Day 287 Wed 15/6 The taxi (a jeep) from Taganga to Tyrona took about 2.5 hours! Picking up folks in various hostels, stopping to allow folks to withdraw money and then a stop at a local shop. Tayrona park is pretty expensive – the entrance is about 35,000 CoP and lodging and food more expensive […]

Day 285 Mon 13/6 Breakfast and it was time to start the marathon journey. I had stayed away from overnight journeys in Colombia since the Colombian buses are nowhere as comfortable as the ones in other South American countries I have been to, bar the ones in Ecuador. This time, there wasnt much of an […]

Day 282 Fri 10/6 An early breakfast at a hostel right across the street (where we cursed ourselves for not staying there), a walk around town and we were off to Barichara. Franck and Becky meant to get on a bus to Bucaramange, but Cynthia, Rosario and I planned to spend a couple of nights […]

Day 281 Thu 9/6 Breakfast was at the French bakery. Then the 5 of us squeezed into a taxi for what should have been a 4 hour ride to San Gil. However, a truck had fallen off the cliff when the driver got off the truck and forgot to put the handbrakes on. At least, […]

Day 274 Thu 2/6 Woke up early to go for a walk around Bogota. Also visited the ATM to replenish diminishing funds. Got a bus to Tunja in pouring rain from Portal del Norte. 2 hours to Tunja and a collectivo to Villa. Pretty village, but hard walk to get to the lovely hostel, Renacer […]

Day 269 Fri 27/5 A long day that started at 5:30 am. Got to the bus station around 07:30 and had to wait till 08:20 for my bus. The long 12.5 hour bus journey was made bearable by some beautiful scenery and the novel I was reading, the third policeman. An absolutely hilarious novel, full […]

Photos of Medellin Medellin is the second largest city in Colombia and was the haunt of Pablo Escobar till he was killed. These days, it is safe and attracts a lot of tourists. I enjoyed my stay here and fell in love with the city. The people are very friendly (like the rest of Colombia), it […]

260 Wed 18/5 – 262 Fri 20/5 I left early Wednesday morning. Well, at least, I left the hostel early. The bus continued the tradition of Colombian buses leaving late from the terminal. We left an hour late and made it to Armenia in good time. From there, it was a half hour collectivo ride […]

257 Sun 15/5 – 259 Tue 17/5 Photos of Cali Got into Cali after a fairly comfortable 3 hour bus ride from Popayan. The taxi driver who drove me to the hostel tried to cheat me by asking double the price. My Spanish is good enough to give him a bollocking, but wish I knew some […]

250 Sun 8/5 & 251 Mon 9/5 Photos of Tierradentro I got on a bus from Popayan early in the morning for what was supposed to be a 5 hour journey. However, the elements were against us. There was a landslide and we had to wait in the bus, in the middle of nowhere, while folks […]

Day 247 Thu 5/5 – 249 Sat 7/5 Popayan is a lovely colonial town with a beautiful plaza and some lovely churches! The buildings are mostly white and some of them quite ornate. I walked for ages around the town and was content at having stopped here. My first day was spent wandering the streets […]

Day 244 Mon 2/5 – Day 246 Wed 4/5 Pasto Pasto is a pleasant town, without being anything spectacular or beautiful. Needless to say, not too many tourists stop here. I wandered the streets for a couple of days before making my way up North. It is surrounded by mountains and the view is pretty […]

243 Sun 1/5 Otavalo/ Ipiales/ Pasto Certain days go well. Be it in normal life or as a wanderer. This was one of them. Roberto’s kind and thoughtful gesture of making sure I managed to get on the proper bus made a great impression on me. Everything went smoothly – the bus to Tulcan (on […]

Day 242 Sat 30/4 Otavalo Otavalo is a small village in the north of Ecuador famous for its market. Saturday draws people from the surrounding towns and bus loads of tourists for a crowded, bustling experience. Streets lined with stalls that seemed to sell everything! There even was an animal market a km or so […]

Day 234 Fri 22/4 – 241 Fri 29/4 Quito I left early enough on Friday from Cuenca anticipating a long ride. I wasnt wrong, as the travel time was increased by a breakdown as well. It was well after 7 pm when I got into Quito. The bus wasnt very comfortable either! I managed to […]

Day 231 – 234 Mon 18/4 – Thu 21/4 Cuenca Cuenca is a lovely colonial town and I felt relaxed and spent more time that I had thought I would. I also found a couple of nice vegetarian restaurants for breakfast and lunch. I found that the folks in Cuence not to be that friendly […]

Day 228 – 230 Fri 15/4 – Sun 17/4 Vilcabamba Vilcabamba is in a beautiful valley and is small and restful. The valley is known for the longevity of life and this, in addition to the peace and quiet has attracted a lot of foreigners to the town, including a large population of USA-ians and […]

Day 227 Thu 14/4 Bus/ Loja Long bus ride. Crossed border at La Tina. The bus driver and his helper seemed quite disorganised as were the folks at the border. All things went pretty smoothly luckily and I finally made it into my 16th country, 5th in the last 8 months. Yes, I do keep […]

Day 217 Mon 4/4 – D218 Tue 5/4 Chachapoyas Chachapoyas, the capital of Amazonas, is a lovely little town in the mountains. It is starting tp get a lot of tourism these days, thanks to the discovery of Kuelap, an arqueological site that is almost as impressive as Machu Picchu. I had heard a few travellers […]