Travel Archives - Page 33 of 42

Colombia South America

Arrival in Cartagena

Greetings from Cartagena. I arrived at about 11am on a flight from Bogota (1.5 hours). I took a short taxi ride into the old city and checked in to my hostel: La Casa de Chicheria.

The part of Cartagena i am staying in is the old city, which is the historic part, which is separated from the sea and the new city by thick, stone walls. The old city, is stunning. Colorful two-story buildings with balconies spilling forth flowering vines and plants. The city is dotted with lovely squares with large, stone churches and palm trees. Everywhere are fruit vendors and sellers of jewelry and souvenirs. On the squares are restaurants with tables perfect for people watching and enjoying a coffee and cigar. It is quite stunning.

Cartagena is very different from Bogota. First of all, it is tropical. It has been raining today, but the air is warm and thick with humidity and parrots call out from the trees. Cartagena is also much more touristy than Bogota. There are souvenir shops and hawkers of every variety and tour guides trying to convince you to take their tours. People here speak English, not most people, but certainly those who are trying to sell things. As a result of the touristiness, it is also very clean and beautiful relative to Bogota. It is also more expensive – still affordable, but there are not a lot of $2 meals in the old city. There is another part of the old city, called Gethsameni, which has all of the beauty of the more touristy part, but is a bit less touristy, and the buildings and streets a bit more crumbly. This area has most of the hostels and cheaper bars and restaurants.

I discovered all of this on my preliminary walk around the city to get my bearings. Unfortunately this was in the rain, but it was warm, so i did not mind.

Happily, i stumbled across a cigar store and went inside. I bought a small cigar and sat with the proprietor who poured me a rum. We chatted about cigars for a while. It was very pleasant.

I can tell already that one could easily explore the whole old city in a day, so i shall pace myself. There are a few places just outside the city to see, but i shall wait for the sun to come out before i venture to one of the many beachy islands.

Right now i am hanging out at the hostel for a bit before hunger drives me outdoors. I’ll surely write again later, as there is more to say. Later.
d

Colombia South America

Smoking Cigars in Bogota

The smoking situation in Bogota is the only this that has been disappointing. It seems that it is illegal to smoke indoors and the law is followed. Despite the lovely courtyards at my hostel which are technically outdoors, they are also smoke free. There are also virtually so outdoor eateries, cafes or patios here – probably due to the rainy and generally cold climate. This means that my cigar smoking has been done walking, sitting on steps of churches, or convincing a cafe or bar owner to bring a chair outside. It is not the end of the world, but i would have liked more options. I look forward to seeing what the situation is in Cartagena.

Also, i am very glad i brought lots of my own cigars, as i have seen no where selling them and no one smoking them.

Still, it is easier to smoke in public here than in Vancouver, so i am not complaining.

Colombia South America

Rainy Afternoon in Bogota

This afternoon, after my trip to El Mercado del Paloquemao i set out from the hostel and walked up to the Museum of Modern Art. On my way i stopped for lunch at cute and charming little restaurant filled with plants and bric-a-brac.

I managed to explain the vegetarian situation and received bean & barley soup, rice, beans, plantains, salad, potatoes, and lemonade for $3. The Modern Art Museum was small and the art was mostly only ok, but there were a few good photographs and paintings. It wouldn’t call it a ‘must see’ but it was decent and admission was only $1. (Generally, of all of the churches and museums i have visited, all of the churches were free and this was the only museum that charged.) I then walked farther north to the Museo Nationales, which had a good selection of Colombian prehistoric artifacts right up to 20thC paintings. None of the descriptions were in English, so it made for a quick walk through, but it was a good museum.

When i left it had started to rain and i was about 30 blocks from the hostel so i sat at the only cafe with outdoor seating that i found and sat under an umbrella and smoked a cigar until the rain stopped. Of course once i left it started to pour and i got soaked and have been cold and wet ever since. The first two days here were very warm and sunny but the second two days have had intermittent showers and rain.

On the way back to the hostel i was passed by a group of about three dozen soldiers in full combat camouflage, helmets and boots, and carrying machine guns. I don’t know what it was all about but the people on the street did not pay any attention, so i guess it is a usual occurrence.

After resting back at the hotel with yet another cup of hot coca tea in the kitchen by the wood burning stove, i went out for dinner. I think I’ll stay in for the rest of the evening, as it is warm here and i have an earlyish flight to Cartagena.

