The tale of a border crossing

So I've got one country ticked off my list: Colombia is over and I'm actually very sad about it. I know I've said before that people have the wrong idea about the country but I'm determined to get the point across that it really isn't the scary place that I can guarantee you think it is.

I was, however, very worried about the border crossing between Colombia and Ecuador. Anyone you speak to has some horror story of a friend of a friend (etc) who has had some sort of trouble, whether it be the bus journey itself (general advice is never do it at night as bandits are known to board to bus and rob passengers, yes that's right I said bandits) or some issue with police on the border. In Popayan I bumped into a couple of guys that I met in Cali who were also wanting to head to Ecuador so I decided to join their plans- safety in numbers, especially when those numbers include two 30 year old men. Unfortunately for me their plans involved doing the first 8 hours in a minibus. Word to the wise: never take a minibus for longer than 2 hours. Perhaps in England where the roads aren't quite so bumpy and windy and the drivers don't have so much of a death wish, but never in South America. Much to my surprise, however, we got to the border exactly when we expected to (incredible seeing as Colombian time is a completely different concept to real time) and my bag hadn't been stolen from the back of the bus on one of the many stops we made in random towns in the mountains. After getting a collectivo (another minibus intended for about 10 people but actually transporting double that) to the border, a quick ten minutes of being stamped out of Colombia, walking across the bridge to Ecuador and gaining another stamp and we were done! No drama, no bandits, ni problema. 

We were feeling pretty good about heading straight to Quito so after getting yet another collectivo to the nearest town and wolfing down some fried chicken (all I'd eaten the rest of the day was a big bag of 'mega queso' Doritos) we jumped on another bus, ready for 6 more hours of travel. One viewing of Sleepless in Seattle (ultimate guilty pleasure film) and a few snoozes later we finally arrived in Quito, and luckily the hostel that I'd booked for the next night had 3 spare beds! At about half 2 I fell into what is definitely the comfiest hostel bed I've ever slept in, exhausted after 18 hours of buses. 

And that concludes my very uneventful tale of the border crossing- not the most interesting post but just to counteract the countless other stories on the internet which will scare you senseless. Now I'm chilling in Quito for the week before I head off to the sister hostel next to Cotopaxi volcano to spend my birthday hopefully not being swallowed by lava!

Salsa and wellies

Apologies to anyone who may be concerned about my whereabouts; it's been close to two weeks since I last updated this blog and I've been to three more cities in the meantime. My parents tell me my fans (seriously they tell anyone who will listen about where I am) are missing me so here goes. In all honesty I'm having a bit of a crappy day today. I'm sleepy from a few too many nights in salsa clubs, my bus today was the worst I've experienced so far and I'm feeling a bit lonely. Every time I get to a new city I feel a bit overwhelmed at first, which I know is only natural but it's hitting me a bit harder today for some reason. There's only been a couple of times that I wish the whole world lived in the same time zone so I could speak to people from home- but let's face it, a bad travel day is always preferable to a bad work day. 

Anyway, back to my travels. After Cartagena I headed south to Medellin, which came with a much more pleasant temperature which made me feel like it was actually worth showering again. Medellin was another cool city- not as obviously pretty as Cartagena but lovely nonetheless. Just 15 years ago the city was the murder capital of Colombia, but since the downfall of Pablo Escobar it has become much safer. I went on a walking tour in downtown which was really interesting; the people of Medellin have had a very difficult past and it's crazy to think how recently it all happened. The tour guide told us about how when she was a teenager it was normal for bombs to go off and shootings to occur regularly. I think it's a testament to the Colombian people that in spite of their troubled history they're so keen to change what people think of their country; they're incredibly proud people. 

I also went on a day trip out to Guatape, a colourful little town a couple of hours out of Medellin, to visit one of Pablo Escobar's destroyed houses and to climb up Piedra el Peñol- basically a big rock with 740 steps up to an amazing view. Of course I completely underestimated how far 740 steps is and nearly died on the way up but I'll admit the view was worth it. 

