COLOMBIA

Yeaaah, I am looking forward to getting home!!! I am just so curious to see what everything will be like after a whole year abroad. I'm sure there's a big cultural shock waiting for me :). However I am more than content with this Gap-year I took. I have the feeling everything went 100%ly right and that the mixture of experiences and ways of travelling I tried has been just perfect. (Maybe I shouldn't say that before actually having set foot on European ground -there's still 5 weeks to go...). Even though I still feel there's just about the right amount of time left, I also feel clearly that I'm close to the end of my trip: My camara gradually stops working (I started thanking it for every single picture it takes), I'm on the lookout for souvenirs (and clothes to replace the raggs the few things I took turned into) just about all the time AND I started spending money more freely (which is maybe a mistake considering the worthless rip-off City Tour we went on today).

I remember calling this journey (Amazon-River, Venezuela and Colombia) "crazy travel-plans". However, I could not have chosen a better thing!!!! I can't remeber having been on a trek more beaten than this one (Santa Marta-Cartagena) I find myself on right now, here in Colombia.

However, travellers seem to be a lot more independend here than those I've met elsewhere and I guess that that's because only the really "brave" ones make it here. (The disadvantage of which is that it is harder to find people to go with you to places because everyone just does what HE feels like. But then I guess I'm independend enough by now not to really care).

I gotta answer some of my mom's questions: Yeahhh Ciudad Perdida (the famous "Lost City") was great!!!! (I'm wearing the T-Shirt the agency gave me right now ;p I love it!) Although I didn't really want to go after the trek-experience in Venezuela I was incredibly glad not to have missed it in the end. It was way greater than Machu Picchu and way greater than Roraima and way greater than I would ever have imagined. It was awsome climbing the mossy steps to get to the mysterious stone-foundations that are left of the city: Foundations for temples and private housing. Large parts are still covered by the jungle which gives you an idea of what the place must have been like when it was discovered by grave-robbers in 1975.

Right away I loved the trek a lot more than the one that took us to Roraima: The vegetation is a lot more interesting and the trek itself actually feels like a trek (to me it felt a lot harder than the previous one, it's constantly up and down and the humidity makes you suffer quite a bit, too). The setup however, was quite similar to the former: 6 days, 5 nights, in hammoks this time rather than in tents. 2 rather than 1 guide (coz it was two big groups put together) and plenty of porters (that you'd generally not see much of) that would besides do the cooking (this time we had mules for the first and easier part of the way which was fun to look at). Again, the trekking would take up half the day only rather than a full day (However, this time I was prepared and thus not disappointed). And there is a good reason to it, too: It would mostly start raining just when you get there. This time, I felt a lot better with my group (there is a good thing to the big groups: You'd always find loads of people you'd get on with well) and I generally had a lot of fun. (People were more average-equipped, for example -on the other one everyone made me feel rather stupid because I weren't wearing highly professional trekking-gear from head to food).

No, I did not do the diving-course. I'll leave that to another trip. Part of the reason is that I tried snorkeling and I am more than happy with that: I bought snorkeling gear and now I go snorkeling whenever I can: I LOVE it!!!!!! It's just like swimming in one of these wonderful aquariums you can visit in a zoo or something: Fish of all colours and sizes imaginable; corals (but I guess you can find more expressive ones elswhere in this world) and the turquoise water!!!!! It is a DREAM!!!!! I swam with uncountable swarms of fish (the las one consisted numberless huge blue fish that would change their colour to silver, green and yellow as they move in the water. It is amazing that these fish would not be more afraid. They just let you watch them until you feel like looking around the next rock.

Twelve of our Ciudad Perdida-group went to the beautiful Tayrona Nationa-Park after the trek. Together -just imagine, what a good group we were. It was awsome!!!! Long white beaches lined with coco-nut trees. (You could have as many coco-nuts as you were able to open ;p). Beautiful green vegetation and an undiscribable colour of water. I think I love the Carribean see! I don't think I've ever enjoyed swimming so much. The water is wonderful: warm and light in a way I'm not able to describe. I ended up spending 4 nights and 5 days in that National Park. Everyone would be your friend. Beautiful mornings, pure joy.

