A journey across the andes … and around them … and near them … and far away from them

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Photo of the day

Michelle creates one of these for each day of our trip (mostly) and posts them on Facebook. They are reproduced here for those who don’t use Facebook, and as a permanent record.

Touchdown!! Hellooooo Sydney. A very happy reunion with mum and dad and our good friend Jussie at the airport. Being a work day we slipped back into the country quietly. This is my last travel post on what seems to have been a daily journal entry of our travels similar to that of Captain Janeway on the StarTrek Voyager …”Captain’s log star date 3.3.2014 The Nobbies Enterprise has returned home” With over 60,000 photos taken between Ben and I over 14 months I hope the FB daily journals have been a small insight to what we have experienced. Thanks for [...]

3 hour stop over at Abu Dhabi, only 14 hours left to go. Forgot how long the flight to Heathrow to Sydney is Like this:Like Loading...

It’s a very surreal time packing up our backpacks for the last time on this trip. Our flight is at 8.30pm and have the afternoon spending quality time with family. Time to say more goodbyes and more tears. I think tears knowing this is the end of our incredible journey. We haven’t had a lot of time to think lately about our life back in Australia and how 14 months of backpacking around South, Central and North Americas hasn’t changed us but has certainly changed our outlook to life. We have experienced so much, stepped out of our comfort zones [...]

Our last full day in London so we have the afternoon cruising down the Thames River ferry to Greenwich. A bitter freezing day nothing like retreating to a local pub for some cod beer battered fish and chips. It’s amazing to see London skyscrape change with the Shard building on the left and a new building which is being called the lady’s shaver building. Like this:Like Loading...

Nobbies cannot believe that we have taken 267 days to travel around South America and that this is our last day here. It certainly has been an adventure and will miss it alot. We finally get to see some interesting graffiti which is encouraged here in Bogota on the way to the airport. Brand new Bogota airport and our flight to LA is on a budget airline Spirit which makes Jetstar look like business class. Cattle class for the next 8 hours via Fort Lauderdale. Culture shock arriving in the States and are faced with ridiculous lengthy queues in customs [...]

A graffiti photography tour of Bogota we had booked was cancelled at the last minute so we visit the long awaited Museo de Oro (Gold Museum) filled with relics dating from 200BC to the Inca period of the 1500’s. It is the largest in South America. After 9 months of learning and reading about the gold used in the pre-Hispanic period it was rewarding to find so many intricate pieces on exhibit. Afterwards we spend time at Fernando Botero’s museum a famous Colombian artist who portrays his subjects with exaggerated themes. Like this:Like Loading...

Nobbies last night in Bogota as well as in South America. We celebrate it at Andres Carnes De Res which Bogota locals rave about. First there was a queue to get in then we waited almost 2 hours for a table but needed that time to decide from a 30 page menu. This place is more like a Colombian Hard Rock Cafe. Remembering our steaks from Argentina we decide to splurge on 45,000 pesos for Like this:Like Loading...

We meet up with Ardun, Jen and Antonia in Bogata and head out on local buses 50km north to visit the Salt Cathedral in Zipaquira. Built 20 years ago, it is 200 metres underground under the salt mines and 250,000 tons were extracted to construct it. So big it holds up to 10,000 people during Christmas and Easter. Beautifully carved 14 stations of the cross off the main tunnel down to the cathedral. Now one of Colombia’s wonders of the world. Like this:Like Loading...

Sad to pack our backpacks and head to the big city of Bogata. Our final destination in South America. Up early to catch a bus from Salento to Armenia then a connecting direct bus to Bogata. It is only a 280km trip but the terrain we cross is 8 hours of dramatic and spectacular scenery climbing from 1500m to 3200m over a pass and then winding the next 5 hours down to 2500m of endless green valleys and more green canyons without seeing the horizon and no straight road in sight. The bus is a touch of luxury with wifi [...]

The hordes of domestic tourists leave Salento after the weekend and the locals get back their sleepy coffee town for another week. A quiet day of tranquility before we head to Bogota and so it is the sound of church bells, cowboys walking their horses through the streets, the smell of coffee and hammock time. Who says they don’t like Mondays Like this:Like Loading...

The typical ambience in the main plaza on a Monday night. Muy tranquilo. Nobbies will certainly miss the plazas of South America especially in small towns Like this:Like Loading...

