I hope everyone had a good Christmas and is gearing up for a great New Year. I've had quite a few weeks packed with awesome adventures and have managed to make my way down to Columbia. I'm going to be adding a bit more detail into my posts (as per my father's request, Hi Dad!) and probably some more pictures as well.
After Nicuragua, I headed down to Costa Rica on a 10 hour bus ride. My first stop was Monteverde, which is a gorgeous little town north of San Jose, nestled in the rainforest. I spent a few days exploring the jungle and seeing some amazing animals. My favorite being a sloth, who contrary to his name, was moving quickly along a telephone wire. Consequently, I got a blurry night photo.
I then spent a day walking on a series of suspended bridges and then speeding down some ziplines! It was an adrenaline rush to fly through the canopy of the jungle. I even managed to down the tarazan swing (video below) and the superman zipline, which is a no hands, facedown run! Scary, but fun.
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I headed down to San Jose for a few days before I left for Panama City and just did a little exploring around the city. There were lots of beautiful parks and neat old buildings. I even managed to catch the tail end of the Santa Claus parade. Salsa dancing Santa Claus is hilarious.
I flew straight on the Panama City seeing as the next available bus was the 24th of December and I had plans to meet people in Columbia on the 22nd! Panama is very modern in comparison to many of the other Central American cities I visited. The skyline is dominated by skyscrapers and most the the facilites were similar to any North American city.
I did visit the canal, however forgot to charge my camera batteries, so have no pictures to back up my claim! I will say this though, it's big. I plan on finding an overhead view via google image search and passing it off as my own. No one will ever know.....
I finally made it to Columbia, on a 45 mintue flight, and would have been greeted with a welcome sign and my friends in Santa hats, if only they's taken the right bus! I did appreciated the effort though! We spent a day in the beautiful city of Cartegena before we headed off to Taganga for Christmas. The city of Cartegena spares no expense when it comes to Christmas decorations and the city comes alive with lights in the evening! The views from the old fortress walls that surround the city are breathtaking.
Four hours north of Cartegena is the little fishing village of Taganga, where we would spend our Christmas. Not much to say really, except there was plenty of sand, sun and good friends! We spent Christmas eve sitting on the beach with a bottle of beer and a sunset!
We didn't do much aside from cook an amazing Christmas feast; steak, mash potatos and fried veggies and do a little snorkling between tanning on the beach. I'm no longer fish belly white! Although I am still jealous of the bronze brits, who are darker than most of locals now.
After a few days of relaxation, we headed over to Tayrona National Park to check out the amazing beaches that line the coast. What they fail to mention however, is that to get to these beaches, you have to trek two hours throught the jungle to get there! I'm still debating whether it was worth it...
As a result of the strenuous activity, today had been spent doing nothing but laying in a hammock. A much needed day considering we are headed out on a Lost City trek tomorrow, which consists of 6 days of walking (mostly uphill I'm told) through the jungle. We are going to ring in the new year sitting on the steps of temple that is thousands of years old! I'm excited for that, dreading the hike! I'm sure I'll live.
I hope everyone has a wonderful New Year!
