Wednesday, January 17, 2007
Tuesday, January 16, 2007
cali, bogota,....mexico city...dallas
i am writing from "home" in dallas, where it's -4C!!! considering that yesterday morning i woke up in bogota at 28C, it is quite a change and i am still not used to it!
so it's been a whirlwind of emotions and places, and while it's nice to enjoy the amenities that this place has to offer, it is still pretty strange being here where everybody speaks english, seems very bratty and complains a lot, all while not smiling very much...but here i am and here i am to stay for a bit.
the day after the valle del cocora, my host J, 2 of his friends and I went to a "finca cafetera", pretty much a "coffee farm" that had a 4-hour visit which explained everything about coffee, from its origin to the structure of the plant and how it grows. it was really interesting, the guides were really good, very interactive as well. i learned a lot about where coffee really comes from and where it goes (i didn't know it came from a plant that has leaves and gives "fruits", inside which is the coffee bean!). i also was told that the best colombian coffee is exported to be toasted and then packaged and sold, so what they're left with in colombia is not that great (only at Juan Valdez, the colombian version of starbucks, can you find the same good-quality coffee)...i also learned that the coffee bean is more or less the same color of a peanut, and then it's when it gets toasted and roasted that it really becomes what we can see in the shop...before that it really doesn't smell or taste like anything!
after that i went to cali for the weekend, and i had another great host, G together with all her friends! it was an interesting experience, we went out, witnessed the infamous cali nightlife, and had a good walk through the city, including a daytrip to the rio pance, where all the calenos go spend their sunday. it's kinda like their beach i guess, although the water is definitely freezing cold!
i was also glad to finally hear something about the current political situation in colombia, and learn a tiny bit about the guerrilla groups, the paramilitary groups and so on and so forth...surprisingly enough for me, it is something people are very reticent to talk about, so it is hard to hear about it from people...and the media abroad doesn't really talk about it either,...
from cali i took an evening bus to bogota, spent the night at the airport, then in the morning i spent "all" the pesos i had left (about 12U$D!) before embarking on a plane to mexico city, endure the pain that is the mexico city airport, and then embark on the plane to dallas, with a bunch of chicanos and mexican-texans...quite interesting! now i just woke up in "my bed" and i am using my computer, i don't have a timer for my internet connection for the first timein a while! hehe but it's already the first day of class, i didn't get too much sleep and i need to bundle up and put gas in my bike and brave the cold and the hoards of students on campus! i am looking forward to that! sadly, who knows when the next trip will be...probably not sooner than march for a week to 10 days, and then mid-may for big ass one! :)
so it's been a whirlwind of emotions and places, and while it's nice to enjoy the amenities that this place has to offer, it is still pretty strange being here where everybody speaks english, seems very bratty and complains a lot, all while not smiling very much...but here i am and here i am to stay for a bit.
the day after the valle del cocora, my host J, 2 of his friends and I went to a "finca cafetera", pretty much a "coffee farm" that had a 4-hour visit which explained everything about coffee, from its origin to the structure of the plant and how it grows. it was really interesting, the guides were really good, very interactive as well. i learned a lot about where coffee really comes from and where it goes (i didn't know it came from a plant that has leaves and gives "fruits", inside which is the coffee bean!). i also was told that the best colombian coffee is exported to be toasted and then packaged and sold, so what they're left with in colombia is not that great (only at Juan Valdez, the colombian version of starbucks, can you find the same good-quality coffee)...i also learned that the coffee bean is more or less the same color of a peanut, and then it's when it gets toasted and roasted that it really becomes what we can see in the shop...before that it really doesn't smell or taste like anything!
after that i went to cali for the weekend, and i had another great host, G together with all her friends! it was an interesting experience, we went out, witnessed the infamous cali nightlife, and had a good walk through the city, including a daytrip to the rio pance, where all the calenos go spend their sunday. it's kinda like their beach i guess, although the water is definitely freezing cold!
i was also glad to finally hear something about the current political situation in colombia, and learn a tiny bit about the guerrilla groups, the paramilitary groups and so on and so forth...surprisingly enough for me, it is something people are very reticent to talk about, so it is hard to hear about it from people...and the media abroad doesn't really talk about it either,...
from cali i took an evening bus to bogota, spent the night at the airport, then in the morning i spent "all" the pesos i had left (about 12U$D!) before embarking on a plane to mexico city, endure the pain that is the mexico city airport, and then embark on the plane to dallas, with a bunch of chicanos and mexican-texans...quite interesting! now i just woke up in "my bed" and i am using my computer, i don't have a timer for my internet connection for the first timein a while! hehe but it's already the first day of class, i didn't get too much sleep and i need to bundle up and put gas in my bike and brave the cold and the hoards of students on campus! i am looking forward to that! sadly, who knows when the next trip will be...probably not sooner than march for a week to 10 days, and then mid-may for big ass one! :)
Thursday, January 11, 2007
medellin, armenia, salento.
