From Quito to Bogota

Quito to Bogota

Quito (1) was quite a boring town so, i left Quito only after three days to see the beautiful cemetery in Tulcan (2). On the other side of the border is Ipiales where you can visit a church in a beautiful setting (3). After Pasto (4), and Popayan (5) which is again a old spanish colonial town, I went to see mysterious stones in green rolling landscape around San Augustin (6). Green rolling landscape but also a desert, a sort of negative oasis was in Villa Vieja (back in the tropics again, 7), before I went to Bogota (8) to hostal Platypus where i stayed two weeks, not doing more than drinking, sleeping and talking. Only a daytrip from Bogota is the incredible salt cathedral in Zipaquira (9).

Moving from one capital to the other there are big differences in between them. Quito (Ecuador) is expensive and boring, Bogota (Colombia) less expensive and many great places to go out. I stayed in a nice, clean and almost empty hostel in Quito. In Bogota the hostal is packed with backpackers, less clean, but very cosy, and as a result i spent almost two weeks in this place, not doing much more than drinking, sleeping, talking, going to the pub, eating unhealthy food (hamburgers, falafels, pizza's) and hardly being cultural at all.

In Quito it is difficult to do cultural things. In the old town the churches, musea, plazas and other things didn't look very appealing, and the new town was looking too American for me with all the Fast food chains and the big shopping malls.


Quito at night

Off course i’m a little bit spoiled by my travels, and i really start to feel that my head is overfilled with expericiences, - f.i. old spanish colonial towns with its churches, plazas and museas- , so it might not be fair to judge Quito in this way (It is certainly situated in a nice valley surrounded by beautiful green mountains, but alas IT IS NOT LA PAZ!),

Actually I'm happy to be out of Ecuador. I didn't like the country. Allthough the Galapagos were great, the rest of the country didn't thrill me much. The landscape was not new anymore (except for the north), and always less spectacular than Peru and Bolivia, the weather was not too well, so Vulcano Street was not an option to do. Until now it is the most expensive country and i simply didn't like most of the people. Not very friendly, unhelpful in shops (and often showing contempt), and probable one of the only positive things in Quito were the Thai and Indian restaurant there. You can wonder why this country is so different, is it me who has changed, am i just tired of travelling or has the american dollar changed the peoples mentality?


Quito, view from the roof of the hostal

Certain is that ecuador surprised me because it seemed less poor than the rest of south america, f.i many people drove in brand new (and expensive) cars, and in the country side many (new built) houses had bright colours, in stead of the ruines people lived in in Peru and Bolivia. But still Ecuador I don’t have to go back to this country (well okee for the galapagos i will gladly make an exception).

In Bogata i meet a lot of travellers and for the first time since long I enjoy the company of backpackers again. It is also a long time that i meet so many, because in the period from Quito to Bogota i hardly saw tourists at all.

For instance i met Pattrick, an american living in upstate New York, who travels 5 months a year, and who in summer makes waterfalls in the gardens of rich people. I saw pictures of his work and i only can say that i envie his beautiful and artistic work. Furthermore I met Ryan, a canadian from Vancouver who’s sexual adventure with a colombian girl was followed by a live studio audience. It almost was a conspiracy from the whole hostel to get him into the (right) bed! Apart from that Ryan was original and funny and his intonation of POR QUE became widely used in the hostal. Christophe was the second nice Belgian guy i met during my travels, we had many many beers, funny and dirty conversations, and we saw many different pub and dancing places. I certainly will have to mention Corinna and Karin, two sweet Swiss Girls, who were very warmhearted (Karin even got me on the dance floor again in what looked like a clumsy and silly attempt to do style dancing, OOOOOOW), Alex, the German guy from near Stuttgart (what do i have with Stuttgart, i met so many Germans from this part of the country) with whom i played many chess games (yes Verhofstad groep!, i still will beat your ass, next year!!), Stewart from Brisbane Australia, Tom, Chris and Don from America, Carlijn from Holland (nee erik niet die van jou!), Wilhelm from Germany, Gina from Colombia, Jason and Harriet from England, and many many more. What many people had in common was the love for travelling, the wish to escape the western mentality, and the search for more spirituality. The last thing they certainly found, because every night (better said early in the morning) the tables were filled with empty bottles and full ash trays. Needless to say that i never joined these barbarian bacchanals!!


