Off the gringo trail & off the beaten track in Colombia

Compared to the rest of South America, most of Colombia is still off the gringo trail, but probably not for long as it has been getting a lot safer over the last few years. Verena and I spent the last 5 days mainly on various buses in Colombia, traveling from the south to the north, the Caribbean coast.

TUE: bus from Quito to Tulcan, near the border; taxi to cross the border from Ecuador into Colombia, bus from Ipiales to Bogota.

WED: Arrival in Bogota around 11 am. My camera is dying – can´t read some of my memory cards anymore… Mueso del Oro (gold muesum) in the late afternoon.

THU: 9:30 am departure - Bogota; 7 pm arrival in Bucaramanga. travel planning time at the bus station. 10:30 pm departing Bucaramanga

FRI: 7 am: arriving in El Banco. looking for a boat all over town. no boat. have to take minibus to Mompox (10 – 12:30). Mompox is off the beaten track. no tourists. nothing. different experience. nice dinner on the main square. the pizzeria is just a stall on the main square. different. but fun

SAT: it rained at night. the roof of our hotel was leaking. my clothes are wet. some are really, really wet. soaked. these are the moments when traveling is not fun. once the clothes are dry (a/c first, then drier) we leave. taxis leave once there are 4 people going to Bodega. locals seem to go there often. we leave 10 minutes after showing up at the square. one hour from Mompox to Bodega, then a 20-minute boat ride to Magangue, the most off the beaten track town we have been to in South America. at first it´s annoying, once we´re on the bus it´s lovely. the bus driver (pollito) and his assistant (allesandro) treat us like queens, let us sit in the front, bring us coffee. simply lovely. the best bus ride   they hardly ever get tourists here. arrival in Santa Marta late at night (22:30).

Off to COLOMBIA

Verena and I are leaving Ecuador today to travel in Colombia for our last two weeks in South America. Our bus leaves Quito at 5:30 am; we’ll arrive at the border about 6 hours later, take a taxi across the border (about 2 hours), and then take another bus to Bogota (about 20 hours) where we should arrive tomorrow morning around 10 am.

Guayaquil (ECUADOR) & Galapagos Islands

I can hardly believe it worked out, but it did: Verena and I are going to the GALAPAGOS ISLANDS tomorrow – on a 5-day cruise    

Since the last time I updated my blog not much has happened:

On Wednesday we met Giselle, whom we had met in Cusco two weeks earlier, for lunch in Miraflores, then took a taxi to the bus station Cruz del Sur and left Lima at 3 pm. We like ¨cama¨ buses  and our favorite seats are # 2 and 3  – premier piso

On Thursday we arrived in Tumbes in the north of Peru around 10 am, walked through town (rather strange military town) to the Cifa bus station, bought a ticket from Tumbes, Peru, to Guayaquil, Ecuador, had lunch, and left Tumbes at noon, crossed the border about half an hour later (a border with a bad reputation, but we were lucky and had no problems), and arrived in Guayaquil at 6 pm. Verena and I are in ECUADOR now   There we took a taxi to the center, checked out a few hostels and ended up staying at the Hostal Suite Madrid. The blocks around the hostel are slightly dodgy in the evening, but still ok.

On Friday we started looking into last minute offers to the Galapagos Islands (mainly 4, 5, or 8-day trips) and realized that it was harder than expected to find an affordable last minute boat trip to these islands… Went to the movies in the evening – ¨He`s just not that into you¨ in English with Spanish subtitles.

On Saturday Verena and I booked our trip – we are going on a 5-day cruise on the Galapagos Islands (June 1-5)    

Today we´re not doing much – there is not much to do on a Sunday in Guayaquil… Checked our emails, updated my blog, and will do a little bit of sightseeing now, maybe IMAX later, …

Tomorrow we´ll fly to Baltra, one of the Galapagos Islands, then go on our 5-day boat trip   After that we´ll fly from Baltra straight to Quito. So the next time you´ll hear from me is when I have internet access again – most likely in Quito in a week or so.

Have a good week everyone

Arriving in PERU

Verena and I arrived in PERU today

On Saturday we had dinner (delicious!) with Daniel and Kati at ¨La Cupula¨, including a chocolate fondue as dessert   It was such a nice surprise that they caught up with us instead of staying in La Paz and trekking up the mountain there; well, partly it´s because Kati still hasn´t gotten rid of her cold. 

