Colombia and Peru

After leaving the farm in Ecuador I spent time in the capital Quito and some of the other areas of the country such as Otavalo which has the biggest market in South America. There were lots of local women selling handmade crafts and clothes, plus an animal market where people were selling cows, sheep and pigs. There were also areas to buy live guinea pigs and putting them in sacks ready to eat

 From here I crossed the border into Colombia. To be honest I was reluctant to go to Colombia because of its reputation as being dangerous and full of drugs, gangland killings and guerillas but it turned out to be one of the best countries that I have been to. The scenery was amazing, the people were really friendly and helpful and the towns had so much to do. 

I took the bus from the border to the town of Popayan and there met people in the hostel that I travelled with throughout most of my time in Colombia. We went cycling around the countryside and from there took the bus to San Augustin. This place is famous for having lots of statues from the civilisation before the Incas. A local guy offered to take us around on his horses so we spent the day riding through the jungle hunting for the lost statues and found over 100, all representing different things, including images of different Gods and animals that were also found in Africa and Asia, possibly showing that there was contact between the different continents thousands of years ago. 

 

Our guide Jerry

From San Augustin we went to San Cipriano near the coast, despite travel warnings on that area, because we had heard that there was a train line that sounded interesting. On the old disused railway tracks the locals had found a way to keep it running as it was the only way to reach the village in the middle of the jungle. They had small wooden platforms with skateboard wheels on and attached a motorbike to it with the back wheel on the rail. We sat on it and went through the jungle so fast we could only see the trees going past in a blur! It felt like it was going to come off the rails any minute, especially over the bridges! 

        

We made it to the villlage in the jungle and spent a lot of time swimming in the rivers and waterfalls. 

After our return along the railway we went to the coffee growing region up in the mountains and hiked to find the valley where the tallest palm trees in the world grow. When we finally found them they were incredible and definitely worth the journey. 

After that I went alone to a town called Guatape where every house was covered in murals and near to it was a giant rock creatively called 'El Peñol' (The Rock). It had 740 steps to the top and from there the view of the surrounding lakes were amazing! 

                        

    

From there it was over to the regional capital Medellin, until recently the most dangerous city in the world as a result of the cocaine trade. It was a great city with lots of parks and buildings that were good to relax in. 

In a little town called Jardin fairly nearby I met up with some friends that I had met on other parts of my trip. We were there to see a local music festival where there was a lot of traditional dancing from different regions of Colombia. 

They were volunteering on a farm nearby so I decided to go back with them for a couple of days but ended up staying with them for over a week, working on the land in the mornings and then doing Spanish lessons and also teaching at the local college in the afternoons. We spent any free time in the village chatting to the locals to improve our Spanish, playing poker and hiking in the hills. 

The farm in Colombia

I finally had to leave to meet up with other friends in Lima, the capital of Peru. This meant a series of bus journeys through most of Colombia, back through all of Ecuador and then over half of Peru - over 2500 miles, along the way bumping into people I had met last time I was in Quito and spending a few days with them seeing more of Ecuador.

I met up with my friends and we left Lima as soon as possible! I was excited to go there as a result of a project about Lima when I was in primary school and since then have always wanted to visit. Unfortunately it was a terrible, unfriendly and grey city that we couldn't wait to get out of! 

The crypt underneath the cathedral in the centre if Lima

We travelled down the coast to the Ballestos Islands where we went out on a boat and saw sea lions, pelicans and thousands of birds nesting. 

That afternoon we went into the desert and spent the day dune buggying and sand boarding, reaching amazing speeds laying down on the boards headfirst. In the evening we camped in the desert, cooking on the campfire, drinking local spirit and camping under the stars. 

From the desert we went further inland to the town of Nazca. This area receives only 1 hour of rainfall per year and is so dry and dusty. During the day the heat is unbearable, made worse by the freezing temperatures in the night! We were there to see the famous Nazca lines which has always been an ambition for me. They were created by the pre-Incan civilisation 2000 years ago and are a giant calendar to chart the stars and the seasons. They also have images of monkeys, hummingbirds and other animals that can only be seen from above, so we went to the local airport and hired a plane to take us up to see them. 

We took a bus from Nazca to Arequipa where we relaxed in the old city which is surrounded by active volcanoes that smoke constantly.

We took a trip into the Colca canyon which is the deepest canyon in the world, going down 4200 metres! We chilled out in the volcanic hot springs and watched the massive condors gliding on the thermals and the wild llamas and alpacas on the plains. 

After a couple of days resting we went to the town of Cuzco, the old capital of the Inca empire. It has amazing old buildings and Inca architecture. We were there for the biggest festival of the year where over a thousand people in costume danced and held a procession through the town and sacrificed a llama. 

