Mugged!

Shortly after having 'Republica Del Ecuador' stamped into my passport for the second time in my life, I found out why the gringo's generally seem to consider Quito, the capital, one of the most dangerous stops in South America.

I'm generally pretty confident walking the streets by myself and in hindsight it was a stupid thing to be doing in this area, after midnight. But I was only 2 blocks from our hotel and figured that nothing too bad could happen in such a short distance.

2 reasonably big guys, lets say roughly the size of Elvis in his later days, tackled me to the ground (pretty rude seeing as I said 'good evening' to them). They held me there while another 3 guys, roughly the size of Dustin Hoffman, completely ramsacked me for everything that I had, tearing my necklace off my person. Even my scarf wasn't spared!

Here is an artist's impression of the desperate scene.

They even removed my shoes to make sure I didn't have any more cash in there, so don't believe that ol' trick fellow backpackers. The scene came to an abrupt halt when one of the Dustin Hoffman's tried to steal my wedding ring and I gave him a very nice elbow to the nose, which immediatley started bleeding (in hindsight, I think this may be the only limb I've ever thrown in anger). For whatever reason, the attack stopped at this point (I'm quite sure it had very little to do with my magic elbow, these guys could have easily killed me if they wanted to), I put my shoes on and continued my walk home.

All in all I got off very lightly, there was no intention of serious harm and I walked away with only a few bruises and scratches. I would like to thank my attackers for not being too over the top, it may seem as though I consider the whole thing a joke but I actually did learn my lesson (ok mum).

Sweet Salento.

It was time to head to the coffee growing region of Colombia for some rest and to be back amongst nature again, after way too many concrete jungles. So we made haste for a town called Salento for a few nights of peace, love and music.

This quickly turned into a few weeks as we fell in love with the town, it's great food, cool bars, friendly people and a kitten called Janet.

Our hostel was pretty spectacular, with panoramic views(above)and a good crew running the place. The owner was a cool New Yorker who kept on telling me to 'forget abowd id' and whenever he gave directions, it always started with the words 'ok, whatcha wanna do is go down here.....'.

I actually read a whole book during our stay! I know what you're thinking 'that's pretty damn impressive Freemo, you're the man and I will name my first born son after you'. Well, wait till I tell you that it was a leather bound book! I won't mention it now though, you're obviously over stimulated as it is.

This pic was taken late one Saturday night, the man third from the left has obviously never seen a camera operate in the evening before.

The greatest coffee shop I've ever bean to (that's actually what I wrote in their guest book), not only did it serve the best coffee I've had in South America, but they do the whole process themselves- from the bean to the cup.

Interestingly, they were one of the only coffee growers to keep their best beans in the country. The coffee in South America generally tastes like a Macca's coffee from Australia, mixed with Tabasco sauce and fertile soil. This is because all of the best beans are exported to fastidious coffee drinkers in places like Australia and North Eastern Russia, according to a very knowledgeable horse I was talking to after visiting the Valley de Cocora.

The valley de Cocora was a surreal place. It featured deep jungle, big ol' waterfalls, smart mouthed hummingbirds, massive palm trees, a Gloria Jeans, goats wearing spectacles and apparently it's also dubbed 'The valley of mushrooms' for reasons unbeknown to me.

There was plenty of live performers getting around, pictured is an example of the average Colombian coffee region type dude, which have to be some of the coolest dude types on the planet. Kinda like cowboys, but smaller and more approachable.

So, after about 2 weeks of hanging out, drinking beer and talking to animals we decided to hit the road and do the same thing somewhere else, it was time to change countries and head South to Ecuador via the dodgy and often hijacked bus to the border. As you boarded the bus you were patted down, your luggage searched and they filmed everyone for the record. It seemed pretty intense, but it was all fine/dandy and 15 hours later we were finally in another country.

Medellin

We pulled into Medellin bus station at 6 am after a crazy, 'close your eyes and hope for the best' style bus ride. They really don't hang around these Colombian bus drivers and I'm sure they're taking in 2 of Colombia's biggest exports to keep them on their toes and to nicely control the 4 wheel drift of a 20 tonne vehicle.

Speaking of one of the above mentioned exports, Medellin is probably worst known for it's relationship with the cocaine trade, particularly in the 80's and 90's where it was also regarded as the most dangerous city in the world mainly thanks to a man called Pablo Escobar. He caused chaos and pandemonium in the town by offering $500 for the head of any policeman in the mid 80's, which was a successful campaign apparently.

The most interesting thing we did in Medellin was certainly the Pablo Escobar Reality Tour. Which was a short tour showing some of his old residences, the places he blew up, the site of his execution and eventually his grave.