We meet a fabulous lady Beatrix and her nephew Carlos through Piere at our hostel and they invite us along with Antonia and Piere to visit their dairy farm in the Valle de Cocora. The house has been in the family for 50 years and nothing has changed, straight out of a magazine furnished with rustic rural furniture. They have 80 cows which are milked daily and the fresh milk sold to a local cheesemaker. We are shown around the stunning property and get to taste a local juice made from Lolu fruit. Beatriz used to live in London for [...]

Carlos drops us off to the start of the trail head to walk the loop of Valle de Cocora supposedly a 5 hour trek. The highlight here is to see the Quindio wax palms, Colombia’s national tree and known for the tallest palm trees in the world. We walk for an hour along the floor valley passing by many weekend Colombian tourists on horse riding trails and we seem to be the only ones walking. Antonia, Ben and I leave the crowds & horses behind as the trail heads up into the lush cloud forest crossing over simple swing bridges [...]

The joys of travelling is bumping into other travellers we have met along the way in previous places and this small town is a small world. Today we head up to a coffee finca (farm) by a willy jeep not far from Salento with Antonia and Pierre from our hostal. Don Elias is a small organic coffee plantation. We are fortunate to get an intimate tour with Don Elias himself. A genial, lovely man who is now in his 80’s and speaks Spanish slow enough for us to comprehend. He walks us through his property with such pride and demonstrates [...]

Time for the Nobbies to travel to Colombia’s coffee zone. Our first long bus trip since crossing the Peru/Ecuador border we head out of Medellin by bus 6 hours south to Salento, a tranquil small town in the heart of the coffee region. The bus driver hands out sick bags for the long winding journey ahead but the views distract us and we are used to such journeys after 9 months of buses. Gorgeous lush green countryside as we ride over high ridges with valleys on either side with coffee farms as far as the eye can see. In the [...]

Nobbies take a day trip 2 hours north of Medellin to Guatape on a local bus. First we climb La Piedra rock via 675 stairs up the side. A few huffs and puffs but rewarding with spectacular views from the top overlooking the lake and the hills. There are 3 shops at the top blaring different Reggaton music at full blast. Colombians love their Reggaton and now becoming accustomed to Colombians and tranquil places equals loud music of all kinds but all competing who can play their music the loudest. Head into Guatape in a brightly painted tuk tuk that [...]

With so much history and past armed conflict in Medellin we book a walking tour of the city with local Colombian called Pablo. A passionate guy who loves his city and grew up during the reign of the drug cartel. The city itself does not have many historic buildings left but Pablo shows our group interesting parts of the old centre with stories of pain and suffering of the past. Medellin public spaces where people once lived in fear of bombing and high crime from the drug cartel are now replaced with sculptures and art depicting freedom and a new [...]

Colombia is a mountainous country which makes for long and windy bus trips. So with little then 2 weeks left and the availability of cheap internal flights we fly from Santa Marta to Medellin in the afternoon for $80 each. A 15 hr overnight bus trip (and not risking night buses in Colombia) vs 1 hour flying time we feel very spoilt. Hard to believe we are in a city which was the headquarters for Pablo Escobar, and a city that was considered more dangerous than Beirut during the 70s & 80s. Two decades later it has transformed and was [...]

After Ben’s exhausting 4 days on the Lost City trek Nobbies spend the day chillin’, swimmin’ and hammockin’ at the hostel. Dreamer hostel is like a mini resort. Head out to dinner and movies (3rd one in 9 months) with a lovely Irish couple from the trek. Luxury to find a movie in English (The Apprentices) in a modern cinema complex at a shopping centre and for $3.50 each! The nights here are 30C so anywhere with air conditioning is pure relief especially as our room only has a fan. Like this:Like Loading...

The last day was a long one, covering two thirds of the walk back along the same track over 7 hours. We had thought it would be mostly downhill as it seemed mostly uphill on the way in, however this was just a trick of our memory (or perhaps a rip in the space-time continuum). We set a cracking pace, as after the excitement of the previous day we were all looking forward to returning to civilisation. Gradually the scenery changed from dense jungle to rolling hills, and we reached the trail head at the small town of Machete for [...]

