Colombia - Bogota, Pablo Escobar museum

We met a friend, Flavie, in Merida and she is also staying in the Platapus hostel in Bogota. We all decided to do a city walk from the Lonely Planet, starting off with the National Museum of Police.

The Colombians have a long history in forward thinking progressive police work and the museum is an impressive celebration of 'protecting and serving' the people of Columbia.

Housed in a beautiful old colonial building behind Plaza Bolivar the star attraction for locals and gringos alike is the Pablo Escobar exhibit which takes up the whole of the basement floor.

Pablo Escobar was the worlds most wanted and notorious drug lord of the 80's cocaine boom. He sold enough to make him the 7th richest man in the world (Forbes 1989: personal wealth $25bn) and at one point he had more US bills $100 bills than they had in circulation in the USA!

He didn't want to be extradited to the US for prosecution so in 1991 he gave himself up. As a condition of handing himself in, he was allowed to stay in a 'home' jail. He chose his palace, and before moving in he had renovations which included a discotec, Jacuzzi and full bar. Whilst in 'jail' he continued dealing more drugs than ever and when the Colombian authorities decided to move him into a proper jail he escaped.

It took the Colombian police 499 days and 1500 men to capture and kill Escobar. Attached are a few pics - his beeper; guns, bloody jacket, scrambler phone, a device for creating blocks of cocaine with the cartels horse head motif, wanted posters and images of his most trusted henchmen - dead.

Was a really interesting museum tour, as it's all so fresh being less than 20 years ago

Colombia - Bogota, Quetzal Spotted!

We went to the Casa Museo Quinta de Bolivar, a museum house of the infamous Simon Bolivar. It was given to him by the people of Colombia for liberating the region and helping to bring together a number of South American countries into the Republic of Colombia.

Its a pretty house, very simple and beautifully decorated. We manged to spot the elusive Quetzal (official bird of Guatemala), unfortunately for this nearly extinct species - the one we saw was in a taxidermy viewing jar. Its a wonderful green bird with a pink fluffy head!

The gardens of the house were very well managed and the staff were particular proud of the herb garden and the irrigation system, which has been channeling water from the mountain for over 150 years.

Nice spot if you ever want to get away from the bustle of Bogota.

Colombia, Bogota - Cable Car

I was gutted not to ride the cable car in Merida, so when we arrived in Bogota and I saw they had a cable up to a pretty church with views over the city - we had to have a go!

It was walking distance from the hostel, so we set off up there this morning. The view was stunning! the city is huge and covers the whole of the valley basin.

Check out the pics of our ride up the mountain...

Colombia - We made it!

We were really pleased to arrive in Bogota, Colombia, to find a truly cosmopolitan city full of universities and students, clean new cars, new buildings, small bars, excellent restaurants, giant new malls, squares and wonderfully restored civic buildings.

Venezuela is by far more hostile and uninviting for the independent traveller. We've checked into a hostel called Platapus, it's got some interesting characters (the Americans are the oddest) but its in a charming part of town. Bogota is like a bit of Barcelona in Central America, very cool and progressive.

We bought a new camera yesterday (Panasonic Lumix FH20 - really good point-and-shoot camera for use in all situations). Here are a few pics of us walking around town this afternoon!

Venezuela - Merida, high in the mountains

(these pics are not our usual quality, both cameras broke in Isla Margarita :( so we grabbed these examples from the net, better pics will come soon if we can get a new camera in Bogota!)

After a sweltering 2 weeks on Isla Margarita we desperately needed some cool UK style weather so a trip to the Andes and the town of Merida was organised.

We got the bus from Caracas, 20 hours - very comfy flat bed seats, and stayed in a lovely little Posada (hostel/hotel) called Suiza. After 2 solid days of sleep we got up and explored.

Fortunately for us that same weekend, April 20th 2010, the Venezuelans were celebrating 200 years of independence. Simon Bolivar is the man they all thank for uniting central and south America and defeating the Spanish. So for these national celebrations they got a public holiday and huge parades in every major town. Merida had a huge march featuring all the local public servants - firemen, police, army, mountain rescue, teachers, road sweepers - you name it they marched! Here is an article about the one in Caracas which the President Chavez attended http://venezuelanalysis.com/news/5295.

Merida is a jumping point for people looking for hardcore outdoor action in the mountains, just 20 minutes away are the highest mountain glaciers in Venezuela, Pico Bolivar being the tallest at over 5000m. Another reason to visit is the worlds longest and highest cable car system - unfortunately it's indefinitely closed for repairs - I was gutted as I thought Maudie may ask me to walk up the 4900m peak with her... thankfully she was too tired!

We really enjoyed Merida and it helped us to develop a more rounded view of Venezuela.

