Homeward bound

Writing this whilst waiting at our hotel for the taxi to the airport. Had good flights from Cartagena to Quito via Bogota and arrived in Quito a couple of hours before Katie and Matthew were setting off from Bogota to Madrid - after a 7 hour wait at Bogota airport. Sounds as if they both ate too much while they were waiting as they were not feeling too good by the time they arrived at Madrid this morning!

They then felt even worse when they were told they could not bring in their Bogota duty free booze to Spain - despite arguing in their finest and most aggressive Spanish no doubt! Definitely not happy.

We spent the morning in Quito - good to be somewhere we have been before as the tram system seemed so much more straightforward. Had our last fix of plazas, cathedrals and souvenir shopping - although Quito must be the least touristy of all the cities we have been to. We really had to hunt for a shop to buy a couple of last minute things (that Tina thinks we should have bought earlier!)

Anyway, that's the end of our time in South America. It has been an amazing trip - we have seen and done so much and it has really gone remarkably smoothly (still have M25 to come!). Thanks to everyone who has followed the blog and commented on our progress.

Final note - the Tesco online shopping was cancelled after Ian refused to discuss what flavour crisps he wanted! Am sure Tina will get over it by the time we get home..

Fast boat, hot sun, last day

After yesterday's slow boat to the islands, we decided that if the sky was blue when the alarm went off at 0700, we would make a dash for the port and get on one of the first fast boats to Playa Blanca in a determined effort to see the Caribbean in all it's glory.

As you can see, the plan worked.! After the now familiar chaos and uncertainty at the port, we managed to get on a boat and by 0930 we were on an already busy beach - definitely the locals out to enjoy themselves as the beers were already being opened to accompany breakfast!

Even though the beach was busy, for some reason, it stayed pretty quiet where we were - even the beach sellers generally left us alone - apart from one who spotted that Ian had a couple of notes about to fall out of his pocket and tried to take the money and run - until Matthew whipped the money back from the guy in a rare act of courage, alertness and movement!

With the sun out for almost all of the time we were on the island the water warmer than ever, it was the perfect last day of the family holiday and definitely the warmest one of the whole trip. Now it's all about packing, making sure we all know what flights we are on and thinking about coming home. If I told you that Tina had already done her Tesco's online shopping for Thursday, would anyone be surprised?!

Final update from Quito tomorrow / Tuesday and then that's it - the end of the self indulgence that is the blog!

Caribbean cruising - Colombian style!

After the previous night's loud storm, it was the turn of the bar below to keep us awake through the small hours of the night - surprisingly, the one least able to cope with the noise was Matthew! Another early start as we needed to get to the boat dock by 0730 for an 0830 departure. Overnight rain had ceased and it was another cloudy but warm day. Plenty of action at the dock and thankfully we secured our place on the top deck of the 300 passenger capacity boat for a somewhat tortuous 2 hour + journey to the first island.

In true Colombian style, entertainment was provided on the boat - a mix of ClubMed games, cross dressing and karaoke. Continued on the return journey when the host treated us all to a pretty fair Michael Jackson impersonation - by this time Ian and even Katie begrudgingly applauded but resisted the whooping and hollering! Matthew meanwhile, was generally oblivious, sleeping more than appreciating the cultural event that was unfolding before him!

After the first stop, it was back on the boat for another hour to Playa Blanca - a beautiful beach with white sands and clear blue water. Good to see the Caribbean at it's best after the rather grey / brown sea off Cartegena, and to see the Colombians (and a few Panamanians at play)



As there was no dock at the beach, we had to bundle ourselves onto a standing room only launch - no lifejackets in sight - unlike when we left port and had to wear them for the Port Authority inspection and joined everyone else in taking them off as soon as we set sail!


Saw little of the sun at the beach but still plenty of good sights - although the constant stream of locals selling everything from massages to shrimps did become a little tedious. Water was around 29 degrees and if we had more time, it would have been good to go snorkelling - not least to escape the sellers on the beach.

The journey back was not so long - we managed again to get seats on the top deck but only after Matthew and Tina squeezed on the back of the first launch - with their feet in the water for most of the short trip back to the boat.

Last full day in Colombia tomorrow and hoping for good weather as we may make a return visit to the beach - if not it will be a quick look at the tennis and then off to a local fishing port for lunch.

Tropical storm = football and tennis!

Thursday morning was a leisurely one - spent relaxing by the rooftop pool in the hotel. One of those 'pools' that only just warrants the name - but at least is was a welcome relief from the heat and humidity.


