Amy Adrift

A photographic diary of my east African and south and central american adventures

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Trouble in paradise. Endured on, yes you guessed it, day one. I was told to keep my finger dry but there was no way I was staying out of the water, so the obvious solution was to wrap it up. Thanks to some kind donations from fellow travelers, I was able to be wise and condomise. As we say in SA, "a boer maak n plan".

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Experiencing the San Blas islands, a Caribbean paradise.

We had it all; from being thrashed around at open sea, clinging to the roof as fellow travelers were literally tossed from their beds, to days of sun, fun and rum.

We raced along with dolphins cruising below the bow of the boat, soaked up sun as local kuna people delivered freshly caught lobster straight to the deck, braai’d on deserted beaches, washed in crystal clear, warm water, competed in dive competitions to pass the time, snorkelled with turtles and rays, swam at night to create fairy tale whirls of phosphorescence, wrestled with the dynamics of a broken toilet at sea and the realities of 13 people squeezed into a very small space, and dealt with sun stroke and finger injuries (next blog post) in one of the Caribbean’s gems.

It was tough leaving the Ave Maria (bottom picture) after making it home for five days. A truly magnificent splurge on the backpacking budget!

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Hola! Cartagena, Colombia.

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Exploring Parque Tayrona on Colombia's Caribbean coast. Apart from its stunning beaches and coastal forest, we were treated to the best pan de chocolate I could possibly dream of from the local 'bakery' as well as some special wildlife encounters. Apart from the crabs and howler monkeys we stumbled across this Northern Tamandua/ anteater and a few Common Agouti (big rodent like creatures).

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No need for local radio stations.. Little bit of bus entertainment for the fans.

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Where rivers flowing from the Sierra Nevada meet the sea, Palomino, Colombia. Apart from the typical beach slothing, we also tubed down one of these rivers to the sounds of howler monkeys in the forest around us and met cows to keep us company along the way.

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We need more statues like this. The world would be full of much happier women. Bucaramanga, Colombia.

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So just a heads up for route choice in Colombia.. Whatever you do, don't rely on what the map shows you as the shortest possible route. This may mean you have chosen a dirt road, that winds along the edge of mountain and drops into nothingness and that typically only 4x4's choose to traverse. It may also add on a full day to your journey.. If there's a death road in Bolivia, I'm pretty sure we found the Colombian counterpart. At least we got to see a portion of Colombia that not many others do.

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Being plowed with fresh, free granadillas, despite the tummy bug. Who could say no? Locals once again making the bussing bearable.

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Summating Pan de Azucar, in El Cucuy National Park, Colombia. The park is Colombia's hiking gem. A hidden and quiet slice of the Sierra Nevada, tucked in a corner of Colombia that few people visit. Until recently the park was just a no go area with competing fronts of guerrilla and regional paramilitary making it too dangerous to visit. Although the park is now starting to receive more visitors, it's once substantial glaciers are disappearing rapidly and they estimate will be all gone within the next few decades. The 13 hour hike from our cabana, my stupid lack of acclimatization to the altitude and the dodgy egg drop soup I forced down at 2:30 in the morning made for one of the hardest hikes of my life. I also had no idea how terrifying it would be to pull myself up a glacial wall that dropped into nothingness on either side of me whilst relying on cramp ons and ice picks, which I was only really using properly for the first time in my life (sadly I have no photos of the steep ascent as all of us were too terrified to bother with photos at that point). Then you can add to this, the guide instructing us in spanish and a fellow German climber repeatedly saying that her father and uncle would kill her if they had seen her in that moment because the snow was melting and the climb was getting more dangerous by the minute. I was pretty convinced I was going to die on a Colombian mountain that day and even sat on my haunches, clutching my ice pick and had a good cry three quarters of the way up. But I didn't die and was treated to a stunning view from the top before we repelled down the opposite side of the mountain. A tough but really incredible moment in my life and I am so grateful to have spent time El Cucuy, which is in my opinion, one of the best kept secrets of the Americas.

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Playing tejo!

Any country that makes a game based on drinking beer and lobbing metal disks at explosives, deserves a visit..

Tejo was named Colombia’s official national sport in 2000 and has a massive following in the country. It’s a sport handed down by Chibcha indigenous warriors who used it as a way to earn brides from opposing tribes.

The video here shows a mini tejo court but we also visited a real tejo hall where men (all donning mullets of course) throw the tejo from 20m away and nearly never miss. They also manage to create much bigger bangs by striking all the pieces of paper packed with explosives, simultaneously. They found our attempts highly amusing and we probably ended up with a bigger crowd of spectators and trainers than the real players playing for wagers.

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Rappelling, white water rafting and kayaking (Eskimo rolls and all) in San Gil, Colombia's self-proclaimed adventure sport capital. It really is a stunning area, with plenty of pristine indigenous forest surrouding it. And it felt great being back in some white water again.

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Exploring Bogota, German style. A great few days spent with 'locals' who know all the sweet spots in this ENORMOUS city (the photo on the left shows a minuscule portion of Bogota). 'Home time', catching up with friends, real brown bread, local dishes, motor bikes, Colombian barbecues, cocktail evening's with the frog game thrown in just being a few of the highlights.

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Ant anyone? It's proper name is hormigas culonas, which translated means 'fat bottomed ant' and is a delicacy handed down by the indigenous Guane people. Can't say they really my thing though..

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The best thing about Colombia is it's bad reputation. The locals are the loveliest I have come across. They seek you out for a chat wherever you go and are just so keen to learn your story. They put up with my awful Spanish and go along with the hand and foot kind of communication. They make their country a pleasure to travel.

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Colombian homes definitely reflect the personalities of their inhabitants. Colorful, vibrant, happy and full of character. Salento, Colombia.

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A homemade tail gate, Salento, Colombia.