Wednesday, December 31, 2008
Taganga
Taganga my friend. Spent Xmas here, a very sleepy little fishing town which attracts tourists for its cheap diving. I didnt dive, if God had wanted me to go underwater I would have gills and fins. Instead I lounged around, got stoned, read and took some photos. Also, met up with some French friends, Laurent and Barbara, we made in Panama and spent a very pleasant Xmas Eve with them, we had a lovely meal, some wine, some grass, some rum and went dancing in the only club in town "El Garaje", thats "The Garage" to you.
Winners
So, the following morning, I woke up at 7am, precisely an hour and a half after going to bed. The plan was to go to Parque Tayrona for the day and spend some time chillaxing on the beaches there, which you have to hike through forest for 45 minutes to reach. It costs $15 to get in, about 9 pounds roughly. I heard a rumour that you could walk down the beach for 45 minutes and get in for free, always looking for a cheaper alternative I set off with 4 others whilst the rest if the group took the bus, the schmucks!
We walked along the beach for an hour, obviously this is tougher than walking on a road but we pushed on, the landscape was stunning and we stopped to pilfer some coconuts and broke them open to drink from them. We reached a point where the beach was broken by a deep and very fast flowing river feeding into the ocean. As we were carrying bags swimming was out of the question, luckily one point was crossable by foot, although the water was over waist height and the current perilous. We carried on walking, for another 2 hours until we reached some huts on the beach, inhabited by fishermen. We asked how much further to the Park, hoping it was just round the corner. Another 3 hours they said, and impossible to reach because of the cliffs ahead.
Great.
Rather deflated we held an emergency meeting. Everyone but me wanted to turn back. Fine by me, but I was determeined to get to the park, I was now high on exhaustion and running on emergency energy, light headed and determined. Fortunately one of my colleagues, Chris from Canada, the guy in the photo, changed his mind and said he too wanted to reach the park. Chris and I had been partying together the night before so it felt right that we should carry on this epic journey. We left the quitters behind and walked through a banana plantation to reach the main road where we walked into town a further half hour, got on a bus for 10 minutes and eventually reached the outskirts of the park. We then walked another 45 minutes through forest, up and down the tracks, and then a further 45 minutes until we finally met some of our group, who were now heading back to their bus as it was time to leave!
Elated, exhausted and triumphant Chris and I posed for photos, rested for 10 minutes, told the story of our adventure to anyone who listened (which we greatly embelished with stories of dinosaurs and bear attacks), before walking back an hour and a half back to the bus, for a lift home.
That night the party was a little bit more subdued funnily enough.
Twister!
The organizers had hired a sound system, which was very loud and went on until 5 every morning, lucky we had no neighbours to disturb!
On the 2nd night, I must admit I got a little bit drunk, but this was a good thing, because under the careful tuition of a couple of the girls I became, for one night only, the greatest Salsa dancer in the world, ever! The booze definitely helped, I progressed swiftly, although not entirely gracefully from the basic forwards/backwards, to side to side, to side to side with a step, onto spins, Merengue and God knows what ever else. The next day unfortunately I was unable to repeat the feat, sobriety had robbed me of my dancing shoes, although I received many compliments on my dance floor prowess from some rather surprised Colombians.
Parque Tayrona
The CS National Meeting took place about half an hour from Parque Tayrona, Colombias finest national park http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tayrona_National_Natural_Park
Mike and I went and bought tents and ground mats, some Pot Noodles and a couple of bottles of Aguardiente (Colombian Fire Water to you and I) and set off to meet about 70 other CSers, mainly Colombian and South American, some Europeans and Americans. We didn´t really know what to expect, and were very pleasantly surprised to be staying in a totally unspoilt environment, camped out 100 metres from the beach, a mile or two away from the road; no cars, hotels, restaurants or discos for miles. After building a bonfire and doing a group introduction the partying got going, Aguardiente, rum, salsa and.......
Colombia
So, it has been quite some time has it not dear reader? This is partly due to the fact that I have been in Colombia for 2 weeks now and having an awesome time, so awesome in fact, I couldn´t tear myself away from the awesomeness to write about it.
