14/05/2019 Tubing, Palomino, Colombia

I woke up before 0600 as it was so hot, It was already 30°C! Josh and I have both run out of deodorant, and there is no chance of finding it here, there isn’t even an ATM in the village! Luckily/hopefully this wont be too much of an issue for the boho tribe this place appears to attract! We got up and had the hostel breakfast in the outside courtyard; eggs, arepas, mango, coffee and juice. Then we quickly got suncreamed up and ready for our excursion, tubing down the river! There were some motorbike horns outside our room. When we opened our door our lift had arrived, two guys on motorbikes ready for Josh and I to hop on the back each. We got taken down the road (when I say road, I mean mud track) to the office and asked for our passport numbers, which we didn’t have, and asked for the money, of which we had the wrong amount, plus I had stashed it down my bikini top. Everyone was cracking up! Where there was such a language barrier with our hosts at the hostel we knew we had planned an excursion for this morning and that we needed to be ready and with a bottle of water for 09:30, but with regard to the finer details we had no idea, so we were expecting the unexpected! Josh quickly went back on his bike to get our details and some money and came back and sorted it with the office. Then we were given a lifejacket and a rubber ring each. Josh’s driver Sebastian also had a rubber ring so Josh was on the back of his bike one arm holding the rubber ring and one hand holding the back of the bike and his driver was driving with one arm through his rubber ring and one hand with a phone in it. My driver didn’t have one so he put my rubber ring around us both as we drove along which I found pretty amusing! We pulled up near a small track that went into the jungle, and my driver helped me off and then left, Josh’s driver followed us up the path into the jungle. It smelt so green and was so hot. We heard loads of insects and we even saw a few sets of leafcutter ants, which were cool! Eventually we came to a little opening and we were at a river. The three of us hopped into our rubber rings each and the water took us along. It was so tranquil! We saw loads of birds and butterflies, and we also saw a family of monkeys high in a tree next to the river as we were floating downstream. It was wonderful! Sebastian came downstream with us to show us how to navigate some of the more shallow, rapid and choppy parts of the water. At one point Josh got caught by some trees by the side of the river, his hairband got caught and his sunglasses pinged off and into the fast flowing water, never to be seen again sadly! We tried to look for them but there was not too much point in looking too hard, the water was moving so fast at that point! Sebastian left when we got to near where he had parked his motorbike and said to us to keep going down the centre of the river until we get to the beach. Josh and I continued to float along enjoying the serenity and surreal-ness of floating down a river through the jungle in Colombia! We were floating along for a good 90 minutes. I think mum would like this excursion! Apparently the national geographic has called this area one of the most ecologically important areas of the planet. A little further along and Josh spotted Sebastian on the side of the river waiting for us, so we dismounted the rubber rings and got out. My driver from earlier came to meet us, and so we all hopped on the bikes and Josh and I got dropped back to our hostel. Good door-to-door service! We got ourselves together again and then went out with the camera for a few pictures of the local area before stopping at an Arabic food place for hummus and falafel, lovely!

Best street signage ever!

Thumbs up from a local.

Josh spotted some hummingbirds near the tree outside our hostel and managed to get a picture. We reapplied our suncream, it was a hot and bright day today, then walked down to the beach where we found somewhere for coffee that had sunloungers. I quickly fell asleep (sleeping in 30°C heat last night wasn’t very easy!) and Josh read his book. We strolled up and down the beach and watched the sun go down, watching the red orb disappear through the clouds below the horizon. Josh bought a homemade coconut sweet biscuit from a man selling them on the beach, it was very sweet, but I think he enjoyed it! Josh used to be really anxious about getting a funny tummy from homemade food or food prepared in less sanitised conditions. But he would have experienced so much less food wise (and may have gone hungry a few times). Nonetheless we have had our fair share of dodgy bellies (in desperate need of more loperamide stock but they don’t have it here, we have one tablet left that we are holding very precious, aka if a toilet is nearby then we can’t justify taking it!) There was a group of bohemian people drumming and playing the didgeridoo and dancing on the sand for a good hour or so. As soon as the sun was down lightning and thunder struck and there was another powercut throughout the town. We walked back in the rain, quite enjoying how cool it made us. We had torchlit showers until the power came back, and then chilled in the room until the rain had passed. We popped out for some dinner where we saw a locust the size of my forearm, it was absolutely huge (and scary!) When we got back home Josh spotted there was a frog behind our door so had to encourage it back out. All the weird and wonderful bugs and animals – I am glad there is a mosquito net especially as there are hatches on one of the walls that are permanently open so anything can come in! Hoping for a slightly more comfortable sleep tonight now it is a bit cooler!