The End of Colombia

Right, it's been a while since the last one so where did we leave off? Leaving Minca, the trees, the view, the people and the place behind. Yep definitely could of stayed there for a lot longer than we did.

These next updates might be a bit rushed through as we are now very far behind!

From Minca we headed to Medellin on a 22 hour bus. The Colombians have a thing for air conditioning so after the first few hours the temperature drops and just keeps dropping, until you're sitting there in hats, scarves, blankets and anything else you have to keep warm, unfortunately we had prepared ourselves well for hot climates so had to make use of towels and extra pairs of socks.

Medellin - Colombia

I quite liked Medellin city, Kim wasn't as much of a fan, it has a fantastic (but awful) history. We took a walking tour with a guy named Pablo who took us around most of the key areas of the city, including many of the places tourists are advised not to go. We went down an interesting street selling pretty much only DVD’s; on the left you could buy family films, action films, rom coms etc, on the right you could buy Porn films…. and that was it, for the whole of the street, right next to a church! He gave us an in depth accounting of the city's history, including his personal experiences of grenades exploding at the end of his road. For him he said it just felt normal, if you don't know that that isn't how it is everywhere else, then it's just life. Many of the key areas of it's terrible past have now been converted to symbols of hope, for example a building that used to be known for housing the homeless and drug addicts, rapists and criminals, is now the main offices for Education. It definitely seemed like a safe city (except for the woman we discovered unzipping our bag whilst walking to the metro station), we could even tell you which church to go to if you don’t want to spend a night alone, and are willing to part with some money for that comfort.

Medellin - Colombia

Medellin - Colombia

Guatape - Colombia

About 2 hours from Medellin is Guatape, the key defining feature of this town is a gigantic Black Rock with a gigantic GI written on the side. The owner of our hostel told us someone in town tried to write Guatape on the side of it, but the town next to it that also claim ownership didn't like that and stopped him short. So they just have GI. You can judge for yourself, but I'm pretty sure the guy would of struggled to fit the whole word on the rock anyway? This place had some of the best views we've seen, it's one of those places that every minute you keep taking the same photo just because the view is so amazing you want to make sure you have it. Then I got so burnt kayaking on the lake, trying to tan the white upper bits of my legs, they went a bright purply colour :s I don't think that's healthy.

Guatape - Colombia

Guatape - Colombia

Jardin - Colombia

Another side trip from Medellin was Jardin (Garden in Spanish) a small town 4 hours away. Which was pretty and we enjoyed the cable cars to the mountains at the side, one was new and modern, the other a small rickety wooden cage, but other than almost leaving our backpacks there and holding up the bus to run back to the bus office where we'd left them, not a lot interesting happened.

Jardin - Colombia

Jardin - Colombia

Las Lajas Sanctuary - Ipiales - Colombia

After 26 hours of buses Kim was almost ready to pass out, travel sickness pills have their limits. We then arrived in Ipiales, just before the border of Ecuador, a rather dreary town but our cheapest nights accommodation at £6 for a double room. We sidetracked to Las Lajas Sanctuary, an almost Disney style looking building. This was also our first llama sighting, but weirdly it was dressed in a giant blue dress with a crown on.

From there we hit the border and tagged our passports with a few more stamps. Colombia was an amazing country, with hot weather, impressive views and a lot to do, even with four weeks we had to miss of a few places we wanted to see. The people there were very friendly and in Medellin we even had people coming up to us to welcome us to their country (our guide told us

this was due to the increase in tourism being a symbol of how Colombia is changing since it was known for being so dangerous). Here's a few extra photo's of this wonderful place :)