So what exactly have I been doing? Well, we arrived in Cartagena, following a gruelling 5 day trip on a sail boat, were eventually allowed onto land at the port and stayed in cartagena for about 3 days. Cartagena is gorgeous, some say South Americas most beautiful city, for its old town dates back hundreds of years and is fortified by a wall that was built to protect from attacks by the likes of fearsome pirates and Empire building Brits.
In Cartagena we hooked up with some CouchSurfers and found out about the Couch Surfing Colombia National Meeting, which sounded very formal but in fact was a 3 day party, camping on one of the most beautiful stretches of beach in the world, crystal clear water, white sand, palm trees, jungle and the Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta mountains to cap off the landscape.
Friday, December 26, 2008
Transformer Bus
The coolest thing about Panama was the wicked graphics on the buses, all of them are pimped out differently
Nice Wheels
a REALLY COOL SCOOTER WITH A DOPE STEREO, whilst bending down to take this photo a man with only one hand tapped me on the head with his stump! He thought it was hilarious. I guess it was pretty funny.
Wednesday, December 24, 2008
Wednesday, December 17, 2008
Where am I? Oh yeh, Colombiaaaaaaa!!!!
Cuba, an ongoing essay, by Mark Stangroom, aged 34 and 4 months.
I really liked Cubam, thats why I'm perservering with the stuff i wrote down when i as thee, kind of got a bit lost with the notes, so here goes on picking up the pieces.
Click here for photos
http://www.flickr.com/photos/32203076@N02/sets/72157610586811709/ Theres alot of street hustlers, they are known as "jineteros". These guys will offer you everything they can think of, which includes guided tours around the city, bars, restaurants, a place to stay, a taxi, cigars, prostitutes and drugs. There are also the female equivalent, "jineteras" who kind of "escort" rich foreign tourists, in exchange for having some money spent on them. It is pretty sad really, but unfortunately not unusual it would seem, and it makes it alot less flattering when a gorgeous girl hits on you in a club or even in the street, I know i'm hot stuff but offering to come home with me one minute after introducing yourself is a bit too forward, even for me.
Anyway, Havana. Wowser. Totally hectic, falling to pieces yet beautiful, old yet full of vitality, its an awesome town. Its old town is gorgeous and being restored, albeit slowly. Central Havana is where alot of the locals live, right next to the old town. Sadly, this is lower down the list of priorities to be developed, the streets are dirty and smelly, but they are safe. I stayed there for about 5 or 6 days, with a Budhist couple, technically they were breaking the law by allowing me to stay but they take in guests for the cash, and it is cheaper than a state registered casa particular, or private home which offer a kind of bed and brekfast service. this is by far the best way of staying in Cuba because you get to meet the locals, rather than stay in a shoddy state run hotel.
Huge American cars from the 50s cruise the busy cobbled streets, classic Chryslers, Buicks and Fords are everywhere, relics from a bygone era of American expats pre revolution. These relics now run on spares from Russian tractors, trade which came about when the US rejected Castro, so he became a Marxist and embraced the Soviets. Although they arent supposed to pick up tourists I managed to get a lift home a couple of times, they call them Collectivis, and they just run routes, picking up people as they are flagged down as long as thereis space in the car, so you end up squashed in between the locals, trying to look inconspicuous!
I spent a week in hvana, and saw pretty much everyhting I wanted to see. It was a relief to get out of town eventually, when I headed West to Vi;ales, a little village in a national park dating from the Jurassic era. the weather was gorgeous, as opposed to Havana where the sunshine ws intermittent, hot but not uncomfortable and my uber tan that I developedf in Ibiza this summer is coming back at last.
Vi;ales was hit by the last two hurricanes, Ike and Gustav. Many trees were ripped down and houses were destroyed as well as crops ruined. Although they were not the worst affected in the country the effects were noticeable, as is the community spirit. It is a close knit place where everybody knows everybody and helps each other out, a practice prescribed by Che Guevara, who advocated through indoctrination that one should put the good of the state above individual motivation.
