The Colombian experience thus far....

Thank you all for the Birthday wishes, I'll make sure I raise a glass to each of you tonight.

As for Colombia it's been a mixed experience so far. To be honest we were glad to get out of Peru as the huge extent to which tourism has infiltrated the country has created a society cynical towards tourists and deft in the art of separating them from their money - any goodwill always came at a price. The boat ride from Iquitos to Leticia was comparable in some ways to the first boat ride from Yurimaguas to Iquitos, but quite different in other respects. The main differences (all negative unfortunately) included an engine so loud that it prevented the possibility of playing the guitar or talking without screaming, added to this was the storm we managed to sit amidst the entire journey with howling winds making conditions icy (in comparison to the sweaty days gone by), and finally was the condition of the toilet/shower that I think has contributed to my internal organs finally being totally liquidated and released in panic stricken dashes to bathrooms.

However, that wasn't really part of the Colombia experience so I'll return to that theme (I'm getting confused now as to whether I'm writing this as a journal for me or more as column - I think it changes depening on the style of book I'm reading at the time - currently a book consisting of articles by a journalist on the Bosnian war). The first impressions of Colombia was that people were actually helping us with nothing (directly) in it for them. In the afternoon we managed to get ourselves onto a cargo plane loaded with frozen fish (no room on the military plane). Never before have we been able to stand behind the pilots during the entire flight, including take-off and landing, including a nerve testing experience of our entirely analog operated jet descending rapidly through clouds and Andean peaks with zero visibility, expecting to suddenly come face to face with a sloth as we plunge into the side of a mountain. But as it happens we made it onto the tarmac without a glitch.

The downside of the experience was partly our own fault for not reading our Lonely Plant thoroughly enough. Our taxi driver refused to take us to our desired hostal claiming it was extremely dangerous and we should stay at this other cheap hotel in a safer part of town (which also happened to be stone throw from the airport), he then proceeded to charge us three times what we should have paid and we spent a self-admonishing night in a hotel twice the price of the hostal we wanted. Which is trouble for me as I'm down to my last $500 - donations will be accepted. Oh and I lost my passport. yay. Not such a drama as I'll just go to the embassy.

Although this morning we got a decent brekkie into us and got to our desired hostal, great place and cheaper and we are slowly warming up to Bogotá after last night's frustrations.

On a side note, although many may relate Cocaine with Colombia, Peru is actually the Cocaine heart of South America. They grow coca mainly in Bolivia, Colombia and Peru and then manufacture it in Colombia and to a lesser extent Bolivia, before it is shipped mostly into Peru for all the gringos to snort (literally every town is trying to throw the stuff at every white person in sight). Any danger related to cocaine is from startling the manufacturers (who are actually quite hospitable to travellers not seeming to pose a threat).