Botanical Garden - Medellin - Colombia

Medellin - Colombia

Botanical Garden - Medellin - Colombia

Medellin - Colombia

Guatape - Colombia

Jardin - Colombia

Jardin - Colombia

Guatape - Colombia

Guatape - Colombia

A bit of politeness goes a long way - Medellin - Colombia

Guatape - Colombia

Colombia Update 2 - Tayrona National Park and Minca

Me walking on the sand

So as we waved goodbye to Palomino we were uncertain of what lay ahead at Tayrona National Park. We had been warned by other travellers about the long 2-3 hour walk in the heat and boy were they right! As we arrived at the National Park we were surprised to see just how touristy the entrance was - nothing else we had seen in Colombia had been this organised, it was rather bizarre. The hike started off pleasant enough as we were sheltered from the midday sun by the tall, overhanging trees, spotting lizards as we went. Mike and I had been stupid enough to bring a large backpack with us for Palomino and the National Park and this took its toll as the walk wore on making the person at the time wearing it sweat uncontrollably.The hardest bit (and I am sure Sophie will agree) was trekking through the sand. As beautiful as the beaches were, and as blue as the sea was, walking through the sand was a serious workout! The scenery though was undeniably beautiful as we would switch between forest, beach and climbing rocks. Almost two hours in we stopped at the scenic La Piscina beach for a break and to take in the beautiful blue sea. It wasn’t until we left this beach that we realised that we were being eaten by small black bugs. The insects from the forest and now the beach bugs had eaten my legs alive even through 50% deet spray.

La Cabo beach

40 minutes later we arrived at the basic, beach side campsite of La Cabo. The beach wasn’t quite as nice as La Piscina but was certainly bigger, and with the tall palm trees wasn’t a bad alternative. Whilst Mike and I jumped over waves, Sophie befriended some young Colombian guys in the process of trying to break into a coconut that had moments earlier fallen from the heavens. One guy in particular took a shine to Sophie and tried to write love notes in the sand before the waves washed them away. It was rather cute really.

That night after Mike and I were searched by “security” on the beach using a phone torch we retired to our hammocks in the thatched roof building,  wrapped up in our sleeping bag liners and clothing to prevent feeding any more hungry insects.

Mike writing his book overlooking the view

The next day we made our way 2 hours back to the entrance we headed on to Minca for relaxing mountain views and Spanish lessons. The walk up to Casa Loma was hard but so worth it. Situated 50 meters above the town, the friendly hostel is effectively a tree house on one of the mountain sides and the ultimate backpacker retreat. Under the wooden tree house was a cosy communal area with hammocks, a variety of interesting chairs and 2 long bench tables for everyone to eat together at meal times. We had also entered a wifi free zone much to Sophie’s dismay (and yes, first-worlders such a thing does exist!) Surprisingly, this was really great as it meant that everyone there actually socialised and played card games in the evenings as opposed to sitting in different corners of the room on various technological gadgets scrolling through Facebook.

Whilst we were here we spoke to a variety of Americans, Australians and Europeans, and this is what we learnt about different cultures:

1. No matter what country you are in (UK, Oz, USA, etc) “Southerners” will take the piss out of “Northerners”
2. People from the UK tend to insult each other more for the purpose of jokes
3. FOX tv is just as much of a joke for people in USA as it is in the UK
4. People from the UK have more words for “Peodophile”
5. Men in the USA are usually circumcised from birth, unlike other countries. This came as a massive shock to the Americans. However, on the other side of the table, the guy from Bristol was equally shocked that Americans do this and crossed his legs.

Mike in the water

On the nice bit of the road

During our 1 and a half week stay we embarked on a number of activities such as a day of mountain biking complete with waterfall and coffee factory tour. Mike and Sophie had both been mountain biking several times before and loved it. I on the other hand had never been and it is safe to say it's been a long time since I rode my bike back at home. All kitted out we descended down the severely potholed track and I was pretty scared to stand up on the bike! Shortly after we made it to our first stop, the La Victoria coffee factory where we were taken around all the century-old machinery which still works today. We learnt how the beans were sorted, washed and dried ready for roasting. After seeing that the grade 3 beans are dried on the dusty concrete floor, we have tried to drink better coffee since! After what seemed like a short period we were back on the bikes, continuing down the hill towards our lunch stop at Pozo Azul. We encountered some large descents on the way with loose rocks which made me wobble and hate every minute. The waterfall though was another nice respite from the riding and was particularly busy with locals. Pozo Azul is one of the biggest in the area and only Mike was brave enough to venture into the cold water. The rest of the afternoon was spent making our way down to the bottom of the hill, past Minca towards Santa Marta. As the roads became normal I stopped panicking and was finally able to enjoy the final descent. Despite all the wobbles, and a brief panic attack, I am glad I tried it and made it all the way to the end, but next time I think I will leave it to the others!

