Back to work - with a vengeance

After a month long break I've jumped right back into being too busy. The other high school science teacher decided to quit Tuesday, leaving us with no chemistry and physics teacher. A huge ass whole move, but I really think he has a mental disability and am trying to not despise him. It's actually better he's gone because he did such a horrible job in every way a teacher could be horrible. No one is sad to see him go, but his short notice affected the entire high school this first week back after such a long break.

My principal came to me to see how I could help. It just makes sense for me to pick up his chemistry classes, so I am combining his two chem classes into one and adding it to my schedule. I like and respect both my principal and director, and I believe that all students deserve a chance at a good education, so it was a no brainer. Of course I will be compensated as well, so don't think I'm too much of a saint. However, those of you who really know me, know that I do nothing half ass and adding another subject to teach is going to drastically change my routine for the rest of the semester.

I want to work at a school that doesn't have to constantly put out fires. I started teaching in January of 2003 and was replacing a guy that quit midway through the year, putting out a fire. Every school after that has had to be reactive instead of proactive. I want to work at a place where we can grow and move forward. Where teachers want to be there and put forth their best effort AND succeed. Teaching is just not one of those jobs where you can wing it.

I've made a decision about next year. I actually made the decision before I left for break in December so it has nothing to do with the current drama, but have been keeping it to myself. I am moving to Santo Domingo in the Dominican Republic and teaching Biology and AP Biology at the Carol Morgan School. I am not only inviting you all to visit, but I am actually expecting visitors this time! I have a two year contract, so at least I can be proactive in my own life for the next two years.

Travel Lessons - yup, still learning

It's the second morning I've woken up not knowing where I am. I don't how those Aussies and Germans travel for months at a time, after one month I am ready to regroup and get back to a routine. Of course after being back to a routine for a month I'm then ready to get back to traveling. A vicious circle, really. It's a good thing I'm a teacher and get lots of breaks.

Every time I travel I learn something new about traveling that I try to take back with me, sort out and then implement on the next trip. For example, back in 2007 I took out my credit card and decided to head to Tanzania and summit Kilimanjaro with a group of teachers from University of Colorado Denver. The trip was awesome, well planned out, but while I was there, grouped in a mass of overly white faces, only a bit tattooed at that time, I stuck out (not as much as now) and I realized, man, the local people don't even notice us, they just see walking dollar signs. White faces, hiking clothes, REI backpacks, polarized sunglasses, kindness, compassion - all those things are unnoticed and just translate into one big walking dollar sign.

I had no face, no name, no identity, I was just some source of easy money. The problem was at the time I had charged the trip and I owed more money to credit than I actually had. Yes, I had food, a house, way more than those eyes staring at me, but I felt assaulted, bitter. At that point I thought, hey, instead of just traveling for brief moments, maybe I should stay somewhere for a while, you know assimilate into the community. Hence, a year later, I picked up my life and decided try the international teaching thing.

I love this international teaching gig. Picking up and moving, getting to know new people, new situations, keeping myself on my toes. Of course I miss my family and friends. I miss Target and buying good smelling stuff, but I like being in the middle of a place I've never been. You ready for the but? Yes, I thought you'd be, so the but is that these new places are now my home. I live here now, so the day to day stuff is essentially the same. Well, I have to call some run down, pile of crap, falling apart taxi to take me to work, but I get up by an alarm, go to work and exercise, same daily stuff you do. It's got me thinking, huh, should I move closer to home and do this stuff and then travel from my home base? Maybe, but not for a couple more years, because I've accepted another job overseas, this time in the Dominican Republic.

For now I'll continue to live in a foreign country and travel from there.

My next thought, was ok, so I don't need to live in every place I visit, but how about staying in those places for a longer period to really get to know that place. That's how my Ecuador trip came to fruition. I had the whole summer vacation to travel and I decided, instead of trying to check off a bunch of countries, I should just stay in one. Five weeks in Quito turned into a routine and after the 4th week I planned a trip to the coast, just to "get out of there". Huh, maybe this isn't a good idea either. Then I had three weeks in the Galapagos and the positive is that I don't ever feel like I need to go back, but those last few days on Isabella were just spent walking around the same 5 streets I'd been wandering for a few days and reading.

