Playas Hermosas

For starters, theres some older news just below this post, you might want to start with that, not that im trying to tell you how to read this blog.


It should be noted that Cartagena is hot. really hot. hotter than anywhere ive been in a long time. it wouldnt be all that bad but the humitidy adds 10-15 degrees on to what the sun already provides, which usually hovers around 90-95. lovely. that being said, playa blanca was an excellent get-a-way from the city heat. a bit of a mission to get there (we took a local bus that could have come straight from austin powers´ life in 1969, a hand-paddle canoe across a river and then a 25 minute moter-bike ride during which i was convinced of iniment death on half a dosen occasions), but when we arrived we knew it was worth the effort. you can look at my pictures (i just uploaded an album, move your eyes left) but they dont do it justice. it really was white sand, bright blue water, thatched huts over resturants with no running water or electricty. the water was almost two warm, but the wind blew all day and kept us cool. we slept in tents provided for us on the beach, ate fish, coconut and fruit, and did nothing for 3 days. although we were all getting a little stir crazy the last morning before we went back, like "give me a shower right now, i dont even care, i swam in ocean but my hair is a day away from dread, give me a shower!". another couple nights in cartagena and we were off to taganga.

that was an adventure too. got on our bus, which was a piece of poop. most of the seats were broken, it was dirty, the lights didnt work (so we looked a little silly using our headlamps to read on a bus during the day, but hey, the windows were tinted) and the air conditioning would go on and off randomly, making the bus too hot and then too cold. we were asked to change to another bus halfway to our destination, which was empty, and were then asked to change again. the bus we changed to was FULL. were were the last two seats in the back of the bus, with some a-hole in front of hannah making sure his seat was as back as far as it could so he could sleep. then a cockroach is discovered by hannah to be crawing around on the floor, although i can neither confirm nor deny, as i never saw it. not a big deal if your not deathly terrified of bugs (hannah, not me). we started by putting our feet up on our seats as to avoid it crawling up our legs, but after another siting (again by hannah) she had to move to the front to get away from it. okay with me, it just meant i had a bit more room. we finally made, found out our hostel was full, and found another one, which ended up just being some guys house which had 2 rooms, one with 3 bunk beds and one with a double. it was cheap, but there was nobody else staying there. fortunatly we ran into one of our friends from medellin and partied with him and about 20 other brits at the poshest hostel in town.

the last two days have been spent at Parque Nacional Tyrona, which is the colombian-famous national park where everybody goes. you can do the 6 day lost city trek but its quite pricey, and after peru i think ive filled my ruins quota for a few years. so we took the bus out and walked to the coast, which is quite specacular (again see photos, but remember it was nicer in person than what they portray) rainforest coming all the way down to the ocean. one downside i suppose is that we didnt get much sun, which made the beach side of things a bit less exciting, but felt fitting with all the rainforest we were surrounded by. two nights there was enough, and after getting back to taganga i ate a hamburger (something i had been craving for a few days) and we went out with a group of worldly (holland, germany, NZ, US, scottish, british) travellers from our hostel.

i think one more night will be good here, and then i think ill head over to venezuela for a few days and hannah will probably go to cartagena, where i will meet here after the weekend. but planes change, so we´ll see. oh, big news, bought my plane ticket just now. im home the night of july 18, for those of you who are reading and might be effected in some way by my return (apart, of course, from not getting to read this fantastic blog). so ill see you all in 5 weeks or so, and ill try to start posting a little more regularly. buena suerte!

Older stuff

Alright, im sort of making this blog post about stuff i have been forgetting to mention, thats not really that important, but kinda funny. so read this if you want, or skip it and you wont miss much news.

