Johan and I started on our 15 hour journey to Santa Marta and had a stopover at 4 in the morning in Venezuelas oil capital – Maracaibo. We were lucky enough to get the ridiculous gringo price for the next leg which meant my cash funds were severly stretched (my ATM cards werent working here for some reason) and I ended up not being able to pay the exit tax at the border! Luckily, I had a 15 Euro reserve and managed to find another tourist who was kind enough to exchange it with me so I could leave the country. 17 security checks and 3 baggage checks later we were in the seaside town of Santa Marta.

Santa Marta supposedly has the cheapest PADI diver sertification in the world, and Ive been wanting to do this for years but have always put it off because of my "take off mask under water"-phopia. Well, after a few beers we went into a dive shop and Johan was very keen on just signing up for the next day. I wanted to put it off as usual, but I said sure and signed up.

The next morning, after about 3 hours of sleep we sat down for our first lecture, a video. I could feel my pulse excelerating but told myself everything would be better as soon as I just got in the water… not true, it turns out watching people do exercises on TV is a lot better than actually doing them yourself. I concentrated on my own thing (breathing) while the others did the exercises. It was then time for our first dive, only 5 meters said the intructor…. yeah right. We ended up at 12 meters,

and it was absolutely amazing. Never experienced anything like it, like flying, on a different planet with huge brain corall,

morae eels and colorfull fish.

We had a break and did a second dive to 40 feet. I had some thoughts about what would happen if I would need any of the excercises but quickly had to put that out of my head or my urge to ascend would have gotten the better of me.

Really an amazing day, but I was dreading the next few days of exercises.

When we got back to out hotel I quickly saw that something was wrong – our room had been burglared! And, my ATM cards, cell phone, memory stick and all other documents except my passport was gone. Luckily, I had been traveling with Johan for a while and he functioned as my bank for a few days until I could arrange a money transfer. I did however take the opportunity to use the burglary as an excuse to chicken out of the PADI course. It calmed my nerves a lot for the moment, but hopefully I will be doing more diving some time in the future.

From Santa Marta I visited a nice little former fishing village, now a 100 % tourist village, set in a horse shoe shaped bay, called Taganga. I also went to one of the most beatifull beaches Ive ever seen, with lush tropical jungel covering the mountain sides around it, in the Tayrona national park.

I also celebrated my birthday here. Johan and I were drinking rum and decided to continue our pre-party at the roof terrace of our hotel. There we encountered another birthday party, 3 colombian guys and a girl celebrating one of the guys. Us two birthday boys then got the customary Colombian birthday treatment of beeing showered in Maizena flour – a birthday to remember.

We then went out to find that every bar was closed on Mondays, and ended up in what can only be described as a very shady establishment that filled our most important requirement of selling beer…

Santa Marta is the starting point for the 6 day trek to Ciudad Perdida – the lost city - set in dense jungel. I had signed up for the trip, but a day before we were set to take off, I got violent food poisoning. It had me thinking back to my amoeba experience in the Philipines 10 years earlier which sent me to the hospital for 2 days. I certainly understand now that the human body consists of a large amount of liquid, and that mine now had a very different ratio of liquid to solid material. I had 12 terrible hours, and after that actually managed to sleep for two days straight only interupted by sitting up to drink. At this time Johan left for Equador, and I spent the rest of my time in Santa Marta with Colombians - a fun experience. I didnt have the guts to set off for 6 days in the jungle with my recent stomach experience and a few days later I was off for the tourist captial of Colombia - Cartagena.

Cartagena is among the most beautifull Spanish colonial cities I have seen. Its old city is set behind a fortified wall

to protect the Spanish gold from the pirates of the Caribbean some centuries ago. Here I bumped into a couple of Australians Id met in Santa Marta and also met two American girls in the street I would end up rooming with. I spent a few days walking the streets and enjoying the views of this beautifull city.

We then met a group of two Israelis and an American guy. The six of us the went to a volcano

(not really sure how natural that vulcano was) where you could bathe in a natural mud bath – in the volcano!

A really unique experience. From the look of it you would think you would drown like in quick sand, but instead you float perfectly in the mud, and even receive a massage.

The next day we left for a night at the beautifull beach of Playa Blanca.

Totally deserted, we had almost the entire beach to ourselves. There was no electricity, and at night we lit a bonfire and slept in rows of hammocks. Truly a beach heaven!

I then left for Medellin, possibly the most developed city in South America.

