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.