South America

Oh Colombia... just when I think that it's hard for you to live up to the hype I go somewhere like Guatape!
Out of the group of us staying in the hostal in Guatape - two of us didn't leave when we planned - one of us extended by three nights - that's how lovely it is!

Guatape town from the lake

The town itself was constructed on the shores of a man-made lake - created by a hydro-electric dam in the 70s. Although the lake flooded the original town of El Penol, that's now been re-built on one side of the lake, and Guatape's on the other. I can't explain what a huge expanse of water it is - it's not just simply a roughly circular or oval body of water - it has islands, inlets, what could be fjords, bays, pools and ponds. It's gorgeous.

From the top.... lots of water

Me - at the top of the rock

To top off the rather lovely scenery there's also a large granite monolith looming over the lake (no one can really explain how it got there - I think aliens!) - providing super views of the waterways and providing the two towns to squabble over who 'owns' the rock. One night the people of Guatape tried to paint their name on the rock, but were caught and stopped - unfortunately it now means that one side of the rock, the side facing El Penol town, has a 'G' and the start of a 'U' painted on it in white. A shame but you can imagine the Colombians passion whilst trying to paint their name on it in the dead of night.

Guatape's monolith from the lake

I swam, I cycled, I visited a local Benedictine monastery on the back of a motorbike, we climbed to the top of the rock and ate some amazing smoked buffalo. Guatape is cool. The town itself is also famous for its 'zocalos' - frieze reliefs on the facades of pretty much all the houses in town. The themes range from boats to donkeys, to farming, to the Pink Panther (?), to aeroplanes, sheep, Guatape's rock and all sorts of images in between. Fun, colourful and sometimes better than people-watching.

Guatape fountain

Guatape street

Guatape's zocalos

Detailed zocalo

After nearly a week in Guatape making new friends and relaxing I headed north back to Cartagena. I wanted to get the boat to Panama organised and that's best done in Cartagena itself. It was lovely to come back to somewhere that I'd really enjoyed and that felt familiar - it's a shame that Cartagena is prohibitively expensive for backpackers but that doesn't mean that you can't enjoy the visual delights! Thanks to a recommendation from an American I met in Guatape I sorted a boat out as best I could (nothing's secure until you're on it!) and headed east. I hadn't really explored the Caribbean coast sufficiently the first time I was up here.

After a brief stop back in Taganga, if only to re-experience the culinary delights of the Danish chef at Casa de Felipe hostal, I headed to Palomino with a much-downsized backpack (I was coming back to Taganga afterwards - yes, the food's that good!).
Palomino is on the eastern side of Parque Tayrona on the way to Riohacha and just touching the borders of the Guajira peninsula. An area of Colombia that even 8 years ago we wouldn't really have been able to travel in and one that's been heavily characterised by marijuana, growing and smuggling. Palomino isn't in the guidebooks.

So I felt suitably exploratory and off the beaten track when I got off the bus in the one-road village of Palomino and made my way along the 25 minute dirt road to the beach, and hopefully to Eco Sirena hostal where I was hoping to do some yoga and little else. By the time I arrived at Eco Sirena I was sweaty, tired and yearning for a hammock. There was a Colombian family staying there, three generations, and the Colombian/Canadian owners but that was about it. Super. It's always lovely when you feel you're somewhere as yet unexplored, forcing yourself to speak Spanish and getting away from the gringos. So imagine my surprise when a family return from their day trip up the river, they are English and live about 30 minutes away from my family home in Suffolk. Hmmm.... It was actually lovely to see an English family there and I was allowed to tag along a bit for swimming in the rivers, eating and drinking.

Eco Sirena, Palomino - early morning

My bedroom, EcoSirena Hostal, Palomino

The hostal itself is currently expanding a bit which was fascinating as the workmen always arrived before 7am each day, got straight to work, broke for breakfast a couple of hours later and seemed to have a very good work ethic. I have to say that things seemed to be being completed as planned and in 4 days I definitely saw a lot of things take shape. Particularly interesting was watching them thatch the roof with dried palm leaves.