The mini Roasting Machine 

We also visited another coffee farm in Minca called La Candelaria located up in the hills.  Unlike the factory on the bike tour this was an actual farm and a factory all in one. Eugine the owner of the farm took us through each step from growing the coffee seeds on his farm to preparing the beans ready for drinking in his limited, but well rehearsed English. His sorting machines were impressive but none more than the alcoholic insect repeller and the mini roasting machine which he had built himself by watching videos on Youtube! After taking in the heavenly smell of roasted coffee we were rewarded with a cup of the freshly made stuff.  One of the highlights of the day though had to be feeding “Tooky” the friendly Toucan who had forced himself upon the family as their pet and now spends his days being fed (and pooping) masses of Papaya chunks.  

Mike feeding Tooky

The rest of our time in Minca was spent lazying in hammocks looking out at the view, Spanish lessons (complete with homework!) and eating all the brownies at Minca’s Coffee shop.

The First Week in Dangerous and Drug Riddled Colombia - Week 4 Update

Cartagena - Santa Marta - Palomino - Tayrona National Park

Cartagena's Colourful Street

We arrived in Cartagena - Colombia rather tired and disheveled after the five boat journey. The last thing we could think of doing was then heading to a large dorm room to try and navigate around ten other people. Cue splashing some cash and getting a rather nice hotel room which included a small balcony looking out over Cartagena’s old town. It had an impressive view of one of the colourful colonial streets, often filled with the sounds of a horse a carriage trotting down the paved street. Of the 80 channels on the tele, only 1 was in English (BBC Entertainment), so we spent our first exciting night in a new city learning about wildlife in London and the growing population of Scorpions.

Kim and Sophie at San Felipe Castle

The next day we had to rise early to meet Sophie who was our first visitor on our trip, joining us for the first two weeks in Colombia, despite everyone back home saying it was too dangerous of a place to go. For two days we idly breezed around the Old Town stopping every now and then for an ice cream or a milk shake, visiting the sites such as San Felipe castle and getting lost in it’s many dark passageways.

But on the third day it came time to leave. After a 5 hour bus north with both me and Kim passed out from the roofies we took (motion sickness tablets), thank god we had sophie to protect us haha, we arrived in Santa Marta. Definitely not the nicest place we've been! But the hostel did have 2 pools, a pool table, kitchen, bar and pretty good wifi. So we can't really complain.

Bus Loaded with Veg

Santa Marta was just a pit stop on our way to Palomino, a fun 45 minute walk in the heat, through a cramped market, with stalls of fly ridden meat and fish, smelly enough to almost make you gag, with our big bags. I'm pretty sure in the market was our first unsuccessful pickpocket attempt, with a small girl grabbing my right arm and then a guy walking very close and laughed loudly after my hand immediately pinned to my wallet on my left side.

The rest of the journey went off without a hitch, we sat back on the bus, payed our 8000 cop (£2) for a two hour journey and watched the Colombians hop on, hop off, drop off packages to be delivered later on the route, like a crude postal service. People boarded carrying large torso sized sacks of veg and lining the cramped isle with them.

Dreamer Hostel - £8 a night!

Our two nights planned for Palomino quickly expanded to three, (I'm sure you can understand why from the photo,) if we didn’t have so much planned we could of easily spent even longer. For a couple days we rested from the exaustion of being on the move so much. We did some hippy yoga on the beach, we drank a few cocktails, then went for a nice relaxing tube down the Palomino River.

Chillaxing on Palomino Beach

It was supposed to be a relaxing tube down the Palomino River at least. It started with a 15 minute mototaxi ride, on dirt roads, in swimming gear, whilst carrying a giant inflated inner tube. Then a reasonably tough up hill walk, trying to chat to the group of Colombians we had met en route. Luckily one spoke much better English than we spoke Spanish. And finally we made it to the river, I got some amazing photo's of the group of us before we set off, then took comical ones of Sophie perching hands and knees on her tube. And we slowly floated down the river, drinking beer and chillaxing trying not to get swept the wrong way. Then disaster struck! After a moment of stupidity on Kim's part, trying to play Battle Tubes! (I might be stretching the truth on who's really to blame there.) My camera slipped off my lap (the wrist strap had broken and had a long selfie stick attached) and was lost forever to the murky depths of the Palomino river :( Google 'Tubing Palomino' to see plenty of other peoples photo's that weren't stupid enough to lose their camera.