Tuesday, December 16, 2008
Tuesday, December 9, 2008
Whooooaaaaa
Thats right, it´s me on a really fast, powerful wild horse, but I showed it who the boss is ;)
Portobello, Panama
We did some tourist suff in Panama, although really it was a stop off to get to Cartagena, Colombia. We saw the canal, built in 1913 and only recently handed over to the Panamanian governement by the Americans. Luckily there was a boat going through the locks at the time, otherwise this would be one of the worlds most boring tourist attractions, unless you were really into engineering. We were given a tour of Panama City by one of my friends nieces, she kindly picked us up in her 4x4 and drove us round town, plus we went for a great fish lunch with patacones, double fried plaintain to you and me, followed by the worlds largest ice cream sundae. Have spent most of the past few days chilling in the hostel, meeting alot of people, mainly Europeans and `speaking a fair amount of Spanish, which is improving alot I am pleased to report.
Anyway, I am kind of jibbering here. Basically tomorrow we set off for what should be an AWESOME trip, 1 day sailing to the San Blas islands http://maps.google.com/maps?hl=es&tab=wl which is a collection of 400`pretty much unspoilt islands where we will spend 2 nights, then a 48 hour journey in the open sea to Cartagena on the Colombian Carribean coast, although I hear the crossing to Cartagena once we leave the San Blas islands is pretty rough and people get sea sick (we have bought anti nausea pills and wristbands to combat this, plus a bottle of rum to stave off the boredom). The boat is a 55 footer, we met the captains, they seemed decent and there will be 7 other passengers. Plus, they are happy to allow passengers to try out crewing the boat, should be interesting.......
Monday, December 8, 2008
More Mexico
So after 5 days i was ready to fly to cuba. i had been holding out on booking my tickets as there was a slight concern over the fçeffects of hurrican Paloma, the 3rd hurricane of the season to hit the island. Luckily it wasn´t as devestating as the previous two and so off i headed, very much into the unknown. the following is a type up of the notes i made whilst there, as such they may appear to be pretty random, i may also add in any other bits of info i forgot to write down that pop into my head as i type, kind of delayed gonzo reporting if you like-
Cuba
A dew obversations on cuba. one, there is not many fat people here. I´ve spent the past week in havana, where the food is awful in general, so really its no wonder the locals stay slim. Although everyone here gets enough to eat under the socialist system, the choice is pretty narrow, fried pork or chicken, rice (fried also), pizza (warm bread with tomato liquid and something resembling cheese on top of it) and ice cream makes up the typical diet. however, having now left the capital (quite refreshing to do so) and arrived in Viñales, a beautiful village where my hosts Milo and Dalia have welcomed me into their home with great affection and the best meal i have had in Cuba so far (average number of plates i am given with each meal is 6, i think Dalia is trying to fatten me up). milo and dalia run a casa Particular, by far the best way of staying in cuba, cheaper than hotels and you get to meet the locals, staying in private homes that have a license to allow foreigners to stay for a fee. Most will also provide meals for an additional fee. i certainly hit gold with milo and Dalia, two of the nicest people i have met, they called me their son and we got on famously.
Well, running out f time again so will have to finish this off another time, damn facebook keeps distracting me......
Sunday, December 7, 2008
Panamama
Still catching up on things, lets go back in time, to a land called Mexico, a land where over muscled men in tight underpants wearing masks are worshipped and wet look hair gel is still in fashion . I stayed with a couchsurfing host, erika and her two room mates in Mexico City, one of the worlds largest cities with a population of 19 million and a metro system to make Londons look like a Thomas the Tank Engine set in comparison . it is also cheap as chips to travel around and pretty straightforward to navigate, as well as providing brilliant entertainment in the form of street vendors selling anything from pirated CDs and DVDs to torches and batteries to sweets and drinks. the great thing about the dvD and CD fellas is that they actually carry round cD players and speakers in rucksacks playing the CD they have for sale, i never thought i would hear kajagoogoo on a mexican underground. the biggest freak i saw on the underground was the guy who earned a living laying down a blanket in the midlle of the carriage, covered in broken glass and then backflipped onto it, landing with his back on the glass (which was covered in scratches and scars). To make matters worse, no one gave him any money. In fact, the whole week i was there i only saw 2 people buy a CD, one was a shopaholic woman who bought something from every salesperson who got on the train, the other one was me, i just fancied wasting a few pesos on a CD i shall probably never listen to.
