Day 297: Goodbye South America - Hello Panama!

Today was the first of two travel days in a row. My plan was to fly from Barranquilla to Medellín to Panama today, and then take a night bus to Costa Rica from there. I had quite a lot of time to kill at the Medellín airport, but I had been sure Medellín would be a big airport with plenty of diversion available. As it turns out, I was wrong: the airport is about the size of a small regional airport in Germany. Who would've thought?

While I was wandering around in search for food, I noticed everyone else was all but hypnotized by some program on TV. I turned to watch - just in time to see the Colombian BMX athlete Mariana Pajón cycle to gold. Everybody cheered, and the race was repeated at least thirty times within the next hour. It was Colombia's first gold in these games, a big cause for celebration.

A little later, I saw a bunch of policemen carry guitars and amplifiers into the airport and start setting everything up. And then, sure enough, they started playing cheesy Latin American songs. How weird is that?



And then, after almost nine months, it was time to say goodbye to South America! With all the warnings about terrible crime rates in some places, this is what happened to me: nothing. No theft, no pickpocketing, no robbery at knifepoint, no kidnapping. I heard stories from fellow travelers though, but it always seemed to me that with a little common traveling sense most of what they experienced could have been avoided. In my experience, South America is a safe enough travel destination!

So then, this was my parting glance at South America:



And, a little while later, my first glance at Central America:



I had already been to Panama city's airport back in November. Coming from Cuba, the airport had been the perfect consumerist culture shock. This time, there was no culture shock - in contrast to Cuba, Colombia is much more developed and most certainly open to western brands.

Day 296: Barranquilla

Barranquilla is certainly not the most beautiful city I have ever seen, especially when compared with the recent highlight of Cartagena. But since flights out of Barranquilla are a good deal cheaper than those out of Cartagena, I went anyway.

Walking around the city, I managed to find something if not beautiful, then at least very interesting: the cathedral. The cathedral is a relatively new building, at least in comparison to other churches. If it weren't for the cross-shaped stained glass windows, from its outside you'd never guess it was a church.



The entrance was a small door hidden on the far side of the church; all the main doors were barred. Once inside, I just stood there with my mouth open: its inside was even less like what I've come to expect from a church than its outside. There was no traditional altar, a big three-dimensional carving on an otherwise empty wall was all.



Empty was an adequate description for the rest of the cathedral, too. It consisted of one huge, sparsely decorated room with an impossibly high ceiling - and without any pillars to support the roof. I guess that's what created the impression of the cathedral being much emptier than most churches. Modern architects be praised! ;-)

The most striking decoration were the stained glass windows - apparently partly imported from Germany. From the outside, they didn't appear very big or impressive, but seen from the inside they seemed to occupy far more space, creating beautiful, albeit religious, motives out of small individual windows.

Day 295: Diving in Taganga

Pretty much the only other thing you can do in Taganga - apart from partying and hanging out at the beach - is diving. Interestingly enough, diving here is only half as expensive as diving in Cartagena. Half! And for that, you get dive spots that are in a national park, at least as beautiful, and only a few hours along the coast. Very weird - but that's of course why I didn't go diving in Cartagena :-)

During the two dives, I saw a nice variety of colorful tropical fish. The l ones I liked most were different types of boxfish, among them cute spotted smooth trunkfish. We also saw some fish who were patterned in exactly the same way as the coral they were sitting on, making them almost impossible to spot.

But the main attraction on these dives was the underwater landscape. There were these fantastic red plants...



... and many formations that looked like craters:



And then there were these weird giants in black suits that had tubes coming out of their mouths... ;-)

Day 294: Taganga

There isn't a lot to do in Taganga, which is perfect if you're just recovering from a cold and really only want to do something for an hour or so.

Walking out of Taganga along one side of the bay, there is a mirador that can be reached in about five minutes. It offers nice views of the village and the bay.



On the other side of the bay, a slightly longer walk leads to a supposedly beautiful beach, Playa Grande. I followed the path until I could look down on the beach:



But then, I didn't bother to climb down and turned around to go back. The beach just didn't look inviting enough to merit climbing more uphill slopes so soon after my last hike ;-)

Day 293: Sick in Taganga

All I managed today was a ten-minute walk down to the beach. Then my body finally refused to be mistreated any longer and brought me to rest with a heavy cold. So I spent most of the day in the hostel, reading with one eye and following the olympics with the other.