So Unfortunately no good photo's of that and it slightly tarnished the amazing day. But oh well, it was still an amazing trip. 2 hour's floating down a river to arrive back at the beach front hostel and give my camera a good sending off with some bevvies!

A bit more of a quick overview, but Colombia has been incredibly busy! With only staying for 1 or two nights in most places for the first few weeks we burnt out a bit.

Travelling is not always plain sailing... - Week 3 Update

Before Panama City awakes at the unnatural time of 5am more than 30 eager backpackers from our hostel were awake awaiting their transport to paradise, us included. I knew that the journey that day wouldn't be easy - who sends several 4 x 4s as transport instead of a minibus unless they are needed?! But I came prepared with over 60 travel sickness tablets, wristbands, water, etc just in case. As the only 2 in our designated jeep so far we eagerly awaited to see who would join us on our boat trip. The passengers from the next hostel in the city had clearly overslept and the driver had to dig them out of their beds. Another hostel later and with 7 people in our car we set off towards the San Blas hills. We were disappointed to find that no one with us was in our boat but made friends with the chatty Canadians.

Sailing boats in the San Blas

Within an hour we hit the San Blas hills, and what appeared to just be some rocky terrain soon turned into my ever-so-favourite twisty turns as experienced in Tobago. All I could do was to close my eyes to the green jungle we were passing through and pray that we would get to our destination soon. Every now and again the 4 x 4 stopped along the trail for the local people to check our passports and stinge money off us. $20pp for the tourist tax, $2pp for something else and it went on. Within minutes of getting out of the jeep (and the the relief of the drive being over) we were ushered away from our group by a man who only seemed to know the word “Baruffa”, the name of our boat. We climbed upon his speedboat with a local family transporting their wooden bird cage and put on the well-worn life jackets provided. The man sat on a spare one which at the time seemed odd but I figured he didn’t want to get his bottom wet. The slow ride from the shore lead us into a false sense of security and regret for not getting our cameras out, but soon enough we were off at full speed in the open water. With every wave the boat lifted (us with it) and crashed back not absorbed in any way by the sea. At first it was novel but it soon wore off as our bony bottoms got bruised and spines crunched. I glanced behind us at the local family for reassurance assuming that they had done this many times before but they looked equally in shock and uncomfortable. After about 30 mins when our bottoms were finally broken (the man’s life jacket cushioning made a lot of sense), we got our first look at some of the San Blas Islands. Some were small islands with pale sand and palm trees unoccupied, others had huts and were owned by individual families. We approached the Baruffa our sailing boat and new home for 5 days where we met Rudy our Captain and fellow back-packer Alex for the first time.

The Kuna tribe selling their catch of the day

Happiness for reaching the boat and the start of our adventure was short lived. Whilst Rudy took our passports to the immigration office on one of the islands, we decided to explore surroundings and get our sea legs. Descending below deck we both resurfaced within seconds due to the unbearable heat and rocking of the boat. Needing to take our malaria tablets we decided to eat the peanut butter sandwiches prepared earlier and chill above deck as Rudy returned. The Kuna’s tribe at immigration wanted us to provide the receipt of the tourist tax paid earlier which was given initially to someone else in our jeep. Rudy after finding out that we didn't have it cursed the locals claiming them to be always stealing money from tourists and decided to set sail ignoring them. As we approached a beautiful snorkeling area my body decided it wasn’t prepared to be a sailor - cue the travel sickness and the remains of the peanut butter sandwich. Hoping that was the end of it we jumped into the sea prepared to see the wreck and the exotic sea life which now inhabited it. Unfortunately once again this proved too much and it’s fair to say that my love for peanut butter was temporarily destroyed. As I sat on the sand grateful to be briefly back on land I started to panic wondering how I was going to survive the next 5 days. Thankfully, that afternoon and the next day were a breeze - mainly due to the drowsy effects of our new travel sickness pills! Luckily enough I was able to stay awake to able to snorkel, get lost in a coral maze and explore a new island on the second day. To avoid going below deck as much as possible we slept above it in the hammocks :)

