Colombia 1

Sierra Nevada del Cocuy

5 day circuit around the Sierra Nevada del Cocuy was isolated by Andean standards. Not even farms round the back of the range giving way to some pretty stunning scenery. Made a really bad decision to join up with a local guide half way and the poor Aussie he was dragging through the trek. My advice is DONT USE GUIDES IN LATIN AMERICA!! Never before, never again. I´d make an exception for the jungle though... This guy, Jose, spent hours each day trying to change our agreed route so he could call his girlfriend (poor girl) early, would yawn loudly and constantly if he woke in the night, doubled the price of the trip for said poor Aussie and constantly lied and contradicted himself about the dangers of the passes to get us over them which were all a doddle minus the altitude and maybe some extreme weather. Kinda like being dragged through the mountains by a moaning 8 year old! OK, you can tell this guy annoyed me, Jose the wonderful guide aside this is one the prettiest places I've ever been, maybe the prettiest.

Just follow the signs. Not that you´d have topograghic maps at the rather large ranger station in one of the most isolated parks in South America but the track was very good most of the way.

I made a whole artice for it here. http://www.summitpost.org/sierra-nevada-del-cocuy/555612

Bucaramanga

Will spend a fair of my Colombian time going to and from this place. It´s a bit of a paragliding mecca.

The Rest of Central America

Whirlwind bus tour of rest of Central America.

Honduras, busy, Coup, next country.

Nicragua, Touts and scary posters of their leader everywhere, next country.

Costa Rica, rain, trek spoiling rain, next country. Should be noted that I have managed to plan this trip so far following the differeing rainy seasons all the way.

Panama, drug dealer hostel owners, highway robbery and humidity.

Stopped here for a bit. Panama dont let you into their country unless you have a ticket out unlike every other country in the world. As it´s impossible to book the boat to Colombia that most travellers take they insist that you buy a bus ticket back to Costa Rica that they know you are never going to use. No doubt they get paid off by the bus company for this so I went up this road..

..to another border crossing to try again! An old man stamped me thru in 2 minutes, no ticket, wonder who else uses this crossing...

Countryside local, Yellow!

Panama Canal

Panama City. Tried to organise a decent sailing boat trip to Colombia here but ended up partying every night for a week then flying. Condos for $60k.