rorystravellingblog

A 2 hour flight from Guayaquil, and i landed in San Cristobal.

Immediately i could see why the galapagos is so famous. It was rather surreal to be walking around the dock seeing sea lions absolutely everywhere, that did not care one bit about human presence – none of the animals and birds here do, due to lack of predators. I could see frigates, blue footed boobies and pelicans dive bombing into the sea, whilst hundreds of sally lightfoot crabs rested on the rocks alongside marine iguanas, with sea lions everywhere!

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I visited the interpretation center, a small museum, and learned about the history of the islands, the impacts of humans, sustainable tourism, conservation efforts and the goal to be carbon neutral within the next few years. For the rest of the day i went on a walk via Playa Carola and Cerro Tijeretas. I snorkled with a turtle and excitedly told some people i had met – i didn’t yet know how exceedingly normal this was in the Galapagos!

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The next day, i did the 360 tour around San Cristobal, it was a boat trip around the full island with several stops.

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The first stop was playa blanca, in the photos above. The sand was the finest and whitest i have ever seen, and felt like flour. It is actually broken up coral, that parrotfish eat (the sand is their poo). Parrotfish can produce about 10kg of sand in their lifetime of around 10 years. This spot was absolutely insane for snorkelling. The guide said as soon as you get in their will be about 30-40 white tip sharks, and the rest of area will be filled with tropical fish, turtles and probably rays. He was not wrong. As soon as i got in sharks covered the floor. I think i saw over 20 turtles in an hour of snorkelling, and towards the end saw a group of 15 or so spotted eagle rays.

After passing Cerro Brujo, the next stop was Baya sardina. This is one of many nesting sites for green turtles, and you are only permitted to go along the beach, over the top of the dunes is where all the nests are found! The turtles come at night to lay their eggs.

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The final stop on the trip was a visit to kicker rock. We snorkled and saw several turtles, spotted eagle rays, hammerhead sharks and black tipped sharks.

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I then took a speedboat to Santa Cruz and visited the Charles Darwin Research center.

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From 16 initial species of giant tortoise, 11 now survive. The giant tortoise population was hugely impacted by the arrival of man. Over 100,000 were taken and eaten by sailors, as they can survive up to a year without food or water – very convenient for keeping on their boats for long sails. The accidental introduction of black rats from the boats, and deliberate introduction of goats, donkeys, dogs and cats by settlers also had a huge impact. Goats outcompete the tortoises for food, donkeys trample nests and rats eat the eggs. Recently, there has been a lot of success in eradicating these invaders, although there is some way to go (particularly with the rats). Because of the huge impact to the tortoise populations, caused by man, the research center is one of 3 breeding centers created to boost the populations. The tortoises are in the “kindergarten” until they are 23cm long, as at this length they are too big for galapagos hawks to take. When they are 4-5 they will have a period of quarantine in an artificially “wild” area before being introduced to the wild. Some of course stay and are used for breeding. At one point there was only 2 males from espanola islands species, and 12 females. Now there is well over 2000 – of course genetic diversity is a problem. The conservation plan is to eradicate the rats, recuperate the flora and reintroduce tortoises. They are the “Natural engineers” of the galapagos, and are key to the ecosystem by dispersing seeds. Species with saddle backs and long necks evolved on flat dry islands where they have to reach up for food, dome shaped shells are from islands with highlands and more water. Lonesome george was the last tortoise of his species, from pinta island. An unsuccesful worldwide search was made to try and find a female (there are around 600 giant tortoises around the world, from the years when people would take them as pets before the national park was formed in 1959). Lonesome george died in 2012, and his species went extinct. His body is at the research center (taxidermied).

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The next day I went to Bartolome, a small island next to Santiago. It is more famous for its geology than its wildlife. It is also apparently in the film “Master and Commander” which i have been told to watch (downloading it as i write this). We saw 9 of the 46 penguins that live on the islands coast, and walked across the lava fields. The brown lava is older, and the black lava is younger. The second photo in the below gallery is a spot that was used to imitate mars in photos in magazines etc. We learned a lot about the different types of lava flows and their formations. In the evening i saw many young black tipped reef sharks from the dock at Puerto Ayora.

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The next day, i visited el chato tortoise reserve in the highlands, and walked through the lava tunnels. There are lava tunnels all over the galapagos. They are formed when the crust surrounding a lava flow solidifies, and after a flow stops, the last lava of the flow continues moving, leaving a tunnel behind it. I also saw Los Gemelos (the twins). These are two calderas, formed from the ground collapsing into the empty space left below, when lava solidified and contracted. Most of the trees in the area around los gemelos, remarkably, evolved from dandelions.

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I then had a quick snorkel at Las Grietas. There wasn’t many fish, but it was interesting swimming between the cliffs.

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After Las Grietas, i walked along the beach to Tortuga Bay. Along the way there were lots and lots of marine iguanas.

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The next day i went diving. I dived at Daphne Menor, Mosquera, Seymour Channel and Gordon Rocks. I saw lots of tropical fish (angel fish, damsel fish, parrot fish, lots more), a few white tipped reef sharks, a HUGE hammerhead, some spotted eagle rays, turtles, moray eels and galapagos garden eels. A sea lion also swam around me, twirling, turning and blowing bubbles. They like to play and like that divers blow bubbles.

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Although you can do a lot with day trips and island hopping in the galapagos, there is a vast amount that you cannot do or see without taking a cruise. The cruises are very expensive, but i managed to find an extremely last minute deal for about 20% of the normal price. I was chucked in a taxi and sped up the island, and sped to the boat in a dingy/zodiac/panga.

The boat was The Beagle (named after the HMS Beagle, the boat Charles Darwin visited the islands on in 1835), and had a 7 day itinery that perfectly fit with my return flight to ecuador. The itinery was excellent, as it visited many amazing places, without spending time at places that can be visited by day trips or whilst staying on the inhabited islands. Many cruise trips include the places i had already been. Whilst i was aboard i had no internet access, and during sailing had plenty of time to write up what i did and saw each day, so below i have pasted my “diary” that i kept, and added in photos. Some of the photos were taken by the other passengers (mostly the ones that required a zoom). All of the photos/videos in water were taken by me, as i was the only one with a gopro (waterproof camera).

