Galapagos Islands!

I´m sitting here in Quito, Ecuador and whilst writing this blog I´m still humbled by the experience of Galapagos Islands. The incredible animal world, the breathtaking scenery of the islands, the heat of the sun burning down on the equator, the shivering cold pacific water 1000km off the mainland, a bunch of inspiring people and of course the worldclass surf!

I arrived on Isla Baltra on the 3rd of January after a decent flight on an Aerogal Boing 757. My intention was to stay for one week, but since the airline only charges 10US dollars to change flights I changed my plans pretty soon and stayed for two. I spent three days on Isla Santa Cruz, sadly I have no pictures from this great place, I sencerely hope to get some footage off of my travelmates some day soon!

After catching some waves at Playa de los Alemanes, seeing the magnificent Tortuga Bay and jumping the cliffs of Las Grietas on Isla Santa Cruz I proceeded to Isla San Christobal. A peak through the binoculars revealed a proper set coming through at a point called Canon. It´s only accessable by passing through a Navy Base and in addition it´s a pretty fast wave. No wonder it´s called Canon...

The Surf Caballeros are on the hunt for waves.

Young Sea Lions having a discussion here. If one thing is sure on Galapagos, then it´s the fact that you´ll never be alone in the water! In addition to that noone´s afraid of you hence will have much respect.

Hey ther little fellow!

One thing I noticed about Sea Lions is that they are the indeed masters of lying around all day, doing absolutely nothing and having a grand time!

Getting close! Mama is giving me a little stare though...

This is my wave! Land Iguana and his sidekick the Crab are having a close eye on the crowd.

The view from our balcony. After a litte search we found the shittiest accomodation in all Puerto Baquerizo. It featured all our requirements: cheap rooms, a shower that looked like it could produce warm water (which it didn´t) and a balcony!

This is Mr. Timmi Fresh from Australia, with whom I had the the honor of spending my time on San Christobal! Always pushing the limits, be it in the waves or at the bars!

A little nightshot from the hot spot in town... our balcony!

You´ve guessed it, even in paradise people need gas to run their cars.

The electric sockets seem to come from China.

That´s the stance! Got to implement that into my surf repertoire!

Taking a walk around San Chirstobal. Associations with a Moonlandscape come to my mind.

Mr. Charles Darwin! His voyage on the HMS Beagle startet on December 27th 1831 and lasted for five years. He kept detailed notes and gathered specimens that lateron led to the therory of evolution and the publishing of ´The Origin of the Species´ in 1859!

Have I already mentioned that See Lions are the hardest chillers?

Big Saturday at Tongo Reef. A lot of  water moving, and Blas Rodriguez from Buenos Aires was ripping! I cought the biggest wave of the session right on my head, got battered, survived and smiled.

Catching a fun wave at Tongo Reef!

A little impression of a random Dude´s ride...

Best day of my life... again!!

Colombia

Finally we reached Colombia, and just as every single person I talked to about Colombia said: it is insanely beautiful! This is El Penon, outside of lovely Medellin! After climbing this single gigantic rock that remided me of the Sugarloaf in Brazil, an amazing landscape opened up!

The road from Turbo to Medellin was scarred by landslides resulting from the heavy rainfalls of the recent weeks. Sometimes only a few rocks had fallen onto the road, sometimes a whole slope had failed. That´s why you never ask how far a trip is, but always how long a trip takes...

Animal transport on a small scale. The chicken is still alive, just hangin´ out!

Staring contest on the Centro Administrativo de La Alpujarra, Medellin!

The Museo de Antioquia shows many paintings of the famous Colombian artist Fernando Botero. His style features a loose interpretation of proportions, to put it straight, most of his figures appear kind of fat. Dispite some of his paintings putting a grin on my face, a considerable part of his art is very serious. Very recently he drew a fair ammount of attention with his Abu Ghraib series, dealing with reports of the prisoners abuse in Iraq.

This is Boteros interpretation of the shooting of Pablo Escobar on the roofs over Medellin. The Colombian druglord Pablo Emilio Esobar Gaviria is certainly the first association made with the city of Medellin and regarded as one of the most successfull criminals in history. He wasn´t exactely low on cash and so in his 1986 attempt to enter Colombian politics he offered to pay off the nations 10 billion US$ debt. He had a very straight forward policy twoards the law enforcement and the goverment: ¨plata o plomo¨, accept the money or recieve the bullets. In 1992 Escobars struggle to maintain his supremacy lead to an incredible ammount of 27.000 violent deaths that year. Even poor youths were paid rewards for killing policemen by the time. To the poor population Escobar appeared as a modern Robin Hood, building football fields, sponsoring footballt teams, building many churches in Medellin and distributing money to housing projects. Therefor the population of Medellin often acted as outlooks for Escobar and hid information from the authorities. Following pressure from the United States Escobar could be localized by a Colombian electronic surveillance team with help from the US on December 2. 1993 and was shot after a spectacular gunfight.
Famous quote: There are two hundred million idiots, manipulated by a million intelligent men.

 

Another interesting object in the Museo de Antioquia. Not appropriate for Reggae Music, but actually playable!

It´s getting close to Christmas in Medellin! The decorations contain the same ammount of artfulness, creativity and style as in any other given place of the world...

A visit to the Botanical Garden poses a great escape from the city mayhem.