Completing the roof with palms, Eco Sirena, Palomino

Completing the palm roof

The Colombian family were equally as lovely as the English one. The family was from Bogota and had flown up to the coast, but put their car on a transporter too - so they could get about the area. A great idea and it also meant that I was able to cadge a lift to Riohacha (Palomino is pretty much equidistant between Santa Marta and Riohacha on the coast). I didn't really know what to expect, I hadn't really taken to Santa Marta so wasn't expecting anything nice, and was really only going to satisy my yearning for some retail therapy. The Wayuu Indians of the Guajira peninsula knit/weave some beautiful handbags for both men and women which I'd been coveting for over a month since I'd seen them in Cartagena the first time. They were over 100,000 pesos in Cartagena and in Riohacha, where you can seem them being made, they cost 45,000. I would much prefer to buy them from the locals - not simply because of the cost. The Colombian grandma was also buying a few for herself and as presents - so it was a rather fun girly shopping day - the grandad was very well trained and said that they all looked the same to him! We also got a rather lovely fish lunch - a 'cazuela' - which is sort a soup with yummy things in it. What I love is that it's about 30 degree heat and in England we'd never consider eating soup when it's that hot outside - unless it's chilled gazpacho - but in Colombia all do it.

Riohacha promenade - bag heaven

I have to admit that I found the bag shopping quite stressful - too much choice, too much I loved and I wanted to buy something from all of the lovely sellers. As Colombians buy these bags for themselves and tourists don't go to Riohacha very much I think it was lovely for the vendors to chat to some gringos and hear us rave about their work. The English family had also visited a couple of days before and bought heaps of bags too!

The Colombian grandparents were super tour guides. Although it's their country they admitted that they didn't know this province at all well so they got us into the closed cultural centre, got me some lovely books on Wayuu legends given to me gratis by the centre, drove off into the wilds to find flamingoes and all the while told me what they did know and how their perceptions of the Guajira area were changing as we were exploring. It seems there's a salt mine quite nearby the eastern side of Riohacha which you could has pumped a lot of money back into the town. It was clean, smart, proud and so much more pleasant than Santa Marta.

The Wayuu are traditionally quite aggressive, jealous of their women and together with the Kogi Indians not that keen on gringos because we do things like spray all their crops to get rid of the 'weed' plantations. We discovered that day that they are still very much armed and ready to act if necessary - nothing threatening but they were armed. The area was such a big smuggling place that even the coastal road at one point widens to ridiculous proportions, aeroplane runway-like proportions - an observation that my Colombian grandad then confirmed by saying that at night the smugglers used to park their cards across the road, close it off, and the smuggling planes used to land there. And this isn't that long ago!

Colombian grandad, Guillermo, also pointed out to me, something I would not have noticed otherwise, that the majority of cars in Riohacha, unless a taxi, had Venezuelan numberplates. Cars are cheaper and Venezuela is close enough for the Colombians to buy them there and then cross the border. Together with cars, thanks to Mr Chavez's huge fuel subsidies (that countries like Cuba also benefit from), the Colombian petrol stations in Riohacha have no fuel. We pulled into about 4 stations only to be told there was no petrol. The stations have given up as they can't compete with the cheap Venezuelan fuel (that is apparently also a better quality) that is brought over the border and brought over in a tanker with the help of a few bribes. To give you an idea on costs.... a gallon of petrol in Colombia costs 8,000 pesos, in Venezuela it costs 2,000 pesos. So after a few bribes the sellers in Riohacha are able to sell their gallons for 3,000. A massive saving for the Colombians. The grandparents were reluctant to buy off the black-market but as there was no fuel elsewhere to buy legitimately, we had to do it. Apparently the Colombian police pretty much turn a blind eye - until there's an accident - which when there are plastic Coca-Cola bottles filled with fuel all over the roadsides of the province is probably quite often.

Petrol station near Riohacha

Filling up with fuel from Venezuela in Colombia

All in all an interesting day and I really enjoyed my time on the coast in Palomino.