Bogota has been great. Four days was perfect. If i had any more time i would have done more day trips out of the city but i feel quite satisfied.
Buenos Noches.

Colombia South America

Mercado de Paloquemao

This morning i set out immediately after breakfast to the Mercado de Palequemao, a giant market selling fruits, vegetables, meats, fish, flowers, and other random food items. I walked from my hotel which was a fairly long walk. I stuck to the main streets so i would not get lost, which meant that the streets i walked down were busy, loud, crowded, and not particularly attractive. That being said, i really enjoyed the walk as it provided a good view of non-touristy Bogota.

Finally reaching the market i was overwhelmed by the selection of produce.

This might be the best market ever in that regard. They had everything i could imagine and things i could not have dreamed of. It was so colorful and loud and everything looked so delicious. As i had already eaten about 6 different fruits for breakfast, i ate only one thing: mangosteens. I have been wanting to try them for a wile and bought one. It is, and i am not exaggerating, the best fruit i have ever tasted. It defies description, but it is a hard purple shell with sweet white cloves of heaven inside. I went back and bought a bag and sat on the curb with some vendors and ate my through half the bag. Whatever you are doing right now, stop, find a mangosteen and eat it. You can thank me later.

I then walked through the flower stalls and the butcher area where whole cows and emormous pigs were being freshly carved up for sale. After wandering aimlessly in delight (attracting quite a bit of attention), i sat at one of the curb side cafes on a plastic chair on the sidewalk and drank some great coffee and smoked some cigarillos with the butchers who were on their breaks, eating and drinking in their bloody smocks. It was great.

I then walked back to the hotel with my remaining mangosteen and one other unidentifiable monstrous, green fruit that i will try tomorrow. (Once i figure out what all these exotic, tropical fruits are – and have the ability to upload photos – i will probably devote a post just to them.)

I would definitely recommend a visit to this market. It looks like it is in a sketchy area of town, but it seemed safe and offered a great look at daily life in Bogota.

Colombia South America

To the Salt Mines

Yesterday was a full day. After another modest breakfast (seriously, i love this hostel, but the breakfasts are monastic in their simplicity), i walked to the closest Transmilenio line.

TheTransmilenio is Bogota’s answer to the subway. Apparently after about 20 years of doing plans and studies on constructing a subway to link the various barrios of the sprawling city, they decided to scarp that idea and instead built the Transmilenio: a network of busses that run on dedicated lanes as set times and stop at dedicated stops. Like a subway, you buy a ticket and enter through a turnstyle to enter the platforms. Like a subway, there are maps with routes listed. It is a really good system and is cheap (about 90c), but the difficult part is i found the routes on the maps very difficult to decipher. It must have taken me 20 minutes just to figure out which one to take. Anyway, they operate on the every man for himself philosophy, which i like; at the stops people push on and off with self-interested force. I much prefer this system to the preposterous, Canadian, queues of people saying, After you. No, after you every time they board a bus.

I road the bus to the Poral del Norte station and then hopped on the firt minibus with a sign that read ZIPA on it, as i was headed to Zipaquira – a town about an hour and a half away where underground in a salt mine is carved the world’s largest cathedral. That is something i had to see.

I was the last person on the bus when the driver pulled over next to a a bung of guys burning garbage next to an old shack with two horses and carts standing watch and told me to get off. I was not convinced that this was the quaint Zipaquira i had read about. There is something exhilarating about finding oneself somewhere, not knowing quite where or where to go, and not having a map or being able to speak the language. So i started walking. Slowly the streets improved and i eventually found myself at a large square presided over by a lovely, and quite old looking church. I saw a sign: Zipaquira. I was in the right place. I walked around there for a bit and had a cigar before setting off again to find the salt mine. It is a small town and this is its biggest attraction so it did not take long.

The salt mine was a working salt mine and in the 1930s the miners carves a small church at the bottom, but it became unsafe. In the 1990s, they decided to build a larger, newer cathedral underground, and it is enormous. There is a walkway with carvings along the way to marks Jesus’s walk with the cross, then there are various small chapels, and finally a huge cathedral with grand, high ceilings and an enormous cross. And it is all carved from salt. It is true. I licked the wall to check. Amazing. I took a tour in Spanish, but i met some nice Colombians from Florida so they translated the important bits.

