The coldest place in Colombia BOGOTA

So we land in Bogota and considering we have pretty much spent 5 weeks sweating in Brazil and Leticia we are hit by the cold of Bogota. Never happy we now complain it's too cold, we had to get the jumpers and the shoes back out after being dumped at the bottom of our backpacks. We stayed in an area called Calendaria which is quite a cool area in Bogota. A lot of old buildings and colourful painted walls with impressive graffiti. We stay in a chilled hostel called Hostal Sue and spent the 3 days we had sight seeing before we headed to the next Colombian City of Medellin.

Having read up about an underground Catherdral on the out skirts of Bogota we used the public transport to get there. Bogota is run by a very efficient interlinked bus system. We had to get a small little bus to a town called Zipaquirá and from there we walked to the Salt Cathedral and did a tour. This tour was considerably more organised than our other mine tour in Bolivia, no near death experiences here. We were guided around the Cathedral which was very impressive. They used lights to highlight the well made sculptures. In honesty the guide was in Spanish only so we spent most of the time goofying around taking funny pictures. We later googled the Catherdeal and found out that 'The Salt Cathedral of Zipaquirá is an underground Roman Catholic church built within the tunnels of a salt mine 200 meters underground in a Halite mountain near the town of Zipaquirá, in Cundinamarca, Colombia. It is a very popular tourist destination and place of pilgrimage in the country. The name "Salt Cathedral" is mostly to attract tourists - while a functioning church that receives as many as 3,000 visitors on Sundays, it has no bishop and therefore no official status as a cathedral in Catholicism. The temple at the bottom has three sections, representing the birth, life, and death of Jesus. The icons, ornaments and architectural details are hand carved in the halite rock. Some marble sculptures are included. The Salt Cathedral is considered one of the most notable achievements of Colombian architecture.' Here are some pictures...

Me and Michael next to a station of the cross

The next day we walked around Bogota city centre which is quite built up and I would not say it was the prettiest city but it was nice. We also visited the Gold museum as we had heard it was incredible, plus it was only around $1.00 to get in. Admittedly, or rather ashamedly this was actually the first museum we had visited in our entire trip. It was infact a brilliant museum and we took our time reading every fact. The artifacts in the museum where very good, they had so much for people to see. It was well thought out and you left having more understanding of the sheer impact gold had on the history of Colombia. The museum told us that in the past metal and gold workers were actually treated like gods as they could mould the gold. That the jewellery made out of gold at the time represented a lot of mythical and symbolical creatures such as a frog for fertility etc. There was so much information that it hard to condense it in this blog, maybe we can meet up and I can tell you over 4 coffees haha. No, but seriously it was very educational and we were able to put the information we learnt in context when we visited Lost City ruins in Cuidad Peridad.

Next stop Medellin

Street Art

I am the king odf the castle

Gold Musuem artifacts

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Messing around in the Gold Museum

Square in Bogota

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First stop in Colombia- Leticia

As you arrive in Tabinga (Brazil) you only need to catch a 5 minute taxi ride over the invisible border and your in Leticia (Colombia). Within this area, you could enter Santa Rosa (Peru), Tabinga and Leticia all within 5 minutes of each other. The law allows that the inhabitants within those 3 areas to go inbetween the towns freely. When we arrived from the boat we caught a taxi to Leticia and stayed at an eco lodge hostal on the outskirts of the small town.

In truth Leticia was not great, it was very small and full of mo-peds that polluted the streets. Lonely Planet had boast of its beauty, but then again at this point we had learnt not to take anything Lonely Planet said too seriously.To leave Leticia it was necessary to get a Brazilian exit stamp and Colombian entry stamp.We made this our first priority and it turned out to not be as straight forward as it sounds. We had to get a taxi back to Tabatinga, Brazil which was 5 minutes away. Lonely Planet had failed to mention that the office closed from 12pm-2pm for seista so when we got to the office it was already shut. We then realised that having just walked down the road the time had changed back to Brazilian from Colombian which was an hour behind. It was all very confusing, safe to say 2 taxi rides later we finally got our stamp out of Brazil. Our friend Olly said he couldnt live in an area that straddled 3 countries with all this time changing malarky, I agreed!

We had a free day before our flight out to Bogota. Leticia has a small airport that flies only to Bogota. Its the only way out of Leticia as it is completely detached from the rest of Colombia by road. The Jungles that surround Leticia are guarded by Guarillas and Narcos so its a no go zone. Flying is the only way in and the only way out. So on our free day we booked a tour around the amazon area of Colombia. It was a boat tour that stopped of at several stops. The first stop was monkey island where little yellow monkeys roamed the island in packs and it was not unsual to walk around with 3 monkeys on your head, 2 on your arms and 4 on your legs. I have to say I screamed like a girl as I could feel there little paws scuttle up my back and on my head. Michael took to it more naturally then me, they quite like him I think. After this we visited an island with indegenouse tribe and they did a song and dance for us. We then saw some river dolphins again, both types on the way an area that boast they had the largest water lillie pads in the world. I dont know about that but it was pretty big. The last stop on the trip was a village that was actually part of Peru. There we saw a real life lazy sloth which was incredible to see, we even got to hold it. We were told that the sloths can live to 100 years old and they just die on the same fetal position, clinging onto the tree branch. Here are some pictures from the tour.

