Carnaval!!!

Oh man. That was so fun! There were 8 of us who rented an apartment in Baranquilla, which turned out to be a really nice place. It was me, Dasha from CA/ Russia, Monica from Ohio, Greg from CA, Gavin, Mike, Alex and Roisin from Ireland.We got there on Saturday, hung out, missed the main parade which I am still bitter about, went out on Saturday night but nothing really worth mentioning.

The next day, we FINALLY got out of the house and went to watch the parade. It wasn't as crazy as I expected, but then again, the big parade was on Saturday, which we missed. We walked around the streets, drank, sprayed eachother with flour and foam and took lots of pictures. At one point, a pick pocketer got Gavin's camera and started running away. The people around us saw what happened and about 15 people started running after this guy. The cops saw and started running too. They caught him and everyone started cheering and making sure we got our camera back and offered everything they could to help. The people in Colombia are SO nice. It was a little odd sometimes though, people would stop us on the street and ask to take pictures with us. Not that many tourists come to Baranquilla Carnaval apparently.

All three days were just going to the parade during the day and then going out at night, so there really isnt much detail to go in to, so here are some pictures.

Gavin, Monica and Dasha

Parade

More parade

More parade

Third night out at the big outdoor concert

Mike, Dasha, Monica, Gavin, Greg, Roisin, Alex and Me

Me and Dasha making friends with the locals

The final day was the death of Joselito, meaning Carnaval was over. It was HILARIOUS. Everyone dressed in black and was crying through the street. It was probably my favorite parade

Some cute mourners

More funeral

cool dresses

Me and a local violently attacked

Gavin fell victim to the cutest kid ever

Overall, it was an amazingly fun time. We had a good group, everyone just wanted to have fun, next time its Brazil!!

Medellin

I didn't get to spend too much time in Medellin, but what I did see was pretty cool. The weather was nice, a little cloudy but a good temperature. Its known as the city of spring.

Medellin is set in a valley so on every side are these big green rolling hills. You can take a cable car up and over some of them, which gives you an awesome view of the city.

Downtown

Botero art

Not a very nice neighborhood, view from cable car

another hood

City

The next day, this guy John and I decided to go paragliding. It was awesome! It was so cheap too, $40. So you go up to the top of this hillside, they tie you up and you run as fast as you can of the mountain. It was the craziest feeling. Apparently, we didnt have very nice weather for it, but I still had an amazing time. But the more wind and turbulence there is, the more fun and tricks you can do, and we had no wind. Next time...

John running off

So high up!

Floating

Zona Cafetera

After Bogota, relunctnatly leaving, Justin and I took a bus to to Armenia in the coffee region of Colombia. So we arrived in Armenia at 5:30 am. We took a cab to "downtown" where a guy with one eye tried to follow us into the hostel, and settled ourselves, and took a little nap before we explored. When we finally woke up, we took a trip to Coffee Park!! We took the bus with hope in hearts that there would be a coffee fountain and streams of coffee and coffee sidewalks, but hearts were broken and it was just a place that had some coffee plants. lame. I even got in trouble on the go carts, cause I thought they were bumper cars and I kept running into people on purpse. They had to run out in the middle of the course and tell me to stop... how am I supposed to know the difference between bumper cars and go-karts... sheesh.

It was still fun, all the cheesiness we expected.

A ripe coffee bean

An old coffee plantation house

Justin after splash mountain, he was so happy.

After the coffe park, we headed back to Armenia... aka the most depressing city ever on a Sunday afternoon. We walked around for maybe 5 minutes before we decided to eat and stay as close to the hotel as we could. After eating, I suggested that we go into the local bar across the street from our hotel... HAH. That was awesome. Aguardiente. Must try.

The next morning, we headed for Solento... probably one of the best recomendations yet. We stayed at the only hostel in town, Plantation House, and had an amazing time. What a beautiful place. I know I say that a lot, but this really was. I see a lot of beautiful places and all of them are worth me saying that.

The view from my bed in the hostel

The second day, we went for a hike in the national park. Also amazing.

The start of the hike

One of the river crossings

Amazing

Wax palm trees

That afternoon, we went on a tour of the coffee plantation we stayed on and learned all about how coffee was grown and made and the differences throughout the region... but don't ask me how cause I couldn't repeat it worth squat.

The up and coming hotel on the plantation

The town of Salento is so cute. Its the town "of short streets and long memories" or something like that. It is really tiny, but so much character and charm, I could have stayed longer... again... but I must move on.