On Sunday Verena and I did a trip to Isla del Sol, and it is indeed the ¨Island of the Sun¨ – we ended up being a little sunburnt by the end of the day, mainly because it was rather cold and we didn´t realize how strong the sun was until we were back at the hostal in the evening. Met up with Kati and Daniel again.

Today we took a bus from Copacabana, Bolivia, to Puno, Peru. It was an easy 3-hour bus ride including border formalities – the usual: filling out some paperwork (entry card) on the bus, then getting an exit stamp from Bolivia, walking across the border, getting an entry stamp from Peru, getting on the bus again and continuing the journey.

So Verena and I made it to Peru and are in Puno now. Puno is also on Lake Titicaca, but not as nice as Copacabana and much bigger. Tomorrow we´re visting the ¨Islas Flotantes de los Uros¨ (floating islands) – looking forward to it. I still remember when Sabine R. told me about them and showed me pictures – about 10 years ago when we were living in Vienna.

Overall I´m very happy traveling in South America – it´s rougher than other parts of the world, but great scenery and fun   The only issue Verena and I are having is that it is rather cold; ever since we left Santiago de Chile we´ve often been cold. I ended up bying a hat and gloves and we dress in layers pretty much all the time. So what really surprises me is that even though it´s cold here (and it´s not even winter yet!), people here seem to have NO heating?!

The Mekong Delta in VIETNAM

Starting Friday I did a 3 day/2 night trip from Phnom Penh in Cambodia to Saigon (Ho Chi Minh City) in Vietnam.

On Friday we went from Phnom Penh, Cambodia, to Chau Doc, Vietnam, first taking a bus, then a boat still on the Cambodian side, crossing the border by foot, and then taking another boat in Vietnam. We spent the night in Chau Doc.

On Saturday we visited the floating village near Chau Doc and then took the bus to Can Tho, where I did a homestay

On Sunday we visited a floating market and then took the bus to Saigon (Ho Chi Minh City).

Arriving in LAOS :)

So I crossed the border from Thailand into LAOS with no problems – it was really easy in fact: walking to the border, getting an exit stamp from the Thai emmigration office, taking the “ferry” (actually a longtail boat) across the Mekong river for 40 baht ($1), walking up the stairs to the Lao immigration office, filling out two forms (visa application & arrival/departure form), getting the 30-day-visa first (forgot how much it was, I think around 1200 baht/$35 + 1 picture) & then the entry stamp at the next window, changing money at the next window (they take baht and dollars, but not euros) and then walking up the hill to the main street looking for a guesthouse. I check out a few guesthouses mentioned in the lonely planet but am a little disappointed. It seems once gueshouses are mentioned in there, the prices go up and the service down. So I find a new way about picking guesthouses: as there are so many, I just check out the ones NEXT to the ones mentioned in the lonely planet. They are often better and also cheaper So I stay at the Huay Xai Guesthouse: for a room with TV, private bathroom and hot shower I pay 50.000 kip (= 1 euro, a little more than $1). There I also meet the quiet couple who didn’t talk to anyone on the bus yesterday: Marion from France and Lee from the UK; they are really nice and later I end up having dinner with them

After checking into my guesthouse I walk around the small town – first checking out the GIBBON EXPERIENCE. This was recommended to me by Louise whom I met on Ko Phi Phi and it really sounds amazing: you stay in a treehouse for 3 days and 2 nights and during the day you go zipping through the jungle. I’m SO up for that!!! I LOVE FLYING, so this is going to be a lot of fun for me

Later I stop by a school and – you know me – curious as I am and being the teacher who I am I can’t resist to take a look: there are a few teachers and the principal sitting in the courtyard. Talking to them I find out it’s an elementary school during the day and a private school teaching English in the evening from 4:30 pm – 7:30 pm. I tell them that I’m an English (and Math) teacher, too, and ask them whether it’s possible for me to watch one of the classes. They are really nice and invite me to come back tomorrow at 5:30 pm. I will! I’m excited

On the way back I meet Adam, whom I met at the Gibbon experience office earlier as we both signed up for the same trip on Wednesday. He’s having dinner and I join him. He’s from the US (West coast) and seems like a decent guy. A little later Marion and Lee walk by and join us, too. It’s unbelievable how easy it is to meet travelers and to have company for a meal. I hardly ever have a meal without talking to someone (mainly other travelers)! It’s really nice At the beginning of my trip I used to think that I’ll just write in my journal while waitng for a meal, but now I barely ever get to write in my journal in a restaurant because I end up talking to other travelers… Southeast Asia is a really nice place to travel for so many reason