I thought I'd mention my hostel in Medellin too. After hearing recommendations from basically everyone I've met here I decided to stay in the Happy Buddha hostel and I'd highly recommend it to anyone for one of the best showers and best atmospheres I've experienced so far. Just one thing- if you end up staying in room 111 be prepared to never be able to open the door yourself. Seriously the guy behind reception started joking that I needed to marry him because of how many times I had to ask him to help me open the door. Of course every time he did it the door would open on the first try. Sod's law. 

After Medellin I headed further south to a small town in the coffee region called Salento. The bus there was my first relatively long one (6 and a half hours) and it was actually surprisingly good. Unfortunately the guy next to me took his shoes off immediately and proceeded to make it his mission to rub his feet on everything in sight. We were heading to the same place but sadly he did too much damage to our potential relationship that I decided we just couldn't be friends. Salento was really lovely, a welcome change from the big cities I've been spending most of my time in so far. I went on a day trek to Valle de Cocora which is full of wax palm trees- I had to rent wellies from my hostel which is one thing I didn't think I'd be able to say I did in Colombia. The view was really beautiful and despite wanting to give up halfway up the mountain, I'm really glad I did it. 

I also went on a walk out to a local coffee farm with a guy from my hostel and had a tour of the grounds and the process of making coffee. I'll admit at home I tend to put a couple of sugars in my instant coffee but after trying the real fresh stuff I don't think I can go back to my old habits. My last recommendation for Salento is a restaurant called Brunch, where I ate possibly the biggest burger of my life and some pretty good pancakes too- if you happen to be in the area you have to go. 

Finally, after Salento I went to Cali A.K.A the salsa capital of Colombia. I wish I could say that the four days I spent there have turned me into a professional; alas salsa and I are not good friends. There's a little side step move which in theory should be really easy but my feet just can't cope with it. I will say though that it's much harder for men- as long as you're dancing with a guy who knows what he's doing, you can sort of go along with it and be half-convinced that you know what on earth your feet are doing. Cali doesn't really have much more to it than salsa, though I'll admit we were all so lazy there and basically only left the hostel to get food from a place up the road called Pita Majita. The rest of the time was spent drinking beer, chilling by the pool and playing card games. I promise to be more cultural tomorrow- I just got to a place called Popayan on my way down to cross the border into Ecuador. It seems nice enough and my hostel is lovely, complete with bean bag chairs and a very fat cat named Sushi, but unfortunately it seems I'm one of 4 people currently staying here. Perhaps I can use this as an excuse to catch up on Great British Bake Off...

Welcome to paradise

Travelling life has had its ups and downs in the last week- but obviously the ups totally outweigh the downs. I arrived in Cartagena a week ago and was immediately hit with 35 degree heat which for a girl with such ginger genes as myself is almost too much to handle. The city itself, however, is absolutely gorgeous. Due to its location on the Caribbean coast it has a completely different vibe to Bogota which was a welcome change.

I went on a boat ride out to a neighbouring island to visit a lovely beach called Playa Blanca. I took a trip to a mud volcano where you are smothered & massaged with mud and then you go down to a lake and the local women aggressively wash you off. I went on a boat party run by my hostel with some lovely girls I met. However I also discovered that mosquitoes love me and that I'm apparently allergic to their bites, leaving my legs looking like I had a disease and causing various people to stare at me in the street with looks of shock and horror. Needless to say by the middle of the week I was feeling a bit down- but then came my trip to Casa en El Agua A.K.A the most beautiful place I've ever been. It's essentially a house in the middle of the Caribbean Sea where most visitors, including myself, choose to sleep in hammocks overlooking the waves. You can go snorkelling or visit nearby islands but all I did was read in various swinging chairs, drink rum and every so often jump into the most turquoise sea I've ever seen. After drinking the aforementioned rum we also got the hostel owners to give us impromtu salsa lessons. Okay so the shower (i.e. throw a bucket of water over yourself) and toilets (i.e. throw a bucket of water down the toilet after to flush it) are only what you can expect from a house in the middle of the sea. In every other sense, it was probably the closest to paradise that I'll ever get! The horrifically bumpy boat ride back to the seaside town of Tolu yesterday was very appropriate in sending me crashing back to the reality of uncomfortable hostel beds and sweaty bus rides- though still I'd take that over going back to my day job anytime!