12/11/19 – Start, Santa Cruz + night navigation to Genovesa

Arriving aboard the Beagle, I joined an older English couple (70 ish) John and Lisa from Coventry, Jackie, a lady of a similar age from Ramsay in the Isle of Man, and an Italian Couple Patrick and Federica who are 30. The boat has capacity for 14 tourists, but for this trip there is only 6 of us, and 7 crew members! (Contributing to the extremely good deal i got). Our guide Harry said in his 2 years as a guide, this was the fewest people that had been aboard, and also the first time without any Americans!

We went for a walk at Bachas beach and snorkelling, before returning to the boat and having dinner. On the walk we managed to see two Galapagos Flamingos, out of only ~500 that exist amongst the islands. We also saw a few lava gulls, the rarest gulls in the world. The beach had many areas where green turtles had laid their eggs. You could even see tracks in the sand from turtles arriving to lay their eggs the previous night. The total population of Lava gulls is only around 400. During the night, the boat made a 6-hour sail to Genovesa.

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13/11/19 – Genovesa. Night navigation to Santiago
After breakfast, we went for an early morning walk on Genovesa along a 1.5km path from Prince Phillip steps. We walked through the sandlewood trees and through lava fields. We saw: Mocking Bird, Frigate Bird, Red footed booby (white and brown variants), Nazca Booby, Yellow crested night heron, yellow warbler, red billed tropic bird, genovesa ground finch, genovesa mockingbird, pelican, Galapagos dove, storm petrel, genovesa marine iguana. (thanks to John and Lisa for keeping a list). After this we went snorkelling along the cliffside of the Caldera. The bay we were in is a collapsed caldera, formed when the lava solidified and contracted, and the land above collapsed. This is the same way as the calderas at Los Gemelos on Santa Cruz were formed. Snorkelling I saw many of the fish I had seen snorkelling and diving in other places, like Parrotfish and many others that I don’t know the names of. I also saw King Angelfish and Giant Damselfish, that I hadn’t seen elsewhere. Several Fur sea lions lined the rocks at the bottom of the cliffs, 2 of which came snorkelling with us. They like to swim around you, spinning in the water. They also like it when you blow bubbles, like divers – they do the same back to you.

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After lunch we went kayaking along the cliffs and saw 2 blue footed boobies – which are very rarely seen here. Nazca boobies and blue footed boobies usually are not seen in the same place. They don’t get on because they are both ground nesting. However, red footed will get on fine with either. Red foots nest in the bushes.

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In the evening, we went for a walk along the beach at Darwin bay, watching hundreds of young red footed boobies, frigates and swallow-tailed gulls.

14/11/19 – Santiago
We had breakfast and took a went landing on the black beach of Puerto Egas, Santiago. We were greeted by one of the biggest male sea lions our guide (Harry) has ever seen, as well as a few females and pups (1-2 weeks old). In the 1920’s there used to be a salt mine here, and there is still some evidence of this. A couple of buildings, water tanks, and the remains of animal pens that held goats, donkeys and horses. Along the walk we saw a few Galapagos Hawks in the air, before seeing one sitting on the rocks by the sea. After approaching closer, we saw a land iguana. Land iguanas went extinct from Santiago a long time ago, but 1,400 were taken from Seymour and introduced again here in February 2019. Galapagos hawks will eat small land iguanas. This one was much bigger and knew the hawk was not a threat. It walked right up to it and was only a meter, or even less, away from it. The guide said he had never seen a land iguana and hawk so close together like this before. We also saw 2 yellow crowned night herons, a great blue heron, lots of sea lions (Galapagos sea lions and fur sea lions), numerous lava lizards, yellow warblers, pelicans, Galapagos doves.

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After returning from the walk we had some refreshments and went snorkelling. As soon as we jumped in, we saw two turtles, and once again swam with a sea lion.

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After lunch we began sailing to Isabela. On the way we came across a pod of hundreds and hundreds of common dolphins. When you looked in either side of the boat you could see dolphins from next to the boat to hundreds of meters away. Far in the distance we also saw the spouts of water from whales far in the distance. Harry saw the fin of one, and based on the fin and the pod size (4 or 5) he said they were probably right wales. We crossed the equator AGAIN whilst drinking caipirinhas (We crossed S-N on the way to Genovesa, N-S back from Genovesa to Santiago, S-N as we went from Santiago to the north of Isobela and once more N-S as we came down the western side of Isobela the next day. Crossed the equator every day for 4 days! We had a 6 hour sail this afternoon, and whilst I wasn’t dolphin or whale watching, I watched a 3 hour David Attenborough documentary on the Galapagos, seeing several places I had already been, and ones I would go to – including Punta Vicente Roca, where we would visit the following morning.

Galapagos Hawk, Land Iguana, Storm petrols, yellow crested night heron + young, blue heron, lava lizard, sea lion + pup.

15/11/19 – Isabela (Punta Vincente Roca + Tagus Cove)

We began sailing at 6am, hoping to see whales and dolphins early in the morning – no luck as yet. After 2 hours sailing, we reached Punta Vicente Roca, and had a panga ride for 1.5-2 hours. We saw lots of oceanic sunfish. This area is a cleaning station, where the fish eat the parasites from Sunfish, Rays, Sea Turtles – a mutually beneficial relationship.

We then passed into the cave, which is quite a famous site (it looks very interesting geologically). Around the other side we saw many flightless cormorants. They are the only species of Cormorant that cannot fly and have tiny wings. They still however hold them out for them to dry in the sun – which is a useless behaviour when they cannot fly. They are instead excellent at fishing. Small wings is a common defect in cormorants, but those who have it in other areas of the world die and do not pass on their genes. The Galapagos flightless cormorant was able to evolve this way due to their lack of predators on land, and their excellent fishing skills. We then went snorkelling around the same areas, seeing lots of tropical fish, many many turtles (at one time there was 6 huge ones all near each other in a small area). I saw a flightless cormorant dive down and go fishing, in addition to two marine iguanas diving down then feeding on algae in the rocks. One of them was the biggest one I have seen so far in the Galapagos (and I have seen hundreds and hundreds, probably thousands). I swam/dived/danced with some sea lions as well!

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After snorkelling we began sailing to Tagus cove. On the way we found a pod of 20+ pilot whales. They were swimming and breaching at the surface right near the boat for 25-30 minutes. It was really amazing to see. Harry said it was only the second time in his life that he had seen pilot whales.