Watching the olympics was rather fascinating, because - naturally - the commentators focused a lot on South American athletes. This subtle shift let the games appear in a whole different light. That, and the hilarious mispronunciations of English and German names :-)

Day 292: Hiking back from the Lost City (4)

The last day of the lost city hike meant another seven hours of walking - all of them before lunch. Since I had not eaten dinner - and reverse-eaten lunch - yesterday, I didn't have a lot left to go on. Especially on the uphill parts, I felt completely empty and had to sit down frequently. About halfway up the first ascent, the guide offered to carry my backpack for me. Luckily, he didn't heed my weak refusal. But even without my pack, the hike was really hard. I think my brain must have shut down for parts of it to get away from the pain - at least that's the only explanation I have for why I can't remember taking this picture:



It turned out quite beautiful though, didn't it?

This next picture I do remember - it was at the beginning of a downhill slope, and I looked up from the trail to see this giant bamboo-like tree completely filling my view. Amazing!



Some time later, I caught up to my guide hearing him hack at something with his machete. When I got there, there was blood on the trail, and he pointed to the snake he's just chucked aside. He'd just slain a poisonous coral snake. Well done!



Some time later again, I got to the final hill on the trail. After this point, there was only downhill left. What a relief! This is the view:



Arriving back in the village, I was somewhat happy that I'd survived, but mainly I was completely and utterly exhausted. I couldn't even touch the delicious looking lunch we received.

The rest of the day consisted of an uneventful drive back to Santa Marta - which had almost been flooded by heavy rainfalls in the meantime - and a short drive further to Taganga, where I could finally crash into my hostel bed.

Day 291: The Lost City (3)

To get to the lost city in the morning, we first had to wade through yesterday's wide river again - and this time, I remembered to take a picture of it:



After this, about 1200 stone steps waited to be climbed by us until we could see the first terraces of the lost city.



Then, finally, we could explore the lost city, or Tayuna! The city is beautifully done, with stone terraces and cobblestone paths or stairs connecting different parts of the city.



As parts of it are overgrown with moss, it really appears like a lost place. The fact that there was only one other group of tourists there contributed to this feeling - very unlike Machu Picchu, where buses bring hundreds of tourists every day.
Somehow, the city seemed very empty. It must have been populated by many people: goldsmiths, warriors, priests, peasants, etc. - but I couldn't really picture it in my head. In Machu Picchu it had been easy to imagine because there were ruins of stone houses. Here, all that remains are stone terraces - which may have been the foundations for wooden houses, but there were no traces to help the imagination.

Apparently, the Tayrona knew a lot about the surrounding mountains, and also knew how to represent this knowledge in maps. There is one stone thought to represent the entire Sierra Nevada, and this one probably was a map of the immediate surroundings, indicating other settlements:



After about 1850 steps, we arrived at the very top of the city. The views from up there were exceptional:



The big platform you can see in the next picture can be used to land helicopters - for example to take presidents visiting from other countries to the site (according to our guide, this happened recently with Chile's president).



After an abduction of tourists in 2003, there is a permanent military presence at the lost city. Their raised Colombian flag made the guide explain what the flag's colors represent; apparently, it's yellow for the richness of the earth, blue for the two oceans, and red for the blood spilled in the fight for independence. Quite similar to what the colors in Bolivia's flag stand for - I wonder if that is because the same people, most notably Simon Bolivar, were involved in both countries' fight for independence?

After a while, we started our long hike back to civilization. The way down was very slippery, and most of the steps were not made for big European feet. But the humidity that made the stones slippery also provided for these views of gorgeous mossy walls:



The rest of the day's hike was grueling; crossing rivers for two more times led to wet socks which in turn led to blisters and chafed heels. Ouch! Also, I felt strangely weak and couldn't keep up at all - it seems my body didn't like today's lunch, and promptly rejected it before dinner...

Day 290: Hiking to the Lost City (2)

Today, seven hours of strenuous hiking took us right up to the base of the mountain on which the lost city is built.

In the course of the day, I learned an important lesson: if I don't get snacks in regular intervals during a hike, I get really, really grumpy. According to the agency, this hike was supposed to include everything, even snacks, so I didn't bring my own. Unfortunately, it turned out that their idea of a snack was watermelon - which gives you just about zero calories. So, in the evening, I stole some small sugar packages from the dinner table to prepare for day three... not the best kind of snack, but at least there is some energy in it!

