Photos are now online!!

Hey all,

Not sure who is following anymore, but I thought I'd post a link to my website. I put a bunch of photos up from South America. If see anything you like, please just ask. Don't steal them :)

www.allthatispretty.ca

Have fun!

Paradise and back

I´m now in Medellin, which is at the tip of the coffee region in Colombia.

I have been to Paradise and back...seriously.

Last Thursday, we took a bus from Cartagena to Turbo and spent the night there. The town was absolutely disgusting and smelled of raw sewage (don´t worry, the story gets better), but it was necessary to stop. Early the next morning we got on a boat to a little village called Capurgana. It´s on the Caribbean coast of Colombia, is right next to another village called Sapzurro and both are only accessible by boat and lie on the boarder to Panama. Due to the lack of ease in getting there, these two towns are definitely off the ´gringo trail´which was a nice break!!!

Our boat ride was incredibly rough and bumpy, leaving our whole bodies stuck on vibrate for hours afterwards. We ended up staying in a cabin so close to the ocean that the waves hit us while we lied in our hammocks. It was unbelievable. The water was crystal clear, the beaches deserted and the sand perfect. We spent our first two nights in Capurgana. The first day I took a really nice walk along the rocky coast, and then spent the day on the beach (I was the only one on the beach)

On Saturday we went on a walk to a place called El Cielo (The Heaven). We got to see a lot of the jungle and crossed a river about 11 times. At the end there was a giant swimming hole that was so refreshing. The scenery around here is still so undisturbed and astonishingly quiet.

On Saturday we got on a boat to go to the next town (we could hike, but we are lazy) which is even more deserted than Capurgana. We stayed in hammocks there for $5 a night at a place right on the beach. It was so quiet and peaceful. We spent a lot of our time eating coconut on the beach (I learned how to open my very own!! :))

We left on Monday (for Bec, Bondy and I it was our final hurrah with beaches) which made us all sad and made our way to Medellin.

Medellin is beautiful. The hostel I´m staying at is really chilled out. Yesterday I spent the day seeing the town. I managed to fit in an art museum, the science centre and aquarium, I went walking around a couple of the different neighbourhoods and then I met up with the others for an amazing Italian dinner...so much in one day. I´m taking it easy today and then heading to Salento tomorrow.

13 days left...

With only 13 days left, it's getting sad. We have spent the last 5 days in Cartagena. The town is really pretty. It is a walled city, and there are a couple of forts around the town. Still on the Caribbean coast, the weather here is great! About 30C...so we are sweating everyday...yes feel sorry for me please!!

We spent a day walking around the old walled town, which is full of cobblestone streets and brightly painted buildings. Then we went out to a bar on top of the walls of the city. Yesterday we took a day trip to the local volcano, which is full of mud. So we went for mudbaths. As soon as you get into the mud, there are men hanging out massaging you and making sure you are relaxed. It was weird and a little bit disgusting, but also very cool. The mud is very buoyant so it is impossible to sink in it. It's pretty odd...

Then today, we went to check out one of the old forts. A bit of history is always nice. We also checked out the Modern Art Museum, which had a really cool temporary exhibit from MOMA of all sorts of sketches of famous people.

Tomorrow we are headed to the Panama coast (we hope). We are going to a halfway point to see if we can catch a bus and then another boat. Apparently from there you can walk across the border to Panama.

More soon

Beachcombing

Hello!

It´s been ages since I last posted, so here goes. I´ve been on the beach in Taganga on the Caribbean coast for the last two weeks. It´s pretty amazing.

For Christmas we went out for dinner in Santa Marta (this is where we were originally staying), but it was so long ago now that I can´t remember what we had. On Christmas Day night, we took the 5 min trip to Taganaga to go to a pool party. It didn´t end up being a pool party, but we managed to find somewhere to hang out til the sun came up.

On the 27th we decided to get closer to the beach and we moved to Taganga, which is where we have been since. New Years was a lot of fun and lasted possibly longer then it should have!

Since New Years, I´ve just been taking it easy and going to the beach. The sun is so hot here, that I can´t even manage a full day, but it does provide me extra napping time while my friends are off on their diving course.

There really isn´t much else to report. We are going to go and spend a few nights in the national park that is nearby and then I´m going to move on to see more of Columbia.

That´s all for now.