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In the evening we walked up to a viewpoint of the lake next to Tagus cove and the surrounding lava fields. We could see Ecuador Volcano, Wolf Volcano and Darwin Volcano (the closest to us). In the distance we could also see the small patch of mangrove where the critically endangered Darwin Mangrove finch lives. There are less than 100 individuals, which live in one very small area of mangrove. They are threatened due to only being in one area – thus any event such as lava flows, tsunami, fire etc could wipe them out, but also due to the invasive fly Philornis Downsi. These flies lay their lavae in the nest of the finch, and when the finches hatch the flies suck their blood. There is a very high mortality rate. These finches are the subject of great conservation efforts. They are bred at the Charles Darwin research centre on Santa Cruz, away from the flies, and are re-released. The mangroves have lots of fly traps. They are also invasive to mainland Ecuador, but nowhere near as much of a problem as there is predators to control their numbers.

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16/11/19 – Fernandina (Punta Espinoza) + Isabela (Urbina bay)

After a 30-minute crossing from Isabela to Fernandina, we made a dry landing at Punta Espinoza. As we started the trail, we came across a Galapagos Hawk feasting on a marine iguana. After eating the hawk walked along the path toward us and looked curiously at us. After watching it for a while we walked along the path and past the hawk (1m or less away) who couldn’t be less bothered by our presence.

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We then walked around looking at the huge congregations of marine iguanas. There are areas of hundreds of them piled on top of each other. They are not social animals, but only congregate like this to thermo regulate and help each other heat up. The hawk stood right next to many of the groups, who do not care about it being there, as they know they are too big for the hawk to take. The hawks can only take young, and females (which are naturally smaller). Interestingly, the marine iguana is not a calling species, but it has learnt to recognise the warning call of the Galapagos mockingbird. When the mockingbird calls that there is a hawk, the young and females all hide. This has even been replicated with experiments, where they had a group of 100 iguanas, played a recording of the mockingbird, and all the smaller iguanas run and hide – the larger ones do not care. We watched sea lions playing, and saw yet more flightless cormorants, Galapagos penguins and green sea turtles. I think I have only seen one sea turtle before (aside from aquariums etc), and now have almost definitely seen over 100. They are incredibly abundant here. We also saw an old American engine from WW2, stranded here. After that we went snorkling, watching marine iguanas swimming and feeding on algae. I saw some cormorants diving and swimming also.

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During lunch, we navigated back to Isabela, to Urbina bay. At Urbina bay we went walking to look for giant tortoises. They come down from the Alcedo volcano during the dry season for water. Water from the sea is filtered by the rocks and sand, removing salt. We managed to spot 5, which was very lucky. We were also lucky to see a wide range of sizes/ages (estimated at about 5,15,50,50,100). Land Iguanas were easily spotted in this area – we saw ~10.

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Another interesting part of this excursion was to see pebbles, shells, sand inland. This was an example of an area that had been rapidly (weeks) lifted by several meters, due to the volcanic hotspot the Galapagos is situated at. This area lifted in the 1950’s, but the area we docked at in Fernandina lifted similarly in the 90’s. Consequently, the small dock there is now almost impossible to use at low tide – you must use rocks in a nearby area. After the walk, we chilled out on the beach for a little while, before a short panga ride back to the boat.

17/11/19 – Isabela (Elizabeth Bay + Punta Moreno)

The day started with a 1.5-hour panga ride through the mangroves in Elizabeth Bay. The bay is a breeding ground for Galapagos Penguins, and we spotted many within the mangroves. This bay is the only place on the planet where you can see Penguins in mangrove. We also saw lots of turtles (as always), flightless cormorants, pelicans, etc etc.

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After going around the mangroves we drove around a small islet, where we could see many penguins, their nesting areas and a flock of blue footed boobies. After that, we set sail for 2 hours to punta moreno, passing around an area with the biggest marine iguanas found in the Archipelago. There was even a penguin lying down amongst the group of iguanas, thinking it was one of them. The Galapagos is the only place where penguins can be found above the equator (in certain areas, the Galapagos straddles the equator) and the only place in the tropics. Penguins that arrived on cold currents from the south can be seen amongst tropical fish that arrived on warm currents from central America.

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We then went snorkelling, looking for pacific seahorses (no luck). But, we did of course see looaaaaddssss of sea turtles. I even got a video of seeing 7 sea turtles at once.

After snorkelling, we went for a walk on the broken lava fields. There are oasis type areas amongst the baron lava where the top of a lava tunnel has collapsed, and there were pools of water (which actually comes through the whole area, through the cracks in the lava, but is deeper where it is not visible). Mangroves have inevitably populated the areas around these pools. We were lucky enough to see another 3 Galapagos flamingos and some common gallinule moorhens. The evening encompassed an 8-hour sail around the southern part of Isabela to Puerto Villamil.

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18/11/19 – Isabela (Puerto Villamil)

In the morning we arrived on land and took a bus to the giant tortoise rearing centre near Puerto Villamil (the only inhabited part of Isabela, about 3,000 population). The centre breeds 4 of the 5 species of tortoise on Isabela, the 5^th being from Alcedo Volcano, the ones we saw in the wild. These breeding centres are needed for the other species due to the huge population decline caused by humans and human influence. Many tortoises were taken and eaten by sailors for hundreds of years (more than 100,000). Goats, rats, donkeys, cats and dogs have all also impacted the populations by either outcompeting for food, trampling nests or eating the eggs. One species was particularly interesting, having shells with a flat top.

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After that, we walked to the crater of the Sierra Negra volcano. It was very misty and hard to see much, but we could see the floor of the crater in the area near to us, including lava flows from the eruption last year. The crater is 7km wide and is one of the largest active volcanos in the world. On the way back we saw a Vermillion fly catcher, which is exceedingly rare. Like the mangrove finch, its population has hugely declined due to the philornis downsi fly. Harry said it has been over a year since he last saw one. During the bus ride we saw a short-eared owl, endemic to the Galapagos.

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As we arrived back at Puerto Villamil, we found out the big news. Incredibly, there was an elephant seal in the bay. Researchers were on the way, but had not arrived yet, to investigate more. Harry said his uncle once saw one in the 1970’s, but does not know of any other sightings. It is very very strange to find one here in the Galapagos. A quick google returned this paper, if anyone is interested: https://mbr.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s41200-018-0149-y .

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My time in the Galapagos has been absolutely incredible. It has definitely been the highlight of my trip so far. To me it is the most amazing place on the planet. Not only are there animals that cannot be found anywhere else, it is amazing and bizarre how they are not at all bothered by the presence of humans. The care taken by the national park to preserve the animals and their habitats is very clear to see. Conservation efforts and research is clearly doing a fantastic job at repairing some of the damage caused by earlier human settlers, and to further the understanding of species here. I really hope I get the chance to come back again later in life.

