The Carribean Coast

I woke up early this morning, sleepily tugged on my bikini and headed off into the crystal blue waters of the Caribbean Sea for a swim. This is life:-)

For the first time since my arrival in South America I really feel I am on holiday. Bizarre and ridiculous, but true. It took our group of six friends just over three days to make our way down here. We headed out from Iquitos on a speedboat (Peruvian version of speed) which took us to Laticia - situated on the Columbian, Peruvian and Brazilian border. The boat dumped us there 12 agonizingly slow hours later. We slept in Laticia that night at a really nice hotel complete with swimming pool. 

As backpackers we are always looking for the best deal, but at 20 000 Columbian Pesos that could not be beat. The price may make it seem like a five star hotel, but with the FARQ guerilla warfare that has crippled the country for years, the Columbian currency had a few zeros added. To put it into perspective - 1800 Pesos = 1US Dollar. So 20 000 Pesos rougly equates to 11Dollars. R77 for a hotel with swimming pool, clean toilet and no bed bugs - bring it on.

The next day we caught a taxi to the tiniest airport ever and boarded an aeroplane to Bogota. At the airport we got our passports stamped with a 60Day visa. Once we landed in Bogota we hung around the airport for a few hours, very happy to find food and something to drink, and then flew into Catagena.

Catagena is a beautiful city that is situated in the fort walls of the old city. The streets consist of colourful rustic houses, with elegant wooden balconies and roman style arches inbetween the houses. For the first time I felt I was in Columbia - a country vastly different from its neighbour, Peru.

We arrived late in Catagena, and after two solid days of travelling, we decided to celebrate our arrival with mojitos at bar across the road from our AWESOME hostal, called Media Luna (half moon). The hostal also had a swimming pool, courtyard with palm trees surrounding the pool, white washed walls - big open-spaced kitchen, clean bathrooms and a six bed dorm (perfect for our group) which was really clean and had a fan pumping throughout the night.

The fan by the by, is an abslote essential to enduring the hot, sweaty nights. Here perspiration is a constant. This morning I headed out in only a sarong with bikini, so I can go have a pretend cool-down in the lukewarm bathwater of the Caribbean.

Back to Catagena, we spent the following day exploring the old city, going to a local market (which was dirty and crazy) and sorting out bank issues. I realised after wasting many an hour spent panicking, that my cash passport card would only function at the blue ATM. This was realised after trying various green ATMs (which are abundant throughout, the blue incidentally, not) and nearly cried when I had money again. For three days I had borrowed off various friends to make ends meet.

This trip incidentally, was taken on a total whim. When I left the Hummingbird Centre at the end of April, three of the volunteers there and decided to head this way, after speaking to a local the night we slept on the floating restaurant in Iquitos.

I got cold feet just before coming and felt that the time was ripe to bail on the whole Columbia idea. My travel savings also depleted, which made me feel that I should spend the rest of my time in one place and volunteer. But at 5.30pm the night before I bought my ticket online, and then there was no turning back. The next morning we woke up at 4am to make it to the boat by 5. And here I am.

Yesterday we left Catagena after a long taxi journey to the bus station, only to be totally confused as to which bus to take. It is of utmost importance to take a direct bus, as the other buses are quite often hijacked and foreigners ofcourse, are stripped off all they are worth. One has to be very very careful on bus journeys in Columbia and only work with the ones that seem more official and reputable. Infact on our way in, in the taxi, some random blokes stopped our taxi and started screaming at us to get out. We thought our friends (in the other taxi) had gotten out on the bus they were pointing towards (we lost sight of their taxi amidst the chaotic traffic) and got out too. The aggressors grabbed our luggage from us and started throwing it into the bus, without even asking us where we were headed.

That was a rough lesson and a narrow hit-and-miss. If we had gotten onto that bus something bad would have happened. The guys trying to force us were aggressive and the bus, well - a hijackers paradise.

