sudamerica 2009: into the northern hemisphere, c-c-c-colombia
26th-apr-2009 - posted by dtra
well, it's been a while since my last post, haven't done too much, last time i think it was easter saturday i posted. basically, we went to the basilica in quito, which was a magnificent church, definitely right up there with the best i've seen, if not the best. climbed out onto the ledge right near the top, that was a pretty scary feeling, but i managed to get some nice photos up there. followed that up by going to the equator in the afternoon, we persevered despite the terrible weather, every day we were in quito, it pretty much rained cats and dogs by 2pm, and didn't stop till the sun went down. anyway, went to cotopaxi for a couple days after that, it's right near a really big volcano, which none of us deemed worth climbing, the weather was shitty there as well, 1.30pm, bang!! rain and lightning, still, it was a nice area, but you had to be an early bird to do anything. we did manage to climb a fair part of ruminahui, an extinct volcano that peaks about 4700m, we got up to about 4500m, but the clouds rolled in, and there wasn't much to see.
moved on to banos from there, spent a good three days there, the weather was nicer, and it was a nice little town. we didn't end up doing a lot there, but did manage to go quad biking, with some shitty quad bikes, and a couple of buggies. we didn't do much off road stuff, as we were going to look for waterfalls, but we missed the sign or something, and ended up going way too far (probably about 30 minutes), and got rained on bad. two of the quad bikes broke down, and one of the buggies could not go up hill at all. they did however, have very good thermal baths there, so warm, and relaxing.
from there, we decided to go straight to colombia, and cali, as it no one wanted to spend another night in quito. it took about 24 hours, but we managed it without much of a hitch (though one in our group almost lost her passport). once again, spent a good few days in cali, back in some nice warm weather, but didn't do too much. went to san cipriano, and rode the moped train, but that was about it, we tried going to some salsa clubs, but they were all empty on a wednesday night. then came up to bogota, that's where i post this from, ready to go to medellin tonight, and then up to the caribbean.
arrived in bogota on friday, and did shit all that day, then went to the gold museum yesterday, that was pretty interesting, lots of artifacts from around colombia, and lots of gold. today, we went up to the colpatria tower lookout and took some nice photos of colombia from the 48th floor, you can see it in the back of the ciclovia photo. it is cultural month in bogota this month or something, and there is something going on in the plaza everyday, and lots of other happenings around the city. but alas, i'm not particularly interested, museums here are free on sundays, and there's also this big cycling thing (ciclovia, 7am-2pm) where they close a bunch of city roads to motor traffic, and everyone can walk or bike down the streets (every sunday as well), that's really cool. so off to medellin tonight, home of the infamous pablo escobar, hopefully, the drug wars are kept under wraps while i'm there. see you all again, in a couple weeks i guess.
picture of the angel statue in quito at night, taken from the secret garden terrace, the view is not quite as nice as the one from the basilica.
travel and accommodation
stayed at the secret garden in quito, then a big group of us also went to their place in cotopaxi, it was nice, but they did usher us to sleep at 11.30pm, both were a bit pricey for what they were, i thought, and seemed a bit like they were just trying to milk money out of you (food was expensive), they were comfortable though, and the terrace had a great view. in banos, we stayed at plantas y blanco, recommended by the lonely planet, pretty good place, everyone was nice, and it had a pretty good atmosphere. in cali, i was recommended pelican larry's by my mate phil, it was a cool place, very chilled out, and gunther's bbq was very good, certainly took the bad taste out of my mouth from the last hostel bbq i had (the point mancora thank you very much, not). in bogota, i've been staying at alegria's hostel, a nice, quaint little hostel in the la candelaria district (old town), very comfortable, and chilled out.
travel, as was to be expected was shitty throughout ecuador, but has been slightly better in colombia, but a lot more expensive too. can't remember the company from the border to cali, but from cali to bogota it was bolivariano, semi cama, got some sleep, and all that, and arrived in good time.
#33 dtra (david tran)
Last edited at 18:57 26th-apr-2009
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