After San Gil, I got the bus to Bogota, where I stayed for a few days before heading to Leticia and the Amazon.

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I didn’t do too much in Bogota, but I met David and Karen again in the hostel, who I had met in Medellin. I went with them to Mount Monserrate , a steep cable car ride up the mountain. From there you could see all across Bogota.

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On the way back some girls asked David if they could ask him some questions for their English homework. We all found it quite amusing. First question: “What is your nationality?” “Irish”, second question: “Where are you from?” … “Ireland” …

On the plane to Leticia I got my first view of the Amazon river, it really is huge! Leticia is exactly at the point where the borders of Colombia, Peru and Brazil intersect.

A 2-hour journey up the amazon by speedboat brought me to Bocana Amacayacu. The point where the river Amacayacu meets the Amazon.

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I arrived at Casa Gregorio, in the village of San Martin de Amacayacu. It is a village of around 600 indigenous people. Casa gregorio is the only place for tourists to come to this village. It is ran by Heike, a dutch woman and her husband Jose who is from San Martin. Heike arrived 15 years ago as a PhD student studying leaf cutter ants. The community had taken in several students before, spent time passing on their knowledge, teaching them spanish etc, then the students get their degree, leave and didn’t give anything back to the community. This point was raised with Heike at the time – what was she going to do to help them in return? The person that raised that point with her at the time was Jose. Now, tourists visit casa gregorio, and the money we pay to visit employs members of the village as guides, and contributes to many projects Heike has started. A kindergarten has been built for the village, and they are heavily involved in a legal process of trying to reclaim the communities ancestral land.

After settling in, i went on a walk around the community with my guide James.

The above image is a small version of a Malloca, which casa gregorio built. It is used to hold meetings amongst the community. Malloca’s were huge buildings that were the home to a whole community of hundreds of people. When missionaries arrived, they tried to put a stop to this way of life and encourage families to have their own separate homes. At first this meant smaller homes, still without walls. Then they got walls, then years later separate rooms, then doors. Now many people in San Martin even have TVs. The missionaries also taught people to speak spanish. Now, most people in San Martin speak spanish as well as Tikuna, their indigenous language.

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The locals here play football every single day (for money). A lot of the village sit and watch. Most people wear a shirt from one of the top european teams – it really is a huge part of their life here! (And that is obviously a big change from even 20 years ago, when they were much more disconnected from what was going on elsewhere in the world).

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The village has electricity in the morning from 8-11 and in the evening from 5-10. They have a diesel generator which someone is employed to turn on/off at these times. There are also solar panels that were installed 3 years ago, however they do not work. A company installed them and left, without any thought that people here do not have education in engineering etc if there is problems. It was also a problem with the company that supplies the village with diesel, as they have a contract with them to buy diesel for x years.

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The red line on the pole shows the level the water can get to in the rainy season. The amazon completely transforms between rainy and dry season (when i visited the dry season was coming to an end, and the rainy season starting – the river about midway between lowest and highest). The river in the above photos is the Amacayacu, which joins the amazon after a 10-15minute boat ride. The boats used have small detachable engines and can be seen in the photos. The dock is used for people to access the boats and also for washing themselves, and clothes in the river.

In the dry season, water is a scarce and so a lot of resources are put into collecting water during the wet season, and it is used sparingly.

The next day, i went to Puerto Narino, the “big town” in the area of 5,000 people. It is around a 45minute boat journey away. I saw a pink river dolphin for about a second, and saw about 5 grey river dolphins (they surface and go back under fairly quickly, dont have good photos).

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We had a walk around and then went to tarapoto lake. It is a different colour due to the sediment in the area. When you swim down you can see the water change from clear to brown/yellow to black. Whilst i was swimming, there was people only meters away fishing for piranhas – they’re not like the movies!

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We returned to Puerto Narino to have lunch and to watch the football game. My guide James was subbed on in the second half. San Martin where i was staying were playing Puerto Narino and managed to win 5-3, despite its population being almost 10x less than that of puerto narino! During the wet season, the amazon river completely covers the football pitch, the pier behind is used to access the town.

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In the evening i did a night walk, seeing some toads, a small snake (non venemous), tarantula, giant crickets and a stick insect.

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The next day involved a 1 hour boat ride up the amacayacu to do a walk through the primary rainforest, in addition to my guide, i was joined by a crazy canadian man. On the evening he was telling us all about how climate change is a myth propogated to make the elite richer, degrade our quality of life and control us. “They want to get rid of cash, centralise the power and trap us in a digital prison”. He also holds his phone as far away from his face as possible if he has to use it (on airplane mode the rest of the time), and was telling us about 9/11 conspiracies etc etc… (Two of the other people involved in this conversation/debate study environmental science, i studied physics and it was… interesting).

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Along the walk we saw lots of termite nests, leaf cutter ants, other kinds of ants (and evidence that an ant eater had been there earlier).

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On the way back we unsuccesfully fished for piranhas.

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On the evening i learnt about how they make ceramics and gave it a go!

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The next day i was taken on a walk to learn about agriculture here. I learned about the importance of rotating the areas that they use to grow, and was shown various different trees that are used for rubber, clothes, medicine, poison for hunting, houses, art and archery.

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After seeing the villages agriculture, we walked further into the jungle. The guide was extremely good at spotting wildlife, and we saw tamarins and squirrel monkeys from a distance (took me ages to spot them, he did straight away). Cant really see them on photos (new phone camera is way worse than old one… :((( ).

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The day after, i went to the Peruvian community of Altamira, a short boat trip over to the other side of the amazon river. In this area, the north side of the amazon is colombia and the southern side is peru.

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In san martin i learned that it was very hard for them to grow much food, and a lot of it they buy from this peruvian community. This is because their farmlands are close to the river, and flood every year. Whilst this makes the soil fertile, it also means that they cannot grow anything for half a year. They grow lots of yuca, and before the land floods it is all harvested. It is turned into some kind of yellow powder that lasts much longer than keeping it in other forms. Half is kept in the houses for the community to eat whilst the land is flooded, and half is buried, protected by banana leafs. When the water go’s, this food is dug up and eaten in the time it takes for the new crops to grow.