i had a very good time in medellin, met a lot of travelers at the hostel i was staying at, visited with some of them the town of santa fe de antioquia, and then did medellin on my own...unfortunately, it being vacation time for the locals and being the middle of the week, i could not check out the supposedly crazy nightlife! next time...the center seemed a little scary from time to time, even though the guidebooks say it's one of the safest cities around...maybe it's also because of the movies about the infamous times that i have watched, such as "la virgen de los sicarios"...at the hostel the first night we watched another one like that, "rosario tijeras", and a lot of people said i had to check out "la vendedora de rosas" or something like that...
from medellin i took a 6-hr bus ride through some lush valleys to get to armenia, in the middle of the "zona cafetera", where most of the colombian coffee is produced. i am being hosted by J., a really great host, and today we checked out the Valle de Cocora, where some strange wax palms grow amidst valleys that seriously look like a lush-tropical version of switzerland! i didn't really get the whole deal with those wax palms, but maybe i will try to look it up when i have time...we took a jeep with a bunch of backpackers, so we got to meet a lot of new people too, and it was really fun! we hiked most of the day through the valley and then up to some farm in the middle of nowhere...
tomorrow i was going to go see the parque nacional del cafe, a disneyland-like park that's all about coffee...but i decided instead to go visit a local "finca" where they really make coffee! :)
and then after that i am onto cali, the salsa capital of the world, which also contends to medellin the prize for best-looking girls and best nightlife...so it should be fun! i will be there exactly for friday and saturday night, before jumping on a bus on sunday morning that will take me back to bogota, where my plane leaves the next morning...yes it's almost all over...sadly...especially when you're surrounded by people who spend 6 to 12 months around here! oh well...
from medellin i took a 6-hr bus ride through some lush valleys to get to armenia, in the middle of the "zona cafetera", where most of the colombian coffee is produced. i am being hosted by J., a really great host, and today we checked out the Valle de Cocora, where some strange wax palms grow amidst valleys that seriously look like a lush-tropical version of switzerland! i didn't really get the whole deal with those wax palms, but maybe i will try to look it up when i have time...we took a jeep with a bunch of backpackers, so we got to meet a lot of new people too, and it was really fun! we hiked most of the day through the valley and then up to some farm in the middle of nowhere...
tomorrow i was going to go see the parque nacional del cafe, a disneyland-like park that's all about coffee...but i decided instead to go visit a local "finca" where they really make coffee! :)
and then after that i am onto cali, the salsa capital of the world, which also contends to medellin the prize for best-looking girls and best nightlife...so it should be fun! i will be there exactly for friday and saturday night, before jumping on a bus on sunday morning that will take me back to bogota, where my plane leaves the next morning...yes it's almost all over...sadly...especially when you're surrounded by people who spend 6 to 12 months around here! oh well...
Saturday, January 06, 2007
san gil (rafting!), villa de leyva
the last day spent in san gil was really a lot of fun! we went rafting down the rio suarez (grade 4) with a bunch of aussies and some kiwis from the hostel we were staying at! rafting is a lot of fun i discovered, the guides were good too so it was a success!
in the afternoon we left to villa de leyva, the route was really scenic, we were stopped and body-checked a couple of times by the police (or army rather). we arrived in villa de leyva when it was already dark, so we discovered what it looks like during the day only today. yesterday we hiked up to the santuario de iguaque, where there is a lagoon that is sacred to the muisca indians, the native inhabitants of this area. the hike was through a forest and then through a "paramo" (open highland), longer than 2 hours each way, and much harder than i thought! but the lagoon and the nature up there were worth it! the paramo has a special vegetation with plants i've never seen before, and we were drinking the water from the lagoon before walking all the way down. once we reached the visitors center at the bottom, it started raining pretty bad! we started talking to two siblings from bogota who were waiting for their friend to come down the mountain, when they suddenly offered us a ride back to villa de leyva! so we got in their car and listened to (american) christian rock all the way back, with them singing along of course! it was really fun, they're happy people, very christian too they said...so they invited us to bogota tonight, they're going to show us around in their car (with christian rock included, i am sure!) before my brother catches his flight back to italy...i have about 10 more days, but by now all the little problems disappeared and the travel bug has caught onto me: i wish i could keep traveling for much, much longer!!! i am already thinking about my next destination...oh, my stomach is also holding up pretty well considering everything, contrarily to my brother's. last night for example we decided to cook "at home" instead of eating out, so we picked some stuff from the supermarket, and i mistakenly grabbed a big jar of ketchup instead of tomato sauce!!! it said "salsa" and it had a picture of tomatoes, how could i know?? so i ended up cooking and eating pasta with ketchup! hehe tonight it's onto bogota for some night tour of the capital city, and then tomorrow i am taking off to medellin, the hometown of higuita (possibly the most entertaining soccer player ever) and the infamous drug cartel! should be fun!
