Bolivia I

                 Finally we arrived to Bolivia. First stop - Copacabana, it was nice small town, on the lake Titicaca shore, definitely nicer than Puno, Peru. We spent a day in Copacabana and next day moved to Isla del Sol, island in the middle of lake Titicaca. It was a beautiful island with delightful views of snow caped mountain range and stunning dark blue lake water. We even went swimming in the lake (it was cold, but worth it). It crossed my mind that the lake is at 3850m altitude, but it didn´t feel like it, only clouds were lower than usually.
               
                Next day we took the bus to La Paz, Bolivia - big city with around 630 000 inhabitants. We had difficult time finding the hostel - everything was very expensive in comparison to Ecuador and Peru. Finally, I found one decent hostel with reasonable prices for private rooms. It was the Israeli hostel. There were a lot of young people.  One day we passed the guy praying on the stairs. Hostel itself was nice, had beautiful paintings on the walls, even had unlimited hot water in the shower (which was rear). Fun fact: hostel had rules listed in 3 languages: English, Spanish and Hebrew. There were 8 rules in English and Spanish and 11 rules in Hebrew.
                Anyway, La Paz at first glance was huge market place, it didn´t leave us very good impression. There were a lot of old buses, so fumes in the center were impossible, we thought about buying a mask. At first, we thought to go to the jungle in the north, but we couldn´t get airline tickets.  So, we left for Uyuni Salar tour in the south.

                Trip to Uyuni (town where tours to Salar originated) was rough. We took a bus to Oruro and from there - a train to Uyuni. No buses nor trains go in the morning, only at night. Some people like traveling at night, us - no.  Traveling at night you save on accommodation, but hostels in Bolivia are very cheap.  So it is not worth spending our good night sleep in the uncomfortable night buses. Sometimes you are forced to travel at night, as we had to do it to Uyuni. We arrived at 3AM, it was -3 degrees Celsius, and difficult to find a hostel.  We were able to find a shitty one. And the town itself was not nice, very dusty, people were very rude, didn´t give a shit about anything.
                Next day we booked a tour and day after we gathered to the tour agency´s office, where our tour started and continued with "interesting"adventures. As we, all tourists, gathered on time, we couldn´t find our agent. When she arrived (0.5 hour late), we couldn´t find drivers. When they arrived (more 0.5 hour late), agent could´t figure it out who was going with who ( :) it was hysterical!). So we left more than one hour later than planned.
                In our salar tour group we had one couple -Felipe from Brazil and Rossanna from Columbia (both study at university in Brazil). They were wearing little clothes and slippers (it was cold most of the time!). Somebody stole there luggage in Brazil. They were very pleasant companions, singing almost all the time. Other 2 seats in our jeep belonged to 2 french girls, both named Charlotte. They both studied in Canada, they were very nice companions too.We kept changing places with them.
                 The first stop was the train cemetery, it had a lot of train skeletons. The second stop was lunch and the third one was the salt lake. The views were amazing: everything around was white, converging with bright blue sky.

                  Fourth stop was hotel, made from salt, which had a museum inside. That was when we started having issues with the driver - he disappeared for 20 minutes (in the middle of nowhere!). Fifth stop was the fish island, where huge cactuses grow. It takes a year for a cactus to grow 1 cm.. The highest cactus was 10 meters high, so it was 1000 years old. And our driver continued disappearing, this time - 30 minutes.
                  Last stop that day was our hotel, made from salt also, even beds were from salt. Tour guides gave us dinner, Jotvinge couldn´t eat anything, she got sick at the end of the day (maybe because of the rough ride). Second day she was better.
                  Second day we woke up at 7AM, did not get breakfast till 8AM (it was promised at 7am). After long searching, I found the driver - he was drunk. Jotvinge screamed at him, so he got very angry and upset with her (as if it was her fault that he got drunk). We tried to get a phone to call our agency, to change the driver, but there was no reception. I tried asking him to let me drive, but he refused. Our group decided to talk to him again and calmed him down. After all the options, we decided to go with our driver. He promised me not to drink anymore and apologized to Jotvinge. He was driving well while drunk first half of the day, but at the second half he started falling asleep while driving.We almost hit the huge stone, we saw it and started screaming.  After that he started speeding like crazy, we thought we were not going to make it through till the end of the trip. Other than that we saw a lot of beautiful lakes, many elegant pink flamingos, also vicunas, and lamas. We stopped to see an active volcano, we saw "arbol de Piedra" - stones, formed into tree-like shape. There were no trees and very little grass (it was pretty high altitude). It is difficult to imagine what those vicunas and lamas eat there.
                    At the end of the second day, we traveled to see red lake. It looked fabulous at sunset, amazing red color. People say that the lake is red because of some special red bacteria in the lake. Young flamingos eat that bacteria. Depending on how much they eat the bacteria, how pink they become.
                     When we arrived to the second hotel, we received nice dinner and a bottle of wine.  After dinner we joined with other group. We met some Swiss and Spanish people on our way. We had a lot of fun that evening. One guy helped me photograph the stars, I got decent pictures finally. At night was -20 degrees and I would say -5 degrees in our hotel room (was no heat at all!). So that night was terribly cold.