Then it came time to figure out what to do for the month break we get around Christmas. Again, I was thinking, don't try to fit too much in, just relax, go to one country and really "see" it. There's the Colombia trip. Spend the whole month in Colombia. Move around within the country and after consulting the Lonely Planet (a book we lovingly refer to as the Lonely Liars) I realized that Colombia might not be the easiest place to get around, so I should look into a tour company to help me organize the trip.

The lesson this time, even though I was only in each new place for a few days, was that I was still a day or so too long in each place. It boils down to the fact that life is pretty much the same in most places. Once you see all the touristy stuff, the other stuff is just routine living. The travel books highlight the unique things in the area and anything on top of that is the same stuff you've seen and done in every other place you've visited. After you've gone to a few churches, shopped in the local market, eaten at a few typical restaurants, experienced the "special" in each place the rest is just the same.

Now I'm thinking I should plan a trip that is action packed, and full of movement. I'm sure I'll learn something from that too.

Colombian Reflection

On my last night in Colombia, I thought I'd do some reflecting...

Top 6 awesome things about my Colombia trip:

1. The food, damn, I've eaten some good meals here. I think I have a tie for my favorite meal and they are both fish! The first was on Isla del Rosario where I had a huge delicious steak of some unknown fish, fried yucca, and coconut rice (oh man it's good). The second is while we were in the "coffee region" at Valle de Cocora and I ordered the trout with fried plantian. Who knew I liked trout so much.

2. The weather, well mostly, but we were super lucky to miss almost all the rain that has been plaguing Colombia for the past few months.

3. Spending time with my sister. I will always remember this trip as the first time Mary and I were able to travel together as adults! She's a great travel companion, and I'll snatch her away from Kyle again soon :)

4. San Gil - the little town considered the "adventure capital of Colombia" really lives up to it's name not only in adventure (puking 8 times is pretty adventurous) but the scenery and climate. It is the first time in my life I recall just being comfortable - not too hot or too cold, but just perfect. Goldilocks should have found San Gil.

5. Bogota, now my official favorite South American big city, sorry Buenos Aires, but you ain't got nothing on Bogota, ok, well, maybe the long summer nights, but as far as cities go, this place is pretty darn nice.

6. Having an awesome travel partner. Seriously, this girl is like a sister to me, and well, you all know how well I treat my sister sometimes... No, really, we are great travel partners and whenever the going gets too rough we just play "would you rather" and all things are put into perspective.

Top 6 "are you freaking kidding me" things about my Colombia trip:

1. Sleeping in a hammock that is hanging in an area with 60 hammocks under a thatched roof in the middle of the jungle.

2. Spending New Year's Eve in the jungle with nothing to do and $8 drinks :( AND having to suck it up and sleep in a hammock after that!

3. The Panaca farm. Now don't get me wrong, I'm glad we went there and I got some awesome animal photos, but I didn't come all the way to Colombia to go to an "amusement park" of over 4,000 domestic animals.

4. Colombians not living up to their widely known image as being highly beautiful people. Now don't get me wrong, my flaming gay dance partner was cute, you know, if you like stick thin, tiny little men that act like women, but man we've not seen one fabulously gorgeous man OR woman.

5. The tour we paid for... I should have known better. I just wanted our extra three weeks to be awesome and fun filled, and with our limited Spanish we decided to pay for a personal package through Mantayra Travel here in Bogota. DO NOT EVER use that company. Laura and I could have done a much better job on our own, next time...

6. I guess I should put puking on here. Who knew I'd be sailing around the sky, something I've thought of doing for a long time, and puke up my entire breakfast of eggs, toast, melon and coffee.

** Please note: there is no particular order in which I've described my trip. I certainly do not like food better than my sister!

The Bogota Bike Tour

Got to meet up with a former colleague from Burma yesterday. She is now working in Lima and thanks to Facebook we realized that we would both be in Bogota at the same time. It was great to see her and catch up on all the gossip, and also some recommendations. She told us that we should go on the Bogota Bike tour which is lead by an ex-journalist from the US. So today Laura and I decided to head downtown at 10:30 to start the tour...

