Cartagena (COLOMBIA) - No.200

Cartagena (Colombia)
22 MAY - 27 MAY 2015

What a way to celebrate blog post 200! 

Since 2007 I've been updated this blog as I've made hops all around the world. The original version, Helisher's Death by Caffeine, was meant to be a blog that contained my random thoughts on the world. In fact, the first two entries were of that elk. How times have changed, and how time has changed me in those years. 

Travelling has changed my perspective, opened my mind and changed my life path, that's a fact. That yearning to move, to see things, to try, to feel, it's more than an addiction, its now part of my fabric and something that I'll never be able to live without.

The moment we hit the Caribbean cost line we felt it. The warm, thickness of the breeze blowing in off the sea, the turquoise blue water, swaying palms. A different attitude. Island time on the continent, this was it. 

Years earlier I had read Gabriel Garcia Marquezs' work, Love in the time of Cholera. His work of fiction was set in this wonderful city and the way he described it, 'a place of amethyst afternoons and nights of antic breezes'  just about says what this is all about.



So here you have it, blog entry #200 - Welcome to Cartagena

Our first of four stops through Panama City - Panama

Cartagena - Colombia

 Cartagena - Colombia

Cartagena - Colombia

For me, this was the surprise packet. There may have been other places that I enjoyed more but on my list this was the 'biggest mover'. Lying within 13kms of centuries old cobble stone walls, this UNESCO heritage listed town has an air of romance and mystery about it. Walking under bougainvillea covered balconies, candlelit interiors, cobblestone alleyways, this town oozes charm from its pores. There's an easy way about the people, they present themselves as happy, social and engaging. 

Cartagena - Colombia

Cartagena - Colombia

Cartagena - Colombia

Drinks on the famous city walls

Like most places that encounter brutal daytime heat, life is lived during cooler times, specifically of an evening. There's a vibrancy and sensuality to Cartagena that I hadn't encountered into too many other places, not until then. Reflecting on my travels now, I can see how there are comparisons to Buenos Aires, Havana or Rio in terms of being sensual. But what constitutes a sensual city? Is it a mood? A feeling? A heightened sense of anything and everything? Perhaps it's all that and more. How is it that you can just feel the energy in these known cities and don't feel them elsewhere. It's more than just words on a page or statistical data that nominates a place has having a spirit, liveliness and passion for life, and Cartagena is just one of those places.

Spending a few days in Cartagena was blissful, but, we also had the opportunity to get out to the Rosario Islands (Islas Rosario). A group of several islands that were about 1.5hrs out of Cartagena by speedboat.

Cartagena - Colombia

Islas Rosario - Colombia

Islas Rosario - Colombia

Islas Rosario - Colombia

Islas Rosario - Colombia

Inga and I decided to spend a day, initially, on one of these dreamlike islands. Just imagine it, beautiful, warm turquoise waters, cocktails at the raise of a fingers, and endless beams of sunlight hitting your body. Total bliss right....well...almost...

Now, as you may already know by now, Inga is a Latvian from Riga. Their Summer stretches from the about the 10th of August until the 20th of August, outside of that exists a total depletion of sunlight and lack of vitamin E. This craving for sunshine and extreme 'UV action'  transposed onto her true lack of understanding for what true sunburn means, put her inline for the 'ripened tomato' award of the decade. None of my pleading and Southern Hemisphere awareness made any impact on what the 'smart' thing was to do that day. Additionally, more out of annoyance than anything else I also decided to put myself in harms way and accepted the best that the sun had to offer that day, all 10hrs of it........

 There's no sugar coating the result. The final result was BRUTAL. Trying to sleep that evening felt like all my body was being dragged across a sheet of sandpaper. Every turn, every twist, every single move was agony. It was perhaps in my top 5 dumbest moves of all time. 

We did end up staying on the island for an additional day. Mostly out of the sun and trying to cope with the absorption of all those UV rays from the day before. Paradise has its drawbacks.

The next few days we spent back in lovely Cartagena. The 'Old Centre', the UNESCO Heritage listed area, is georgeous, without question, but outside of that, the new area fill with high rise offices and condominiums wasn't much to write home about. And so denotes the dichotomy between the historical beauty and charm of the old and the necessity of the new. Places such as these are ever expanding, ever growing and you just hope that the beauty of what it has is not overwhelmed by what's coming.

Cartagena - Colombia

Cartagena - Colombia

Cartagena - Colombia

Cartagena - Colombia

Cartagena - Colombia

After five fantastic days in Cartagena we were ready to head north to Cuba. 

Undoubtedly Colombia has much, much more to offer. From the people I've met, from what I've read, this is a country that is making its way back from decades of turmoil and is now once again able to open its doors to its natural beauty and wonder. It's definitely a country I'd like to revisit at some point in the future, there's too much here that just shouldn't be passed up.

