Manizales is a student town and you can tell - everyone on the streets seems to be between 18 and 26. There is also quite a disproportionate amount of girls. Not to mention a very obvious tendency for the girls to be very attractive.I immediately liked Manizales. It is also set in a unique location - the main street follows the ridge of a hill, so that you can stand on the street and look at two different valleys.
It was time for some more action so I decided to take a trip up to Nevado del Ruiz, a 5300m high mountain a couple of hours away from Manizales.
The guide turned out to be either very funny or very strange. He started off by introducing the driver and saying that the Manizalians were the best drivers in the whole of Colombia. We then passed the airport and he mentioned that Manizales had the 2nd most dangerous airport in Colombia. I could see a trend. Further information:
* Manizales has the 4th purest drinking water in the world
* Manizales is one of only a handful of cities across the world with multiple microclimates
* The road to NdR is the most dangerous (for landslides) in Colombia
* The road to NdR is the 2nd highest in South America
* Nevado del Ruiz is one of the 5 highest mountains in Colombia (true unfortunately)
The man was a walking statistics machine. Everytime he opened his mouth I started to cringe in fear of another fact assault.
Eventually he shut up and we drove up to 4500m where we parked. At this stage StatistoGuide donned ski googgles, mountaineering boots the size of small children and put on about 15 layers of North Face. He looked as if he was ready to attack K2. I stared at him, wearing a fleece and a pair of trainers.
The climb was technically simple, but due to the altitude bloody tiring. On the way I befriended two East Germans who were also poking fun at our UeberGuide. We made it up in just over an hour and true to form the Ossies cracked open and shared some beers and had some bananas to celebrate.
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