Cotopaxi Volcano, Ecuador

I signed up for a daylong tour with Gulliver travel company to hike up to the glacier line of Cotopaxi Volcano. Cotopaxi is an active volcano, the second highest in Ecuador, standing at 19,347ft. An eruption from Cotopaxi killed over 1,000 people in 1887. It is due for another eruption, and now over a million people live in nearby Quito. When it happens, it will be horrific.
Hopefully today would not be that day. We rode a bus for several sleepy hours and then started our hike at about 14,700ft, which was already the highest elevation I'd ever achieved. My $2 hat from Otavalo came in handy.

Our first look at the glacier.

At 15, 700ft. we took a break in this refuge. Soon it began to hail and snow.

Finally we reached the highest point we could hike to; 16,400ft! To go further on the glacier would require ice climbing equipment, and also a day of acclimatization to be able to handle 19,000ft. I'd like to have done that, but, so little time.

We descended back to the refuge, where a fantastic spread of food awaited a dozen hungry hikers.
After hiking the rest of the way down to the parking lot, we jumped on mountain bikes and barrelled down the dirt road out of the park.
I recommend Gulliver Travel for this tour. At $35 I thought it was a good value, they provided a good English speaking guide, good food, no problems. The easiest way to book a tour is just to turn up at their office in La Mariscal, see what they have available and sign on.

The vegetation at 12,000ft looked remarkable similar to what you'd see in Colorado at a similar elevation.

Otavalo, Ecuador

Today I did a day tour to the market towns of Otavalo and Cuicocha. Along the way we crossed the Equator, and stopped to snap some pics. There is a much larger and more famous Equator monument called Mital del Mundo, but it turns out that it's not actually on the equator. They missed it by 200 meters. So this one's good enough for me.
I was so busy haggling and buying stuff in Otavalo, I hardly took any pictures. But here is an example of a colorful Otavalo market stall. We had 90 minutes in Otavalo, and I could have used 3 hours at least. This is the place to come to outfit your whole family for winter weather. Many beautiful sweaters, scarves, hats, mittens, jackets.

Next we stopped at the nice Peguche waterfall. Ecuador is really a beautiful country. In just a couple hours of driving, we passed giant snowcapped mountains, and deep, sharply dropping valleys. We saw farmers working the land all the way up to 14,000ft. Rivers rushing through the valley floors. Indigenous ladies in traditional dress carrying babies in a sling.

Her shirt says, "I am a beauuuuuuuuuuutiful child"
This plant produces a drug known as Scopolamine. Scopolamine is a dangerous drug that turns humans into near zombies. Criminals blow the powder form of the drub into peoples faces and then can easily convince the person to give them their ATM pin, their car keys, or their apartment keys. According to Wikipedia, "In recent years the criminal use of scopolamine has become epidemic in Colombia. Approximately one in five emergency room admissions for poisoning in Bogota have been attributed to scopolamine." If you want to be terrified before your next visit to Colombia, click on the link.

Quito, Ecuador

Ecuador is Country number 55. I was happy to arrive here, as it was sunny and warm. Quito is the second highest national capital in the world at 9,350 ft elevation. Before my trip I worried that the elevation might affect me, but I felt nothing at all in the cities.

Unlike Bogota, Quito has a well maintained and extensive old town. I walked for hours through it.

Quito also has a strong tourism infrastructure. I was able to book a day tour to Otavalo and a day tour to hike up part of Cotopaxi volcano for $35 each.

Quito has a great central location for tourists, La Mariscal, aka "Gringolandia". There you will find the tour agencies, hotels and hostels for any budget, and great restaurants and bars.

These two guys tried to pickpocket me right outside my hotel in mid afternoon. The shorter one then called "Senor! Senor!" and pointed to something on my back with an outstretched hand offering a napkin. I was about to stop and investigate this yellow crap on my back, when I saw someone else moving towards me from the other direction, and I remembered hearing about this particular scam where someone squirts something on you and gets your attention by cleaning it off, while a third party picks your pocket or steals your bag. Instead I changed directions and just walked away from both of them. Once in my hotel I discovered it was mustard covering my jacket, backpack, and jeans. After cleaning everything and changing clothes, I left the hotel to find the bastards still loitering nearby.