I'm now back in Cartagena for one more night before heading down the country to Medellin tomorrow where I'm hoping for just a little less relentless humidity. 

I'll leave you with this photo of my ice cream from Crepes & Waffles, a chain which makes the best caramel ice cream and only employs single mothers, so really me eating ice cream is me exercising my ethical beliefs. Or something to that effect... 

Chocolate caliente con queso, por favor

Yes you read that right- yesterday I had my first experience of hot chocolate with cheese in. It's a traditional way of having hot chocolate in Colombia and I was very interested in trying it out, but if I'm honest I was a little disappointed. I'm quite a cheese enthusiast but this cheese was very mild and rubbery so it didn't really add anything to the chocolate taste unfortunately. Still, I'm fully in support of anything that gives me an excuse to add more cheese into my diet. At the same time I tried my first tamale which is rice, chicken, vegetables and spices cooked inside a banana leaf. It's not the most visually appealing thing ever so please excuse the lack of photo, but it was really tasty. I did take a photo of the place itself just to show how small and easy to miss these lovely little places can be.

Aside from food, I've ticked quite a lot off my Bogota to-do list since I last checked in; 

- I got a bus out to a town called Zipaquira to visit an underground salt cathedral (overrated & personally wouldn't recommend it)

- On Saturday I went out to a place called Andrés Carnes de Res which is half restaurant half club and is so big it takes up two whole blocks. It was a lot of fun but made me horribly aware of just how bad English people are at dancing- it seems that everyone in Colombia can salsa like a professional. A Peruvian guy staying at my hostel tried to teach me but when he tried to get me to do a sort of shoulder shimmying move my British-ness got the better of me.

- I visited a part of town called Usaquen on Sunday to wander round a flea market. I had to get on one of the buses they call 'collectivos' where the driver goes around shouting out where he's going and you just have to get on and see where you end up. Luckily I managed to keep track of the streets and didn't end up in the middle of nowhere- I just love it when I manage to do something like that successfully. 

- Yesterday I went up Monserrate, the main mountain in Bogota. You can walk up if you have a death wish but I went with the easy option (obviously) and got the cable car up. The view was incredible as you can see for yourself: 

I've made plans for where to go next too- on Friday I'm heading up to Cartagena on the Caribbean coast then next Wednesday I'm getting a boat out to a place called Casa en el Agua to sleep in a hammock next to the sea for 3 nights. I won't torture you with photos of how amazing it looks but if you fancy being jealous of me today feel free to look it up! 

I'm going to spend the rest of the day trying to consolidate my very limited Spanish, hasta luego!

Postcards from Bogota

Hola chicos! I think it's fair to say that when I arrived in Bogota on Monday I was questioning why on earth I'd flown half way round the world alone. The city looked intimidating, I couldn't understand anything and I was exhausted from nearly 24 hours of travel- though I did watch lots of films on the plane (FYI Birdman is a very strange but interesting film, 7/10).

