the sun sets over quito, skies on fire.

i announce to the hostel that i would like to drink BEER at a BAR and would anyone care to join, this earns me one new zealander, two english and a german. theres a rough idea to barhop for a bit and end up at a club somewhere, i have a vague idea of where i'm going.

the first bar: beer on tap. for the first time in ages. the pilsner. maybe its just been a while but it tastes really fantastic. we all introduce each other. mmm, this smells like an after work place. lots of locals. ah, the footballs on. and the're turning the volume up. at least the beer was good. moving on.

the second bar: very small and cosy. 3 big bottles for 4 dollars. yes please. in the courtyard we discover a foosball table. it might very possibly be the words oldest table, wooden and sunken and faded, and not quite flat. handpainted figurines. we played at least six matches. not sure who won.

the third bar: the walls are painted a deep rich red, and covered in black and white prints. the colour and the contrast is sublime. we play knock-off jenga (has a few blocks missing) at one of the small tables. i like this place a lot. everyone here is smiling and laughing.

random thought: i'm much better at finding things than looking after them

walking to the club, and we're not quite sure if we're going in the right direction. we run into some younger locals, all guys, they kinda look a bit nerdish. the british girls are eager to impress with their spanish and so they inititate the conversation this way - but a couple of the local guys speak fluent english, and they're eager to impress as well. so they speak english, we speak spanish, and the conversation flows, but not the way you'd expect. i watch it all from a few metres away and murmur, beautiful. we are heading in the right direction.

at the club: and they play massive attack's PROTECTION and i melt a little. the dancefloor is empty but the mood is electric, the place is starting to fill up

later on: moments of drum and bass madness! but they only play 3 songs. but its enough for me to shake things out. the dj drunkenly genre-hops, back to the latin stuff now. the dancefloor is alive, everyone is moving.

sometime past 1am: 3rd game of pool vs the locals. my form is terrible but the english girl is holding the team together. we don't loose by that much. i've run out of cash for the evening. time to go home.

3am at the hostel: lost my second game of cheat in a row. i am dismal, don't know when to call it. but im a very happy and contented drunk.

this morning: ive found a small coffee shop to do work and watch the world go buy. its very quaint and beautiful, individual handpainted menus, wooden chairs. its a warm and lively morning, and this window is wonderful for peoplewatching.

i'm loving quito. i don't know why everyone bags it out. sure, it took me a few days to appreciate all its nooks, to get a feel for things outside of the tourist areas, but its been very rewarding.

quito is great, a city in the valley, houses etched into the side of the mountains on all sides, the od volcano here and there.

the city gets cold at night and i especially feel it in the morning. i want my hot shower to be just that little bit hotter. its weird to think that - after sweltering for so long on the caribbean side of things.

explored the city on sunday - & every second sunday many of the roads are blocked off so quitoans can ride around the city. they love their cycling, which is great, but also crazy, there's some pretty steep hills in town. i wonder how the altitude levels effect/improve their comparative fitness.

the old city thoroughly deserves its unesco heritige listing, and we had a wonderful explore - and climbed to the very fricken top of "the Basilica" which was amazing, if a little unstable at times.

both the new city and the old city in quito have crime problems. especially the new city at night - which i've seen firsthand - but it think its still a better place to stay because there is more to do in the evening.

ive given up on spanish for a bit. my brain is full. my remote work is affecting that - i've had to switch out of travel mode for the last couple of weeks, but only for the next four days, and then i'm back :)

ive woken up in a much better mood!

lets just scratch yesterday shall we? yesterday sucked.

last night two guys tried to rob me as i was walking down the street. i was a few blocks away from the main commercial strip, just looking for something nice to eat. i'd actually gotten a little lost, spent 10 minutes trying to re-orientate myself, done so, found the street the hostel was on, about to turn on to it and bam - there it was. i knew exactly what i was looking at, about five steps away from the setup, two guys, one on either side of the sidewalk, i saw them, they saw me, no illusions.

i possibly had time to stop and quickly walk in the other direction, but i didnt want to run or get lost again, and i didnt want to show fear. and i wasnt afraid, i was only carrying ten dollars, i knew there were some dodgy areas of town, and mentally i was ready for it.

