Mission Hair Cut

It's done.

It's finally done. I got a new hair cut! I always said that when I got my masters, I am going to cut these long hairs off. And people didn't believe me. But I did. I succeeded.

It happened to happen in Cartagena, where I went after the Ciudad Perdida Hike ( of course I didn´t miss to go scubba diving in Taganga after Ciudad PErdida and before going to Cartagena, with roof top parties at night with a great view over the bay). I picked the best local coiffeur in town (it's not true that I picked the one closest to my hostel... *harrumph*), told him I want a hair cut, he said "Damn, you need one", and he did it. Watch the photo-hair-story below:

before in the hostel:

getting the hair off:
newly born:

Of course I had to get my beard done afterwards as well... and I had to put in some hair-gel to make it to socially acceptable haircut. But this thing is DONE!

How to make cocaine

Yes. I did it. Not what you think. I won't get shitfaced on cocaine, but during the Ciudad Perdida hike in the Sierra Nevada of Colombia, we had the opportunity to visit a cocaine factory. Now people might think: "this dude is financing the cocaine industry, can you believe this guy?!". Chill out and read on. You'll understand.

So, on our second day, we had a stop at some random village with maybe 5 inhabitants, so basically one family. After chatting with one of them about growing cocaine plants, and how the circumstances changed over the last 10 years, he offered to show us around and if we liked he'd show us the process of making cocaine. I joined (of course :) ).

He brought us to a place deep in the jungle, and there it was, a small cocaince factory. And he explained us in detail how the process works, what ingredients are used and so on and so forth. So here it is:

For one kilo of cocaine, you need 6000 cocaine plants, and rip the leaves off. 5 persons working 5 days in a row get like 1000 k of cocaine leaves from them. Then you add the first two chemicals, salt and calcium. You need like 200 k salt and 100 k calcium and add this stuff to the shredded leaves (you better shred them with a big shredder rather than cutting it bit by bit :) ). The mixture of salt, calcium and leaves is being mixed for 30 minutes and then 5 people "dance" on it for like 5 hours or so. Then you take that mishmash and add 700 l of gasoline. The gasoline dissolves the cocaine in the coca leaves. This broth is being stirred for a couple of hours.

1) the coca leaves 2) the salt the calcium and 3) mixed together with the gasoline in a yummy bucket!







Well, then it's time to get the active substance out of the gasoline. Just pooring in water does the job. I think it is like 400 l of water. But the calcium and the salt dissolves in the water as well. But at least, this mixture forms two phases, such that the waterish solution can be sucked off and the shredded leaves and the gasoline are out of the game.




Now, it's time for more yummy ingredients. Sulfic acid and potassium permanganate. Add the acid and a few hundred gramms of permanganate, stir it, and watch carefully if you see black crystals. When you see them, you have put in sufficient permanganate. See the crystals?!





You end up with a disgusting brewage which ought to be filtered, at least twice, just with a piece of cottoon. Your old t-shirt will do.


To the filtrate is still highly acid and therefore the second last step is to add sodium in order to neutralize the acid. Filter it again and you have produced the so called "la pasta".


Et voilá, la pasta. This stuff is being traded from the producer to some "negociante", who sells it to some other place in panama or mexico. There, the last step is taken. Aceton will dissolve all the residua and leave pure cocaine.
The producer sells one kilo of la pasta for 4000 US dollar, whereas the chemicals already cost like 2000 US dollar.
Devided by 5 persons, thats onla 400 US.
So he is not really gaining much. But we paid him like 10 bugs each, so he makes 100 US per day. So by giving these "instructions" we actually keep him from producing drugs while providing him with more cash than he can spend in the jungle :)







To sum up: The process is so disgusting that I really encourage everyone to not do cocaine.

Cuidad Perdida Hike

hola chic@s,
after travelling all the way to Santa Marta, Colombia, I went on a splendid hike to Ciudad Perdida, the Lost City. 5 days of hiking in the deep jungle of Sierra Nevada, 120 million mosquitos against 8 hikers, and 1200 steps to be challenged at the end. But we made it, and it was awesome. I am just going to flash some pics and let them do the talking, as they speak pretty much for themselves.

see the pictures here:

Ciudad Perdida Hike

Boarder Crossings: Venezuala -> Colombia

From Puerto Colombia I figured to do a major trip all the way to Santa Marta to hike to the Ciudad Perdida. And yes, I was fleeing from high venezuelian prices. And yes, I never felt really secure, so it is hard to get really into a holiday mood. But a 24 h buseta-bus-taxi-bus ride had to be taken at first, including the boarder crossing close to Maicao. So I took a buseta, a small bus, from the beach through rainy forests all the way up to Maracay. There, I took a 10 h night bus to Maracaibo, a massive town close to the "Lago de Maracaibo". I arrived at 6:30 in the morning, had watched 2 revolution movies and really didnt feel like sitting three hours in a cab to the boarder, sweating my arse off while listening to very loud folk music. And it should came different.

