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The South American Odyssey
  • The Craze for Travelling
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The South American Odyssey

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  • The Craze for TravellingThe South American OdysseyThe Craze for Travelling
    2

    Getting ready for the para gliding

    18 februari 2018, Colombia ⋅ ⛅ 24 °C

    It took us about 30-40 min after reaching there to sign the waiver forms and the pilots and the helpers to spread the parachutes to get ready for the flight. Besides our group there were 3-4 more other groups using the same launching pad. Our group had 2 pilots so the plan was to start with the lightest and go towards the heaviest members since the thermals were expected to pick up as the day progressed and it would make it easier for the heavier members to take flight. Each flight was expected to be between 40-50 min depending on the air currents and thermals. The views around the launch pad were really beautiful and we were looking forward to the jump and then the views from higher up. Hristo and I got places in the second round.Meer informatie

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    A 360 degrees view from above

    18 februari 2018, Colombia ⋅ ⛅ 25 °C

    What an amazing experience it was!! After jumping off the cliff, we started going down along the cliff edge while the pilot tried to catch the thermals to make us climb. Eventually, after almost being 50 mts from one of the slopes, he managed to catch a strong updraft and we soared higher and higher till we could see the Condors flying at our level and then even below us. The views were mindblowing. The pilot managed to stabilize the parachute high above the cliffs and then did a 360 degrees turn a couple of time so I could take some amazing pictures.Meer informatie

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    A view from above...

    18 februari 2018, Colombia ⋅ ⛅ 26 °C

    After another 15 min, the pilot prepared for the landing. He asked if I would like some nice spins while we land. I agreed and then he let the parachute collapse a bit so we spun and fell in big swoops. The G forces were very high, it was like nothing I had experience before. Just a few meters above the ground he steadied it and prepared for the landing. The breeze had picked up by now so it was a bit hard to control the landing. We managed to touch ground just 2-3 meters from the cliff face. It was just amazing!!!Meer informatie

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    A plane converted to a restaurantWiating for lunchBus to Curiti

    Lunch and off again...

    18 februari 2018, Colombia ⋅ 🌧 6 °C

    Everybody in the group was done with their flights by 12:15 pm. After that we set off back to San Gil. It was fascinating to go through the valleys and rods we had been seeing from high above just a while ago. We were back in San Gil by about 2 pm. Maria joined us there and we went to the main square to have our lunch. We had planned to do caving in Cueva de la Vaca in the afternoon. We were supposed to take the local bus to Curiti and reach there by 3 pm. There, a local representative would be waiting to take us into the cave. After our lunch, we walked to the local bus terminal and found that the bus frequency was much less than what we had been told. The bus we caught left the terminal at 3 pm. Curiti is about 15 kms from San Gil so we would arrive about 30 min late there.Meer informatie

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    2Church on the main square in CuritiEntrance to the cave is on a private land

    Ready for some spelunking

    18 februari 2018, Colombia ⋅ ⛅ 28 °C

    We reached Curiti at 3:30 pm. The bus dropped us in the main square of the town. On the way in, we had seen the agency shop where we were supposed to go. We quickly walked back to the agency office and prepared for the caving experience. Our guide Juan and his assistant Miguel were waiting for us. They told us to leave everything back at the office and take the phone camera at our own risk only. They told there would be waist deep water and a lot of places where we would need to crawl through narrow gaps with water below. We left our bags in the lockers at the office and took only our phones. Mine is a waterproof Samsung Galaxy S7 so I was fine with it and Hristo took a plastic cover for is iPhone. We changed into our swimming trunks, water shoes and old tshirts. Then, the 2 of us were off along with the guides, to the entrance of the cave. Maria went to the main square for some shopping and would wait for us at the office in about 90 min.Meer informatie

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    Steps leading to the cave
    Steps leading to the caveCave entrance vertically downReady to go inClimbing downSet to head deeper with the head light on