i kept walking straight ahead, looked directly at them

the first one grabbed me, and pushed me into the other who was already now blocking my path. i kinda bounced of the first guy and then scuffled with the second guy, something i don't think they were expecting. i swung around, and pushed the second guy firmly back into the first one, swung back and kept walking away from them in the same stride. in three or four steps i was under the well-lit intersection. i looked back, they were too far away to do anything, it all happened so quickly, they spat a couple of obscenities and then left.

i checked my pockets - nothing missing. it might have been a bit stupid, and if they'd pulled a knife they could have had my ten dollars. but i knew when i grabbed the second guy and looked straight at him - that they were just kids, and the only thing i needed to be feeling was some slight irritation.

still i was a bit nervy though, didn't want to be out on the street no more after it, i swallowed my culinary pride and got some take away pizza slices to eat at home, beer at the hostel to relax me, and last night, i slept better than i have in ages.

And the hottest women in the world are.... Colombian.

The race is over. sorry, women of other nations, you guys lost. it wasnt even that close.

walking you through the last 24 or so hours...

So it's 6pm friday night and I'm out of taganga back to the Santa Marta Bus terminal. Took one long last look at the caribbean, i'll miss it. The taxi was a lot longer than i thought, at least 15km or so. Shared it with the nicest/relaxed/most open minded Israeli traveller I've ever met.

I'd booked directish bus from Santa Marta to Medellín the day before. It cost more than i thought it would - yet it was comparative to all the other prices to other destinations. I think prices have gone up here in the last couple of years. I was told there's a way you can get last minute discounts on these fares but I'm sure it involves speaking a lot of fluent spanish and I'm not really there. Infact last night i could baerly manage english, throbbing headache, runny nose and generall achey everywhereness. I tried not to spread my germs throughout the bus terminal.

The bus company was Rapido Ochoa. Very secure setup. Lots of checking/verification getting on the bus and one during the trip. Plenty of spare seats on the bus so I could stretch out. We left at 7pm, on time. Air conditioning was set to antarctic levels. It could not have been more than 10 degrees. I'd be warned about this sort of thing, prepared, and put on an extra 2 layers of clothes, and still shivered. Definatley the coldest id been on this trip

I must have slept on the bus but I don't remember it, I have no idea how I could have. It was ment to get in at 9am but at this time we were still ascending through the mountains, a fair way out of medillin. My rule of thumb with colombian busses - however long you're told the journey is going to take - for every 4 hours, you should add an extra hour. We arrived in at midday.

Potttered around the bus terminal for a couple of hours. Actually felt better than the night before. Medellín looks fucking spectacular - mountains on all sides, houses built right into the side, the valley in the middle. Blue skies all around, very happy people. Reminded me a little of Kathmandu - exept a lot more dramatic with the mountains close in. Maybe I just arrived on a good day but it felt great and I'm glad I'm coming back later.

Took a local bus to the airport which actually didnt end up going there, intead to the nearby town of Rio Negro. Which was nice as well. Cute enough to walk around, and then get lost for a little while. But it was not intimidating, and I had plenty of time to spare for the flight. Evetually spotted a girl in an Avianica uniform and followed/stalked her to a point just past the main square where I spooted the place where shared taxis leave to go the airport.

At the airport I noticed (and was particularly thankful) that my flu-like symptoms seem to have cleared up. But then - this was the first border crossing on the trip where there was not much as an emphasis on that. But definatley on other things. Checking of outbound luggage was very tight. Every item in my checked baggage was checked by hand and also by the sniffer dogs after. And it wasnt just me, it was everyone. The baggage handles went through the same treatment as they were loading goods onto the plane.

LAN Peru Airbus a319 flying to Quito, Ecuador. This was a 200usd return flight i'd booked a month ago. Shared the plane with a Medellin Univserity womens athletic team (fricken giants!!). LAN are a decent I guess. They did the bare basics and nothing more. Actually the landing was one of the more unnerving I've ever had - there was a lot of unnanounced turbulence, and the for the 5 minutes until landing the plane rolled and shiffted in the wind, no sort of method to any of it. touchdown was flawless howver. Quito airport very small and undermanned for the amount of trafic it handles. We waited over 40 minutes to clear customs, flu checks and immigration.