Salento

Thinking about how cool this place is

I fell in Love with Bogota

I loved Bogota! The only thing I would change is the weather, but other than that, I love it. I arrived on Sunday afternoon and the best host in the world, Felipe, came to pick me up. He showed me around a little and we ate and then I went to my hostel. I stayed in La Candeleria for the first few nights since its the touristy area and I am a tourist. Went to some museums, walked around, just explored. Mo and his friend Justin came on Tuesday, it was good to see them!

My Street

Bogota is HUGE

The Plaza

On Wednesday night, Felipe took us gringos out to dinner and then we went to a club. It was fun, he bought tequila so things got a little sloppy... on my part only. haha. On Thursday I moved to Casa Felipe, which was amazing! I wanted to move in and be the newest member of the family. His family was so nice and welcoming, thank you Felipe!

Night out

I hung out on the northern part of town Thursday through Saturday. Friday night was so fun! We went out and danced our little hearts out. Saturday we woke up and went to the Salt Mine Cathedral place. Which was also pretty amazing. It was a cathedral built in a salt mine. It was spooky.

Cathedral/salt mine

After the salt mines, we (Justin, Felipe and myself) decided to celebrate Valentines Day at Andres Carne de Res, which is probably the funnest place on earth. I almost changed my plans to stay in Bogota another night, just so we could hang out there longer. Its a restaurant outside of town that is just crazy. The people are crazy, the food is awesome, its just so entertaining and fun. I would go back just for that!

Delicious! Patacon, bananas with cheese

Valentines Day fun

Iquitos, Peru

I made it to the jungle! Iquitos is only accessible by boat or air, so it is pretty isolated up there in northern Peru, but it was amazing. Iquitos is a little town, right on the Amazon River. The main industry I think is now lumber, but it used to be rubber. It was hot, humid, and just completely different than any other place I have seen.

I arrived on Tuesday afternoon and stayed at this place called Mad Mick's. It was basically a room with 8 beds in the back of this guys trading post. It was simple, cheap and perfect, and Mike, the guy who owned it, was pretty funny. I walked around and decided to try and book a tour or something for the local area. I went to this agency that was owned by some gringos and they said since it was just me, they didn't have any individual tours but they could call this kid that was fluent in English. Jino, the kid, showed up, he was about 19, seemed nice enough, so we decided to meet they next day at 8:30.

He came and got me and we walked to the local area of town known as Belen, where they market was CRAZY! You could buy anything, turtles, crocidiles, eggs of all kinds of animals, and the fish were so fresh, they were still breathing. Next to the market is the floating city, which they call the Venice of the South... but that is a little of an overstatement... just because its floating... but whatever, it was really cool.

View of Belen

Hearts of Palm!!! Fresh!!

Turtles

Belen

More Belen

The sidewalk in Belen

After Belen, we went to a little village nearby to check it out and have a bite to eat, which, I had to pay for. The kid was nice and all, but what a freaking rip off! I paid for freaking everything and then had to pay him an obscene amount for a kid... I dont even want to admit how much he "charged" me. I feel like a schmuck. Anyway, lunch was fish that was the best fish I have ever had. The fish was called Maparati and it was served with green plantains that were grilled, mashed and mixed in delicious oil called Tacacho. It was so good, I had the same thing for lunch the next day.

Best fish ever

After lunch, we went to this park that you could swim in a lake and see some animals. We relaxed, swam, and then headed back into town.

The next day I decided to go to this town where they had a butterfly farm. You take a boat about 10 minutes down the river to the town, then walk to the farm. It was a little wet out, so not all the butterflys were out, but it was still amazing. There were all different kinds of really beautiful butterflys and catepillars. They also had some monkeys, a jaguar, a traipu or whatever they are called and an anteater! I saw an anteater!

Butterfly

Before they get pretty

The guy who took this was terrible at

taking pictures, but that thing was so cute!

Anteater!!!

That night I went out with some guys from my hostel, tried to rip it up in Iquitos but the night life isn't all that happening. I woke up at 4:30 the next morning to catch my boat to Colombia. It took about 8 hours and was really pretty. I got to the border and as I was waiting for my departure stamp from Peru, the border control notified me that I had overstayed my Visa in Peru. Excuse me? I had a visa? Apparently, I only had 30 days in Peru, but I stayed 35. I was so afraid that they were going to make me pay an arm and a leg, or go back to Iquitos and extend the visa, but fortunately, they charged me $1 for each day I had overstayed. Whew, they isn't so bad. After I paid, I crossed the river into Colombia into the town of Leticia. I wanted to get out as soon as I got in, but unfortunately I had to wait a few days before there was a flight. I literally cried about that one.

