Columbia - this post is over a year late but oh well

Crossed over from Ecuador into Itiapales which was easy. After the Colombia immigration me and 3 others split a taxi to the bus station for $1 each. They'll try charge you more. at the bus station we bought tickets to Popoyan on Bolivianos Bus for 28 COP (8hrs) but you can get it for 25. Bolivianos and Fronteras are the best buses and it had a bathroom and AC. The bus ride is beautiful, try to get a seat on the right side of the bus. There are lots of police road blocks along the way. We arrived in Popoyan just after 9pm and spent the night at the Hosteltrail Guesthouse (dm 16,000, free wifi, hot showers). Its a nice hostel with lots of common space and it would be a good place to stay if spending a few days in Popoyan. The next morning I caught a minibus at 10am to Armenia (6hrs) via Cali (2.5hrs) for 28,000. In Armenia we caught another minibus up to Salento (50min, 3200cop) they run every 20min until 8pm.

Salento

Is a really nice little mountain town with a lot of colonial buildings, pretty scenery, and coffee plantations. I stayed at The Plantation House hostel for 18000 for a dorm, they have a computer with Internet free to use. Its in a quiet spot on the edge of town and has a good travelers vibe. Jardin Hostel is also good and it's 15000 and gets fewer people. I did a hike up the Cocora Valley which has beautiful scenery and takes 5hrs to do the loop. Jeeps drive you out there for 3000 and leave the main square at 730, 930, and 1130 and return around 1, 3, and 5 or whenever they can fill a jeep. Filling a jeep means packing 8 people in, usually with 3 hanging off the back, for the 20min ride. There are lots of backpackers doing the hike so you end up naturally forming groups and meeting people, its pretty fun, however i met an incredibly obnoxious texan named Richard who is traveling around the world for 2 years. He's a lawyer. If you meet him somewhere, runaway. The second day I did a coffee tour for 5000cop at a place called Finca Don Elias which is an hour walk outside of town. It's a nice, small family place and the tour was in Spanish but we had a few people who could translate. Leaving Salento I caught the minbus to Pereira at 2:50pm from the main square for 5200cop (1hr). In Pereira we caught a bus to Medellin with the Flota Occidental bus company (32,000cop, 6hrs). Occidental is one of the better companies and has nice buses with bathrooms for the bigger routes.

Medellin

Stayed at Tiger Paw hostel (dm 18,000, fan, free wifi) tigerpawhostel.com which is in the heart of the Poblado district where there are TONS of bars and clubs. The hostel is nice and has cool staff and a small bar with a pool table and they have beer pong tournaments. If you stay 4 nights in the dorm you get the 5th night free.

The poblado area is nice and the nightlife is insane. There a tons of bars and clubs and lots of people meet around Parque Llarres. Up on the hill kinda above Poblado are a bunch of Chorizo stands that are open for dinner, are cheap and tasty and the place has great views of the city. It's a real locals place (zero gringos go there) and they only serve chorizo and arepa, which is a kind of round flat bread made from corn, and hot chocolate and sugar cane juice. The hot chocolate is incredibly good they make it by melting chocolate in sugar can juice and the put big chunks of fresh farm cheese in it which sounds weird but actually tastes good. You'll probably need a local to find the place though. Getting around Medellin is really easy as there is a metro which is also linked with buses and the place ask locals. Medellin has a cable car line that goes up a hill and is a good activity to do cause you get a good view of the city and it is included in the metro price of 1500 pesos. There is another gondola that costs 2500 and takes you up and over the top of the mountain to a national park that is all jungle and might have good hiking. To get to the gondola you transfer at the Acevedo metro station.

Leaving Medellin I took a night bus to Santa Marta with the company Rapido Ochoa (108COP, semi-cama, 17hrs). Medellin has two bus stations, a north and a south. The south is very close to Poblado and a taxi to the hostel is about 8000, the north is further away but you can take the metro right too it, or a taxi from Poblado is 12000.

