16/8/05
Que Pasa Chicks, Chickadees and other furry animals…
Well we are currently the only foreigners in a place completely off the tourist map called Quimbaya in the Zona Cafetera (Coffee Growing Zone) in central Colombia and all we can say is that COLOMBIA ROCKS!!!
Before we came here, every traveller we met in 1998 and on-line told us Colombia was their most favourite place in South America which amazed us since the rest of South America is so fantastic… and now that we’ve been here for a couple of weeks, we’d have to agree too… Colombia is WAY COOL!!!
We weren’t overly impressed with the cities of Bogota and Medellin as they just looked like all the other cities in South America, but getting out to the country has been truly FUNKY and FANTASTIC!
Colombia is at the northern tail end of the Andes as they flatten out and the terrain is mainly a corrugation of mountains, valleys and plateaus and every district in Colombia seems to have a different look due to the variety in vegetation. In fact Colombia claims to have the most variety of plants and animals in the world second only to Brazil.
Coming down in a bus from Bogota, we passed fields of giant furry bamboo, brilliant red coffee plants and dense lush green fields speckled with brilliant white trees… it was so picturesque, but if there were a few more CIA type fellas running around burning coca trees, then it would have been perfect!!!
However, the most amazing and way coolest place that we went to was the Valle de Cocora.
When we were at home deciding on where to go, I came across a picture of the Valle de Cocora on the Lonely Planet website, and the picture was so surreal, that it was one of the reasons we came to Colombia. We should hopefully have some pics up in the next couple of days.
The Valle de Cocora is a valley speckled with thousands of wax palms, the world’s tallest palm tree which can grow to 60m in height and live for up to 200 years. However, even more impressive is that at the altitude of the valley, the whole area is considered to be a cloud forest as it is permanently surrounded in mist… so seeing palm trees here is like stepping back into dinosaur days…
We walked for the whole day through a stunningly lush green valley of rolling green fields with the shadowy ghosts of the palm trees fading in and out of the mists… totally EERIE and absolutely tranquil… Holy cow… the place was soooooo awesome, I can’t even think of enough gooshy mooshy things to write about it….
You’ll have to check the photos as it would have to be one of the most amazingly beautiful places in the whole universe that we have been to… and you know we’ve been to a lot of places… we loved it!!!
We also hooked up here with Paola, a Colombian girl and Colin an English guy who were great company as they really gave us a local’s insight into the food and culture of Colombia.
They took us to an organic coffee farm which was cool as we had a great cup of Colombian coffee which thrilled us since getting good coffee in Colombia is really hard since they export all the good stuff…(Anne, you would have loved this)
And the other cool thing they did was to take us to a bullfighting ring.
Now as you know, I am morally opposed to such things being an animal lover and all… but this one seemed to be OK as they don’t kill the bull, they only do the charging at the red sheet thing… Still, I was kind of hoping that the matador was going to cop a bull up his arse and get a horny prostatic biopsy…
In anycase, the reason that the bullring was cool, was because of the COWGIRLS!!!…Yeehaaa…!!!
OK… I really didn’t think I had a thing for COWGIRLS!!!… Yeehaaa…!!!, but they really did rock my world that day!!!
The reason I mention this is because we were surprised at how many disappointed replies we got from our last email where I said that Colombian girls weren’t hot…
Well please ignore all the things I wrote in that email because I’m a complete tosser and Colombia girls are definitely HOT!
I don’t know what happened to me… I really think the worry about being catnapped by Magilla Guerillas really did lib-otomise my libido…
In anycase, the COWGIRLS!!!… Yeehaaa…!!! have totally giddy-upped my libido so I’m back in the saddle again BABY…!!!
Yep, the Medellin girls didn’t do it for me as they are a bit plastic fantastic, and we were told that it’s not uncommon for girls to get boob jobs once they’ve graduated from high school. But once out of the cities, the girls are gorgeous and really nice, and definitely second only to Argentinian girls when it comes to sex appeal!!!
…and for all you single guys… they seemed to be completely accessible since at some of the hostels we were at, there were backpackers coming back with a DIFFERENT girl everynight… sigh… if only I was single again… that way I could relive my youth and… um… err… come back with a DIFFERENT kebab everynight… OK… I’m a geeky loser…
…and for all you girls… after Colin the English guy organised a spontaneous street party for us where Avril got a bit of salsa dirty dancing… Avril has officially announced that she reckons Colombian guys are even hotter than Brazilian guys!!!!!! Brazillians are definitely more fit and toned, but she reckons the Colombians just have really exotic features… so no kebabs for her tonight!!!!
Anyways, tomorrow we are planning to head to a coffee theme park with rides and all (Anne, you just have to come down here sometime!), and then we are going to head to Popayan a colonial city in the south so we can research whether we can get into San Augustin an archeaological site that is next to a guerilla occupied area.
Anyhows, gotta go and dream of COWGIRLS!!!… Yeehaaa…!!!
Our pics are here if you want to check them out.
Lots of Love
Ced the Studdly Kebab Magnetic and Avril (Salsa is not just a hot sauce) Bowie
PS. Sorry we haven’t been able to load any pics yet as the internet connections suck, so we’ll do it in the next week or so…. and hopefully we’ll try and get some shots of the spunky muchachos and muchachas too…
Hey, good to hear that you like Columbia!! I loved it too. Your pics are very nice and it makes me dreaming of my trip a few months ago.
Well, if you have time don’t miss the carribean coast, especially Tayrona Nationalparc, you’ll love it. It’s paradise. Don’t go there on a weekend though, the it is crowded with kids…
I also recommend Cartagena and Taganga near Santa Martha at the coast.
Have fun and keep us updatet!!
Petra from Berlin
Thanks for the feedback Petra.
We `love` Colombia! We want to come back again really soon to see the places we will be missing this time. We only had 3 weeks set aside for Colombia this trip and we had to miss out on Tayrona and Taganga as well as few other places in the south and west. We got to Cartagena, Isla Rosario and Playa Blanca – but everyone says the best is in Tayrona. So that´s where we`ll head next time.
More photos will be coming in a week or so too. Cheers – Avril