The reason why this tour was so interesting was the tour guide. At first it seemed that he was only furthering Escobar's false iconic status, but over the course of the tour he managed to completely erase that status. He is without doubt one of the most horrific people to have ever lived, as all the killing he did through the hands of others and other shocking exploits was for nothing but the expansion of his empire and personal wealth - which was quite considerable, so considerable in fact that he offered to pay off Colombia's national debt (a sum of approximately 20 billion at the time) for the simple favour of legalising cocaine.

The CIA and the Colombian government eventually collaborated and formed a squad of 1500 men to capture and kill him, which they eventually did after a whopping 500 day search in 1993.

Sorry for the nasty image, but it really shows how much this execution was a success and a great day for Medellin's and Colombia's future.

These days Medellin is really quite safe if you stay in the right places and we had a few great nights hanging out in the fantastic bar and club scene it offer's, with over one hundred bars in a 3 block area!

Back in black!

Terribly sorry for my tardiness on this bloggy thing, I've had some technical difficulties which have now been rectified plus there was an issue with some underfed monkeys which I really can't go into.

So, I figured I could summarise what's been happening mainly through the medium of photographs.

We went to the seaside (pictured above) on the Caribbean . Now I'm not really one for the beach, or going outside and doing stuff. But this was a pretty nice beach as you can see. I even went in the water and it was pretty good I guess. We slept here in a hammock next to the ocean which was great, but if you're knocking at the door of 2 meters in height my advice would be to ask for 2 hammocks joined together.

This little fellow joined us in the sleeping quarters and I believe he possessed the power of Xray vision.

Next up was the fairytale city of Cartagena, as featured in the famous Marquez novel 'Love in the time of Cholera' which I know you all adore. It was a very impressive sight I have to say

with 12 meter thick walls surrounding the place apparently to protect it from pirates and Keith Richards. Add to this the fact that the enclosed old town was perfectly preserved in its 17th century colonial style, it's the perfect setting for making babies.

The city also features many gastronomical delights such as this and if there was one meal I could eat for the rest of my life, it would be this one. It's just curried chicken, but it's what they do with it you see darl. I don't know exactly what they do with it, but it was simply cock hardening. Gabby's meal is in the background which is fillet mignon, not bad in it's own right especially for about $8 US.

This guy is a famous Salsa musician and we were lucky enough to sneak into a packed club and see his band perform a few sets. The atmosphere at these shows is electric and he was fantastic, plus he was nice enough to hold still for me so I could take this photo. It's probably my favourite pic of the trip so far and the funny thing is that it was taken with my little 'party camera' and not my big boy camera.

Gab had a little boogie later on that night with our friend Marta, whereas our friend Bruce and I sat down like men. I must say Gab looked quite on home in the salsa club, which is no surprise because we all know dat girl got skills.

Next day we explored some of the tunnels that were hidden inside the city walls. It was pretty exhillerating I must say, seemingly akin to a labaryth in some sections. I think I saw David Bowie hanging out eating a toffee apple in one of the dimly lit corridors. One tunnel we chose dropped steeply into the earth and must have descended approximately 100 meters below the surface. It was pretty spooky down here, especially considering the fact that 100's of people perished in these tunnels during attacks on the city. We decided to turn around when the lights went out and the path turned to mud.

Next up, the famed drug trafficking city of Medellin.

RIP Smith Hooded Sweatshirt

I really liked my Smith hoodie. I kept me warm, whilst being cool.

It featured neat gold embroidery, draw-string hooded area for additional facial warmth, generous pocket area, full length zipper and it just made you feel cosy.........and loved.



Here is a picture of me and the garment in happier times.



I loved it so..... and this is why I have such deep regret for the manner in which it died.

As mention in a previous post, I became quite ill about 2 weeks into our Colombian stay. We were situated in a town high in the Andes and faced a 16 hour winding, slow overnight bus ride to the Caribbean city of Santa Marta, we decided to wait until I was healthy enough to undertake such a journey. As it turned out, I was still very ill when I assumed I was ok.

After 2 hours of bumpy roads I became violently ill, the need to vomit was uncontrollable. Gabby tried to get them to stop the bus, with no success, I had to let go right then and there into my ever faithful Smith Hoodie (who was just minding his own business keeping my lap warm). It proved to be quite the make-do receptacle and I'm sure the (prick) bus conductor was surprised by just how much pepperoni pizza this gringo could put down, but unfortunately couldn't KEEP down.

A moment of hope passed through me thinking 'I could wash him, the smell would eventually disappear. Everything would be back to normal, we could sing, laugh and whistle like we used to'. But no, I was kidding myself, I had to lay him to rest. Coffined in a white plastic bag, placed in a Roadside Rubbish Receptacle (RRR) at a petrol station in Colombia's steamy North.

Miss you Black Beauty, think about you every day.