Bogota has some forward thinking laws, one of which is mandatory helmets, so we donned our helmets and set out on the smog filled, congested streets of La Candaleria (old town Bogota). First stop is the Simon Bolivar Plaza. Yes, you have heard me talk about and seen many many photos of status of Bolivar because he liberated most of South America from the Spanish and is well respected and honored throughout the Continent.

Of course, in true commerical fashion the plaza has been turned into an ice skating rink which was supposed to be only for the month of December, however due to the nice profits and thousands of kids lined up to skate, the rink is still here.

Manuvering through the streets of downtown Bogota was not very pleasant, they city does a good job with bike lanes, but mostly to the north and not in the downtown area. The cars, taxis and buses did seem pretty respectful of a group of gringos snaking through traffic.

I guess the US screwed Colombia out of keeping control of Panama and for a "settlement" the US gave Colombia $20 million. The Colombian government used part of the money to expand the streets on this block downtown. Now this area is a huge "marketplace" for emerald dealers and here you can see men lined up buying and selling emeralds. I like the man in the brown suit holding the emerald up to the light.

Next, Mike, the tour guide takes us to a fruit market and the first thing we notice is that it's actually clean. We got to try lots of tropical fruits like dragonfruit, passionfruit, tomate de arbol, and other random strange fruits that I can't remember the names of...

The next stop was the bull fighting collesium. Starting this Saturday and for the next 6 weeks bull fighters from around the world will come to strut their bull stuff. The tradition is that at the end of the fight the bulls are killed and then the meat is sold.

People are as serious about this as Southerners are about NASCAR. After the bull fighter puts in his best effort and hopefully doesn't die, it is customary to take out a sword and stab the bull through the spine and into his heart. The bull dies fast and the crowd cheers at the tradition. Apparently sometimes the fighter doesn't get a clean cut and the bull suffers, but the crowd boos, unlike in NASCAR when the crowd cheers when there is a crash.

Of course we drove through their city park and I had to catch a photo of a pup.

A pleasant surprise of the tour was stopping at the city cemetery. Here is a huge statue when you first walk in and the story is that this kid drown and for some reason the locals treat him like a saint and often times you'll find flowers all over his grave.

Mike used to live in La Paz, Bolivia so we had some good discussions about Bolivia and living there. We were sharing about the oh so fabulous custom of men peeing in the streets. Well, Mike made sure to show us this canal sign and model for us.

In Bogota they don't want you to pee or poo in the streets. Very forward thinkers, like I said.

Our tour is turning into 4 hours and we're all a little parched when Mike asks if we like coffee. Um, helloooo, yes. So he takes us to a coffee processing place run by a family. This is a very very small business and the family bags each batch by hand! Come to find out the reason you can't find a decent cup of joe when you travel is because they export all the good stuff. They seriously roast separate batches and the high quality gets exported and the low quality is sold here. Don't worry, we made sure to by the export grade.

They bought this coffee roaster in the 1920's from Germany and still use it today! I had a fabulous iced latte.

The next and last stop on our tour was the red light district. In this Tolerant Zone prostitution is legal and the girls, whether they were born girls or are just dressing like girls, can sell themselves in the zone. We were warned not to take photos of the girls, but let me reassure you - ewww. It was the middle of the day and the scantally clad "women" were standing all around. I guess they get enough business during the day. This building, the Piscina Club, is one of the most famous brothels in this area. We didn't stop in.

That concludes the Bogota Bike Tour. Mike did take a bunch of photos along the way and he told us he would email them to us, so if I get them I'll upload some more. Just like most of our travel adventures, we had no idea what to expect, but were not disappointed at all.

A Chocolate Massage

First you take off all your clothes except your bathing suit, preferably a two piece strapless.
Next you lay on the massage table while a sweet salt mixture is scrubbed all over your body.
Then you go to the steam room for 5 minutes while your skin gratefully sucks in all the scrub and moisture.
Be sure to rinse off before heading back to the table.
Lay back down and relax for a nice oil massage.
Now comes the warm, delicious, heavenly chocolate. Sit back and enjoy being covered with lushious cocoa.
Wait 5 minutes while the chocolate dries and leaves you looking brown and edible.
Back to the steam room and the chocolate is soaked into each and every pore of your body.
Rinse again and prepare for chocolate lotion.
Find a quiet place to lay down and breath in the deliciousness of your skin.
You have just had a chocolate massage!