After a couple of nights back in Taganga I'm now back in Cartagena and have paid my deposit for the boat trip to Panama via the San Blas Islands - hopefully departing this week. I can't wait, I think it'll be another trip highlight.

Fossils I went in search of and fossils I found. I felt like Ross from Friends! I took a bicycle for a 20km route round Villa de Leyva and saw a 10 million year old sea-creature which could only be described as a really big, scary looking early crocodile. It was a Pleiosaurus, apparently, and was found by a farmer in the 70s - one of the few complete skeletons of that creature left. The head alone was 2.5m long and even though I'm now over my fear of the sea - if I knew that was in it - I'd never get in again. Scary and evil looking.

IMG_6323

The museum it was housed in was basically like an English village hall. I believe that the locals have refused to have it moved to a national museum, which is good for them, but it was an extraordinary display for such an important fossil.

IMG_6322

Cycling on in the heat, with the chain periodically coming off, I went to the archaeological site of a solar observatory created by the indigenous Muisca tribe. Hmm... even the signs describe it as phallic. I don't have any idea and got no better idea once inside (it was technically closed for lunch but they let me in cos I was a sweaty, panting mess) of why large stone penis-shaped stones will be able to connect better with the sun. Just extraordinary, but nice for a wander and I couldn't help but stifle a giggle.

IMG_6328

IMG_6331

Next stop was the paleontology museum nearer town. Run by the university in Bogota, it was a lovely little museum set up in an old mill with some English signs and a student giving me a bit of a tour. I was the only visitor so I think they were thrilled to see me.

After a few days in Villa de Leyva recovering from my first cold of the trip, having some exotic fruit juices (guanabana, feijoa to name two), chatting with a Colombian chap brought up in New York but who comes back every year for a holiday and speaking with the English hostel owner who met her Colombian husband in London but they are bringing their children up in Colombia - much to the English grandparents chagrin I believe - I left on a bus back to Bogota. The idea being to get straight on a night bus to Cali - all went to plan, super - including the lit up Virgin bust at the front of the bus that only glowed when the bus braked - ingenious.

For me, there was nothing redeeming about Cali. There are no photos. The self-proclaimed salsa capital of Colombia is ugly, busy, noisy, the people seemed less friendly and it was the first time I came across tourists/travellers really getting into their cocaine. I'm pleased to say that one of the reassuring things about the rude taxi drivers, was that they seemed to do the same to everyone - including far better Spanish speakers. This happened to me a few times and to others, so I think it's a Cali thing - you give the taxi driver the address (in all instances the address has been central and easy to get to) and he feigns ignorance. Rather than say he'd rather not take you, already has a job, doesn't want to drive there, doesn't want backpacks dirtying his car etc - they just said they didn't know the address. So frustrating - even when you adapted the address to a main street nearby. I have no idea why they didn't want the jobs but it was mighty annoying. Up until then taxi drivers had been some of best, and most fluent, conversations.

On a day trip from Cali I ventured a little further south to Popayan - a place that ideally I should have stayed in instead. It's meant to rival Cartagena in the colonial city beauty stakes - and it was lovely - but it rained the whole day so I strolled a little but mainly ate and drank - a good way to get to know a place! The people were very friendly and a nice change after Cali! No salsa in Cali after all - but I knew they'd be other opportunities.

After Cali I headed into coffee country - what a delight! I stayed in Salento and loved it. It's peaceful, pretty, with gorgeous countryside and lovely people - I stayed for longer than expected - it's so nice when that happens.

Salento main square

Salento isn't far west from Bogota so it's popular with the city-dwellers at weekends. One thing, both about Salento and Villa de Leyva, was that they were completely set up for tourists with good amenities, transport, shops etc. - but this tourism wasn't meant for gringos. So I got all the benefits of the national tourism whilst still feeling authentically Colombian. The men walk around, or trot around on their horses (at least twice I saw horses trying to walk into the food market with their owners), with cowboy hats, local ponchos and wellies. They go into the billiard/snooker halls (there were two in Salento) dressed like this, have yummy strawberry puddings in the plaza dressed like this - it's brilliant.

