An update mostly about food and a little bit about insects

It's our last day in Santa Marta and it's suffocatingly hot, although we've been drinking a lot more water since we found out you can buy it in a bag for much cheaper than a bottle. A 1.75 litre bottle of water is approx $2 and a 5L bag of water (though a little inconvenient) is much more affordable at $1.10. You get dehydrated here really quickly, mostly because of the heat, but also we've been doing a lot of walking and all the food here either is full of sugar or salt (or both).

It's a bit more expensive in Colombia for food than it is in Ecuador. In saying that, you can still eat pretty cheaply if you want to. Street food is cheap, if you don't mind a deep fried egg roll or cheesy dough ball for breakfast, or alternatively bags of fresh mango are about 70 cents. Then for lunch, it's $4 for a massive plate of rice and beans and fish/chicken/meat with soup as a starter and a glass of juice. One thing Colombians do really well is fresh juice. They sell lime juice and fresh fruit cocktails by the glass on the side of the street for about 70 cents and it's always nice and refreshing.

This morning I didn't wake up until 10am (we didn't really have any plans today). We had some muesli and yoghurt for breakfast and a black coffee (which is only 35 cents for a cup). It's so, so hot in our room that you always wake up in a feverish sweat, although I'm getting used to it by now. The showers are always the pipe-through-the-wall type with a single stream of cold water which is actually really nice in the heat.

There aren't too many insects in our hostel, although while we were in hammocks there were plenty of massive toads, spiders, cockroaches and even a baby boa constrictor (which was climbing into a boy's hammock, probably trying to find somewhere to curl up and go to sleep to digest the toad it had just eaten).

And to tie the topics of this post together (Colombia, food and insects), the specialty food in Barichara is "hormigas culonas", which is fried ants (literally "fat-bottomed ants"). Apparently they taste like a mixture of dirt and old coffee grounds. I probably won't be trying them.

Nicola

Sol y Sazon in Santa Marta

We had an amazing meal last night - by far the best meal in Colombia so far, and possibly the best burrito I've ever had - in a restaurant that just started up a couple of weeks ago.

The name of the restaurant is Sol y Sazon ("Sun and Flavour"). The owner/chef had only a few items on the menu as he's still testing it out, so we didn't really choose our meal, he just told us what he was cooking that night. Luckily, it all sounded amazing.

To start, the three of us shared a grilled potato, capsicum and spinach salad with a delicious lemony peppery dressing. I couldn't help dipping my fingers in to wipe up the excess dressing, which was more like a thin sauce, before the plate was taken away. For our main we each had a burrito. Claire's was a chicken burrito with a mango sauce and Stacey and I each had a spinach, feta, peanut and roasted vegetable burrito. It was small and perfectly put together, with everything made from scratch including the tortilla, which was thin, almost like a crepe, and melted in my mouth. It so delicious that I savoured it and I enjoyed every mouthful.

There was also a glass of freshly squeezed mora juie (like blackberry juice). You always have fresh juice with meals here, and Colombians do fresh juice really well. To finish we were given some sweet banana, on the house.

All up the meal cost us the same or less than other meals we've had locally, and was by far superior. There was so much care and love put into each course and every ingredient was chosen with care and complimented the rest perfectly. Our host came out after each plate was brought out to ask us what we thought of the food. Honestly, I wanted to marry this guy just so he could cook for me. It was like going to dinner at your friend's house, if your friend was a Colombian gourmet chef.

You can view Sol y Sazon on Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/pages/Santa-Marta-Colombia/SOL-SAZON/137219238761?v=info

Eaten alive by mosquitos

Once we finally made it up to the Lost City, it was absolutely swarming with mosquitos. My legs were eaten alive.

La Ciudad Perdida

The 'Lost City' in the mountains near Santa Marta, Colombia

Cogi Family

An indigenous family living in the mountains near La Ciudad Perdida. This family were Cogi (the ancestors of the Lost City inhabitants).

One of the highlights of the trek was talking to the local indigenous family at one of the camps, who were Wewu (seperate from the Cogi). They spoke good Spanish as well as their native language, and they had learnt a little English.