After lunch, we moved to our new hotel at the other end of the town. More of a restaurant / bar with a few rooms upstairs but a good location and a great balcony (the top one shown in the photograph of the building without the flag!) - perfect for sitting watching the world go by - without the world knowing it!







Took a stroll down to the port to buy our tickets for an all day boat trip to to some nearby islands. We had hoped that we could just hop and off water taxis - sadly not the case here. All that is available is a fairly lengthy trip with lunch included aboard a boat that definitely looks better on the photograph than in real life! The strange thing is that everyone tries to sell the tourists the same trip - whatever happened to free enterprise!?



Thursday night featured a very loud and long thunderstorm which had not completely cleared by the time we woke up -couldn't face a day on a boat in that weather so went back to sleeep, waking in time for the start of the tennis followed by the Brazil game. As you can see, this was avidly watched by the locals in the bar opposite.

The scenes from the balcony provide constant entertainment - whether it is from the bar opposite (with great music) or the bar next door where the old men play dominos louder than ever thought possible!

Weather cleared for a stroll across town for lunch - only disappointment was that the Uruguay game was not for some reason shown anywhere on Colombian TV.

Bracing ourselves for the boat trip tomorrow - sure to be busier at the weekend but hopefully in better weather. We have to arrive an hour before sailing to ensure a seat on the sun deck - as you can imagine we are all thrilled by the propsect of queueing at 0730 - am sure it will be worth it!

Hot Caribbean nights

Fairly uneventful flights on Tuesday from Manizales to Bogota and then on to Cartagena in the north of Colombia.

We have seen a fair bit of colonial architecture on the trip but Cartagena has a better preserved and bigger historic centre than any other place we have visited. The population is actually over a million but most live outside of the walled city. Having said that, and despite the very touristy but cheap and effective way to see the sights pictured above, the centre of Cartagena is surprisingly free of Enlgish speaking tourists and seems in many ways a typical bustling South American city - although the people are quite different to many of the places we have visited - there are no indigenous Andean people - the influence here is very strongly Caribbean.

The weather has been pretty good - just very hot and humid. Temperatures of around 32 degrees during the day, only dropping to 26 degrees at night. Very glad of the large fan in the room supporting the less than effective air conditioning. Great though to have that 'holiday moment' when you step off the plane and are hit by the heat!

Views of the old town - and a glimpse of the more modern resort developments further down the coast.

Noticeably more expensive than much of South America - blame it on the cruise ships from the United States which regularly dock close to the city centre. Seems a safe place although pretty sure someone tried to unzip Tina's bag walking along the main street today!

Good to relax for a few days - will be changing hotels tomorrow as the one we are in at the moment is fully booked from tomorrow but have found a nice 'boutique' hotel (i.e small!) with a good balcony.

Strange to think that Cartagena is our final destination of the trip (apart from a stopover in Quito) and we will be on our way home this time next week - still, all good things have to come to an end - and we have to get back to working for a living (and Ian definitely needs a haircut!)

Time to wake up and pick the coffee.

Met up with our tour guide for the day - another Alex - only this one was a former Police Officer in the Colombian Drugs Squad who was forced to leave after his boss was found guilty of taking a bribe from a drugs baron and although not involved, he was asked to leave to avoid complications! Was rightly proud of the fact that he featured in an article in the Independent in November 2009 when he was the tour guide for the visiting travel writer.

We set off in an old Toyota Land Cruiser and began with a short tour of Manizales. A large town of over 400,000 people with 8 universities. The town is spread over 3 hills and when the weather permits, has great views. At the main viewpoint, we saw nothing but cloud - the name of the airport -Airport of Cloud should have given us a clue.

As soon as we left the town, the clouds lifted and the scenery was beautiful - steep hills covered in coffee and banana plants.

We drove through a small but colourful village, stopping only to check the football score on a TV in a cafe. The journey to the coffee farm took us over rough, twisty and hillly roads - hard on the suspension but worth it to get really close to life in the coffee region.

We eventually reached the farm and first visited an old plantation - around 100 years old - and met the owner, Cesar. An interesting character - a former Air Force pilot who was working for Avianca (the national airline) when he was shot by his lover's jealous husband. It left him in a wheelchair, no longer able to work and was forced to come home to the family plantation.

We had a small demonstration on old machinery of some of the coffee making processes and shared a lovely cup of fresh coffee at the end of it all.


