Exploring the Coffee Zone

*** coming soon ***

The beautiful coffee plantation countryside, it´s inhabitants and the history of Colombian coffee :)

Surviving Colombias lost city

Those craving a more extreme alternative to the well trodden, mass marketed Inca trail of Machu Piccu will certainly find ´their fix´ trekking in northern Colombia´s hot, humid jungles to the lost city of Ciudad Perdida.

Seemingly lifted straight out of a Hollywood film set, the ethereal archaeological site, set high atop a steep mountain yet hidden by thick jungle, was first inhabited by the elite of an 1800 year old pre-Inca culture known as the Tayronas. An estimated 3000 priests, artisans and militia used this ceremonial centre to rule over the surrounding indigenous tribes of the Sierra Nevada range, yet the surrounding jungle would eventually reclaimed it for over 5 centuries after mass-abandonment occurred sometime during the swift campaigns of Spanish conquest in the area.

Fortunately, despite rumours of a lost city the conquistadors never found it, yet evidence of looting treasure hunters was found soon after the Colombian government finally became ´officially´ aware of its location in 1978, thereafter protecting the site. Interestingly, it is believed by archaeologists that much gold still remains undiscovered there, although the small handfuls of visitors who make the effort to reach the city on foot are rewarded with ´rich memories´ of experiencing one of the few ancient, unspoilt and less commercialised wonders of mankind left to see.

Reaching Ciudad Perdida involves a grueling but spectacular 5-6 day adventure hike through the sprawling landscapes of pristine tropical Caribbean rainforest, starting from the small indigenous village of Mamai. The remote mountain trail then winds its way up, past illegally grown coca fields, local indigenous Kogui villages and livestock pastureland before plunging deep into the jungle for the remainder of the trek.

There are more mules and livestock using the path than actual people making for a very muddy, slippery and tiring experience whilst constant humidity under the sun coupled with guaranteed rain downpours each afternoon makes keeping dry a complete impossibility. In addition, the wet´n wild route involves multiple river crossings each day (some waist deep), yet these eventually become relief under the hot morning sun.

Although travellers are not warned beforehand (because its bad for business), the entire zone for the first 2 days of walking belongs to paramilitaries who encourage local farmers to grow coca leaves used to finance their civil war. Probing enquiries revealed that local tour agencies providing guides, pay around $10 US per visitor to ´ensure their safety´, however in the past this has not always been a guarantee.

In Sept 2003, 8 backpackers were kidnapped on the site by the ELN guerrilla movement, (National Liberation Army of Colombia), with 4 Israelis and 1 British man being the last to be freed after 102 days. Interestingly, apart from walking miles per day in difficult conditions, the hostages were fairly treated and well fed by their kidnappers, with the guerrilla´s motivation reportedly to draw attention to problems faced by local communities in the Sierra Nevada and little else. Kidnappings have not been reported since, although the topic is still a hot discussion topic by most prospective trekkers.

Although the original straw housings at the site no longer exist, the ruins themselves consist of a beautiful multi-platform mosaic of 49 grass terraces (each originally owned by powerful families) and connected via narrow paths and stairs made for extremely small Tyronian feet. Certainly my favourite aspect was actually was the insanely steep, slippery, endless, moss strewn staircase that made for an obviously defensive and imposing entrance to the city at its prime.

Ultimately the thrill of crossing through unprotected wilderness areas, the beauty of the site, the chance to encounter local indigenous tribes and the amazing feeling of rediscovering an ancient civilization, are the primarily reasons for experiencing the trek to the Lost City of Colombia.

Touring a coca(ine) plantation

*** coming soon ***

All about the white stuff, how it is entwined into the Colombian way of life and the toxic substances that are mixed in to produce it ...

I MADE IT to the Caribbean

*** coming soon ***

All about romantic ´Cartagena´ and Tyrona National parks amazing beaches :)

Into Colombia with no VISA

***coming soon***

Apprehensions about crossing the border solo into Colombia,
with only 3 weeks on my trip left ... and what went wrong ... :(

ALSO, my quick-reconnaissance plan, via day AND night buses
to Ipiales, Popayan, San Augustin, Bogota and it´s remarkable
subterranean ´Cathedral of Salt´ ...

Site hopping under El`Nino

***coming soon***

All about my visits to Riobamba, Banos and kewl Quito in Ecuador

Whale spotting in Ecuador

My next stop was the small coastal town of Puerto Lopez, situated amidst the beautiful `National Park Machalilla` which is an increasingly popular hot-spot in Ecuador for whale watching between June to September. It also acts as the primary gateway to ´Isle La Plata´, which is more commonly known as "the poor mans Galapagos" because its home to similar species of animals and plants without the exorbitant tourist prices, yet I chose not to visit this time around.