Hostal Platypus Bogota

Oh buy the way I forgett the hostel owner of Platypus in La Candelaria, Herman. I never met someone who was so good in creating a wonderful; atmosphere in a hostel. As a result most people feel at home in the very beginning of their stay, and they always stay much longer than planned. And there is a whole other bunch of people with many different nationalities with whom i drank too many beers. So put Platypus on your list, it is a wonderful place.


Beautiful houses in La Candelaria

BUT WAS THERE NOTHING TO DO IN BOGOTA, except for wine, beer, booze, drinks, bars, rum, disco’s, salsa bars, pubs, restaurants………………..???

Well actually no, but ok I visited the Museo de Oro. According to my guidebook this is one of the best museums in South America, but they also said that of the Nariz del Diablo in Ecuador. A stupid boring tourist train ride. I was imagining tons of gold (the guidebook mentions 35000 gold objects in the collection), halls filled with impressive masks, jewellery, art, sophisticated craftsmanship, I would feel like ali baba when he discovered the secret cave etc… I entered the museum and then………………..

After 10 minutes I stood outside. I might have missed something but besides the La balsa de la ofrenda there was no object that could thrill me. Okee that was the gold museum.


La Balsa de la Ofrenda

Fortunately they have one beautiful museum in Bogata, and that museum shows work of Botero, and many others, and is part of the Casa de la Moneda. Botero’s work is very humoristic and he not only paints, but he also makes sculptures. I spent two days in this museum with excellent collections of Columbian artists and Botero’s private collection. In the casa the Moneda there is an excellent exhibition on the history of money making in Columbia. The museum is in a beautiful building, and it was great to walk around. Until now this is the best art museum I have seen in South America.


Botero's work

Botero 2 Adam and Eve

For the rest I wandered around in Bogata, no more churches, plazas, climbing Cerro’s to have a view on the city or sightseeing. I really am tired of travelling and every effort you make to do more of the same is punished by a feeling of tiredness, boredom, and resistance. They only thing to prevent these feelings is to search for really new things, or things you haven’t done before. So together with Ryan I went to a soccer match. Having been in South America without seeing one, that is impossible.

Before entering the stadium we were body searched three times, and the last time we even had to take off our shoes. I pity the guy that inspected my shoes, those awful smelly socks I had been wearing for three weeks. I’m glad that he allowed those socks in the stadium, they were a mighty weapon that could have tear gassed the whole side where I was standing!

I went to Santa Fé – Pereira, and was surprised to see that the stadium was only half filled, although it was an important cup game. A Bogata team in a city of 8 million people, that is not able to fill a stadium of 45000 seats, that’s strange. The crowd that was there were not less enthusiastic. They cheered the whole game, singing songs and making noise the full 90 minutes, and even the soccer was quite acceptable. By the way Santa Fé (from Bogota) won 2-1.


Bogota Plaza Mayor


Zipaquira

While being in Bogata I went together with Pattrick, Christophe and Stewart to the Salt Cathedral in Zipaquira. According to my guide this cathedral is one of the true wonders of Colombia, but after my previous experience I already was convinced it would be another footprint trick to fuck a backpacker. HOWEVER I was wrong!!!!!!!!!!!! (doesn’t happen often!?)


Salt mine

The salt cathedral is amazing and we spend hour after hour trying to make pictures of this wonderful place, lying on our bellies, and backs, and I tasted salt for two days. This salt cathedral was built 10 years ago, when the first cathedral was starting to detoriate too much and was too dangerous to visit.


Cupula

It is built in a working salt mine, and you can see old walkways with religious sculptures and crosses, and the cathedral has three main halls that are impressive in this underground setting. The tasteful music and the lighting made this place more an artwork than a church, although they use it in regular services. (Visit there beautiful website!!!!!!!!!)


One of the big halls


Statue


Inner structure

This is an example of something really new, and while travelling to Bogota I visited other interesting sites. One of these places is the Sanctuario Virgin de las Lajas. It is on the border of Colombia and Ecuador in Colombia and this church is built in a narrow canyon.


Landscape South Colombia


Sanctuario de Las Lajas

According to the legend a woman (why are it always women??) was walking with a little child in the area of Ipiales when the child saw a woman being guarded by two men. Many strange wonders later there suddenly was a picture of this woman (Maria) and the two men( two saints) on a rock, and it is said that this picture is not a painting, but the actual colour of the rock, and that these colours go down seven meters.