                    We were supposed to get up at 5:30am, but hotel staff woke us up at 4:45AM with breakfast ready. First thing what we did was went to check if the driver was stable. This time we saw him preparing the jeep for our journey (started a fire under the hood -literally). What happened was that day before we had some problems with radiator leaking, so driver was adding water to the radiator (bold move when it is so cold), so at night it froze up. After an hour we were up and running. The first stop was geysers, we felt like in the storm there, but the geysers themselves were warm. The second stop was the thermal baths at shore of the lake. After all the cold, it was heaven to go to the hot water.  The last stop was laguna Verde (green lake). Lake is not green anymore for a few years.  It is beautiful blue. From there we could see two mountains: one facing Argentina, another - Chile.
                       Twenty minutes later ,we reached Chilean border, where the bus was waiting for us....


 
 

Peru

           

Laguna 69, 2013.05.08

  After a nice vacation in Manta, we stopped in Cuenca for a couple of days, then moved to Loja and from there we took a bus straight to Piura, Peru.
              In the bus we noticed that our bag (which was on the top shelf) has moved a couple of times.  Then we spotted the thief who tried to rob us. We took our bags and put them on our knees.  The guy just left the bus during the first stop.
              We finally passed the border and arrived to Peru. At the first glance, the country seemed very different from Colombia and Ecuador.  The landscape changed: desert full with garbage, small and broken houses built from dirt.  It felt as if we entered a different continent, as if we arrived to how we imagined Pakistan or Afghanistan would look.  When we arrived to Piura, we were not able to find a nice and inexpensive hostel.  All of them were really dirty. So, we picked the cheapest one with dirty walls and bed sheets, but it had cable. We were woken up in the middle of the night by somebody talking very loudly.  They did not stop making all kinds of noises until early morning.  We left the first thing in the morning. At least, the food was definitely better than in Ecuador. In Piura I tried now my best Peruvian food - Lomo Saltado (marinated meat and onions with vegetables, rice and potatoes).
               Chiclayo was the second stop after Piura. On the way to Chiclayo we saw sand and trash again, only the center was clean and beautiful. The buses between cities were nice, mostly double deckers with few people selling the goods inside, not like in Ecuador, where it felt like inside the market.
               We found a decent hostel with a nice room with a lot of light on the 4-th floor and started searching Chiclayo and its surroundings. We went to Tucume, where the pyramids are, but it wasn´t very impressive. On the way back we stopped in Chiclayo market. Jotvinge had a camera with her on her shoulder.  Some kid tried to steal it: grabbed the camera and pulled on it very hard, but camera´s strap did not break.  She started shouting, but he just moved couple of steps back looking at her. Then I stepped towards him, he started going away, but not running, even tried to scare me. The thief only ran away when Jotvinge tried to take a picture of him. She did not get a shot.
                We tried some Peruvian sweets: two cookies with condensate milk inside.  It was too sweet, even for me. Coffee in Peru cost more than in Ecuador or Colombia. As far as we noticed, it was not a lot to see in the northern Peru: just sand, dirt and garbage everywhere.
                We decided to go more south. Huanchaco was the next stop, a small town near the Pacific Ocean. There was not possible to swim because of the rocks, but it was a paradise for surfers.  The waves were usually 2-3 meters high. We liked this town, it was nice to relax there for a few days. We found a nice hostel for a good price, surrounded by inexpensive and good restaurants.  We had the best ceviche (raw fish marinated in lemon) there. We met some nice people in Huanchaco, also accidentally we met an American couple, who we first met in Cartagena, Colombia. It was nice to see them again.
                After a relaxing time in Huanchaco, we rolled to Cordillera Blanca (white mountain range) region Ancash capital town Huaraz. It is a nice town with an altitude of 3090 meters and amazing views of mountain range with snow peaks, the highest of which is Huascaran (6789m). As we arrived, we let ourselves get used to the altitude for a couple of days.  Then we started hiking. One day went to laguna Wilkacocha, which was at 3700 m. Another day we went to Llaganuco lake and Laguna 69. It was difficult to reach Laguna 69, but once we finally got there, we thought we were out of space.  The VIEW was spectacular: crystal blue water, surrounded by mountains with their snow peaks merging with the sky.
                 Another hike was to mountain Pastoruri (5240m). It was an easier hike because our tour bus took us to the altitude of 5000 m. On the top we saw 2 lakes with small icebergs and surrounded by huge snow piles. Beautiful.  I would say laguna 69 and mountain Pastoruri was by far the best scenery we have ever seen. Near Huaraz there is a small town of Monterey, where they have thermal baths, which we visited one day too. Jotvinge was sick a little bit because of the weather changes throughout the day, altitude and exhaustion, but we enjoyed mountain range in Ancash.  Also, mangos were very delicious there, as well as their chicken.
                Another stop was Lima. We heard a lot of bad stories about this city (that it is very dangerous, especially in the center), so we prepared for the worst. When we arrived in the dark, we felt safe enough to walk from the bus station to the colonial Lima, looking for a hostel.  We found a beautiful and a great value hostel in the center on the 14th floor with a view of a beautiful huge city (around 8.2 million people).  The next day we visited 5 museums and went to a fountain show (13 beautiful fountains show!!). Lima´s center is very beautiful with lots to do. After sand and mountains, it was very nice to feel a big city´s spirit, enjoy beautiful architecture. By the way, it was a lot of police and army guards there because president Bill Clinton was visiting Peru. It was nice atmosphere there, and we are looking forward to coming back in July for our flight back to Chicago.
                From Lima we decided to go to Nasca, recommended to visit town because of the famous ancient lines and figures, drawn by indigenous a 1000 years ago. The town itself and Nasca lines are definitely overrated, in our minds. The town is small, and people were trying to suck the money out of you. They were charging crazy amounts of money for the tours to see the lines. Instead, we just took a local bus to see them for very cheap.  Nothing amazing. The only thing that was interesting that it haven´t rained in this area for a 1000 years. The people offer to see the Nasca lines from the plane (maybe it would be a nicer view, but definitely expensive). We bought bus ticket to Arequipa, which was expensive too. As far as we noticed Nasca was like a trap - if you get there, you will pay a lot for everything and couldn´t get out of there cheap either. After visiting Nasca, we lost desire to visit Macchu Picchu and Cusco.
                 We arrived to Arequipa around 3AM, but we found accommodation pretty easy. Arequipa welcomed us with cold and rainy days and very cold nights. I got sick, so we needed to stay for a couple of days there, plus we needed to acclimatize to the altitude once more. Next was Colca Canyon (one of the deepest canyons in the world). We took the bus to the heart of Colca Canyon town Cabanaconde. After driving for 2 hours, bus stopped because we almost lost 2 rear tires (good that it did not happen on the mountain road)! We waited for two hours for a replacement bus. We hiked for 3 days in Colca canyon. We went to the thermal baths on the river´s shore in the middle of the canyon. A fun fact was that we had 2 dogs following us around for those 3 days. We ate together, one of them even slept in our room. It was heartbreaking to leave them (one tried to get into our taxi). We had fun time in Colca Canyon! We saw lama, named Pepe, which was very friendly. Overall we saw a lot of lamas, vicunas (similar to gazelles). Last day was the most difficult, we needed to ascend 1 km. But it was rewarding also, we saw beautiful, huge condors from very close. It was amazing.  Going back after a few days, the bus broke down before leaving the bus station- dead battery. Driver asked passengers to leave the bus and push it (it was fun!!).
                After Colca we rolled to Puno, to the lake Titikaka. Spent one day there, it was cold because of the altitude. Lake is more beautiful on Bolivia´s side. So next day we took the bus to Copacabana, Bolivia.
               