To start off, back in exensive medellin we were having trouble with food. we ate so much pizza in bogota for so cheap at one place that the guys started to get to know us and would bring hannah her vegetarian slice before we said anything. (hannah is vegetarian, which limits our eating options to an extent which is difficult to imagine for people that have not been to south america). so in medellin pizza is about 3 times as much, which is out of our price range to say the least. fortunatly there is in an Exito, which is bolivias largest chain of supermakets, near by. picture something like a wal-mart/k-mart/fred myers/target. two floors, selling food, clothes, TVs, cell phones, beds, plankets, prepared food, deli food, they sold chairs and tables, tents and cutlery, the list goes one. outside exito are many little fast food places (two of which, horribly enough, are dunkin donuts and mcdonalds) but the others sell things like ice cream, baked goods, burgers, this and that. we found one that sold empanadas. for those of you who dont know, and empanada is a round piece of dough folded into a half mood with either cheese, cheese and ham, meat, chicken, potaotes, rice or corn inside, and then deep fried. the ones they had here were cheese, ham and cheese, and hawaian. they were cheap and they had fountain soda (also a rarity). we probably ate at this place 5 times, and after the first few, the woman (it was the same woman working no matter what time of day, weekend or weekday, she was always there) also began to know us. she would smile and laugh when we walked up, give hannah her 2 cheese empanadas and a diet coke from the fountain, and i would get my 2 hawaian and 1 ham and cheese, or 2 ham and cheese and 1 hawaian, and a grape soda, also from the fountain. grape soda (unusual anywhere in south america, in any form) coming from a fountain at this fast food empanada shop gave me such a shock i may have let out a bit of an excited yell, attracting strange stares from the locals around us, and causing hannah to step back and make sure i was feeling ok.

one night we felt like pasta (also in medellin, also from exito) but couldnt be bothered to make pasta and a sauce, and i spotted kraft, yes! but next to the kraft is a colombian knock-off brand that is a little cheaper and held a little more. cool. let me tell you this, dont ever eat Señora Muñeca intant mac and cheese. just dont. it was one of the worst meals i have had in south america. just bad. we finished it, but it was bad. stick with the "quality" of kraft.

ok, i sort of have other wierd food stories, but to descibe them so that it would be like it was when we were eating would be difficult, take up my time (and money), and probably be a bit boring to read, so ill cut the crap and start a new blog post (above) with real stories.

ughhh

sorry ya´ll, a post is coming about the beautiful playa blanca and some stuff i forgot about medellin. but it would be a shame to write without pictures to back me up, and i forgot my camera, so tomorrow you´ll get photos and words, consider it a 2 for 1 deal, and no, you dont have to thank me.

Mi Amor Cartagena

So to wrap up Medellin, lets see. we went to the water park, which was a bit more difficult to get to than expected. the hostel owner said, "take the train to the end of the line, hop on a bus marked "copacabana" and you´re there." nay. copacabana is a town from which you must walk to the highway and take the bus that says "barbosa," not "copacabana." it was more expensive. but the water park was only $4 and we had the whole day to run around with thong-bikini (i dont know who is raising these girls and letting them wear what they were) 12 year olds. the park was pretty good actually, apart from the fact that they didnt have enough staff to have every slide open, so they rotated 2 at a time, and ever hour or so would open up a new slide and close a different one. but it was good fun, and something nice to do with our day.

That night we had a pretty big night out, spent a little too much money getting into a club, but i was having enough fun that i got up on stage. let me say this, it was cops and robbers theme, so you had scantily clad hookers dressed as cops dancing dirtily to reggaeton, the macaraina, and the occasional american rap song. there were some regular guys and girls up there with them, and when i went up there with some girl i got a pair of black and white stiped "robber" pants, which i still have, and which i plan on keeping. anyway, overall, a pretty good night, considering everyone else that when out elsewhere didnt have that much fun--we found the right place.

Off the next night to Cartagena, we arrived in the morning to the most expensive hostel in the city, stayed a night, enjoyed the pool and terrace they had, and found a cheaper hostel called Casa Vienna. yes, the owner is austrian. we have been to the beach twice, despite that it is a 15- 20 block walk from here, and have stolled in the old town, which should be called the ghetto. its pretty rough. everywhere you go people are offering you all kinds of drugs at all hours of the day, and although nobody has asked us for money, there are some really poor people around. lets call it colorful, which is descriptive because of the colorful buildings and the people hanging around them. ill put some pictures up sooner or later.