Cuzco is the main starting point for the Inca trail to Machu Picchu so we set off with a guide, four porters and a chef which I felt was maybe a little excessive and possibly a bit colonial but they proved to be invaluable! We walked through the Andes mountains for four days crossing desert, jungle and narrow mountain passes. 

Our porters, guide and chef

At the top of the highest pass on the trail

We came across a string of Inca forts, towns and villages that had been discovered after Machu Picchu which were great to explore. 

After four days of hard walking, struggling with the altitude and camping in freezing temperatures we arrived at Machu Picchu at dawn and had the place to ourselves to look around. The site was amazing and the workmanship was incredible. 

Reaching Machu Picchu at dawn. Look how happy our guide is!!!

We took the train back to Cuzco and spent a few days relaxing, now we are going to head to Lake Titicaca to see the reed islands and then into Bolivia. Hopefully after that I will get to Chile, Argentina and Brazil before I have to go home in August!

Ecuador

We spent a week in a rented car travelling along the coast of South Africa and enjoying the scenery, from the wine regions with their many wine tours to the coast with spectacular mountains and beaches. 

We returned to Capetown and, after a day to resupply ready for the next continent, I took four flights in two days to reach South America and landed in Quito, the capital of Ecuador. This is the second highest capital city in the world as it is set in the Andes mountain range. It is full of colonial buildings and massive ornate churches from the Spanish colonisation in the 1600's. 

Ecuador has an interesting history, only becoming part of the Inca empire 60 years before the arrival of the Spanish, who brought so many European diseases with them that over 90% of the local were wiped out, the rest being put to work as slaves to grow food, mine gold and precious stones. It was one of the poorest countries in the world up until around 15 years ago when oil was discovered. The government wisely spent the money on free education and healthcare for all, which has led to a much higher quality of life for many, except, of course, for the people who lived in the area of the Amazon where the oil was found!

I met lots of people in the hostel and we took a trip to 'Mitad Del Mundo' (The Middle of the World!) This is the equator line which runs through the middle of Ecuador, hence the name 'Ecuador'. It is a huge monument to celebrate the equator, although modern satellites have found that it wasn't built on the equator, but 200 metres away. After a visit to the monument we walked to find the real equator using an Iphone Google Maps app. It turned out to be on a nearby industrial estate! 

The monument on the equator

From Quito I went to a small village called 'Las Tolas' for which I had seen a poster for on a hostel notice board where I was staying. It's up in the Cloud Forest region of the Andes Mountains at about 2400 feet above sea level. (Did you know that the place where all of the world's sea levels are set and measured from is Newlyn harbour near Penzance!)

The village is very small and at the top of a mountain covered in rainforest. I have been living in a house with an amazing view of the area.

Las Tolas village

The view from my house

Each morning we get up early to milk the cows on the farm and then after breakfast it's time for work. We have been growing coffee, sowing seeds in the nursery or planting the young trees from the nursery on the hillsides. When the village was first created the people cut down so many of the trees to build their houses and for farmland that now they are starting to realise the need for reforestation, both for natural bio-diversity and for tourism which they are hoping to increase. The work is hard and gives our 'office-hands' new blisters every day but after lunch there is time to study Spanish and explore the area.

During one of our free weekends another volunteer and I went to the nearby town of Mindo which is famous for its wildlife and natural beauty. We took the rather dangerous looking cable car across the valley and visited the many waterfalls which, although impressive, were very far apart and involved a lot of hill climbing!

In Mindo we also visited the traditional chocolate producers and saw how they made chocolate by hand. We then went on to sample as many as possible, gorging ourselves on all the treats we weren't able to buy in our village, until we felt sick! 

Later in the evening we went out to find the local 'nightlife' and ended up taking part in a massive street drumming session with the local people where I was given a molodica to play. After that we went to a bar to learn how to salsa dance. Guess how good I was...

We were up early the next morning to see some of the many different types of bird that Mindo is famous for and managed to spot four types of toucan, brightly coloured hummingbirds which moved so fast they were barely visable at times and various other species. Everywhere we looked the rainforest was moving with colours.

       

I really enjoyed my time in the village and it was good for me to have somewhere to call home for a little while, and to see how other people live in a different part of the world. I'm always surprised how people manage to live with so little money and how each day involves a huge amount of physical tasks that most of us in the UK wouldn't even consider doing, and also how much of a struggle it is for people to pay for food, clothes and other essentials.

Dawn over the farm

On my last night my family threw a leaving party for me and they made a huge cake and pizza, which didn't last long with all the people there who had helped me with my work, to practice Spanish and learn new skills. There was a lot of dancing and laughter making me realise how lucky I had been to find the poster for the villlage by chance on a notice board and for all of the experiences it had led to.

My family in Las Tolas

I am now back in Quito ready for the next stage of my trip, heading up into Colombia then down into Peru, Bolivia, Chile, Argentina and Brazil. Hopefully the final three months will be as exciting as others!