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World trip - Anna & Bertram

October 2017 - April 2018
A 202-day adventure by placeswetravelled Read more
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  • TravelerWorld trip - Anna & Bertram
    Day 34

    Hot day in Cartagena + Independence Day

    November 11, 2017 in Colombia ⋅ ⛅ 27 °C

    The high expectations of Cartagena were met! And it was the day of the yuca :-)

    After yoga on the roof terrace st 06:30 (and despite the early timing it was already soooo hot) and nice breakfast with (—> Yuca No. 1) very nice yuca cake we left in the burning heat, jumping from shade to shade and explored the touristy yet really beautiful historic city of Cartagena. Our favorites were:
    - the many beautiful, colorful colonial buildings
    - plazas bustling with life
    - info tables on every 2. house explaining the original use of the buildings

    After a lunch break with (—> Yuca No. 2) delicious yuca fries, we went out of the old town as more and more people came in for the Independence Day festivities and climbed the old Castello San Felipe for a nice view over both the old city and the new skyscrapers.

    Best possible ending if the day: fresh coco + lime lemonade on a plaza near our hotel.

    Tomorrow, we have a city tour planned in the morning, get our laundry back (yeah!) and visit the Inquisition Museum.    Read more

  • TravelerWorld trip - Anna & Bertram
    Day 35

    Cartagena No. 2

    November 12, 2017 in Colombia ⋅ ⛅ 30 °C

    Second day in Cartagena was rather lazy. After another typical Colombian breakfast including patacones (salty banana patties), we showed up for the city tour which turned out to be rather boring and no value add to the info tables in the city. Thus, we left early and went to look at the Inquisition Museum which was the former Palacio de la Inquisición. Very nice architecture, not that much info ;-) Probably the nicest thing: meeting Sumi again coincidentally whom we had gotten to know in Bogotá a week ago!

    Afterwards we relaxed in a nice café (almond milk included :-)) and fetched the laundry (Bertram still fighting to get everything back into the backpack as I write).

    Likely, we will have a quick meal before taking the bus to Santa Marta tonight.    Read more

  • TravelerWorld trip - Anna & Bertram
    Day 36

    Iguanas and Quintas in Santa Marta

    November 13, 2017 in Colombia ⋅ ⛅ 36 °C

    Originally, we thought to come to Santa Marta only as the gateway to the Lost City. But we were positively surprised by the city’s charme. It’s a lot less pretentious (and fancy) than Cartagena, but also has a nice old city with a lot of beautiful colonial houses, colourful facades, and nice cafés to hang out. Just everything seems more relaxed, less busy, less “2-worlds-type” as we saw in Cartagena with the polishes old town and the slums on our way to the bus terminal.

    After a breakfast at one of them (Ikarus Café - highly recommended, nice coconut latte and almond milk shakes), we checked out tour operators for the Lost City trek which we will do as of tomorrow. No haggling needed, it’s all 850.000 pesos, 240 euros.

    We then made it to the harbour but soon escaped the heat in one of the mini buses heading to La Quinta where Simon Bolívar lived for some time and also died. Best idea! Not only did we see the beautiful scenery of a former sugar cane estate but also a pre-taste if the jungle with iguanas, many different birds, and.... squirrels :-)

    Heading home for self-cooked dinner, we investigated options to spend time at the beaches of Tayrona National Park after the seemingly quite challenging Ciudad Perdida trek. And finally: we booked the plane to Quito, Ecuador. We will land on November 21, 16:00. Any tips welcome!    Read more

  • TravelerWorld trip - Anna & Bertram
    Day 38

    Hiking in the Sierra Nevada

    November 15, 2017 in Colombia ⋅ ☀️ 23 °C

    We had a great time with the 13 other people from the Magic Tours group hiking 4 days to the Ciudad Perdida (Lost City)!

    The weather on the first 2.5 days was very nice, sunny with only a few clouds. The hike itself is not overly complicated but the heat and humidity get at you! The first day’s t-shirt does not get dry again ;-)

    Also, we were lucky only to walk one afternoon in the rain. The terrain gets so much more difficult to walk on once the rain starts pouring.

    The tour had really fantastic food, lots of it as well and well received fruit snack stops along the way.

    But the best were the natural pools in which we bathed at least once a day.

    Overall, great experience, but the 4-day version definitely suffices :-)    Read more

  • TravelerWorld trip - Anna & Bertram
    Day 40

    Visiting Ciudad Perdida/Teyuna/Lost City

    November 17, 2017 in Colombia ⋅ ⛅ 24 °C

    Waking up at 04:40 today, we started the hike at 06:00 and arrived in the bottom of the 1.200 steps to the Lost City around 06:15. It took us until 07:00 to get the first glimpse of the ruins of the city that a ln extinct civilization built in 800 AD.

    It was a very impressive visit and thanks to our two guides we learned a lot about the use of the different areas and the local customs. Also, it was incredible to see such a piece of architecture being built right in the jungle without help of animals. Today the area is filled with mules carrying the goods for the tourists.

    Is was weird, however, to look at the indigenous houses in the area and how people still live in the area. It feels a bit like visiting a zoo - with humans in it.

    Still, the effort of the trip was worth it, we made new friends and are very much looking forward to some relaxing days on the beach in Tayrona!    Read more

  • TravelerWorld trip - Anna & Bertram
    Day 41

    PNN Tayrona - Carribean Paradise

    November 18, 2017 in Colombia ⋅ 🌧 33 °C

    We made it to the Tayrona National Park just in time yesterday: we entered at 16:55 - the last entry to the park is at 17:00...