Our 3rd day in the jungle begins with another early morning as we head through a river crossing to reach the 1200 stairs that lead to the lost city entrance. We excitedly climb the rough, uneven and mossy stairs that are more than 1000 years old, and spend the next few hours exploring the ancient ruins. All that is left are the round platforms that used to contain houses and other buildings. Some have been cleared and restored more than others, however it still feels very much like we have discovered something. Machu Picchu may be more physically impressive, but [...]

After our 5:30am breakfast, we pass our first Colombian Army patrol. Since an incident in 2003 in which 8 tourists were kidnapped and held for 3 months, the army has kept the area safe from the guerillas and drug cartels that previously ruled the region. We also passed several Kogi villages, home to the descendents of the Tairona people who built the Lost City. They have somehow managed to survive with very little outside influence, and appear to be entirely self sufficient. They are curious about us, but very reserved – something easily interpreted as hostility but which is apparently [...]

I have long wanted to visit Ciudad Perdida (Lost City), ancient home of the Tairona people which was rediscovered in the 1970’s in the mountainous jungle near Santa Marta, Colombia. However the only way to get there is a gruelling 4-6 day trek through the steamy jungle on steep muddy tracks and with numerous wet river crossings. After much consideration Michelle decided to give this trek a miss and stayed in Santa Marta while I set off with a group of 12 in an open jeep for the next 2 hours through back country rugged terrain to take us to [...]

Our first day in Santa Marta staying at a hostel run by an Aussie which was an ex drug cartel’s house. Ben had his teva sandals stolen and my $5 sunnies from the hut back on the beach in Cartagena, so on a mission to replace them for the Lost City 4 day trek tomorrow. Luckily it is sand and surf territory here and shoe shops are in abundance. Love the vintage red trucks here and only in Colombia do you find a coco loco cocktail cart with very spirit possible outside the commercial banking district. This cart sells kinky [...]

Nobbies reluctantly move on from Cartagena and continue our travels in Colombia. Next stop is by bus to Santa Marta. Coastline dotted with poorer villages lie in the shadows of potential property development resorts ready to take on the tourism boom hitting Colombia. Such divides seen now with wealth & poverty. The wet season shows its face and downpours cause minor flooding on the roads. Santa Marta seems to be Cartagena’s ugly sister but is the gateway to beauty in the outer regions Like this:Like Loading...

We hear about a mud volcano not far out from Cartagena. It’s more of a dirt mound than an actual volcano sitting on the shores of a small lake village. We climb the mound and then descend on a wooden ladder into a pool of mud. Once inside the density of the mud allows you to float with ease. The locals massaged us while we float horizontally. Can’t touch the bottom and it is the weirdest sensation. Afterwards we head down to the lake looking like swamp monsters and the local ladies wash us off using their hands and buckets [...]

Sunday in Cartagena where the town empties out and the skies are blue so we set out early before the heat of the day with our cameras. A challenge to try and capture this place in a photo. Streets are narrow with extreme exposures of bright light on one side and heavy shadows on the other so Ben experiments with HDR to emphasise the detail. This post is one of his photos. Nobbies escape the heat later and wander through the Spanish Inquisition Museum where there is a macabre torture chamber for the witches. Ben thinks it hilarious to start [...]

The balmy nights brings the streets alive with everyone old and young sitting outside on the street chatting, kids kicking soccer balls with bare feet in the local plaza and walking past open front doors with people in their 1920’s havana style rocking chairs playing 60’s bossa novas songs on record players. There is street food everywhere here and we are just mesmerised by the huge sense of community where we are staying in the Getsamani district. Such a vast contrast from the new town on the other side of the harbour where apartment condos 30 stories high have shot [...]

Most of the income for the locals is derived from selling their tasty caribbean food, like corn fritters and coconut fudge sweets, fresh catch of the day of crab, fish & lobster as well as fresh juices with or without alcohol on the beach. We are spoilt to wake up each morning to the fruit salad lady delivering a platter to our hut. Though have to decline the coco loco guy selling rum in a coconut for breakfast. Sadly time to head back and desalt ourselves and take a speedboat to the mainland. After 3 days of midweek bliss the [...]

Election Day back in Oz. As Ben puts it ‘while the nation votes Nobbies soak’. Yep not much to report today. Eat local fish, read, swim and sleep, oh and swim again. The day trippers invade us between 10am to 3pm then the beach is ours again. Impressive thunder & lightning storm on the horizon is our entertainment for the night. Like this:Like Loading...