Fast forward nearly 72 hours and my feelings have completely changed. I've had three days of Spanish classes which has already helped me out a lot, though my inability to roll my 'r's is pretty upsetting. My hostel is lovely, I've met some really interesting people from all over the world and I've 100% been reminded why I've decided to drop everything to do this. Now, I don't think I'll be able to count Bogota as one of my favourite places in the world but it does have a certain charm about it. A few little observations:

• There are dogs wandering the streets all over the city, but so far Colombian dogs (los perros) seem very friendly.
• The pavements are really high off the road- those with little legs would struggle.
• There are little stalls selling fresh juice and food everywhere- in the break at my Spanish school everyone heads over the road to buy 'arepas con queso' which is basically a flat hot bread sort of thing filled with cheese. This, combined with how cheap food is (e.g. on Tuesday I got a fresh juice, bowl of soup and beef with rice and veg all for 8000 pesos, which is £1.79), may be problematic for my waist line.

Yesterday I went on a walking tour of all the street art in La Candelaria district which was so interesting and gave a real insight to political and social issues that Colombians are currently facing. For example, despite Bogota hardly being a hot holiday destination, Colombia is actually in a drought at the moment which has left hundreds of indigenous tribes suffering. To add to the problem, Colombia has lots of raw materials which big American companies are after, for example petroleum. In order for them to tap into these resources, the companies redirect rivers or create dams, leaving these tribes with even less water to survive on. The unofficial number of fatalities caused by this in 2015 alone is around 700 people. The tour guide, Jay, told us all about this and loads more and it really has given me a different appreciation for the country and its inhabitants, especially as he said how desperate Colombians are to change the typical violence and cocaine associations that many people have with the country. 

Here are just a few examples of the art we were shown:

If you ever happen to find yourself in Bogota with a couple of spare hours I highly recommend you take the graffiti tour.

Until next time, hasta luego!

One way ticket to Bogota, Colombia

So this is it; I'm about to fly 5000 miles round the world by myself. It feels like I've been counting down to this moment forever; my go-to answer for 'so what are you doing with your life?' has for a long time been the typical "I'm going travelling" response of many twenty-somethings. But now it's actually happening.

It would be a downright lie if I said I was completely calm right now. If you know me, you'll know I'm a worrier. If you don't know me and you've just stumbled across this blog let me fill you in. My name's Hannah, I'm 22 and for the last year I've been working as a waitress in a cocktail bar (I hope you've got Human League in your head now) in order to save up money for my travels. Specifically for my impending solo trip round South America, starting in Bogota. The typical reaction I've had from friends, family and even strangers about this plan has been one of shock. 'Oh my god I just read an article in the Daily Mail that says Colombia is the number one place for a solo female traveller NOT to go to!'. Ah, well if the Daily Mail says it then it must be true...

So why am I going solo? Because why not. I've wanted to travel for a long time and nobody else that I know is either available to or wants to- why should I wait around for someone else to be ready when I can go alone? Of course I'm scared. I think there'd probably be something wrong with me if I wasn't. But it's not enough to stop me. I'm not one to turn to quotes for inspiration but there's a saying that life begins at the end of your comfort zone. Let's hope that's true.

And why South America? It isn't somewhere I've always been desperate to go to but when deciding on one big area to head to, for me it seemed the most interesting and completely different to anywhere I've been before. I've done interrailing in Europe, though only a few weeks at a time. Australia, in my naive mind, seems like it would sort of be a hot version of England, and I wanted to try somewhere a bit more off the beaten traveller track. From the hundreds of other travel blogs I've been reading, South America seems like it has so much to offer and I'm so excited to be immersed in such a rich, diverse culture.

I'm hoping this blog can act as my travel diary, something for me to look back on and see all the amazing places I've visited. A few years ago I was speaking to a girl in a hostel in Italy who was travelling alone and unfortunately she'd just had pretty much everything valuable stolen, including her camera & memory card. I remember her saying the worst bit was the camera, because nobody else had been there to see everything she'd experienced. Touch wood, this will absolutely not happen to me.

I suppose I've nothing more to say right now- I've just had a bacon sandwich, even though I feel a little bit sick, but there's always something about airports and flights that makes me feel like I need to eat at every opportunity. Anyway, anyone who is reading this before 9pm GMT on the 27th July, please pray for me that my rucksack makes it to Colombia...

Time to board!