Quito has a visible minority of indigenous people who wear traditional dress which includes a bowler hat for women. Sadly, the main occupation for these folks seems to be selling lottery tickets, gum, and cigarettes.

I had a footwear disaster in Quito. My biker boots have been wearing down over the years, and on this day the heel of one tore right off, leaving me with bare wood on slippery cobblestones. I limped past a few shoe stores and was directed to this fellow's shop. He replaced the rubber heels on both boots while I waited for just $5. His wife even sewed a rip in my sweater for a buck.
The motorcyclist on the ground just got run down by the white truck right in front of me. A crowd gathered to pass judgement on the incident. The verdict seemed to be in favor of the biker, and the truck driver was made to pull off to the side to wait for the cops.

A beautiful blue sky above my hotel. Such a relief to see the sun after 5 rainy days in Bogota.

Bogota, Colombia

Colombia is country number 54.

When I tell people I'm going to Colombia; I can see the look on their face. They are thinking of kidnapping, guerrillas, cocaine, and Pablo Escobar.

Kidnapping: This is just not happening anymore in any of Colombia's major cities. The murder rate in Bogota matches that of Pittsburgh, PA. Crime is no worse than any other city of eight million with a huge discrepancy between rich and poor.

Guerrillas: The jungles and the forest to the south and east of the country are still occupied by the FARC and ELN respectively, and if you wander off there, you may be captured and held for ransom or killed. The guerrillas have been greatly marginalized by the Uribe government, though not without horrific human rights violations. Many Colombians are outraged at the loss of innocent life caused by the heavy handed police state actions of Uribes war on the guerrillas. But, as evidenced by the majority support for Santos, Uribe's heir apperant, the majority of Colombians are happy to see an end to the kidnappings, the carjackings, the bombings and the terror, at whatever the collateral human cost.

Cocaine: Despite the billions of dollars wasted on the US's "War on Drugs"; Colombia continues to process and export 90% of the worlds cocaine. The vast majority of it is processed in jungle labs owned by the FARC or ELN. It is then shipped up either the Caribbean or Pacific coast of Central America via submarine or hidden in fishing boats, then overland through Mexico and into the US. Some of it gets shipped to West Africa into Senegal and Nigeria and then into Europe.

No one offered me any cocaine in Bogota. I didn't see any on the street. I thought nothing of it in fact, until about my third day in town. I met lots of travelers where I was staying, Hostal Sue. It was the usual group of early twenty-somethings from England, Australia, Ireland, and continental Europe who were taking a year or so to backpack around the world on a shoestring budget. I drank beers with these guys, had good conversation, and we'd make plans to go see the Salt Cathedral, or go to a soccer game the next day. But when the next day came, there'd be no sign of them. I wouldn't see them until the evening, when they'd tell me "Oh we were out till 8am, and I was wrecked, so I couldn't make it." And I'd think "8am?! You sat around at the tiny, boring hostel bar drinking till 8am? Why?" Around the third day I noticed the bloodshot eyes, the shaky hands, and it hit me. When a group of three Aussie guys all got up together to disappear into their room, a leaned over and asked one of the guy's Colombian girlfriend,

"Where are they going?"

"To their room."

"To do coke, right?"

"Yes."

"So they didn't invite you?"

"I'm from Cali. I've done enough coke to last a lifetime."

Later I asked a particularly amped Aussie guy about it, and he told me that he can get a gram of pure cocaine for $5 in Bogota. In Los Angeles, he'd have to pay $75 for a gram of weak stuff cut with god knows what. So I learned that even when it comes to drug purchases, the real backpackers always know where to find the best deal.

Pablo Escobar: Still dead. I never saw anything about the legendary drug kingpin in Bogota. He was from Medellin, so maybe there is a big Escobarland Disney-like memorial there.

Bogota has some fantastic grafitti. Someone has edited this to show the police as the constructors of violence.

A cobblestone street in the small historical area of La Candelaria. This is where I stayed.