in the afternoon we left to villa de leyva, the route was really scenic, we were stopped and body-checked a couple of times by the police (or army rather). we arrived in villa de leyva when it was already dark, so we discovered what it looks like during the day only today. yesterday we hiked up to the santuario de iguaque, where there is a lagoon that is sacred to the muisca indians, the native inhabitants of this area. the hike was through a forest and then through a "paramo" (open highland), longer than 2 hours each way, and much harder than i thought! but the lagoon and the nature up there were worth it! the paramo has a special vegetation with plants i've never seen before, and we were drinking the water from the lagoon before walking all the way down. once we reached the visitors center at the bottom, it started raining pretty bad! we started talking to two siblings from bogota who were waiting for their friend to come down the mountain, when they suddenly offered us a ride back to villa de leyva! so we got in their car and listened to (american) christian rock all the way back, with them singing along of course! it was really fun, they're happy people, very christian too they said...so they invited us to bogota tonight, they're going to show us around in their car (with christian rock included, i am sure!) before my brother catches his flight back to italy...i have about 10 more days, but by now all the little problems disappeared and the travel bug has caught onto me: i wish i could keep traveling for much, much longer!!! i am already thinking about my next destination...oh, my stomach is also holding up pretty well considering everything, contrarily to my brother's. last night for example we decided to cook "at home" instead of eating out, so we picked some stuff from the supermarket, and i mistakenly grabbed a big jar of ketchup instead of tomato sauce!!! it said "salsa" and it had a picture of tomatoes, how could i know?? so i ended up cooking and eating pasta with ketchup! hehe tonight it's onto bogota for some night tour of the capital city, and then tomorrow i am taking off to medellin, the hometown of higuita (possibly the most entertaining soccer player ever) and the infamous drug cartel! should be fun!
Wednesday, January 03, 2007
cartagena, santa marta, san gil, barichara
it's nçbeen a while since i last updated...well, i am glad i got to leave cartagena for good, that place was too much...maybe i'd like it not during peak season or something, i don't know what it is! we did 2 excursions outside the city and those were fun. the first one was the islas del rosario, some islands right outside the bay, cristalline waters, coral reefs and big waves to make a lot of people on our boat throw up and stuff! hehe we had the whole array of families with grandmas and such traveling so it was quite entertaining! we stopped at playa blanca for lunch and that was easily the best beach i've seen on this trip! not as clear water but very very photogenic! then the next day we went to a mud volcano called el totumo. that was super fun, because we went mud dipping, and the mud is very creamy so it feels good, plus it's so dense everybody is floating, there is no way you can sink even though your feet are not touching the bottom...it was exhilarating! and in the middle of our dipping session it started "erupting" bubbles of mud!!! haha then we washed off in the nearby lagoon...apparently the whole thing is created by some strange phenomenon in the lagoon where the water pushes the mud from underneath all the way up till it erupts, and throughout the years it eventually formed the volcano that many tourists now enjoy! we also got to visit, once back in cartagena, the spanish fortress, that was pretty interesting. the most impressive part was the tunnels going down deep till they were submerged!
then we finally got to leave cartagena for santa marta on the 31st of december! we stayed with my brother's ex colleague's family by santa marta somewhere, and i very well enjoyed being taken care of, fed and all the nice stuff! we were shown around, visited the tayrona national park, spent 2 days at 2 different super nice beaches (guayraca, playa concha), spent new year's with a bunch of people, ate some good food and got interesting insight on the life of an upper middle-class colombian family!
last night we left santa marta and through bucaramanga we arrived in san gil where we're staying now. during the afternoon we visited the nearby colonial town of barichara, i had two "paletas", we walked around, visited some nice churches to escape the heat, then made it back here for some colombian fast food (fried arepas filled with mushrooms)...tomorrow we're visiting the parque el gallineral here, maybe going somewhere else before we take off to go to villa de leyva, another town in the colombian highlands. i like it here very much: it's very relaxing, people are very friendly and nobody is trying to sell you anything!!!