Next it was over the road to more of a working farm. A beautiful location and a real gent of an owner who showed us around the farm, explained a little more about the many processes from seed to bean and provided some fantastic fresh guava juice to refresh us.

In Colombia, they only process the beans when they are red and claim (with some justification), to produce the finest coffee in the world - even if Brazil are better at football!

Lunch was then taken in a nearby town - as you can see, the local speciality is pretty substantial - sausage, steak, pork skin, corn bread, rice, fried egg, beans and fried banana. Needless to say, it was far too much but made a good picture anyway.

After lunch we visited a local processing plant. It is here that the farmers send the dried beans which are then sorted, quality checked and shipped off around the world.

A really noisy, dusty and hot place - but very interesting to see the end processes and for us to go to visit the coffee tasters and to have a try ourselves. It's apparently all in the slurping!

Back to the hotel at around 5pm - a long day but a really good one.

Some facts about life in Colombia that we learned today:

In many cities, men are not allowed to take male pillion passengers on a motorbike (a throwback to drive-by shootings!).

Motor bikes are not allowed on the streets in some cities after 11pm

All motorcyclists in Bogota have to wear a flourescent vest and helmet with their licence plate number on it. Apparently helped in the past to identify those firing the guns! (although if you are planning a shooting, probably better to use false numbers!)

Off tomorrow to Cartegena on the Caribbean Coast (via Bogota) - a World Heritage Site. Forecast is for heavy rain and 32 degrees C - very tropical!

Storm in a coffee town - and the joys of travel

Today's blog is written by Katie and edited by Ian!!!

So today started with a quick breakfast and pack ready for a typically hairy Columbian taxi ride to the airport just in time to check in and watch the England game. Ended up being the token England supporters in Bogota airport with Ian and Matthew's short lived celebration/frequent dispair entertaining the other travellers at times more than the game. A particular highlight for them, and for Katie and Tina, was when Matthew got so excited at England's second 'goal' that he fell off his chair and missed the goal being disallowed as he was still on the floor. Ian didn't even notice at all.

Following the disappointment that was the football we boarded our tiny plane to Manizales (complete with old school style propellers). Next ensued a rather bumpy ride and we were pleased to reach our final destination, (well at least that is what we thought). Turned out that our Spanish wasn't so great and we were actually at a neighbouring airport to refuel due to the bad weather preventing us from landing at Manizales. After a short wait, and Ian making friends with the epitamy of an Englishman abroad out to explore (think son of the Del Monte man)...... we finally made it to Manizales.

Now in Manizales, a bit rainy although I'm trying to think of it as more tropical than English summer...lovely town, far more westernized than we all thought but surrounded by beautiful hills and lots of greenery. Having our first relaxing evening so far - ready for our tour of the 'coffee' plantations tomorrow. As we all know how Tina loves to relax and do nothing - see below observations from their bus trips so far (luckily Me and Matthew have been subject to much more 'normal' travel so far).....

142 hours in total on the buses

1. Chickens in luggage compartment and on bus (Ecuador)
2. 'No fish on board' sign (Ecuador)
3. 'No guns' sign (Colombia)
4. 'Give up your seat to pregnant women in 3rd trimester' (Ecuador)
5. Women breast feeding on bus (Ecuador)
6. Woman with morning sickness being sick next to us (Ecuador)
7. 5 year old children taking younger siblings on and off the bus -no adult supervision (everywhere)
8. Bus driver / Racing drivers (everywhere)
9. 'Express' bus - picks up every 20 metres in towns (mainly Ecuador)
10. Sellers that come on the bus in each town - best one fresh chicken and chips (Peru & everywhere)
11. Toilets on board for the long journey ahead! - LOCKED (Ecuador)
12. Prices roughly $1 for every hour of journey time (everywhere)
13. Children so quiet on the bus (everywhere)
14. Movies - mainly violent, loud, occasional sex scenes (no matter what age the passengers)
15. Great variety of comfort - from 1st class, flat beds to cattle class
16. Onboard bingo (Argentina)
17. Drivers, stopping for a pee, 2nd driver sleeping underneath the bus in the luggage compartment, stopping to cross themselves at roadside saint, stopping to pump up tyres
18. Most buses have cracked windscreens
19. Blind overtaking
20. For safety nothing put in overhead compartment, and had to watch bags weren't slashed from behind
21. Most buses on time
22. Great scenery and people really friendly