Tomorrow morning we are off to a place called Playa Blanca, which is a true carribbean style beach, something the city lacks. its supposed to be quite cheap to stay out there, so we might be sleeping in hammocks on the beach for a few days. i would be suprised if there is internet--its on a beach--so dont be shocked if you dont here from me via email, facebook or blog for a couple days. im not dead, im probably passed out on a beautiful (safe) beach--not to worry.

Senor Escobar

So we didnt make it Villa de Lueyva, which is really just a tourist attraction for its fields of magic mushrooms, and instead skipped straight off to Medellin. the climate here is wonderful, not too hot during the day, and you can wear shorts and t-shirts all night long. although we havent accomplished much here apart from making friends with south africans, brits, kiwis, aussies, yanks, israelis, french and argentinian people, we did make it to pablo escobars grave. its meant to be a bit of a tourist attraction, although it is just a grave. it was quite interesting that it was located as close to the church as a grave could be, and nice that the entire escobar family was near each other. i was hoping we would see little bags of cocaine that people would have left to honor the king, but no such luck. i suppose if you have bags of coke then your not just leaving them lying around in a cementary.

we were going to head off to see his house turned muesum/zoo today, but its 4 hours out of town, quite expensive and we didnt wake up in time, so instead tomorrow we are going to go to a water park. i know, it makes perfect sense. it has been nice to be speaking a bit more spanish with the argentinians, its good practice. we also have a terrifying man sleeping under me (the bunk below) and next to hannah who tosses and turns very violently, and snors like a motherf***er. its interesting, hes in colombia, staying at a party hostel, and yet all day hes on his computer and he goes to bed early every night, making it all the more stressfull trying to get into plastic covered beds (thus quite loud) without waking anybody (especially him) up.

we´ll be heading up to the coast on saturday, where we´ll snorkle (and hopefully surf) and relax on the beach and take pictures of fish. i have tested out my camera in the pool here, and it seems to do quite well underwater, so all should be good. hope this wasnt a complete waste of your time, ill write about our cultural trip to the waterpark soon.

La Catedral de Sal

Alright, hannah arrived safe and sound on monday night. tuesday we walked around the city a bit and went to the gold muesum, which is meant to be one of the best displays of gold in the world, and i can understand why. room after room was filled with pre-incan to post-colonial spanish gold. it was really quite amazing, if not a bit monotonous. gold is like sunsets, you´ve seen one piece, you´ve seen them all--more or less. we live in a nice part of town, right near two universitys, which means walking down the street you see all walks of life--hippies, headbangers, hipsters, you name it--there are some nice plaza areas, and a lot of chic resturants and bars. not much else to say about that, except that everybody here seems to know somebody who has been held up walking home, but ive been in some pretty rough places throughout south america and i havent been robbed yet, and im not starting now, so put your fears to rest blog readers.

yesterday we headed out to a town about 2 hours outside of bogota with 2 aussie guys and a brit. in this town there is the catedral de sal, or salt cathedral. its a massive underground tribute to jesus and shows the 14 steps of jesus being nailed to the cross, starting with him doing something like carrying the cross (i dont quite remember) and ending with him being nailed to the cross. since it was all underground the average shutter speed of my camera was 1/4 of a second, and thus the pictures are not what one would call "good." but you get the idea by looking at them what kind of work people did to carve out massive caves and caverns out of pure rock. we then saw a bad animated 3D short in spanish, and then headed back up. it was quite amazing, and, according to them, the largest tourist attraction in colombia, but lets leave that open for debate.

theres a cable car that goes up to a church at the top of the hill over the city that we might check out today, but its quite expensive, and we have tickets to see some world-famous Dj playing on the 30th story of an empty hotel on friday, and i think the views would be similar. so thats that for now. maybe on saturday we´ll head out, to a place called villa de lueyva or to medellin, we´ll see.

oh, the photos will go up soon, so hold your horses.

Sickness

So ive been sick the 4 days ive been in bogota, but i put up some new photos. more when i can get off the couch and actually see some of this city.