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We visited an enmormous tree and were told a lot about the “spirits” inside of it, and that not everyone makes the journey to it because of the forces of the tree…

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After returning to Altamira, we saw a group of 10-15 Toucans, which i think were black-mandibled toucan’s (from looking at the photos here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_toucans ). On the way to the boat, there was a sloth in a tree (again, bad photos)

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In the evening i was learning a little bit of spanish, from the book grandad gave me and from another i got from a lesson in Medellin. James, who had been my guide for a couple of activities, and speaks a little bit of english, noticed the books and thought they seemed great. I ended up giving them to him to help him learn english. I want to return to the Amazon at some point in my life when the river is at its highest, if i do, i agreed with James i would return to san martin speaking fluent spanish, and he will speak fluent english back!

On my final day, i visited Mocagua and the Maikuchiga monkey rehabilitation center.

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This area floods in the rainy season. We were told its incredibly important for the whole ecosystem. The soil fertilises, the small fish have a few months rest where they can hide in the cover of the forest from bigger fish. Insects go from the ground into the trees, monkeys eat the insects and some can even fish.

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We were told that red howler monkeys can be ill with Malaria but they know how to treat themselves. It is a specific tree bark that they crush up and drink in water – although a quick google search does not show any results that support this.
Here are the notes that i took from the visit, copy and pasting them rather than rewriting it all in a different way (once again im about a month behind on writing this up and trying to catch up…):
Sarah Bennett from America came here in 2006 saw they were hunting them for food and to sell. Educated them. They come here if they have been pets or are injured. They had a squirrel monkey that lost its leg to an Eagle. A woolly monkey that was in a cage ready to be eaten, it’s mum and sister had already been eaten. Capuchins that had their mother killed and kept as pets. Its for protection and a status symbol. When theyre ready to be released they take them 4 or 5 hours away to release and they watch them for a week to see if they have problems. The Capuchins have been released twice and managed to return. The injured squirrel monkey was taken back by its group. Now the group comes back sometimes to visit. The one that was here comes to the people for food, the others sit in the tree and protect. When they arrive they are in quarantine. There is inside enclosures open for them if they want to go inside, but are always able to just roam freely in the forest. A couple of times the lock hasnt been on the house and they creep in, knowing they have to be quiet. The capuchins are very intelligent and curious, and think everything has something inside so they try to smash everything. Some of them go into the forest at night and some go in their inside areas. But when the people make a call the monkeys all come. They eat insects and fruit from the forest. They are given oats and honey here but they mainly stay because they had a bad life and want a family. They have freed 800 monkeys here. The monkey populations are growing, from stopping hunters. It’s complicated to rescue them from pets or kept for food because they are in indigenous tribes with their own laws. The people at the foundation can’t go and save them, they have to know indegenous people who help and go via them. They can’t have red howlers or spider monkeys here because they are other species of monkey and also women. When they release them back into the wild also depends on their type, for example one species has to fight to get into the troop, needs to be strong enough.

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The dog was 6 months old and came here when he was two months. He only knows how to play with monkeys and not dogs. It was quite bizarre to watch him playing with the monkeys!

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In the evening i learn’t more about the history of San Martin and the battle to reclaim their ancestral lands. I also learn’t about the exploitation of people in the amazon during the industrial revolution, for rubber. It is because of this exploitation that colombia claimed the small section at the bottom of the country so that they had access to the amazon, to transport the rubber. Part of the talk also informed us on the problems with drug production and trafficking in the Amazon.

To finish my trip i went on another night walk. We walked for about an hour along a bridge that was built 2 years ago to connect some of the communities in the area. It is about 60km along and vastly decreases the time taken to travel between different areas, whilst also being safer. Many spiders, bugs and other insects etc like to go on the bridge!

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After returning to Bogota, i stayed another couple of days before flying to Guayaquil, Ecuador. I did a little sightseeing whilst i waited a few days for my flight to the Galapagos!

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From Medellin, i took the night bus to Salento.Salento is in the coffee region of colombia and that afternoon i did a coffee tour with a dutch girl Maud from my room. Although i don’t like coffee, its one of the main things to do in Salento, and a key colombian export. It was already too late to go to cocora, and it might be interesting!

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In the hostel i bumped into Mike and Ira who i had met in medellin, the four of us went for dinner, and then went to Los Amigos bar to play Tejo.

Tejo is a colombian game where you throw a chunk of iron at a metal ring target which has packets of gunpowder attached, trying to cause an explosion. The ring is surrounded by clay, to absorb the impact of the weights and stop them bouncing off.

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The next day, me and Maud went to Cocora valley, and did a 5 hour hike with Allan and Celina, who are from Costa Rica. Cocora valley has thousands of Wax Palms, which are the tallest palm trees in the world, at around 60m. We took a Jeep to the valley and back. They fill the jeep up and then a few people stand and hang on to the back.

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I travelled to San Gil from Salento. San Gil is the adventure sport capital of Colombia. I chilled out in the hostel hot tub on the first night, in preparation for paragliding the following morning in the Chicamocha Canyon.

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Me, Colin and Lukas (another german guy from the hostel) tried the local delicacy of fried ants.

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Our hostel owner had organised a promotional event this weekend, whereby hostel workers from all around colombia came to san gil to try the activities etc for free. On friday night they had a party at the 70m bungee, and this was the first time they had done night jumps. After a few beers, me and Joris has the courage to do the jump. The scariest part was definitely going up to the top in the lift, and the feeling of being about to jump, rather than the actual jump itself.

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Afterwards we went out to a club with Linde, Anika, Lukas and a couple others, whose names i have forgotten as i write this!

The next day a few of us did Hydrospeeding, which was essentially holding onto a foam board and going down the river through some rapids. Photos weren’t great as the points where we were in big-ish rapids, the instructor couldn’t really take photos whilst going through them himself on his kayak.

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Me, Anika and Erica went caving and saw lots of stalagtites, stalagmites and many bats! Surprisingly, there was even some small fish in the water inside the cave. Was hard to get good photos in pitch black.

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After returning from caving, we stumbled upon some sort of festival/celebration in San Gil.

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For 4 days, each day we tried to go white water rafting, but there was too much rain and the river was too high. Consequently, on the day that we were actually allowed to go, the river was the highest it could possibly be that we were legally allowed to go! Fun! The river Suaraz is the best rafting river in Colombia, and has several sections of class 4 and class 5 rapids. It was absolutely incredible. There were 2 boats, with 6 and 8 people plus an instructor in each. We were accompanied by 2 support kayaks to recover anyone if they fell out. We were given an hour or so of briefing and training before heading out onto the river. There was generally around 200m of rapids, followed by a similar distance that was calm, so people could be recovered if necessary. We were able to jump out and swim in one of the calm spots, as well as jumping out and floating down one of the much calmer sets of rapids.

