Colombia, where everyone is a millonario

I made it back to La Hesperia from Colombia with a few bug bites, but no kidnappings, muggings or trouble with drug cartels or paramilitary groups. I think the bites were worth this spot.

With my visa problems finally solved after a fifth trip to the Ecuadorian consulate, I went straight for gorgeous Tayrona National Park where lush jungle meets the Caribbean Sea.

I was fortunate to find a pack of crackers and some cans of tuna somebody had left in my locker. In the park food costs 3 to 4 times what it does pretty much anywhere else in the country because it has to all be brought in by horse along well worn (and fertilized trails).

While trekking the coastal trails that turned from jungle to beach and back again I encountered several groups of these critically endangered Cotton-top Tamarins.

You can see where the name comes from. I happened to have studied this same species at the Providence Zoo for an animal behavior class a few years ago. To see them in the wild was an awesome surprise.

From the park I went back to Santa Marta, an old charming colonial city that lives in the tourist shadow of nearby Cartagena.

This is where most of the tourists brave enough to come to Colombia spend their time and its no wonder why. The city is a working exhibit in colonial architecture and surrounded by 12 kilometers of ramparts that afford views of city, sea and sound. I spent a full day wandering the maze of narrow streets drinking cheap and ubiquitous freshly squeezed fruit juices.

I was sad to leave the coast and sadder that I missed Colombia’s coffee region, but also looking forward to getting back to La Hesperia. Also another chance to spend some time in Bogota was nothing sneeze at.

For a city that’s probably just before Baghdad on many-a-person’s list of places to visit, it really deserves a second though. Everything is cheap, public transport, though perhaps a bit too “exciting” at times for some, makes getting around a snap, and the people quite friendly for such a dense city.

I rode the Teleferico up one of the nearby mountains my last morning and discovered its just too big to take in with one photo.

One final note: the Bogota futbol team I watched play earlier is called millonarios. But 1 million Colombian pesos is only 500 US dollars, so their name would really translate into something like thousandaires.


Go to Colombia and you´ll instantly be a millionaire!

Bogota  is a bit like Quito with its old colonial-era quarter, ugly concrete barrios and a backdrop of stunning Andes peaks, but it packs more than 4 times more residents within its limits.  Riding around on the mini-buses (colectivos) is as entertaining as many a Disney World ride and costs just 65 cents.  

I visited El Museo de Oro yesterday to see what pre-Colombian trinkets were salvaged from Europe{s ransacking of the regions precious metals.  I also dropped by the gallery of Botero art (he{s the Colombian who painted the fat people see below)

They also had some work by Picasso and Dali and entrance was free.  

Last night I went out Salsa dancing and this afternoon I went to a thrilling football match in which the local Bogota team "Millionarios" won 2-1.  Colombian soccer fans lived up to expectations for craziness.  In the proper sections (which I was told specifically to avoid; muy peligrosa!) they jumped and chanted the entire match.  

Like Ecuador, essential goods and services are quite cheap by US standards.  For example, at the salsa club last night four Cerveza Costeñas,  cost just 5,000 pesos (2.50 USD).  Back home you might be able to buy a PBR out at a bar for that price if youre lucky.  

Tomorrow morning there will be a moment of truth when I find out for sure whether my visa problems are solved.  If all goes well I will celebrate by making a b-line for colonial Cartagena on the Caribbean coast and then on to beautiful Tayrona national park.  

I have now successfully met up with former Tyler Place staff in four continents.  Asia and Antarctica will be tough to pull off though if I want to complete the circuit.  

Again, no card reader, so you{ll have to use your imagination.  

Life in exile

I stayed to the bitter end of my 90-day visa in Ecuador and nearly didnt make it out in time as downpours caused landslides that closed the highway to Quito.  

I ended up booking a flight in Quito two days ago for Bogota (they seem to be quite cheap last-minute), but found out as I passed through immigration that without applying for a new visa at the Ecuadorian Embassy I would not be able to return to country until January 2011.  

So I went straight from the Bogota airport into a helter-skelter multi-bus journey through a concrete jungle of 7 million inhabitants in search of an Ecuadorian flag.  Despite knowing the cross streets and asking a dozen or so strangers I could not seem to find any Ecuadorian Embassy (it wasnt even in the phone book).  It turned out to be on the 7th floor of a random office building within a block of where I was looking.  I caused a bit of a log-jam in the foyer security checkpoint as my bags were searched (I still had all my stuff with me), with slick suits muttering "permiso" and bustling past what must have looked to them like a lost hiker.  

