Colon

05/08/09

Totally got one of the Aussie names wrong, its Jordan and Jack, not John! We went on our epic bike ride, complete with trials and adversities for us to overcome - namely a slow puncture in my front tyre that we couldn´t find - so plenty of stops to pump it up. I can tell you that it got a little trying by the end of the day! We were out on them for about 6hours in all, and rode about 20km! We went all the way along the river by Rosario heading for a huge bridge across to an island where you can camp and there was a bar. We got all the way to the bridge braveing mad traffic, slow punctures, a fast puncture for Jordan, and bad roads, only to find out that pedestrians, bikes and horses weren´t allowed to cross!! Somewhat crestfallen we turned around and went back to the river beach to have a few beers and consol ourselves. Chilled out for a while and then went to this amazing road tunnel that we had ridden through earlier in the day to get some photos. We went out for them to grab some food later on as they were off at 1am.

06/08/09

Spent all day on my feet walking around Rosario, saw some great stuff, got some good photos and generally had a relaxing day. I must have walked 10miles or so. I re-covered some of the ground from the bike ride the day before so that I could get some photos, and generally just did a huge loop of the city. I sat at the huge flag monument as the sun was going down and got some great photos as the lights were turned on. Dropped into the tourist office to ask about camping and how to get to Colon, the lady was really helpful and kept on emphatically telling me that the Nacional Parque just north of Colon is beautiful, so thats where I headed the next day (today)

After the sun had set I went to get some food from the place we had gone the night before (I had already eaten that night so just partook in the wine, but the food looked amazing) It wasn´t open though, so I wandered about for a bit and found somewhere called ´Helga´: not a very Spanish name. Had a good steak though and was complimented on my Spanish (!?) by one of the waiters who stood and chatted to me for a bit.

Last night at the hostel was crap, a Liberian guy snored really loudly, kept dropping his phone on the floor from the top bunk, and then turned on the main lights to find it again - each bunk has a small light of its own so he really didn´t need to use the main one. The other roommates came in at 03:00ish and made so much noise it was unbelivable, those topped with my plastic mattress unfortunatly meant that my last night in Rosario couldn´t pass quick enough!

07/08/09

I´m in Colon now, right on the river and not far from the Uruguayan boarder, 10km or so. I´m camping tonight down by the river at a place with hot showers, so its all good. Colon itself is a wierd little place, all the roads I´ve seen so far are dirt tracks, no concrete?! Going to head over the boarder tomorrow to Paysandu in Uruguay (add another stamp to my passport!) then make my way to the Nacional Parque over here. The route has changed alot from the original one. The plan is to camp my way up North Eastern Argentina (with this little foray into Uruguay), then cross Paraguay to North Western Argentina (stopping at Paraguay´s capital on the way), then into Southern Bolivia from there. Do the salt flats, hit up La Paz, Isle de la Sol, Lake Titicaca, Puno, and then down to Lima to meet Dad.

Take care, I´ll update again soon,