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The kayakers, and the instructors steering our boats/giving us commands were clearly incredibly experienced and talented. They are soon going to be graded, and are hoping to make the colombian national team again. Its possible that they could make it to the world championships in china – the colombian government doesnt support them with this huge financial cost at all and so they are selling tshirts and necklaces to help raise the funds. I supported them and got a tshirt!

Before leaving, I decided 1 bungee wasn’t enough, and did the 140m bungee jump!

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I am now in Bogota for a few days, before flying to leticia, and getting a boat a few hours up river for 5 days in the Amazon!

From Cartagena i flew to San Andres, a small island of the coast of nicaragua, that belongs to Colombia. I stayed there for a day before moving on to Providencia, another island belonging to colombia, a 20min flight from san andres. The only way to get to providencia is via san andres. I said hello to a fellow traveller, Pheobe, as she arrived at the same time as me to my hostel, before being told that we actually already met at El Rio, she was friends with Amy and i was too drunk to remember…. Oh dear. We walked about the island and swam in the sea.

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On the evening we made friends with Sam, from near birmingham and his friend. They work on plane engines and travel about to work at different airports! They were in Bogota for a couple of months and took a break to come to san andres. We had a few drinks and the next day i departed to providencia on a small 20 person plane.

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One of the main purposes of my trip to providencia was to do a lot of diving, it is a tiny island with 5,000 people, with a really relaxed atmosphere and is far less touristy than san andres. If and when i go to the Galapagos, i need more diving experience. There are areas with strong currents and it is recommended to have done at least 20 dives. I did 2 dives a day for 4 days, and saw many reef sharks, lobsters, a huge sting ray and various fish. One dive we were able to swim around huge shoals of fish, which stayed fairly motionless, resting. That dive was shallow (around 10m) and i dove for 70 minutes (The air you recieve from your scuba tank matches the pressure of the outside water, and so the deeper you are, the more air you use and the shorter amount of time you can dive). I also did my first wreck dive, a huge ex oil tanker, where we were followed around by 3 reef sharks. At one point, i went down to look at an eel, looked back up 10 seconds later to see a shark face on 2m away – quiet a surreal experience! Got some really good videos from the dives, but for some reason i cant upload them here (only photos). Look out on instagram for some of them!

I rented a scooter and did a lap of the island on one of the days.

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The day i left, on the morning i climbed up the highest peak on the island, which is around 380m above sea level. Saw lots of big Iguanas, a small snake and cotton trees with spikes on. I had more photos from the peak but they seem to have not backed up, and were lost when i had my phone stolen (a week after these photos were taken).

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From providencia, i went back to san andres and then on to Medellin. In medellin i stayed at Los Patios hostel for a week. As i write this i am about to leave to Salento, on the night bus in a few hours time.

On the Friday, I met up with Max, Fran and Matt who i had met at El Rio before, and made some new friends drinking on the rooftop bar. We went to a couple of different bars.

On Saturday I went on a tour of Communa 13, a neighbourhood that was once one of the most dangerous places in the world. It has since been transformed and is a safe place full of art, dance and music. I wrote some notes in my phone about the history we learnt, but they were lost when my phone was stolen… I also lost all my photos from the day, but Dylan (from Melbourne) and Maartje (Dutch but lives in london) sent me their photos from the few days we did things together in Medellin.

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On Sunday, we went to the Nacional vs Junior Barranquilla game, sat right next to the Nacional ultras. The atmosphere was absolutely amazing, all through the game. The stadium holds 44,700 and was almost full. Barranquilla won 1-0, scoring in the 79th min. Somewhat bizarrely, the few hundred fans Barranquilla brought, were kicked out the stadium after they scored! (Again, i took photos of this but lost them…)

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After the game, we took the Metro home, which is when one very kind person, managed to pickpocket my phone. I didn’t notice a thing, they are very good at what they do, and many other people in the hostel said they had also been pickpocketed. One person even said someone had been cutting through the bottom of their bag, to try and get their purse from the bottom. You always hear the warning to watch out for pickpockets in big cities, and maybe i didn’t take it seriously enough, as ive never really heard of it happening to anyone i know until I came to Medellin. The most annoying thing at this point is lost photos, but for a while it was quiet stressful; The people who stole my phone managed to hack my facebook, which left me wondering if they had managed to unlock my phone and access all my emails, banking apps etc. This led to a panic of changing all my passwords, calling my bank to lock my account etc. These few hours of hassle meant no dinner that night, and lots and lots of insect bites, as i was too distracted to notice.

What they had actually done, i have now figured out, is that they swapped my sim card into another phone. They could then reset my facebook password in order to log in (when you click forgot password, you can get a reset code/link to either your linked email address, or phone number. They had my phone number now!). After they were in my facebook, they could go into my settings and see my email address for facebook (different to my icloud email address). Once i had remotely wiped and locked my phone via icloud, and blocked my sim card, they proceded to send me icloud phishing emails to my facebook email address. This was an attempt to get my details to be able to reset the phone and sell good as new. Instead, they have an icloud locked phone, which is useless other than for parts, and ive lost photos and notes from my trip. But we move on! I got a new phone (not as nice as my old one 😦 ) and now I’ll be more wary of the threat of pickpockets.

On monday i did a spanish lesson in the morning, and a bike tour of the city in the afternoon. The bike tour was a nice way to see the city outside of just the tourist attractions. There is bike lanes everywhere, and free bikes!

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On Tuesday we went on a tour to Guatape. All of the buildings in the town are decorated in bright colours.

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We took a boat trip along one of the lakes and had a picnic. On the way, we saw one of James Rodriguez’ houses, which is nextdoor to one of David Ospina’s (colombian footballers, James plays for Real Madrid and Ospina plays for Napoli, formerly arsenal). This whole area is manmade lakes for hydroelectric power. Colombia produces 800% of the power it needs, a big part being hydroelectric, and sells electricity to pretty much every south and central american country, in addition to the US.

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We also saw one of Pablo Escobars houses, that he built for his daughter (he supposedly had over 600 properties). The property, like most he had, was heavily reinforced and bomb proof – a bomb was set off inside the house yet it is clearly still standing. Apparently when his properties were abandoned, people would break in and try to look for money in the walls or in the ground etc. It has been abandoned and falling apart for 30 years.

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After the boat trip, we climbed up El Peñón rock, providing fantastic views of the surrounding area.