The father of the family, who was probably our age (and whose name I could neither pronouce nor spell) showed us all his crops (plantain, potato, coca) and told us about his family. We taught him some English words and he taught us some words in Wewu. The family was pretty well off (they had two horses and owned the land that we were staying on), but they were still very isolated. He had a notebook with drawings but didn't actually have a pen, so I gave him mine. Their house was made of mud and stone and they wore simple, white sack dresses or toga-like gaments, but they all carried these intricately woven coloured bags and the girls and women wore beautiful beaded necklaces. They were one of the few Wewu familes around as the two local village clusters were both Cogi familes, and they were almost entirely self-sufficient.

Nicola

La Ciudad Perdida (Trek to the Lost City)

We've just spent six days in the jungle on a trek to La Ciudad Perdida (The Lost City) in Colombia. This has been my first chance to use the internet - as well as have a shower, do laundry, put on clean clothes and do lots of other things I usually do every day back home.

We signed up for the Lost City Trek on our first day in Santa Marta. The entire trek worked out at about NZ$50 per day and included two guides, entrance to the Lost City, six days of accomodation, food, water and mules to carry our food. It was amazing. I have never been more sweaty, dirty or fatigued than I have been over the last six days. Luckily the group we were in was a really cool group and everyone got along really well. There were 12 of us in total - four Kiwis, four Americans and four Brits.

We took the trek pretty slow, only doing a few hours each day, but with the sun and rain beating down and carrying all our stuff on our backs it was pretty hard. Not hard for our guide Miguel, who was pretty much cartwheeling up the hills while carrying an entire supermarket on his back. We slept in hammocks each night and our guides cooked us delicious food that was totally unsuitable for hiking, like empanadas and deep fried dough balls. We drank water straight from the river (so far so good). We also washed in the river.

The distance to the Lost City was 45km there and back, but it was a rough road and we had to cross the river about 107,546 times. At one point I asked Miguel whether the river was dangerous to cross (as it rained heavily at 3pm every dayand the water had risen to our shoulders).

"For sure, it's dangerous" he said confidentally, "but it's not a problem".

There was once when Miguel decided the river was in fact too high to cross, so he whipped out his machete and hacked a path through the jungle for us. It was the most hazardous path I have ever been on. I actually feared for my life. After that I was almost bounding across the rivers and never asked him again.

The actual Lost City was 'Lost' until 1975, when some explorers (read: gold robbers) came across it and plundered everything. Since then, local guides have been taking tourist treks to the city, and groups were even able to camp in the ruins until four months ago (Some people were taken hostage by the paramilitary and tourists were ruining it anyway). There were 1200 (extremely slippery and hazardous) steps to get up to the city and it was an amazing sight. Only the foundations of the city remain but a couple of replica houses have been constructed, which are actually the same as the houses the local indigenous people live in now.

The city itself was swarming with mosquitos. We were absolutely eaten alive by them (but it was worth it). I lost my repellent so I used someone else's, but I am still able to count 102 bites on just one leg.

Nicola

The Arrival of the Fourth Amiga

After three days of travelling on planes and buses, I arrived in Cartagena on the Caribbean coast of Colombia. I somehow got a flight that was 30mins earlier than my actual flight and then Stacey, Claire and Sylvie's flight was late so I was waiting at the airport for about three hours wondering whether I should be getting a cab and finding a hostel before it got dark. The airport had absolutely no customs of any sort so I literally picked up my bag off the conveyer belt and walked outside into the 40 degree heat.

I found the others in the end and we headed to the Medialuna hotel, a bit pricier than other hostels at $16 per night but really nice, with a pool, free wi-fi, free laundry and free coffee. Unfortunately we didn't get to experience the free laundry or free coffee because the next morning when we woke up there was absolutely no running water in the entire city of Cartagena. I asked the laundry woman when she thought the water might be working again and she said 'Don't know. Maybe tomorrow?"