Salento local

Dream of Strawberries - great cafe

Salento town - Camino Real

The town itself has a look-out point, colourful houses, lots of shops and restaurants, a cafe with a coffee machine from 1905 and lots of surrounding coffee fincas for tours. If you get up early enough too you can get a jeep from the plaza to Corcora - there's a brilliant hike through a blue gate (very important) into the Valley of Corcora, up a hill to a viewpoint and then a loop back round to Corcora and the returning jeeps. This hike is easy to do alone.... they say that about all hikes I'm keen to do! Thankfully there were four chaps from the hostel also keen to go the same day as me, thank god they were with me, we got brilliantly lost - partly thanks to me and a French chap. We were properly having to cut our way through the scrub but it was good fun and we made it back in one piece. The valley is home to Colombia's national tree - the wax palm. I thought I'd seen palm trees before but these were splendid - they can reach about 60 metres high and are dotted all over the landscape. It was beautiful.

Morning view of the valle at the start of a hike

Valle de Corcora

Valle de Corcora, Salento

I reluctantly left Salento for a town a few hours north called Manizales. A big university city scattered over the mountains and near one of Colombia's crown jewels of a Nationa Park - the Nevado. I wasn't too excited about the city itself but was keen for a hike to the mountains and seeing some snow in the tropics. Oh dear the weather was not on my side - and it was an expensive day to walk about in cloud and be rained on. A shame but actually the city turned out to be interesting with a re-inforced concrete cathedral, modern areas, brilliant public transport system to get over the hills - a cable car - and good locals. Next stop Medellin - home of the infamous Medellin cocaine cartel.

The city has obviously in the past had some rather bad press but it seems to have reinvented itself amazingly. It's my favourite Colombian city so far with good nightlife, great restaurants and cafes, brilliant metro system that also incorporates a cable car on the same ticket, lovely weather, lots of museums, things to do and see - the list goes on. Very enjoyable - and I got to practice some salsa.

Medellin metro

Medellin public transport

The other lovely thing about Medellin is that it's home to my new favourite artist - Fernando Botero. His sculptures adorn a central plaza of the city and his paintings are housed in a very smart art-deco museum nearby.

Colombians love their big bottoms

Plaza Botero, Medellin

Plaza Botero, Medellin

Botero's Pablo Escobar Dead

One afternoon in Medellin I joined a tour to inform me a bit about the Pablo Escobar/Medellin cartel's story. Very interesting. Part of the tour was to go to one of the only houses left to the Escobar family post the government's taking and freezing of their assets (it was not in the Escobar name) and meet Roberto, Pablo's brother. I had heard that this was possible and it seemed the best tour to do - you're allowed to ask any questions, have a tour of the house etc. Prior to the tour, I could think of no better way to get informed. The tour guide was a university student studying tourism and business and was very good indeed - unfortunately for her, and us, the driver of the minibus used to work for Pablo for 30 yrs as a bodyguard - so as good bullshit as that was, it meant the tour guide, Natalia, could never give us her honest opinion, her thoughts, the other side of the story whilst he was in ear-shot. She didn't want to disrupt her job by upsetting the family or a family friend.
So I fear we only got one side of the story a little bit - but in fact it made me realise just how horrendous the drugs situation was/is in Colombia. What was not said spoke volumes. The Medellin cartel and cocaine in general managed to ruin the country with consequences still felt today. I think the Escobar family are deluded enough to think that they are very philanthropic and really were helping the poor of the city. When asked a question about how bad Roberto felt about how much they'd ruined the country - he simply replied that he was very sad. No more. When asked a question pertaining to spending money, how Pablo escaped the self-imposed luxury prison he was in, how rich they were etc., Roberto was only to happy to wax lyrical and give us some good gangster stories. He was a perfectly pleasant man to us but there's something inherently evil there I believe.