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That night, back in medellin, the hostel hosted Karaoke. I had enough beers to embarrass myself and join in, performing Summer Nights with a girl called Jessica from San Fransisco. Later on, we all went to a bar that had a large pool/ball pit to jump into…

The next day, I did the “Do not say his name” tour. A tour about Pablo Escobar and the influence he had on Medellin. It is not allowed to use his name to promote tours. It was interesting learning about this dark time in colombias history, but I felt bad going on the tour, finding out that a lot of the locals really hate tourists doing so. They want to just put the past behind them. It is an odd situation though, because there is still large groups of people who love him, for building them houses, football pitches and giving money to the poor, despite the horrific acts he also committed. He paid off all of the TV stations to report on his “genorosity”. The tour guide said that you could have two neighbouring familes, one who loves him for giving them a house, the other who had most of their family killed by one of his bombs. He did all the bombings to fight the government and extradition. Eventually people were sick of the bombings and protested for the government to end extradition so that the violence would stop. People were scared of being near police because Pablo would pay 1 million pesos for each police person killed. Young people do not learn anything about him or what he did in schools, and their opinions are formed by their family. The opinions and stories of people in Medellin vary wildly. Most of what i have wrote here has came from the tour guide, and may have some inaccuracies.

Pablo said that one day he would be president of colombia, if people didnt vote for him he would buy the votes. However, to be president you have to be over 40, so before he reached 40 he ran succesfully for senator (1982). No one knew at this point how he was rich, which is not allowed. He was exposed by another senator in 1983 for the real origin of his fortune.

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We then went up to the site of La Catedral, where the prison was that Escobar built for himself. He agreed to end the war with the government, and hand himself in, if he could build his own prison. The police were not allowed within 2 miles of the “prison”. It wasn’t really a prison, more of a palace, but it ended the violence in colombia for a while.

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The area where he grew up is full of football pitches that he built. Many people in the neighbourhood still love him, their hero and wanted a monument/statue for him – which obviously wasnt allowed. Instead they did graffiti of his face. He did things for them and put money into developing the area when the government wouldnt help. It is evident just how controversial he is, although also obvious that the vast majority of people hate him, and most of the people who love him are in this area. He grew up poor and was a criminal all his life, earning money however he could no matter what the consequences, so he had empathy for the poor and helped them with his ill gotten fortune. At the time, when he gave out all these donations people would return the favour by telling him when the police was coming. For a while people thought he was rich from business and his narco involvement was just rumours, they defended him.

Teenagers could not go to jail (not sure if this is still the case) so it is said that he built all of these football pitches for recruitment of kids. He supposedly had 3,000 kids working for him. He gave them guns, motorbikes, money, houses for their families.

At the site of his, some of his family and some of his associates graves, we were told that people often leave and take things related to him and his life. For example leaving bullets.

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There are so so many different stories and versions of events depending who you ask. Government say they killed him, dea say they did, guide says he killed himself when he knew there was no escape. He said he would rather be dead in Colombia than in a jail in the US. He always had with him a gun with 1 bullet. His body had a gunshot through his ear. He asked Doctor where the best place to shoot is if he wanted to die. Lots more bullet wounds as after he shot himself they all shot and claimed it.

After he died his family were put in a hotel in Bogota for 6 months, then kicked out with the government saying they can’t protect them their whole lives. They were given a change of identity and lived normally for a while. When their accountant found out he tried to extort them to not tell anyone. They went to the police and were put in jail. After this, everyone knew who they were so they decided to use the publicity and publish books etc. They say that they are poor, because if any assets are found from pablos crimes they will be taken. Last year 16 houses were taken by the government that turned out to be given to people related to Pablo and involved in crime.

And now you are up to date on what I have been doing in Colombia! As I write this, I am about to leave to Salento to see the Cocora valley. Stay tuned!

P.S. I’ve done these 3 catchup posts all in the last day, covering the last 4 weeks of travel. Not really proof read them so apologies if they don’t read too well- at least i’m now up to date again and there is some photos!

From Tyrona, me, Derek and Marvin headed to Palamino, a small coastal village, where we stayed at Dreamer Hostel.

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From Palamino, we went tubing down the river whilst drinking beers! To get there we had to take moto taxis, whilst carrying the tube! On the way down the river we stopped

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From the hostel in Palamino, you could (if there was no cloud) see the snow capped tops of the Seirra Nevada mountain range. It is possible to see them from the beach, which is slightly strange, to see snowy mountains from a carribean beach! A local described the tallest one in the range as the “highest mountain in the world” by the definition of its height compared to the surrounding land. Even though everest is the highest above sea level (8,800m), it is surrounded by other mountains over 6000m and is not as promiment in comparison to the local area.

None of us had our phones with us, as we were going swimming, but at the beach we saw locals pulling in a huge fishing net, with 2 groups of people around 150m apart on the beach pulling in each side. We helped breifly. After it was pulled in, the fisherman gave each of the locals who had helped a couple of fish for doing so. As the net approached the shore, filled with fish, you could see some jumping out over the sides of the net, as the shore approached. On the northern coast of colombia the most common meal by far is fish, accompanied with coconut rice, salad and fried plantain. Fried snapper is very common.

I stayed in palamino for 4 or 5 days, much longer than i had intended, but i was wanting to visit the Guajira desert, that i could go to from palamino. The desert borders venezuela and you can visit the most northern point in south america. The dunes of the desert flow straight into the sea, which would have been really cool to see. Although it is a desert, the rainy season in this region had begun, and i was not able to go because a river on the way was too high to cross.

I met back up with Niels, and we went to Camarones, where you are sometimes able to see flamingoes. We took moto taxis (taking around 1hr 20, not too comortable!) from palamino to Camarones and had lunch.

Our drivers said this was an exciting/fun day out for them, as they only come 2 or 3 times a year. A lot of people who visit take tours, and most of the time the people that take moto taxis from palamino just want to go to the ATM, or neighbouring towns. Palamino does not have an ATM, the nearest one being a 20min moto taxi away. It is a small village that only in the last few years has started getting tourists, for its beautiful beach and two neighbouring rivers, where you can see wildlife and go tubing. 6 Years ago palamino had 1 hostel, now it has well over 10. Although this growth is good for the locals and gives them work, i think it is also disliked as it is changing the area from a quiet rural village to a tourist destination.

