Dia 52 27-04-06

I just came back from having a beer with Jeroen at Plaza Castellano, a nice place in one of the better parts of town (Altamira). We sat at this huge terrace overlooking a roundabout with a little park. Our view was more like this though.

Day 51 26-04-06

Fire on the Avila, the mountain "slash" national park that forms the northern border of Caracas. Yep this is another view from our terrace. We're only a 5 minute walk from the mountain. It's a great place for a good hike, which I did today for almost 3 hours. Now I can hardly walk up or down the stairs!!

Day 50 25-04-06

Birthdaycakes, cool!

Day 49 24-04-06

I nearly forgot to take a picture today, so it's just a view from the balcony. With a telescope this place would be great for a voyeur.

Dia 48 23-04-06

On the way back to Caracas.

Dia 47 22-04-06

Besides beaches, Morrocoy has a few very nice caves, only accessible from the sea. Some of the walls have petroglyphs.

Dia 46 21-04-06

Cayo Muerte, at Morrocoy National Park. Well you wouldn't want to be found dead here on a weekend. On weekdays just before sunset it looks rather nice, but this saturday thousands of frying Venezuelans littered the beach.
But I enjoyed myself anyway.

Day 45 20-04-06

Talking about kitsch...

Day 44 19-04-06

French kissing a parrot. No further comment.

Day 43 18-04-06

San Felipe is a hot and uninteresting town. Besides our beautiful Posada there's not much of interest. Even at the Plaza Bolivar (usually surounded by colonial buildings) there are only 2 nice buildings of which this one is the nicest.

Day 42 17-04-06

Today I flew back to Venezuela. After that I spent more than 5 hours in the car driving to hot San Felipe in the northwest of the country for a short holiday. The first time I got my camera out was just before I went to bed. This was the view from my hotelroom. Ok I admit it, not a bad place.

Day 41 16-04-06

A storyteller on a small square in North Bogota. Storytelling is a popular artform in Colombia. Some artists are so popular thay fill huge theatres.

Day 40 15-04-06

On the way back from San Agustin to Bogota.

Day 39 14-04-06

Good Friday at 07.00 am I was woken up by the sounds of the Semana Santa procession passing under my hotelroom window. They'd been doing this parade every day so far, but only in the evenings. This was defenitely the most elaborate, including men dressed up as Romans flogging a Jesus carrying a cross. Later that day more statues. We couldn't get enough of them. Again with excellent lighting by Alicia.

Day 38 13-04-06

The Midwife. Well that's what the specialists think this statue portrays. I only shot the top half. At the bottom of this statue you can vaguely make out an upsidedown person with spread legs.
It's one of the largest statues in San Agustin. Nobody knows what exactly they were for. Hundreds were found in this area, but no inscriptions or texts at all. So they're still guessing what they meant.
Until recently this area was still pretty unsafe because of FARC guerrilla presence. This means the site is not yet spoilt with hordes of tourists.

Selfportrait

Day 37 12-04-06

View of the Magdalena rivervalley near San Agustin. the river that becomes one of the biggest of Colombia is still rather narrow here, but extremely fast. At one point it's only 2m wide, but 24m deep. You can actually jump across. I didn't try though.

Day 36 11-04-06

Alicia being a wonderful assistant while I try to capture the essence of some of the mysterious statues of San Agustin. By the way, if you're wondering what she's actually doing. She's holding the flash for me, and pointing it at the statue. Later you'll see some results of her work.

Day 35 10-04-06

Semana Santa in San Agustin. Easter on this continent lasts the whole week. Every day there are parades through the streets, with the biggest one on good friday.
San Agustin is a wonderful small Andean town in the southeast of the coutry. It`s been off limits for tourists for years because of the presence of guerrilla. Now it`s safe again but still very quiet. It`s one of the main archeoligical sites of Colombia. But more about that in the following days.

Day 34 9-4-06

My last reinsertado (ex-guerrilla or paramilitary). A very nice guy with whom we spent a pleasant afternoon in Bogota. I took his picture from the helicopter platform of the highest building in town.
Every sunday several central streets in Bogota are closed for all motorised trafic and opened for bicycles. They call it the 'ciclovias'. On this sunny sunday the streets were packed with people, but hardly any cyclists.

Day 33 8-4-06

One of the 'guests' at the big theatre festival in Bogota.

Day 32 7-4-06

My appointments for today were cancelled, so just another streetscene.

Day 32 6-4-06

Skaters on Plaza Bolivar

Nice Graffiti here in Bogota

Day 31 5-4-06

Touristy pic of Plaza Bolivar in central Bogota.

Day 30 4-4-06

Back in Bogota and it´s raining again.

Day 29 3-4-06

Under the Parque Berrio metrostation in Central Medellin. Under indeed, for the metro here moves over an elevated track, crossing the length of the city. It´s a great way to get a feel for this great city and view how the scenery changes from the fancy residential areas in the south to the slums in the north.

Day 28 2-4-06

Horsebackriding in Rio Negro, near Medellin. In the front Alicia, my friend from Medellin and in the back Jeroen mounting a horse for the first time.

Day 27 1-4-06

A soccerteam in Medellin is parading the main field in one of the poorest neighbourhoods of Medellin. A few years ago this place was a dump, not just for garbage but for murdured people as well. Today it was the centre of the inauguration of the Netherlands-Colombia Soccerleague. The league was set up to organise young boys in the neighbourhood to give them an alternative to joining the guerrillas or paramilitaries.

Day 26 31-03-06

A protest of Colombian students against Coca Cola. The company supposedly had several union leaders killed in this country. This weekend there will be a peoplescourt hearing at a university in Bogota.