Welcome to the Wild!

Buenos!

Sorry I didn’t post anything for the last week, but I was in the Jungle (without toilet, pipe water or electricity and let alone stand Internet). Here by 3 moments that I wrote some things to post.
At the moment it is almost 12 o’clock and I’m sitting in the bus (echt grappig, nu staat Nederlandse 3FM op!! Hoe grappig) to Cartagena. And maybe I’ll write some other time as well, depends on the Internet connection in the hostel there (and if we get a hostel, for everything was full when we tried to make a reservation). So what did we do these other days in Bogota?
I am again sitting in a bus the second story, this time in Cartagena. We are on the way to Santa Marta by shuttle bus. Hereby the quick story of our 24h in Cartagena.
The third story, like I mentioned, when I was back in civilization after a 6 day hike in the mountains/jungle.

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1) A Bogota, the story continues

After the underground party, we had a day rest. Just walk around, see some stuff, relax etc. In the evening we ate pizza, but that fell bad and Linda was really sick the next day, so we had a second rest day.
On the 21st we went to Suesca. We wanted to go rafting, but that was full already, so it became mountain biking instead. Linda had enough after one tour (of more than 2 hours), but I went for another afterwards (of 52 minutes, but normally that one was longer than an hour). So I did well. :) Was really cool, 45 degrees uphill and down over rockslides grasslands etc. Really adventurous. And a beautiful view!
On the last day Bogota we did a trip by steam train to Zipaquire. Was ok, but not as cool as we expected. And there wasn’t a lot of time to visit the cathedral in the salt mine there.

1) B Cartagena, Pirates and Romance

Cartagena is a harbor city in the North of Colombia. It was attacked a lot of times by pirates in the 15th and 17th century. There for the Spaniards built walls and fortresses around the city. So the center was really nice, a lot of little streets, Spanish balconies, city walls etc. Also present: a Hard Rock Café. So the first time in my life I visited one of those for we went for cocktails after arriving. What we did about half past 4 on the 23rd of February (after a bus trip of about 19 hours). We knew the hostels we knew were full (couldn’t make a reservation by phone or email from Bogota), so we just had to search for one after arriving in the center. So we ended up at San Blas where we only paid 20 mille for a double. So, first evening: dinner for 15 mille and cocktails for 80. The second day Cartagena at daylight and a beach (where we stayed for about 2 minutes because it was dirty!!). And at 4.30 PM a shuttle picked us up to go to Santa Marta.

1) C Jungle adventure, Mosquitoes and Rivers

When we arrived in Santa Marta on the 24th, we immediately arranged that we could go to the Lost City (la Ciudad Perdida) on the 25th. La Ciudad Perdida (founded in 800 AD) is an Indian city that was conquered and forgotten by the Spaniards and only rediscovered in 1972. And after we had paid to go, we went to bed and at 8.30h next day we were picked up by a jeep. In short this 6 days were: about 25 hours hiking (including steep ups and downs), 4 to 5 hours in a jeep on a bumpy road, between 55 and 60 hours sleep, 12 hours of eating, about the same time swimming and the rest were other activities like rock climbing, waterfall climbing, rock diving, playing cards and getting eaten alive by mosquitoes. Linda also visited a white powder factory. Nice details: we drunk out of the rivers, after the first camp (1 night) we had no more electricity and in the last camp we even had to dig a hole if you needed to ‘go’. :P But it was funfunfun and I loved it!! More details wenn I get back, and pictures will follow later today (we are having a sleep, beach, rest day). But not in Santa Marta, place was so crappy that we went on to Taganga when we got back from the hike.

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2) The Route

This is my trip:
- 22/01/09 I flew to Aruba to visit and pick up Linda;
- 03/02/09 We went to Washington DC and visited Mariska;
- 06/02/09 We took take the bus to New York and slept in our first hostel;
- 10/02/09 We had a flight to Orlando and did 2 days Disney World
- 13/02/09 Drove to Miami were we did Miami city and the Keys;
- 17/02/09 Flew to Bogota (Colombia);
- 23/02/09 Cartagena
- 24/02/09 Santa Marta and la Ciudad Perdida (6 day hike in the jungle);
- 02/03/09 Taganga (rest!)
- 05/03/09 Medillin and Perreira;
- 07/03/09 After Colombia, we'll cross the border in the direction of Quito (Ecuador) and will also visit the Galapagos Islands;
- ??/03/09 South of Ecador is Peru, were we will visit the ancient Maja Temples in f.e. Macho Picchu and Iquitos and also capital Lima and sand boarding is on the list;
- ??/03/09 A short cross to Bolivia will bring us to La Paz and some salt desert;
- ??/04/09 We will continue to go south and about Santiago (Chili) we'll cross the boarder east to Argentinia;
- ??/04/09 Going up north again in Argentinia (direction Buenos Aires), we'll finally end up in Brazil were we will follow the east coast back north (cities like Rio de Janeiro and Salvador) and then turn west again direction capital Brasilia;
- ??/05/09 From Brasilia we will enter the Amazone for a while;
- ??/05/09 (or begin june) our journey together will end and I will continue west to Australia while Linda goes back to the first point of our journey: Aruba.