There is an archipelago close by to Cartagena in the Caribbean Sea so Nobbies grab sarongs, cossies and thongs and head to Playa Blanca (white beach) 45min boat ride from town. This is our home for 3 days living in a basic hut with just a mattress on the floor with a mossie net, no shower and certainly no electricity all for $5 each a night. Sleeping to the sound of waves rolling on the beach and waking up to views like this every day…life as a backpacker is tough Like this:Like Loading...

The heat is intense during the middle of the day so late afternoons and the night become the norm now to wander the old town and absorb the charm and character this place radiates. Just overwhelmed with photo opportunities however we soon realise that it won’t be long until the old town will be completely void of local trade and be replaced by foreign investment boutique hotels, upmarket Like this:Like Loading...

Welcome to Cartagena. Nobbies are in love with this place. Staying in the colourful vibrant local neighbourhood of Getsemani feeling like we have been transported 40 years ago to a Havana Cuba movie set. Yep, it’s hot and loving it while we roam around the old town surrounded by a fort in awe of the impressive colonial buildings, the melting pot of culture, people and music from Caribbean influences. We can see why this earns its reputation as the most beautiful city in Colombia. Might have to extend our stay for an extra few days. Like this:Like Loading...

Sometimes Nobbies have to post the reality of our budget travelling and today is one of them. Electric showers is a shower head plugged into electricity to provide hot water and is common in older buildings in South America. This shower in Quito tops all the ones we have used. No OH&S practices here! Surviving no electric shocks (also common) we bid farewell to Ecuador as we literally booked a last minute flight the night before to get into Colombia. With only 3.5 weeks left in Sth America we take an afternoon flight to Cartagena on the Caribbean coast via [...]

Nobbies are at the middle of the world, Latitude 0’0’0″. Ecuador built the monument before GPS systems and so the equator is actually 240m further north. So not there technically however we crossed the equator 4 times on our way back from Mindo but hey we get the obligatory photo and head back to Quito to figure out how to get into Colombia with the current road blocks. Like this:Like Loading...

Lazy day today after our trek yesterday, so it’s checking out the local orchids, butterflies and my dream comes true to visit an Ecuadorian chocolate farm and taste 100% chocolate…you can tell by my face it is bitter. Mindo chocolates has to be the most purest and tastiest chocolate we have ever tasted. Started by a lady from Michigan who lives here and couldn’t get decent chocolate for her brownies so she set up her own cacao processing plant. I even have the recipe for her scrumptious brownies if anyone is interested. Like this:Like Loading...

End up exploring Las Tangaras Reserve which is an ecological protected area in the cloud forest about 4km out of Mindo. Head out with a neat couple also staying at our hostel and hike 3km into dense rainforest. We were told about an elusive Andean bird called Cock of the Rock evidently hangs out here. (Some name huh) Unintentionally go in search for this bird (no we are not crazy bird watchers) as they are generally only sighted before sunrise but got told they also can be sighted in the late afternoon. We sit at the top of a valley [...]

Nobbies bus back to Quito from Latacunga and cross the city from south to north by a series of local trolley buses and try and find a bus to Mindo, the cloud forest region, only to be told the direct bus departs from another terminal. Thankfully we know a bit more Spanish to work out we can catch another bus at this terminal but will drop us off at on the side of the road and we can get a pick up truck to Mindo. Phew, $3 for tickets and 4 buses later we are on a bus travelling through [...]

A day trip to Cotopaxi volcano the highest active volcano in the world. Involves a steep climb up to the Refugio hut from the car park. Didn’t look far but with the altitude at 4,800m, weather at it’s worst exposed to strong winds and horizontal icy sleet Nobbies were wondering what we were doing on the side of a volcano again. (Well in particular me!) Sadly couldn’t see the summit but was worth every huff and puff. Now bring on some warm rainforest weather to thaw out up north over the next few days Like this:Like Loading...

Deadline to make a 8.30am day trip to Quilotoa Crater from Banos 2 hours away made for an early start for the Nobbies. And you know we are not morning people but make it thanks to the local buses. There are four of us on the trip. As photos don’t really give you a sense of scope, the lake itself is 3km wide, top of the crater is 9km in diameter and a vertical drop of 400m. The volcano is Like this:Like Loading...