Mike holding up our dinner

One of the highlights of the trip was definitely the range of fresh seafood! Local people on their canoes would approach the boat hanging on to the sides selling the fish that they had caught that day. On one particular day we got 3 lobsters, 4 groupers and one other fish all for US$25 (approx £16!) a considerable bargain to the prices back home! On other days Rudy would trail his fishing rods from the back of the boat effortlessly catching tuna and mahi mahi later concocting amazing seafood dishes every meal time. The downside to this (and it's unfortunate that there has to be one) if that since we started travelling we now only eat twice a day meaning that we both often struggled at meal times to eat it all and felt incredibly rude to our host.

Our boat at a 45 degree angle!

As dawn approached on day 3 the 25 hour sea crossing was upon us and we knew that we were in for a rough day. This time we both made travel sickness preparations after hearing horrendous experiences from other blogs. My plan to survive (which had been working well for me so far) was to sleep the whole time and not eat anything. 6 Hours in I awoke to find the boat at a 45 degree angle to the sea and Mike missing. In sudden panic for what I thought would be inevitable I clung to the side of the boat for dear life ready to be sick. As waves threw water over the deck I looked at over the sea wondering how on earth I was going to get through the next 19 hours and hating every minute. Unknown to me whilst I was sleeping Mike had gone below deck to pee. Trapped and swaying in our shower cubicle sized bathroom sea sickness had overcome him and he had to make that awful decision on whether to be ill or pee first. Its just as well he didn't pee as when his head was over the bowl it splashed back in his face! Unable to get back on deck quickly he lunged for the bed in the cabin and tried to sleep. Needless to say that both of us fell victim to sea sickness as I too had to make the dreaded trip to the toilet. Clearly Germans’ have stronger stomachs as both Alex and Rudy had no problems and happily just carried on with catching fish and drowning them in rum.

Me with my Coco Loco looking out to sea

By midday on day 4 the crossing was over and we sat up properly for the first time. We were on our way to an Aquarium on an island off the shore of Colombia. Unsure about now getting on a dinghy right then, I reluctantly agreed for the promise of being on land. As we got off the dinghy we continued to sway walking along to the ticket booth. For most of our time here we kept to the benches overlooking the shark and dolphin enclosures trying to regain some normality, debating whether the sea life would eat the vomit struggling to escape us. I am pleased to report that it got much easier from then as later that day we found a smooth area of water to float in and spent the rest of our afternoon relaxing. Rudy tried to tempt us with raw tuna for lunch but after seasickness the last thing you want to see is fish. Later that day when we had almost recovered we ventured to the nearby island where a local chopped into a coconut and poured in rum for the most rustic Coco Loco we have ever experienced.          

On our final day we continued traveling smoothly for another 3 hours to reach Cartagena and go through immigration. Now there is always something about waiting at immigration that makes you feel guilty, and I assumed with Colombia’s history of drugs that this one would be intense. We were warned back in Panama that should we have drugs these should be consumed beforehand! Upon arrival we got back into the dinghy and Rudy navigated it through the yacht maze to shore and we were directed into air conditioned laundry room. Although surprised, we were grateful for the cool air and waited for further instruction. 4 Men came to check our passports, injection lists and fill out forms but never asked us any questions or wanted to check our bags which were back on the boat. We had to leave our passports there for further checks so we went back to the boat for one final meal of fish together. An hour later our passports were returned to us and with our backpacks in tow we wandered through the open gate into South America vowing to stay away from boats for a while!

A City Divided - Week 2.5 Update

Two and half weeks! I can't believe that's all it's been. That's barely enough time for everyone back home to miss me and realise how much of a light I was in their life.

But the biggest step in our journey, leaving the family behind and setting off just myself and Kim into the depths of the unknown.