Before heading north to Cartagena I've stopped off a couple of hours east of Medellin in a charming little town called Guatape. It's on the shores of a man-made lake - thanks to a hydro-electric dam - is beautiful, has lots of trout on the menu and some good hiking, swimming, kayaking etc to do. I'm going to stay a few days I think!

Hooray - with the arrival of my friend Helen from the UK I got to read weekend English newspapers, brilliant trashy gossip magazines and taste the fine beef extract of Bovril. Oh the simple things...
Actually part of what made all of those things great is that we were in Colombia and heading off to the Caribbean coast - oh it's a hard life. Unfortunately for Helen her one morning in Bogota was seriously dampened by rain but as it's not the prettiest city in the world and she was keen to see some sunshine we went straight to the airport to fly to Santa Marta.
Wow - the humidity was immense, but the hostel had a pool, we went for some beers and lovely ceviche and prawn supper on the seafront and booked ourselves onto a four day Ciudad Perdida (Lost City) trek with a great company called Turcol departing the following morning. It's all go when you've only got a fortnight to get a taste of a country! After a mad dash once the shops opened in the morning for sun cream and insect repellent we were ready to go.

The rolling hills of Colombia's sierra

Turcol have been in the trekking business there the longest and looked after us brilliantly. Rather a nice surprise (perhaps not as exciting for Helen as she'd just come from there) was that our trekking group consisted of 7 English girls. Not only had I not seen that many English together for 8 months but also for us all to be female was quite rare. We all got along splendidly and even the guide commented how 'together' and 'supportive' we were as a group of each other. Helen and I were the oldest in the group, but we kept up with the youngsters.
I'd heard a lot about the trek - back in newspaper articles in the UK and even from other trekkers when in Torres del Paine, Chile. It was all about the walk apparently, the ruins weren't meant to be that exciting. The descriptions I'd had were that there was wading across rivers, swimming in rivers, steep ups, steep downs, lots or rain and therefore mud - and lots of bugs. One friend even described it 'as the sweatiest thing she'd ever done' - but then she hadn't been on the walks with me in the Bolivian jungle.

Hmmm... she was right. Unbelievably 'glowing' for 4 days. Although the trek was hard, because we'd condensed the same distance into 4 days as opposed to the usual 5 or 6, I don't actually think I could have mentally put on my sweaty, wet shorts, socks and walking boots for 5 mornings in a row - 3 was enough. At first we were being so careful to cross streams on the rocks and we cursed if we got the slightest river water on our walking boots - little did we realise that we'd be wading across strong rivers fully clothed hoping everything in the bag was staying dry. Because of the humidity too, nothing dried at night. I was smug that I'd enough clean, dry socks each morning, but that meant nothing once they were put in a wet, fetid walking boot. The boots took 4 days to dry out and still stink - hmmm, they're not coming back to the UK with me.

Kogi children, sierra nevada near Santa Marta, Colombia

Last river crossing before the city

2nd night's accommodation

Anyway, enough of the trek - it was superb, fun, exhausting and the ruins were amazing. Our guide managed to nab a US educated archaeologist at the site for us so we got some great first-hand information. He was brilliant - we noticed that no other groups with other guides chatted to him - perhaps that's when the 7 girls thing helps. The city was built by the Tayrona people in about 600 AD. It spans over 30 hectares and although it's location is steep and heavily forested - at its height it was all clear for farming and would have had great views of the Sierra Nevada of Santa Marta.

The military are permanently based at the site

Lots of steps at the Ciudad Perdida

Looking back over the central area of the city

The ruins/trek is also famous for a kidnapping by left-wing guerillas early last decade - taking tourists and the guide too. That guide was also on site that day, he works for Turcol and again we got a good little history lesson from him and heard first hand all about the kidnapping. Interesting stuff. There is now a military presence all the time based at the site and you could tell we were the first tourists up the 1200 steps to the city that morning as they hurriedly cleared away chairs and make-shift tables as we made our way up the ruins. What's also rather lovely, and something I don't think the Colombian government want to change is that only about 25 tourists make it to the site each day and thanks to its size it means you hardly have to see anyone else. Lovely.