Ecuador

It has been a month since we arrived in Ecuador.  The country has a lot of similarities with Colombia, but at the same time it is very different.

First of all, people are shorter here with round faces and high cheekbones- real Indians.  Our first stop in Ecuador was Otavalo- a small town, famous for its artisans market, where its people still dress in the traditional clothing.  Women were long skirts and white blouses with puffy sleeves and beautifully embroidered flowers.  They carry everything on their backs wrapped in a cloth- vegetables, babies or toddlers.  They even work with their babies on the backs, selling vegetables or magazines.  Men wear their long hear under a hat.  We felt as if going back in time to meet people we only saw in movies.  Later, during the Spanish lesson, we learned that over half of Ecuador population in indigenous people, descendants of Inca Indians.

We chose to take one week of Spanish in Quito because everything is cheaper in Ecuador (including the Spanish courses), and we liked the city.  We were considering continuing studying the language for the second week, but Dangis got sick and constant rain and cold changed our mind.  Dangis probably lost 5 pounds that week from losing appetite after getting some parasite, most likely from contaminated food in some restaurant.

The locals seem to be less concerned with cleanliness than Colombians.  We started carrying our own, but I wonder how the cooks wash their hands.  The food in Colombia was more delicious, even though soups in Ecuador are very good, reminds me of Lithuania.  We eat soup here every day for lunch.  Instead of bread, we get plantains with every meal, too.  Also, there are a lot of stray dogs in both countries.  People do not bother them, sometimes even feed them leftovers.