After the cathedral tour i took the mining tour, which was pretty great and terrifying. We were outfitted with hard hats with lights and led into one of the many tunnels. The tour guide gave a bunch of instructions in Spanish (i had lost my Floridian friends, so i do not know what he said) and then he asked my name. I, being a fast walker, was at the front of the group. We were told to turn off our head lamps, put our hands on the shoulder of the person in front of us and i was to keep my left hand along the wall, as i was the leader and we walked into the pitch black darkness along rocky floors. Those who know me know i am afraid of the dark, so leading a group of people into a black mine was not easy – especially as the path twisted and the ceilings grew lower. I did not think i could do it at one point, but i did. For another part of thr journey, i was replaced as leader by a German guy and i was behind him. Again we were in the darkness, but this time as we walked, the ceiling grew lower and lower until we were crawling. It was fairly terrifying. I’ve seen enough mine-based horror films to know what happens underground (I’m looking at you My Bloody Valentine and The Descent). We also got to take pick axes and chip off large chunks of salt from the walls.

It was all very interesting and frightening.

After that i had a bite to eat with the German guy and we caught a bus back to Bogota (this is easy to do as they have signs and you can just flag them down anywhere).

I returned to the hostel after 5:00, had a rest in the hammock and then went for a cigar and a stroll in the rain. During this walk i was asked to go party with a couple groups of very young guys who only seemed to know the English words for party and beautiful. I politely declined their offers. I ended up at a super charming restaurant, sitting by a roaring fire, drinking vino calliente and eating a vegetarian crepe while listening to live music. It was perfect.

On my way back to the hostel around 10pm, i was stopped by some police on motorcycles who appeared to be concerned that i was out alone. At that point i was one block from the hostel though and i assured them I would be alright.

That was a long post. If you are still reading, thank you.
Today, i am off to market.
later.
d

Colombia South America

Hungry Vegetarian seeks Sustenance on Mountaintop

My first full day in Bogota started by a walk up Calle 7 to a Sunday flea market that i had read about. The walk was great, as the sun was shining, i had a cup of fresh mango and papaya slices and everyone was out on their bikes. On every Sunday, the main streets in Candelaria are closed to vehicular traffic and are taken over by cyclists, joggers and roller bladers. Every Sunday! (Take that, Portland.)

I stopped in to a couple of churches on the way, both of which were mid-mass. It is a bit like Portugal here in that every time i go into a cathedral there seems to be a mass underway. Seldom are they dormant.

The flea market was full of things that were not quite antiques, but junk that was fun to browse through. Lots of military accoutrements, old telephones, books, and toys. A man had a bucket of giant snails and was selling their snail slime as a skin care remedy. There i had a glass of lulo juice – lulo being a fruit native to the area. It is quite tart, but refreshing.

After the flea market i went to the Museo del Oro (free on sundays) and strolled through the impressive collection of gold artifacts and objects from Colombia history. It is a small museum, but impressive and worth a visit.

After the museum i walked for a ways up hill past vendors of grilled meats, blood sausage, corn and religious artifacts to the cable car station to go up to the top of the mountain to visit Monserrat, mountain with a white church perched atop. The church is visible from everywhere in the city and accessible by cable car, funicular, or a steep hike. The church, although very sacred is not that special, and quite plain. What was great was the view of the city and mountains and the stroll through the market, which was selling various crafts and souvenirs. (Nothing that i wanted to buy, mind you.) At that point it started to rain, so i ducked into a hall of food sellers, all cooking up the same dishes, rice and potatos or soup with chicken, blood sausage, pig intestines, and other identifiable meat bits. I was looking to see if there was anything vegetarian i could have when i was approached by the waitress who said something incomprehensible to me in Spanish. I do not know what she said but i blurted out two phrases i know, liked together: I am a vegetarian and i am hungry. She understood and made me a plate of rice, fired plantains, avocado slices, potatoes, beans, and hot peppers. It was huge and delicious and about $3.

After descending from Monserrat i continued to wander, through squares, and down a street of vendors aggressively selling (almost exclusively) pinata fillings, past particularly run down streets where the amount of garbage, dog feces and dilapidated buildings increased, to an area called the Macarena. It is a quasi-bohemian, trendy neighborhood, about 25 blocks or so north, with lots of international eateries and pubs. More upscale by far than Candalaria. I had a cigar on a patio and then hailed a taxi to take me another 50 or so blocks north to the area called Zona Rosa.