But we have arrived safe and sound. I am supposed to head back to Iquitos on the 24th (only 4 measly days away) and will have to spend nearly four days heading back - alone. So thinking of extending my ticket, to have time to find someone to travel back with as the bus trip from here to Catagena is 6hrs, plus I will have to spend the night in both Bogota and Laticia to catch the ferry out from Laticia at 2am the morning of my departure. 

So quite the journey back...Hopefully by extending my ticket I will get better connections, or even better yet, find someone to travel back with. Probably not wise to tackle that stretch of journey on my own, especially not on a bus. So will have to give that some thought.

Today and tomorrow I will be in Taganga - which is a dusty little oasis town, with a Caribbean beach and port with heaps of boats close to the shore. I have organised to go snorkeling with a local guide at 12.30, but his price is pretty steep (25 000 with gear included), so want to go and do some bargain shopping after this entry is done. The rest of the gang are going diving - pity that I dont have my licence. And in a few days time we will be going to the National Park (forgot name) which is reputed to be very beautiful and perhaps an excursion to the lost city (Cuidad Perdido) - which is a five day trek in total.

Those are the plans for now, but as I have realised, there is no use to planning here, one has to take each day as it comes, for each day, every moment changes your reality. That is my biggest lesson for South America - to learn to let go, to let be, and to let live.

The Night Before

It´s shortly after 9.30pm and I should be heading off to bed, with a 4.30 wake-up call for my trek up to Machu Picchu.
Machu Picchu is incidentally, the last item on my vision list which I created during my second year of varsity. I used to joke saying that I could quite happily leave this plant after seeing M.P. - as it always remained no.1 on my bucket list.

However, since I´ve been in Peru, I´ve realised just how much of life there still is to be discovered - not just of the world outside, but of the world inside too. I believe that our existance centres around finding and staying true to ourselves. A simple, yet ever challenging concept. As we explore the essence of who are, we will come closer to realising that we are, infact, God.

That is nothing that seperates God from us, or us from God. I know this may be a shocking concept to most fervent church goers, but it is something that needs to be said, because it is the truth. Our society, upbringing and domestication process has left us disconnected with ourselves, the rest of humanity, and with nature. We have forgotten that we are Divine, that we are Spirit having a human experience.

We spend so much of our time in a self created and self imposed hell - which is commandeered by two personalities - the Judge and the Victim.
The Judge - constantly judging ourselves and in turn, the rest of the world and the Victim - that revels in the ´poor me´ syndrome.
If only one human being could transcend the Judge and Victim, and love themselves unconditionally, then the rest of humanity would be loved unconditionally as well. And that friends, is the biggest challenge - an unconditional love of self. 

The only reason we judge others so harshly is because we judge ourselves so harshly. Without the Judge, we would love and accept everyone else exactly as they are - without expectations and without attachments. It would be a perfect world.

I´ve always underestimated the power of one vibrational frequency on the rest of the world. It is like throwing a stone into water - the ripple effects stretch far and wide. The poison of anger, jealousy, depression and guilt that we hold inside, ripples off far wider and further than we are even capable of imagining.

We are composed of energy and every thought, spoken word and deed has ripple repurcussions that affects the dream of the planet. Each and every one of us has the potential to change the dream of the planet.
We are living in exponential times and change is happening faster than ever. There is a shift in consciousness which I anticipate is going to divide those that are consciously evolving and those that choose to remain behind.
These statements may sound radical and outlandish to some, but it is the truth.

On a lighter note :-)
I never really wrote about the rest of my trip with my mom in South Peru and left off my last blog entry in Arequippa. The day after we visited the Colca Canyons (the deepest canyons in the world), we saw condors sweeping down into the canyons depths and up again. It was truly magnificent and magestic. We also visited the natural hot water baths in Colca and saw a number of pre Incan archeological sites. Colca Canyon was followed by a bus trip to Puno, where we visited the floating islands of Uros and spent the night with a local family on an island on the Lake of Titicaca - the longest navigational lake in the world.