Colombia's sierra near Santa Marta

Last lunch before pushing on to the end of the trek

Well, after four days of sweat, blisters from wet walking boots and an impressive array of mosquito and sandfly bites Helen and I made our way back to Santa Marta for a night before heading east on the coast to a fishing village called Taganga. Not a very nice beach, not very nice for swimming, not a particularly nice hostel (very large centipede type thing desperately trying to get out of the loo), but Taganga does have a great restaurant run by an ex-Michelin starred chef from Europe at backpacker prices. We met up with the 5 other girls from the trek and had some lovely grub there. We also spent a couple of days exploring other beaches further east from Taganga - well worth it for better swimming, although Helen had some rather poor snorkelling.

Sun-downer in Taganga

Next up.... a 5 hour bus to Cartagena. What a gorgeous city - possibly one of the most beautiful I've ever been to. Sundowners on the old city's wall, however ridiculously expensive, are a must do. We'd splashed out on a lovely hostel, had amazing seafood for a couple of nights, wandered the streets looking at emeralds (one of Colombia's biggest earners - along with coffee and cocaine), visited the castle built to keep out Sir Francis Drake, got sunburnt (it's bloomin' hot and humid in Cartagena) and organised a 3 night all inclusive stay on an island in the Rosario archipelago an hour from the city.

The sweet seller's arcade, Cartagena

The walled city of Cartagena

San Felipe fort, Cartagena

More lovely Cartagenian architecture

Toucan in a hotel in Cartagena

So, the hotel on the island (Isla del Pirata) was a little run down, the fans didn't work in the room so were boiling hot at night and the food was disappointing but it was a beautiful spot, great sea for swimming, Helen got in some good snorkelling and we relaxed for 4 days. There were only really two other guests the whole time we were there (a French girl and a Swiss girl) so that was some good company at meal times and then during the day we just baked ourselves and swam a lot. Oh and Helen and I went round the island in a kayak - sounds tough but the island is tiny!

Hotel Isla del Pirata, Rosario archipelago, Cartagena

View of the Caribbean from our room

A few hours more in Cartagena for us both to spend too much in an emerald shop and then we caught a flight back to Bogota - boo. Helen stayed in the airport for her flight home to London and I made my way back to the hostel district.

La Candelaria neighbourhood, Bogota

Luckily the loss of a travel companion was made up for with a great hostel with lovely hot water showers and a good brekkie and an entertaining South African chap who joined me on a very different type of socio-cultural experience to a posh Bogota shopping mall on a Sunday. It was ok though cos they have a Sunday service and mass in the shopping centre - so the locals don't have to feel guilty that they aren't at church. Our greatest achievement was getting to the mall itself as the hostel said it could only be done in a taxi but after lots of asking and loitering at the bus station a really helpful lady wrote down our route, found a poor unsuspecting Bogotanian lady to translate to English for us and then waited with us to get on the right bus. So friendly and lovely - restored our faith in the capital that so far hadn't really excited either of us. Having said that I did have a good few hours in the Museo del Oro looking at all the gold and some fab un-cut emeralds and at the Museo Botero - Fernando Botero from Medellin in Colombia is the most famous living artist in the country and sculpts and paints. Some lovely things and I actually laughed out loud at some of the paintings - his style is for the larger form!

In the Museo del Oro, Bogota

Botero's couple

So... I left Bogota yesterday and got a positively short but still crazily driven bus 4 hours north to Villa de Leyva - a charming, quite posh, white-washed, perfect example of a colonial town with a large main square that's got quite a bit to do either on foot, on a tour or on a bike. I'm going for the bike option tomorrow to hopefully find fossils!

Well, it's amazing what you can achieve in a week. After a few hours of tussling with all that is sensible and better for the budget I booked flights back to the Galapagos. I managed to sneak in one more week there before heading to Columbia. Crazy but surely good for my health to get some guaranteed sunshine!