Zona Rosa is a fancy neighborhood. The streets are lined with large trees, it is clean and the sidewalks are not filled with dangerous holes. Here i found stores like Zara, Ferrigamo, and Hugo Boss, a movie theatre, a mall, a Hard Rock Cafe, and many fancy looking restaurants, bars and hotels. It feels a hundred years away from Caldelaria. It was pleasant to stroll around and has a couple of streets (Zona T) that are pedestrian and only lined with eateries. It was a little upsacle for my liking, but i sat down on the patio of a middle eastern restaurant and smoked a hookah and had hummus and Turkish coffee until it got too cold to sit outside at which point i hailed a taxi and went back to my hostel, where the kitchen was filled with guests cooking dinner. I was fairly tired after all my walking, so after a good lie down in the hammock i went to bed.

And let me take this opportunity too dispel another stupid warning i received from people and books before coming here. I was told to only take taxis after dark (which i have established as nonsense, as walking is fine), AND i was told never to hail them on the street but only to call for them. This posed a problem as i do not have a phone. But as it turns out everyone hails taxis on the street. They are yellow and licensed and use meters and have GPS and are quite safe. So there, fear mongerers!

Ok, i am off for another day of exploring. Thanks for checking on me.
d

Colombia South America

Candelaria by Night

Last night after my post, i met a couple of guys here at the hostel and went our for dinner. We walked several blocks through streets that were fairly quiet and then stumbled into areas that were filled with people – young people and families and children seemingly out on their own. It hardly seemed dangerous. I’m sure that at a certain point the crowds thin out and perhaps it then gets sketchy, but Calandaria after dark is not the threatening enclave that i had been warned about. Plus, there are police and private security guards on most corners, wearing uniforms and carrying machine guns, so it doesn’t feel unsafe. And it was so beautiful out; cool and breezy and quite pleasant.

I slept well in my bed. It is quite chilly at night, but i was cozy. It does feel a bit like camping as one must go outside and through the courtyard to reach the toilets and showers, but when the courtyards are so lovely, it seems ok.

I awoke this morning to a pounding headache – most likely a result of the altitude, but it is only temporary. Anyway, i had just had the rather modest breakfast provided at the hostel and i will be soon off exploring.

So far so good. I am exceedingly happy.
d

Colombia South America

Bogota – first impressions

I have arrived! I landed in Bogota this afternoon and made my way into the city by taxi. I am staying at the Anandamayi Hostel which is ridiculously beautiful. It is an old colonial house surrounding three courtyards filled with hammocks, little ponds, flowering trees, and hummingbird likd creatures. My room is whitewashed with rustic wood beams. There are shared bathrooms and a rustic kitchen for guests to cook and take breakfast. It appears to be run by young women who are very helpful but do not speak English. This is all very charming and i can’t wait to end the day in a hammock looking at the stars.

After settling in i went for a wander through the Caldalaria district (where my hostel is), which is the historic part of town.

I walked through the Bolivar plaza, which is surrounded by stately government buildings and filled with buskers, protesters, fruit sellers, and llamas. Llamas everywhere! They are probably just brough in for tourists to take photos of, but still: llamas! Not surprisingly i walked all afternoon through the streets of this neighborhood. The streets are rough, shabby, dirty and filled with dangerous holes, but they are also lined with beautifully colored colonial-style buildings with balconies and flowers; many of these buildings housing tiny cafes and bodegas. There are vendors everywhere selling candy, cigarettes, fruit, corn, and fresh juice. I have seen numerous groups of buskers playing what i can old call Colombian style salsa. It is terrific. One of the groups attracted a group of old men in suits who were salsa dancing solo for almost an hour for a crowd of onlookers. It was very entertaining.

I tried a few Colombian treats today. I went to a famous cafe called La Puerta Falsa and had Chocolate Completo, which is dark hot chocolate served with bread and butter and white cheese. You tear off pieces of the cheese and put it in the hot chocolate until it gets all melty and then you eat it with a spoon and dunk in the bread and butter. Marvelous. I can’t believe i have never had this before. I also tried some new fruit. No idea what it was but it was hard and fibrous and orange and served with honey. I didn’t care for it. For dinner i bought an arepa con queso from a street vendor cooking them over coals and had a chicha, which is a type of corn based beer. I don’t like beer, but this is quite different and i thought i should try it. It doesn´t taste anything like beer, but more like a thick fermented bready grog. It wasn´t bad, but i don´t think i would have it again. I smoked a lovely partagas torpedo on a street called the Funnel, which is a narrow, colorful street, filled with bars and cafes and young kids drinking beer and smoking in the street.