The highlight of Mexico City for me was my night out at the Lucha Libre. mexican wrestling is more pantomime than even WWF, but the cool thing about is that most of the wrestlers wear really cool masks
Wednesday, December 3, 2008
Freestylin´
So New Mexico. I pretty much covered it, asides I believe from a couple of characters I ran into and an incident with the Greyhound bus. OK the characters, in no particular order. First there was Doc. Doc lived in the trailer a couple of doors down from my friend Lucy, she had befriended him and his dog Gizmo and I can see wh. He was a top bloke, with a white beard, bald head and a heart of pure gold. Doc took us out on a road trip on his birthday, we went out into the hills to some little towns where they used to mine for silver back in the 19th century. The scenery accross the desert scape was awesome, classic American trails which we ripped up in Docs truck. He knew the roads well, he used to be a trucker by trade and told us some quality stories, whilst Lucy and I pestered him to stop everywhere for photos! We went through a town called Winston, pretty small, not much more than a gas station and some trailers, then we got to Chloride, population 11, yes 11. It is a proper ghost town, pretty much abandoned by the 1920s http://www.ghosttowns.com/states/nm/chloride.html and contains two awesome things. One is the town store, which is now a museum, pretty much exactly as it was in 1920 when it was closed down by its then owner, to be untouched for nearly 70 years. The other awesome thing is the gate with the sign on it. The gate stands in the middle of a empty field, with no walls or fences attached to it. It has a sign on it, saying ´Please close the gate´. I found this to be hilarious, as did Lucy. We took photos and even a video of Lucy closing the gate after walking through it, which is going to be put on Youtube. I think it has Oscar written all over it, comedy genius. So after that bout of the giggles we left the 11 other people in town and headed home, stopping off for a home made Pecan pie for Docs birthday party that night at the springs resort.
It was a pretty chilled party, with pizza, popcorn, pecan pie, chocolate covered pecans, birthday cake and singing. Lots of people turned up, including the next character, without whom my story would not be complete. Big John is the tallest man i have ever met. He is a 6´11" Californian with long flowing hair, has skin darker than a Nigerian ( he specifically asked me to write that bit, I dont normally do requests but have made an exception on this occasion) and has made love to over 10,000 women. Apparently. Could be an exaggeration, but the best stories are always slightly embellished as my good friend Giles Davenport once told me. Big John also has the best moustache ever, most men couldn´t even imagine having such a cool moustache. Anyway, John was a cool guy and to tie him into the story, he saved my bacon the following day and proved himself to be a great friend but a terrible singer (only kidding John, although he does do a great impression of Optimus Prime, the best I have heard.)
That night I went to leave Truth or Consequences, I had a seat reserved on the one and only Greyhound bus that runs through town at 1030 pm every evening. The problem was, the bus ran and ran. It kept running, it didn´t slow down and it didn´t stop to pick us up. All week, people had been telling me their story of how they wound up in T or C. Most people are drawn there by mysterious powers and never leave. Was it also my fate to never leave?
Well dear reader. There I was, in a funny little town in the middle of the desert, coming up to 11pm at night with a
sand storm kicking up, and no where to stay. Enter Big John. I knocked on his trailer door, he had made the offer of his couch earlier in the week and now it was to deliver on the offer, in my hour of need John did not fail me. I slept like a log on his couch in the front room of the caravan, until about 430am when he awoke me by apologising for the fact that the bathroom had no door and that he was "dropping the kids off at he pool", pretty much in the same room as me. Anyways, I had about an hours more sleep and then got up to phone American Airlines, I had a flight from Alburquerque to Mexico City that morning that I was not going to make, due to the Greyhound incident. So $181 later I had rebooked my flight for the following day and John was getting ready to drive me the 2 hour trip to Alberquerque. He had to go anyway, he wanted to buy some size 15 fur lined moccasin boots, it gets cold at night in the desert you know, even for incredibly tall people with awesome moustaches.
So, Lucy, John and I set off for Alburquerque. We had great fun in the car, laughing, joking, chatting and singing. It was very funny. We sang some really bad songs, like Haddaways "What is Love" http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nsCXZczTQXo 2 Unlimiteds "No Limit" http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gzyFmilkd80&feature=related and Culturebeats "Mr Vain" http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cvgUdrzGNys&feature=related, to give you an idea of how bad they were. I dont know why we did it, but it was great fun. I have done quite alot of singing recently. Not that I´m good, just been enjoying it. Anyway, you kind of had to be there to understand it, but its a car journey I will remember with fond memories for a long time.
Thanks Big John and Lucy.