Santa Marta

From the bus station in Santa Marta there are mini buses to Taganga for 1200 but they make you pay more for your bag, I ended up paying 2000 after arguing with the guy. The bus takes about 50min and drives all over the city. Taxis to Taganga are 10,000.

Taganga is amazingly overrated. It's a small fishing village with a big backpacker scene and lousy beaches. The beach in town is terrible- rocky, smelly, dirty. There is another beach a 20min hike away that is marginally better- it at least has real sand. The water wasn't clear when I was there and besides backpackers, the town was dead. I stayed at Hospedeje Playa Brava which faces the water (private room with fan and private bathroom for 20,000. The room was big and had two beds and wifi (but it didn't work the first day), staff is friendly but doesn't speak English. One restaurant that has EXCELLENT food is Bitecora. It's a gringo focused restaurant which I hate going to because they're usually overpriced and have lousy food but this place is a definite exception. I went with 7 people and every dish that was ordered was big and looked fantastic especially the filet mignon (20,000).

There are a TON of dive shops in town and rates are around 100,000 for two dives. I didn't go though because the visibility was mediocre due to recent rains inland.

Overall Taganga is not worth going to.

Leaving We shared taxis (10,000 for the car) to the Santa Marta bus station where bought tickets to Cartagena on Expresso Brasilia (20,000, 5hrs). If I went back to the area I'd check out El Rodadero which is a beach resort area popular with colombians and looks sweet in pictures and Parque Tayrona.

Cartagena

The bus station is a 50 min taxi ride outside of town. At the station there is a kiosk where you get a taxi ticket with the fixes price of 11,600 on it but it doesn't really work. The taxi drivers are all crooks and we ended up paying 15000 for the ride because it was at night and "baggage costs extra" there was nothing we could do cause no other drivers would take us. There is also a public bus (1200cop) that would be easy if you're solo. We stayed at Hostel Media Luna the first night (23000 in a 6 bed dorm with fan and wifi) the hostel is nice with a big center courtyard and a small pool. They also have a rooftop bar that hosts a big party Wednesday nights. Its a sweet place but it's expensive. Directly across the street is another hostel that has 4 bed dorms with bathroom inside for 15000. Staying at Media Luna the first night is good cause you get the wrist band and then can come and go whenever and use the pool and stuff. I moved to another place across the street called Casa Grand Villa Hotel Inn. It's a couple doors up across the street. At street level it is just a small stairway with a sign that says "hotel". I got a private room with fan, private bathroom, wifi, and cable tv for 20,000. Definitely a good spot but it gets hot. They have AC for more money. The area around Media Luna is packed with cheap places to stay and decent cheap restaurants. It's also in a good location.

Cartagena's old town is really cool. It is a walled city with lots of great old colonial architecture. The beach in Cartagena is mediocre but there are great sunsets.

Mud Volcano

A popular activity is to visit the mud volcano which is 50km away. There are tours from the hostel for 35000 but the mud pit isn't very big so if you do the tour it's packed. We took a taxi (120,000cop, 1hr) there later in the day. It costs 5000 to enter and then you have to tip everyone who tries to do stuff for you between 3000-5000. Leave all your stuff in the taxi. The guy who takes pictures is worth the tip since you're all muddy and he's really good at remembering who's camera is who's. Since we went on our own we had the mud pit just for our group of 10 for a while which was very nice. The mud is 2 kilometers deep and is heated by the earth. It's a really cool feeling because you are suspended in this mud. Afterwards you go down to the lake to wash off. There are women down there who are eager to help, for a tip of course.

leaving Cartagena I flew on Spirit Air back to Boston. A taxi from Media Luna is 8000 and takes 15min. Security is REALLY strict at the airport. Everybody's carry on bags get x-rayed and then hand searches twice. You also get patted down twice. But I was able to bring a big bottle of water through...