My bad mood got to the point that I didn't even see the point in hiking anymore - especially because nobody had bothered to build ANY bridges on this trail. So for each and every stream we had to cross we first had to climb down to the stream, cross, and then climb up again. And then, in the afternoon, we came to a wide river. The guide said, "ok, this is where we cross the river." I looked around, but there was neither bridge nor boat in sight - he actually meant for us to wade through! The water went well up my thighs - of course I was wearing long pants - and the current nearly threw me off balance. I guess I'm lucky I didn't have to see the face I was making at the end of the day! ;-)

Throughout the hike, we saw the occasional farm, and they all had cows (among other stuff). However, in my European eyes these cows looked slightly wrong, like they had too much skin in some places - must be a different race:



We also passed two indigenous villages of the Kogui and Wiwa tribes. Their villages looked like they were taken straight out of a stone age museum: round clay huts with straw roofs, simply dressed villagers going about their business, and naked children running around playing.



Our guide had warned us that we should ask for permission before taking pictures of people. But when I witnessed the following scene, I decided to refrain from photographing people at all. Someone in my group approached an indigenous mum and her child, gave them a small packet of cookies, and then asked for permission to take pictures. She could hardly refuse at this point, having already taken the cookies. But she felt visibly uncomfortable being photographed. So I decided not to partake in this scheme of bribery and pressuring people into things they don't want.

Another incident I didn't feel too good about was when someone gave cookies to a group of children - and they actually fought over the cookies! I wonder what they learn about the world when every day they see these strange white people handing them cookies...

Landscape-wise, today was pretty similar to yesterday: jungle as far as the eye can see. To illustrate my point about extreme humidity, look at this tree:



Yes, it does have a ton of other plants attached to it, and they survive purely on humid air and water trickling down the stem. The humidity actually goes to an extent where it doesn't even make a difference if it's raining or not. Add to that the fact that there is next to no wind - and thus no relief from the heat, - tons of mosquitos, and the constant feeling of being grossly sticky because of the sweat-repellent-sunscreen mixture. In the future, I'll think twice about hiking in the jungle! There is enough to see outside of it.

Day 289: Hiking to the Lost City (1)

The first day of my four-day hike to the lost city started with a rather long truck ride to the trailhead, a village called El Mamey. On the way, several motorcycles overtook our truck on the narrow dirt path. As the guide explained, these are taxis that provide public transportation to the village. Most of them seem to be illegal because their owners don't have a transportation company; but according to the guide, it's a system that has worked well for years in rural Colombia.

Twenty minutes into the hike, we came across the first highlight: a natural swimming pool!



The water felt extremely refreshing. Even this early in the hike, I was already drenched in sweat - thanks to the extreme humidity, of course. I wonder how many liters of sweat I produced in these four days? But I probably wouldn't want to know the answer anyway ;-)

The scenery was very green, jungle-like. When the view opened up, there were more green hills to be seen, some of them shrouded in clouds and mist.



Along the way, the color of the earth changed from white to red to ocher - and back. This is a red part of the path:



After only about three hours, we arrived at the place we were going to spend the night. The so-called cabaña was just a roof over hard earth, filled with about fifty hammocks to accommodate tired hikers. This was the first night ever that I spent in a hammock! It wasn't too bad, but overall I have to admit that I still prefer a bed ;-)

Day 288: Santa Marta

Today I moved on to Santa Marta. My main purpose here was to secure a hike to the lost city, which was surprisingly easy: the company's office was only one block from my hostel, they had a departure planned for the next day, and offered to store a bag with heavy stuff for me during the hike. Perfect!

Afterwards, I had some time left to stroll around the city. While certainly not as beautiful as Cartagena overall, Santa Marta does have a handsome cathedral:



Also, I found the city beach to be a little nicer - and way more accessible - than the one in Cartagena. Santa Marta has a wide waterfront avenue that is almost like a big park stretched out along the entire length of the beach, with big trees, ice cream vendors, and a few statues. Plus, the sunset wasn't half bad :-)

Day 287: Still in Cartagena

Today I went to visit the beach in Cartagena. But first, I passed by Las Bovedas - a series of dungeons in the city wall that are used as souvenir shops today. I really liked the arches and the bright colors.



This is another beautiful bright building I found on my way to the beach:



The weather was glorious, overcast and very windy, so that the heat and humidity were less noticeable. Perfect for the long walk to and along the beach!

The beach itself was a rather sad affair, dominated by high-rise hotels and full of vendors. The weather, building up to a heavy rain, didn't help to improve the somewhat gloomy mood ;-)



And then, of course, the inevitable happened: rain set in. I headed away from the beach to try and find a dry place to stick it out - and there it was, in the first street I checked: a store of my favorite Colombian coffee chain Juan Valdez.