We did not get to see a lot of Quito, since we were studying for the biggest part of the day- 4 hours with the teacher and up to 4 hours of homework.  For most days, there was rain in the morning, hot in the mid-day, and rain or hail in the afternoon.  We had to go through outside to reach the shared bathroom in our hotel, since our room was on the roof with the access to the terrace.

Before starting our classes, we visited Mitad del Mundo (Equator line) and volcano Pichincha park.  At the entrance to the volcano park, the cable car dropped us off at the altitude of 4,100 meters.  Instantly, we started shivering from cold.  We went inside a cafe to dry off the sweat from walking to the park in the heat.  Then, after putting on our jackets, we started our climb to the volcano top, which was at the altitude of almost 4,700 meters and 5 km away.  We had no idea how difficult our climb was going to be.  It took us about 4.5 hours to reach the top.  We were out of breath more and more often the closer we got.  The last hour we probably stopped every 2 minutes for 2 minutes to catch our breath.  We considered and reconsidered to turn back multiple times, even when we were about 100 meters away.  We were unprepared for a climb like this.  We should have, at least, brought more water and gloves.  When we finally reached the top, we could not feel our fingers.  We quickly snapped a few pictures.  The clouds seem to disappear for a moment allowing us to enjoy the magnificent view from the top of the world- the highest we have ever been.  As soon as we turned back, it started to rain heavily.  The rain followed us all the way back for 2.5 hours.  We got back down the volcano soaking wet and freezing.  It was rush hour, soon the sun would set.  It was surprisingly difficult to flag a cab.  In Colombia, the cabs would slow down and beep, passing us to check if we did not need a ride.  But in Quito all the cabs were full.  The driver of the one that picked us up charged us double- 5USD, instead of 2 or 3USD.  He knew that we did not want to stay much longer in the rain, so he ignored our attempt to bargain.  As soon as we were in his cab, though, he started us offering all kinds of overpriced tours, even gave us his card with the description of himself as reliable and honest.

We also noticed that bargaining in Ecuador was different than in Colombia.  In Colombia, there were 2 types of merchants- the ones who lowered the price quickly to be reasonable, and the others who refused to bargain with some explanation, in Ecuador, though, the vendors just kept repeating their original price, as if we did not heat them the first time.

Our next stop Bahia de Caraquez was a nice little town by the coast.  We even considered to stay there for a month or so because of the mild and pleasant climate of the Pacific coast and the relaxed atmosphere of the small town, but big enough to have a market and a store.  We walked the whole town in probably an hour, but we still were looking forward to settling in for a little while- reading books and swimming in the ocean every day.  The little hotel where we stayed was new for a change with a beautiful view of the ocean, access to the roof top, and clean rooms.  It sounded perfect, but we learned that peacefulness was more important.  Somehow we started to feel like we were intruding in the owner's and his girlfriend's lives.  The owner allowed us to use the kitchen of the restaurant down the stairs, but the cook was always there.  We did not feel like paying for our every meal.  We decided to leave Bahia de Caraquez after spending 3 nights in our little hotel, where we were the only guests.

In our bus heading south, we met the first Lithuanian- Vilija travelling with her small daughter.  Apparently, she and her family live in Ecuador for 4 winters now.  Every spring they go back to Lithuania.  Vilija's husband is a famous tattoo artist from my hometown Siauliai, names Giedrius Bardauskas.  He was my neighbor long time ago, even though I do not remember him.  We did not play together because he is a few years older than me.  Giedrius did my sister's tattoo years ago, though.  He also dated my classmate and is friends with my other old friend from Art School.  Small world.

After leaving the bus in San Clemente, very small resort town, we were unable to find reasonably priced accommodations on a big Friday.  Most Ecuadorians get vacation for the week of Easter, and a lot of them go to the coast.  We got onto another bus toward Crucita.  After spending one night there, we really wanted to leave.  The town is so small that there were no stores there.  The restaurants were empty, but very expensive.  The beach was narrow, but very close to the main street.  Our cabin turned out to be very noisy during the night, even though we were the only guests when we arrived.  Talking just outside our door woke us up around 2 am.  After half an hour, I walked outside to see what was happening.  I saw an empty beer bottle on the table. The owner asked me if I needed anything, and I replied 'sleep'.  He said that new people just arrived.  The next morning someone walked in and laid in the hammock outside our door with the music playing from his phone and him singing along.  It appears that people have not heard of headphones.  On the buses we get to listen to someone's music, too.  Nobody seems to mind.  We even saw a blind man getting on the bus, turning on the cassette player, and starting to sing.  After a little concert, he walked with his extended hand, collecting compensation.  The next time we saw another blind man doing exactly the same thing; his voice was not as melodic. 

