Shakira Shakira

Ok, I guess the title caught the attention of the red blooded males out there! Believe it or not there´s room for more than one Shakira in Colombia....

We had the option of visiting remote sites with Marino on a full day jeep tour BUT all 4 of us (Dave, Teddy, John & myself) agreed we couldn´t handle another full day in the company of the Jeffmeister! He wasn´t too happy as it meant he had to put his hand in his specially tailored hidden trouser pocket & pay for the full trip himself!

Dave & I decided to walk to La Chaquira. All we knew was that it was a picturesque place. Rene drew us a rough map & away we went. It was about an hours walk along lonely paths & I don´t think we would´ve done it if we´d known that the FCO.GOV.UK travel website has San Agustin & it´s surrounding areas labelled as no-go areas for British tourists! Kim told us that the area is still partly Guerilla controlled & up until recent years they would stop buses at road blockades. Ignorance is bliss.

What awaited us was a precipice that jutted out overlooking the valley of the Rio Magdalena. The views were spectacular up & down the valley basin. There were also a number of large rock carvings. La Chaquira is carved in a rock off a cliff. Needless to say we had the place to ourselves (I guess most people follow FCO advice)! It was so picture-skewy that we got comfy - took off the boots, settled down to read our books while popping up our heads now & again to admire the vista. We must´ve been there for over an hour when a local, who we had passed earlier appeared. He had gotten a little worried about us, he told us cameras had been stolen from tourists in this place - time for us to head back to town.

Whilst out on our walk we also met a guy (Carlos) who offered to take us to a cocaine kitchen where the stuff is actually processed from leaves into the white stuff. We didn't spend too long with him but later we met up with Teddy & John & decided all four of us would do the trip! So John & Dave headed up to Carlos´ house. This was the story: Each person pays approx 20 Euro. You get taken to the secret location & you can take pictures of the "cocineros" (cocaine cooks) but only below the head. And..... here comes the corker, each couple gets a kilo of cocaine to take away with them!!! John speaks fluent Spanish, so after he picked his jaw up off the floor he had to ask the guy for a second time if he was hearing it correctly. Now, apparently you can carry 25 g of cocaine (for personal use) in Colombia! I wonder what the penalty is for carrying 40 times that across the border into Ecuador. We decided to pass on that tour.

On 11 Sep 07 police in Colombia captured the man they regard as the country's top drug baron, Diego Montoya - see photo above.

3 Days pass very quickly & before we knew it we were back on the bus to Popayan - funny thing is we were being thrown around like rag dolls. The ride was really, really bumpy - now we appreciated what people had been saying. But in reality it was more funny than anything else, every few minutes we´d fly off our seats. Following the experience I´d suggest that the larger cup sized lady should be sure to don a sports bra for the journey.