Lima (PERU) - thank you Mark Park

Lima (Peru)
19 MAY - 21 MAY 2015

Our trip to South America was kind of like an Agile project, it had some degree of structure but its development came as a result of multiple iterations, usually downloaded from the global bank of random thought and discovery.

A week earlier as we took the three hour walk out of Agua Calientes to Hidroelectrico we started chatting to a lovely Korean guy that went by the name of Mark Park. I'm sure Mark had a much cooler Korean name hiding inside of him but ok, he went for a Western name that rhymed and may have sounded cool in his mind, whatever the deal, both Inga & I remembered it...here's why.

Mark had been lamenting his time away from his Cuban girlfriend. Somehow he had managed to get onto the island, speak broken English to a girl that probably also spoke broken English and commenced a sincere, valuable relationship. All he had in his mind was how he could get back into Cuba. It was within the crux of this discussion that Mark gave us a lesson on how very easy it was to actually acquire a Cuban entry visa - HEY PRESTO - the genus of a great idea erupted in our minds right at that moment. 

At this stage of our journey Inga and I had some sort of plans to continue north into Colombia but also had a week or two of 'free space' to fill with a 'country of complete randomness'. Initially we had designs on Costa Rica or Panama but when Mark lit up our minds with ideas of Caribbean dreams, balmy evenings on the Malecon, cigars, salsa and all things rum related, well, it wasn't hard for us to make the mental leap. All we needed to do was get the visa! ...but before then, there was Lima.

Pacific coastline, Lima - Peru

A burgeoning city of over 9 million people, Lima is there third largest in the Americas behind Mexico City & Sao Paulo. Located on the Pacific coastline, crumbling cliffs rise immediately from the rolling surf and forms a flat coastal plain that formulates one of the driest capitals on earth.

Inga & I based ourselves in Barranco - we didn't know it before arriving, but we happened to base ourselves in one of the trendiest parts of Lima. This is a neighbourhood situated on the coastal cliffs right next to the very well-known neighbourhood of Miraflores. We discovered the area to be full of cool bars, restaurants, music venues, cafes and galleries. Perhaps we should have recognised our access point via chic and funky little boutique hotel named the 3B Barranco's.

Cuban entry visa! Thank you Mark Park!

They let Latvians in too ;)

Our first full day in Lima we dedicated to getting a Cuban visa. For some reason we imagined that getting into Cuba was going to be a nightmare and that it would be unlikely that we'd get a visa in any reasonable amount of time. How wrong we were! After doing a quick review online we discovered the following to meet requirements;

- a valid passport with expiry no less than 6 months
- return flights showing arrival/departure from Cuba
- hotel booking
- a couple of passport photos
- $20USD

In addition to the above, and what we later found was possible on later excursions is that you can pick up a visa at Cancun airport before flying out to Havana. As easy as a cool Caribbean breeze.

Nevertheless, in the matter of a couple of hours we had made it to the Cuban embassy, locked in our visa and were drinking at some country club type hotel by the end of the afternoon. It was that easy, in just over a week we were going to be lighting up Montecristo's in Havana!

Plaza da Armas - Lima - Peru

Plaza de Armas - Lima - Peru

The next day we set about exploring the city centre of Lima. I have to say, I either 'missed it' or simply felt uninspired by what it had to offer. Of course, you could feel the Spanish influence here, just like you could in most other Latin cities but there just didn't seem to be any real magic here. Admittedly the coastline areas of Miraflores and Barranco were much more of a drawcard than the centre, for me at least. I'm not sure whether that's good or bad, it was just the feeling I got.

For our final evening we ended up in Barranco once again and took in a few drinks whilst watching the sunset dive into the Pacific at Bajada de los banos. This area is essentially a walkway that connects the high cliffs of Barranco to the Pacific. Originally utilised by fisherman coming down from Surco to the beaches of Barranco, now the area is filled with all sorts of cool restaurants. A really nice spot just to hang back for a while.

Somehow Lima felt like the end of Chapter 1 of our adventure through South America. We had been travelling now for seven weeks and had covered a lot of territory on the Western coast. The next day we were heading off to Colombia and then after that to Cuba. Leaving the Pacific coastline behind we were heading north to the warm waters of the Caribbean. Something I know for certain that Inga had been waiting for...sun...sun...and more sun.

Isla Ballestas - nothing to see here, move along

Huacachina (Peru) to Lima (Peru) via  Isla Ballestas (Peru)
19 MAY 2015

The route that we elected to take to Lima was a little odd. Not that it was particularly taxing but just odd in the manner in which it manifested and the 'extent of highlights' it provided on the excursion.

Transfer days or 'transition days' are commonly accepted as being a 'throwaway' day where you get from your destination A to your destination B without much fuss. Lately however we'd been involved in 'touro-transfers', sightseeing whilst in transit. The Isla Ballestas were sold to us as a 'must see' location whilst conducting our transit from Huacachina to the capital Lima.

