Manu Chao Concert Cochabamba

When I heard that Manu Chao was going to perform in Cochabamba, I knew there was no way I am going to miss this life time opportunity to see my favourite musician. Manu Chao shirts were being sold at the concert, so I bought two, one for me and one for Mauge, they were out of black and red shirts so we choose green, the show started with warm up performances by two Bolivian bands, the first played a Andean, Brazilian and African music, with only drums and vocals, which I thought was a very spirited performance, the second was an amusing Aymara hip hop duo, who also took the time to give a very angry political speech, something about justice.


Then came the Manu Chao performance, with his current group Radio Bemba, a fantastic and mesmerizing performance, but I expected no less, one of the first things I notices was what a small guy he was, we started standing quite close to the stage at the beginning, but things got rough there very quickly, with marijuana smoking youth, jumping around pushing each other, anyway things calmed down as we distanced our selves a bit more from the stage. The performance consisted of some of his best hits, interrupted by intervals of energetic dancing music, to satisfy the young crowds eager to dance. One of my favourites of the show was ¨Boby Marly sing something good to me", which he played two versions of, one similar to the recorded version, the other slower, more vocal accompanied only by a guitar. Most of the songs were performed differently to the recorded version, in a more ¨fun¨and loose manner, it just seemed that Manu to have fun doing his performance, and jumped around quite a lot on the stage, he was also amazing in how he got in touch, energized and mastered the crowds.

Taganga, Good Bye Colombia, Manu Chao

After returning from the Ciudad Perdida trek, I just had one more night to spend at the cost before flying back to Bogota, I decided I will spend that last night in Taganga, at the Casa Blanca, I made it there in the afternoon, and luckily they had a room available, I wanted to be in room 2 that had a great private balcony with a hammock, but they put me in room 9 with some Israeli girl, but she apparently asked for a private room, so I was asked to leave the room, and move to room number 2, she was apologetic about this and offered to move herself instead, but I explained to her that she did me a favour, and that now I am getting the room I wanted in the first place. I took a shower then went went to one of the restaurants at the beach, had a fish meal, then headed back to the hotel balcony, just in time to see one last sun set in Taganga. I agreed to meet the others from the lost city group, at 8 o'clock at the pizza stand, everybody from the group showed up, we ordered some fresh baked pizzas, it was a very windy night though, and I did not stay long, as I was tired and I had to wake up early the next day to catch my flight to Bogota, anyway it was a dry night (selling and drinking not alcohol permitted), due to the elections taking place that day. I heard two unnerving stories that day, one that there was some shooting at the bus from Bogota to Santa Marta, during the night, apparently by gorillas trying to disrupt the elections, the other is a shooting at Taganga, though this appeared to be some kind of personal vendetta, in both cases people were injured.


In the morning I woke up early, and had one last Taganga style fruit salad, with 12 different fruits, before heading to the airport to get my flight to Bogota, when I landed I headed straight for the LAB counters to get my flight to Bolivia arranged, but there was no one there, so I decided to leave to the next day, I checked in at the hotel Platypus, after a few hours though, I started feeling not well, either because of the colder temperatures or the altitude sickness, probably the later, so I went to bed at 7 in the evening. That night a traveller staying at the hostel was mugged at knife point, one block away from the hostel, and apparently he was not the only traveller to be mugged at knife point lately in Bogota, all these news started to make feel uncomfortable, something I did not feel so much during my whole two month in Colombia. My Colombian visa was going to expire on Tuesday the 14th, so I had to arrange a quick flight out of Colombia, or go through the visa extension process again, my girlfriend informed that Manu Chao was going to be perform at Cochamba on the 15th, he is my favourite musician, this was another incentive to get a quick flight to Cochabamba. The next morning I found out that the LAB ticket office is not at the airport, and I found out where it is, I went there immediately and managed to get a early morning flight to Bolivia, a gratis flight, as I was promised, which also meant that I will be able to attend the Manu Chaoperformance, who is apparently on a tour in south America, and had just performed in Bogota a few days earlier, all went well with my flight to Cochabamba, except that I lost might Swiss army knife, for the second time, at the airport security, the problem is that at the point when they scan your hand luggage, it is already to late to check in anything, and you are forced to leave prohibited items there, it would not have been difficult for them to scan your hand luggage earlier along with the check in luggage, and just warn you about items you can't carry with you, but then they would not be getting all those nice and shiny swiss knifes, would they, at least this time for a change the LAB flight arrived on time, after checking into the hotel I immediately went and bought two tickets to the Manu Chao concert.