Quito is noticebly colder than anywhere else ive been to on this trip. The showers need to be warm. Locals are wearing hoodies. It was a bit of a shock for the first few minutes. Saterday night in the new town is a bit of a party/club area. I've just had some bad fast food, to tired to look for anything else. wrecked. time for bed.

taganga is an unpretty little fishing village on colombias northern caribbean coast with a medioca beach which is trying really, really hard to be a decent tourist destination. 5 kilometres north of santa marta, popular with colombians, and backpackers. i think its got a fair way to go, part of the town will always be a dodgy fishing village. after a while heres ive noticed this place does have a small amount of appeal, but its not immediately evident. and really its only from dusk onwards, when the cool breeze comes down from the mountains.

I've spent just over a week here now, and from monday to friday I've been doing "remote" work for bulletproof as part of an agreement i made before i left. the remote work is very doable - but its still hard to be stuck at the laptop whilst alll the other travelers head off every morning to go diving, or to the beaches, or trekking, or the national park.

the diving here has been fantastic. ive completed my PADI Advanced certification last weekend, and i booked two additional fun dives for today (sunday).

the first one was in very rough water, but underneath it all, sublime. went through a tunnel formation. got mixed up in some pretty ~interesting~ currents. saw my first octopus. a goreous pair of angelfish who came and investigated each diver before swimming off. and saw the biggest black spotted moray ive ever seen. oh and my dive buddy vomited underwater. too many drinks the night before. very amusing. the exit from the water back up onto the boat was very rough - the roughest i've ever done, we were only 10 metres or so offshore, with some big waves coming in rocking the small boat in all directions. had to take off all the gear in the water, have that lifted in seperatley, and then haul your body onto the boat without getting done over by the next wave.

second dive was great as well. not as many fish but a couple of interesting encounters. we saw another big octopus, would have been perfectly camouflaged except for all the discarded shells around the rock - it's quite the giveaway. I also got a tiny bit entagled in a fishmans net which was a lot bigger than what i first realised, my DM helped me out of that one. also had a strange & wonderful encounter with a small fish, no bigger than a couple of thumbs. my DM got him riled up a little bit, then he proceeded to follow us around and charge or headbut our forehead and masks - really quite incredible, this tiny tiny little fish ready to take on the human intruder, he'd dart towards you kamikhazi-style, sometimes turning away at the last minute, and sometimes landing its punches using its gums & mouth which were actually quite hard. well not enough to hurt but noticeable & and very cute.

i've uploaded some new pictures into the colombia folder

also just uplaoded - my first set of shots underwater. mostly just experimenting with light and contrast, and some of the cool things you can do when you're neutrally boyant.

the water here was 28 degrees - quite cold enough for the caribbean. and thats my last caribbean dive as well. the next one will be somewhere in the pacific ocean.

two more big dives today

the first was the deep dive - 100 feet underwater.

strangely after the initial equalisation - i didnt really notice much difference - if it wasnt for the depth guague telling me otherwise, i would have assumed i was still at 60ft. whilst underwater we did a few test an experients to show how the body reacts & how substances react to the greater pressure levels. one of the examples was cracking an egg underwater - the pressure from all sides compacts the yoke to something the size of a little marble. we played table tennis with it until some fish noticed it was edible - and the whole school descended around us, picking it apart in a matter of seconds.

after this we went back to the reef, saw some incredible life again - including two loverly sea-horses (which camouflage excceptionally well in the coral).

i still feel a little nautious for the first few minutes that i am underwater, but the problems i had with slow decent/slow equalising no longer seem to be around

the second dive was better again - it ended up being a drift dive around a smallish rock island for 44 minutes. and i got the underwater camera to play with as part of the "advanced skill". whilst it wasnt that challenging it was more than exciting: underwater photography has pretty much installed itself as my new fantasy career choice, combining three or four things that i love a lot.

ill get the pictures back sometime tomorrow and hopefully get them online soon after - this should include the first couple of pictures of me underwater as well.

as part of doing my advance open water course ive done three dives today, and they were all fantastic

the water here is a fair bit colder than elswewhere in the caribbean and the full wetsuit was required.

the first dive was a drift dive, basically being able to manage yourself in a current of water, being able to kick out of it, move around it, or just stay still - and float along with the actual sea creatures.

this was my favourate of all the dives today, for three reasons, the first was the amount of life the surrounded us the whole time. large schools of colourful fish, just everywhere. the other reason this was amazing was the incredible underwater landscape. big rocks, and massive brain coral, much bigger than me, with swarms of fish hovering around each one. we also saw a small ray (not sure what type, but not a stringray), a moray eel. but most impressive where the large schools of fish.