Beach, Isabela

So, I'll be brief. It's just as amazing the second time round. I went to Isabela island for a few days, where I hadn't been before and that alone made the flights back worth it. So tranquil, less populated, more natural and very beautiful.

Isabela island benches, Galapagos

Pelican at sunset

I explored southern Isabela and its beaches on a bicycle but also went snorkelling, for a walk with sea lions, watched cheeky baby sea lions chase baby white-tipped reef sharks and took a swim in Isabela's natural pool, Concha y Perla.

Concha y perla natural swimming pool, Isabela

Once back on the more populated island (Santa Cruz), I caught up with friends I'd met the month before, had a few good snorkel sessions with sea lions and big white-tipped reef sharks, saw breaching manta rays (incredible) and relaxed in the heat - oh and I'm pleased to say that a month later the giant tortoises are still mating! I could hear them before I could see them!

Turtle eating from our boat

Monster marine iguana

Blue footed booby

Waiting for a taxi from Isabela harbour

Oh and I did see something other than wildlife on Isabela. There is a so-called 'Wall of Tears' there made of lava rock that the US prisoners were forced to build whilst there was a penal colony on the island. Let me tell you, I'd also be crying if I had to lug those large heavy black rocks about in 30 degree heat.

The wall of tears, Isabela

Isabela island on a bicycle

One night back in Quito and then I've just survived a 34 hour bus journey from Quito to Bogota. A 4am wake-up by Columbian police to check all the passengers luggage was not welcome - but I'd rather over-cautious than not caring at all. The bus was a mission (and was not on a par at all with Argentinian and Peruvian buses) but worth it as I have to meet a friend from England who's arriving tonight. Can't wait to see someone who won't ask me the usual small-talk questions and who already knows me. Don't get me wrong, it's super meeting new people every day but often the conversations are very much the same!

So I'm in Bogota, it's massive. I'm going to explore the old town a bit today before heading to the Caribbean coast with Helen tomorrow.

I have to cast my mind back to think about where to start this entry - it seems like I've done so much in only a couple of weeks.
From Banos and the ash I stopped off in Latacunga, just off the Panamerican highway in order to explore Volcano Cotopaxi (the highest active volcano in the world) and also Lake Quilotoa.
The original idea was to hike the Quilotoa loop - a walk from mountain village to mountain village that can either end or start at Quilotoa, the crater lake and a one street village nestling on the rim of the crater. However... I decided that this wasn't the best trek to do by myself, decided I'd like to spend more time near Cotopaxi instead and so hopped on a bus to Quilotoa only for one night.
What a stunning sight the lake is. The village is so quiet that the only thing to do there is drink pop and stare at the lake. So I did that the afternoon I arrived and then got up early the next day to walk down into the crater to the lake edge and back out again before the bus back to Latacunga at noon. I honestly believe I was the only person in that crater at 8am that morning. I didn't see a single other soul until I got back up to the rim edge. It was glorious. Hard work walking back up, but glorious.

Quilotoa volcanic crater lake

Quilotoa lake

Once back in Latacunga I organised to stay in a rather special hostel in the foothillls of Cotopaxi volcano and I'm so pleased I did. It was a bit of a mission getting there - I had to meet a bus coming from Quito in the north on a turn off of the Panamerican highway at 11am - which didn't arrive - but all worth it. After an hours drive on cobbled streets and avoiding cows, horses and donkeys on the roads we arrived at The Secret Garden Cotopaxi. A home away from home. I was in a dorm, but this was no ordinary dorm. By the time I got into bed at night the fire in the cabin was lit, the candles burning and it was simply delightful - oh and that was all after a couple of hours in a jacuzzi with views of about 4 volcanoes. So special. The hostel itself has got a really good thing going on - grow their own veggies, salad, pigs, chickens, guinea pigs and rabbits for food. The jacuzzi is filled by a local waterfall etc - all idyllic. There were dogs, hammocks, mountain bikes, llamas, horses, great meals, super views, and have I mentioned the jacuzzi. I stayed 3 nights but could have easily stayed more. We walked to waterfalls, rode horses towards Cotopaxi in the sunshine (accompanied by one of the hostel sausage dogs - very impressive work on those little legs), walked to the 4800m high refuge/base camp of Cotopaxi and mountain biked back down and generally had a great time.

