Colombia: The beaches of Gairaca

the luck of the irish, Gleinny from Colombia (who thinks i look like "Bono") invited me to come and spend a few days in a private owned part of parque tayrona where her mother owns a beachside cabin.

"playa del amor" - beach of love

"playa hermosa" - lovely beach

"Puerto avispa" - wasp port, or port wasp

"la playa del amor" (english: the beach of love)


on day two we took a long and winding trek through the forest over a small mountain to arrive at the peaceful beach of "Chengue". there was one man living alone on this beach, he had no house, just a small shelter consisting of a roof and four posts with a hammock hanging inside, he had a small hand made boat and a dog. he makes fishing nets as his trade.

Chengue beach

gleinnys father in law has a small farm beside the cabin with some chickens and hens. there is also a small cabin where cooking can be done until the main cabin is finished.

the main cabin. we had no elecricity, and no walls whatsoever! the waves washing up against the beach was to be the soundtrack of the weekend and the sea breeze is warm enough that you hardly need blankets when you sleep.

one of the things about a house with no walls it that the animals can go where they like. i was awoken at 8am this morning to this guy "cock-a doodle-doo-ing" just outside my room while one of his hen friends was walking around inside my room doing that "buck-buck-buck-aaw" sound. when the dog touched his wet nose off my foot that was the last straw , i was up!

"playa hermosa" (english: lovely beach)

song by a colombian artist (who grew up in Barranquilla, not too far from here)
shakira - antologia

Colombia, Santa marta. photos.

keeping out of the midday heat with a bottle of "club colombia"

Coconut Juice.

hack a hole in the top of the coconut, put a straw in and enjoy! on a day like today its truely a gift from the gods! im addicted!

Now for some Salsa colombian style...

Sonora Carrouseles - Son de los Cueros

Colombia, Santa Marta

some friends had invited me to travel with them to a place nearby bogota. i decided not to go with them. theres something about travelling alone that appeals to me. i think you take in your surroundings more when alone, you feel the place your in. theres something special about it that i suppose , only those who have done it can understand. i decided i would go on ahead to the coast and meet my friends later if they get there.

i took a bus direct from Bogota to Santa marta. the journy was 20 hours, the bus ws not exactly as nice as those in argentina, the seats were smaller and there was no meal or blankets provided. the trip was fine however and i got here in one piece. apart from accidently leaving my jumper behind in a restaurant in the middle of nowhere.. well i suppose i will not be needing a jumper here in santa marta. its pretty hot.



when i awoke on the bus in the morning time i was in a very dfferent place to the one i left behind.
here are some photos....
.
.

for the first time in my life, i can say "i am on a beach in the carribean"

just here an hour and already i am making friends, i was surprised by this "iguana" in my bathroom sometime after i had had a shower there. perhaps the water on the ground attracted him. i got the owner to remove him, the owner said "hes only small".

.

.

.

.

here are some final photos of Bogota....

Guanabana juice.

when they waiter listed the fruits he had available this word stuck out, i had no idea what it was ..so...naturally i ordered it!

it tastes like it sounds!

maybe a very distant cousin of the banana. the english name is horribly inappropriate "soursop".

maybe the first english speaker to eat one did something wrong?

anyway had the waiter used that word , i would definitly have missed out on a truely delicious fruit.

friends of mine back in bogota. dan - ireland, cathrine - ireland, christina - USA

they were smiling because i just bumped my head on a hanging plant.

.

.

.

links

guanabana fruit

.

.

.

and more music....

cumbia music from colombia

Bogota, Colombia: Cabañuelas & cumbia

Cabañuelas

this is the name given to the first 12 days in january, the weather in these 12 days is said to be an indication of the weather for the next 12 months , day one representing month one and so on...and well, the lady who told me this said its true... interesting. well it must have rained for a while on the 3rd day in january because its certainly raining now. i have two options, buy a rain jacket or take a bus direct to the carribean coast. the latter sounds tempting doesnt it.

a protest in the plaza infront o the government building. i think these people had been displaced from their homes for some reason and had come to plee to the colombian president "Uribe" for aid.

garda restaurant. (insert irish joke here)

.

.

.

i have not been alone at all since i got here, i met 3 other travelers i already know well whom i had met in various other countries. such is the nature of travelling from hostel to hostel and also i have met some wonderful colombians.

i went out clubbing last night in what is known as "el norte". the north side . this is the posh side of bogota. it was pretty lively for a sunday.

its fun to be back in the land of salsa music. by that, i mean a place where salsa is not just for the experts and the show offs, its not in a special salsa club, its everywhere, the supermarcet, the bus, the hostel, and obviously the discos.

salsa isnt the only thing you hear of course, colombia is also the birthplace of cumbia music. and i have dicovered another form of colombian music called vallenato. oh and another kind of music they only listen to in december.. but its not christmas music.. never mind.. i will leave links to all of this on the website during this visit and hopefully you can notice the differnces between the styles.be warned though, there are lots of pretty girls in the videos so if thats not your thing.. or if indeed great music is not your thing. click no further...