View from boat to Colombia, the Amazon was HUGE

I met some people, we hung out, it wasn't so bad, but I flew out Sunday afternoon for Bogota, which is where I am now. Just trying to plan the rest of Colombia.

I loved Peru. I am going to miss it.

Trujillo, Huanchaco, and Huaraz

Trujillo is a town north of Lima that apparently has the best looking men and women in Peru... I wasn't impressed but maybe they were sleeping. I arrived pretty late into Trujillo and got a room at this little place. The next day I walked around town a little but really wasn't in the mood for being in a town, so I took a cab to the little town of Huanchacho, which is a beach town about 12km outside Trujillo.

In the plaza in Trujillo

Since it was Sunday, the beach was PACKED! I walked around for about an hour but then had to go back to the hostel cause it was so un-enjoyable to walk around. The hostel I stayed in, Naylamp, was amazing. It was right on the water and the staff was so nice, the people staying there were really cool, and the place was so clean. Most people in the hostel had intended to stay a few days but wound up staying for over a week or more. It was one of those places that suck you in. I could have stayed a lot longer, but my time is limited, so I had to move on. While I was there, I took a surf lesson, and I stood up the first day and was like, "yeah, I like surfing, this is good stuff". The next day, however, I took out the surfboard on my own (and when you are starting out, it isn't even a surf board, its more like a raft), and got the crap kicked out of me. The waves were HUGE, and when I did catch one and tried to stand up, I immediately fell backwards and did about three summersaults under water. It was scary but the worst part was trying to paddle back. You would use all your might to paddle about a food and then a huge wave would come and knock you off your board again and you would be back at square one. It was awful. I lasted an hour before I huffed it back to shore and called it quits. I will have to try again one day. But that was enough for the time being.

The local boats

Nacho, me and Pierre

Naylamp Hostel

Sunset

I was planning on going up north to Mancora for some more beach time, but I thought to myself, ya know, I will have a ton of beach time in SE Asia, lets go to the mountains some more. Huaraz is known for the local trekking, especially the Santa Cruz trek. I wanted to do this trek for a while but its the rainy season so I wasn't sure if I should. But I decided to come here and see what it was all about. We arrived in Huaraz early Wednesday morning (by we I mean myself and Pierre who I met in Huanchacho). I looked around and found a trek leaving the next morning so I signed up. That night, I got a call saying the trip would have to be postponed until Friday because another person on the trip was sick. Whatever, no big deal. So the next morning, Pierre, myself and a couple from Spain do a morning trek up to a lagoon. It was miserable. Everything was wet, you couldn't see anything cause of clouds, and it was cold. After doing that trek, I was like hmmm, maybe I don't want to do this for 4 days on the Santa Cruz trek. So we got back to town and Pierre and I went to the office where we had signed up to do the trek and said we didn't really want to go anymore, because of timing and weather. The guy at the office, stupid Keke tours (don't use them!), said that we could either pay $60 to not go or $90 to go. I was like what the hell kind of fucked up logic is that. If I spoke more spanish I would have been all over him, but he claimed that he had paid for everything already, which is BULLSHIT, cause thats not how things work here. I am not stupid, but I couldn't figure out how to argue myself out of it, so I decided to suck it up and go. Now imagine hiking and sleeping rain for 3 days, and paying $90 to do it. Well, thats what I did, and I was bitter the whole time, so it wasn't my favorite trek of the trip, but it wasn't SO bad.

Huaraz main center

Day hike where we couldn't see anything

On the Santa Cruz hike

Not the best conditions, wet feet for 3 days

The trail... snow

Punta Union Pass, it was actually pretty, but would have

been nicer if it were sunny!

The last day was pretty nice, but still wet

The valley

The group

I did it!

The trek was supposed to be 4 days, but we shortened it to 3 cause we didn't feel like walking in the rain anymore. Today I bought a ticket to go to Iquitos, which is the jungle of Peru. I take an overnight bus to Lima tonight and then a flight out tomorrow afternoon. Screw Lima, haha. So I only have a little time left in Peru, which is weird cause I really like this country. I will be sad to leave, but ahead is Colombia which I am very excited about!