then we finally got to leave cartagena for santa marta on the 31st of december! we stayed with my brother's ex colleague's family by santa marta somewhere, and i very well enjoyed being taken care of, fed and all the nice stuff! we were shown around, visited the tayrona national park, spent 2 days at 2 different super nice beaches (guayraca, playa concha), spent new year's with a bunch of people, ate some good food and got interesting insight on the life of an upper middle-class colombian family!
last night we left santa marta and through bucaramanga we arrived in san gil where we're staying now. during the afternoon we visited the nearby colonial town of barichara, i had two "paletas", we walked around, visited some nice churches to escape the heat, then made it back here for some colombian fast food (fried arepas filled with mushrooms)...tomorrow we're visiting the parque el gallineral here, maybe going somewhere else before we take off to go to villa de leyva, another town in the colombian highlands. i like it here very much: it's very relaxing, people are very friendly and nobody is trying to sell you anything!!!
Thursday, December 28, 2006
coro (venezuela) + cartagena (colombia)
so it's been a while since i last updated this, and a new entry is very much needed...from choroni i took the fun bus up and then down the mountains through the henri pittier national park and then, after a couple bus rides, i finally made it to coro, on the northwestern caribbean coast of venezuela, just in front of aruba, curacao and bonaire (netherlands antilles), which used to be served by a ferry (i know, inviting, right?!)...coro is famous for its colonial architecture and the medanos de coro, a series of big sand dunes right outside the city center! when i arrived, on dec 24th late in the evening, the city was crazy with shoppers and music and the atmosphere was pretty hot...i was pretty hot too, since i got bit by mosquitoes really bad in choroni, and my legs were on fire!!! but yeah, i stayed at this cool place whose owners are architects who studied abroad, and i spent christmas eve with a venezuelan family, 2 canadian and 1 spanish girls, plus the hosts...it was very good, we exchanged "cheapo" (chimbo) presents and it was funny!!! then the next day i made it to the medanos, the giant sand dunes, and i was blown away! it seemed like a real desert, although i've never been to one! the whole sand dune phenomenon is very interesting and philosophically intriguing to me, plus i got to be by myself in the middle of just sand and wind for a while...hehe then later in the day i made my way to maracaibo, spent the night at the bus terminal there, and then eventually made it across the border to maicao, colombia! the bus we payed to take us to the city terminal left us in the middle of the two immigration checkpoints, so me and 2 brazilians had to bargain our way out of there somehow...and we were in the middle of no man's land, the place looked pretty scary if you ask me! we had to pay for an overprived bus ride to...the terminal, only to wait 2 more hours there before we could get on the road for real...so then we arrived in cartagena only pretty late in the evening, had again to fight with taxi drivers and whatnot to make it into the center...the hostel i was going to stay at was full, so i looked around for a bit and decided to settle for a very cheap and kinda shady looking like place...where they got into my room while i was showering and stole my cell phone!!! fuck them!!! fuck colombia, i thought, i am getting the hell out of here! but then again, i should have put a lock at my door right away instead of going for the quick shower...so again, i guess it could be kinda my fault...and then out of the things they could have stolen, the cell phone is by far the least important to me! but you know poor people all over the world love cell phones, so let them have it!!! i spent a day at the police, next to a guy who was handcuffed to the wall and had stolen and crashed a motorbike while on some sort of glue kinda drug, and he was rapping for me to beg for some change since he said he needed it in his next 5 years in jail...well my day spent in frustration and anger didn't really produce much, and then my brother finally reached me, so i could start forgetting about the whole incident and focus on my trip...because cartagena is truly an amazing town...a port town (like marseille, france, the other place where i was robbed...of my hanky!!!), but a beautiful one! as a port town, it has the whole range of scary-shady-weird looking-etc people that always follow you and bug you and offer you all sorts of drugs and girls (i've never been offered by so many prostitutes before in my life!) and whatnot...which gets pretty annoying if you ask me...but then again, the city center is really amazing, old and beautiful!!! we went to check out boca grande last night, which is the part of town where the moneyed colombians stay...and it looks so much like miami beach it is pretty scary!!! today we walked around all day and we're pretty exhausted, but i had a blast eating arepas and mangos and cheese off the street vendors, bargaining our way through some burned cd's with vallenato, and stuff like that...the smile of some colombian girls is unexpectedly very rewarding and surprising at times! well anyway, tomorrow we're going on a full-day boat excursion to the islands of rosario around the bay, then to playa grande, a beach not too far from here...and then the next day we're supposedly going to this mud volcano where you can swim in and have "mud fun"! hahah we'll see how that goes...i am seriously looking forward to getting out of a touristy place and feel more like i am in a more colombian place...
