0131 Quito to Guamote

Wow, wow, wow, wow, wow.   Yes, a 5 wow day, and done at up to 3620 metres - That's 11,877 feet in the old language.  And on great roads, and beautiful weather.  What more can anyone ask for ?

But it all started out much differently, but in a humorous way.  I mean, if you see signs saying "Parque Equinoccial Parqueadero" when you are in the vicinity of the Equator, you would think this would be where the monument is, wouldn't you ??  Well, not only is it NOT where the equatorial monument is, but when you do finally find the correct monument (about 5 kms further north) - IT IS IN THE WRONG PLACE !  It is about 300 yards wrong, and the REAL 00.00.000 latitude point is actually behind a big blue wall that you cannot get past !! The point where the monument stands is at a point so designated as the Equator in 1744 by a certain gentleman from a country I won't mention, but which is just over the water from England.  And his measuring was up the spout - But then over 300 years ago, I guess he was pretty good to get as close as he did !  It certainly took us a long time to find it today as well, and we had signs and a GPS, so I can sympathise with the original "founder" in 1744 !!

0130 Quito - An exciting city

30^th Oct.
We had to wait till 2 pm to get our tickets and travel details from Adriana at the Travel Agents, so we decided to go on a hop on – off bus tour of Quito in the morning, and then continue our journey south after we had our tickets.  It was bright and sunny in the morning, so after our complimentary breakfast at the hotel, we walked the 4 blocks up to the Hilton Hotel to catch our tour bus a 9.25 am.  While waiting for the bus there was an older lady selling a few cheap trinkets who had a lovely smile. The vendors are not pushy here – If you politely say “No gracias” and smile, they usually smile back and wander off.  But I always like to keep a few coins in my pocket, and when I gave this lady a little change and declined the offer of chiclets or whatever, she smiled and it was just lovely to see her face light up. A million dollar feeling for me for just a few cents.   There was another lady there sweeping the street, and she had a baby in a sling strapped to her as she swept – Hmm, they do have a really tough time here, no doubt about it.  I am very aware of it, and sometimes I almost feel guilty because I can’t help them all.  We have a lot to be thankful for sometimes…….And we should never forget it.

0129 A couple of days in Ibarra, and on to Quito

29th Oct

The camp site in Ibarra beside the Lago de Yahuarcocha was just so restful that we ended up staying there for 3 nights !  Actually, we did our (rather large stack of) laundry the second day, and it then rained most of the afternoon so we had to wait an extra day for the sun to come out so everything would dry !  Also Patricia, who runs the site with Hans, happens to bake beautiful German bread which she will deliver to your tent hot and fresh out of the oven !!  And it is SO good !!  Anyway, 3 peaceful days in one place – Very pleasant. They have 4 dogs which, apart from their wake up bark at 6 am most mornings, are lovely dogs, and a couple of them kind of adopted us and would lie around (or under) our car most of the day ! Nice to have a dog around – We miss Trooper !!

0128 A Mountain Pass near Pasto, Columbia to Ibarra, Ecuador

26^th Oct.

We woke up before 6 am with the noise of trucks getting on the road, but we also woke up to a magical view of the clouds below us in the valley opposite, and cool crisp mountain air – Weren’t we in the heat of the tropics just two days ago ??!  We

got coffee from a local girl selling to the truckies as they came through, but being Sunday, the restaurant wasn’t too desperate to open for breakfast, so by about 8 am we decided to leave them and head south towards the border.  Just 1 km up the road we came to a Peaje, and there seemed a bit of a queue, so we decided to go back the 1 km to the gas station and fill our spare tank with fuel in order to get rid of some of our Columbian pesos before we crossed the border. I was leaving it empty as I had plenty of fuel in my main tank to reach the border, and I knew fuel was cheaper in Ecuador.  But near the end of the day’s drive yesterday we were seeing several gas stations saying “No fuel”, and it was also about $1 a gallon cheaper as we neared the border, so I just decided to do it.  Little did I know how important a move this was to turn out to be !!

0127 Popayan to a Mountain Pass

25^th Oct

The hotel in Popayan was very nice, with a beautiful courtyard in the centre and all the rooms radiating out from the courtyard. They were doing some renovations at the time we were there, while the street outside was being paved and made into a pedestrian only access so that was a bit messy, but when it is all complete it will be very nice.  After we had got everything back to the car in the Parqueadero, we went off for an explore of the rather nice little town.