Apparently, the globes population of humpback whales split into a few large groups who make 2 immense journeys each year between their feeding and breeding sites. Cold waters close to the polar regions provide more nutrient rich waters for feeding, whilst the warmer waters of equatorial coastal regions are visited for mating, giving birth and caring for their calves.

Interestingly, such groups stick to either their northern or southern hemisphere routes where the seasons oppose each other, hence there is little evidence of individuals meeting their opposing counterparts. Put more simply, whales feeding in Antarctica will most likely never meet whales feeding in northern Alaska because they stick to specific hemispheres during their lifespans.

The Southeast Pacific humpback stock can be found in groups of up to 200 at a time off the tropical coasts of Colombia, Ecuador and Panama, when rival males occasionally launch themselves above the ocean surface in spectacular shows of dominance and rivalry whilst courting nearby mates. Alternatively, the females can be found more placidly on the surface with newborn calves, making for easier, less split-second photo opportunities for us visitors :)

Whilst whale-watching is becoming increasingly popular in Ecuador, it has a great deal more to develop given I was raced last-minute to the shoreline before being asked to swim out to a departing boat, complete with bag and camera above my head. What followed was a wet, sick-inducing experience in choppy waters, shared mostly by Spanish speaking Ecuadorian tourists with non-English speaking guides desperately attempting to spot whales so as to justify their generous US dollar profits collected from each of us.

The grey El`Nino induced weather was also hardly photo-inspirational, however we managed to sight and approach 6 whales, tail flapping, blowhole spurting and occasionally leaping. It was certainly an amazing experience seeing such animals twice the size of our boat, leaping out of the water in front of you, yet from a photographic point of view it was extremely challenging trying to capture the split-second moments in decent clarity; especially with excited Ecuadorians exorcising the impolite, but common South American behaviour of pushing and shoving for best possible viewing spaces.

I should also add that capturing the scale of these giants on film is also next to impossible, given they are usually surrounded by open sea with few ´smaller´ objects nearby which would give the viewer some reference; and although I did consider throwing in a few of my shorter companions overboard to aid in this dilemma, I was very much outnumbered and preferred my camera dry. So with regards to photography, I guess it really is about the right place at the right time with the right people, however ´off film´ the experience was well worth it, and I luckily seemed to have better sea-legs than I originally thought ( only spewed once :)

A thief strikes in Guayaquil

Having travelled for almost 6 months at this point, I had developed a system of knowing exactly where everything was supposed to be in my backpack and daypack at all times, which of course relied heavily on not rushing around at last minute and packing things in randomly.

Having independently travelled in other developing places in the past (ie. Nepal, South East Asia, East Africa), I was also aware that bus stations were prime locations for 'snatch and grab' thievery, yet a small distraction for no more than 10 seconds at Guayaquil bus station in southern Ecuador cost me over a months worth of original photos on memory cards :(

That morning I was in a mentally exhausted state after spending 2 consecutive back-to-back nights on uncomfortable, unsleepable, buses from north Peru. My plan for the day was to take a connecting local bus to Puerto Lopez on the coast to check in that night and get some real sleep before heading out for some whale spotting the following day.

Whilst piling onto the bus with another 20 people or so, I placed my daypack above my head (I now see this is "always" a mistake), to take a jumper off from around my waist and seconds later realised that my pack was gone from above; instead it was halfway down the bus, and ripped open. I was in disbelief things had been done so fast, yet a pouch containing my memory cards was missing and was convinced that no-one had passed me to leave the bus, hence the thief was most likely STILL on the bus with us.

My wallet, passport and mp3 player were all still there untouched, which further strengthened my theory that the perpetrator was now trying to play a low profile in the bus, yet I knew little Spanish, more people were piling on AND no-one was offering to even help me despite obvious distress. Short of interrogating and searching every single person there, I realised I was never going to get my stuff back and to finalise the indifference people had around me, the bus driver started the engine and began pulling out of the terminal.

I'd normally count this as a new lesson to be learnt, however this time count it as purely "bad luck timing" that I was obviously not 100% on the ball with no-one helpful around me. For the next few days I was stewing about it and hardly took a photo until I made it to Ecuador's capital, Quito.

Ancient sights in nth Peru

With tourism almost completely dominated by the famous Inca site of Machu Piccu near Cusco, northern Peru sees far less visitors than it deserves given the sheer quantity of pre-inca culture wonders still being uncovered there.