Roughly my trip after North and South America will look like this:
- 05/09 (or 06/09) Australia (working and traveling 1 year, maybe with Katie);
- 05/10 (or 06/10) Asia (Indonesia, Philipijnen, Maleisia, Thailand, Vietnam, India, China, Korea and Japan, maybe with Isabel for a while);
- 11/10 Trans-siberian Railway Peking Express through among others Peking (China), Mongolia, Jarkoetsk (Rusland), Onsk (Rusland), Moskou (Rusland) for 18 days (maybe with Robbert);
- 12/10 Home sweet home, Wingman back in the Netherlands.

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3) My to do list

In one of the first messages I wrote, I said that you could let me do certain things in exchange for money. Here is the status quo:

- Get (naked) on national tele in the USA: Waiting if were on, being taped for Comedy Central and MTV’s the Fashion Show ~ REWARD: € 100,- by Ruud and Youri;
*** (nearly) ACCOMPLISHED ***
- Find a famous place/square and be a street artist: I forgot my jiggling balls every time I went into Paris or other cities, but I had some audience in Zipaquire. ~ REWARD: € 100,- by Ruud and Youri;
- Enjoy your trip: I will! ~ REWARD: € 25,- by Hans (Thank you Hans!!)
*** ACCOMPLISHED ***
- Shave your head bold: since my mum shaved me twice I'm almost hairless now. :S ~ REWARD: € 3,50 by Sarah H;
*** ACCOMPLISHED ***
- Come to the Luna-Tik Switch: since I'm in Maastricht now (and bored) and waiting till 10h, I think I'll manage. ~ REWARD: free entrance as per Erik;
*** ACCOMPLISHED ***
- Carry Mickey around the world and take pictures in famous places: I WILL! ~ REWARD: A cool photo collection, as per me!;
- Get married in Las Vegas in an Elvis Suite and stay married for at least 6 months: Linda s not interested ~ REWARD: € 450,- as per Erik;
*** FAILED ***
- Carry the hand cups around that I ‘won’ with the Saint Nicolas Surprise: they are still on my back, but people looked weird when I took them into the jungle ~ REWARD: ??? told by Jule;

Did I forget one, do you want to add one?? Let me know!!
Do you want to add some?? Let me know!!

NOTE!! I’m running out of quests, please give me some more!!!

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4) Games

A little game for all:

Each person that posts, must repeat the sentence 'I will go on holiday and take with me:', repeat the items of previous persons and add one item of his own.

This is where we left of and since nobody played last post, we’ll stop with this one:

*I'll go on holiday and take with me: my backpack (Inge, afblijven!), my hand cups, Inge's prom dress, Mickey Mouse, a snorkel, juggling balls, 1 under pens, a passport, mama's toothbrush, Linda!, a winter jacket, snow boats, my MP3 player, mama’s bracelet, some dollars to buy breakfast, everybody’s notes with the best wishes on them (there actually at my parents Erik) and my lonely planet. :D

Here’s a new one:

Each post must say a number (in sequence from one till 50). The one who is number 50, will receive a little reward. :) And there will be a secret number reward as well!

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Well, that's it again. I’ll keep you guys posted, and don’t be shy to leave some comments behind, to send me an email or something. It will take some time, but I’ll reply! I’m loving it here, so I’ll give details and recommend everybody to take a trip like this as well!
Ow yeah, dad, tell Jule that I am still carrying the hand cups! :P
And to ‘the group’: when (or if) I get back in 2 years, we’ll definitely go to Colombia for about 2 or 3 weeks! It’s cheap and there is loads of stuff to do!

Kisses, great love and more from the one and only Wingman aka Ralf and a hug from Mickey!!!!