After a having used baños publicos, which is an adventure just by itself - but I skip the details here - I took a cab to the boarder. So I packed my backpack in the trunk, took a seat, but it didnt start. Taxi driving is not like it is back home in Germany. So the driver waited until he had 5 passengers, inclidung me, which took about an hour. so three in the back and 2 plus the driver in the front. So far so good, but after we actually got our arseson the road, I smelled gasoline. and a lot of it. The tank obvioulsly had a whole and gasoline was evaporating into the passenger cabin. It turned out that this was not the only thing that weird: In total we had to pass like 10 military check points, asking for passports. For me no problem as I had mine handy in my daypack. BUT: We had a half-legal and a "nationalisado" in our cab. The half-legal was Colombian and had an expired visa and the other one was nationalized, meaning she was Colombian, but stayed (and maybe worked) in Venezuela for 10 years or so and lost the Colombian citizenship. On the other hand, she didnt had a Venezuelian citizenship either, so everytime we were stopped,she had to get off the cab and was trying to persuade the officers to let her cross the boarder... so instead of 3 hours (for 120 km) it it took us 5 to reach the boarder, of course not without having to bribe 2 boarder officers. They literally said: Either you bribe me, or I am going to inspect your luggage for the next 2 hours.

So we bribed the guys, and reached the second last control. They didnt let the illegal woman cross the boarder and she had to go all the way back...

after bribing the last officer, I finally got the stamp in my passport and crossed the boarder. But the cab with te backpack was gone...

Luckily, it was waiting 500m ahead of us, and brought us to the next bus station. From there, I took another 4 hours bus side to Santa Marta where I found a nice hostel ( Casa Familia ) and I finally found a bunch of other travelers to share my stories with. Puh. That was an experience. But everything went well. That´s the spirit...

Puerto Colombia, Choroní

Hey, I am already out of Venezuela in order to enjoy cool breezes on nice Colombian beaches. But first things first.

I took a bus and a "buseta" to Puerto Colombia, a really nice beach. But I was running out of money. The ATM was not an option, since Hugo Chavez set the exchange rate to a ridiculous low rate. And I hadn´t brought to much cash. So I went with my last 60 Dollars US to the black market und changed it for like 2.5 times the official rate. In a fish shop :) So dont expect the black market to be at a certain place. It´s everywhere.

So, I had money, but still not to much. But I got lucky and found a cheap place to stay at a Venezuelanian family. That was kinda new experience, since I was sleeping on their terrace, in a tent. The dschungel was just 3 meters away :) Next morning, beach time. BEAutiful.

Getting There

"Under these circumstances, I cannot let you enter the plane", I was told at Duesseldorf Airport.
Nice. That´s how a trip should start. The DELTA Airlines supervisor found out that I do not have a return ticket getting me out of Venezuela, which is true, as I am going to leave Venezuela by bus. Due to some imigration restrictions, I would need a return ticket or I might not be able to enter Venezuela. At least that was what I was told. I had 20 minutes to get a ticket for a flight, that I would never use. 10 minutes and three-hundred-fucking-fifty dollars plus ticketing fee later, I had that ticket. So now I could leave Germany towards Atlanta, Georgia, where I had a connecting flight to Caracas, Venezuela.

Many hours later, and with 2 hours delay, I arrived at Caracas Airport. At midnight. Not exactly what I had in mind. But hey, the return ticket only cost 630 euros, with the return flight being provided from Buenos Aires, Argentina. So arriving at the most dangerous town in South America at midnight, I had to find a safe way to the city center in order not to get robbed by strangers and/or taxi drivers. On my way from Atlanta to Caracas, my seat neighbour was an engineer who was going to Caracas for a job, building up the backbone of venezuela´s cell phone infrastructure. So we chatted, and he was interested in physics, so I explained him how some things work and he was so grateful to give me a free cab-ride into the city (so I saved like 40 dollars or so, *kling*).

well prepared as I always am, I phoned from Atlanta in order to get a reservation at som hostel, but unfortunately, low-budget hostels are rare in Caracas, and the only placed offering shwap accomondation are actually love-motels that offer non-hourly rates to backpackers as well. So that cab brought me to "Nuerstro Hotel", and I was more than happy to find a prison-bars-like entrance door and not to many hockers.

the bed was shitty, the "bathroom" was as good, but I had only one roommate, a cockroach, I killed it, and I wsa alone. Not even a single hocker knocked on my door. So I had a long, decent, 5-hours sleep until the warm air made sleeping impossible.

Bottom line is, you should not expect a warm embrace from Caracas, rather a slap in the face, but hey, at least it keeps you focused. On the other hand, I am THE only backpacker in the city, at least it seems to be like that, so after I had a delicious breakfast ( I mean it) I will now head on to some beach town 2 hours from here called Puerto Colombia in order to get some rest and meet birds of a feather.