It was only last night that I arrived to Cartagena. A beautyful city full of history. It has long been Latin America's most important gold. It has always been rich (thanks to esmeralds, gold and silver that were transported there from all over Latin America -Mom: I found a nice esmerald-neckless for you today -it was 2000Dollar only!!!) and it has always been a major target for pirats from all over the world which made the Spaniards surround it by massive defensive walls and thus give it a touch of one major fortress. There are plenty of amazing stories of pirate-attacks and heros defending the city (you find numerous statues of one-legged and one-armed wariours ;p). Walking the streets, in fact, has something unreal to it: It's just to nice to be true and to be situated in South America. You'd rather place it in some tranquil part of Spain or something. It is a splendid example of Colonial Architecture. Balconies and windows would overflow with flowers. I love Colombia for it's street-vendors. I just LOVE all of the food they'd offer wherever you go for the cheapest prices imaginable. And the Coffee, of course ;p

I'm planning to spend some more time in the city tomorrow (there is a number of museums I'd like to visit) and maybe visit a nearby fishing-village and go to the beach in the afternoon. The day after tomorrow I'd like to visit a curious mud-volcanoe that is about 50km away from Cartagena and after that go on a tour around the said-to-be beautiful islands that form another National Park. After that I might spend another couple of days on the beach and head for Medellin after. I got really interested in visiting the famous Coffee-Zone around there and after go to Bogota. (Apparently it's easy to spend in and around the Colombian Capital. The Andean Villages around it are said to be just lovely...). After that there'll be the arquelogical sites of San Augustine and Tierra Adentro, the city of Popayan and finally a rather impressive church right on the border.

I'll now go back to my "Sons and Lovers" -Have I ever felt more drawn to a book than this one???

Good luck with your exames,

xxx yours Solveigh

Fotos

VENEZUELA

Vermute, dass das Venezuela, das mir in Erinnerung bleiben wird das Venezuela ist, das ich gestern in dieser schrecklich heissen Ciudad Bolivar, nicht ganz im Herzen (etwas weiter :ostlich) des Landes, erlebt habe: Mangos verrotten auf der Strasse, keiner schert sich darum. Wie Ostereier h:angen sie in den B:aumen. :Uberall. Ausserdem diese Schrott-Autos aus Cuba, kunterbunte Kolonialstil-H:auser. Irgendwie genau, wie ich es mir vorgestellt h:atte. Die B:aume stehen in voller Bl:ute (wie in Brasilien damals): gelb, blau, orange, rosa. Herrlich!

Zum Hike f:allt mir gar nicht so viel ein: Die Oberfl:ache des Tepuis ist eine einzigartige Drachenlandschaft. Genau wie ich mir die Drachenlandschaft, die in Jimmy und die Lokomotive vorkommt vorstellen. Einige herrliche, aber nicht allzu einzigartige Ausblicke. Ich war die langsamste der Gruppe, aber weit davon entfernt an irgendwelche Grenzen zu stossen. Habe allerdings, nach 6 Tagen Wanderung, 5 N:achten im Zelt und 2 N:achten im Bus, immer noch ein bischen Muskelkater...

Jetzt bin ich an der Karibik (Coro), auf dem Weg nach Kolumbien. Mal sehen was der Tag morgen bringt: Hoffentlich eine sch:one Wanderung auf einen Berg mit toller Aussicht, Sonne Sandstrand, Meer; Flamingos und die W:uste, die hier gleich vor der Stadt anf:angt...

Reisen ist schon ziemlicher Luxus: man l:asst sich von einem Hotel zum n:achsten karren, isst, worauf man Lust hat und muss lediglich zwischen Bergen, Meer, Tierwelt oder Kultur entscheiden...

Bin mit so vielen Europ:aern zusammen, dass ich mich praktisch wie in Europa f:uhet... (allerdings kann es ganz so heiss bei euch gar nicht sein...)

XxX an alle, eure Solveigh

Jungle-Tour

Hey everyone,

I guess my mom´s right. I already know the Jungle pretty well and the one accessable from Manaus is definately not the deepest.

We did the usual: Piranha-fishing, caiman-catching, indigenous-villages, camping in the jungle etc.

But I did have fun sleeping in the jungle. It was fascinating to see how our guide got the requisits together to roast a chicken over the fire or build another table or how he made nice and strog ropes out of bark etc. Plus I finally learned how to use a machete properly.

The animal-highlights were probably the huge Tarantular our guide found for us and a Sloth(???) he got down for us from a (pretty high) tree. (And the aligator we were than able to hold and take a picture with) and so on.

Plus another nice thing was that I met a dutch guy there who is heading the same direction as I am (we´re going to catch a bus to Venezuela tonight and we´ll hopefully be climbing the famous Roaima-Mountain they have over there, soon (6 days)).