0126 Girardot to Popayan

24^th Oct

Once we woke up and had breakfast, we got our coffee cups filled at the little restaurant there before refuelling, and then setting off down the road.  It soon started raining quite heavily.  Girardot is in a valley and as we headed towards Ibague and then Armenia, we started climbing,  And we climbed and we climbed and we climbed.  The road was unbelievably twisty, and traffic, especially the big trucks, was so heavy.  I have never seen so many trucks on a road – I guess because in many countries our rail system carries a lot of the goods.  But if you over took one, there were 5 more ahead.  And with the truck traffic being equally heavy coming towards us, on the twisty roads getting past trucks was a permanent nightmare – But you have to try or you will be on the mountain all night. 

0125 - Zipaquira to Girardot

 23^rd Oct

Woke up to very cold weather, so it was nice to rug up in some warm clothes for a change ! Headed back up the dirt track, passing the Columbian Army again as we went, and also trees of pink flowers that looked like wild roses, except they were on quite big trees.  Hadn’t noticed them the night before.  Some lovely views back across the Lago Neusa as we drove back to the dam, and then started back down the hill – The Park (and others in the area) seems to be run by CAR – Which we later found out stands for Corporacion Autonoma Regional.  Earlier several people had kept repeating “Car” (with very rolled r’s on the r !!) when we asked for directions, and we had wondered what they were talking about !!  The views going down the hill were superb, and the little Fiat 500 was all done up with “eye shades” and a pretend ket in the boot to wind it up with !  It seemed to be in very good condition. 

0124 Villa de Leyva to Zipaquira

Wed 22^nd Oct. 

Last night I was trying to get my blog up to date, but in the evening the internet got so slow I gave up.  So when I woke up just before 6 am I decided to have another go, sitting out in the morning sun.  But unfortunately it was no better, so all I could do was write the blog in word so that when I do finally get some time and some wifi, I can upload the pics and blog fairly quickly.

By about 9.30 I was up to date, and we started to pack  up – We were heading to Zipaquira today – Only about 140 kms away, but as we are learning, 140 kms over here can sometimes take a long time !   We went into VdeL first for another visit to the bank that worked, and while there just had to drop in to a bakery and a coffee shop !  Then on the way out of town we spied a roast chicken shop, so despite heavy rain, Janet ran in and bought one – Which then smelt out the car for the whole of the day !  Basically it was raining before we left V de Layva, and it rained for most of the day, often very hard.  We had decided to try the back roads to Zipaquira, and they were not too bad – Very windy as usual, but also some amazing sights.  All day we were between 2500 – 3200 metres, so when you see views across valleys in the photos, the valleys would have been at 2500 metres or higher. Of course there were the usual roadworks and delays, and the rain slowed everything down, but it wasn’t too bad.

0123 - Villa de Layva

Tues 21^st Oct. 

We pack up, go into town to go to bank, and find a diamond instead.  This little town is absolutely gorgeous, and we very quickly decide to wander at leisure, and if the day slips away from us because we are enjoying it, then we will just go back to Hostel Jorge again.

0122 - San Gil to Villa de Layva

Mon 20^th Oct

 

Very very wet when we woke up, but the good news was that by the time we had eaten breakfast, the workers had found the broken water pipe and fixed it. So we had water !  The bad news was that these showers really were COLD !!  More a question of splashing water on yourself than getting under the shower !! 

Back on the road, out through San Gil, this time not getting lost, and we headed south towards Bogota.  Next stop was to be a little town called Villa de Leyva, in from Tunja, which we had heard was really nice and we also knew had a nice camp ground – If we could find it this time !

0121 Aguachica to San Gil

Sun 19^th Oct

Woke early in our little hotel yard, and packed up. As I went round to the toilet, I found a little humming bird lying on the path below a window, and he was still moving a little, so I presumed he had crashed into the window while chasing his reflection.  Anyway, Janet picked him up, and he started fluttering a little, although his eyes still seemed to be closed.  After a few moments he manage to flutter off – Straight into the window again !   So Janet picked him up again, and took him round to the side away from the windows, and after 5 minutes or so he fluttered up into a mango tree that was overhead, and then shortly after took off out of sight.  Lovely moment to actually hold a wild humming bird with his long beak.   