The miracle

Around this painting they built the church, and you only can say it is a beautiful conception. The church in the small canyon surrounded by green rolling hills, a nice waterfall, and a little river in a tropical setting.


The canyon and waterfall

And of course the little stores that sell all the possible crap you can imagine. Thanks to the wonder the people can make a living which is a second wonder indeed!


The miracle 2

Another interesting place was near Villa Vieja, also in Colombia. I hadn’t seen deserts for at least two months and in Villa Vieja there is a desert. So you like desert pictures and I had to make them.


Villa Vieja the desert

What makes it special is the surrounding landscape. This desert is only 200sqk, and it is surrounded by green hills, meadows with grazing cows, and enough water. The desert looks like an oasis the other way around.



Landscape around Villa Vieja

Villa Vieja is close to this desert and in Villa Vieja I took a motor taxi to LA PISCINA that is 13 km outside the village. I imagined a natural pool with a nice beach, and I already saw myself lying in the sun for hours, taking a nice cold beer and/or ice cream surrounded by beautiful sexy Colombian chicks with hardly anything to cover their tight bodies………….

When I got there, I actually saw a swimming pool, 4*6 meters, and filled for a quarter. So good buy to the chicks! Still the water was very refreshing, I met a few very nice people there, and it was a good starting point for walking back, because I could jump in the water with all my clothes on, and wet some towels, to start my way back to the village under a warm and burning sun.


La Piscina

This desert is here because of erosion and the best place to see this is Cusco (not the place in Peru). A small 2 sq k place which reminded me in a way of Bryce canyon, although not as spectacular. Nice clay textures and isolated rocks, but also cactuses and many birds. A nice play to walk around for a day.


Cusco

Old painting

Villa Vieja will be in my mind also for other reasons. I probably had the dirtiest room here since I started travelling, some slimy insects lying on my bed, cocoons, a decomposing fruit under my bed, a 2cm matrass lying of wooden planks, no ventilator although it was outside ca. 30 degrees, and during the night bats were visiting my room by flying in and out. Well it always can be worse is one of the things you got to keep in mind when you are a low budget traveller!!


Room in Villa Vieja

And there is always the reward! Villa Vieja is in the tropics so at night it is warm, and what is better than sitting outside on the square with a few beers enjoying the heat and having the excuse that you need to cool off!


Square Villa Vieja


One of the nice things of Colombia is the bright green landscape. This landscape, which actually starts in the north of Ecuador lacks the high mountains of the rest of the Andes, which in the beginning is a pleasant change, but after a while I start to miss them. I miss glaciers.


Green colours in Colombia

The hills are round and in some places have strange patterns that I never saw before. The canyons are steep and there are many waterfalls to be seen. And although these waterfalls are not the IGUACU FALLS, every waterfall has its own charm, which never bores.


Just another waterfall


Green Columbia 2


Green columbia 3

This typical Columbian landscape you can find around San Augustin, a place I visited because in and around this place (according to my guide) there are mysterious statues all around the countryside. While traveling I met Daren from Taiwan, and together we walk to Chaquira, on of those mysterious statues. The setting is brilliant, the statue one of the better ones, although I prefer another Shakira!


Shakira?


Viewpoint near Shakira1


Viewpoint near shakira 2

In other places around San Augustin you can find many other statues, often in combination with tombs, but my too full hard disc is not willing to store these in the category Exceptional.


Daren and me

The next day only the waterfalls Salto de Martiño, and Salto de Bordones give me the pleasant feeling I sensed many times during my South America trip.


Salto de Martino

Salto de Bordones

Landscape around San Augustin

Rio helena near san augustin



Columbian chicken buses

Some things in Colombia are certainly different. For instance the way bus drivers drive. I thought I was used to something now, but Colombian bus drivers are true maniacs. They love to overtake in blind curves, and speeding through towns with 100 k per hour is obligatory. In Popayan you can see the statistics of all the bus companies and some have shocking results. I think I was lucky when I traveled with Trans Ipiales to Pasto!