Spending the night with a rural family, that had so few material posessions was an eye opening experience. Sabastiana, the mother of the family, cooked us up a storm in her kitchen full of old potjie cast iron pots - devoid of electricity and running water. Her husband has to walk up a huge mountain every day (to the next water source), to collect water for the family and then bring it down the mountain again. This process takes the entire day and is repeated every single day.

The following day we visited another island by boat, where we were told the island´s fascinating cultural history and courtship rules. On this island, the normal age for choosing a life partner happens between the ages of 15 to 16. Courtship is initiated by the boy who will throw stones at the girl he likes. If she finds him attractive, she will stop in her tracks and things will develop from there. If she does not find him attractive, she will carry on walking. If you were a clever little boy, you would find a stone big enough to stop the girl dead in her tracks (no pun intended).

After a two week courtship period (no more we were assured), the boy will ask the parents of the girl he fancies whether he may co-habit (i.e. live with her). The couple are then given exactly three years in which to produce a child (or two). After these three years the couple are married in an extravagent ceremony, which lasts three days. The entire island´s villagers will be invited and will in most likelihood, translate into atleast five years of savings.

Should the aforementiond couple not produce a child during their three years of cohabitation, they will be asked to leave the island and will have to seek refuge on the mainland (that is if they wish to remain together). If not, they are permitted to seek other (probably more fertile), partners.
The islanders also have very specific dress which donates whether they are single or married. Single men will wear a white and red hat, worn tilted to the right, with a specific belt and a little man-bag stuffed with coca leaves. Married men on the other hand wear a red hat, tilted to the left, without man-bag.
Both single and married women wear a black head dress (looks more like a big blanket) which hangs down to the back of their knees. At the end of this head dress contraption, are brightly coloured baubles. The single women´s baubles being bigger than the married women´s baubles.
One just hopes that the stone throwing bachelor has good eye sight and is infact able to discern whether the baubles are big or small.

I am just glad that I grew up where I did and did not have to be part of the stone throwing brigade. Or that I had to choose a husband at the age of 15. Blessed are we to be of Western heritage. And there the Judge in me runs rampant again:-D

Best be off to bed. Tomorrow is a very early start and Day 1 of the four day Inca Trek which will take me to the top of Machu Picchu on Thursday. I return back to Cusco late on Thursday night and depart again for Iquitos on Friday morning.
I have been blessed to have found volunteering space at Hummingbird Centre and will spend the next four weeks there. Again out of touch with technology and internet. Will be writing about Machu Picchu before I head off into the Amazon again.

With love from Cusco
xxx

The Good, the Bad and the Ugly

So much has happened the last few days, I feel like life has shifted permanently.

Traveling is fun, adventurous and a great school of learning. However, it does not come without its dangers...

Let me start with the bad and the ugly.

Just two days ago, two of my friends were walking back from Temple of la Luna - one of the major archeological sites a few hundred metres outside of Cusco. As they were returning, they were attacked from behind by five Peruvians, and tackled to the ground.

Both of them were strangled - to such an extend that they lost consciousness. They were told `You are going to die`. The severity of the attack led them to believe as much. Infact, when Nick stopped breathing Johanna was convinced he had. Shortly after, she lost consciousness.

When they came to, they saw they had been robbed of everything, including cameras, wallets, credit cards and phones.

The ordeal happened at 2 o`clock in the afternoon - on an open green path that leads down towards the city. The main road was visible from where they were, so close, but yet too far. The predators obviously watched them from some vantage point and pounced on them when there was no-one else around.

The incident was obviously extremely traumatizing, especially when you are told that death is imminent. What makes it worse, is that both these people had experienced snatch and grab during their trip to Bolivia week before last. Nick had to buy his second camera after it was stolen in San Pedro market in Cusco, Johanna on the other hand, had all her valuables stolen in a market place in La Paz, Bolivia. When she collapsed in despair in the middle of the plaza, realising her stolen passports meant a lengthy stay in Bolivia, some woman took pity on her and threw her passports back at her.