Isnt that the best face you have seen! Sloth in the village of the river which was in Peru

CHEEKY!

I want to take him home!

Beautiful

Michael and the Monkeys

Monkeys causing terror on Olly

The tribes women put on a traditional show for us

Me and Michael with the tribe

Our mate barry!

On this tour we met an interesting character (to add to the collection from this trip) called Barry. Barry was from San Francisco and is 63 years old. He had been travelling nearly a year and half and South America was one of his last stops. He sold up his house and decided to see the world, he had been in Australia, New Zealand, Africa and now finally South America. This was his second time travelling as his first time was 36 year before when he did the Hippy Trail from Turkey to Cambodia, passing through countries like Afghanistan. Which to us young folks now is just unbelievable, Barry was our Hero. He then told us he visited England on his first trip and stayed in hippy commune on the floor for something like 50pence. He carried on to say that he loved England but was dissapointed when he had told someone he loved Vegas and gambling and a nice English man said, WAHAY! why dont you go to a place called Blackpool, its like the Vegas of England. Ofcourse you know and I know that Blackpool resembles more washed up beach town than the glitz of glamour of Vegas. As he was telling the story I just pictured wide eyed Barry pitching up in Blackpool expecting Vegas. Me, Michael and Olly where really chuckling at this point and thought I bet that guy was taking the mickey sending this Vegas poker player to Blackpool. Anyway, Barry had great catch phrases that we still qoute now like, (now you have to imagine a really, really american San Fran accent) "Unbelieeevaable" and "Thats neat". We have swapped details with Barry and we hope to see him soon in San Fran because that would be ""Unbelieeevaable".

So after 3 days in Leticia we said bye Barry and headed of to Capital of Colombia, Bogota.

Manaus to Tabatinga Amazon river boat - BRAZIL

Our first glimpse of the Amazon on our flight from Salvador to Manuas

We had always dreamed of taking a long trip down the mighty Amazon river, and with our next country to visit being Colombia we found the perfect way. We had to fly from Salvador to Manaus, the 11^th biggest city located in the middle of the Amazon rainforest and of course the mighty river. From there we would catch the next available boat to Tabatinga, still in Brazil but located directly on the border of Colombia and the jungle town of Leticia.

We had very little information on how to sort out the boat, so not for the first time we would have to see what happens when land in Manaus. 

Manuas Opera House

As land we try and book a taxi to our hostel, and a tour guide kindly advises us that the bus would be much cheaper than the taxi and that he would show us where to catch it. On the way I ask him about the options for boats and he offers some helpful information as he accompanies us on the bus. We soon find out that he has his own agency and that he could arrange for us to go on the next available boat to Tabatinga, which would be the next day. Perfect we say and off we head to his agency. A jolly nice chap he was, even inviting us to his birthday BBQ that evening. Normally we would shop around but we felt comfortable with this chap so we handed the money over and got our receipt. We had been told that our boat was called Monteiro and it would leave at 12pm, and that he had personally called the captain to arrange for our hammocks to be placed in the best spot.

He then kindly offers to walk us to our hostel, and when the hostel manager opened the gate he said hi and off we went in. With the chap gone the hostel manager asked us where did you meet this chap? We said we just booked a tour to which he replied that bloke is really dodgy and then said that his tour agency was not registered and had ripped off many tourists! Shitting ourselves we log onto trip advisor and there plain to see are bad reviews! Worried that we had been conned we decided and hoped that all would be ok for our boat trip!

We had been told to be at the tour agency for 8am, which we were and to our relief it was open and the chap was there. I asked whether all was still ok and he said don’t worry man everything is sorted! 2 hours wait at the agency and its time to go, not to worry as our space on the boat had already been sorted with the captain! So we arrive at the port, which is hectic and completely chaotic, our guide unpacks our bags from the car and says follow this bloke with no further explanation! We follow the chap who speaks no English and seems to have no idea where we should be, he takes us to the ticket office and points for us to buy our tickets, my heart sank as we tell him we have already paid! He then disappears to which we now fear the worst! He comes back a couple of minutes later with two hammocks, strange we think as we had been promised that our hammocks had already been placed!! We see the chap buy tickets and off we go into a little speed boat, as we speed round the dock the boat Monteneiro comes into view and we feel slightly relieved as this was the first bit of truth from what we had been promised.

We jump on board, by now the boat is already completely full of locals and it seems that on the deck there is no more space, especially not for two gringos! Our chap squeezes our hammocks between two locals and we are on and ready to go!!

Our boat Monteneiro, was a typical river cruiser, with the bottom full of cargo of fruit, food, building materials and even a car! The next level was the sleeping area, where hammocks hung from the ceiling housed the 150 or so travelers! The top level had a decking area, a café and tv room and even a hairdressers. Not quite your P&O cruiser but it would do as our home for the next 6 days.

