable car up the mountain to get some spectacular views of the city below. Medellin is a sprawling city, not huge in population but it seemed to go on for as far as the eye could see, in fact further. I made it out clubbing with some friends that I had made in Salento and they sure know how to party in Medellin...they had Karaoke on in the nightclub which was a bit strange but seemed to work with everybody singing along to the words on the screen. Medellin is a pretty cool city, I dont know about the best as Cartagena is cool and I am yet to visit Bogota which I have high hopes for. It does have an excellent nightlife, the centro is nice to walk around and there is some great bars and restaurants in El Poblado...oh yeah and then theres the chicas, well its all a matter of opinion I guess, but I wouldnt like to be the guy taking his girlfriend there for a holiday...