    Going into the Vaca cave

    18 februari 2018, Colombia ⋅ ⛅ 9 °C

    The name Vaca means "cow" in Spanish. The cave had lied hidden in a private property for many centuries till one day a cow grazing in this area fell in the hole in the ground. The search team found the cow in the hole in the ground and found the entrance to the cave. That's how the cave got its name. The starting section of the cave is vertically down for about 3-4 meters and then turns horizontally into the cave. Immediately, on reaching down, we were walking in ankle deep water. The roof of the cave was about 2 meters here.Meer informatie

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    Crawling in the water

    18 februari 2018, Colombia ⋅ ☀️ 25 °C

    The next stretch was a crawl through a very narrow stretch with water below. We had to get down on all our fours to get through to the other side deeper in the cave. The chamber on the other side had the roof about 6-7 meters high. There were limestone stalagmites, stalactites and pillars. It was eerie to see all these formations so deep below with no lights besides those of our torches.Meer informatie

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  • The Craze for TravellingThe South American OdysseyThe Craze for Travelling
    Curtain formations
    Curtain formationsStraw formations on the roofBacon formationLimestone pillar2

    Chamber of straw formations

    18 februari 2018, Colombia ⋅ ⛅ 25 °C

    At the end of the slight climb within the cave was a bigger chamber with many beautiful stalagmites and stalactites. There were even limestone straw formations on the roof. This is a very rare formation and takes hundreds of thousands of years and just the right conditions of humidity and air circulation for it to form. Of the 30 odd caves I've been in, I've never seen this before. Generally these are very deep inside the caves where there is no wind and so it normally occurs in chambers that are separated from the cave entrances by stretches of water fully covering the cave path all the way to the top.Meer informatie

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  • The Craze for TravellingThe South American OdysseyThe Craze for Travelling
    1Catching the freshwater drops in the mouthWaterfall at the end of the cave

    Freshwater drips and streams

    18 februari 2018, Colombia ⋅ ☀️ 37 °C

    Deeper in the cave, the limestone formations continued everywhere. At one place, there was a continuous drip of clear freshwater which over millions of years forms the stalagmites and stalactites. A few meters away, we were again in water and there was a small waterfall at the end of the chamber.Meer informatie

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    Water-fight in the cave

    18 februari 2018, Colombia ⋅ ☀️ 31 °C

    After the waterfall chamber, we started our return journey via a different route. The water was waist deep in this chamber. It was then that Miguel asked us if our phones were waterproof and how long the phone could survive in water. Mine was waterproof and Hristo had a plastic cover on his. Miguel suggested that we keep both the phones in the plastic cover. We thought that it could be because the water was going to get deeper in the chamber and he wanted to make sure the phones were safe. Then Juan told us to shut our torches. My first reaction was he wanted to showcase how silent and eerie the cave was in the dark but as soon as we had shut our torches and the cave had turned extremely dark, Juan and Miguel started splashing water on us :) :) That soon turned into a water fight with everyone splashing water on each other. I managed to get my phone from Hristo and took some great pictures of the water fight :D It was a lot of fun!! :DMeer informatie

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    Crawling out from the cave

    18 februari 2018, Colombia ⋅ 🌧 10 °C

    The last 200 mts stretch of the cave was a narrow gap some 50-60 cm high. We had to crawl on all our fours for more than 15 mins to get to the end of the cave. There was a thin layer of water below and in some place we had to drag our body through the narrow gaps. It was a very unique experience.Meer informatie

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    Crickets in the cave
    Crickets in the caveThe last stretch of the cave from where we cameExiting the cave2Dirty happy souls :DWith our guidesFruit salad on the hostel terrace

    End of the cave adventure

    18 februari 2018, Colombia ⋅ ☀️ 25 °C

    Near the end of the cave, there were crickets that were very unique to this place. As we crawled out, it took a while for the eyes to get used to the light. The sun had set it was just a bit beyond 6 pm. We were totally covered with dirt and muck having crawled most of the time. We came back to the operators office. There, we washed and cleaned up. After that, we walked over to the main square to catch the 7 pm (the last bus) back to San Gil. While waiting for the bus a taxi came and offered to take all of us waiting there for the same price as that of the bus (2800 COP per person). We took the taxi as it was much faster than the bus.Meer informatie