Quito

The first night I stayed at Centro del Mundo hostel for $5 (dorm). It's kinda a dump and doesn't even have wifi so the next morning I moved next door to Casa Basik for $6. It's much nicer and has wifi. I had a king size bed in the dorm room that also had a bathroom inside with a hot shower and it turned out that no one else came into the dorm so I had the room to myself. They also did my laundry in 8hrs for $0.80/kilo. 

I went to the equator park "Mitidad del Mundo" north of the city and it was kinda a cluster to get there. It was Saturday and election day and there seemed to be lots of traffic. To vet there first you have to take the metrobus line to the end at Ophelia Terminal ($0.25) then transfer to a "mitidad del mundo" bus for $0.15 which drops you at the gate to the monument which is free to enter. The trip there took 2hours. To get back you do the same in reverse. Then we took the metrobus all the way into the old town and walked around. Its a really cool city surrounded by mountains and it has a really big old town with lots of old buildings from the Spanish. Quito is really easy to get around with three set bus lines that have stations like a subway. Some areas can be dangerous though and the 2 Swiss guys on my amazon trip got robbed at 3pm walking up to the big angel statue on the hill. Taking taxis at night are a must. 

Leaving Quito I bought a ticket for the 430am Panamericana bus, because they have a station in the Mariscol a couple blocks from my hostel, to the border town of Tulcan (5hrs, $5) the bus didn't leave until 6am though! There were 3 other gringos on my bus also going to Colombia so in Tulcan we split a taxi from the terminal to the boarder for $1 each. After getting your exit stamp from Ecuador you walk across a short bridge into Colombia. 

Amazon Tour

I was hopig to book a jungle trip from Tena but the town was dead so I decided to call places. I tracked down the numbers to some operators who own lodges in Cuyabeno reserve and booked a 4 night trip with Samona Lodge for $230. All the trips leave from Lago Agrio which is a major pain to get to. From Tena I caught a Quito bound bus and took it to Baeza ($3, 2.5hrs). A little outside Baeza I got off at an intersection where I was told there would be a bus coming through bound for Lago Agrio (4hrs, $5). 45min later the bus showed up. The ride from Baeza to Lago is extremely rough and the road is very windy and the drivers are maniacs. Take Dramamine. In Lago the bus dropped us off at some random spot outside of town and I caught a taxi in for $1.50. Stayed at Casa Blanca where they have clean single rooms with direcTV and private bathroom for $8. I got sick in Lago from something I ate and couldn't leave the next morning. Had to rebook my trip since Samona didn't have another one going for a few days. I called around and Rainforestur set me up with a trip for $40/day. Rainforestur is just an agent and I got booked at Guacamayo Lodge which is run by Ara Expeditions (araexpeditions.com) 

The trip: they picked me up at my hotel at 9am and there was some confusion because the lodge normally charges $50/day and they also could only take me for 3 days and the girl didn't speak English. I was a little hesitant to go since I had no idea what I was getting into but went with it. From Lago it's about a 2hr drive to a bridge where you get into a long boat down the river for another couple hours to the Lodge. 

It was just me and two 30 year old Swiss guys at the lodge which was great because our guide would do whatever we wanted. The first afternoon we saw pink river dolphins on our way to go piranha fishing and everyone caught one and I caught two which was great because it is the wet season and apparently difficult to catch piranhas because there is so much water and food around. But we found a good spot. After fishing we went on a 3hr night hike through the jungle. It was pretty intense with some stream crossings and wading through waste deep water in the dark looking for anacondas. Didn't see any anacondas but we saw tons of insects and our guide knew everything. Took the boat back to the lodge and had dinner which was fish, rice and lentils. 

The lodge is classically built with wood and grass roofs. They have a couple solar panels so you can charge electronics but other than that its candle light. They have rooms with 2 beds, bug nets and private bathroom. The shower is just river water. The lodge is right on the river and they were almost done with a 3 story bird watching tower. Its right next to Samona Lodge but i never heard them, It's a really cool spot. 

