Equator, Ecuador

It may be just a line around the centre of the Earth, but not in Ecuador where there is a monument and evidence of snow on the equator (so wrong). We stopped to take some photos on the road taking us from Otavalo to Quito

Otavalo, Ecuador

We stopped in the town of Ipaires, 7km away from the Ecuador border for one night and crossed the next day. It was all very easy getting out of Colombia, no queues and a quick stamp. I changed the last of my pesos on the border which I wouldn't usually have done but it was a good rate. The guy nearly did me out of $10 by using a fixed calculator though. I'd done my research and had a list of how many dollars I should get at different rates so I quickly showed him what I should have been getting on a mobile phone so all was sorted. Ecuador was also a quick stamp and even the truck got through in record time. Sadly Keith and Karen were on the Ecuador system of being an overstay as they hadn't been entered into the computer when they had left Ecuador after a previous visit. Keith was cleared after 2 hours but Karen wasn't. We headed on to Otavalo but Karen, husband Steve and Kirsten had to go back to Colombia and go to the Ecuador embassy who couldn't do anything about it. After phone calls to the British consulate in Quito the Ecuador immigration people wouldn't budge resulting in Karen's old passport with the departure stamp having to be found at home and scanned to prove that she did leave the country 8 years ago!! I think we were all amazed to see them when they turned up that evening, only a couple of hours after us and has left everyone wondering where their old passports are!

We had a lovely walk around Otavalo today. Its central square is filled with tourist based craft market and the town was a great place to people watch. The older men and women walk around in traditional dress of long heavy skirts, ponchos, blankets/capes, lots of different hats, embroidered shirts and as a general rule they are the shortest people I have ever seen. Some of them couldn't have been taller than 4 foot 5!! Vanessa felt tall and Geoff felt like Gulliver! It was nice to have mooch around the stalls and I ended up buying a lovely winter coat from one of the shops. I think it's safe to say that we were spoilt for choice and that many souvenirs have been bought. I think the thing that's shocked people the most about Ecuador so far though is the fact that it's so cold. The warm weather gear is back out and it feels very wrong wearing it when we are practically on the equator! Next stop Quito and the Galapogos islands.

Popayan, Colombia

Popayan was a short trip from Salento and is a small whitewashed city. It was nice to have a wander around the day we got there but with a whole other day I needed something to do. 6 of us booked on a downhill mountain bike trip that would see us getting a lift up to some thermal springs and then biking back down 29km to the town. After seeing that the trip actually had a 3km uphill section, 3 bailed to do just the last 10km which was definitely downhill and myself, Anthony and Tony enjoyed a quick but sulphur smelling dip in the springs and then hopped on the bikes for the journey home. I had a great time as we had all road surfaces and weather and we also stopped for strawberries and cream and deep fried goodness on the way back.

I forgot to take photos so I'll have to wait till Tony's sent me some!

Salento, Colombia

Leaving busy Medellin behind we headed further south to a coffee plantation near Menizales. Some people went on a coffee tour and did a tasting but I wasn't so interested as they didn't have the factory production bit on site. Instead I had a very relaxing day doing absolutely nothing.

We are currently in Salento a pretty small town but it's filled with some lovely food, a little shops. Last night we played Tejo which is Colombia's national sport. Basically you have an inclined soft clay board and in the centre is a metal ring with paper parcels of gunpowder placed on it. You then throw metals weights at the board and if you hit gunpowder parcels, bang!! Today some of us got jeeps out to the Valley of Cocora to do a walk. The scenery was amazing- very Jurassic Park like with 60m tall palm trees and the weather much cooler that it has been recently so all in all a very pleasant day out.

Medellin, Colombia

We are spending the Easter weekend in Medellin, a city in the Andes. When we first arrived the city was absolutely mental but today, Easter Sunday it was much calmer and we headed out with the truck and a guide for a bit of a tour.

We visited a view point over the city which has been squished between the mountains and is sprawling up the sides. We also visited a couple of squares, one of which was filled with Botero sculptures and the other designed for star gazing purposes. A pretty random element of the tour was a bare foot trail which is suppose to help you relax as you walk over different surfaces barefoot and finish off with a bit of self reflexology! The best part of the day was getting the metro cable car. This cable car allows commuters from the neighbourhoods on the side of the hills to get to the city centre. 20 years ago the neighbourhoods were very dangerous as many of Pablo Escobar's drug crew lived there. They were given the opportunity to change their way of life and get jobs in the city. Many people took the chance and the cable car was built to enable them to get to work. The journey provided us great city views and good nosey into peoples back yards.

Cartagena, Colombia

We had 2 full days to enjoy the city of Cartagena on the Caribbean coast. The city was founded in 1533 and since then has been the major port in the export of gold, silver and emeralds from Colombia back to Spain and the import of slaves from Africa. With so much money in the city it was invaded by pirates so many times that it was decided to defend Cartagena by building a couple of big forts and surrounding the city with walls. The city is a World Heritage site so it remains very pretty to walk around with the coloured buildings with balconies. Most of the buildings are actually restaurants or boutique hotels. If you poke your nose thorough the entrance to the hotels you can see how they have refurbed the inside so they are multi-stored with court yards and the outside still looks like the originally 2 story building. We had a morning tour around the city with an excellent guide who explained all the history and this gave us an afternoon to explore ourselves without getting too lost.

The following day myself, Tony, Francois, Pete and Kirsten booked a trip to dive off the Rosario islands off the Cartagena coast. The boat ride to and from the islands was great fun due to the choppy nature of the sea and the diving was fantastic. Me and Kirsten havn't dived for while so we where nervous that we would have to do a refresher course which involves all the skills but we didn't have to and we comfortably dived to have look at a ship wreck and also a huge wall of coral. The highlights where definitely the moray eel and the big lion fish.