After 3 flights, 24 hours, naps in both Miami and Trinidad airport and Kim trying desperately and successfully not to flare up her travel sickness we arrived in Panama. For a country that we don't know much about, didn't speak the language and we're a bit green on getting ourselves around, I had decided to book a hotel (the only one offering free airport transfer). The hotel had some pretty sketchy reviews on reliability of the transport and the quality of the clientele, with prostitutes being a common sight. But it had a free airport transfer! So what could really go wrong!

Nice from far, but far from nice!!
Panama City's New Town

Well after waiting for over 45 minutes for our car/bus/whatever the hell was picking us up, we were getting a bit dubious as to whether we would just have to fork out the $30 for a taxi. But eventually, after a few laps of the waiting area our lift did eventually arrive; he had apparently been there for over an hour and a half but had to park the car. Thankfully, he spoke very good English and pointed out all the main areas of Panama's 'new town' as we were driving along; these are pretty easy to identify as all the main areas seem to be the locations of the tallest buildings.... Hard Rock Hotel, Trump Tower, A Bank, Another Bank, A Third Bank that swirled into the sky. As we turned into the road for the hotel it seemed at least half the reviews had been correct, trying to wave us down was a scantily clad, tanned leggy woman, with a skirt so short i'm not sure it would of even needed to be hoisted up to do the dirty deed!

After navigating checking in, when the receptionist didn't speak English, (how dare they,) we worked our way up to our room; with a bit of effort we entered to what looked a bit like a seedy motel room, complete with TV with 3 out of the 30 channels showing 24 hour free porn. But at least it was in English unlike most of the other 27 channels (I think it was at least? Can you orgasm in spanish?). Each night we got a visit from a rather friendly gecko that waltzed in through our window that couldn't close and left through our bathroom ..... somewhere. But we only had two nights to spend here then we're were off gallivanting on our Yacht.

Looking out from Panama's Old Town

With our one day in Panama we decided to explore the 'old town', as in general old stuff quite often looks nicer than the new stuff, an early morning rise (10am) we braved the short walk in 35 degree humid heat to arrive in old town. A rather gorgeous looking area with brick paved road (that bit's important) and old colonial buildings; some in greater disrepair than others. An enjoyable walk around, taking in the few battered churches and things you might expect in an area like this led us to start exploring a bit further. We reached the point all the fancy brick paving ended and carried on going, we found an open area'd plaza where we suddenly realised we stuck out a bit more than we did half an hour ago, without a pale skinned person in sight. But we brushed it off and decided to carry on exploring, a left here, a right there, this area definitely didn't have the same colonial half renovated feel of where we had come from.

Wandering around in our own little world we we're approached by a large smiling man with a total of about 2 teeth, he shook my hand and gripped it hard, then whilst still remaining jovial warned us to turn back the way we came. Only once he was sure we had fully understood his warning of it being unsafe further on did he release me, to let us continue our exploring (in the other direction).

After another hour of wandering in places we probably weren't supposed to be in we made it back to the bricked road, which we were later told tourists shouldn't leave (woops!), we stopped for a quick slush puppy at an internet Cafe. And this is where are enjoyable wandering turned sour. An email from the boat, they cancelled our trip, 36 hours before it was due to depart! It was the 9th, the trips took 5 days and we had to be in Colombia on the 17th to meet Sophie, so to be there on time we needed to find a boat that left in the next three days! Thank god it's low season! Several emails and a lot of chasing around to find companies that do it and struggling with rubbish internet we had another boat booked up for the 12th. But we then had two extra days in a city we had barely intended to stop over in.

Our spacious first night in a well cleaned dorm room :p

Not sure we could stand more trips from the gecko we migrated to Luna's Castle, if we thought the walk to old town in the heat was uncomfortable, add on 10kg backpacks and we arrived at the hostel dripping wet and red in the face looking more like a bloated puffer fish than our usual gorgeous selves. It was our first proper hostel experience, complete with ping pong table, tiered cushioned movie theatre, pancake breakfasts and 8 other people in your room. In Kim's case it also came with someone sleeping in her designated bed (which got us a nights money back).

Red Devil Bus, probably named for their skill
terrorising the roads.