Nobody waits for the people to get off the bus first before pushing in (Metra culture of Medellin, Colombia, does not exist here).  We did wait once until the people unloaded first, we almost missed it- the doors started closing as we were stepping in.  The girl behind us did not make it.  The bus rides are very cheap in Ecuador.  The city bus rides cost 0.25 USD, and bus rides between cities cost 1 USD per 1 travelled hour.  The gas is much cheaper in Ecuador than in Colombia.  The galon costs from 1.5 USD to 2 USD in Ecuador, in comparison to 5 USD in Colombia.  The roads and sidewalks are equally bad in both countries.  I managed to sprain my ankle because of the uneven pavement in Cali, Colombia.  Dangis banged up his knee into the top of the pole on the sidewalk in Cali, Colombia, too.  In Ecuador, we probably walk on the streets more than on the sidewalks.  Businessmen here have their stands or workshops set up right on the sidewalks.  Also, families walk hand in hand spread across the sidewalks.  Somehow they seemed surprised that we did not vanish by the time they reach us face to face.  We do a lot of wiggling.  I do not recall of having such a hard time walking in Colombia. 

The locals here seem to be extremely proud to be Ecuadorians, more patriotic than Colombians.  When we needed help in Colombia, people would try to help us, sometime even send us the opposite direction.  Colombians would rather give wrong directions than acknowledge that they did not know.  Ecuadorians more often ignore us than not, when we asked them for help. 

We always count our change.  If our change was short, the vendor in Colombia would just quickly and quietly produce the rest of it, but the vendor in Ecuador would argue.  Also, Ecuadorians appear to be more religious than Colombians.  Alcohol is not sold in the stores on Sundays, and most restaurant and little stores are closed.  During a Holy week, Manta, the city we are in right now, was a ghost town.  We found everyone at the beach.  On Fridays, most restaurants serve fish only.  Last Friday we got fish soup and the choice of 3 dishes from fish.  I guess we could here church bells from every hotel room we stayed in, at least in Ecuador. 

Some things in South America remind me of Soviet times in Lithuania.  People cut in lines here all the time.  Sometimes I wish I could speak more Spanish, so I could say something.  A lot stores lock the doors 15 minutes in advance to make sure all people leave before closing time.  The girls wear high heels to the beach, as in Palanga.   Some of the pop music reminds me of older Lithuanian or Russian older pop songs.  There a lot of girls with dancing in all the videos, kind of like in rap videos.  From what I heard, the plastic surgery is the most popular in Colombia.  Also, there are a lot of old LADA cars in Ecuador, way more than in Colombia.  All the cars are taken care for in both counties- always clean and sometimes even pimped.  And everyone drives like crazy in both countries, too.  The crosswalk and stop signs seem to be totally unnecessary, since nobody stops anyway.  There even exists a beeping language.  I believe I started to understand it.  A driver beeps, if he is passing someone to warn them not to change lanes, if he is approaching intersection, if he sees a pedestrian close by, or someone in front of them stops for any reason. 

For now, we settled in Manta, a reasonable size town with 230,000 people.  Our hostel is located on the hill, so we can see the Pacific Ocean from our room balcony.  The only other guests in our hostel are 4 sailors.  They are at work during the day, so we have the hostel all to ourselves.  The building is old with very high ceilings and spacious rooms.  We also have to share our room with ants, but they do not bother us too much.  We do sometimes get bitten by mosquitos and flies, though. 

After travelling for over 2 months now, we learned to not always listen to other people's advice.  We were advised not to visit Manta because it had nothing special to offer.  So far, we enjoyed it the most and plan to stay here for another week.  I have read a couple of books already, started taking surfing lessons for free, and we swim in the ocean during the sun set, while there is always someone playing soccer on the shore.

Salento. Cali. Colombia

2013.02.24. It is 33rd day of our travels. We reached Salento, Colombia.This town is located in the center of Cafetera - coffee growing area. After short walk, we reached the hostel. It was recommended by Australians from Medellin - hostel La Floresta, paid 35,000 pesos. The owner of this hostel was very polite, atmosphere was very welcoming, so we enjoyed our stay there.

Next day we went took the coffee tour. We went to Don Ellias farm, met with the owner´s grandson - Jose. He gave us a tour of their family farm.
Coffee plants give fruit twice a year after 1 year. Farmers gather 70% of the coffee fruit in May and 30% in October. It takes 3 months to gather coffee fruit each time. Then fruit goes through grinder, which separates coffee beans from coffee fruit skin. Skin becomes compost, and coffee beans go to special location to dry. After 20-30 days of drying coffee beans go to another town Armenia for some automatic processing separating coffee beans.  Then they are being fried in pans for 1 hour stirring all the time. About 4-5kg of coffee fruit are gathered from 1 plant.
Owner´s grandson Jose gave this information in Spanish, but he was so good at explaining that we understood everything. He showed us how pineapples are growing (it takes 1.5 year to grow one pineapple!). He gave us fresh Colombian coffee to taste. We enjoyed it.