Nestled deep within an obscure little valley on the amazonian side of the Cordillera Blanca, I first visited the town of Chavin which is home to 3000 year old ruins representing the first sophisticated work of stone masonry in all of South America; easily predating anything similar in northern Europe.

Ruins of an ancient religious centre consisting of sculpted sunken plazas, broad stone staircases and great rectangular temples take up a huge 50 hectares in the region, all faced with expertly cut ashlars, pillared gateways and air vented, labyrinth-style undergound passages/chambers. One particularly cramped chamber beneath the main temple, houses a 5m-high stone pillar covered in styalised carvings of puma fangs, bird wings, claws, baleful eyes, human hands and swirling symbols, which is believed to represent an ancient god-like deity. The main temple itself had also projected rows of large stone gargoyle heads from it´s exterior, which many now reside in a nearby museum.

My next destination required a visit to the small seaside town of Chimbote which most tour books claim is a dangrous hive of street crime, hence I didn´t linger long. Apart from the nearby ´Sechin ruins´ still being uncovered, Chimbote is on the map as home to Peru´s 2nd largest fishery (eeeew the smell) and as one of the few northern towns to have somehow survived the major earthquake in 1970, despite a local death toll over 50,000 (ironic timing given a similarly sized quake in southern Peru was taking place whilst I was up north there).

The nearby pre-inca Sechin site dates around 1500 BC and represents one of Peru´s most well preserved coastal ruins, consisting of an ancient temple divided into upper and lower sections. The 1st level corresponds to a pyramidal stone construction containing many monoliths whilst the 2nd level´s exterior, made of mud, reveals striking (literally) sculptures of warriors beheading and disemboweling their victims.











Next I visited the coastal city of Trujillo, capital of the region of La Libertad, founded in 1534 by Spanish conquistador Diego de Almagro and named for the birthplace of Francisco Pizarro. Of course more ancient cultures (including the Inca) inhabited this region long before the Spanish took residence, which nearby excavated sites such as the 500-acre ´Chimu complex of Chan Chan´ reveals to the north, with the ´Moche temples of the Moon and Sun´ to the south.

Chan-Chan is the world's largest pre-Hispanic mud-brick city, founded by the ancient Chimu kingdom between A.D. 950 to 1400 and housing possibly 200,000 people at the height of it´s regional dominance. Generally accepted as the culture´s capital, it was built entirely on arid coastal desert, hence the dominating architechural feature of the city includes miles of irrigation canals, inter-valley canals and large, deep, walk-in-wells, which most today have completely dried out due to a lowering of the natural water table since.

Ultimately the conquest by the Inca (approx 1470 AD) may well have broken the backbone of the Chimu economy, with the most skilled minds and tradesmen relocated to their new capital in Cusco. The hairless dog in some below photos, belongs to an ancient, local breed known as ´viringos´ which reside as talisman guardians of antiquity at all archaeological centres in Peru.

Other significant archeological sights are located south of Trujillo, consisting of 2 huge stone pyramids known as the "Huaca de la Luna" and "Huaca de la Sol" (ie. Temples of the Moon and Sun respectively), of which the latter represents the tallest adobe structure in the Americas, built with an estimated 50 million sun-dried, mud bricks.

Considered the former capital of the Moche state (another pre-Inca civilisation), this precious site has since seen irreperable damage as a consequence of looting treasure hunters, including gold obsessed Spanish conquistadors who intentionally diverted the nearby Santa Catalina river which washed more than half the huaca away. Visitors can´t currently visit the Temple of the Sun, yet guided tours of the currently excavated Temple of the Moon, reveal 3 inverted platforms and 4 open courts or plazas taking up most of the assemblage.

Large-scale human sacrifice at Huaca de la Luna became evident when archaeologists uncovered the remains of at least 34 sacrificed adult males in the soft clay of the southeastern court. They had been bound and, judging by the type of wounds inflicted, were probably captured in battle. Interestingly these sacrifices represent a single ritual event, linked by archaeologist Steve Bourget to a season of torrential rains caused by an extreme case of the ´El Nino´ weather phenomenon, which strikes the coast of Sth America at irregular intervals, possibly causing the final abandonment of the pyramids themselves.

Lastly, I decided to kick back for a few days on the nearby beach town of Huanchaco, which offers a long, clean beach, good-sized waves for surfing and a thriving artisan market near the pier for passing tourists. Huanchaco is also apparently one of the few places left in Peru where you can find ´caballitos de totora´ still in use, which are original handmade totora reed boats.