Bye bye Cat :(

After 7 months travelling with Cat it has come to our final day together.

I met Cat about 2 years ago at a British festival called Standon Calling through the kiwi connection (know one kiwi in London and the degrees of separation between all the rest is only 2 people!). She then moved to Camden to live up the road from me and she became a key member of gin club (book club based in a gin bar...)

When I announced I was quitting my job to travel for a year, Cat had decided that she was heading back to New Zealand in the near future. She decided that the long route in 7 months via South East Asia and South America would be a great idea and asked to join me.

I couldn't have asked for a better travel companion for our 13 country tour starting in South East Asia last September. We met up in Bangkok and had a blissful week in Koh Tao before joining our Stray bus tour with Kitty, Cameo and Carmen - who we were to travel with for the next 6 weeks!

We went from Bangkok to Chiang Mai, to Chiang Rai and over the border to Laos. Down the Mekong on the slow boat we enjoyed a Bacci ceremony at our homestay village. Then on to Luang Prabang for numerous waterfalls, and a lot of chilling out.

Next up was the mentalness of Vang Viang where we celebrated Cat's birthday with a mud wrestle whilst tubing down the river. Then down to Don Det and over the border to Cambodia. Phnom Penh was disturbing with the killing fields and S21 detention centre, but we were able to enjoy the coast of Cambodia in Kampot, Koh Tunsay and Koh Rong. From there we headed to Battambang and the bamboo train and another homestay with the stray crew. Siem Reap was next - although it took us second time lucky to be able to see dawn over Angkor Wat.

The next country was Vietnam where we were delighted to eat our way through for a month! Beach time, hiking, biking and city tours were also undertaken - but mainly eating and some drinking (15 cent beer!) Then we had to bribe our way out of the country to make our flight to Honkers - where we delighted in cheese and wine from M& S and stalked the Santa Con.

From HK Cat flew to Rio to meet Davey and I flew home for Christmas. We all met up on Punto del Diablo for New Year's Eve, where we partied with Brazilians despite being in Uruguay. Our South American adventures continued through Argentina with too much fun in Mendoza (translate to too much wine!). More wine tasting in Salta and then a trip over the Chilean border to San Pedro de Atacama, where the stalkers and us did some epic biking.

We joined a trip to the salt flats in Bolivia - going through the volcanoes and mountains, past lagunas seeing lots of wildlife before the final satisificatuon of seeing the flooded Salar de Uyuni. Onwards to Sucre where we met up with the stalkers again and became part of the Bee Hive collective! La Paz lead to Cholitas wrestling and surviving the Death Road!

From there to Peru and lake Titicaca - lots of islands, floating and normal! Then up to Cusco and the Jungle trail to Macchu Pichu, where we had a Bee Hive reunion with the stalkers. Then on the Peru Hop bus to Arequipa and the Colca Canyon trek. Nazca was underwhelming, Huaccachina was a lot of sand and Paracas was lovely by the beach. We didn't spend much time in Lima preferring to hang out with the Irish in Mancora for Paddies day.

New country new beer! On to Ecuador before we flew to the Galapagos for a once in a lifetime trip. Back to Baños to catch up with the (mainly Irish) lot from PeruHop for some canyoning and swing at the end of the world. From there to Quito and onwards and upwards to Colombia. We stopped in pretty Popayan and in chic Medellin before hot footing it up to the Carribean coast by Santa Marta.

From there we explored Tayrona national park and then down to Cartagena to see the old town and the mud volcano. We saved 20 hours on a freezing cold night bus by flying to Bogota and catching up with the Bee Hive crew once again for a final hurrah! One last beer at the Bogota Beer Company, one last telepherique up the hill, one last coffee and Cat was off to New Zealand for the first time in 4 years.

Through all Cat has been a great person to travel with. Constantly friendly to all - she can wrangle someone's life story out of them in 5 minutes! Always looking on the bright side with her positive attitude, which is a good thing to balance me out. She is a lot of fun, although wine and her bendiness lead to drunken yoga poses and the odd collapse, #too much fun! Cat likes to push herself and take risks that sometimes I wouldn't have, nothing seems to phase her - she's pretty fearless, a quality that I admire a lot.

I'm going to miss you lots when you are back in New Zealand, especially our deep and meaningfuls over a bottle of wine - keep in touch! Which country shall we met up in again?!

Kt xxxx

Photo montage of our travels together:

Santa Marta, Mancora, and Tayrona national park

Guayaquil, Cartagena, Galapagos, Baños 

Laos, Cambodia and Koh Rong island!

More Camobodia, Angkor Wat, Vietnam, Sapa

Hong Kong, HaLong Bay, Uruguay, San Pedro de Atacama

Death Road, Bolvia, Cusco carnival, Colca Canyon, jungle trek, Iguazu falls, Macchu Pichu

Chilling out in Cartagena

We didn't do much in Cartagena - it's a city that lends itself to strolling around the old town taking in the architecture and then lounging around in the heat of the day.

Club Havana - the key place for salsa in the Getsemani area

We also made it out to the mud volcano for an afternoon. This was an interesting experience too! Our bubbly tour guide Vanessa took us the 50km to the volcan de lodo El totumo and explained what we could expect.