Camarones is spanish for shrimp. This area is separated from the sea by a small dune, but large waves bring water and fish. Twice a year, the tides bring billions of shrimp into the area, which the flamingos feed on. We visited out of season and there were supposedly 300 or so flamingos in the area, which we didnt manage to see. When the shrimp arrive there is supposedly 4,000-5,000 flamingos. The water in this area ranges from around 0.6 to 1.2m high throughout the year. We didnt see flamingos but saw pelicans, red ibis, white ibis and a big group of some black birds that i dont remember the name of. These birds apparently kill the trees, as their poo is too warm and acidic. We also saw lots of fish that jump out of the water.

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Back at palamino, i spoke to someone from bogota who advised me on the best football games that were coming up in medellin and bogota that i could go to. I made friends with Amy and Matt, two nurses from Southampton, as well as two aussies, Jay and i cant remember the others name! After drinking in the hostel, me and the two aussies went to a “party” on the beach around a fire. The stray dogs of the area (there are lots and lots in south america!) also joined the party! Jay was from melbourne, and the other aussie guy was from queensland and travelled round with a caravan. He wore a green buttoned crocodile dundee style vest and was very stereotypically “from the outback”. He got absolutely hammered, passed out on the beach, and was wrestling with a stray dog. Yes you read that right!

After leaving Palamino, i headed to El Rio for a couple of days. It is a hostel in the jungle that is rated as the 2nd best in south america. It has no wifi and is consequently very social. The day after i arrived they were having a big party. Every month they have one huge party, with everyone from the hostel aswell as a couple hundred people that arent staying there. In the afternoon 70 of us went tubing, starting the drinking for the party at 2pm…
One of the hostels 3 dogs followed and joined us for the tubing (as it apparently does every day), walking along the riverbank, and swimming at the points it knew it needed to.

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Made many friends at El Rio, some who I’ve seen a couple of times since. To name a few, Matt and Fran from Milton Keynes. Lena, Sarah and Stefan from Graz, Austria. Saw Nani again, and Amy that i met in Palamino. Max and Thilo from london. Adam from Canada. Danny from ireland who id met in Tayrona (and have bumped into in Medellin aswell). Hania who i met diving in Taganga. Blaize, Alex and Sam from Melbourne. Max from germany (who i met again in Cartagena and Medellin).

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El Rio was on the river, where we went swimming, and had table tennis, pool and beach volleyball. Played quite a few games of each whilst staying there.

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I left El Rio and headed to Cartagena, via santa marta, welcomed in to the rainy season.

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I was in Cartagena for a day before leaving to San Andres, and did a walking tour of the old town and learnt more about the history of the city.

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On the walking tour met a guy called Danny from Taiwan, who travels round the world doing the lighting for Cique du Soleil shows (Acrobatics circus kind of shows – no animals). We met up with Max who i met at El Rio, and Niels who I’d been to Minca and Palamino with and had a few beers in a local square where there were street performers who danced and rapped.

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The next day I departed to San Andres, blog post coming soon (™)

After leaving Peru, I arrived in Cartagena, Colombia. I then headed to Taganga, near Santa Marta, where i completed my PADI advanced open water course with a dutch guy called Beert, who i met at my hostel, and our instructor Adrian from Medellin.

We saw lots of big Moray eels, different fish, lobsters and some squid. In the course we did 5 dives: a deep dive (30m), peak performance bouyancy, navigation, drift dive and a night dive, using flashlights. I only took videos, not photos on the night dive and it wont let me upload them here…

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After completing the advanced open water course, i headed to Santa Marta. There (El Viajero hostel) I made friends with Derek (from san francisco), Marvin (from near cologne) and Niels (from Utrecht). (Obviously met more people but im just going to mention people i travelled with for several days/something noteworthy happened).

The next day we did a day trip to Minca, which is in the mountains that look over Santa Marta. We walked around, and did a tour of the coffee and cocoa plantations.

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After visiting the coffee farm, we were given a talk about the animals and plants in colombia. Colombia is the most biodiverse country in the world by area, and the second most biodiverse in total, behind brazil. One in every 10 species of flora and fauna that is found on earth can be found in Colombia. I found it interesting that the cockoo, which lay their eggs in the nests of other birds, has the shortest gestation period of any bird (9-14 days). This is so that when the cuckoo hatches, it can push all the other eggs out of the nest, meaning the mother only raises this one bird and increases its chance of survival.

Next we went to a cocoa farm, where we learnt about the different ways that chocolate is made, and sampled some freshly ground cocoa beans and unrefined sugar, grown in the area. It was delicious. The hot chocolate was so nice, I thought I would buy a couple of bags to send back to england, as part of a birthday present for mum. The universe however, decided this was not allowed. At the next hostel, ants went into my bag, cut through the bags with chocolate in and were all inside the chocolate. I decided maybe mum wouldnt want them anymore…. Its the thought that counts!

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At the chocolate place, they also had a couple of rabbits that had adopted a chick. They said the hen tried to kill the chick, and now it follows around the rabbits, and they follow it and look after it!

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After getting back to santa marta, we went out to a rooftop bar, where there was lots of locals. We also went with Pauli and Katha, two german girls we had made friends with at the hostel.

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After Santa Marta, Me, Marvin and Derek headed to Tayrona national park. The park is home to snakes, jaguars, agouti, many reptiles, birds and 3 types of monkey (Red Howler, Cotton topped Tamarin and Capuchin monkeys) amongst more. On the way we made friends with Nani, who (you guessed it!) is from germany and only makes friends on transport. (She met us on the bus, and met two sets of friends in tayrona who she met in madrid airport and bogota airport).

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Whilst in Tyrona, we bumped into several people that we had each met before, and I also made friends with several people that I would end up seeing again, some multiple times. It really is surprising how you can bump into the same people so many times in such a large place! I also chatted to someone who happened to be from Laxey in the Isle of Man! After temporarily parting company with Nani, me, Derek and Marvin headed back through the jungle, on our way to Palamino. We saw a coconut fall right in front of us, which Marvin took for us to open and drink/eat in palamino. Whilst in Tyrona i had learnt how to prepare a coconut – its harder/different than you would think! We also bought some fresh orange juice from someone belonging to one of the local indigenous tribes, who live in the jungle and all wear full white clothing.

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Stay tuned for more updates (probably) coming soon! As i write this, this post takes me from 4 weeks behind to 3 weeks behind…

In this post, an idiot who is weeks behind on his blog shows several of the Incan ruins he has been to since Machu Picchu!

Moray, terrace farms made by the Incans:

Ollantaytambo, where the Incans made their last stand against the Spanish:

Chocaquiera trek – a 1.5km descent, followed by 1.5km ascent in which we got annihilated by bugs. Saw the ruins, same route for the way back, which we did in a day to avoid another day with the bugs!