bonnie & clyde

parque tayrona is one of colombia´s finest national parks, with jungle stretching all the way to the coast. the first day we took a bus that drove us to quebrada de valencia, a waterfall in different levels, wherein between each level you can swim freely in natural ponds. too much family life though but otherwise very interesting. immediately after that we headed straight to the entrance of the park, paid the 25000 Pesos fee and took a jeep to Arrecifes entrance point, after which we had the walk a very very beautiful jungletrail for 1 hour to arrive at the equally beuatiful beach of Arrecifes. It´s very quiet and has 3 `laces where you can put your tent up or just rent one for 20000 pesos. we did the latter. slep well but hot, and mosquitos abound. second day had nice weather and walked up to Cabo de San Juan, which truely is one of the finest beaches of Colombia. The water´s a bit rough so you cant go out too far, but that doesn´t matter, the settings´all that! next up a 1-hour walk up the hill towards el pueblito, tayrona´s indigineous village. a very beautiful walk barefoot took us to the one-family village that was completely deserted. It is quite nice to se it. that night we went back and slept at Arrecifes, because Cabo is much more packed with tourists and 90 pct of them are israelis, no offence! last day we went to playa cristal or playa de la muerte known to the people here. Again a very nice whitesandy beach but no more jungle. this is dry almost desert land. and than that night back to taganga for another day chilling. After taganga we were headed for Cabo de la Vela, a not so easy ride because of changing a couple of times. First we took a bus that left us at Cuatro Vias, which is a crossroad point between Riohacha and Maicao, much closer to Maicao. There you get of and search for a "carro", a jeep that carries you with 15 other people on it to Uribia, a town 30 km further andf than to Cabo, 1 ,5 hours more through rough desert road. it´s very much worthed for the experience (a very different way of travelling, like being on a safari in the serengeti, except for the animals of course). Cabo itself isn´t all that it´s cracked up to be. It´s more a colombian family favorite than anything else, but Pilon de Azucar, which is 1 hour walk further is very nice. It´s green water at a desert setting. We slept in a cabana and paid 25000 for a room, after handling the price. All they have for dinner here is fish, but gooood fresh fish of course.
That´s it for our colombia-adventure, very sad to say so, but we are to go to venezuela, we have only one week left. The ride back was faster than the ride to Cabo. We changed at cuatro vias de nuevo, took another jeep to Maicao, 40 minutes further, took a taxi to the busstation (Maicao itself is absolutely horrible, as is any smuggler´s town) and instead of taking a bus to maracaibo, we took a venezuelan cab: The old 80´s oversized decaying american cars, venezuela is full of them, i love them! Everybody takes a cab like that, you pay 20000 pesos and you´re in maracaibo in 3 hours: easy. You only do customs at Paraguachon, which is very easy and quick, pass a million police controls (so have you passport at hand all times) and down to maracaibo. The city. or at least what we´ve seen of it, is the most ugly imaginable, but that´s because apparently they´re building an overland metro so half of the town is in works. the taxi dropped us at the busstation, where we took a very quick and easy bus to Coro (4,5 hours). Coro is a lovely colonial town, feels very cosy and at home, and The Venezuelans are freindly people. We stayed in Casa Tun Tun, hosted by a belgian couple, very good service, with free DVD´s, clean showers, free water and kitchen free for use. we loved it and it´s right next to the cathedral. next day we visited the medanos de Coro, a sahara-like national park, right out of town. It´s walkable from the center! we saw the sunset, walked back and got robbed! There we have it, all the stories we´ve heard about venezuela... it seems, even in such a tranquil town, a lot of it is true. 2 guys, 1 armed, came running up to us and snatched the bag off of us, We lost our camera but luckily ot my wallet because they ran off fast enough. We searched police, anke found a really friendly one helping us, i myself, when i ran back because i thought i saw them running again, faced a not so friendly cop pointing his rifle at me and ready to shoot. since i told him i got robbed he went back to the car and drove off without saying a word. it seems he was put off by the fact there was nothing to rob from me... hehe, we need to take care when we walk alone, especially after dark!
this day we leave for Parque Morrocoy and Chichiriviche, said to have beautiful sandy beaches, islands, corals and cays. a combination we already died for and are happy to die for again.
rob you later