First you climb the mud walls and take a ladder down into the brown goop. Here a man guides you into the mud and makes sure you are fully covered. The man you gave your camera to will take pictures.

Next up if you want a massage they will massage you - given the texture of the mud (lots of organic matter floating in it and grit) this is more like an exfoliation.

Then you get out and walk down to the Laguna, where a mammie will help you wash the mud off. They will also disrobe you so wash your swimmers! Luckily this happens whilst you are sitting in murky water so you don't flash anyone!

Then you return to the changing hut for fruit and beer if you fancy and all the helpers come to collect their 3,000 COP tips.

A weird experience but worth doing if you have time whilst you are there!

We spent the rest of our time in Cartagena wandering around the old town walls and taking photos of the beautiful architecture whilst trying to avoid Panama hat sellers...

Hat sellers running away when we wouldn't buy any!

More hats - even if you were already wearing a hat that wouldn't stop them!

Our street in Getsemani - not quite old town but still had its own wall! (There were lots of GOT jokes about the walls!)

Cat on the wall - it wasn't that cold...

Lots of beautiful squares, lovely old houses with balconies and flowers!

We escaped the heat for a while by diving into the gold museum - which was free and air conditioned - score!

Lots of filigree earrings

And some interesting burial jars - we thought they were ultra cute!

We stayed at the Mystic House in Getsemani - I wouldn't recommend it unless you want to sleep in an unairconditioned sweat box. There was also no bar and no atmosphere....

We did like the bar at Mamallena - just up the road - and they had air con rooms for the same price as Mystic - unfortunately they were fully booked when we were looking. Another good hostel is Media y Luna - which had fan cooled rooms, but they look really cool, all white washed, and the busiest bar on a Saturday night. We didn't stay there as it was pricey and we didn't want to be kept up to 6am by the party - but it looks like a better choice after the fact!

Getsemani is a lot more urban and edgy than the old town and is full of bars and cafés and some great street art:

After 3 days in Cartagena we flew out to Bogota for some cool weather and for Cat's last few days :(

Birthday on the beach: Tayrona national park

After spending some time at the Dreamer hostel in Santa Marta we decided to check out the beaches at Tayrona national park, which are meant to be stunning.

First off we headed on a day trip to Bahia Concha - which was the nearest beach to Santa Marta that is in the park. Here you don't need to pay the national park entrance fee of 38,000 COP - it's just a mere 5,000 COP.

If you walk down to the very end of the beach you can avoid the touts with their plastic chairs, hammocks and sunshades and find some shade under a tree.

Cat demonstrating that the tree was actually a great sand free seat!

The water was lovely and clear and refreshing to swim in. Eventually one of the boys from down the beach made it up to us to offer beer and drinks and a special price for the fish lunch (we're not allowed to tell anyone - shhh!)

Whilst the beach was pretty it wasn't stunning. So we headed for the main part of the park for an overnight stay. From Santa Marta we caught the local bus up there - really easy, we got to the bus stop and one came along 2 minutes later - for 6,000 COP we were dropped off at the Zainu main entrance where we had to pay our 38,000 fee and collect our wrist bands.

A shuttle bus took us the 5k to the main car park for 2,000 COP and then we had a nice 2 hour walk to our beach of choice - El Cabo San Juan. You can get to a beach quicker than this - however the first ones you come across you can't swim at - we saw signs warning that over a 100 people had died trying to swim on these beaches - the undertow is notorious.

So we decided to continue walking past the first campsites and restaurants to Cabo. This was a wide decision as it was absolutely stunning!

Picture credit to Cat!

You can stay in the hut on the rocks - they have hammocks and private rooms... We ended up in a tent though as all the hammocks were full.

This beach was one we couldn't afford - close to the entrance with Eco huts - it's the five star equivalent!

On the walk through the national park we saw lots of wildlife - from leaf cutter ants with their super highways through the forest to monkeys in the trees and some random oversized rodent thing...

Leaf cutter ants - they have cleared the pathway through the forest to make bringing back the leaves easier - very industrious!

Although the park is famous for having howler monkeys these seemed quiet and so I think they are more likely to be tamarins.

We were super excited to be able to swim in the sea off of Cabo - however the waves were still quiet large and scoured the beaches relentlessly.

The combination of granite bolders, palm trees and crystal clear turquoise waters all jibed perfectly with the Carribean islands I had been on in the BVI and Antigua - yay proper Carribean!

Slightly overcast in the morning - it soon brightened up though.

My little mermaid pose on the rocks

Waves splashing the offshore rocks

Our tent 

View of the football pitch from our tent - the beach is just behind the shrubbery

Whilst we had to pay 25,000 for the privilege of a tent space, the hammocks were about 20,000, I thought the food and drink at the restaurant area was decently priced from 10,000 for pasta up to 25,000 for fish. However I would recommend taking lots of cash with you and to bring water if you can carry it for the 2 hour hike.

View from the rocks back over to the beach

Can you spot the iguana?

Here he is!

Birthday breakfast beers on the beach!

Sunset was pretty spectacular too

Credit to Cat's iPhone for capturing this!

I would definitely recommend going to Tayrona and staying min one night - make it two and really relax into the beach life and make the most of that 38,000 COP fee!