0120 Tayrona NP to Aguachica

Sat 18^th Oct

Woke up to a bright and sunny morning – Very hot and steamy before long.  In climates like this, a cold shower is not as painful as it sounds, and we have got used to them by now !  This next bit of road south through flat land was basically pretty boring – Lots of palm oil plantations (which cause havoc with animals because all their native trees and bush have been cleared to plant the palms), and bananas, and sugar cane. But there is always something to keep you amused or interested on the journey.

0119 Cartagena to Tayrona Nat Park

Fri 17^th Oct

As a postscript to getting Troopie back, that evening, after trying to pack most of the car back up, we went off to our favourite little haunt up in the square and had our friend their Danny make Janet a special” (?) mojito, while I had my preferred dark Columbian beer and a yummy pizza !  Perfect way to end our great stay in Cartagena – A beautiful city and it was good that we got to spend almost a week here.

 The next morning we finally finished packing the car and got away from Cartagena at about 10.30 am, and it was a clear blue sky, so VERY hot.  Good to be back on the road again.  We had decided to head north through Barranquilla because there was supposed to be a lovely National Park north of Santa Marta for camping, and we wanted to at least see a bit of the Caribbean coastline. Out past the old fort, and some of the original 16^th Century city walls, we drove out through parts of town with some nice houses, and then along the beach where there were lots of high end hotels along the road. Even a store signed “Brogueria Inglese” – Wonder if they have any good English stuff in there, like McVitie’s Chocolate Digestives ???  Hmm – Will have to check one out some time !

0118 - Tues 14th – Fri 17th Oct – Customs and Port – Extracting Troopie

Well, we knew that getting Troopie out of the Cartagena Port was going to be a lengthy process, but little did we think it would take us as long as it did.  I won’t go into too much detail here, but I will hit a few of the high (or were they low ?) points.

Janet and I started Tuesday, the day after the public holiday and now 4 days since we had arrived in Cartagena, at the shipping agent with Janet, and as we arrived at the Agent’s office at 9 am Ravi arrived direct from the airport in a taxi, so we went in together. Then we sat there.   And sat there.   And sat there.  Apparently we were waiting for our Bill of Lading, but at noon lunch time (2 hours here), we still had nothing. This was really frustrating because they should have had this already.  Then they told us just before lunch time that we had to pay some bills before we could get our BoL, and that these bills (like $1500 or more for shipping) had to be paid in cash, not via direct bank transfer as we normally do for shipping bills. Really frustrating since we could have been paying these bills at 9 am !!  And of course, by the time they told us at noon, the bank was shut till 2 pm !!

0117 Cartagena 2

Two more days in Cartagena with nothing to do buy sightsee, and also spend time trying to work out our route south through Columbia, and where we are going to stay !  Do we go down through Medellin, then cut across east for a look at Bogota before coming back to the west and then heading south down to the Ecuador border, or do we head straight down the mountain range to Bogota, and miss Medellin

altogether ?  Decisions, decisions.  We have spent some time with a lovely Brazilian family who we met when doing our police clearances in Panama, and like us they are sitting around waiting for their car.  They are heading down the direct road to Bogota, so I think we may go the same way.  We are also trying to work out possible camping sites or, failing that, acceptable hotels on the route, and that is not easy – There just isn’t a lot of information available for travellers on this. Most of the info available comes from the internet, and the blogs of other travellers, as well as sites like iOverlander which has consolidated a lot of potential overnight places onto a single site, and is very helpful.  But it takes quite a lot of time to work out where everything is as most locations are listed under Latitude and Longitude co-ordinates, so you have to work out each one individually.  All part of the fun !!

0116 Cartagena

Having got up at 3 am, we were at Panama airport by 3.45 am for our flight to Panama at 5.45.  What a stupid hour to be up an about !! Regardless, Avianca had us leaving on time, and a one hour flight to – Bogota !! Yup, no cheap direct flights

today, folks – just via Bogota !  And of course Bogota is at 2200 metres, so it isn’t exactly warm at 6.45 in the morning !  Thankfully it is a short layover, and by 10 am we finally landed in Cartagena, where it was a lovely sunny day, and at sea level quite warm and humid.  I went into the bank to change some $, and that involved so much paperwork and photocopying of passports that by the time I came out 25 minutes later, although the sun was still shining, I was surprised to find the streets not just wet but actually under about 6 inches of water, and Janet hiding in a doorway with the bags !  What had happened while I was in the bank ?