We decided to go to Santa Marta, about three hours away on the bus. I got off the bus tired and confused and inadvertedly paid 5000 pesos for a packet of gum, which has been my biggest regret so far. 5000 pesos is almost $4, which is more than 5 times the price that it was actually worth. I bet the gum-selling woman who ripped me off just couldn't believe her luck when I actually paid it. Anyway we checked out a couple of hostels in the 'prostitute district' (apparently where the best hostels are). The first hostel we checked out was called the Hotel Titanic which was totally devoid of people but had a live iguana on the reception desk and some odd-looking animals in cages. We went across the road to the Hotel Miramar instad, which is only 8000 pesos (double the price of my packet of gum!) so about $6.50 a night each, plus about 50 cents each for internet. No air conditioning, which means it's almost impossible to sleep, but at least there's no weird animals in cages.

Nicola

Camping, volcanos and slugs

Last week Sylvie was back in Talacos because she had loved it so much the first time. This time it was her and Remi (a French volunteer who arrived two weeks ago and left today) and the 20 year old Armando (another of the guides). Lucky them, they spotted a bear in one of the corn fields this time (they do exist)!

While the others were in Talacos, Claire and Stacey went camping in the village of Cazapamba (two hours walking up the road from our village). Luckily we managed to hitch a ride in one of the camionetas (trucks) which was ferrying about 20 people there to sell their produce. While standing and clinging on to the back of the truck very close to everyone Claire and I (Stacey) both got vague marriage proposals from a man who said he was single and needed two wives. I said we only had two weeks left here and he said two weeks was ok. All in Spanish of course. It was all in good fun and everyone was having a laugh with us.

At Cazapamba we stayed in tents in the back yard of one of the guides with the project, Samuel. Samuel is incredibly tall, at least six foot (the tallest Ecuadorian anyone has ever seen, we tower over most people here) and he has a huge Grenadilla plantation at his house. Grenadillas (grenadines?) are fruit here that grow on a vine. They have a hard shell that you crack open and they have lots of sweet fleshy pips inside, similar to a passionfruit except they are bigger and orange.

We camped in Samuel's back yard for two nights, the tent was reasonable except the zips were broken and both mornings we woke to find a few fat slugs in our tent. The second morning I found one crawling across the neck of my sleeping bag and lucky claire woke to a cold slimy slug crawling across her eyelid! Our mission while here was to try to catch a bear in one of the three foot-traps that had been set, and to listen out for Frida on the radio. Frida is one of the collared bears who roams around the valleys and maiz fields of Cazapamba.

Samuel has a quad bike which he rides around everywhere on. He told us he only walks when he has to, even if its just down the road. He manages to dwarf the quad bike with his long lanky legs. It must have been a funny site, Samuel driving with Claire and I perched precariously on the back, clinging on for dear life while holding machetes and bumping over the mud paths towards the maiz fields, with his big dog Lucas running along side and barking.

Both days Samuel had us traipsing around all over the valleys, through the thick forest, under vines, getting our arms torn up from thorns and branches while he hacked away at plants with his machete to try and clear a path for us. All while trying to find clues of recent bear activity. We came across a tree with lots of scratches and markings from the bears, and recently eaten corn husks. The bears seem to always be a step ahead of us and probably smell us coming a mile off. Samuel's dog Lucas who came with us got all excited at one point and ran off through the forest, following the scent of bear. He probably scared it off too but he´s such a big lovely dog we couldn't leave him behind. He accompanied Claire and I everywhere we went and sat with us patiently for hours while we looked out over the valleys with our binoculars, searching for a glimpse of a bear.

We use the radio to tune into the signals of the collared bears and we are able to tell roughly where they are and if they are close. From this the project has managed to learn the size of the home ranges of the bears. The collared bear Frida also has a cub with her so we were hoping to catch a glimpse of her, if possible retrap her to take blood, hair, and milk samples. We never managed to catch Frida or any others so I never found out about what milking a bear would involve...

The other exciting thing has been the erupting volcano in the town of Baños. We were in Baños just a month ago and sitting beside the volcano in the hot springs. From where we are in Pucara, at least three hours away we can hear it rumbling every half hour or so. Last night the sky was orange over on the horizon towards Baños. We are pretty cut off so have no idea how bad it is but I saw a pic on the net before and read they were evacuating people. Hopefully its stopped by a week because we are heading back to Quito, which is closer to the volcano.

Stacey