Our boat Monteneiro - top deck with Manaus port in background

Putting up our hammocks on the middle deck

All of our neighbours

Jo getting settled in

One of our neighbours!!

My buddie Ki - who loved taking pics with camera

We say hello to our neighbours and get settled in. As soon as we leave port we get a view of the mighty Amazon, at parts over two miles wide, filled with huge transporter ships and cargo carriers. We start to head up stream and soon the banks are filled with the Amazon forest and small little villages nestling on stilts. The river rises up 15m in the wet season so many of the houses were near to being flooded. 

Manaus Port

We are off - bye bye Manus

We're happy

Villages along the way - we saw hundres of these along the way

We head to the top deck and i go to order a beer at whcih point we find out that this is a strict Christian boat that does not allow alcohol. A bit of downer as i had planned to spend the days sitting on the top deck downing beers whilst taking in the sights of the amazon! Oh well we would have to do with cofee and shakes.

Breakfast was served at 6am, lunch at 11am and dinner at 5am, very regimented but at least we knew where we were at. The food was pretty good considering we were on a boat, always for lunch and dinner was rice and spagetthi and a bean stew, the only thing that changed was thhe meat accompanying it, chicken beef or lamb. Lights go off at 9pm so early nights! Good job we had brought with us a lot of books to read to kill the time. 

Taking in the sights

Jo relaxing on the top deck taking in the sun

The first couple of days we spent getting used to the routine and also with doing absolutely nothing. For the first time in 5 months we had nothing other to do than relax, and feel no guilt for doing sod all. So plenty of books to read and plenty of sleep and napping and of course taking in the vastness of the amazon.

Nice view

Butterfly the size of a bat!!

On around day three we bump into the only other gringos, Ollie from London and Matheus from Holland. The four of us unite and from then onwards we had our crew on the boat. Evenings are spent playing cards which often turned into a marathon session competively scored till there was a clear winner!

Cards - Me, Matheus and Ollie

Around day four we stop at our first port at what seems a small village on teh amazon, a few people get off and cargo is unloaded. One of the crew members advised us that we had a couple of hours as all the cargo was being unloaded by hand. So with this in mind us three gents headed into the little village for beer, with the hope that we would not hear the horn hoot meaning the boat was leaving! We must of looked crazy to local villagers running through the town, 4 gringos all shouting CERVEZZA CERVEZZA (beer beer), with no luck we head back to the pear, the small shop oon the port front was our last resort and we manage to get three beers! We drink them on the port and enjoy them as if we had not had one for years! What a pleasure!

One of the ports along the way

With less people on the boat we decide to move our hammocks to our new friends and we immediately enjoy the space we now have. At our previous spot Jo had a very strange girl sleepinh above her would stare at Jo whilst she was sleeping, she was also toothless and wore the most inappropriate clothes leaving nothing to the imagination. She claimed to work in medicine, but our thoughts was that she was in public service but more of a boat Roxanne! So we were happy with our new stop.

Roxanne - you dont have to put on a ......

Another funny incident which we missed but Ollie saw was that of a religious ritual! A group of women had gathered around an elderly lady lying in the hammock, all chanting and waving their hands up and down, bowing over this poor lady whilst all crying. It was almost like a seen out of the exorcist, Ollie almost expected the womans head to start spinning round 360 degrees! Ritual over and eyes dried of the tears it was time for lunch! How bizzare. 

The next morning me and jo witnessed our own religious ceremony with the same women now standning in a circel chanting, singing and gesturing to the god above. Very strange! One particula lady seemed to be the ringleader and I'm pretty sure she would have been declared insane back in the UK, but it seems on the amazon anything goes.

The ceremony!!!

Getting into it a bit too much?

Talking of anything goes, on day 5 we stopped at what seemed a small town, and a fishing spot. I took a photo from the side of the boat of the days catch, thinking nothing of it as it just looked like fish, i zoomed in and looked in shock as i saw what looked like a small child skinned! One further look and i see a long tail and realise it was a monkey! So i grab the lads and we get off the boat and go and have a closer look, and fair enough there it is, a monkey skinned laying flat out on it's back as part of the catch of the day. As we leave the boat we see that the monkey had now disappeared so someone must have purchased it. I jokingly said to everyone that i saw the chef buy it that we would probably have it for dinner later. Anyway later at dinner we did get a new meat, but after tasting it it was fish so a big sigh of relief from the group! Ha Ha

The fishing port

Today's catch

Can you see it yet - have closer look....

Here's the poor fellow - let's hope he went to a good home

The other thing at this port was that we managed to buy more beer, but even better is that whilst looking out at the river we see many dolphins jumping in out of the water, almost providing a show whilst we wait once again for the cargo to be unloaded.

A grey river dolphin - very difficult to capture

I managed to get through 5 books, Jo 3! 6 days later and having travelled and around 1200 miles covered we had seen the mighty amazon and what an experience.

Happy days...

Local taxi

Slighly drinking our beers

One of the local towns we docked at

Last night religious ceremony sing along!