Ciudad Perdida

Where else around the world can you go on a trek that includes : a lost city deep in the rain forest, a cocaine production facility, a village of indigenous people, and a free stash of marijuana ?

The Ciudad Perdida, lost city, is a six day trek, three to get there and three to come back, the city is only reachable by foot, neither cars nor mules can get there, the group I went was contained eleven people from different countries, Max and Kayla from California, Michel from Germany, Mel and Hal from England, Genny from Australia, Enrique from Spain, Chris from England, and Stewart and Helen from England, eleven in total, after meeting at the Miramar hotel, we head out in a Chiva, a traditional Colombian bus, that used to be the popular mean of transport in Colombia, it was replaced by modern buses and now only used as touristic gimmick, we were dropped at village were we had launch, and from there our trek started, not before the guide handed us a bag of Marijuana.

The lost city became infamous a few years ago when a group of tourists on a similar trek, were kidnapped by FARC gorillas, the trek was conducted by the same company I went with, Turcol, there was a big group of tourists plus some guides, including the son of the owner of the company, who managed to untie himself and others and run back to town to tell the story, the gorillas took only part of the hostages, the ones who though were most capable of enduring long hard walks, as the Gorillas tend to stay on the move all the time, eight were taken, four Israelis, two English, one German and one Spaniard, one of the Britons managed to escape, the rebels did not want any money for them, they just wanted attention and publicity for their cause, and eventually released all the hostages, after some extensive negotiations, first the German and Spaniard, then the other Briton and the Israelis, after more than three month in captivity, lately there have been little conflict around this area, as the FARC were driven out, and the Paramilitaries now control it.

The first day we had to walk three hours to get to the camp site, run by a family, on the way we saw a few Coca fields, at the campsite we went for a swim in the river, in a nearby natural pool, then we had dinner and slept in hammocks covered by mosquito nets. The next morning we were introduced to the owner of a cocaine production facility, and offered a tour for 30000 pesos each, which we managed to negotiate down to 20000 (about 8 Euros), everybody in the group went on the tour, the facility was a 20 minutes walk away, hidden in the thick rain forest, it was rather modest, low tech facility run by one man, there was a yard full of coca leaves and a lot of barrels containing all kinds of chemicals.

Then we got a demonstration of the process, first the Coca leaves are grounded and mixed with salt and plaster (building material), one kilogram of Coca leaves produces approximately one gram of pure cocaine, then the mix is stamped over until it gets a dark color, then it is mixed with benzine, 120 Litres if benzine for 100 Kilos of Coca leaves, the Benzine extracts the cocaine from the leaves, then 8 litres of water and 8 spoons of sulfuric acid are added, which absorb the cocaine from the Benzine, in the process 20 Litres of benzine is lost, absorbed by the leaves, but the rest can be reused again, then I kind of lost track of things, there is some more chemicals added, potassium hydrate and acids, then the liquid is stirred and filtered, and finally a white paste is produced, only one more step is required to finish the process, and get pure cocaine, but it requires aciton which he does not have, so he sells the paste to the big cocaine fab close by, for 6 million pesos per kilo (2200 Euros), at the big fab the last step of the process that includes using aciton is done, and the pure cocaine is send to the cost were it is loaded on boats and exported, at the some point the cocaine is diluted with other white powders, by as much as half or third. the US government is financing a scheme here, a scheme that offers farmers 600,000 pesos per two month, in return to stopping growing Coca and producing cocaine, but not many take the offer as it is more profitable to them to make the cocaine.