Peru is a fantastic place, but crime is a reality and you have to be on your guard. The strangling incident is not something that happens every day. Infact the police officers interrogated my two friends for hours, because it was (quote unquote) `one of the most serious and violent incidents of crime in a long time`.

My mom and I were planning to walk to Christo Blanco (white Christ) that very afternoon, but my mom was still feeling a bit strange because of the altitude adjustment, so we left it. We could very well have experienced exactly the same trauma. 

I still feel that I am Divinely guided and protected. The same day they broke into the apartment I was staying in in San Blas, some weeks ago, I happened to have been away for the weekend. I could very well have been in my room at the time of the break-in. Again, in broad daylight.

Something else happened yesterday which has sent my travel plans into a tail-spin. When I tried to draw money, I got the heart-stopping message `Insufficient Funds`. With a few days to go until I meet up with my friends in Iquitos, to embark on our Columbia travels, this feeling is something akin to despair.

Luckily my mom was still here yesterday and was able to loan me some money, after I established that I did, infact, only have $160 left in my account. Somehow, I thought my travel savings would last me longer. The reality of of my money well running dry hit hard.

Feeling a bit lost and desperate, as I don`t exactly feel ready to go back to SA yet - still too much to do and see. Will try to find a volunteering spot in Iquitos.

I do feel that the fund depletion, is a way of the Universe telling me quite explicitly that Columbia is not to be, for whatever reason. So that also gives the Bolivia plans a boot, which I was hoping would materialize at a later stage. 

Perhaps I do, after all, have more work to do in the jungle. A thought which is strangely exciting and terrifying at the same time.

Let`s see how everything unfolds in the next few days. On Monday I will be realizing a life-long dream of doing the Inca Trail trek up to Machu Picchu. The experience will be magical, everyone I have spoken to says as much.

Yesterday my mom and I spent a few frustrating hours trying to get her money back for the additional return ticket she had to buy from Cusco to Buenos Aires, all because she missed one leg of her flight, on her way in. This set her back an additional $650 and we desperately tried to get some sort of letter from LAN yesterday, so that she can try to claim something back in SA - as part of her travel insurance.

But LAN were of no help, and after explaining numerous times, they still failed to understand what it is we required. A letter. LAN is an absolute rip-off. Their tickets are totally overpriced and if you miss one leg of your flight, you have to purchase the ENTIRE ticket again. So if you ever come to South America, be forewarned. LAN is NOT the way forward.

The rest of the day was spent sorting out my passport at the immigration office. I realised my 60 day visa is coming to a rapid close, and the only way to get an additional 60 would be to cross the border. And I neither have the time nor cash to do that. So I was told that for every additional day spent in Peru I would have to pay $1. Another 30 days would thus equate to $30, which is cheaper than having to buy a ticket to cross the border, accommodation and the like.

I was also not told upon entering the country, that the little white piece of paper you receive is absolutely essential to exit. It is a form that enables you to leave the country without having to pay excessive tax. So I managed to buy another one for $8, which is not bad. Was worried that I may get locked up in Peruvian jail, because a) My visa had expired and b) I`d disposed of that precious little paper.

All good again, taking each day as it comes. The trick is to NOT get despondent when the going gets tough, even when the money well dries up. Something else will come along, of that I`m sure. And as mentioned before EVERYTHING happens for a reason. This is no cliche. With traveling I have realised that the people you meet, weave in and out of your life for VERY specific reasons and bring great realisations to the fore.

This is a fact. Life somehow becomes crystal clear through these meetings of people and places. 

Will write again a little later about the second leg of our trip in South Peru - which was magnificent! Just needed to moan a bit to get the happenings of the last few days out of my system.

With love and light from Cusco,

Janine