Next day we went to Cocora park. The park is famous for the tallest wax palm trees. It was a nice hike, we met Australian couple, who we were walking with half way, crossing through 6 wobbling bridges. Then Australians went to see hummingbirds, and we went up to the mountain. On the way we met another traveler -black dog, who followed us all the way down the mountain. Going up, it started getting cold, we went into the cloud. When we were headed downhill, we saw a lot of huge palm trees, it was an incredible view, felt like some giants surround you...

Huge temperature differences during this hike: cold, hot, and some rain, made Jotvinge sick. But we already made 2 main trips in Salento, so we could relax and do nothing for couple of days. We bought antibiotics for Jotvinge. It was strange that medicine in Colombia is very cheap and no prescriptions required!

We met a lot of travelers, nice people in Salento. Now the best part: We met a couple: a guy from Poland and a girl from Belgium. They were trying to get south of Salento, towards Ecuador and they were unable due to coffee farmers strike. The roads were blocked everywhere. That´s when we found out about the strike, and it was not a good news for us. We did not know at that time, that we were going to be stuck for 9 days in Salento and Cali. But still we had great time in Salento, especially in hostel La Floresta!  We made some friends there: Chris from Germany who was studying Spanish, and Vera from Argentina who was healing after teeth surgery. 

We heard that roads open up to Cali, Colombia, so we took two buses to Cali. Arrived there with no problems, went to the recommended in the guidebook hostel -Tostaky, paid 45,000 pesos. After this we decided not to trust our guidebook (at least accommodation-wise) because this hostel was dirty, loud, people were chatting until 3:30am, and hostel staff was very rude.

Anyways, next day we started searching for another hostel online and found one nearby, so we moved to CALI Hostel, paid 35,000 pesos. This hostel was way more our style, although rooms were small, but it was quiet, and the staff -Fabian and Andres were very helpful and gave us suggestions were to go, and what to see. Every day we received information that coffee farmers' strike is almost over, at first we believed it, but days went by and nothing was happening, even worse - we read that truckers went on strike also, then sugarcane farmers.... It was frustrating, but we did not have any airplane tickets, we could wait. The English couple Elin and Flin who were also staying in our hostel had airplane tickets to London some time soon. I called to American Embassy in Bogota about the strike and spoke with lady named Megan. At first she did not understand what strikes in Colombia I was talking about, and after awhile she said that she cannot do anything to help me. While the British embassy was contacting Colombian government trying to find out what was happening and trying to put our English friends on the Colombian air force plane to Ecuador. Interesting Bureaucracy in American Embassy in Bogota!! We tried to figure out how we could go south: by bicycle, walk (9 days to open roads). Another option locals (and American Embassy) suggested was to find a local guy with the car, pay him to go through guerilla territory, where the road was open, but very dangerous.  And of course, the obvious and expensive option was to just buy an airplane ticket.

Although other people told us not to go to Cali, but we were forced to, and we liked the city. They say it is dangerous, but we did not feel like it. We went to dance salsa (Jotvinge sprained her ankle), and an art museum.
We met Argentinian couple, who travel on foot for 3 days to reach Cali from Popayan. We met German guy Johannes, British couple Elin and Fin, who we hope to still meet in Quito.

Last day we were in Cali, we met our Lithuanian friend Kestutis who lives in Chicago. It was very nice to meet him. Although we had a few hours together, it was interesting to listen to his stories and experiences in South America (he was traveling from December and will be flying back to Chicago in a week).

Saturday evening we said good buy to Cali hostel staff (Fabian and Andres), to Kestutis, to Cali and together with German friend Johannes left for Ecuador....

Jardin. Manizales. Colombia

  We are ready to go again. Day before leaving Medellin, we met guys from England and Canada. Even the couple travelling with the bicycles has returned to our hostel. So we had a delightful dinner that day.
Next day we had breakfast and together with the Englishman went to the bus terminal. Englishman was traveling over a year already. Before Colombia, he´s been traveling in Asia, liked India and Birma. His spending average was  $5-10 per day in Asia. I would say it is pretty cheap. Englishman told us that to get to Tibet is a different story:  you need 5 people with the same nationality to apply for the group permit to Tibet and it is very expensive.

Anyway, we reached the terminal and turned different ways: the English traveller went to Manizales, and we went to Jardin. We noticed that buses in Colombia are very punctual, at least so far. We were leaving everytime with no problems on time.

Jardin is a small town, located in the Andes mountains. To get there you will need to pass a few mountains and the road is zigzag all the way for 3.5 hours. Bus was not full, but Jotvinge felt dizzy while driving zigzag.
When we arrived, we started looking for accomodations, which was very easy to find. To look for hostels in a small town is definitely easier than in a big city. We found one for 26,000 pesos ($15) with a private bathroom - LA POSADA FAMI-HOTEL. The owner Roberto was very nice, kept offering us different tours. The hotel was in the main plaza and above the bar, so it was noisy, but survivable. It was no kitchen available, but we still enjoyed staying there overall.

