Home sweet home

We are finally back in Germany at my parents house and managed to arrive in time for my mum's birthday which was the best present we could have given her. Very happy day!

It is wonderful to be in a home with family, clean bathrooms, comfortable beds, unlimited delicious home-cooked food and all the comforts we missed for 8 months. Big sigh!
I was so looking forward to fitting tight clothes again but all my clothes are way too big now, snif! But I am sure it is a matter of weeks if we stay with my mum, and I will fill my jeans out again sooner than I think! Am very much looking forward to a beauty treatment tomorrow to get me back into civilised condition...

Our last few days getting out of the Amazon and into Sao Paulo involved a lot of sitting on boats (7 hrs on a canoo and then 30 hrs on a speedboat) and then a few incredibly hot days in ugly dirty Manaus and a short flight to Sao Paulo.

We are back safe and sound with all our luggage which is amazing and everything went very smoothly. If you want to get hold of us you can call on the following numbers:

• landline my parents: +49 6002 452
• Craigo UK mobile: 07776 166109
• Tanja German mobile: 0176 6539 6357

We look forward to hearing from you!
Lots of love,
Tanja and Craig xox

Welcome to the Jungle! ...exploring the Amazon!

We are on our last South American adventure exploring the Amazon!!! We flew into Leticia in the three country corner where Peru, Brazil and Colombia touch and went on a 4 day jungle trek with our guide Miguel, a little motorised canoo and its driver - lovely Lopez! After going up one of the tributaries, the Yavari - we got to an area called Zacambu, bang in the middle of the jungle! We spent four days exploring the area, swimming in the river (the fish enjoy biting nipples!!!), fishing Piranhas and other delicious fish for dinner, catching crocodile babies in the night (not us ourselves rest assured!) and watching countless birds making lots of noise. It was great fun and the abundance of wildlife near the water is very impressive. Even the moskitos stay away from the water which makes it even more enjoyable!

At this time of year the water levels are very low which means the river is packed with fish! So many that they jump out of the water all the time and it only takes minutes to catch some! On our first day an enormous fish jumped into our boat. It was about half a meter long and really fat! We did not manage to eat all of it at night between the four of us! We stayed with a family in a little community of about 50 people. The ladies cooked for us in the evening and the men caught fish and drank lots of Cachaca. What a peaceful life they have! It feels like every day is a lazy Sunday - very relaxing.

On one of the beaches we spotted not only pink dolphins but also a baby tarantula! How nice! This picture does not convey how much screaming and panicing was going on before I agreed to get this close! Apparently, the baby ones do not have poison yet, they only bite but it will not kill you..

And this is how we slept in the jungle - two nights in the house of the family we stayed with where you could hear the endless scurrying of animals on the wooden floor and in the roof all night! I had to put earplugs in to stop worrying!!

On Craig´s massive insistance we also spent one night sleeping in the jungle with our hammocks hanging between trees!! I was so not impressed!!! But in the end I surrendered and although I barely slept it was yet another unforgettable experience. A few times in the night a little twig fell off the tree above onto my moskito net and I was sure it is a giant spider or snake coming to eat me and almost had a heart attack with panic but it was nothing. Only in my mind! I heard millions of birds scream as well as the grass hoppers and the monkeys howling in the distance but that was about it. Only little spiders and gazillion of ants. Phew!

