INDONESIA - BORNEO: TANJUNG PUTING NATIONAL PARK, DAY 2

 July 6, 2023

We slept well (other than multiple trips to the bathroom due to the amount of water we imbibed in order to stay hydrated), and got up around 5:15. I took a freezing cold shower, only to learn from Bob after HIS shower that there was hot water. Darn! The power stayed on and I was able to blow dry my hair, a big event.

We ate a breakfast of scrambled eggs (Bob) and a cheese omelet (me) with orange juice and the usual pineapple slices and toast with butter and jam. Bob coined the phrase: "Indonesia, where the butter is always soft!"

We were on the klotok by 6:30 and were, as far as we could tell, the first boat moving. We passed dozens of boats like ours with people just getting up or eating breakfast on the deck. The four-beat rhythm of our engine certainly disturbed the peace and would have awoken anyone who was still sleeping.

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No two klotoks are the same. We enjoyed the variety.

                                         

This one reminds me of the finger of God giving life to Adam in the Sistine Chapel.

COLOMBIA: TATAMA NATIONAL NATURAL PARK, PART 2

 Tuesday, March 21, 2023

I got up at 4:30 to shower to be ready for a 5:30 drive to the top of a nearby mountain. Savannah, as always, was ready on time and waiting for us outside her room. We stopped for a few minutes at the moth net to see what was left from the previous night's partiers, then got in a truck that was waiting to take us to the lodge, where we drank some hot chocolate and picked up food for a breakfast that we would eat at the end of our drive.

We only stopped a few times to look at birds on our way up a steep road. It took us two hours to drive about 8 miles, which gives you an idea about the condition of the road, which was built to service a military base at the top. The road would be impassable to most vehicles. It is rocky and uneven. Our driver, Jon, drove very slowly.

From the end of the road, we had a beautiful view of the rugged Tatamá Peak across the way, shimmering in the early morning light. Its summit is 13,500 feet above sea level, and there are several other peaks we could see in the same range that must also be close to that elevation.

The far-left guerrilla group FARC (Fuerzas Armadas Revolutionarias de Colombia, or Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia) attacked this military outpost in 2000 during a long period of Colombian conflict. Apparently the outpost is there to protect some vital communications towers that link isolated parts of the country. According to an LA Times article, there were 600 FARC rebels who attacked 50 government soldiers at the complex. The government soldiers ultimately prevailed, although there were at least 20 fatalities. The family who runs the Tatamá Eco-lodge told us that they saw soldiers bringing all the bodies down from the mountain.

The road we took ended at a gate that said no photos were to be taken of the military facility, but I figured the tops of the communications towers that peaked out over the heavy vegetation were okay.

The forest service has built a large observation deck at the end of the road. 

COLOMBIA: TINAMU TO TATAMA NATIONAL PARK AND MONTEZUMA ECO-LODGE, PART I

 March 20, 2023    

Our driver arrived at 6:30 AM and we were ready to go, but our guide from the previous day offered to buy breakfast for us and our driver Mario, so we stayed for the overcooked fried eggs, another tough arepa, and a roll, and then we got on the road at 7:00 AM. 

We were in a much bigger vehicle than the one that brought us to Tinamú, a van with four rows of seats. Bob was in front, I was on the second row, and Sav sat on the elevated back row. The beginning of the drive leaving Tinamú on the one-lane dirt road was rough riding, but eventually we got to a divided highway, tough it had way too many hairpin turns. After we passed through the large city of Pereira (which we had flown into from Bogotá two days before), the road eventually became even rougher and narrower, but the scenery, at least was spectacular.

I slept for at least an hour, maybe two, of the 3.25 hour drive as my protection against motion sickness, but I woke up occasionally to look out the window. Bob said I missed a fabulous section of terraced farmland where coffee plants were growing. Savannah also drifted off to sleep occasionally.

By the way, our drive Mario looked just like Savannah's other grandfather (also named Bob). She and I made that connection independently. 

There were quite a few sections of the road where the right shoulder was partially or wholly washed away by mud and/or rock slides from the towering cliffs on our left. At least once there was a large boulder in the road that Mario could barely get around.

We eventually made it to the town of Pueblo Rico. Mario said the "Rico" part didn't refer to the town, which was very poor, but rather to the setting. I was surprised to discover when I was writing this post that it has a population of over 14,000, and many of the residents are indigenous people.

We got out of the car and bought a few Cokes before transferring our luggage to a 4x4 truck for the last part of the drive.

COLOMBIA: TINAMU DAY 2

 March 19, 2023

I was up and out by 6:30 AM to see the morning birds with Bob. It was definitely not as impressive as I expected, and the birds we saw were similar to the day before. However, it was nice to be out in the cool morning air appreciating the glorious scenery.

The reserve folks had sprinkled some bird seed along the driveway that attracted dozens of small birds.

Saffron finch

COLOMBIA: BOGOTA TO PEREIRA TO TINAMU, DAY 1

 March 18, 2023

During the night I began stressing about my stolen phone and couldn't sleep. I looked at my email on Bob's phone and saw an email from either Verizon or Apple (I can't remember which) that said that at 4:45 PM someone had tried to retrieve my password to unlock the phone. That made me nervous and didn't help my insomnia. I was also a little nauseous. I think I fell asleep around 2:00 AM and got two hours of sleep before being startled awake at 4:00 by the alarm.

We were picked up at 4:45 AM and transported to the airport. We were supposed to have been given boarding passes, but they hadn't come, so we had to figure out how to do that. We made it to our gate in time to get Savannah a "pink drink" at Starbuck's for breakfast. I had a Coke to settle my stomach, and I bought some chocolate for the first time on the trip. 