With our last day we visited the 'new town'. Well the less said about that the better really, for all of the old town's charm, atmosphere and individuality, the new town was devoid of character. People moved from A to B on busy roads, buses honked and swerved across lanes. But the streets felt lifeless, without anything too it. There was so little to it in nature (not in size) that we completely forgot to take any photo's and other than just saying, it was sh*t, I am struggling to describe it ..... so I won't any further.




Wow these posts are getting longer and longer, so well done if you have managed to get this far. Tomorrow's the boat trip, so that'll be the next post in a week or so :)

Hasta luego mis amigos!

Photo Diary - Week 2 - Tobago

The End Of The Start - Week 2 Update

Week 2! A polar opposite of week 1? Well not quite, but it does write a completely different story. For all of week 1's lounging, sunbathing and drinking (which are still ever present), week 2 contains a whole lot of walking, driving, snorkeling, hiking, diving and just generally doing a hell of a lot more.

With the addition of a car, the whole of the 40km long, 10km wide island is easily accessible... or so we thought, until we actually tried to drive round it. The winding, potholed, steep roads make even the slowest of drives across the east third of the island an adrenaline-fueled adventure, accompanied by the smell of cooking brakes and Kim's vomit (yes, again), in a car that makes Kim's 1L speed wagon (Toyota Yaris) look like it has the acceleration of a Ferrari.

Argyle Falls

Our first trip out, with only half the party daring to attempt the most heinous of holiday activities (exercise), was to go to Argyle Waterfall. The falls had been described as a must do in Tobago, with which I completely agree. When arriving at the falls we were quickly approached by our three guides who clambered out from under the car next to where we had parked; the first two appeared fit and healthy if not a bit small, the third looked to be rather crippled, unable to bend his leg, but after the initial showboating for attention walked around perfectly fine. The guides stuck with us all day, never once getting annoyed at us when we were slower up the trails than they were, but often getting in our way during the tricky bits. One even left us towards the end when he realised another group of tourists might pay out better than us, but that was the one covered in fleas so we didn't overly mind. Oh, probably should have mentioned they were three stray dogs, which we affectionately named Fido, Bruce, and Sheila. The Falls, a 54m stepped cascade had approximately 6 platforms with natural jacuzzis and deep pools for lounging around. Today was definitely 'an early bird catches the worm' moment, we had the whole falls to ourselves for all our dips in the cool, welcome water on a hot, 30 degree day. Several other groups had turned up by the time we made our way back down the falls, and whilst the pools were deep, more than a handful of people made them look incredibly crowded.

Fido and Sheila

Pigeon Point

After the first week's discovery of the idyllic Stonehaven Bay I thought we'd be hard pressed to find anything better, but Pigeon Point and Pirates Bay come very close if not slightly better.
      Pigeon Point is a stretch of Beach that stretches its white, powdery sand down the West side of the island, complete with crystal clear waters making the view truly majestic. The only downside is that to enjoy the most picturesque area (photographed right), you have to pay a whopping TT$20 or about £2.20.

Pirates Bay

   


Pirates Bay, a short but steep 15 minute walk up and down from Charlottesville lies in a cove with high forested hills all around, giving much the impression of being abandoned on a paradise island just like in Lost. This was also the location of the worst toilet we have seen so far, of which you will be pleased to see the photos once I have created an addition to our blog ...... Travel Bogs. Again, not to big these places up too much, they do have a downside; Pirates Bay is one of the most easterly points on the island, which despite only being about 25-30km away as the crow flies took us over an hour and a half to reach due to reasons stated earlier.

Manta Ray on Buccoo Reef

Definitely my favourite part of being on a Caribbean island has to be the opportunity to see amazing sea life. Along the rocks on most beaches and in reefs just off the shore, a vast range of colourful fish, eels, squids and rays are just waiting to be disturbed by some idiot splashing along, making Darth Vader noises through a plastic mouthpiece.
       An early morning glass bottomed boat trip gave by far the best chance to see the range of aquatic life, with the highlight being a flowing manta ray, which I almost got a video of trying to bury itself in the sand; but I now know for next time where the video button on my camera is!!

So a busy week, with next week looking much busier as everyone else flies home and we fly onto Panama to catch our 50ft Yacht

Photo Diary - Week 1 - Tobago