Final Post

So I suppose this will be my last post, unless something happens in Bogota on my last night worth sharing. One month really flew by and seemed but a bit over a week. Now wonder I ran into so many Europeans and Israelis that seem to think a month was the shortest travel they had heard of, as 1 year seemed to be a prett popular time frame of travelers I ran into here. "Don't you people need to work?", I commonly asked but soon remembered that Americans see traveling much differently. I for the most part accomplished my goals, although vaguely defined, of building a Spanish language base and tackling a good distance by bike as well as soaking up some South American culture. For the most part I would now have to agree that Colombia has rid itself of the majority of the dangers people commonly associate it with. This in no way means that the common risks of traveling especially in places with more of a social struggle are not strongly present here. However the kidnappings and FARC horrors have seemed to become more of an internalized conflict pushed into the jungles and far from the main roads. For instance that 'Lost City Trek' that a group of foreigners were captured on a few years ago to my surprise now has about 100 Westerners doing it every week. This fact that Colombia is on par with the safety standards of the rest of South America if not better, that is commonly found in current periodicals I would agree with. But like anything else you need to see it for yourself before feeling too confident. Also, assuming they are doing their job and not 'too' consumed with corruption, the military and police seem to have a very large presence and whether on bus or bike I was never annoyed with having to be stopped at checkpoints on the main roads. Colombia is still cheap and most parts not typical tourist destinations, but the people here are pretty accustomed to Westerners and even Americans coming to visit now. Most areas are pretty good travel destinations if you ask me.

Well thanks for reading this blog to all of you who stuck with it. It gave me a reason to keep some what of a journal and share my experiences before the begin to slip away. I hope to keep touch. For those who may of been reading this in preparation for your own travels or bike trip, feel free to email me at mikedunkle@yahoo.com. Ahora este tiempo de regresar a los Estados Unidos!

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Playa Blanca

Days 25 - 28

This will be quite the challenge as I am writing on the bus ride from Cartagena to Bogota to catch my Tuesday morning flight and just as I mentioned about these tour buses before, they drive extremely fast and the ride is rough. At least now I'm in the bus instead of a target. 20 hours on a bus is long, but since it covered a night its not so bad. I met an old guy named Esmar on the back of the bus who knew a little English so we went back and fourth communicating in English / Spanish, obviously poor and broken regardless of which but it was a good start to my ride since bus trips are known to be one of the more risky events of traveling.

So on Thursday after getting settled in the hostel some guys invited me to dinner to celebrate one of their birthdays. We we went to the old city, inside 'the walls' I mentioned in my last post (BTW to correct a typo there, the walls 'WERE' built to kerp pirates out, no issues with them now - my bad) and had a pricey by Colombian standards but nice dinner. We then had some beers out in a square that had heaps of people and blairing salsa music pouring from one of the beautiful Spanish architecture inspired bars. I haven't done a lot of the night life scene, so for the first time on my trip a couple of us went over to mingle with some locals and surprisingly they took us up on our offer to go to Havana Cafe, a Salsa bar, for the rest of the evening. No one at the bar seemed to let being packed in really tight hinder them from dancing all over the place, bumping into eachother as if exiting a sports venue just as the game ends. It's like that everywhere here. Even on public city buses, which are really just slightly longer mini vans, they pack in 18 people and blast Latino music and people sway to the beat while sitting on top of eachother, totally content. The next day after sleeping in for the first time on the trip, I roamed around the old city admiring the architecture and taking some photos. I've hesitated to break out my real camera out much but Cartagena is a tourist mecca so I figured at least here there are plenty better targets than myself, in the case that the street theives were roaming around noon. Had a nice set meal for 6,000 pesos, which is $3, and hiked over to the Castle of San Felipe which isn't comparable to those of Europe but pretty unique because it looks older than any other castle I've ever seen. Photos are below. I found a good panaderia and picked up some fresh breads and cookies. Like a typical American, I bought a small bun like loaf and took it to a Vende de Chorizo (sausage vender) across the street and asked him to make a sandwich with 'salsa de tomate' out of it. Hey I've had my share of the authentic creations, so why not.