There are several reasons why the owner does not have aciton, first it is a substance that is desired by the gorillas, as it can be used to make explosives, and they will steal it if they find it, so the Paramilitaries forbade the farmers to have it, the other reason is if the farmers have Cocaine they might start taking it them selves, which apparently happened a while back, this threatened to destroy some families, and caused violence and murders, as coke addicts tried to steal coke from other farmers, the Paramilitaries decided to put an end to it, adjourned a meeting, and threatened to kill anybody who will take the stuff himself, according to the guide, some were killed by the Paramilitaries, but by controlling aciton the Paramilitaries can prevent the farmers from producing the pure cocaine, and it also forces them to the sell them the cocaine paste. Although generally it is the FARC who are blamed for the cocaine export from Colombia, it seems that the Paramilitaries, who support the Colombian goverment and army, are just as involved, they protect and control the cocaine production and export from the region.

After the cocaine tour, we continued our path toward the lost city, we were told that the weather was still dry, but this is generally the time when the rainy season starts, and apparently our trek coincided with the start of the rains, it was generally dry in the morning, but it rained every afternoon, and usually continued through the night, anything that got wet remained wet, sometimes I managed to dry a thing or two by hanging them by the fire place. The second camp site was near a river as well, and we went for a swim before it started to rain, somebody pulled out a Spanish Scrabble card game, which became a big hit. The food in general was quite good, but the quality went down later during the trip as less fresh ingredients remained. One of the guides, Jose, apparently likes to sing and compose Valleneto songs (a local and very popular music), and he entertained us during the nights, with just his voice and a drum.

The next day we continued our path, and reached a village of the Cogi, group of indigenous people still living in their traditional way, in huts made of wood and straw, and wearing traditional clothes, I split my snicker bar, and divided it between a few children.

It is thought that the Cogi are the descendants of the Tyaronas who build the lost city, they are nomads, and the little village is only used as site to perform traditional ceremonies, they take place in the big round hut, where only men are allowed, they gather there, chew coca leaves, take hallucination drugs made from sea shells, and can stay there for days, "debating solutions for their problems". Walking further we encountered areas of cleared forest, this deforstation apparently started in the last few years, the land is planted is used for one rice crop, then once the grass had grown it is used as pastors for cattle.


Next we descended to the valley, walking along the river for a while, crossing from one bank to the other several times in the process, finally we reached the stairway leading to the lost city, a stairway containing about 1250 steps.



The lost city is located in a clearing on top of a hill, surrounded by mountain tops, similar to the Machu Picchu, the city was discovered in 1975 by grave robbers, or treasure hunters to use more kind terminology, apparently the owner of the Cocain facility is a grave robber when he is not making cocaine, anyway a new surge of artifacts sold in the black market of Santa Marta aroused the suspicious of the governor, who found out about the city, and send an expedition to discover it, during the next few years, the city which was completely covered by the forest, was gradually exposed, many of the artifacts ended up in museums, like the gold museum in Bogota, some stolen by the archaeologists and other people who worked on the excavation, if you believe my guide. Unfortunately the process was never completed as the governor was reluctant to further fund the study, the opposition of the Cogi was another factor, big parts of the city are still covered by forest. Unlike the Inca, the Tayronas used wood for building there houses, so the only remains of the city are the stairways and the round terraces, on which the houses were build over.


The Tayrona culture was basically destroyed by the Spanish, who coveted their gold, in the process they killed, violated and enslaved the Tayrona people, exterminating there civilization, the Spanish guy in the group was target for many of the jokes of the guides, anyway the lost city was abandoned at the time, maybe people fled in fear that the Spanish will find them, but another reason might by that they lost there trading relations with the Tayronas of the cost, and they depended on that trade for obtaining essential goods, like salt, fish and sea shells, this caused them diseases as essential ingredients were missing from their diets, anyway the Spanish never found the lost city, and the city remained unlooted until found by the grave robbers in 1975. We camped at the city that night, then had a tour of the city in the morning, the area around the city is very green, and the views are amazing, after that we headed back.