Suicide is painless

Another different thing are the amounts of soldiers and national police. You can see them everywhere, reminding you that in Colombia there is a guerilla war going on. Most of this war is in remote places, and as a traveler I feel safe. Many times they do body searches, but for the rest the soldiers are friendly and like to talk. One the Cerro Tres Cruces in Popayan, where I could smell the tropics again (hurraaah), and in Villa Vieja I spent a few hours talking to them. One of them more or less openly admits that he killed the murderer of his brother out of revenge, and both say that although they are married they have no problems in keeping at least seven girl friends (macho talk?). Silly me who admits that peeing in a different toilet is not done when you know that the toilet at home is unoccupied (Sorry Chris).

Another soldier in Popayan gives me a compliment when he secretly is peeping over my shoulder when I am looking at my digital pictures. I am flattered, although I think it is not so difficult making these pictures. Popayan is a beautiful old colonial town, and although I thought I was fed up with this sort of architecture Popayan has something different and it makes me happy when I am taking pictures from all angles trying to capture the feeling here.


Popayan



Popayan 2

It has something to do with intimacy, eye for detail and inner peace. Didn’t I feel that earlier in the monastery in Arequipa? A wonderful experience again! One of the things I learned in this trip is that nature, beauty and art are comforting me, while most of the time I feel sad about the worlds we are living in.



Popayan 3

Maybe I’m just a romantic fool. When I see a horse pulling a wagon in the middle of Bogota I get emotional. And this horse is not even on my plate!


Romanticisme

Yes the people in Colombia are friendly. In Bogota an old woman in a church is smiling friendly and she starts to speak to me. In the end she gives me a prayer and although I’m not religious the prayer I will keep!

In San Augustin a troop of Columbians asks me to join them to a bar. There I can see the drinking habits of men and women, most of them are pissed at the end of the night after too much beer and rum. Somewhere during the night I loose there pace.

The (younger) women here are beautiful. Something I noticed when I arrived in northern Ecuador. Suddenly the altiplanitas are gone. In return you can see little horny goddesses, openly licking young fellows with ugly yellow spots(meeëters) on their faces. I’m NOT jealous at all!

By the way I crossed the equator and now I’m on the northern hemisphere again. It has made me a bit sad because I am now heading towards winter instead of summer and the days are shortening! Crossing the equator however has something mythical, and while I was in Quito I went to the Museo Intiñan. On the equator you can balance an egg on a nail and observe the coriolis forces that cause a vortex going left or right on the different hemispheres. It is surprising to see that only 50 cm from the equator the direction of the vortices already differ on north or south. Standing on the equator is really confusing. Am I moving towards summer or winter and what about the length of the days??


Search the egg

Close to this museum you can see Mitad del Mundo. This monument was built by the French (en met de Franse slag). They built it 200 meters from the equator.


Mitad del Mundo


The most intriguing thing in the museum however was a little skull that belonged to a 10 year old boy. I already had seen somewhere in Peru miniature mummies that however were that small that I couldn’t imagine they were humans. In this museum they told us that Indians had a technique of cooking skulls/bones in a watery fluid with herbs, that shrank the skull to a proportion similar of a grown up cat. The reason why they did this?


Skull of a 10 year old boy

The boy was killed because he was captured in a war, and decapitated. He has was then cooked and he was kept as a trophy. Imagine him in your living. To prevent his spirit to escape from his skull they sowed together the place where he was decapitated. I love this sort of wicked ¨reasoning¨.

More things about life and death. After leaving Quito I went to Tulcan in Ecuador,

Landscape around Tulcan

,close to the border. In this little village they have a beautiful and very original cemetery. In 1936 it was started by José Franco, who is now buried here (his sons are doing the work now). He started designing and modeling hedges in all different sort of shapes.


Cemetery Tulcan

The figures chosen are from different religions and mythologies, and when you walk around, because of the green colours and the smells of fresh cut leaves, this dormant/dead place becomes very vivid. Normally when I visit a cemetery I can sense death and sadness, decay and the inevitability of fate.


Cemetery Tulcan 2

Here death becomes a fiesta, you imagine skeletons that become party animals, making the area unsafe until deep in the morning, doing hallucegenous drugs and having sex in the bushes (Although it is difficult to imagine with what they are having sex with, ever imagined a female skeleton doing a blow job on a male skeleton?!). I wish I was dead and buried here in this vivid and truly wonderful place!

Cemetery Tulcan 3


Plaza Tulcan



Los Endos