Saturday, December 23, 2006
caracas + choroni
so caracas, i need to write more on that...the contrast between poverty and misery and wealth and consumism is really evident there, after 10 whole days in the country i had never seen the kind of people i was rubbing shoulders with at the numerous malls of caracas: those are exactly the same as the ones in miami, the people as well...plastic surgery and a lot of importance to looks and brands...the center of town was really crazy though, a unique experience of overload of sounds, smells, people and things everywhere...i kept walking around the same block trying to find my way around, while watching for my stuff and trying to find something to eat!
i enjoyed the center of town, then i went to miraflores, the armed forces headquarter, and while i was taking pictures a soldier approached me asking me for my camera...to make it short, i unbelievably made my way inside the heavily-protected building just because of my innocent picture...and all because they had to check my identity or whatever! the president of ecuador was visiting chavez, so security was tight...plus the situation, and the city in general, is just very electric and it feels like it could explode at any second! that's one of the things i think i liked the most about it, the energy...there's so much energy that it either "kills" you, or it rubs onto you and you can feel it too...and i did while walking through piles of trash, completely surrounded by people, things, vendor stalls, food smells, car horns, you name it, it was there...moreover, the city's setting is spectacular, with the avila dominating everything that goes on...
i luckily made my way out of town without any damage or loss, and finding myself enjoying the mess/chaos/energy, you can call it whatever you want...
then we had some interesting experience on the bus out of town: a tire went flat right on the highway, and the noise was so loud i woke up and got up like everybody else...we thought the thing was going to catch on fire, and i am afraid there isn't much as far as safety there! but it was just a flat tire, and boy, was the tire was smooth and worn out!
from maracay i got on a fun, old american schoolbus with the interiors spraypainted a fluorescent green and turquoise, and we slowly made our way towards the beach with reggeaton blasting through the sound system...we entered the henri pittier national park and drove up to 1830 meters, only to descend through woods and fog all the way down to the beach! it was really fun, and it wouldn't be the same without the music and the crazy driving!
so now i am staying in choroni, technically puerto colombia, this touristy town that is surrounded by mountains and woods (the parc itself), the beach is really nice too, but i took a fisherman's boat to chuao, a town that i had to walk 4km inland to and that is famous for its cocoa...it was surrounded by cocoa plantations so i got to see cocoa "seeds" really up close...then i took another little boat to playa cepe, a semi-secluded beach that is surrounded by palm trees, it was all very enjoyable...
tomorrow i am going to coro, a colonial town, to spend christmas eve at this place where i am going to cook myself up a feast and then sleep, for the first time, on a hammock...and from there on christmas day all the way to colombia passing through maracaibo...so merry christmas everybody!
i enjoyed the center of town, then i went to miraflores, the armed forces headquarter, and while i was taking pictures a soldier approached me asking me for my camera...to make it short, i unbelievably made my way inside the heavily-protected building just because of my innocent picture...and all because they had to check my identity or whatever! the president of ecuador was visiting chavez, so security was tight...plus the situation, and the city in general, is just very electric and it feels like it could explode at any second! that's one of the things i think i liked the most about it, the energy...there's so much energy that it either "kills" you, or it rubs onto you and you can feel it too...and i did while walking through piles of trash, completely surrounded by people, things, vendor stalls, food smells, car horns, you name it, it was there...moreover, the city's setting is spectacular, with the avila dominating everything that goes on...
i luckily made my way out of town without any damage or loss, and finding myself enjoying the mess/chaos/energy, you can call it whatever you want...
then we had some interesting experience on the bus out of town: a tire went flat right on the highway, and the noise was so loud i woke up and got up like everybody else...we thought the thing was going to catch on fire, and i am afraid there isn't much as far as safety there! but it was just a flat tire, and boy, was the tire was smooth and worn out!
from maracay i got on a fun, old american schoolbus with the interiors spraypainted a fluorescent green and turquoise, and we slowly made our way towards the beach with reggeaton blasting through the sound system...we entered the henri pittier national park and drove up to 1830 meters, only to descend through woods and fog all the way down to the beach! it was really fun, and it wouldn't be the same without the music and the crazy driving!
so now i am staying in choroni, technically puerto colombia, this touristy town that is surrounded by mountains and woods (the parc itself), the beach is really nice too, but i took a fisherman's boat to chuao, a town that i had to walk 4km inland to and that is famous for its cocoa...it was surrounded by cocoa plantations so i got to see cocoa "seeds" really up close...then i took another little boat to playa cepe, a semi-secluded beach that is surrounded by palm trees, it was all very enjoyable...
tomorrow i am going to coro, a colonial town, to spend christmas eve at this place where i am going to cook myself up a feast and then sleep, for the first time, on a hammock...and from there on christmas day all the way to colombia passing through maracaibo...so merry christmas everybody!