From Salta,we took a 'remis' (a local taxi) to Cachi, a little town, 3 hours driving through small curvy mountain roads, rivers that flooded, a quite inaccesible road,but worth crossing because of the nice views. Cachi is really small but very cosy, with a nice little market place (where we met a couple from Texas in the only bar, that were there 12 hours in a row drinking beers, but not much to do, but to go hiking,and so we did. We decided to walk 7 kms to a little town nearby (where there was still less to do),but where we picked up a dog that followed us the whole day long (in Argentina it is normal that you are constantly followed by at least one dog). As we wanted to take another road to return to Cachi,we asked some locals, and followed their directions taking another way back. We discovered that the other road was actually three times as long, after another 10kms (the dog still at our side),I (Anke) was getting quite tired (ok,exhausted), but Bart reveiled himself as an untireable monkeyboy,climbing on every mountain we passed! Anyway,after some 20kms walking, there was finally a car that passed, we were so happy! The driver pointed at the dog,so we yelled that he wasn't ours,that we didn't have to take him, but actually the driver was the dog's owner,that was looking for the dog! Result: the dog got a ride and we could hike some more...
We had a good night's rest,and took the bus to Cafayate in the morning,a little town famous for its wineries and mountain ranges. We went to do some wine tasting in a local bodega and visited the wine museum. In the evening we drunk the bottle we bought and went to the local 'festival'. The town celebrated the Jesus de la Misericordia; it was like a typical folkloric fair in a little town, with a tiny stage on which people from Cafayate did local dances and sang religious songs; in between a woman kept on talking about Jesus and the Lord, but it was nice to see how the local people celebrated. The people here in the north of Argentina are incredibly religious, the churches are always full, and every time they pass a church or cemetry, they say a pray. The people are quite poor here,but they are not really interested in making money, they don't like working...
They are very aware of nature and they want to maintain their culture and their way of living ,so innovation is the enemy,because innovation brings pollution and deterioration of their culture and of nature off course.
This is good for us,because their nature and culture are amazing! We went to Quilmes, ruins and a fortress from the Quilmes civilisation, built upon the side of a mountain, really nice,especially if you hear the history of the place: they were attacked by the Incas but resisted, but eventually were horribly overthrown by the Spaniards.
The next day we did a tour to the Quebrada de las Conchas,some incredible mountain constructions (as soon as we can put the pictures on my facebook,go and look for mountains in the shape of the Titanic, a frog, an amphitheatre, and obelisc, the devil's throat...). We could really walk into the mountains, into the different shapes,and through all the different colours of the mountains, red,green, yellow, white,you see all colours and shapes in the same mountain range!
In the envening we met a couple from Belgium in the restaurant,and guess what their names were... Anke and Bart! Crazy...
Then we celebrated our three year together with a full day busride! yeah! and on top of that, the bus had a problem with the brakes,so we couldn't continue and had to wait (in the rain) for a new bus to pick us up, so we arrived really late at night... We decided however that we had earned a nicer hotel room for this stay, the romantic diner had to wait until the next day, as many restaurants were already closed... romantic !
So the next day we had a quiet day,visiting Tilcara,a nice town nearby, and we spoiled ourself with a nice dinner by candlelight and romantic singing on the background...
Then we went to visit Iruya, a town that is like hanging at the cliff of a mountain,really beautifull! As also the 3 hour busride to get there, a curving road going up until 4000m altitude, just a pity of the weather,it was really cold and rainy!
And today,we crossed the border to BOLIVIAAA!!! We thought the north of Argentina was already like bolivia, but the change is actually quite big. The town at the border was 'real' Bolivia,with only very tiny little people with two long plaids and a hat,with a lot of skirts on top of each other,woolen socks in sandals,and carrying a kilo of freight on their back (or a baby). Especially at the border,it was stunning to see how much they can carry on their back,people running forth and back between the Argentinean and Bolivian border, to smuggle as much as they can into Argentina,as Bolivia is much cheaper.
This was a first impression of Bolvia, the first day...

ok, as we got some sad messages from some foreign friends, sorry! we will write in English from now on
Just a quick review:
we arrived in Rio de Janeiro and already had some great adventures up until now;
Football match between the 2 biggest teams of Brazil, Favella tour and Favella Funk party, tripping through the city and enjoying the amazing views from the Sugar Loaf and the Christ, and relaxing at Copacabana and Ipanema beach...
Tomorrow we are heading for Ihla Grande, a paradise island, with jungle and white beaches,mmm
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ciau!