A couple of people on the tour wanted to take an alternative route back, which is more scenic but is longer, steeper and harder, most of the group decided to join them, so I decided to join them as well, more for the company than anything else, eight people ended taking the alternative route back, we paid 60000 extra each. After descending from the lost city, we had a very steep climb, followed by a steep and slippery downhill path, which got even more slippery as the regular afternoon rain started coming down, after that it was another steep climb up, until the camp site were we had launch, there was a debate then whether to continue the next camp site, or camp the night there and wake up very early in the morning, the group decided on the later, mainly because the camp site was very nice, and because the mornings are generally dry, while the afternoons are quite wet, after dinner we went to sleep very early.


The next morning we woke up at 4:30, but it was still dark, so we could not start walking, so I went back to bed, trying to get a little bit more sleep, we headed out before six, after having only a cup of coffee, the other had a banana as well, but I missed on that since I was sleeping, we had to start early to make sure we catch the only transport leaving to Santa Marta, from one of the villages near by, we passed by a place called paradise, but we really could not judge whether it was a paradise or not, as it was completely shrouded in fog, we walked more than three hours before reaching the next camp site, where we finally had hour breakfast, empanadas of tuna, courtesy of our great chef, it was supposed to be only a two hour walk until having breakfast, but telling the truth seems to be a something that our guide, Alavaro, has a lot of difficulties with. Another hour an half of walking was need to reach the village, for a change this day was sunny, and we finally managed to enjoy the spectacular land scape that this route offers, definitely more spectacular than the route we came by.

Our transport was a truck with a roofed back, which seemed more suitable for transporting cattle than humans, the road was very bumpy in the beginning, and it seemed that the truck was going to fall apart anytime, this truck is the only transport the people of this area have, and we stopped every once in a while to pick up people, it took three and half hours to reach Santa Marta.

Park Tayrona

Tayrona is a national park containing some of the most beautiful beaches in Colombian, I went for a visit on Saturday, but arrived too late to enter the park, as the entrance is allowed until 5 pm, so I stayed at some cabanas just outside the park, and entered the next morning, it meant I had only one day to see the park, as the next day I was leaving for ciudad perdida, there was no transport to take me into the park, so I had to walk the 4km road which leads to the park, then another hour walk to reach the Arrifice beach, a very nice beach, great for taking photos, but not for swimming, fine sand and palm trees, I continued to la Piscina, the pool, a beach partially closed by a rock formation, making it ideal for swimming, the water was still cold though, after an hour the weather started to change, and darker clouds covered the sky, I decided it was to time to leave, I stopped at one of the camps at the Arrefice beach, were I had a fresh fish launch, and then head back to the entrance, this time at least there was transport to the entrance, saving me the 4km walk back to the entrance of the park, then I shared a taxi with some people back to Santa Marta, it cost me 5000 pesos, in hope if getting back quickly to Santa Marta, but the driver decided to take us the long scenic route instead, in Santa Marta, I went to sleep early as I had a few things to take care of in the morning before heading to the Ciudad Perdida, I woke up early, booked my flight to Bogota for the next Sunday, then signed and send a fax for my lawyer, as he had to attend a trial on my behalf, some lawsuit that does not really concern me, but somebody decided to saw everybody related to the land he sold many years ago.

Advanced diving course in Taganga

I went back to Taganga to do the advanced diving course, this time I reserved a bed at the Casa de Filipe to make sure I had a place, but then I went to look for a couple of my friends, Dave from New Zealand and Graham from England at the Casa Blanca, and I just did not want to leave the place, it is right next to the beach with a view of the sea, hammocks, and a nice cool breath during the night, keeping mosquitoes away, setting down on a hammock watching the beautiful sun set, you just don't want to leave the place , for anything other than necessities like getting food, anyway I decided to move there the next day and reserved a room. I met Dave and Graham, first time in Bariloche, Argentina, Dave is an ex bank manager, and is probably the most famous traveler in Colombia, in Barranquilla I was trying to find them, and when I asked other travelers about Graham, I got the answer "Graham who", and when I said that he was hanging out with Dave the Kiwi, "Dave the kiwi, big bold guy with glasses, of course we know him", anyway Graham might be very famous soon, for stealing the girlfriend of the owner of one of the most famous hostels in Colombia.