Thursday, December 21, 2006
santa fe + caracas
after finally leaving merida, i embarked on a fancy super air-conditioned bus to caracas, slept super nicely, only to wake up to the mess and chaos that is the capital of venezuela. luckily it was still kinda early in the morning, so it wasn't too too bad,...yet, i had to catch 2 buses and 2 metros to switch bus terminals, and with all my crap it was quite the adventure...without mentioning what i saw on the street, as far as piles of trash and everything else...i finally made it on the bus to puerto la cruz, and then to santa fe, a little fishing town on the border of the mochima national park...it's a one-street town, with all the travelers staying by the beach...i had a nice and cheap room 5 meters from the water, it was awesome! well, yeah i also had to kill 3 cockroaches in 2 nights, but that's just part of the deal! i got to meet some travelers, although the place was not swamped with foreigners, which is always nice. it was actually pretty peaceful and enjoyable; the first night we had a crazy crazy sunset, and then the next day i went on a boat trip with some germans (which, besides spaniards, are all you can find as far as travelers) and it was fun. we snorkeled at this place between two islands called La Piscinita, because it does look like a pool: super clear water surrounded by coral reefs...and i'm definitely not an expert at that, but it was pretty nice...i also got my back sunburnt, but that's partly my fault...the rest of the day was spent at an isolated beach with the germans and 3 basque guys, and it was pretty enjoyable! nothing much but bathing, tanning and taking pictures of the iguanas that were coming to be fed by the tourists!
then i left santa fe and made it back to caracas, where i've been staying for the past 2 days...it is the most latin american place i've seen so far, which means the place where the contrast between stricken poverty and in-your-face wealth is the most evident...i walked into one of the several malls around town to discover a new kind of people i had never ever seen before in the streets! and tonight i went to this other mall that was just out of the ordinary!!! i also went and took pictures of miraflores, the palace where the army resides, famous for the coup in 1992, and got caught by some soldiers, since they were very alert because correa, the president of ecuador, is visiting at the moment...so i had the chance to go inside...
>(to be continued)<
then i left santa fe and made it back to caracas, where i've been staying for the past 2 days...it is the most latin american place i've seen so far, which means the place where the contrast between stricken poverty and in-your-face wealth is the most evident...i walked into one of the several malls around town to discover a new kind of people i had never ever seen before in the streets! and tonight i went to this other mall that was just out of the ordinary!!! i also went and took pictures of miraflores, the palace where the army resides, famous for the coup in 1992, and got caught by some soldiers, since they were very alert because correa, the president of ecuador, is visiting at the moment...so i had the chance to go inside...
>(to be continued)<
Sunday, December 17, 2006
late night conversations in venezuela.
i like to talk to locals when i travel and discover new things or perspectives, opinions, whatever it may be...so i have been asking people, ones i felt confortable asking to, about chavez mainly, and venezuela in general...tonight i finally found somebody young that said they did not like him...she thought there is a whole lot of propaganda and not that much is being done...not more than some other presidents have done in the past at least...and that chavez really has polarised politics in the country by making a lot of people worship him...so now people either religiously adore him, or straight out hate him, nobody can be neutral anymore...
but the most interesting part about our conversation came about when they mentioned gas prices here...keeping in mind that venezuela has the largest quantities of oil after saudi arabia...well, gas (petrol) here costs 80 bolivares per liter...roughly 4 Euro cents!!! it costs way less than water...where can you find a place where water costs more than oil?? it is plainly mind-boggling to me...it costs less to fill up a 2-liter bottle with oil than with water!!!
but the most interesting part about our conversation came about when they mentioned gas prices here...keeping in mind that venezuela has the largest quantities of oil after saudi arabia...well, gas (petrol) here costs 80 bolivares per liter...roughly 4 Euro cents!!! it costs way less than water...where can you find a place where water costs more than oil?? it is plainly mind-boggling to me...it costs less to fill up a 2-liter bottle with oil than with water!!!