Somehow we got seated on Row 2 in business class, which was the best seat on the plane. (Row 1 had less leg room.) It wasn't especially luxurious, but they did put a little table where the middle seat should be. It was a small plane, and they did make us check our bags.

Our flight to Pereira was supposed to be a little over an hour, but as we were coming in for a landing, the plane suddenly jerked upward for a steep climb, and then we made a wide circle (or two) before making a successful landing.  I have no idea what that was about. Pilot in training?

You can see from the map below that Bogotá and Pereira are not that far apart relative to the distance between Cartagena (top left of map) and Bogotá. We could have had someone drive us to Pereira, a distance of about 200 miles, but it takes almost eight hours to make the drive, which indicates what the roads are like. No thanks.

We had never heard of Pereira and don't know anyone else who has, even those it has a population of over 700,000 people. It is located in the Andean foothills and is part of the UNESCO World Heritage Site known as the "Coffee Cultural Landscape of Colombia." The soil in this region is rich in minerals from volcanic eruptions.

We were picked up in the Pereira airport by a very friendly and talkative driver who took us to Tinamú Birding Reserve, abouat 1.5 hours away. We started on a very nice highway that eventually devolved into a narrow, bumpy dirt road with tight turns, and by the time we arrived, I was green. At the very end we cam nose-to-nose with a car coming out. Our driver had to back up quite a way before they could pass each other.

We got to the reserve at about 11:00 AM. We had a fairly large cabin not far from the main lodge. Here is the front entrance:

. . . and the side view:

I loved the tropical murals and bed throws in our room.

COLOMBIA: BOGOTA, PART I (WHEREIN WE VISIT MONSERRATE AND SIMON BOLIVAR'S HOUSE, MY PHONE IS STOLEN, AND WE GET UP-CLOSE WITH BOTERO)

 March 17, 2023

Our second destination after Cartagena was the capital city of Colombia, Bogotá.

I got up at 4:30 AM to take a shower and repack so that I'd be ready for our return trip to the Cartagena Airport. It is a very small facility--essentially one large room. We got there about an hour before our flight to Bogotá, and there wasn't much to do. Our flight was pretty short, maybe 1 hour 25 minutes, but it would have taken almost 20 hours to drive it because of the roads and the terrain between the two cities.

On our arrival in Bogotá, we were picked up by a non-English speaking man and a driver named, of all things, Judy. They took us to our hotel, the Hotel Casa Deco:

. . . but it was still pretty early in the morning and the room wasn't ready, so we left our luggage and headed out with our guide, a woman whose name we never really got. She turned out to be a good guide, although she spoke a bit too fast and was harder to understand than Carolina, our fantastic guide in Cartagena, and she often misinterpreted our questions. I think if she had just slowed down, communication would have been a lot better.

The first place we visited was Monserrate, the tallest mountain in the city and therefore, like yesterday's Mount la Popa in Cartagena, a great place to begin because it offers a 360° view of the city.  Unlike the lower elevation of Cartagena's viewpoint, however, Monserrate is 10,341 feet above sea level and a 2,000 foot elevation gain from bottom to top. 

Pilgrims make their way to the top of the mountain on foot, but we opted for a funicular ride. Our guide had purchased "fast  pass" tickets, so we didn't have to wait in what was a very long line, which saved a ton of time. The funicular had four sections with maybe 20 passengers in each, all standing.

You can get an idea of how steep it is from these photos Savannah took:

JAMAICA: OCHO RIOS AND DUNN'S RIVER FALLS AND KONOKO FALLS

 February 18, 2023

Ocho Rios (Spanish for "eight rivers") is a town on the north Jamaican coast. Many believe Christopher Columbus first set foot in Jamaica just outside the city.

Our hotel in Ocho Rios was a once grand multi-building complex, but it is now in a bit of a dilapidated state. Our room had no hot water, no AC, no wifi, and a cockroach on the bed.

However, they had a great sign on the office wall.

We were worn out by heat, humidity, and walking, and in spite of all the hotel issues, we just needed sleep.

The next morning we were in no rush to get started. Chad was snorkeling, and we had a plan to meet at 11:00, so we drove down to the Ocho Rios Craft Market. It was about the junkiest tourist trap we've ever seen, not even meriting a photo. Nothing was original. It all looked like it was made in China. There were multiple stalls, all selling the same items, and every vendor claimed to have made the items in his/her booth. We decided we needed breakfast instead of shopping.

Definitely not a breakfast spot:

ECUADOR: CAJAS NATIONAL PARK AND THE CONTINENTAL DIVIDE

 March 27, 2022

I mentioned in a previous post that Cuenca means "basin" in Spanish. What makes Cuenca a basin are the tall Andes Mountains that surround it. Our guide Javier took us on a drive high into the Andes to visit Cajas National Park and the Continental Divide. The name Cajas is derived from the Quichua word cassa, meaning "gateway to the snowy mountains." An alternate meaning is "cold." The average temperature is about 55° F (not that cold), and the average rainfall is about 42 inches. That's pretty warm for the elevation, but Javier reminded us that we were pretty close to the equator, and the snow level is 16,000 feet!

Buenos días, Señor. Como está usted?

The park covers about 110 square miles and is between 10,170 and 14,600 feet above sea level. We stopped at an area called Toreadora, or "bullfighter." 

I suppose this serene, stunningly beautiful lake somewhat resembles a bullring--it is round and has sloping slides that somewhat resemble bleachers.