"I'd rather vote for these madmen." The Presidential election was only a few days away when I arrived.

Some drunk Bogatenos I bumped into on the street.

"Yankees, get out of Colombia and the World."

Bogota is a very modern city, but I did see this guy leading his horse down the main street to pick up trash.

Bogota has very little tourist infrastructure. Though La Candelaria has several quality hostels, no one has opened a tour company there. There are many great day trips from Bogota that could be made, such as Zipaquira Salt Cathedral, Guatavita lake, but no one is offering services to reach them. There is only one good day tour to be found, and it is a must do; Bogota Bike Tours. I was the only person that signed up for the daily 10:30am tour on this particular day, and rain was threatening. Any other tour company would certainly have cancelled on me. Not Mike. I got a personal one-on-one tour of the city for 6 hours! Mike showed me parts of the city I never would have seen on my own. I especially enjoyed riding through the National University and viewing the revolutionary grafitti there, tasting exotic Colombian fruits in the market, seeing the cemetery, entering the bullfighting ring, the emerald marketplace. Throughout the tour Mike told me stories about each area, and gave me a deeper understanding of the reasons and motivations behind the many facets of Colombian society, including the guerrillas, the paramilitaries, the student groups, the poor, the rich, the federal government. All this for $12??!! This is a must-do tour when in Bogota.
Mike started off our tour in the Plaza Bolivar.

We spent some time at the National University. This place is so left wing it makes Berkeleylook fascist. The Bogota police are banned from even entering the school grounds. I think it's encouraging that a right wing government allows a state-funded university to be covered in anti-government marxist grafitti.

An apartment building that was blown up by the FARC.

I ate a lot of empanadas in Bogota. They are 50 cents each, and sold everywhere.

The Plaza de Toros. A classy stadium for a despicable sport.

Mike bought me some different fruits found only in Colombia. Good stuff.

We even investigated the Emerald Market, which consists of a bunch of guys standing around a major intersection with little folded pieces of paper holding what may or may not be emeralds. Colombia is the number one exporter of Emeralds.

I spent a morning at the Museo de Oro, or Gold Museum. Nice stuff.

View from the top of the Teleferico at 10,300ft.

My first day in Bogota was sensory overload. I live on a small, sparsely populated island, with no weather to speak of. Every day is quiet, warm, and sunny. On this Sunday morning in Bogota, buckets of rain splashed down on its eight million residents as crackling peals of thunder exploded, seemingly directly overhead. Cascades of water ran off every roof, and rolled in waves down the streets. The thunder was terrifying. It felt like a building would be vaporized at any moment. Every doorway was crowded with pedestrians hiding from the deluge. But on the particular Sunday, not everyone was dry. Thousands of green t-shirt clad citizens were joyously marching down the Carrera Septima in support of Presidential candidate Antanas Mockus. Chanting slogans, beating drums, and tooting horns, the largely student led group formed a mile long green snake ending in the spacious Plaza de Bolivar, the heart of Bogota. The supporters were dripping wet, yet obviously excited and motivated by the potential for their man in the next weekends election. (Mockus finished a distant second with 21% of the vote, necessitating a runoff election against the 46% of center-right candidate Santos three weeks later)

After watching from a dry empanda stand for a long while, the rain eased, and I followed the long green line down to the Plaza de Bolivar. Inside the Plaza, a stage was set up, bands were playing, fireworks being shot off, and motivational speakers were getting the crowd energized. I chose to pass through the massive police cordon of security and join them. I bought a green t-shirt. Bogota has a very white almost Anglo-looking population, so if I didn't open my mouth, I could almost fit in as a real Bogateno.

My second day I ran up into the unpopulated mountains on the edge of town up to about 10,000ft. I saw cows, burros, sheep, herding dogs, two farmers, and twelve heavily armed soldiers. Colombia has a massive police and military presence. By far the largest I've ever seen in any country. On this small road leading into the Andes, these soldiers were stopping and searching every single vehicle driving into Bogota. When a nation is torn apart by civil war and guerrilla terrorism, this is what it takes to retain control.