Saturday, December 16, 2006
merida, venezuela.
i am here in the andean town of merida in venezuela, and i am loving it, but i will try to backtrack and say something about the previous days...
from bogota i got on the "wrong" bus to cucuta (colombia-venezuela border) and that's where my bad luck started...the bus took a hell of a long time, stopping everywhere, going through the backroads and loading passengers anywhere!!! so throughout the same night i probably had at least 5 different people sitting next to me! i was looking forward to riding through the colombian andes at night and getting to the border in the morning, but i soon started to realize what i had gotten myself into...anyway, the peak of the trip was when in the middle of the night some soldiers got on our bus with their machine guns in sight, and one sat right next to me for about an hour! needless to say i was freaking out and thinking bad things already, since that was an area with guerrilla and in the middle of the night...you know? i never dared say anything, so i still don't know if they were just getting a free ride or if they were actually supposed to protect us...but i was scared! then we passed some more checkpoints and some were body-checked a couple of times...the view of soldiers with machine guns is pretty common, so i learned to get used to it...
once the endless and annoying ride finally ended, i got on another bus to the actual border, then walked across, had my whole big backpack searched, got the stamps i needed to get on my passport, then took another bus to san cristobal in venezuela, got body-checked a couple of times, ...and then i finally made it to san cristobal! well, little did i know...the last bus to merida (my destination) had already left, i couldn't get any money out of the ATM, and even though a very nice woman policeman helped me (once she knew i was italian), i had to change some colombian pesos from some random person to pay for my ridiculously overpriced little, dirty and muggy room by the bus terminal...oh, i had also forgotten that venezuela is an hour ahead, so i missed my last chance of spending my last money at an internet cafe before calling it a night!
the next day i was determined to finally solve my money problems, and went around 5-6 banks, to no avail! i finally entered one of them and asked for cash advance, which i didn't even know existed! haha (oh, it's "avance de efectivo", very useful term to know; another very useful word i quickly learned is "cancelar": it means to pay in advance, meaning you can't grab the item or be serviced before you pay) well, the person there helped me a lot, welcomed me to venezuela and quickly gave me what i asked for...so that's when fate finally started turning in my favor!
i finally got on a bus to merida, got some food and water, and enjoyed my bus ride with air-conditioning (since it's pretty hot) and loud, fun music (that people always sing along to: fun!). this time the bus almost never stopped! well, except for some more police checkpoints and stuff like that...then i finally got to merida, where i am being hosted by M...
for some reason i already knew that i was going to live it here, and i really do! it's more easygoing, less dangerous, friendlier and cheaper than anywhere in venezuela (although i have not been anywhere yet!), and it's by the highest venezuelan mountains (pico bolivar-5004 meters, and pico humboldt)...it's by the same andes i had explored last year in argentina, only at the other end! i met a lot of european travelers, walked around and i already don't want to leave!
well, yesterday i took the longest and highest cable-car in the world up to 5007 meters a.s.l. by the pico bolivar...after trying to get used to the altitude, i rode a horse for 4 endless hours up and down mountains, rocks and streams...although i felt really bad for the poor horse, it was much more of a physical workout than i thought! the best part was the dog that was running before and by us, it reminded me of belle & sebastien a lot!!! i tried taking pictures of the whole thing, but it was pretty hard and we will see if the results are even decent! thanks to the horse i got to this remote village at about 2700 mt a.s.l. called Los Nevados, where i chatted it up with some locals about chavez, took some nice pictures, got a rustic bed for the night, and before going to bed...dinner was included, so i went down for dinner and talked the "senora" into making me something vegetarian...which was very yummy! i had dinner with a spanish couple that i will meet again sometime i think...then went straight to bed, and slept for a whopping 12 hours!!! i am sad i missed the sunrise this morning, but i couldn't get up anyway...went down for breakfast again (where "down" means down a super steep cobblestone road!) and then hopped on a jeep (4WD vehicle, or offroad vehicle,...) with the spanish girl and 3 italian-swiss tourists and a local...well, down a tiny path running next to the side of the mountain for 4 hours to get back in town...
so that was my fun adventure so far; tomorrow i might have to leave and go to the mochima national park where i will be relaxing at the beach, visiting some caribbean islands and maybe even snorkeling...from there it's onto a more secluded beach by puerto colombia, then a quick trip to caracas before going back to bogota for christmas...
so far i've been loving venezuela, which has been up to its reputation for chavez and beauty queens. the former is everywhere, well, rather, pictures, posters, banners, images, etc of him are everywhere, also because the elections were just 2 weeks ago...i've been asking a lot of people about him of course, and most seem satisfied with what he's been doing...as for the beauty queens, venezuela is statistically the country with the most girls winning international beauty pageants, and you can totally see that walking around...it's not about quantity but quality, definitely!
oh, merida is going to host the 2007 "copa america" this coming july!
i've also been enjoying the loud, dancy, fun, hispanic music blaring everywhere, the cheap internet cafes and the views...i am sure i am forgetting something but i better go now!