On the last day we walked through the jungle heat for a few hours to visit the community San Mattheo. We visited the home of a Shaman and his family which was really interesting. We learned lots about his medicinal powers and little miracles, amazing if only half of it is true. The Shaman told us he has 80 brothers and sisters (from the same mother he insisted) but he himself only wanted 8. They all live in the vicinity with their families and must be the happiest and most balanced people we have ever met. They made us feel really welcome and immediately shared what little they have to give. They life in a small house, about ten people in one small room, sleeping huddled together on the floor, a few chickes running around under the house, a dog, a cat, a parrot and the MotherAmazon looking after them. They own next to nothing but they are all smiling and giggling and running around screaming and laughing all the time. It makes you happy just to observe them. The little kids run around naked chasing the chickens, the slightly older kids go to a tiny little school the government has financed and the ladies weave baskets and fish with sticks while the men work in the forest. They have to work hard to get some vegetables from the land, they boil river water over a real wood fire in the kitchen shed at the back of the house for drinking, they bathe and wash in the river which feeds them and have never been outside their community. We really enjoyed staying with them and would love to go back there for longer one day. The kids would certainly be pleased to see and touch my hilarious GRINGOHAIR again!!!

Tomorrow we are getting on a boat which will hopefully take us all the 1500 km up to Manaus. From there we will then fly to Sao Paulo for one giant last real Argentinian steak before catching our flight back to Germany.

We are both torn between being really sad that our big adventure dream is almost over and feeling relieved to get back to the life we know with family and friends. It will be great to catch up with everybody, stay in a home and enjoy Mum´s cooking!

And after all we have some more little holidays planned in Europe over the last summer months and then the next big adventure of our move to OZ is coming closer, one exitement after another! I think I will have to start a new blog or that one... maybe "Teeeensha downunder"?

Beautiful Tayrona National Park

We have spent a couple of days at the North coast of Colombia, close to the border of Venezuela near Santa Marta, in the National Park Tayrona. With its Carribean beaches and lots of lowkey campsites and little restaurants at the beach it is a perfect place to chill out and relax a few days. We loved it! I never knew that holidaying in the Carribean could be so cheap!!!

We took a 6 hr bus to the National Park and then had to walk for an hour through tropical dense and very humid forest to get to Arrecifes. It has a few campsites and some straw roofs with hammocks underneath and very basic facilities. But cold beer is available as well as fresh fish and tons of fresh and exotic fruit. What else do you need?

The area being tropical it rained like mad every afternoon but our belongings were safely tucked away in our tent, so we just stayed on the beach and waited for the weather to pass. Usually it did not bring the desired drop in temperatures but was still somewhat refreshing! I found it really hard to cope with the temperatures and humidity at night, the tent felt a bit like a steam room to me but Craig thought the temperatures were just right!

I could not get enough of the beaches, they must be the most beautiful and abandoned I have seen in my life! I loved getting up just after sunrise and sitting on one of the giant bolders and getting splashed by the waves breaking below. Very peaceful.

I can really recommend this bit of paradise to anybody - we are now very glad we did the long trek North to get here!

Tomorrow we are flying to the other end of the country to Letitia in the middle of the Amazon Basin to watch some wildlife and then catch a boat all the way down to Manaus. How very exciting!

Celebrating Craig´s birthday in Cartagena

We spent yesterday celebrating Craig´s 22nd (?) Birthday with lots of "coctels" in a beautiful Cafe del Mar bar on top of the old city walls of Cartagena. Very relaxing, the mojitos were excellent and the heat was bearable thanks to a merciful breeze coming off the sea. I even had Craig serenaded by a 3 man combo over our Cuban dinner.... hee hee. It was too dark to see if he blushed but I think he might have???

Unfortunately, our bank account has been frozen for some reason and we ran out of money half way through our drinks... apparently all the Colombian transactions seemed suspicous to our bank manager?? Luckily we managed to sort the confusion out - I had a bit of a panic attack! What about my shopping!!!?!?!?

Cartagena is a really beautiful city and the old town feels like the last 200 years did not really happen. It is really colourful and carefully maintained, beautiful shady plazas with lots of music, interesting museums, nice shops and lots of happy and helpful people. I love it! And Craig loves all the forts and cannons and fortification walls and the pirate stories... It is fascinating how long the Spanish managed to hide out in this city - usually the attacking ships could not endure a seige long enough because they fell ill with tropical deseases just in time.