The city has so much amazing graffiti. Certainly some of it is just sloppy but much of it is amazing and ranges from whimsical to political. On the note of art, i visited the Botero museum today, which features, Botero’s bright, obese figures but also a good collection of art by Picasso, Ernst, etc. It was small but very impressive.

So far i have not encountered anyone who speaks ensligh, including the women who run the hostel, so i am relying on my rudimentary spanish, complemented by lots of smiling and nodding.

Ok, that is sort of a jumbled introduction, but i have only been here a half a day and am suffering from a combination of mild jet lag and mild altitude sickness, which has manifested itself in a headache. I think i might go out and see if the area is a dangerous as everyone suggested.

I will write again tomorrow. Sorry for the typos. i am not proof reading and it is a weird keyboard.
That is all for now.
Adios.
d

Europe Italy

Arreverderci

Last night in Venice was delightful. I went out for a night time walk by myself, down the quiet streets and past the nearly silent canals before settling in a reasonably calm piazza for a glass of wine and a cigar. It was wonderfully warm and dark and peaceful – such a contrast to the day, which was marvelous, but loud and hot and colorful. I took great delight in the fact that i had mastered my way around our area of Venice. Able to make my way from point a to b without a map made me feel like a genius.

This morning, after a coffee and croissant we took a boat back to the train station and took the train back to Rome (it was a fancy high-speed train and got us to our destination in about 4 hours). We are now staying in the Piazza Farnese at the Casa D Santa Brigida convent, which is indeed a proper convent filled with a gaggle of nuns, but they also offer some simple rooms for rent. It isn’t cheap, but it is a great location and it is cool to be in a convent. This afternoon we poked ourheads in the chapel during one of their many masses or prayers (or whatever they call them). There is a beautiful rooftop garden from which we have lovely views into the piazza where we can see people sipping wine and espresso, children playing ball, and dogs sniffing about.

Tonight really is the final night, so there will be dinner and a wine or negroni and probably one final celebratory cigar before heading back to Canada tomorrow.

Europe Italy

Venice

Venice. We arrived yesterday morning on the train from Bologna (about a 1.5 hour journey). The first glimpse from the train station was amazing and it has continued to be so. It has water for streets! I know, everyone knows that, but to actually see it is amazing. There are the gondolas, of course, shuttling tourists lazily up and down the waterways, but more amazing are the other boats: the water taxis, individual motor boat, boat delivering office supplies, produce, hauling away recycling, etc. It is quite remarkable how the whole city operates on the water.

Water aside, there are streets. There are however no cars or motorcycles and very few bicycles, just pedestrians making their way down the streets, both normal sized, and those barely big enough to pass single file, between buildings and over foot bridges, past the glittering canals. It is phenomenal. Walking through the city is like walking through a beautiful maze. Walking down each street one is not sure whether it will end in a brick wall, courtyard, body of water, or connect to another street or piazza. It is possible to use maps, but it much more fun to just follow one’s whims.

We took a vaporetto (a type of transit boat) from the train station to our hotel, which is charming, with a front door on the street and a back door that opens right up onto the canal. Our tiny room is on the third floor and looks down onto the canal.

We walked yesterday around the San Marco district, down to the Piazza San Marco, where we stood in the magnificent square and took in the sites, including a hitchcockian mass of pigeons circling overhead, and visited the stunning basilica.

We then walked to the Rialto Bridge and aimlessly through the streets and squares. The evening was beautiful. Quiteish (compared to the day) and the streets were dark and decidedly less crowded. I enjoyed a cigar by the canal and watched the boats.

Today we walked back to the Rialto Bridge and through the market where they were selling produce and an array of seafood. After that we walked up through the Santa Croce and Cannaregio areas, and through the Jewish district before catching a vaporetto to the island of Burano.

We picked Burano because it was supposed to be a colorful, quaint fishing island and it did not disappoint. The streets on the tiny island were lined with small houses, each painted in a vivid color, different from and in contrast to the houses on either side of it. I don’t think there was a single brown, beige, or grey anywhere. It was all bright chartreuses, fushias, yellows, blues… running through it were canals and along side were cute little shops and eateries. Betty-Lou was in heaven. We ate a delicious lunch after our walk and then caught a boat back to the mainland.