I love coffee houses; they are perfect places to sit for a while and read quietly. Plus, the coffee is nice, too. While the world coffee house market seems to be dominated by Starbucks, Colombia is an exception. With Juan Valdez, Colombia has its own chain of coffee houses, selling - what else - Colombian coffee. As a result, the money stays in Colombia and local coffee farmers actually get to profit from tourists sipping lattes and cappuccinos all day long.

When the rain stopped, I walked back into the center. When I got there, I was so annoyed by vendors approaching me and taxi drivers honking to get my attention that I felt ready to punch somebody. Then I got back to the hostel and discovered that somebody had taken one of my remaining two eggs - which brought on a whole new wave of annoyance. With the supermarket one block away, an egg costing maybe 15 euro cents, and my food bag clearly labeled, I really don't understand why people do something like that. Luckily, with the contentment of fatty food in my mouth and my nose in a book, my annoyance didn't last long :-)

Later I went out again to look at Cartagena at night. Cartagena - at least the historical center - is one of the few cities in South America where I felt completely safe walking around at night. Not many buildings were specially illuminated, but the orange glow of the street lamps created a nice atmosphere nevertheless.

Day 286: Museums in Cartagena

Walking the streets of Cartagena today, I wondered: what is it about the Caribbean that makes vendors and taxi drivers want to annoy tourists? I really hadn't missed the cries of "Hey, lady! Psst!" that had been so common in Cuba, but luckily nowhere in South America so far. Yet now, at the Caribbean coast, they appeared again.

Despite this slight background annoyance, I made my way to the Castillo San Felipe de Barajas in the morning. This fortress was apparently one of the biggest built by the Spanish in the Americas. It served, not always successfully, to protect Cartagena from attacks by land or sea.



The Castillo has been restored very nicely. The formidable amount of restoration work necessary was shown in a video about the Castillo's history. They even reconstructed the cannons on some of the battlements - including the wooden parts that are missing from most other museums. This is one of the smaller cannons:



Without doubt, the best part was exploring the underground passages. They had been designed as shortcuts, living quarters and evacuation routes. All the tunnels are equipped with electric light today, so I can only imagine how spooky it must have been with flame-based lighting as the only source of illumination down there.



In one tunnel, I reached a point where there was suddenly ankle-deep water - I'm not sure if tourists were even supposed to be down there; but since there were lights, I am quite sure it was ok. The tunnel reflected on the still water was a pretty amazing sight:



However, when I emerged from this particular tunnel, there were two security guards anxiously asking whether I was lost (and not believing I was just exploring). So maybe tourists sometimes do get scared and feel lost down there?

For something completely different, I visited the museum of modern art next. The museum is housed in one of the old buildings in the center. Some of the walls inside have been left in their raw state, creating a beautiful contrast between artwork and walls:



My last stop for the day was the cathedral. They had audio guides available that told stories about the cathedral's construction and the role it played during various attacks on Cartagena.



One of the stories was about the 1697 raid on Cartagena. In short, French pirates sacked the city and sailed away with loads of treasure. This treasure was then used by the king of France to finish his latest pet project - Versailles. Interesting how history sometimes works, isn't it?

Today also marked another milestone: I have now taken more than ten thousand pictures on my trip! Sorting through them would seem like an impossible task - had I not already done most of it for the blog :-)

Day 285: Walking Around Cartagena

On my first day in Cartagena, I just wandered around in the historical center, taking in the beautiful facades greeting me on each and every street, and the small parks on many corners.



Seeing the beautiful houses, balconies often overflowing with flowers, I understood why people throughout my trip have recommended going to Cartagena. It is simply insanely beautiful! This city alone would make a visit to Colombia worthwhile.