Christmas Dinner! Tons of food shared with good friends! Nothing compares to Christmas at home, but this was certainly as close as it gets!

After spending Christmas in Medellin we went on to spend Newyears in Cali. This is the Crew from left to right: Dave from BC Canada living life to fullest, in the background Laura from Guernsey (don´t tell me you didn´t know Guernsey is an island in the British Channel!!!). Marissa from California teaching me the lingo so I can finally become a real surfer. Hot shit bro! Nifty times ´n´  wicked party! And my lovely Sarah also from BC Canada getting all the good moments on camera and keeping Colombian boys heads turning.

Feria de Cali with my good friend Beneyasa from Oetztal! 
His name derives from the notorious hotel in Kuta, Bali we stayed at last summer, and notorious is he!

No escape from the Espuma! The Feria de Cali is one of the largest Salsafestivals in Southamerica and some serious party is going down in the week before Newyears.

Getting some proper cooking done at Benes place! 

Thunderstruck! Bene had superhuman reaction on this one!

Cali by night!

Found this at our Hostel. That man must know!

Newyears with the girls! Back home you were drinking Schnaps, in Cali we had some Aguardiende! The translatione is ¨firewater¨, it tastes like Ouzo and it definately works!

The last night in Cali! A big trip the Quito, Ecuador is awaiting me and my flight to the Galapagos Isands is already booked!

From Panama to Colambia: The San Blas Islands

After waiting for a week in Panama City it finally seemed that the weather was getting better and would permit us to take a boat to Colombia. We had already booked a sailboat leaving from Portobello a remote town north of Panama City, but since heavy rain destroyed roads and telephone lines we weren't able to contact our captain. As a consequence we finally opted for a motorboat called the Darien Gapster to do the trip.  Porvenier was our first stop on the San Blas Islands. As caribbean as it gets...

It looks so beautiful on the pictures, but notice the palmtrees! The wind was blowing hard! Since the islands are protected by reef there aren't any waves to see here. Outside of the protected area the situation was still a little different. The recent storm in the caribbean, that had caused so much rain and landslides in Panama, left behind a noticeably rough sea.

This is the Darien Gapster, our  'cruisship', ready to takes us past the San Blas Islands down to Colombia. The reason why we all took the boat is the following: Between Panama and Colombia lies the Darien Gap, a region of about 160km undeveloped swampland in the Darien Jungle, were the Panamerican highway ceases to exist and only unsafe dirtroads, druglords and FARC-guerillas are to be found. Chances of dissapearing for good are quite real in this spot of the world.
The alternatives are flying or taking a boat. The pricerange is about the same, but honestly, the plane doesn't sound a lot like adventure!

We spent the first night camping on the beach of Isla Nalunega, a small island inhabited by the Kuna. A few hundred people live on this island,  i guess it has about 300 meters in diameter and therefor it is completely covered with houses. The national sport is volleyball, which is played on a concrete cort. the gringos obviously lost the game...
 since there is no sewage system on the islands, the restrooms are based on a different system that we are used to.

The weather went bad and so we involuntarely stayed on the island for another couple of nights. 

We moved from camping on the beach to sleeping in the livingroom of a Kuna family (18 people!!!) and finally checking into Hotel San Blas. Hotel doesn't completely nail it. 18 people sleeping on a concrete floor is a bit more precise.

In total we were stranded on Nalunega for four days. The good thing was that we had lot's of time, books and beer!

Even though I am stranded on a caribbean island, I don't forget about my true passion! Giving it a shot at Greys Anatomy!

Finally we get going again! The sea is still pretty rough and forces us to stop over on the island of Aridup or Isla Iguana in Spanish. The island is even smaller than Nalunega and completely deserted. The Kuna built a hut, becauese they sometimes come here for fishing and collecting coconuts. Coconuts are real money for the Kuna, you can actually go to the store (if you find one) and buy some shampoo for five coconuts. The coconut equals 30cents US and Adirup therefor is kind of the national bank.

Here we are unloading the Darien Gapster and getting prepared for another night on the beach.

Robinson Escobar in his underpants. After five days of deliberate rain and getting splashed on the boat not a single piece of clothing is left dry.

Dinner! Some Kuna actually stopped by and sold us lobster! The sum we payed was rediculous, something between 10US and 15US for two of these adorable creatures.

After almsot capsizing in the open ocean the next day and later on hitting the reef close to the islands we made another stopover at the island of  Geodup. We had run out of food and water and were glad that the island was inhabited and that we were allowed to stay for the night. I didn't take any fotos on that island. This foto shows the dock of Sapzurro in Colombia the following day. Finally Colombia! But still dwelling in the middle of nowhere. Since the Darien Gapster is a Panamenian boat, it can bring us to the boarder, but cannot sail into the Colombian sea. We spent the night in Capurgená, enjoying pizza, showers and a real bed!

The final day! We took the Lancha from Capurgená to Turbo, a two and a half hour ride. It started to rain after about two minutes and water was splashing into the boat from the waves. But essentially we were getting close to civilization... until we ran out of gas!!! Most of the people on the boat were Colombian, so I couldn´t understand every word they were saying. They were certainly making fun of the captain, who does the trip every other day and was now keeping people from smoking a cigarette in fear of fuel catching fire...

After drifting around in the Columbian sea for about half an hour a boat came by and had some gas to spare! Happy faces and Captain-Ski-Goggels gave full throttle once again! Medellin, here we come!!!