Since Cartagena we have headed south and bush camped at the side of a road last night in a friendly families garden which was more like a rubble pit. They where very kind and let us camp for free (of course we gave them a donation) which was very welcome as we where on a mountain pass after dark and we hadn't found any other accommodation. Since the border all the locals and police have been very friendly, giving us waves and cheers as we have passed. We are currently in Medellin over the Easter weekend. It's very busy proper Colombian city so ill be back to let you know how I get on!

Beach time, Colombia

We had a very long day getting to Colombia. We spent the night in a massive Venezualan city called Maracaibo, just 100km from the border and left at the very early hour of 5.30am in order to give us plenty of crossing time in case of a lunch time closure. It was a very eventful day- many road blocks, queues, a departure tax to pay which was twice the amount we had been currently told, dodgy fixers, a $30 visa fee which didn't go anywhere (probably pocketed), a few more queues, some very angry locals, a few packet of crisps for lunch, more sitting around and then 6 hours later we were into Colombia with half an hour extra time to our day!

Our first real stop in Colombia was a beach campsite near Santa Marta. It was lovely. For 2 days we all relaxed with lots of swimming (or rather braving the huge waves), eating, reading books or in my case lots of sleeping.

Merida, Venezuela

Merida is a mountain town and is known as the adventure capital of Venezuala due to fact that you can do most adventure activities going. Due to the fact that we have had a great rate on the local currency it has made the activities about US$50 a go which is the cheapest we will find on the trip so a lot of the group have decided to do something here. Myself, Lisa, Geoff, Francois, Anthony and Duncan booked to go mountain biking which was great fun despite the fact it wasn't quite the off road experience I thought I'd booked. We got off to a very slow start, leaving 2 hours late (another case of Venezualan time and lack of organisation) but we had a good hour going downhill on a very windy tarmaced road. After lunch we headed to a different road which was a mix of tarmac, concrete, gravel with lots of potholes leading to the tiny village of San Jose which was also great fun and I've taken pride in the fact that I didn't have to push my bike up the hills. Lisa, Duncan and Francois were paragliding and we were due to drop them off and the rest of us head back to Merida. It didn't quite happen like that though and we ended up waiting for them to do the gliding and we all came back together. I don't think any of us minded as we had a great view of the sunset. All in all a great, but long and tiring day!

Today Myself, Tony, Geoff, Lisa, Francois, Vanessa, Lesley and Terry went canyoning. For those who don't know, canyoning involves getting kitted out with a wet suit, helmet and harness and making your way down a canyon. I have also wanted to give this activity a go and it was fantastic. We waded through the river, slid down small and much larger rapids, jumped off a ledge into a plunge pool with not a lot of space either side, and we also abseiled down a 6m, a 20m and a 30m waterfall. It was actually amazing and completely worth the bruises and scrapes. I hope that the funds will stretch to another go further along the route. We now have another 3 nights in Venezuela as we make our way towards Colombia for more fun and games.

Los Llanos, Venezuela

From the coast we spent a very long day travelling south to lovely lodge on a river. I haven't a clue where it was but it took up a good 12 hours to get there. We spent a night at the lodge and then we said goodbye to the truck and changed into land cruisers for the journey in to the Los Llanos region. Pete had told us that it was going to be hot, dry and packed full of wildlife. If I'm honest I was feeling that there wasn't a whole lot of point in the trip as we had also seen a heap of wildlife in Argentina and Brazil and it seemed a hell of a long way to go just to see the same birds.

It was a long way to go as well. We had a long, hot journey with 8 of us crammed in the back of the jeeps that had inward facing seats so there was no room for legs. We were 3 hours late by the time we got there and after the uncomfortable journey, crazy drivers and no food a lot of the group, me included declared that what we saw better have been worth the journey! We had an hour or so out and about looking at the birds in the pools at either side of the road. The pools are man made and were created when soil was dug out in order to build up the sides of the road. The ditches are then filled with water in the wet season and in the dry season all the wildlife surrounds it. There were lots of birds but the highlight was definitely being able to sit on the roof rack of the jeeps giving a great view.

Our full day of activites started with a great boat trip which everyone enjoyed. Everywhere you looked there were birds flying overhead or iguanas basking on the river banks. We also saw the usual capybaras and caymen but also howler monkeys and dolphins. In the afternoon I did an hour's horse riding and we all went out in the jeeps again to try and find anacondas. Anacondas are the biggest snake in the world and everyone was keen to catch a glimpse. They like water and land so our guides chose the prodding vegetation growing on the pools with a huge stick to find them. We saw 2 huge ones in a bush, apparently mating and then another one about 4m long on top of the pools. They were cool to see but to top the day off be saw a giant anteater on the way home!

Los Llanos has been great and we have seen lots, but for me the highlight was sadly the friendly puppies and ducklings roaming the farm as they were so cute. We are currently in Merida which we arrived after another 10 hours in the jeeps on a very eventfull journey (the bonnet blew up onto the windscreen whilst driving and the back door threatened to fall off). We went on a windy road passing over the Sierra Nevada at 3600m and unbelievably we have felt cold. Despite the fact that it was 18 degrees most of use had to dig out the fleeces.

Porto Colombia, Venezuela

We stopped at a little beach town with not a lot in it on the Carribean coast of Venezuela. I spent the first day lounging on the main beach and the second day we hopped on a boat over very choppy seas to a beach down the coast which was very quiet. A nice relaxing time was had by all.