    Due to the rain and general tiredness after the Ciudad Perdida, we camped at the first possible ground which was simply great. The only tent in the campground under huge palm trees :-)
    They weren’t kidding when they warned us of falling coconuts. All evening we could hear the thumping of big coconuts falling on the ground around us. We made sure to pick a palm tree that faced away from us...

    Today, we hiked further to Cabo San Juan. After ignorantly dismissing the difficulties of the hike that others told us about, we found out that - surprise, surprise - this tropical paradise also has a lot of muddy paths, 35° with insane humidity, and bugs. After 2.5 hours hike in the mud and along a crocodile pond (which we luckily did not cross!) we arrived at the campground for next two days: Cabo San Juan.

    The rest of the day was spent swimming, reading, ans lying in the hammock (thanks to Manu!) - and the occasional running back to the tent when a rain shower started and we needed to take the still wet clothes back into the tent. Will they ever dry again?!    Read more

  • TravelerWorld trip - Anna & Bertram
    Day 42

    Chillaxing and recovery from the jungle

    November 19, 2017 in Colombia ⋅ ⛅ 37 °C

    We spent a nice Sunday in Colombia’s Carribean beach at Tayrona National Park (Cabo San Juan) today:

    Woken by the sunlight at around 6am, we soon put up our hammock and alternated between swimming, reading/listening to audio books, sleeping in the hammock, having a freshly pressed juice or people watching while our solar panel recharged the batteries (thanks, Aastha and Rüdiger!)

    We also managed to - finally - dry our wet and humid clothes that we brought with us from the Ciudad Perdida trek. Humidity or wetness is a constant companion here in the northern part of Columbia - either in the form of rain or air humidity that will immediately turn your dry clothes into a damp something, or in the form of sweat running down your face as soon as you do anything more exhausting than walking 100 steps. :-)

    In the evening we met or friends Nic and Alex - a fellow Ciudad trekker and our translator. We unpacked our slack line and practiced a little with them before having a nice dinner together :-)    Read more

  • TravelerWorld trip - Anna & Bertram
    Day 43

    Last day in Colombia - active ending

    November 20, 2017 in Colombia ⋅ 🌧 34 °C

    We woke up early to see the sunrise - unfortunately a little hindered by a few clouds. But the atmosphere was still magical - quietly looking out to the sea and just watching the nature around.

    Being up we made use of the slack line and - hoping that the two palm trees would still hold it - practiced with Alex and Nic from our Ciudad Perdida group. Lots of fun and a new trick for Anna: sitting start :-)

    Also, we spotted another crocodile in the bay where we slacklined - and just a couple of hundred meters from the camp. It swam in the water and seemed to chill but you never know...

    As it was our final day and we wanted not to get back totally exhausted again, we treated ourselves to a horse ride back to the park entrance. It also helped to escape most of the mud on the way to and from the inner parts of the national park. Definitely a much less strenuous and faster way to make it back - 1:20h instead of 2:30h. Plus it was a fun experience :-)

    We then took the public bus to Santa Marta (so full that we sat next to the driver :-)) and went to the nice vegan café again before going to the Airbnb to re-pack the backpacks and prepare for Quito, Ecuador and its mere 15° Celsius. :-)    Read more

  • TravelerWorld trip - Anna & Bertram
    Day 45

    First contact with Ecuador - Quito

    November 22, 2017 in Ecuador ⋅ ⛅ 11 °C

    We had a nice first day in Ecuador. After the 3-hour-long (!!!) trip from the airport yesterday evening (for some 30kms... luckily we had a really cool taxi driver called Freddy who had worked in Switzerland and even spoke German - it was really nice to talk to him and learn about his life both here in Ecuador and in Europe) we were too tired and the air on 3.000m too thin to do much more than watching Narcos and booking some accommodation for the coming weeks (coffee finka and surf camp) :-)

    Waking up early, we went along 3 out of the 4 recommended half-day walking tours in ~2 hours - only to get back to the hotel at 11:30 and nap for an hour :-) The amazingly decorated churches make one quite tired - and there are dozens of them in the old town if Quito.

    The afternoon started with a necessary routine: as soon as we are staying in a city place for more than 1 day —> do the laundry :-) Especially now after the jungle. Then we went to the Basilica and climbed the really scary tower. There was a wooden path above the ceiling arches and then 3 ladders to climb the tower. 💀💀💀 But it was well worth it: great view across the entire city of 7 million people according to our taxi driver Freddy.

    We then tried the public transportation system (VW buses called “Volksbus”) and strolled around in the newer districts, drinking coffee and planning further activities in Ecuador.

    Evening ended with getting the laundry back, Bertram getting a haircut and eating tacos and guacamole, hmmm :-)    Read more

  • TravelerWorld trip - Anna & Bertram
    Day 46

    Into the cloud forest where coffee grows

    November 23, 2017 in Ecuador ⋅ 🌫 5 °C

    Just one more morning in Quito. We made it through the thick traffic to one of the most impressive museums that we have been to: the “Chapel of Man” by Ecuadorian artist Oswaldo Guayasamin. It is filed by his representations of first and foremost Latin American pain, suffering, sadness, but also his works dedicated to other tragedies against humanity from around the world. Beside the art exhibition in a great piece of modern architecture, we could also visit his private house next to it. It contained more of Guayasamin‘s art and his collection of other artists’ works. Definitely worth a visit!

    We then made our way into the coffee plantations north of Quito. Nice to breathe some fresh air again. :-) we made it to our cabin in the forest and started the evening with making popcorn 🍿    Read more

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