It used to be famed for being the cocaine capital of the world, and probably still is, but its even bigger claim to fame these days is as the silicon capital of the world – a very true claim. The city doesnt have much to offer travelers except supposedly the best night life in Colombia. Unfortunately I received the bad news that I had failed my final excam on my first day in the city, which took away some of my party mood for a few days. I went for a look downtown and encountered a huge demonstration against the FARC guerilla, who had days earlier excecuted 11 politicians theyd captured two years ago. A small reminder that Colombia is still Colombia. I then checked out the nightlife but decided I wasnt in the mood for a prolonged party in this place and decided to move on. Surprisingly I bumped into Johan on my first night out. His first stop to Equador had been Medellin, and unlike me, he was in a very good party mood and had ended up staying for over two weeks. We now decided enough was enough and left for a 30 hours bus ride to Equador.

The scale for crazy driving keeps on getting expanded and as usual, we had a nutcase driving us. The scenery on the way to the border is some of the most spectacular Ive ever seen, with winding roads traversing high mountain cliffs and valleys. The southern part of the country is also official guerilla country. Somewhat of a frightening thought, but we trusted the info in the guide book that said that they operated like police and would only check our documents if we encountered them.

Right on the border lies one of the most picturesque places Ive ever seen - a gothic cathedral set in a deep gorge above a river – like taken out of a fairytale.

We went for a quick look before crossing the border.

We had no problems at the border and came in late at night to the small mountain town of Otavalo situated at 3000 meters in the Equadoran Andes.

The contrast from Medellin could not have been greater. From a European style city filled with blond people we now found ourselves in a small Andean moutain village where all the locals had a distinct Indian look.

The main attraction of the city is its large handicrafts market, and Johan and I did some shopping including some nice alpakka sweathers that were sorely needed at this altitud.

The surrounding area also has superb hiking opportunities and we went to a nearby volcano crater

where we managed to never find the trail, which made for some interesting climbs through thick brush as we made our way around it. We also encountered a herd of alpakkas that were more than willing to pose for some pictures

The next day we went for another hike to a nearby waterfall

and went to visit a local village. As we came in to the village it turned out there was a religious festival going on. Ive come to learn that the Christian practices in this part of the world are heavily influenced by local religions, and the first thing we saw was a group of people dancing in a ring around a headless chicken,

followed by food being thrown into the crowd. We then sampled some local street food, and watched an excibition of local dances

which was constantly interupted by a tiny, extremely drunk local guy who wanted to either take part, fight someone or both. This token drunk seems to occur whenever there is any kind of a show going on and Im beginning to wonder whether they might be employed by the groups, as they add significant entertainment value.

Our bext stop was Quito, the capital of Equador,

where we tok in to one of the best hostels Ive ever been to – Centro del Mundo. With lots of nice people, cabel TV, a big TV room with matresses on the floor and food being served, this was almost better than being in your own home. Quito also boasts excelent nightlife all week, nice colonial buildings and is without comparison my favorite big city in Latin America so far.

While in Quito we went on a day trip to the equator line – the centre of the world. Funnily enough, the official monument

was placed some 200 meters off the actual line, but a much more interesting museum lies on the actual site. We were here given a very interesting tour about the weird phenomenons that occur at this site, like there being no shadow at a certain time of year, how water drains in opposite directions 3 meters to each side of the line and straight down on it, AND I now have a certificate that proves I can balance an egg on a nail!

Johan and I again parted, he left for Bogota and I went to Baños (meaning toilet or bathroom in Spanish, a cause for confusion when your Spanish isnt perfect) with 4 american guys. We got a big appartement at 5 $ each a night with a beautifull view of the surrounding mountains and waterfall.

From Baños, three of us went on an amazing day trip to the basecamp of volcan Cotopaxi

the highest active volcano in the world. The volcano is perfectly cone shaped with a glazier at the top.

While hiking up we encountered snow and eventually a hale storm.

In Banños I met a guy who would let you weigh yourself for 10 cents. I was very curious, and my fears were confirmed, Id lost 7 kiloes – scary!

After this chilly experience I wanted to see some sun and beaches before heading to the cold altitudes of Peru and Bolivia and headed for Montañita on the coast.

I never saw sun in 4 days but got to do 3 days of surfing which was a lot of fun,

and I surfed my biggest waves to date at around 2,5 meters.

I was hoping to catch a 24 hour bus from a nearby city, but arrived just in time to see it leaving and was unable to cath it. I was so psycked up for a long bus ride that I couldnt bring myself to stay a night in Guyaquil and decided to try to make my way to Lima with local buses, and do the border crossing Id been warned against on my own. It went OK, I got to Lima 38 hours after leaving Montañita having taken 7 buses, 3 taxis and getting ripped of by the taxi driver at the border.

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