finally, having not much else to do in the current, i experimented with boyancy (moving up and down in the water by managing the amount of air in my lungs). and whilst ive been able to do this before, ive never been able to control it in such a fine way. in the current, being able to just hover, or glide up over the coral, or maneuver down to the ocean floor to kick out of the current was an amazing sensation. its also a nice feeling to be able to get better at something. i was able to conserve a lot of air, really manage it well.

after this dive my instructor said said he felt i didnt need to do the nutural boyancy skills, that i was already good enough at it - which i took as a compliment.

everything i do underwater now is about conserving air & managing my breathing - so i breathe slowly and regularly. being as quiet as possible. and i notice that when i don't move as much, the fish come a lot closer to me - i think because they get curious.

ive only logged 14 dives, but here was the first time i walked into a new dive shop, and straight away really at home, comfortable and secure with the instructors, the equipment and the other divers. putting all my gear together and whisking out on the boat for the first time felt like something that felt quite natural, quite normal, i didnt need to think about it

the other couple of dives where a navigation dive (following a perfect square with a compass), which is almost identical to what i'd done for the standard OW course, so no biggie. the other experience, the one i've just returned from, was a night dive which was very interesting for couple of reasons.

first of all - the underwater life, which looks otherworldy normally, - well that feeling, that experience, was magnified at night. every coral, rock, or strange underwater formation looked surreal, even spooky at times. i think with night dives you have to be a lot more cautious keeping an eye on your buddy, where you are going - looking out for the other divers and underwater hazards, its a little more intensive. and (maybe because of this) we didnt see a great deal of underwater life i think we just annoyed a hellovalot of goldfish who were trying get some sleep - & also got a bit cold for the first time.

one more awesome thing about the night dive - when we all turned off our flashlights and stirred up the plankton, which glows in the dark, and you realise how much of it is in the water. and that everything down there is alive, and is important. that was incredible.

and i'm off again.

the trip out of panama was through AIRES, this weird little colombian airline. i wasnt sure what type of plane i was getting, or which gate it left from. it almost seemed to operate under the radar at Tocumen / Panama City . but it was a great flight, if for not other reason than i got to look down over a rainbow, ive never done that, it looked incredible.

cartegenia is a touristed out, polished up version of panama city. at least the "old" section is. andits afixed to the toursit trail a little more firmly, for example the cruise ships stop here. that doesnt make it any less beautiful though. i took a few photos, but it deserves a little more than this - and it deserves more than the 2 and a half days i spent here.

i stayed in a very pretty hostel - just opened. media luna, $9 a night for a dorm bed, with courtyard, swiming pool, and a bar upstairs.

also took a half day trip to see (and swim) in a the top of 20-metre high mud volcano, an experience - not quite like anything else ive ever done. the steam baths outside of reykjavik came to mind. but this was different again - an incredible sensation to be immersed in the mud, quite hard to explain the feeling - the weird properties of the mud, very warm, with a hint of sulfur - and dense enough to float over but then easy enough dive underneath as well. recommended... if you like weird things.

watched the michael jackson thing unfold live on cnn in the hostel the crowd slowly gathering around the tv and on the street. weird to watch peoples first reactions. and now i'm kinda over hearing his entire back catalog being played on every radio station.

today - i bussed it to taganga, a fishing village / backpacker ghetto about four hours north of cartegena. hoping to do a few dives here and not a great deal else.

all the pics i've uploaded here can be seen in the new 2009 colombia folder, any new stuff will go here as well.

travelling by myself for this small period, finally and i'm a little more paranoid about keeping all my stuff in one place, and i'm a little less good at actually doing it. slightly nervy - just dont want to loose anything more. and relating to other people is different as well, socialising etc, i was a lot more outgoing and carefree when i had the group to fall back on. now, i notice i choose my places and moments a little more carefully.

the last night in panama city, last night out for the group.

taxi to the argentinean steakhouse; very tasty meals.

then hit up the casino, lingered around the blackjack tables long enough to pick up $100. almost paid for the flight out of here. feeling sated and rich, left in a cab and got home at midnight.

great night out for the last night here. panama is fantastic. airport tomorrow.

ive uploaded the last couple of panama photo's uploaded. a day earlier we'd seen the miraflores locks & the panama canal itself. just incredible. what an awesome bit of engineering.