Colombia & Ecuador

Colombia & Ecuador on Google Earth

After nearly two months in Cartagena, Nila and I are happy to start exploring South America. Initially, it felt good to relax a while in Cartagena before moving on, but after the haul-out and the eye operation it felt as we overextended our stay and we are looking forward to new adventures.

A day’s travel on bus, riverboat and jeep brings us Mompós, a quaint colonial town at the lower Magdalena River. It was once an important trading post for the Inka gold, which was shipped from here on river boats to Cartagena. Today, Mompós is dominated by agriculture and we are exploring the vast estuary of the Magdalena River on a launch. The town is so quaint that we are the only tourists in town.

The next leg of our journey starts badly and never gets much better: Our jeep, scheduled for 5am, arrives half an hour late and our decision to skip one bus to get breakfast is a bad one: Instead of the scheduled one hour later, the next bus leaves four hours later and we arrive very late and in pouring rain in San Gil. Due to the weather we just drop next door for dinner – even if it is my birthday dinner! The next few days we are exploring the region on San Gil river rafting, mountain biking and hiking between beautiful colonial mountain towns. We even catch a ride in a police car, since no other transportation is available for a few hours :)

Once again we have an adventurous journey to Villa de Leyva, this time because our brand new bus breaks down. But we are making it nevertheless. Of all the colonial towns this one is picture perfect. It has been renovated to the last house and we are spending two days hanging out in its cobblestoned streets, places, Indian markets and cafés. Our stay is topped by a perfect Wienerschnitzel, cooked by an Austrian chef living here part-time.

Nila and I don’t like big cities and we are just passing through the large cities Bogotá, Calí and Medellin. On our way south we make a stop in the ‘Zona Cafeteria’, where the famous Colombian coffee grows (should you ask: I have never seen the other famous Colombian ‘crop’) and we learn how coffee is farmed, harvested and roasted. It’s just a shame that the roasting is done in Italy and I can only find mediocre coffee in Colombia. Via Popayan and Pasto we reach the border to Ecuador. The roads in Ecuador are better than in Colombia, but the buses are worse. They are old and have no air-conditioning. In both countries there is a large number of SUV, seemingly more than in Switzerland.

The capital Quito is our first stop in Ecuador. We are a bit disappointed by the colonial architecture after the beautiful towns in Colombia, but we very much enjoy the Mariscal neighborhood. It is a melting pot of Quito’s yuppies, business people, travelers and some Indian people. It is also a great place to book tours around Quito. The next few days bike down from the Cotopaxi volcano and are biking to the Quilotoa Crater Lake. The night is bitter cold; we didn’t wish for so cold weather when we were looking for some relief from Cartagena’s heat. While there are many Spanish descendants in the big cities, the country side is mostly populated by indigene people like our hosts in Quilotoa. It’s colourful and interesting, but they don’t mix easily. And then… Nila and I separate.

Over the last few weeks it became apparent that Nila is no longer so happy in our relationship and she would like to separate and travel by herself. We had a good time together despite not having too much in common except our love to the Sea and travelling. I am missing her quite a bit!

I’m heading once again to the Cotopaxi, a picture perfect volcano, with 5’900 meters above sea the highest active volcano in the world. I try to climb it with eight other tourists and our mountain guides. We are starting the ascent at midnight and walk up the 45° steep mountain. The air is beautifully clear and the shooting stars seemed so close that I could nearly catch them. It is a very slow walking in thin air: left, right, breathing in, breathing out; left, … One after the other drops out. I make it to about 5’700m then I am out of air, too. Of the eight tourists only a South Tyrolean mountaineering lady makes it all the way to the top. It was a great experience despite not having made it. I can now fully understand why people just want to sleep on the mountain for a minute and then never wake up again.

After this strenuous exercise I return to Quito and travel later to Baños and its thermal springs. It’s a relaxing small town with three Swiss restaurants (!) in one of which I am having cheese fondue for dinner. You might think that I don’t like local food. Not at all, it is actually very good. The prices are moderate, a set lunch costs USD 2-3 and a very good dinner costs hardly USD 10. All the better: with current stock markets I have to start thinking about a future in a low-cost environment :)