On Saturday I beaded out to Playa Blanca to meet the group I bad dinner with previously, Niles from Ireland and Jez and Allison from Australia to name a few. After an extremley annoying 4 hour boat ride, again really packed, really loud music, witn an MC dude going around with a mic chiming in on the music and asking other tourists where they were from. When he came to the 3 of us (2 other guys who are from Israel and look just like it) of course said 'Israel' as if representing the 3 of us. So picture them saying that and then there's me, a fair bit larger then them, blonde hair, blue eyes and a big cross tatoo... I just kind of pursed my lips and make the hmmm sound. I'm sure that was the reaction of others on the boat as well. After we scarfed down the included lunch, which of course was a whole deep fried fish, we got out of the tour boat scene and hit the turquoise water beach. Once the tour boats clear out around 4:00 and the venders of crap retreat, it really becomes an extremely tranquil place. For anyone reading who may be on their way there eventually, I highly recommend staying at 'Refugio de Carol'. It's ran by a real nice guy named Ube who has really nice cabana style pavillions covering hammocks with mosquito nets for only $3 per night. No power or running water but that's the same for everywhere at Playa Blanca. He also serves really good seafood meals for $7 that are as fresh as can be. The guys I mentioned and myself were sold on his Octopus catch that had come in only 5 hrs earlier. Kinda crazy that this dude and his one helper cleaned them of their ink sacks and whatever else is necessary, in a primitive little kitchen consisting of a grill over coals and wood burning powered fryer, to result in restaurant quality dishes that were pretty impressive in appearance and taste. He also had fish, shrimp and chicken, but considering I was trying to experience life on the Caribbean, as they say, when in Rome... Plus I had never tried Octopus (beyond Calamari) before. It's strange I spent about 30 hrs. at that beach however between sleeping in a hamock, laying in the sun, enjoying a bottle of rum with the group and reading, there isn't much to elaborate on. It was really nice but I must say I was thinking to myself, man I don't think I could have spent the next day the same way. I felt so unproductive that I went for a couple mile jog down the beach in the morning just to prevent a crazed twitch from starting. It's funny, the whole time there I was thinking conversely how much Liz would love to lounge there for ages, less the lack of power and showers of course.

Although an extremely boring read, I though it would be fitting to finally get into Adam Smith's Wealth of the Nations over the past two days which goes into the most basic theories of economics. When traveling, especially in a place like Colombia it is quite interesting to see the real life applications of that work in things as simple as when I experienced fish become cheaper and more common as I approached the coast and saw how the abundance of colonial infrastructure is by no coincidence located at the port towns such as Cartagena. Many other things also, such as when you have a country such as Colombia with all the resources such as salt, fish, sugarcane, fruits and even coca it allows so much more labor to be put to useful purpose as opposed for instance to many nations in Africa of the same approximate size and amount of people.