After two days of relaxing, we started exploring the town and its surroundings. We went hiking to the mountains. The mountains are fully cultivated: people growing bananas, mandarins, oranges, tomatoes, beans, lulos and, of course, coffee plants.  Lulos - fruit, that tastes like kiwi, but more sour, and looks like yellow tomato (they say it is very healthy). Anyway, to hike you need to go on the path, because there are fences everythere: private property. But we had nice hikes for two days.  Nature there is very beautiful. Town name Jardin means garden and it definately suits.


The town itself is very nice, too. We noticed a lot of colorful, beatiful houses, you can see that people there live pretty well.  On the way back to town from one of our hikes, we met a woman and her son. I was wearing Lithuanian t-shirt, and she recognized that I am from Lithuania. Originally Regina is from Belarus, but lives in England for many years, so her Russian is not very good. She is 74 and still travelling. We met them couple more times, had interesting conversations. Her son had travelled a lot, all over South America, so he gave us advice where to go.

Our travelling continues and we took the bus to Manizales. Travel from small town as Jardin is difficult: we needed to wake up early and beat the bus station at 6am. There were only one bus company, so they charged everybody whatever they wanted. So it was an expensive trip to Manizales. Our bus driver was very nice, he even knew where Lithuania is located and that Bogota´s previous meyer was Lithuanian. Somehow we could understand almost everything he told us in Spanish. He showed us Antioquia University and stopped to show us citrus trees.  Its fruit are not eatable, but the trees are used as a fense from falling rocks. We saw fallen rocks on the road a few times. Driver said that couple of days cars couldn´t pass them.

Manizales. We selected hostel from our guidebook. Found it very easy: from bus terminal took a cable car to the hostel BASECAMP, which was located in the center, cost - 60,000 pesos ($33). Receptionist did not want to bargain at all, although the hostel was empty. It was only us and another couple there. It was a lot of rules and responsibilities put on the walls everywhere and it was written in a very rude manner. People who work there did not even bather to open the front door when somebody was ringing, I was openning the doors. This hostel is owned by an American. At least there were non-stick pans (first time during our travels). We were planning to visit Los Nevados mountains with elevation of 5km, but the main mountain complex was closed due to resent vulcano activity. I think that was the reason it was very empty in our hostel.

In the evening we went to the center by the main Cathedral and asked some group of girls to take the picture of us together. Then we started talking with them (all of them knew English very well).  All of them were from different Colombian cities, visiting one girl who lives in Manizales. They all were chemical engineers, studied in Bogota together. They offered us to go with them to see the city. We agreed fast!
We went to the part of the city, called Chipre, where was a famous sculpture, and you can see the whole city.
Sculpture was dedicated to the Founders of Manizales- very impressive.  And to the west you can see seven mountains, after which there is Pacific Ocean, but you can´t see it.

Manizales itself is higher than Medellin, located on the mountain, as Medellin is located in the valley of the mountains.  We took a lot of pictures.

After this the girls offered us to go to another point.  At first we did not understand where we were going, but we agreed. We went to a bullfight Arena. Near the entrance we saw a lot of paintings on the outside walls. The man´s and woman´s portraits were among those paintings. It was one of the girls (from Manizales)  Maria´s grandparents. Her grandfather was raising bulls for fights, he was one of the first doing that and now her father is raising bulls, who we had an honor to meet. We spoke with  Mr. Miguel and his
wife, Mrs. Luz Maria about their business. It was great experience to hear and to see everything. It made our day! Their son is studying to be a vet and will be joining family business.

We went inside the Arena for the first time. It has around 14,000 seats there, but today it was only us. We got to get in through the main entrance where only bull fighters (matadors) go through. We saw the small chapel inside the Arena, where matadors pray before the fight. Also we saw, where they keep bulls before the fight.
Bulls are brought two days before the fight, that way they can rest. Bulls are supposed to be minimum 4 years old and at least 440kg, almost half a ton! Bull fights are only happening in Mexico, Venesuela, Colombia, Ecuador and Peru in Latin America. The family we met are raising bulls for all of those countries. Spain, Portugal and France - Europe countries where bull fight are taking place.

It was one of the most interesting and exciting experience so far! Next day we needed to move on early morning to head out of rainy Manizales...

Jotvinge and I finally said goodbye to the Caribbean coast and arrived to the second largest Colombian city Medellin.  Around 2.7 million people live here, and it is  surrounded by the mountains.

Casa Kiwi, Medellin, 02-12-2013

From the airport we took the bus to the center of the city.  When we explained where we needed to go, the bus driver dropped us near the taxi. Strange?! So we finally got to El Poblado, as it was said in the guide book - one of the best parts of Medellin.  But for us, it felt just like US : a lot of tourists, very expensive restaurants, bars, stores, and hotels, and you can´t bargain there. It is a good place to party, so it was a lot of very young people. That´s not what we were looking for.