Nobbies visit ruta de las cascadas a 1/2 day trip from Baños. A valley of waterfalls and most of them are accessed via a metal basket on a cable called tarabitas. The last waterfall, Pailon del Diablo (the devils cauldron) was accessed by 2 suspension bridges as high as the waterfall, 100m. When we arrived the rain had cometh, soaking wet but the falls were spectacular. Walked down to the bottom of the narrow stairs to be next to them. Powerful and thunderous. Photo courtesy of Ben who was testing out a new filter and a challenging place to set [...]

Sunday in Baños. Such a great chilled out town dominated by an active volcano and thermal baths. Plenty of local tourists as this is the last day of vacations in Ecuador. Roasted cuy (guinea pig), craft markets and an unusual way of making local toffee where it is stretched over a wooden hook, beaten and shaped for packaging. The Church of the Virgin Holy Water) here is a place of pilgrimage where people come to thank the Virgin for her miracles. It has been saved many times during volcanic eruptions over the centuries. Like this:Like Loading...

Everyone loves a local produce market and Baños region has such lush fertile soil and perfect climate for the tastiest organic fruit and veges including plants for healing purposes. Nobbies buy up fresh strawberries, the biggest tamarillos (sorry mum & dad wish I could send you some), raspberries and the largest avocados. Did I mention incredibly cheap. Like this:Like Loading...

Nobbies leave the big mochillas behind in Quito and travel with our day backs for a week on local buses to see some of the outer areas of Quito. First stop Baños. Long day of travel as the regional bus terminals are about 1 hour out of the city but impressive spending under $40 for the day: 25c trolley bus, $3.50 for 3 hour bus to Baños and $18 for hostel room and no pickpocketing. We travel along the avenue of volcanoes but the valley is under rain clouds. Latest Ecuador bus movie played at full volume is Troy with [...]

Day off from all tourist sites especially Churches says Ben. With fast Internet at our hostel we knuckle down to research the next leg of our trip after Sth America…the US of A. Our room soon turns into a travel agency and Ben leads the way as logistics manager finding cheap airfares out of Colombia, a campervan for a month on the west coast as well as a cheap cruise for $99 each from Miami back to Panama. Who would have ever thought Nobbies now have advance bookings. Yikes, not our style of travel. Not sure we are are staying [...]

Quito is a large narrow city with much of the sights needing taxi hopping so Nobbies jump on a city tour bus instead (2nd one in 8 months) and spend the day playing tourist. Visiting the Basilica and climbed the clock towers for an impressive view of the city, the statue of La Virgen de Quito where she is the only Madonna with wings, and hang out in Plaza Grande surrounded by stately colonial buildings of the palace and the Cathedral. Massive police presence in the old town patrolling the streets to keep the old city safe. Unlike Lima’s old [...]

After getting used to working out the local trolley buses, Nobbies spend an afternoon taking in the historic centre of Quito. Ben takes advantage of a $2 haircut and a beard trim. No sterilisation of cut throat razors here. Love sitting in the old plazas watching the world go by and the simplicity of the local children running into a flock of pigeons. I also discover that Panama hats actually were originated in Ecuador. Like this:Like Loading...

Farewell Galápagos Islands. Nobbies will certainly miss you…but the 1500 photos each will be keep our memories fresh. Flight is scheduled to Quito for 1pm but sea fog rolls in delaying flight to 6pm so head back into town and have another cheap lunch for $3. Now back in mainland Ecuador from sea level to 2800m. Hello Quito. Like this:Like Loading...

Ben gets an opportunity to go back to Kicker Rocks for a day dive and I try to shake this feeling of still being on a boat. Loving the slow pace of this town with everyone partaking in siesta from 12pm to 3pm including the sea lions who reside in town. People here are so friendly. Luckily our Spanish is improving and can have some conversations with the locals. Will miss the sunsets over the water soon. Like this:Like Loading...

Our Galapagos Island trip has come to an end. We say goodbye to everyone and swap email addresses. Nobbies are sad to disembark and return to a backpacker life of hostels and chicken buses. Feels so surreal that we have experienced an amazing and incredible 8 days in such a unique place that it will be in our memories forever. It certainly enforces that our planet needs to be respected and protected. Staying in sleepy Puerto Baquerizo Moreno for another 2 days where the sea lions just laze on the footpaths and bench seats. Back to fending for ourselves but [...]