from bogota i got on the "wrong" bus to cucuta (colombia-venezuela border) and that's where my bad luck started...the bus took a hell of a long time, stopping everywhere, going through the backroads and loading passengers anywhere!!! so throughout the same night i probably had at least 5 different people sitting next to me! i was looking forward to riding through the colombian andes at night and getting to the border in the morning, but i soon started to realize what i had gotten myself into...anyway, the peak of the trip was when in the middle of the night some soldiers got on our bus with their machine guns in sight, and one sat right next to me for about an hour! needless to say i was freaking out and thinking bad things already, since that was an area with guerrilla and in the middle of the night...you know? i never dared say anything, so i still don't know if they were just getting a free ride or if they were actually supposed to protect us...but i was scared! then we passed some more checkpoints and some were body-checked a couple of times...the view of soldiers with machine guns is pretty common, so i learned to get used to it...
once the endless and annoying ride finally ended, i got on another bus to the actual border, then walked across, had my whole big backpack searched, got the stamps i needed to get on my passport, then took another bus to san cristobal in venezuela, got body-checked a couple of times, ...and then i finally made it to san cristobal! well, little did i know...the last bus to merida (my destination) had already left, i couldn't get any money out of the ATM, and even though a very nice woman policeman helped me (once she knew i was italian), i had to change some colombian pesos from some random person to pay for my ridiculously overpriced little, dirty and muggy room by the bus terminal...oh, i had also forgotten that venezuela is an hour ahead, so i missed my last chance of spending my last money at an internet cafe before calling it a night!
the next day i was determined to finally solve my money problems, and went around 5-6 banks, to no avail! i finally entered one of them and asked for cash advance, which i didn't even know existed! haha (oh, it's "avance de efectivo", very useful term to know; another very useful word i quickly learned is "cancelar": it means to pay in advance, meaning you can't grab the item or be serviced before you pay) well, the person there helped me a lot, welcomed me to venezuela and quickly gave me what i asked for...so that's when fate finally started turning in my favor!
i finally got on a bus to merida, got some food and water, and enjoyed my bus ride with air-conditioning (since it's pretty hot) and loud, fun music (that people always sing along to: fun!). this time the bus almost never stopped! well, except for some more police checkpoints and stuff like that...then i finally got to merida, where i am being hosted by M...
for some reason i already knew that i was going to live it here, and i really do! it's more easygoing, less dangerous, friendlier and cheaper than anywhere in venezuela (although i have not been anywhere yet!), and it's by the highest venezuelan mountains (pico bolivar-5004 meters, and pico humboldt)...it's by the same andes i had explored last year in argentina, only at the other end! i met a lot of european travelers, walked around and i already don't want to leave!
well, yesterday i took the longest and highest cable-car in the world up to 5007 meters a.s.l. by the pico bolivar...after trying to get used to the altitude, i rode a horse for 4 endless hours up and down mountains, rocks and streams...although i felt really bad for the poor horse, it was much more of a physical workout than i thought! the best part was the dog that was running before and by us, it reminded me of belle & sebastien a lot!!! i tried taking pictures of the whole thing, but it was pretty hard and we will see if the results are even decent! thanks to the horse i got to this remote village at about 2700 mt a.s.l. called Los Nevados, where i chatted it up with some locals about chavez, took some nice pictures, got a rustic bed for the night, and before going to bed...dinner was included, so i went down for dinner and talked the "senora" into making me something vegetarian...which was very yummy! i had dinner with a spanish couple that i will meet again sometime i think...then went straight to bed, and slept for a whopping 12 hours!!! i am sad i missed the sunrise this morning, but i couldn't get up anyway...went down for breakfast again (where "down" means down a super steep cobblestone road!) and then hopped on a jeep (4WD vehicle, or offroad vehicle,...) with the spanish girl and 3 italian-swiss tourists and a local...well, down a tiny path running next to the side of the mountain for 4 hours to get back in town...
so that was my fun adventure so far; tomorrow i might have to leave and go to the mochima national park where i will be relaxing at the beach, visiting some caribbean islands and maybe even snorkeling...from there it's onto a more secluded beach by puerto colombia, then a quick trip to caracas before going back to bogota for christmas...
so far i've been loving venezuela, which has been up to its reputation for chavez and beauty queens. the former is everywhere, well, rather, pictures, posters, banners, images, etc of him are everywhere, also because the elections were just 2 weeks ago...i've been asking a lot of people about him of course, and most seem satisfied with what he's been doing...as for the beauty queens, venezuela is statistically the country with the most girls winning international beauty pageants, and you can totally see that walking around...it's not about quantity but quality, definitely!
oh, merida is going to host the 2007 "copa america" this coming july!
i've also been enjoying the loud, dancy, fun, hispanic music blaring everywhere, the cheap internet cafes and the views...i am sure i am forgetting something but i better go now!
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