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The Old City - Cartagena

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Getsemane - Cartagena

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Castillo de San Felipe

Days 22, 23, 24

Time has been flying by lately. I'm glad that a quarter of the amount I paid for the Spanish classes goes to send Colombian children to school because man I was feeling like jumping off a bridge after a couple of those sessions. So on Sunday evening upon the return from Tayrona park I caught up with the rents and Liz and then had a nice night at an ice cream joint / cafe on the beach on my own which was great. After class on Monday I spent about 2 hours reviewing a scuba diving manual loaned to me by the dive center to give myself a refresher course after not diving for almost 5 years. Surprisingly no one else was scheduled on the trip for Monday afternoon so it was just the divemaster, the driver of the small boat and myself. Great company by the way called Aquantis ran by an Austrian named Johan (aquantisdivecenter.com). The sites weren't comparable to the great barrier reef, but still pretty good. On the first dive I saw a snake like thing sticking it's head out of the sand about 4 inches and then completely squirming out exposing the other 4 feet of it's body. It was a really interesting snake because it had somewhat of a fur texture and the print and colors of a cheetah. On the second dive I saw a lobster, but here they have daggers instead of claws. The best thing I saw was an angel fish that was camoflauged into its brown surroundings. The dive master scared it and it swam away changing to a luminescent blue and yellow only to stop dead after about 15 feet and turn to dark brown and black with spots. The amount of change in its pigment was incredible. We took a break in between dives on a small island just off the coast and ran into what looked like a group of local men relaxing by the water's edge, until they all jumped up out of their chairs yelling and reaching for their fishing net's ropes The ten of them in line like a tug of war contest then pulled in this huge net. Once the last few feet came out of the water as well as the catch it was clear they were all unsatisfied and prepared to put the net back in place. Tuesday was quite a bit of a change as I went into Santa Marta with Shauli, the Israeli I met in Taytona Park, to shop at the grocery store and go to the mall. I hadn't seen that side of Colombia since Bogota. It was good though doing a bit of the city thing and we went to Jaun Valdez for coffee which was really good as everyone had mentioned previously. It's basically the big chain in Colombia just like Starbucks in the rest of the Western world but they obviously serve coffee from only Colombian beans. For nemerous reasons, I ended up staying in Taganga another night but this time at Casa Felipe which is the backpacker Mecca of the town. The place is like a mini village of cement studio apartment buildings with an extremely imperfect stone patio / walkway connecting them all and a hammock hanging every 10 feet. On Wednesday I went to the 'peliqueria' and had my beard shaved off. First time I ever grew one and thus seeing that much hair removed from my face was a shocker. Shauli and I went to Rodadero which is kind of the high end part of Santa Marta where the locals go for the beach and dinners. On Thursday I left pretty early for Cartagena by bus, since it would have taken 2 full days of riding to get here by bike. When I arrived I ran into a couple people in Hotel Marlin, another backpacker joint, that I had met before and said hi to them oy to get confused looks. Then they were like "oh you were the dude on the bike you look 10 years younger without a beard"! If ever necessary in the future now I know I have the perfect disguise. So I haven't talked about food in a bit so I guess I'll mention some. Plantacones are real popular with standard dishes and are basically like a bigger firmer banana. They usually mash them down and fry them kind of like a pancake. Pretty good. A new favorite breakfast staple for me is arepa con huevo, which is an arepa (corn meal fried dough patty) with a fried egg inside. Another popular thing here and favorite of mine is bocadillo, a candy like fruit chew made of condensed dried guava and sugar in the form of cubes wrapped in dried banana leaves. Every proper super market has about 500 packages of it. I have had my share of more natural juices / smoothies, at least one a day, including lulu, mango with orange, zapote with milk, melon with blackberry and papaya. One of the craziest fruits I've ever seen is Granadilla. It's really unique and considered special to Colombia, so I took some pictures of the last one I ate. It has an outer casing you crack open qnd inside is a dry pulpy like sack that is holding a big wet cluster of seeds that is each in it's own transparent membrane of juice. It looks disgusting like fish eggs, but the seeds in their little jelly sacks taste sweet and have a unique crunch best described as a baby watermelon seed. First impressions of Cartagena are pretty good. It's a beautiful colonial city on the coast with a historic center which is literally the old city within the 'walls' which surround the town center and are about 20 feet high to keep pirates out. The buildings are very Spanish influenced with pretty intricate banisters on the balconys and colorful cement buildings, narrow roads and wide open squares. Ok I guess that makes another book. Take care all.

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First straight razor experience

