Southbound Gnomads

Fresh and energized at the beginning of the trek Brian stumbled across the Lost City while researching some of the top things to do in Colombia- or South America for that matter. You may have heard of Ankor Watt, Machu Picchu, or Cichen Itza- but nowhere was this place on the radar. And so we must go! We signed up for the tour and had the option of a 4 or 5 day trek, so we grabbed the 5 with the option of cutting it short if need be. 23 km each way? Yeahhh we've got this. We drove 3 hours east of Santa Marta down a glorious paved road often in view of the ocean and many a banana plantation. After a brief stop it was time to turn south and head into the Sierra Nevada mountains, where we weaved along a rough mud path for 40 minutes of bumpy, twisting, stomach-turning fun. So much for my motion-sickness bands! There we had lunch and got acquainted with our guide, Oscar, and some of the other members of the tour groups leaving at the same time. The mural on the wall with our ...

Greetings lovely people, We are back from the jungle, a little torn up but feeling fine! Baihia Concha We last left off before embarking on a trip to Santa Marta, a bustling city on the Caribbean coast. We had a nice couple of days there, and although the beach left something to be desired (plenty of garbage and right across the bay from a shipping container yard), we found beautiful sandy spots in the surrounding area- Baihia Concha in Tayrona National Park (this outing included snorkeling without the snorkel- nice fish as long as you could hold your breath!), and then Playa Blanca near the very fun beach town of Rodadero.  Mulata Hostel was a comfy place to spend a few days, with a spunky tabby cat named Matilinda to keep us company and a pool table and a bar for evening fun. One of our nights we enjoyed a wild thunder storm where the skies opened up while we were still at the hostel, and completely flooded out the courtyard with rain. Great light show after f...

We made it! Bri and I touched down in the capital of Bogota in the early hours of Friday morning, after an 8 hour lay-over in Atlanta. We took advantage of our stay there and made the trek downtown to good ol' Waffle House, and then the Civil Rights Museum. This was a crazy eye-opener to a scary past in south that it turns it we didn't know as much about as we thought.  Gorgeous sunny stroll through Olympic Park, past the College Football Museum (Bri will be back for this!), and back to the airport we went.  The Candelaria district of Bogota After a flight with enough turbulence to spill our very full cups of wine, we were relieved and of course excited to finally set foot here in Colombia. Despite much research and planning, you never really know what you're getting yourself into until you actually land in a place. Bogota is a sprawling city of over 8 million people, and full of overwhelming sights and sounds.  We stationed ourselves in the Candelaria district, ...

Goodbye home sweet home! We'll miss you 15 Nottingham So here we are, all packed up and (nearly) ready to go! It's been a whirlwind year for the Corrammons, from our sunshine-filled wedding day in August, to a jam-packed fall filled with de-cluttering, packing, yard-sales, and finally the move from our first home together here in Guelph. It's been exhilarating, nerve-wracking and all-together kookoo, packing up our little world in exchange for a couple of backpacks and head ing to another continent. We are balls of mixed emotions, with excitement and nervousness all wrapped into one. Is it guts? Insanity? Depends who you ask, but here we are, on the verge of a once in a lifetime kind of adventure. The packing process underway This extended travel has been in the cooker for some time, over two years in fact. Although we did our best to save save save, cash in air miles for flights, and go through the motions of getting vaccinated against dise...