0115 - Car repairs, Canal, and Troopie goes sailing

Up, packed, and checked out of our hotel in Panama by 7.15 am, and off to the Toyota dealer to pick up Troopie.  We had received an email from them at 8.30 pm last night saying the car was finished and did we want to pick it up straight away or wait till the morning ?  We waited till morning, needless to say, but yet again very impressed with their service – I mean, how often does your car dealer email you at 8.30 pm at night to say your car is ready ? We had found a friendly taxi driver yesterday, Alberto, and after running us back from the car dealer to our hotel last night, he had agreed to come and pick us up and take us back this morning – And there he was, waiting outside for us !  Perfect.  Off to Ricardo Perez Toyota.

0114 Monday 6th & Tuesday 7th - Panama City

Monday.  Today we had to go to the DIJ to have our car inspected so it can leave Panama.  Basically all they do is check that the paperwork they did on entry to Panama from Costa Rica is all correct, and give you clearance to leave the country.  Simple, right ?

WRONG !!

0113 Bajo Boquete to Panama City, Panama

We ended up spending 3 nights in Boquete, doing a few exciting things in the village like getting a broken bag handle stitched, doing a little shopping for supplies, and just enjoying doing nothing and going nowhere for a while, and chatting with Axel and his friends who seem to drop in all the time.

On Saturday, after a leisurely pack up at Pension Topas, we topped off the water tank since the water was drinkable out of the tap for the first time in a while, and then went in to town to get some extra photocopies of documents – I brought a lot with me, but every border requires SO many copies I am starting to run low ! Since they are only 3 cents for each photocopy here, I took the opportunity to get a few extras for the next part of the trip.

0012 La Concepcion to Bojo Boquete, Panama

The sun came up hot and early, so we were up and ready to go before 7 am.  Greg and Estelle had airconditioning, so they were not worried about the heat, and we set off down the road before they were up and about.

The road through Panama is all dual carriageway so far, and the country is obviously much more affluent than the last few countries we have enjoyed.  They use US $ for their currency, so we don’t even need to change any money here. And with diesel at 98 cents a litre, it is the cheapest we have had all trip so far.

0111 Mirador de Quetzales, Costa Rica to La Concepcion, Panama

Woke up with the alarm at 5.15 am, and by 6 am were outside and ready to go off with Jason our guide on the Quetzal hunt, that yesterday we didn’t even know we could do !  The rain and cloud of the night before had gone, and the sun was just coming up, giving spectacular views over the mountains. Two little birds were playing in the bushes outside our cabin, and Jason bought us a cup of coffee before we set off.  We had to drive some 8 kms to the National Park to start our hunt, so we had to clear everything out of the back of Troopie so Jason and his big telescope and tripod could fit in.

0110 La Cruz to Mirador de Quetzales, Costa Rica

Both of us slept like logs, despite being parked in a gas station beside a main road !!  Woke up early, and packed up what little needed packing up, and then smelt some delicious coffee, and realised there was a little restaurant right beside us !  Went in with our mugs and got a delicious cup of local Costa Rican coffee to go, and then headed down the road before it got too busy in the gas station. With our 2 day pass to get out of Costa Rica, we wanted to get some miles down the road so if we wanted to stop to see things, we could.  Oddly, despite the “manager” at customs yesterday telling us we only had 2 days to get into Panama, the last guy I dealt with when I paid the insurance itself told me “3 or 4 days is fine, don’t worry about it” !!  Not sure how efficient they are at telling the other border that we are coming !  Time will tell, I guess.

0109 Stuck in No-Man's Land between Countries !!

We found our French friends Greg and Estelle camping outside when we came out of our room to pack up the car so had a chat with them about our adventures over the last few days, and then we set off down the beautiful road towards the border, about 30 kms away to the south.  We thought we would get there about 9.30 am so that even though it was Sunday, we would get through in plenty of time to get down to San Jose, well into Costa Rica.  We anticipated no problems at the border – After all, this was Costa Rica, the country where many expats live comfortably and easily, so they would be more worldly and sensible down here than in more northern Central American countries.     W-R-O-N-G !!!!   In fact, how wrong can one be ?!!!