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Granadilla

Days 19, 20, 21

After my Spanish lesson, a chat with Liz and a big lunch on Friday I took a bus into Santa Marta to catch another for Parque Tayrona. In the supermarket I ran into an Israeli, Shouele and two Canadians, Rich and Benji, who were also going to the park and generously offered to wait for me and find the bus together. You would be surprised to see how many Israiles I run into in Colombia. I suppose this is because they are known for traveling a lot, however in Taganga alone there are 3 Israeli ran hostels and it just seems like I see a lot more here. Shouele is traving South America for a whole year and has picked up perfectly fluent Spanish in the process. I envy people like this so much and don't understand how they do it that fast. Since Shouele also speaks English as if he grew up in the mid-west US his whole life, I had a couple good chats with him as well as the Canadians over the bus ride. I decided to change my plans of heading to a more secluded area of the park and go with these guys to Playa Cabo, a backpacker / camper Mecca of tent and hammock dwellers on some of the most beautiful shorelines of the park. Really annoying how many people were there, but surprisingly you could pretty easily seclude yourself if you wanted. We rented hammocks and made some what of a roof over ourselves with some plastic tarps the campground provided and spent two nights sleeping right next to the Caribbean, pretty nice I must say. I woke up with the sun both mornings around 5:30 and hiked as far as I could get out on a peninsula of boulders where I ate breakfast, watched the remainder of the sunrise and read while it was still cool and breezy. I must say that was the best part of the weekend, chillin on rocks in the early morning with the sound of waves crashing into the boulders below. We didn't do much on Saturday, just the usual beach thing, however in the evening we had quite the run in at the park's tiki hut / restaurant. We met this girl named Beth who was from Ohio as well as her sister Emmy and British friend Luke. There wasn't more than a handful of people from the US in that joint let alone Ohio. To really top off the night we see this other dude with an Ohio State shirt on and I give him the "O-H", waiting for the "I-O" response. He came over to say hi after and we commented on how small the world is. As you may see in the pics, the coast was pretty stunning. Unfortunately the sun is completely down here by 6 so the days felt short but we spent the eveningss playing cards in the tiki hut dining room of the restuarant, including "kanive" an Israeli game that is pretty fun. The second night was a bit rougher as one of the supports our hammocks were tied to cracked but luckily we didn't drop to the ground it was more of a slow process. Today the Canadians and I hiked out of the park through the jungle which was over a pretty big mountain requiring about 4 hours of strenuous hiking. These Canadians were pretty funny. Like most Aussies or Brits I run meet, they gave off a pretty strong sarcastic tone, ripping on eachother 24-7 which I find strangley amusing and familiar. On the way through the jungle we passed through what is know as "Pueblito", the ruins of an ancient city about 2,000 years old. There wasn't much to see, but it was pretty cool standing on platforms that used to be tribal chiefs huts / temples. No sight of monkeys or big snakes as hoped, but I did see a ton of lizards that were all different neon colors snd a couple blue crabs that were about the size of a mini football. After a the hike, we exited the jungle at the perfect place, a spot on the main road with some small little shops with music blairing selling cold beers and snacks. It's a holiday tomorrow so there seems to be a lively scene with loud music everywhere including back here in Taganga. Strangely the holiday is a celebration of the 'races'. Strange to me since race is so touchy in The US but not in Colombia. For one it's a really diverse place due to the combination of Spanish, native and African descent here. Unlike in the US these races "mixed", for lack of better terms, quite quickely resulting in a more diverse country. Riding into the North at first looked like I had left South America and entered Africa. I wasn't expecting this so I must say the amount of diversity in Colombia as well as this holiday were surprising to me. Til next time, take care guys.

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Bay at Playa Cabo

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Caribbean sunrise

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Parque Tayrona - sunrise from hammock

Days 17, 18

The past two days have been pretty different from the rest of the trip so far, returning to the same room each night and not breaking out the maps to plan the next day. Taganga is nice but pretty touristy. Right next to the bigger beach town of Santa Marta on the other side of the mountain, which is where a lot of people go as well. It's kind of a small fishing town gone hippie. All the restaurants here have overpriced meals which in my opinion don't compare in taste or quantity of food to anywhere else I've been. The town has tons of hostels and dive companies and there are Colombians and Westerners alike sitting around everywhere trying to sell their hand made bracelets and jewelry. Over the mountain on the other side of Taganga is a smaller beach, a little nicer but equally crowded, and I ventured over there both days just for the sake of some exercise. As many of you know I eat anything but am just not into the real traditional fishing town stuff. For my first meal I ordered the special which came with local fried fish. Sounds pretty good eh? Well picture this...catch a fish in the sea, slice out it's guts, throw the whole thing into the deep fryer and put it on my plate. I was like oh wow thanks for not wasting the eyes or fins. I noticed later that everywhere here serves the fish like that. I still ate it but have ordered chicken since although even one of my chicken dishes came with what was basically fishbone soup so I guess you can't avoid the stuff regardless. I have had Spanish lessons for 2 days now at 3 hours per day and it is pretty difficult. I was given the impression that I was going to have a teacher who would be able to answer my questions in English, but my teacher Yolanda is definitely not fluent in English. So I do learn some, but when I have a question it is like trying to ask a 3 year old a math problem, just pure confusion. After today's lesson I am heading to Tayrona National Park which is supposed to have a great coast and good hiking. Please email, Mike.

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Town of Taganga

Days 15, 16

I made it to the coast! Bogota to Taganga, 643 miles total. Yesterday was my 9th day on the road and I must say I had no idea how tough the last 2 days would be to get here. On day 8 I rode 112 miles and yesterday 68. It wasn't quite as flat as the previous 3, and the heat was unbearable. I will not elaborate on the ride as I did on my previous big push, but to say the least I am a bit weak and sore today. In my last post I mentioned how inaccurate the signs are. Well to end my stetch to the Carribean with maximum irritation, when I approached the mile that should have been my last based on the last sign close to 60 miles back, I ended up having 11 more to go.