I stepped off the elevator and was immediately told by the guard (?) wearing an ornate uniform, epaulets and all, that I needed to visit the Ecuadorian consulate rather than the embassy.  

Half-an-hour later at another random office building I found out that the Ecuadorian consulate shuts promptly at 1 pm (it was by this point nearly 4).  

Anyway, this morning I arrived at the consulate early enough to get in and get the laundry list of required documents and forms to complete (which included fees totalling 162,000 pesos {about 90 USD} but no bribes), then run out and complete the scavenger hunt in time to return before the place closed.  

I should have my passport back with a visa in it Monday morning (keeping my fingers crossed).  My plans for Columbia have to change though; this means making some tough decisions about what to scratch from my itinerary.  I really wanted to spend some time on the Carribean coast, but also to see Medellin and a bit of the coffee-growing region.  The country is so spread out and mountainous that bis travel between ny two locations takes roughly a day.  Being in Bogota for the weekend isn{t the end of the world though.  I have four Colombian friends here, one of whom just graduated from a masters program in teaching English as a second language, so I have a party to go to tomorrow night.  

Sorry for the wall of text.  My computer is back at the reserve and there is no card reader on this computer, so pictures will have to come in the for of an addendum...perhaps tomorrow.

Elementary my dear Hoatzin

I met Pedro at the Quito airport and we took off the next day on a 9-hour trip (involving a plane, a boat, a pickup truck and another boat) to Tiputini Biodiversity Station, a remote research outpost in the heart of a huge swath of pristine old growth lowland tropical rainforest.

The lack of hunting pressure on local populations of macro-fauna makes it a phenomenal place for seeing big game such as monkeys (we saw 8 species including this Squirrel Monkey…


…And these bite-sized Pygmy Marmosets…

…), curassows (we saw seven individuals in one day) and capybara (the world’s largest rodent).

The reserve’s Laguna was also home to bird that through the shear smelliness of its innards has managed to avoid most sources of predation all-together.

This Hoatzin or ‘stinky turkey’ is the only bird in the world that has a diet consisting entirely of leaves. It is also the only bird that has a prehensile claw on the wrist joint of its wings. Depending on which taxonomist you ask it belongs in an order or at least a family of its own.

A lot of other resident birds proved to be at times difficult to see given the immense height of the canopy (some 160 feet) and the density and darkness of the undergrowth. After six days of rather intensive bird hunting Pedro and I managed to collectively see about 170 of the reserves 550 or so species. Our list included some truly fantastic birds that are impossible to see most anywhere else in the world and would impress even the most cold-hearted bird-hater; see Scarlet Macaw, Salvin’s Currasow, Paradise Tanager and Bartlett’s Tinamou (sitting on a nest). Many-banded Aracari may or may not belong on the same line with the previously mentioned birds, but I got a decent picture of one (yes, he looks much like the Pale-mandibled from last time, but they’re just so photogenic).

If you think my photos are any good, then you’re wrong. You should see the ones Pedro has bagged with his 500 mm howitzer. The image quality comes at a price of course…both in cost and in weight. While he has to worry about lugging around an apparatus roughly 20 times heavier and costlier, I’m not sure if his images are actually 20 times better. There is some subjectivity of course. We’ll get a link to some of his best shots up soon.

We got back to Quito just in time to catch Duke’s nail-biting victory over Butler that earned the school its fourth national title.

There was no time to celebrate (we were exhausted anyway) as we got up the next AM several hours before dawn to make our way to La Hesperia for a 30-hour bird-a-thon. I took Pedro all the way from the highway (1100 meters) up to the summit (2000 meters) to see the Choco-endemic and near-threatened Plate-billed Mountain-Toucan (see below) and we saw some 75 other species along the way.

It was really too bad Pedro didn’t have more time to spend down here since he has 1400 or so more birds to see. But he did manage to help me find a couple of new species for the La Hesperia list and adding to those a handful of others found over the weekend while camping at the summit, the official total is now well above 300.

Well I’m sure that’s about as much birds as anyone can handle for one post (it’s Pedro’s fault). Next time around things will be different. I’m leaving this week on trip, destination unknown to renew my visa. I’m thinking Columbia, but possibly Peru. Any suggestions are welcome.

In the meantime I’ve got to decide on what I’ll be doing for the next 1 to 5 years of my life. Please, no suggestions.