I started the diving course the next morning, and had 6 dives scheduled for two days, I am pressed for time so the hectic schedule was fine by me, the PADI advanced diving course consisted of six dives, four required, a deep dive, a dive in current, a night dive, a navigation dive, and two optional, I chose a wreck dive and a photography dive, usually it is one optional but I got a bonus one, there is some studying required but no final exam. The deep dive, consisted of diving to 32 metres and then performing two tasks, the first is to open an egg under water, and to see how under pressure the egg preserves its shape, you can play with it and push it around and it will still retain its spherical shape, and does not go all over the place, the second is to do a mental exercise to demonstrate that the mind works slower and is less sharp at such depth , the first was a difficult multiplication exercise which actually I did correctly, the second was to write the name of the Colombian president backward, but I did not know the name of the Colombian president, so I could not do the exercise, anyway my mind seamed to still work fine at that depth, they would have to take me deeper to make me stupid.


The current dive involved diving in a strong current, but the current was not that strong in the site when we dived, but I did see a huge one meter long lobster. The third dive was the night dive, the night dive offers the opportunity to see some see animals and plants that only come out in the night, I saw some tiny sea horses, some big fish, and other exotic animals and plants which I don't remember their names, and a lot of plankton, which emits light during the night, we turned the flash lights out, and enjoyed the light show around, this time though I went with another instructor, who was filling in for my usual instructors, a young local guy, who was not bothered by the recommended safety rules, he skipped the safety check on the surface, and touched almost every animal we seen in the water, even tried to grab one fish by the tail, his behaviour was quite different from the other instructors at the school, Gerd, Mex and Marta, who are very professional and do it by the book.


Next was a wreck dive at 6 in the morning, which I did after only a couple of hours of sleep, I just could not sleep, so in the end I gave up, got up and studied the theory part and did the theoretical exercises, it was two nights in a row with insomnia. The wreck dive was to a ship sunk 15 years ago, at 28 meters max depth, the rumor is that it was a drug boat, anyway the fish and corals don't care and they already inhabited the ship, the tour involved looked around the ship, and even diving through wan of the passage ways. The next dive was the photography dive, they gave me a digital camera which also can take movies, I got better at it the more I was doing it, and I took some nice pictures, at the end the instructor took pictures and videos of me under the water before going up, the lack sleep combined with effort, the cold water, and not having any breakfast, finally go to me, and I was feeling nauseous, getting on the boat after the dive did not help either, since the sea was turbulent in that area, and it is worse when the boat is setting still waiting for the other divers, I ended up throwing up. The last dive was the navigation dive, the only dive I did not like, but it is necessary to complete the course and acquire experience with navigating using a compass, the excesses included diving in some pattern, straight line, square, triangle, and returning to the starting point, using the compass and counting kicks to navigate, there was a strong current, so I never managed to go back to the starting point, conclusion ? the theoretical navigation techniques don't really work in currents, somebody should come up with a better way to navigate underwater, GPS would be the first thing that springs to mind, maybe when the Galileo project is finished, we will see more GPS devices for diving navigation. Anyway after the dive, I had the choice of going with the boat to pick up the other divers, in a turbulent area, or stay in the water and wait for the boat to come back, I chose the later.


However I am going to get my advanced certificate today, after I hand out the remaining exercises, I am also invited to a party the diving school, but between doing the remaining exercises, updating my blog, and partying the night, when will I have time to make up for all the lost sleep, or just enjoy the sunset in Taganga.