a picture is worth a thousand words

someone once said a picture is worth a thousand words, but there are some things for which i have no pictures, so i will quickley write them down because the only recolection i may otherwise have is my bank withdrawls.

i went to volcan de totum. its a volcano just outside of cartagena, but instead of lava, it has this thick warm mud. so you climb it. take a mud bath. get totally covered from head to toe, and then at the bottom of the volcano is a lagoon where you can wash. i quite enjoyed it.

i also visited isla de rosaria for a weekend. its part of a national park to preserve the coral reef. the island is actually mostly coral itself. i did this snorkeling tour where you stay in a cabana and they take you out snorkeling in between each meal and once at night as well. it was beautiful. to me snorkeling sounds a little bit lame - but there is so much beauty and life just below the surface, it really is amazing. somehow it seemed even a little scary at first, im not sure why. maybe just because the sea is somehow still so foreign to me.

so im sitting in a bus terminal with a few hours to kill before i get on the bus, so i thought i'd just map out where ive been and where im going. i guess i just like maps.

1) Lima - where i begin and end. city of 6 million i think. very big, very dirty. nice parks and colonial buildings though.

2) Paracas - 5 hrs by bus. a small water front town right beside a national park where you can find many different types of birds. we didnt see many because we hiked in instead of taking a boat tour.

3) Cusco - 18 hrs by bus. different than i expected. coblestone streets. very cold, at a high altitude. jordan and i stayed with margarita for a few days and then hiked the inca trail through the andes.

4) Lima - 20 hrs by bus. we had to return to lima because they dont have roads going straight to where we needed.

5) Puerto Bermudez - i think this is near to Puerto Bermutez, but of course we could go direct we had to take a bus to La Merced - 8hr, and then a 4*4 for 12 more hrs. Very tranquilla place, not much going on. took a day treck into the jungle our guide had to use a machete.

6) Pulcalp - this was the 15 hr marathon of vehicles which all had problems. i actually think that pulcalpa is further south, but this is where we got on the first cargo ship.

7) Iquitos - 4 days and 4 nights by boat. the second cargo ship into colombia. 4 million people, i think, the largest jungle city with no road access.

8) Leticia - 1 1/2 more days by boat. most southern jungle city of colombia. very small. only spent one day there before flying to bogota.

9) Bogota - flew. leticia is too remote for other transport. bogota is big. population 9 million.

10) Cartagena - 22 hrs by bus. Colonial old city. this is where i took language school.

11) Santa Marta - 5 hr by bus. Smaller port town. nice beach. where and came a left for the trek.

so now i have till august 16 to make my way back to lima. ive got a lot of ground to cover, so wish me luck.