As mentioned to some before I thought it would be a good idea to park it for a bit so that my legs don't fall off, I can enjoy Colombia the way most do with some tourist activities and so I can spend some time working on Spanish. After asking a lot of fellow travellers for their input I decided to stay at Casa Holanda in Taganga, a small fishing town right next to Santa Marta. There are two Dutch people who run this joint as well as a Spanish school that gives I believe 25% of the proceeds to send Colombian children to school (they sent 88 to school last year) so I figured this is money well spent. There is also a ton of diving outfits here and Tayrona National Park is pretty close so there's heaps to do while I 'recover'.

Since most all I have been doing is riding since my past post I'll mention a bit more on the road and specifically the poor driving, now that I have survived it and won't scare my family describing the conditions. To say the least, for any cyclers reading this in the future, it is true that Colombia is very good for cycling due to the proximity of places to stay, mass amount of food and water available, smooth pavement, challenging hills and a plethora of local cycling fanatics. However this is somewhat offset by the fact that Colombian drivers, in my opinion, are some of the most careless in the world. In my 9 days on the road I passed 5 bad accidents that had just occurred, including 2 flipped semi's and a head on with a semi, and obviously none of these were due to storms or ice. While riding I regularly witnessed semi's passing semi's and tour buses alike around blind bends on two lane roads. Everytime I saw this I thought, "haven't they considered that if something is coming in the other direction there is no where for any of the vehicles to go without colliding"? Apparently not. That's why it's really important to stay on the shoulder of the road especially when approaching bends. I've seen really crazy driving cultures especially in Guinea and China but here is the first place I've seen the extremely risky behaviour committed by
most everyone across the board and at speeds well over double the speed limit most all the time. The government has some huge campaign out with bill boards that read "no mas estrallas en la via", which means no more stars in the roadway. I don't know how long Colombia has done this but there are big yellow stars painted on the road where people have died. In all honesty it was quite depressing especially on a slow bike as I passed these things, sometimes more than 10 in a day. On a more entertaining note, 2 days ago I was cruising along to see a pick up truck, surprisingly a brand new Chevy, flying towards me at about 80 mph (typical so far). Suddenly I heard a bang and sparks spraying from behind the vehicle as it fishtailed back and forth. One of the rear wheels had fell off and was rolling along side it. Now I wasn't as worried about the truck as I could see the driver for the most part has it under control. But anyone who has seen a wheel pop off before knows that for one they pick up speed and two they bounce and change directions like a punt return that slipped through a receivers arms. So I literally laid my bike down and got in what probably looked like a wrestling stance ready to dart the opposite way of where ever that wheel was flying towards. Luckily it came no where near me, because I'm pretty sure a truck wheel moving at 80 mph wouldn't simply bounce off a person. So anyways that's Colombia's number one downfall for anyone considering riding here. But maybe that's in all of South America and the fact that cycling is bigger here helps. I must say most truckers try to give you space and most people give a beep or a "you can do it" cheer instead of being angry you're using the road as we see often in the states.

After reaching Taganga and settling in at this bed and breakfast joint I went down to the beach to celebrate the end of my big ride with some beers and met a nice dude, a young professional from Bogota, here on a diving vacation. He was waiting for his wife to arrive tomorrow so in true Colombian fashion we hung out at a table and chatted it up over I think four fresh juices for at least 3 hours. He was a world traveler, lived in London for a bit, and had recently quit his job in Bogota and was reading a book on entreprenuership. I of course could talk to a dude like that for ages so we discussed ideas for his next endeavor and also details about this country. If only I was fluent in Spanish I would be tempted to take up some of these ideas of my own, as Colombia is in the process of a massive tourism boom since their reputation has seen such positive increases and there is so much to see here (mountains, coffee, Carribean beaches, river sports, hiking, archeological sites, etc.). It's funny this guy, Juan Carlos, was pretty knowledgeable of what I do and when I told him who I work for he said that it's "a great company but everyone is afraid to work for them in Bogota because they make you work too much". I laughed pretty hard at that one, I guess some things don't change no matter where you go! I did however then tell him that they do have some flexibilities, I mean, look at me! Well today is my first Spanish class and I'm going to arrange for hitting the reef later in the week so take care everyone.

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Near Santa Marta

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Near Fundacion - tropical forest

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Riding along the Andes