After a long search for a cheaper hostel, we decided to stay in CASA KIWI for 60,000 pesos, which had free Internet, a kitchen, and even a roof top pool. It was a very nice hostel, but we couldn´t stand the noise and the crowd. So we spent a bit more time searching for a different hostel on Internet. Finally, I found a couple of hostels, and the next day we moved to another part of the city- El Laureles.

Palm Tree Hostel, Medellin, 02-14-2013

We took two buses.  When we finally reached the address of the hostel, people said it was not a hostel, but somebody´s apartment. So we went to another hostel I found on Internet, and the house appeared to be abandoned. The neighbour said it belonged to mafia. It was crazy!! We were walking with our bags on for 4 hours and we got very tired and frustrated. It was good that didn´t reserve those rooms in advance. I believe it was some kind of scam.

Anyway, we finally found the hostel-PALM TREE HOSTEL.  The first night we paid 60,000 pesos. Then the next night they moved us to a different room with discount, so we paid 54,000 pesos afterwards.

With James from San Francisco, Medellin, 02-14-2013

After the adventures of finding accommodations, we were exhausted.  So we relaxed for couple of days. We start exploring Laureles, it was much nicer than El Poblado. The people in our hotel were much nicer and quieter. We met some interesting people there.

James and his wife are travelling from Mexico on bicycles. They are from San Francisco. It was very interesting and inspiring to us to see that people in their 50-ties can do that kind of journey! They explained us that there were bicyclist community all over the world.  You can stay in their houses, but you need to arrange this in advance and contribute by cleaning apartment or something else. The bicycles they have, weigh around 60kg (120lbs) each. They did 11,000 km so far!! It is fascinating!!

With Gustavo and Ana, Pueblito, Medellin, 02-16-2013

On Saturday we arranged the meeting with our friend Gustavo, who we met in Tayrona park. He arrived with his ex girlfriend Ana. We went to the center, where we saw beautiful buildings, famous old hotel, a lot of sculptures of fat people- that´s Medellin´s original art. It was very nice.
For lunch we went to the restaurant, we tried Medellin´s specialty - BANDEJA PAISA.  That was a big meal, which included a lot of meat (bacon, sausage, beef), rice, beans, and vegetables. By the way, the people of Medellin and whole Antiouqia call themselves Paisas.

Medellin, 02-17-2013

After a nice lunch, we went to small town of Pueblito, which was located on the mountain inside Medellin. It was nice old town, it used to be a radio station there. From Pueblito we could see the whole Medellin. There was a market in Pueblito, a lot of souvenirs, so Anna decided to buy a present for Jotvinge - earrings, it was a beautiful gesture. After a nice day, we split up and in the evening Gustavo and Anna arrived for some drinks to our hostel. We spend lovely evening talking. We stayed up pretty late that night.....

Next evening we met some more interesting people. We met an Australian couple, who have already been travelling for 1.5 YEARS!!  James and Fleur are very interesting people and travelers, they gave us a lot of advice about where to go.  And we are planning to use their advice.

Talking with local kids, Medellin, 02-17-2013

Another interesting part of Medellin is their Metro system. As Gustavo told us and we saw ourselves, it is like a different culture, it is very clean there. We saw cleaning ladies were cleaning parts of the floor with the tooth brush! People in the trains were very polite. As Gustavo told us that Colombians trying to spread Metro culture all over Colombia.  There are two Metro lines and tree cable car lines. We took both Metro lines and one of the cable car lines to the mountains. We tried walking up the mountain through the poorer neighbourhood (locals later told us it was dangerous to walk there).   We enjoyed the hike, but it was very steep, so we went half way and went back. We had a chance to see how poor people live in Colombia. Jotvinge said it was like in the movies- small houses, clipped to one another. Interesting experience!

We also went to the botanic garden.  It was beautiful there.  We saw a lot of interesting animals there: turtles, colorful birds, even huge iguanas jumping on the trees, and, of course, exotic plants and flowers, which Jotvinge liked very much. After that we met a girl, who spoke a little bit of English and she was studying in the university. She let us in the University campus (although there was a security and you could not get in if you were not a student).  We wanted to buy a textbook to learn Spanish, but coudn´t get it. Anyway, the campus was very big, a lot of buildings there, even a huge outdoor pool (we wanted to swim there badly!).
On Tuesday we left to go to Jardin, Colombia. That´s the town, recommended to visit by our new friends James and Fleur. It was very nice to stay and see Medellin, very cultural city with nice gardens, universities, museums, nice buildings (they have only intelligent building in the world), and metro system (the only one in Colombia). A little more than 10 years ago it was very dangerous city ( it was hometown of  famous narcotrafficer Pablo Escobar), but now everything has changed-  I did not expect to see such a beautiful city.

Now we are looking forward for our next part of our journey to the mountains and coffee plantations - Jardin.