The second day after breakfast we went out at 9am on a canoe excursion paddling. Once again, because we asked for adventure, it was pretty intense. We were paddling through flooded jungle through narrow channels hacking through brush with a machete until one of the Swiss guys dropped the machete in the water and it sank. We had lunch out in the jungle and saw some really fresh Tapir tracks. A tapir is a kind of small jungle cow, yes, jungle cow. After lunch we paddled back to the main river and met the motorized long boat and went to the village to meet the shaman. The village has some modernish style wood building on stilts. There was a 1yr old monkey living there named Nacho who was fun to play with. The villagers ate his mother a while ago and then adopted the baby. Unfortunately the shaman had malaria symptoms so we couldn't meet him, I guess he's like 100 yes old. On the way back from the village we saw a big anaconda which was sweet. It was in a bush just above the water and was about 2-3 meters long. We also saw more pink river dolphins. 

The third day we went out at 6am for bird watching and saw some cool birds including toucans and parrots and eagles among others. At 10am we took the boat back to civilization. 

The Swiss guys flew back to Quito for abbot $70. I took the bus for $8. I almost got screwed though because almost all the buses were full. It was a Friday and election weekend so I think that's why. Luckily one of the companies had a secret unscheduled bus at Quito using a bus from the "Petrolera" company. The bus was a heap but it had new seats and showed movies. They played a Jason Stathom marathon showing Transporter 1,2, and 3, the Italian job, another movie I hadn't seen with Wesley Snipes in it, ands Crank, all in Spanish of course. The ride took 8hrs and I got into Quito around 11pm. The bus entered Quito from the north and so It drove by the Mariscol Sucre area where I was going to stay so I jumped out and caught a taxi to my hostel which saves me about an hour had I gone all the way to the terminal. 

Getting into Ecuador

My nightbus from Peru dropped me of in Guyachile at 430am. I decided to take a bus to the town of Banos. The bus was $7 (7hours) and left at 6 am but that bus got in an accident or something so I had to take a different company. It was the same price but I had to change buses in the town of Riobamba. The drive has spectacular scenery. I got out in Banos and walked around for 20min and it was really dusty and windy and I didn’t like the feel of it so I decided to power on to the town of Tena (frequent buses, $4, 4hours). On the bus I met two Scottish girls who told me that the volcano in town was erupted and that it was dust that I was seeing, it was ash! Was pretty happy I got out of there. In Tena I walked about a km from the bus station to a hostel called Brisa del Rio which is just across the street from the river and near the foot bridge. I was $8 for a private room with fan and shared bathroom and they had wifi. Nobody spoke english but they were helpful.

Mancora

I flew into Tumbes and it is a pretty dangerous place according to most reports. My original plan was to try to get straight on a bus up to Ecuador but I was exhausted from my flights (I had been awake since 5am and got less than 4hrs sleep) and the thought of an 8 hr bumpy bus ride was not appealing. I met 3 Australian guys in the airport who were going to the beach town of Mancora so I decided to tag along and we split a cab there (s/32 each, 2hours). They were staying at the Loki hostel so I did the same (6 bed dorm s/28 with bathroom inside, breakfast, wifi) The hostel is right on the beach and is like a resort with a big swimming pool and 2 bars. It definitely has a spring break feel to it. The hostel was packed but the rest of the town felt pretty dead. There is also a Point Hostel in town but I guess it is far out of town and people get robbed walking there at night. Right in front of the Loki is a restaurant on the beach that serves mountains of excellent civiche for s/15. Leaving Mancora I took the CIFA international bus to Guyachil for s/60. It was a nice semi-cama (seats recline more than your average bus) bus and it left at 9pm and we arrived in Guyachil, Ecuador at 4:30am. The bus stops at both boarder points for you.