A candelabra left by some bored pirates, apparently - Islas Ballestas - Peru

Islas Ballestas - Peru

There's not many times that I'll call out something as crap immediately - this was one of them however

A couple of seals - Islas Ballestas - Peru

 This guy was probably the highlight of the day, and even then, not THAT impressive

The islands just smelled like bird guano - 100mtrs away from the shoreline was positively awful

The 'Cliffsnotes' state that the Ballestas islands are known as the 'Poor Man's Galapogas'. They area rocky group of islands located off the coast of Peru near the the town of Paracas and are home to some 'incredible' wildlife such as penguins, sea lions and dolphins. Getting there was easy enough, a minivan from Huacachina to a port in Paracas and then onto a speedboat and out into the Pacific. Piece of cake. And yes, it was. But under a blanket of greyness and slicing over the equally uninspiring grey waters of the Pacific, we got to these rocky outcrops that in themselves were uninspiring and saw...as you would expect, penguins, sea lions and the occasional dolphin. It was just that after 15 mins that became boring. Additionally, and more pertinently, these islands are covered in bird guano. It has literally become the Pacific toilet to tens of thousands of birds and the associated stench that wafts over you is enough to last in your memory for weeks after the fact.

A far more impressive aspect to the day was a visit to Playa Roja. This beach exists within the Paracas nature reserve and is, as it says, a red sand beach which was formulated by ancient volcanoes situated under the ocean. In actual fact, the entire coastline the park is kind of spectacular and reminded me of the Southern coastline of Australia in that it appeared to be quite dry, rugged, windswept and spectacular to the eye.

Paracas nature reserve - Peru

Paracas nature reserve - Peru

Playa Roja - Paracas nature reserve - Peru

Playa Roja - Paracas nature reserve - Peru

As a quick summary, to any of those that may be reading this and be thinking, 'Oh, that day transfer sounds like a lot of fun', let me save you the hassle. Ditch it, save your money, go and spend it drinking Pisco sours in the town of Pisco which is close by. Other than that, jump a direct bus the Lima, you aren't going to miss a hell of a lot. Let that be the key take away for you.

Now that's how you put a full stop on a day like this one!

Huacachina - the oasis of America

Huacachina (Peru)
18 MAY - 19 MAY 2015

When I found out that there was a Saharan style oasis set amongst rolling dunes ride in the middle of Peru, well, nothing was going to hold me back from getting there. Just the idea of it conjured up images of  South American sheiks tripping out on ayahuasca, getting into their arbo-latino-trip-hop mixes as they lay on the banks of lake Huacachina contemplating the existence of minature chihuaha's.

Huacachina - Peru

Huacachina - Peru

....So most of what I imagined didn't exist but hell, it didn't have to, it was still the appearance of the totally unexpected that made our visit a little surreal. I mean even though we knew about Huacachina before our arrival, the marvel of just jumping into a cab, in what seemed to be a typically South American town and then all of a sudden having vast sand dunes appear from virtually nowhere, giving way to a lush oasis, all seemed implausible. But of course there it was, 'Freakin Huacachina' as Inga and I termed it, presented itself like the fabled mirage, appearing on the periphery of our consciousness after a bit of a slog out of Nazca. Quite the show my friends, quite the show.

 Dune bashing & Sandboarding - Huacachina - Peru

                                     Dune bashing & Sand boarding - Huacachina - Peru

The coolest Latvian in Huacachina - oh yeah!!

 Out on the dunes - getting into some dune bashing

Huacachina selfie

Apart from being a hub for well heeled Peruvians to delve into their inner Arab, Huacachina presents itself as somewhat of a hive for adrenaline related activities, specifically sand boarding, dune buggy bashing, sledging, partying, etc.

This is me trying to pull of some Kanye West moves - it looks moronic when he does it, and yeah, it looks moronic when I do it too!

That makes sense....

Rock 'n Roll sandboarding - Huaca-freakin'-China

Huacachina - Peru

Huacachina - Peru

Huacachina at night

On our first full day there Inga & I had a great time blasting across the dunes in a pimped up buggy, boarding down the sand slopes and watching the sun drop out of sight. A hell of a lot of fun and somewhat of a 'fresh' experience. I say that because of the 'unexpected' element. Perhaps not so odd in that this part of the world formulates some of the driest regions on earth. Indeed, only 250kms north you have Lima which is the second driest capital city on earth after Cairo - aridity, lack of rain and sand should be understood to be common here. For some reason, in my head, the sand dunes didn't make sense, but geography should convince me otherwise.

Huacachine provides for a great experience all round. Well worth the stop and more than recommended if you are passing through the area. So don't miss it!