.

.

.

Cumbia music from Colombia

(ctrl & left click to open in new window)

boquita de caramelo

Flight: Buenos Aires to Colombia

pacific sunset from the airplane while flying over Peru.


when i embarked on this trip around south america i booked a one way flight to ecuador. i never booked a return as i had no idea where i would like to spend the last month or so. i knew i would have a better idea about this when i had been around the continent. well, after some thaught based on everything i have seen and heard along the way. i decided to go to a place which for many reasons strikes me as the holy grail of my kind of south american travel...



Colombia.



i checked flight prices and this justified my desicion even more. it is costing the same for me to fly home via colombia as it would to go direct from BA. in just 8 hours i would be whisked back across most of the land it took me 8 months to travel, across argentinian, chilean airspace, connecting in lima, peru and arriving into the city of bogota at 1am.
in the hostel i met three people i arelady knew from other places.. this is become a common occurrence, i dont know if its because the world is getting smaller or because i have simply met so many people. it certainly made for a warm welcome.


this morning i have awoken to something completely differnt to argentina. a new city in a new country. first things first , i needed a cable for my laptop because they use the US style plugs here, same as Ecuador.



Markets in Bogota, Colombia
.

its an overcast day here in bogota, and it is notably colder compared to the likes of buenos aires. though the heat and humidity was so high there i was truely sick of it. and no long cared for sun, (yes my fellow irish people there is such a thing as too much heat!) cold however is another old enemy that i had almost forgotten. i believe the temperature here today is between 9 and 16 degrees, after living in 35 degress for a few weeks, that is frighteningly cold, but i guess its not to bad for a city at 2 and a half thousand metres above sea level.

St Patricks day in Buenos Aires

on the boat back from montevideo to buenos aires, i thaugth to myself at one point.. this is so strange, im completely alone, arriving once again at midnight in a huge city.

why dont i feel lonely?

you do get so used to it that you stop caring or worrying about things. and of course there was no need. as soon as i arrived i decided to take a taxi to a hostel i had been in before to ensure the best chance of getting a room. they buzzed me in just as some junkie was annoying me for money.
as soon ss i entered, i was greeted with a smile. the staff remembered me better than i even remembered them. without hesitation i was assigned to a room, handed a beer and an extremely nice home made pizza on my tab. i thaught, "home sweet home". a warm welcome can often outweigh any problems with the hot water or wifi etc.. and i admit there are some problems with that here. though the water does sort of work..and they do allow you to pop across the road to the posh hotel and use their wifi as i am doing right now.

the clan hostel, buenos aires

rooftop terrace, during an unusualy quiet moment in the early afternoon.

dormroom squalor. a bed is a bed.... note how i leave no mess hehe.

carefree decorations on the hostel wall.

a caught a parade in the afternoon, thaught for a moment it may be a huge st patricks day parade. turned out to be a protest on behalf of meat producers in argentina, as far as i could make out.

st patrick day fastivities on "reconquista" street in buenos aires. where lies a hive of irish bars.

apart from the huge invasion of irish tourists in buenos aires, there are also communities of irish immigrants going back several generations. i met one irish lad who is currently on a 9 month stay in buenos aires to train local kids in hurling a town called hurlingham. apparently many people there look as irish as can be, but sport funny names which consist of a spanish name and irish surname.

the argnetinians in general seem to really enjoy the st patricks day theme.
there were loads of press around , taking fotographs and interviews. almost too many.

drunk irish guy with a bag of beer does a news interview.

st patricks day reggaeton.

cuive (excuse my terrible spelling) pictured above is an irish girl living in buenos aires, she said i am the first english speaker she has met in 8 months or somthing. and here i was trying to avoid english speakers..shows how big buenos aires is...

veronica (from bolivia) on the right invited me to a cultural "exchange" student party on the other side of town. this was a party organised for seemingly well off students to practice their spanish and english. . there was free beer on tap, free pizza, free water and free pool tables. all i had to do was pretend i too was studying in UCA. this was very funny. and i did find myself in some sticky situations as some of my fellow students asked me what i was studying.

.

.

.

.

as for Music

heres something irish!

mmmm i can literally taste the guinness when i listen to this!

Uruguay: friends and a stroll in the park

south american hospitality is second to none in most parts, and uruguay is no exception

Johanna and her sister Luciana

Luciana, definitly a nominee for the cutest faces ever.

trail created by ants

ants walking backwards

shopping centre in a converted prison.

notably the english language is a popular choice for shop fronts in Montevideo. some names more odd than others.

and since this is the closest i will be to brasil in this trip, heres some brasilian music that i have been hearing around the place

"Kaoma - lambada"