Colombia

A Holanda

After 1 year and 2 days im off to holland today. But not before i can get my hands on some nice hams in madrid airport hehe. Ill be in holland for about a month before returning to lovely colombia……. im working on a hotelplan on the coast here. Colombia is an amazing place with amazing people. Although naturewise not as impressive as argentina or chile, nor did the indigenous indians ever reach cultural levels like those in peru or bolivia; colombians are among the most warm hearted people i´ve come across – they looove a party like no one -.  And its safe despite its violent image. Well ciaooooo

Bogota

This is own favo place to lunch in Bogota. Guieri, wild pig, on the parilla.. yummieeee

Near Bogota there´s the Salt Catherdal, a church in the old salt mines, huge halls with crosses everywhere, very impressive, here with Manuela

Pacific Coast

Before Cristales I visited friends in the lovely city of Medellin and from there by plane the Pacific coast. In Medellin started a Colombian fenomena of using ski lifts to transport people to the poor neighboorhoods up the hills. A system so easy that it works and it is copied in other cites. A strange but captivating sight to see ski lifts moving above the houses.You can look on all rooftops and into the houses! In one of the poorest neighboorhoods up the hills the local government has recently build a new iconic library, talking about some unorthodox city development, and now the whole neighboorhood seems to be ´in the lift´: streets are cleaned, parcs are constructed…

Well on the coast theres waves which I unfortunately due to poor information didnt get to. I did get to the village of  where a detariorating grand hotel remains as proof of the former glorious possessions of drug lord Escobar. Furthermore, theres whales. But no tourists. So I had to hire a boat solo to see these gigants. And of course this day it rained and rained. There I was sitting alone (with 2 locals steering) in this boat in just my t’shirt in the pooring rain feeling.. well not miserable but, ok a bit. No whales all day and I was feeling a new wild animal trauma coming up (after the Chilean pinquins and the missing of pumas or jaguars in Bolivia) when on the way back some whales were spotted. Huge whalebacks, I think 3, blowing these watershowers meters int the air. Really cool but when we closed in they dived under, where you could still hear them communicating.

Cano Cristales

I went with Thomas and a group of very nice Colombians to this amazing place called Cano Cristales. Its a riverdelta full with waterfalls, waterholes to dive in and very special red plants, that are only found in this place. Still a mystery to scientists. This place was unvisitable a couple of years ago due to guerilla activity but its quite safe now. Army patrols the area and due to this previous unstable situation the place is still seren with hardly any visitors… (that will change). The way there we went in little chesna planes, theres no road there.

a piece of the garden of Eden..

breakfast, pigs jaw

anywhere theres places to jump into the river. one was 14 meters high, a bit too much for me but not to others. this jump is more easy with 8 meters altitude. down there in the water theres a system of underwater tunnels you can enter..

The way back was with the ancient DC3. No belts, no rules, justtake a piece of rope and hold on during takeoff! The big bags in the front look like some illegal contrabande but its just cheese..

Back in Villaviciencio we had to kill some time waiting for the bus. At 8 o clock in the morning a lot of beer and bbq… The whole group was just an amazing company of people and that makes half the fun. The day after we were invited to the place of one of them (yesterday) and it was another great party at his place with paella, class whiskey and a mexican band (no photo).

Santa Marta

A bit further along th coast from Cart is Santa Marta. Here`s beaches and old rain forrests. Its always 35C. And the place where the Liberator Simon Bolìvar died in 1830 after liberating 6 South American countries from the Spanish. The yellow house, a national museum, is the place where he lived his last days.

Cartagena

On the Caribean coast lies the arquitectual pearl of South America. The old town is a collection of colourful colonial buildings and squares. The whole town is surrounded with 13 km`s of fortified walls and outside there`s all forts everywhere to protect this once essentially important Spanish town. Its here that all Andean wealth was tranported to Spain. Hence, pirates - English, French and Dutch – were always on the watch to attack the ships or just ranson the whole city. Today its an amazing place where you can wander through the streets and feel the history. These pics are from the fort San Filipe. The biggest defensive fort the Spanish build anywhere in the new world. In the back you can see the modern Cartagena, highrise tourists flats along the beach.

Cali

The capital of Salsa!! I am invited by my friend Thomas, through his company DeUna, to join him a 5 star tour through the city and stay in 5 stars hotels at the World Festival of Salsa Cali 2009. Pretty amazing I can say, a warm reliable shower and a soft sweet bed to sleep in after 9 months…………….. and wow the music and dancing.

So sunday night was the night of the final of the festival, held in the Plaza de Toros, a round open stadium with 15.000 spectators. I can say it was the best salsanight I have ever experienced and the best night of the last 9 months. It was simply AMAZING. The dancing was awesome, the winners in group, made the stadium explode with excitement. And to finish it of there was a concert of Fania legend Cheo Feliciano. I was sitting-standing in the VIP stage in the front but everytime I looked back I saw people crying and singing to his music. Goose bums the whole evening, just, the best… Gracias Cali !!!°!!!! – te amo!

Here´s a piece of Cheo´s concert that night, his classic El Raton(Im somewhere there in the front ..)