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    Suarez white water rafting

    19 februari 2018, Colombia ⋅ ☀️ 26 °C

    The planned activity for the day was white water rafting. The Rio Fonce nearby had rapids of class 2 and 3 that wasn't of interest to us since we had already rafted on class 3 rapids in Petrohue earlier. We anted to try something even more extreme. The river Suarez nearby had class 4 and 5 rapids and we had opted for that.
    We got up early and had our breakfast on the hostel terrace and were ready by 9 am. We walked over to the main square to the operator's office and from there we had to walk over to the office of the actual rafting organizer's office. There we signed the waiver forms and then were off in their van. The starting point of the rafting was about 25 kms away at a small village called Baraya. The van dropped us there. There was no cabin or hut to change or go to the toilet. Some people went to a small local restaurant to use their toilets, most used the open green forest around. Before we put the zodiacs into the water, our safety instructor told us about the dos and don'ts, what to do if one is thrown overboard. There are multiple levels of seriousness if one falls overboard and he demonstrated all the various positions to get into depending on how far one is thrown or how strong is the current. The starting point of the rafting was in the Rio Fonce which doesn't have a very strong current but the main part of the rafting starts from the confluence of the Rio Fonce with the Rio Suarez about a km downstream.
    After the instructions, our guides told us to jump into the water and try swimming downstream to get used to the water and try getting to the sides while swimming with one hand with the oar in the other. We all jumped in and started swimming. I got caught in a strong current in the middle of the river and swimming with one hand didn't help. I was swept downstream for about a 100 mts before I decided to skip the instruction of swimming on the back and started swimming with the stomach down and managed to get to the shore. :D
    Then we were off on our zodiacs towards the confluence. It was fun to be in the water!!!    Meer informatie

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    Splash, boom, bang....

    19 februari 2018, Colombia ⋅ ⛅ 26 °C

    The rafting lasted almost 2 hours through some really big rapids. One of them was a class 5 rapid. It was a lot of fun going through it. We all managed to remain in the boat most of the time. Towards the end of the stretch, the water current eased down and we all jumped into the water to swim and have some fun in the water. Around 1 pm, we came out of the water some 10 kms downstream on the Rio Suarez. Our van had already reached there and the helpers had laid out a table of food and fruits for us. We had our lunch there and then around 3 pm we started back towards San Gil.
    We reached back at San Gil around 5 pm. We spent the evening walking the 2.5 kms to the bus terminal outside of town to find out about the buses to Bogota and then 2.5 kms back to the town. We realized that there were quite many buses leaving to Bogota. There were buses every hour and many hours, there were more than one from all the operators. We decided not to pre-book the ticket and to buy it when we reached the bus terminal next day evening.
    We came back to town and had our dinner at the main square again and then turned in early to sleep a bit longer.    Meer informatie

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    Chicken shops
    Chicken shopsOld man's beard lichenRed Silk Cotton tree

    Off to Juan Curi waterfall for abseiling

    20 februari 2018, Colombia ⋅ ☀️ 12 °C

    Our last day in San Gil started at the same time as the other days. We were up and had our breakfast by 9 am. We were supposed to reach Jaun Curi some 25 kms South of San Gil ourselves by the local bus where the local representative of our operator would be waiting for us at around 10 am. The local bus stop was just one block away from our hostel so we walked over but unfortunately, the 9:30 am bus in that direction had just left and the next one was at 9:45 am. We got on to that bus and started our journey South.
    This part of the town had many chicken shops where there were butchering the chickens just before preparing them for the meals being served in these chicken farms cum restaurants.
    Just outside of the town, there were many trees with the "Old Man's Beard" or Usnea lichens hanging from them. There were also the flame orange colored flowers of the Red Silk Cotton trees also known as Bombax Ceiba. This direction from San Gil seemed much more wilder than the other directions we had been earlier.    Meer informatie

