well, it's over....17 months going from east to south to west to north
of south america... I'm now in a plane looking down at the azure blue
atolls perhaps around cuba, and on my way to the USA and then Delhi,
India. I'm so ready to stop traveling, I am really really looking
forward to arriving back in Brisbane, seeing family and friends, meeting
my nephew for the first time, meeting up with old friends and new
babies, and just getting to know australia again!
i happened to glance in my passport - i got it new just before I left to live in the UK, so when I return (I have 2 free pages left now, so after nepal and India, i think i'm going to be cutting it fine!) this passport will have been a record of close to 5 years away from Australia without any visits. such an odd and exciting feeling!
but back to the last couple of days in cartagena... it's a dirty beautiful city. dirty meaning more that because it's a port, and has a colourful history it's not just polished and pretty, there's some grit, loads of colour and character, as well as the very picturesque and romantic old, walled city. it's hot though, actually the last week or so has been sticky and salty and hot... such a different landscape and feeling/culture to the rest of my experiences in south america.
there's so many ethnicities here at the coast - very different from the andean cultures with the music somehow not quite as annoying after 6 hours of continuous blaring, the beer is chilled and cools you down, the colours are vivid, and there's the blue (and grey, lets face it, it's not quite Caribbean lslands here) of the ocean, and just everything has a different flavour.
i'm sad to have missed so much of colombia - but it really is beautiful, very advanced, completely safe in y experience and somewhere where I look forward to coming back. the people also - as promised, very friendly, genuinely interested in chatting and helpful too. And beautiful. Oh, yes, stunning! though there is an alarming amount of plastic surgery though!
so to sign off on south america, here's some of my last impressions...
i happened to glance in my passport - i got it new just before I left to live in the UK, so when I return (I have 2 free pages left now, so after nepal and India, i think i'm going to be cutting it fine!) this passport will have been a record of close to 5 years away from Australia without any visits. such an odd and exciting feeling!
but back to the last couple of days in cartagena... it's a dirty beautiful city. dirty meaning more that because it's a port, and has a colourful history it's not just polished and pretty, there's some grit, loads of colour and character, as well as the very picturesque and romantic old, walled city. it's hot though, actually the last week or so has been sticky and salty and hot... such a different landscape and feeling/culture to the rest of my experiences in south america.
there's so many ethnicities here at the coast - very different from the andean cultures with the music somehow not quite as annoying after 6 hours of continuous blaring, the beer is chilled and cools you down, the colours are vivid, and there's the blue (and grey, lets face it, it's not quite Caribbean lslands here) of the ocean, and just everything has a different flavour.
i'm sad to have missed so much of colombia - but it really is beautiful, very advanced, completely safe in y experience and somewhere where I look forward to coming back. the people also - as promised, very friendly, genuinely interested in chatting and helpful too. And beautiful. Oh, yes, stunning! though there is an alarming amount of plastic surgery though!
so to sign off on south america, here's some of my last impressions...
Pics from Cartagena...
And from the previous couple of days along the coast at Minca and Costeno Beach...
Goodbye for now from South America.
ReplyDeleteGreat having you here and hope you hurry back.
David,the mcduf in Cuenca