We left Venezuela on the 27th April for the Colombian border town of Cacuta and then an 18 hour bus trip to Bogota...

Venezuela - cheapest fuel in the world

Check this out!

On our way to Los Llanos the tour guide stopped for fuel. After filling his Toyota Land Cruiser with 55 litres of petrol (gasoline) the final bill came to 3.6 bolivars.

You get 6.4 bolivars to $1 on the black market, making the total bill for the fuel a staggering $0.50!!!!! thats less than a cent a litre.

There is a downside to this. Venezuela is the dumping ground for very old, battered fuel inefficient American gas guzzlers - the huge 2 door, made in Detroit, kind Eddie Murphy had in Beverley Hills Cop (One). The roads stink of fumes, and going anywhere in a cab is a risk of suffocation!

Venezuela - Los Llanos

After spending a few days getting over the hangover of our London friends visiting, we decided to go on a four day safari tour of one of Venezuela's most diverse flora and fauna regions - Los Llanos.

Situated in the south central region, the savanna goes for as far as the eyes can see and is flanked by 'gallery forest' on the edge of the plains, before the mountains of the Andes rise up around it.

We travelled from Merida with our tour guide Harry (http://www.venezuela-adventura.com/), Venod from NYC and Brendon from Oz. Everyone got on well, which is good as it took 12 hours to get there! in the back of a Land Cruiser.

We were promised Piranha fishing, the worlds biggest bird - the Jabaru stork, the worlds biggest rodent - the Capybara, the worlds biggest snake - the Anaconda and loads of other amazing birds and animals.

And did we see them.... yes we did, in abundance! We fished for fresh water bass (the Pabon), we found giant male and female anacondas, we fished and ate piranhas, we saw anteaters, giant mice, falcons, eagles, cute burrowing owls (who live underground in borrowed holes), giant cayman's - up close and personal as our guides caught them with their bare hands! The list is huge!

Maudie liked it on the roof of the jeep, and spend most of her time up their surveying the savanna, whilst I was tucked up inside. One night on the way back to camp, we experienced the firefly mating night - a once a year event, when the whole savanna is lit up by tiny lights as far as the eye can see. It was amazing!

The other bonus was Mango season, the camp was surrounded by huge mango trees, bursting with fruit as the 3 week season was in full swing. All you had to so was sit and wait for one to fall, wash it and eat it - that's real fresh fruit!

We booked it through the tour company inside the Posada Suiza in Merida (http://www.venezuela-adventura.com/), we can recommend both the tour agency and the hostel - great value and friendly service, in a family run place.

Parque Mochima, Anzoátegui - Venezuela

After an eventful days travelling from Margarita, trying to get a boat, eventually getting a plane and arriving by taxi to the mainland state of Anzoátegui at midnight we were lucky to get a bed at Rita's posada. Run by Rita herself, a crazy Swiz lady and her pack of terrifying security hounds ('all part of the adventure') we were pleased to be an easy ten minutes walk from Playa Colarada (a pretty orange sandy beach). A perfect location for our planned exploration of Parque Mochima. The park is made up of several little islands and beautiful deserted beaches. The reserve is big, 950 km, has perfect crystal clear water and is know for its beautiful pods of dolphins. We managed to see an incredible 50 dolphins by the end of the day, making Morwena especially happy! Unfortunately they were too quick for us to get any good photos so they'll have to just be imprinted in our memory...

We hired a little boat and a guide for the day from our beach, who was joined by his young son who did a great job of showing us around the park. On our first beach stop we went to check out the fisherman's catch that they were hauling in, they'd also caught a huge puffer fish which our guides filleted there and then ready for supper! Next stop was beautiful Playa Blanca where we enjoyed some lovely Pargo (bass) and a long snooze on the sand, before stopping on another island for some snorkeling. It was beautiful to tour round the islands and see the pods of dolphins on our way. We were all so glad we made the trip there, it was definitely worth the stop on the mainland for a perfect last day together in Venezuela...

Lagoon Restinga and Playa El Yake, Isla Margarita - Venezuela

After Lauren and Oli had to head back to London town, we cheered ourselves up with a final day trip on the island. So we called up big smiley Antonio, our regular taxi man, who gave us a little tour for the day.

We visited La Restinga Lagoon (which means sandbar in Spanish) for a tour of the mangroves. The lagoon is so lush and green compared to the rest of the island; we sped along on our boat cutting through the white mangroves wildlife spotting. The water was so clean and clear, we got to see the famous red starfish, the most amazing little seahorses and some crazy one-clawed crabs!

After our boat trip, we headed over to Playa el Yake, the islands water sports mecca with a very European vibe (it was the first time we'd seen other gringos on the island). We had a bite to eat on the beach and checked out the serious wind and kite surfing action for the afternoon...