Secret Garden hostel, Cotopaxi

Me reading Jackie Collins

Me on Simon Bolivar

Me on Cotopaxi

Preparing to cycle down Cotopaxi

Cotopaxi

The big city of Quito was calling me after all this outdoorsy-ness so I set off for Quito New Town and the bright lights of American fast food joints, smog and one of the biggest colonial old towns in South America. The great thing about Quito is that within 2 hours on a bus you can get to one of South America's biggest markets, the cloud forests and hummingbirds of Mindo, Cotopaxi and the avenue of the volcanoes and much more. It's great to dip in and out of as you explore the Andes. So that's exactly what I did after a couple of days wandering round the city itself and catching up with the American mother and daughter I'd met in the Galapagos and since seen in Cuenca. The day with them in the suburbs where they are staying was lovely - aside from a nippy St Bernard and a bicycle fall, a great day out.

Quito's San Francisco church and monastery

Quito Plaza Grande

Quito Basilica

Quito Presidential Palace

Mindo, to the north-west of Quito, is a sleepy little town surrounded by protected cloud forests which are home to hundreds of species of birds, zip-lines, rafting, tubing, hiking and much more. Oh, and it's also got great local chocolate! I got a super deal (because it was mid-week and all the Quito weekenders weren't around) on a private cabin with hummingbirds outside my window and set off to a butterfly farm, went zip-lining over 3500m of cables over the forest canopy and went on a 5 hour bird-watching walk. What can I say, I'm like my father and was a young ornothologist, once - oh and toucans, parrots and hummingbirds are cool.

Butterfly in Mindo

Blue Morpho butterfly

Motmot

Pale mandibled arcari (toucan)

Mindo cloud forest

Russet rumped toucanet

Booted racket-tail hummingbird

After Mindo I headed back to Quito to catch a bus straight to Otavalo - directly north. I arrived on the Friday in time for an early rise on Saturday morning to venture to the famous animal market. There's nothing quite like seeing old traditionally dressed Ecuadorean women dragging, or being dragged, by squealing pigs; men with calves and sheep draped round their shoulders like scarves; locals eating their cow's stomach breakfast in between buying the real live beast; and seeing pigs running away from their owners rather than be sold. Great fun - noisy, bustling and how a South American market should be.

Animal market, Otavalo

Just been bought, or waiting to be sold?

Bartering over guinea pigs

Basket full of kittens - normal for Otavalo

Running away from the market

Guinea pig anyone?

Once the animal market had calmed down and I'd had some breakfast (not pig, cow or offal) I went to the slightly more sedate textiles and artesan's market. Oh dear - I left Otavalo with a bag (I already am carrying 4!), two cushion covers (even though I'm not travelling with a sofa), earrings and a ring. All good fun purchasing and thank god I didn't take more cash out with me - the Otavalans know how to sell!

Otavalo market

Traditional women's dress - Otavalo market

Otavalo market, Ecuador

I'm now back in Quito for a couple of days while I plan the next bit of the trip - which might involve a trip back to the Galapagos, or into the Amazon - I'm being indecisive. Today I went up Quito's Teleferico (a cable car ride up to 4100m over-looking the city) with my American mother and daughter friends, Linda and Irene. Lovely to see them, probably for the last time in South America, and hike a bit of the volcano looming over Quito. They were also brave enough to get on horses but after nearly 4 hours on one in Cotopaxi and the mountain bike ride in Quito's suburbs since - I stuck to my own two feet.

Quito Teleferico

Quito from the top of the Teleferico

So I've got to my last few days in Ecuador. I have to be in Bogota for 28th May so who knows what I'll squeeze in before then.