Carnival and CoLUMbia!!

Since I last wrote, i´ve been to the Bolivian Amazon, hunted bare-foot for anacondas, celebrated Carnival in Oruro-Bolivia (where the whole par-taay is in celebration of the devil!), partied in Bogota (Columbia), topped up my tan on the Columbian Caribbean coast, taken too many photos and am now dosing in Columbia´s second city, Medellín...

The Amazon was pretty good including a 2 day Pampas tour spotting alligators, swimming with (apparently) tame alligators & hunting said anacondas bare-foot in "snake-infested" swamp! The smoooooth guides happened only to possess Wellington boots for the ladies on the tour (!!) so us boys handled it like men and promptly crapped our pants! "Unfortunately" we didn´t find an Anaconda, although I did get bitten by at least a dozen unidentified-biting-objects! The three day "jungle tour" DEEP in the Amazon, was a bit of a let-down as we didn´t do any exciting/interesting trekking because the recent weather (torrential rain) had been so bad. So stuck in the "camp" for 3 days, we may as well have been in Epping Forest (Greater London), the wildest animals we managed to spot (I kid you not) being the chickens running around the camp! I was not impressed.

Columbia is a great, great country

The following weekend was spent back toward the south of Bolivia celebrating Carnival in the city of Oruro. Apart from all the dance processions in spectacular outfits, the main activities for the masses involved pressurised foam cans, water guns and water-bombs! I´ve not had so much childish fun in years... armed with foam cans in both hands, we managed to engage every 10-15yr old little runt, within a 5 block area, in running street battles! It´s much better than paint-ball because when you get a little 11yr old right in the face from 3ft, they can´t open their eyes, so you can completely maul them & finish the job!!!! So much fun, I cannot tell you!!! (I don´t think i´m yet ready to be a dad!)

After Carnival i flew to Columbia, the only flight I could get being one that landed at 1am. Given what everyone says about Columbia, I was less than enthusiastic about the prospect & had decided that "WHEN I do get held up at gunpoint tonight i´ll give them everything they want... and say `thank-you´!" As it turns out Columbia is a great, great country & after 3wks here I think I can safely say it´s my favourite so far.

Obviously it´s a little bit dangerous - Columbia still has huge problems with the guerrillas, who now run the drug trade - but i´ve not felt as generally safe as I do here since I was in Argentina. The army/police, who are everywhere, are very professional & seeing them everywhere (they even run the metro, making announcements on the next train´s destination!) makes you feel very safe - in stark contrast to dread induced by the appearance of corrupt police in some other Latin American countries.

Bogota is a big, bustling, and beautiful city to stroll around. The only problem being that you´re forbidden from taking pretty photos of yourself standing infront of any of the government buildings for fear that you may sell the "reconnaissance" photos to the guerrillas for terrorist attacks!