Inca Jungle Trek

I signed up for a 4day 3night “Inca Jungle Trek” and paid $160 which included everything, even the Machu Picchu entrance (s/126) and the train back to Cusco ($32usd). The operator was Conde Travel and they do other trips as well and a well regarded. They quoted me $180 but I bought it through an agent who gave me a great deal. I forget the name of the agent but its on the same street as the Conde office, just closer to the main plaza. The tour starts with pick up in Cusco and then you drive through the sacred valley of the Incas and over a pass that is at 4200meters. Just after the pass you get out and get on your mountain bike and ride down the other side of the pass with spectacular scenery. After the ride you check into a hotel in the town of Santa Maria with shared rooms and relaxed until dinner.

The second day is hiking on the Inca trail. It isn’t the “classic” inca trail that requires a permit but its all the same and was really cool with amazing scenery and some stops at locals houses.
After lunch our guide, Amoroso, asked if we wanted to have an adventure and we did so we blazed the trail through an area that was destroyed by landslides and floods a year ago. It was great. None of the girls liked it cause it was a little dangerous (maybe more than a little) but I had a great time, crossing rivers, landslides, and hacking our way through with machetes.

It couldn’t have been better. It took longer than expected though and the last 45min were in the dark which actually was dangerous because the path was treacherous and only half of us had headlamps. After arriving in the town of Santa Theresa we checked into our hotel (shared rooms again but I lucked out and got a single) and showered (ice cold showers) and had dinner. Then everyone went to the bar in town and partied the night away.

The next day was just an easy walk along a river on a dirt road and train tracks up to Aguas Calientes at the base of Machu Picchu. We checked into our hotel and had time to wonder around town or go to the hot spring pools. The people who went to the hot springs said they were kinda gross and dirty.

The next morning we left the hotel at 4am to get to the base of the access path by 4:30. The gate is suppose to open at 5am but they opened it early. Then it is a grueling 30min steep hike up to the main entrance which opens at 6am. The rush was so that we could get tickets to climb Whinna Picchu mountain and they only give them to the first 400 people in line. Amoroso gave us a tour of Machu Picchu for about 2 hours and then we were on our own. We were all in the “second group” to climb the mountain which meant our access opened at 10. Climbing the mountain is also an extremely steep climb but it only takes about 25min and offers spectacular views.

After climbing that a dutch guy and I decided to go to the Inca Bridge and the Sun Gate. Both definitely worth doing. If I went back I’d climb Machu Picchu mountain which doesn’t have an entry requirement and might have just as good views as Whinna Picchu. After you’re done exploring Machu Picchu you’re on your own, go back to Aguas Calientes and wait for the train which is at 645pm. The train is very nice and they offer a beverage service. You can also bring beers on board.
Overall Conde Travel worked out great and the tour was a great way to do Machu Picchu. A lot of the hostels in Cusco book through them and we had a great group. Definitely recommend.

Leaving Cusco I was dreading the 24hour bus ride to Lima so I looked at flights and found one to Lima for $82usd (1hr) and another from Lima to Tumbes for $86usd (1.5hrs) on Peruvian Airlines. Definitely worth it because the bus to Lima is about $50us and then the bus from Lima to Tumbes is another 20hrs and $50us. My flight out of Cusco got cancelled, however, but after some haggling with the airline, they were able to get me on the next flight out so I would still make my connection to Tumbes.

Cusco

I stayed at The Point Hostel for s/20 per night in a 12 person dorm. The hostel is nice with free internet (wifi and 3 computers). The dorm was big, they had hot showers and they were always cleaning the place. The Point is a chain in Peru and there are a couple other chain “party” hostels like the Irish Rover and the Loki. The Rover is near the point and both have great locations. The Loki is a tough walk up a hill from the center. The Loki has the biggest party vibe of them and the Point is the cheapest. I’d either stay at the Point again or at the Irish Rover. Taxis anywhere in Cusco are generally s/5. There are tons or backpackers in town and a lot of people stay there to study spanish. Its a really nice town and has a lot to do around it. There is also a really big backpacker party scene which surprised me.