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    Parque Ecologico Juan Curi. People getting ready for abseiling
    Parque Ecologico Juan Curi. People getting ready for abseilingPath to the waterfallsDiversion to the top of the waterfalls

    Trekking to the Juan Curi waterfall

    20 februari 2018, Colombia ⋅ ⛅ 28 °C

    The local bus dropped us off just outside the entrance of the Parque Ecologico Juan Curi at around 10:30 am. Here, our contact person was waiting for us. There was a big group of 7-8 people wearing the rappelling harnesses. This was a group of Germans who had come with their own guide and helpers. They were supposed to go before us, so as soon as they were ready, they left. In our group it was just the 3 of us and there were 2 more who were supposed to join us but hadn't reached till then. We signed the waiver forms and then started the trek towards the waterfall. Our guide came with us for a while to show us the path that we needed to take to go towards the top of the waterfall and then went back to wait for the other 2 members who could come any time now. The path was through some dense undergrowth and almost felt like walking through a jungle. It was quite hot and humid and the steep gradient to the top of the waterfall was a bit of a task.Meer informatie

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    Top of the Juan Curi Waterfalls

    20 februari 2018, Colombia ⋅ ⛅ 29 °C

    At the top of the waterfalls, we realized that the stream water falls way beyond and higher up in multiple cascades before reaching where we were and the final waterfall where we were supposed to do the abseiling was still below our level. While we waited for the group before us to do their abseiling, we took the opportunity to splash around in the stream to cool down.Meer informatie

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    Abseiling down the Juan Curi waterfalls

    20 februari 2018, Colombia ⋅ ⛅ 11 °C

    Around 12:30 pm, we started with our turn. The other 2 people who had to join us didn't, so the guide decided to start with us. First down was Hristo. He was given a 20 sec instruction on what to do with each hand and then asked to go. This was a surprise to us since the German group before us had a full 10 min instruction. We were wondering what else they were told in those 10 min. Hristo tried going down and quickly figured out he didn't need to know anything more.
    Next up was Maria. As soon as the guide called out her name, she panicked and told me to go before her. I knew if I went she wouldn't come so I tried to calm her down. She started removing her harnesses and told us that she's going to trek down and will meet us below. The guide saw this and asked her to come over and have a look, that it was nothing to be scared of. He took her to the edge and showed Hristo going down and that the climb down was all along the waterfall. She calmed down and got ready to go down. Once on the edge, the fear disappeared and Maria was quite comfortable leaving her hands for some amazing pictures.    Meer informatie

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    Down the falls

    20 februari 2018, Colombia ⋅ ☀️ 20 °C

    After Maria, it was my turn to go. I had done abseiling twice before so I was quite comfortable going down. The one thing I had never done before was going down along a waterfall. It was a beautiful experience with the water falling all over in the heat and humidity of the day. It was a very refreshing experience. The waterfalls were in 2 stages and a section of the falls are quite a bit far from the cliff wall where we didn't have any foot support. That was also a totally new experience. Hristo had been waiting here for Maria to come down so they could go down together but the helper below called out him to come down to prevent the ropes from crossing each other. As soon as Hristo left, Maria panicked again. I was about to reach that section when I heard her call out that she can't come down, that she's stuck. I could hear the panic in her voice so I tried calling her to calm her. But, by the time I reached there, she had found her courage and had already started going down. It was the sudden lack of a foothold that had caused the panic but she recovered quite quickly and was on her way down.Meer informatie

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    The 3 of us in one beautiful frame from the top of the waterfall
    The 3 of us in one beautiful frame from the top of the waterfall

    At the base of the falls

    20 februari 2018, Colombia ⋅ ☀️ 15 °C

    Once all the 3 of us had safely reached the base of the waterfalls, the crew helping us packed up their equipment and left. We had planned to go for a swim in the pool at the base of the falls. Hristo was first in and realized that the pool was quite deep with hardly any footing to come back out and that the water was quite cold to have a swim in. He was out within a few minutes and I dropped the idea of going in.Meer informatie

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