While wandering, I found that entrance to the Palacio de la Inquisición was free that day, so I stepped in. The museum was rather small, but housed in a beautiful building:



Besides some exhibits showing the history of Cartagena, they also had a room specific to the building's original purpose: the inquisition. More specifically, there were torture instruments, information about witchcraft, and a guillotine. At the entrance to this room was a sign: "Don't touch the exhibits, danger of accidents!" A very apt warning - a visitor accidentally beheaded by a guillotine would indeed be... unfortunate ;-)



Aside from its beauty, Cartagena is also very hot and humid. The air conditioning in the room is set to 28 degrees, and it's a huge relief stepping into that room. But then again, I'm not a big fan of air conditioning - it takes away any chance for the body to ever adapt to the climate. I also have a feeling that the temperature display is off - 28 shouldn't feel that cold at night ;-)

Day 284: To Cartagena

Today I made my way up to the Caribbean coast, to visit the famous port city Cartagena. The day didn't start too well, however: I was told that my 8 am bus wouldn't run because it had to be repaired. Instead, they put me on the 9 am bus to Sincelejo, a town about two thirds on the way to Cartagena. Later I wondered - was the bus really in need of repairs, or did they cancel the service because there were only two passengers? In any case, I couldn't help but feel that some kind of apology would have been nice; a packet of cookies, a coffee, or a soda - all of these would have cost the bus company virtually nothing, but would have significantly increased my sense of satisfaction with them.

In the end, the journey worked out well enough: in Sincelejo, I caught a minivan to Cartagena that even dropped me off in the center instead of the bus terminal, for about the same price as the original trip. At lunch break, surprisingly, there were even some beautiful flowers to be seen:



On the road, I noticed that highways - or roads bypassing villages - are virtually unknown in Colombia. As a result, every single collection of houses along the road has a set of speed bumps installed; otherwise cars and trucks would just speed through and put everybody's life at risk. As it is, the only life at risk is that of the traveler who gets annoyed to death by his bus slowing down to almost zero and then speeding up again - the procedure being repeated every five minutes.

Something else I'm quite fed up with on the road is seeing stickers that say 'dios es amor' (god is love) on cars and buses. Somehow I'm suspicious of drivers who put their life into the hands of a god like this - will they drive less responsibly because they believe he's gonna save them anyway?

Another thing I noticed in Colombia is that Colombians have yet another distinct Spanish accent. In some respects, it resembles Argentinian Spanish. For example, the 'll' in Medellín is not pronounced as a /j/, but rather as a /ʒ/ (Argentinians would use /∫/ instead).

They also use a different expression to respond to somebody thanking them than the rest of Latin America. Everybody else so far said 'de nada' (it's nothing). Colombians say 'con gusto' (with pleasure) instead - which appears a lot more friendly to me :-)

Something that Colombians seem to be proud of is that their tap water is drinkable, at least in some parts of the country, including the metropolis Medellín. Indeed, since I left Argentina and Chile behind, Colombia is the first country that has drinkable tap water. Looking at the wealth and development of Latin American countries, I guess that drinkability of tap water could even be seen as an indicator for progress. All things considered, not a bad source of pride, wouldn't you say?

Day 283: Parks in Medellín

On my last day in Medellín, there were some parks left that I wanted to see. One of them, Parque Arví, is connected to the metro system via two cable cars. The first of them is even included in the metro fare - you pay 90 cents once and get to go on a train and a cable car, isn't that amazing? This is the first cable car seen from the base station:



The second cable car ride took a really long time, and when I finally arrived at the park, there was no trace left of the big city nearby; no faint car noises, no smells, and certainly no visual. Just pure nature!

There was a visitor center right next to the cable car station, and it turned out that they offer free guided walks every thirty minutes. So I decided to do with a guide instead of on my own - and promptly had him to myself! Apparently nobody else was interested in learning more about the nature in the park. But then again, most of the other visitors looked like they were on a day trip from their retirement home - they even had shirts saying 'Club de vida / tercera edad' (club of life / third age) - so I'm guessing they had their own people to guide them.

Interestingly enough, the part of the park that I saw consisted mainly of pine forest. If it hadn't been for the big eucalyptus trees standing between the pines, I could have believed to be right in the middle of Germany. It certainly smelled like home!



The way back offered a nice view of Medellín from above. You can really see the predominant building material used throughout the city: red bricks. And who would care to paint their house, anyway?



My next stop, just a couple of metro stations away, was the botanical garden. They were in the process of mounting a big orchid exhibit scheduled to coincide with the huge flower festival in August (which, sadly, I'm going to miss). As a consequence, the orchid garden was closed - what a shame! I would have loved to see it. But the rest of the gardens was very pretty, too. For example, I found this gorgeous red flower:



Finally, I had read about a barefoot park in downtown Medellín. I think I had expected something a little bigger, but for my tired feet at the end of the day, the park was just perfect. There was mainly a kind of rough sand or gravel to walk on, plus a water basin to cool your feet. The basin was fed by a big fountain, and the sunset light combined magnificently with children playing near the fountain. Beautiful, isn't it?