We are now planning our trip along the coast to the Tayrona National Park for some days on Carribean beaches, sleeping in a hammock, snorkelling in the day and just hanging out. I hope the nasty sandflies have mercy!

La Zona Cafetera - Colombian Cafe!

We have spent a few relaxing days in the beautiful Zona Cafetera in the middle of Colombia - in a town called Armenia, the next neighboring town is Montenegro.... I am still not sure who copied what where and when - any suggestions???

It is incredibly green here and kilometer after kilometer of green fields with mostly coffee and lots and lots of Banana and Yukka and Corn. It feel like a gigantic oasis after all the months of dry and barren landscapes in the Altiplano. Full of birdsong and warmth. Lovely!

We stayed in a little Coffee finca called La Manuela with a handful of crazy dogs, some parrots and lots of coffee plants and beautiful flowers. It was very peaceful and there was absolutely nothing to do after the 7 pm dinner. I think we finally caught up on some sleep deficit!

Today we visited a working coffee finca - El Recuco. We had a great laugh all day. The chaps working there and showing touristas around were obviously a bit bored and very pleased to have company and paying audience! They made us wear all the typical costumes and sing the national hymn while raising the Colombian flag, then we had to reenact how the coffee got from Ethiopia to Europe and then to the Americas (which involved praying to Mecca and confessing sins to a Brazil priest) - I shall never forget!!

Afterwards we got kitted out in the protective coffee collectors clothing and tried to fill our little buckets with the red fruits. What hard work!! Very spikey those plants and no fun at all in the heat! And then the endless process of depulping the seeds (Craig was using the more advanced bike technology while I was doing the old manual job being supervised by Carlos), washing them, drying them, sqashing them again and then roasting them, grinding them... I will never ever complain about the price of coffee again in my life! It is such a long and tedious process!!! And the smell is divine! I wish we had a safe suitcase and a porter so we could carry lots of the black gold back home...

We are now on the way to Bogota for a few days of nightlife before we fly up North to Cartagena. i cannot wait! Tonight will be our last night on the bus (EVER I hope!) and I shall get a few beers to celebrate and make sure we sleep! Hasta la proxima!

24 days to go...

Colombia - un pais un poco loco!

We have safely arrived in Cali, Colombia and are enjoying the heat, great coffee and very friendly and helpful people everywhere. Unfortunately, the Colombians speak Spanish at about 400 miles an hour and there is not a chance in the world to understand a thing. But we are trying!

IMPORTANT: No need to worry about us - everything feels very safe and under control. HONEST MUM and Rebecca! :-)

We are going to spend a few days in the Zona Cafetera to learn more about the famous Colombian coffee and how it is made before we head to Bogota for a few days. Then we will fly (oh what luxury! No more night busses!!!) to Cartagena for a beach and heat fix before heading to the opposite end of the country to explore the Amazon from Leticia. On the 22nd of August we will then take a boat down the Amazon all the way to Manaus in Brazil and will hopefully not miss our return flight out of Sao Paulo on the 28th. It is shocking how quickly the time has passed. I cannot believe we only have 4 weeks left! Naturalmente, we will make sure we make the most of it - I will keep you updated!

Exploring the Equator in Ecuador!

Once in Quito you cannot leave the country without visiting the Equator line! Obviously! Even though the place is a fairly horrendous Tourist Mecca, we had a fun day with other travellers we met in the Secret Garden and enjoyed doing silly experiments and watching water curl this way or the other etc. Very entertaining! We had an English speaking tour guide walking through the museum-park with us but she was so fed up with her job and so bored of her own talk tha she spoke too fast for most of us to understand, we were too busy running after her!

Most of you will probably know that the French built this huge monument (left) 200m away from the real equator, obviously this is not mentioned anywhere! Unless you read the small print you would never know.

The "real" equator line has a much more humble monument on it. We like! These are lovely Emma and Vanessa who we met in Quito and who both live in Australia and I can call my first girlfriends in Oz!!! HURRAY!