One week spent on a 40m classic 1900′s sailing ship, cruising the waters of the Caribbean from Colombia to Cuba sounded pretty damn good to me! Being a classic ship, I assumed it wouldn´t have a swimming pool. So I brought one along.

most of the passengers were puking the first few days, the ship getting rocked around quite a bit in the first night due to a storm, even ripped 4 of the sails.

I gave up fishing after 4 days of nothing.

But then the fun started. We anchored and went swimming, snorkeling and rope swings off the mast…

Video of the Rope Swing off the mast into the Caribbean

Unfortunately I popped my eardrum doing said rope swing. Maybe no more attempted back flips for me.

We finally managed to catch some Tuna, Dorado and Spanish Mackerel. Tasty. All in all a groovy week aboard the Steel Rat.

We were sitting outside a local pub in Cartagena, Colombia. A busker walked up, grabbed a chair and table and balanced them on his chin. Not bad I thought.

He pulled out a 5inch nail,  and proceeded to push it all the way into his nose, the head disappearing inside with a snort and a flick of his head.

Now he really has my attention. He does it a few more times. Then proceeds to do the same with a screwdriver, all the way till the handle is pressed against his nose.

I asked him for the nail, intending to act the fool and not actually put it up my nose.

But he came over and in rapid Spanish was explaining what I had to do. I understood nothing but put my head back, and probably something like don’t move too much or cough.

So now I can insert nails and lolly pop sticks up my nose to the gross entertainment of anybody around. Haven’t managed to get paid for it yet though.

The volcano looks like a pimple on the landscape.

you walk up to the top, scare away the oldies getting a massage in the mud, then you get to jump in from the lip and spray mud everywhere.

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When the novelty wears off you go down to the lake and the ladys wash you off.

Thats the travel “Bible” or “The BOOK” as travellers call it. Ive heard of people meeting their authors who dont visit the locations, just sit in one of the main travel hubs and chat to people.
No wonder the maps are crap!

Lonely Planet rocked by fraud scandal

April 13, 2008 – 9:03AM

Popular guide book giant Lonely Planet has suffered a severe blow to its credibility, with one of its authors admitting to plagiarising and making up huge slabs of his books.

Thomas Kohnstamm, who worked on more than a dozen guide books for the publisher, has even admitted that he didn’t visit one of the countries he wrote about, saying he worked on the book about Columbia from his US home.

“They didn’t pay me enough to go (to) Columbia,” News Ltd newspapers reported him saying.

“I wrote the book in San Francisco. I got the information from a chick I was dating – an intern in the Colombian Consulate.

“They don’t pay enough for what they expect the authors to do.”

He also claimed to have accepted free travel, breaking the publisher’s policy aimed at maintaining the independence of its authors.

Mr Kohnstamm’s confession is a severe blow to Lonely Planet, considered a bible to travellers all over the world.

More than six million of its country guides are sold each year.

Lonely Planet has conducted a review of all Mr Kohnstamm’s guide books, but says it has failed to find any inaccuracies in them.
AAP

Southpark has some real gems.. And you can watch the whole episode online for free

Die Hippie Die…

Cartman runs a “pest control” service to try and rid the town of hippies, a foe he has feared and hated for most of the series, mainly because, according to Cartman, “all they do is smoke pot and smell bad.” Having studied hippies in his quest to eradicate them, Cartman deduces that the hippies are about to start a music festival in South Park. His attempts to warn the town council are futile, and he is arrested soon afterwards for imprisoning 63 captured hippies in his basement.

watch it now

Parque Tayrona is an amazing coastal national park on the Caribbean coast of Colombia. The plan was for plenty of swimming, eating, drinking and general merriness to celebrate my birthday.

Oh and not to forget to recuperate from the strenuous 6 day trek I had just finished..

First thing was to smuggle the booze into the park. I had packed away 2 bottles of Ron for my birthday. And with a smooth bait and switch the policeman searching my bags didn’t spot it. No point paying a bribe if you don’t have to! All of the others also managed to smuggle a bottle each. Maybe we were all extra clever.

To begin the evenings festivities we made cocktails. Beach version pina-coladas. Then the guys surprised me with a birthday flan with number candles and a disco bottle of vodka

It wasn’t long till the disco bottle was mounted, I received my birthday tattoo and life was just that little bit longer…

A 6 day hike in the Colombian jungle to a hilltop location where a bunch of people used to live a long time ago

Highlights.

• Lots of 20 year old army dudes that will happily lend you their guns.
• Swinging off vines like Tarzan

Kidding myself that it was a tough 6 day hike in the tropical heat. It was usually a casual stroll for 3 or so hours per day.

Brilliant!