I arrived in Cartagena Colombia without incident on April 30th. I was met at the airport and driven immediately to my home-stay where I was met by 2 overly attentive old ladies. I met the entire neighborhood in the first couple of days, my laundry was done by hand the same day it landed in the hamper, when I asked where I might go shopping I was personally escorted, when I misplaced my key, they went through all my belongings for me, if I stayed in for the night they tried to set me up with Veronica. I managed to avoid this introduction all week but it wasn’t easy. To do so, I had to go out almost every night. It was all quite charming at first but it grew annoying pretty quickly.
I was glad to move into my own private apartment the second week and regain a little privacy and independence. The building I moved into was a little aged but the suite itself lived up to my expectations as it turned out to be exactly as viewed in the internet photos. It had a view of the port and the Laguna and was walking distance to Playa Boca Grande and a $2.50 cab ride to the old city.Unfortunately the instructors at the Spanish school seemed like they had better places to be and they were quite distracted during class. The dance classes started late everyday and with 4 guys in the class and no women; we were left to dance with chairs on the first day, pull in chicas off the street the second day, and finally convince some of the girls from Spanish classes to sign up for the rest of the week. Thursday was overkill because we thought the chicas saying they would show up on Thursday was just a polite gesture, so with them and the other girls on Thursday and Friday, the guys were outnumbered… what a predicament!! We had to make it up to them by going dancing every week night and into the weekend. The Spanish classes contained a really good mix of people from all over and it seemed everyone was always up for a good time. We never seemed to go out with a group smaller than 4 and at times we numbered up to 10 party goers. We went to some lively bars and listened to some great music. The locals can really dance and while everybody was willing to dance and have a great time with the clumsy foreigners, it was very humbling.
The afternoons were typically spent strolling the streets in the historical section of the city, relaxing on the beaches, lounging over lunch and drinks, and generally taking it easy. Day excursions included a day of beach baseball with clueless Europeans at Playa Linda and a mud bath at Volcan de Lodo Totumo where getting the mud washed off in the laguna was the best part! In effect, it was a $2.00, 15 minute massage. I choose not to extend my Spanish lessons into the second week and instead I took private salsa and meringue lessons in the mornings. My meringue is a lot better than my salsa but I need a lot of practice with both.
As much as I loved Cartagena it came time to leave after 2 weeks. From Cartagena I took the bus to Santa Marta on the Caribbean coast. It was blazing hot! My hotel was decently priced, close to the beach, but quite a ways from town. I booked a ‘tour’ into Tayrona national park where there are some awesome beaches and average snorkeling. It was great day and I met some really nice people but it sure made me miss having my own wheels. We were shuffled unto the bus, into the souvenir shop, into the snack shack, into the park office, into the taxi boat, into their cousin’s restaurant at the beach, and we all had to hold onto the life buoy while snorkeling. If I walked out of line it seemed someone was there to very politely get me back to where they thought I should be.
From Santa Marta I took a plane to Medellin and landed myself a spot on the floor in a dismal hostel. I survived the night and moved onto a much better place in Zona Rosa the next day. In Medellin I met up with Katrina from the Spanish school and she introduced me to Neil. The 3 of us partied the weekend away in the many fun clubs and good restaurants that the Zona Rosa has to offer. As Katarina had already been there for a few days she was gracious enough to be my guide as we explored the city on the excellent metro and cable car system. We also took a bus and climbed the 200 m El Penol monolith near the town of Marinilla.
After the weekend the 3 of us agreed to rent a car, share the costs, and drive into the Zona Cafeteria. It was a beautiful drive through the mountains and valleys that took us to such places as Manizales, Periera, Parque National Los Nevados, Salento, Valle de Cocora, and Finlandia. We hiked up Nevado del Ruiz volcano to 5000 meters until the snow and crappy weather shut us down, took a tour of a coffee farm, and walked about the Valle; but mostly we just enjoyed the scenery while touring in the car. From Periera Katrina took a bus to Bogota and Neil and I hitched a ride with the car rental dude to Cali.
We arrived in Cali on Wednesday, May 26th. We moved into a hostel that Neil knew about and unpacked to stay for a few days. It’s a great place except for the #%^%^&#@# cold showers! We took it easy the first night and on the second night Neil called on one of his friends who invited us out for a night of salsa. The girls wouldn’t let me sit down too often and they also took the lead on the dance floor. It was fine by me as I mostly bluffed my way through the evening. I just made sure to keep a safe distance and because the dance floor was so busy they couldn’t tell I wasn’t doing a damn thing right…. usually. It was all about the dancing… I was the big spender that night because I bought a jug of cola. Including taxi the whole night cost me less than $10.00. The next night we went out for dinner with poetry reading and finally a local band for entertainment. For the record, I didn’t pick the place!!! The poet was very expressive but I didn’t understand any of it. The band over did it a bit too. It was a dry weekend due to the elections on Monday. The dance clubs are shut down tonight so I decided to finish this blog entry and prepare for my trip to the Amazon River tomorrow. I have booked a flight from Cali to Leticia via Bogota tomorrow. Leticia is on the border with Brazil and Peru and only accessible by plane from Colombia. I plan to stay and take a trip down the Amazon for the rest of the week. I will then return to Bogota for next weekend.