It's been an adventure for sure

The past few days have been a test of patience and adventure... As is often commen with this kind of travel, you spend a lot of time not knowing what to expect, what's next, or being able to really communicate with anyone at all. We, of course, knew the limits of our Spanish, which is why we paid for a company to help us plan, but what we didn't expect is that hardly anyone speaks any English and when they discover that you understand a bit of Spanish they talk as if they are running from a fire. We also quickly discovered that the company we used is turning out to really suck. Living moment by moment can be fun, exciting, challenging, etc, however it does get old, especially after trying to "sleep" in hammocks!

We left Taganga, which as I look back, was not so bad. It was a challenging place because of the filth washing up on the beach, the starving people and dogs and the openly drunk people everywhere. Laura and I did end up at a club, Sensation, where we danced the night away. Sounds fun and it was until I saw a super, flaming gay man that was dancing so awesomely that I told Laura, I want to dance with him! Before you know it we are dancing away and he's swinging me around, even though his weighs 110 pounds and has a 22 inch waist, and wearing a white belt. I was having a fantastic time and laughing my butt off until... he decides to try and make out with my face! Huh? What? Wait! How old are you? 23??? Oh, hell no, and aren't you gay? Oh crap, how did I get myself into this? Before you know it I've managed to escape the tiny hands of Felipe, only to be swept up by Sideshow Bob. Yes, Sideshow Bob, a Brazilian man swept me of my feet. This is too much! I managed to sneak out the door and crawl safe into my cardboard bed at the Blue Whale.

Whew, I hope we don't run into anyone tomorrow.

We pack up and head toward Tayrona Park where we know we'll have to sleep in hammocks for three nights... We have NO IDEA what to expect. Just another one of the million occasions that we don't know what is in store for us...

It has been a really rainy season in Colombia. We have been SUPER lucky to have missed most of it. We arrive to Tayrona to find that the 45 minute "path" has been washed out and is just a muddy mess of holes and muck. We are supposed to carry our stuff through this? Oh, thankfully there are horses that we can pay to haul our bags through the slime. We slip slide to Arrecifes to discover a half way decent looking campsite like place. We are shown our hammocks, numbers 9 and 10 out of at least 60 and pack our belongings away in a locker. You've seen Indiana Jones, right, well this is the place. Huge boulders, palm trees, jungle, and beaches. It's beautiful really, but there is not one place to sit at this place. Seriously, we have a hammock to sleep in and that is it! No chairs? Where are we supposed to "hang out"? We have three days here and have booked a hike for one of them, but what in the hell do we do for a whole day with nowhere to sit or relax??? There's a nude beach down the way? Oh great, we can wallow naked in the sand for 10 hours. The water was super rough, huge waves crashing into the shoreline and a sign saying "Peligroso" - DANGER - 100 people have died swimming here, dont' be next! Not the caribbean beach I expected.

We endured, yes, endured two nights in the hammocks and decided that there is no way that we will stay for one more night. Especially after the site had no water for 6 hours and there was poo and pee all over the bathrooms. We also realized that if we waited to leave when scheduled that we would miss our flight the next day, so we got outta there a day early and headed to Santa Marta.

Of course this is where we were for New Year's Eve! In hammocks with NO fiesta! Muy triste :(

I love camping and hiking and all of that, however we weren't prepared for sleeping in hammocks and standing around staring at the dangerous waters.

The next day is a travel day, moving and I instantly feel at home and realize that I love being on the move. We take a flight from Santa Marta to Bogota, spend some quality time in the airport and then head from Bogota to Bucharamanga where we are supposed to have a person waiting to pick us up and drive us the two hours to San Gil. A lot of movement, but I'm ready.

The flights were smooth as silk. The airplane had a TV and we got to watch sitcoms. We arrive to Bucharamanga and walk out of baggage claim to see - no one. There is no one there waiting for us. We wait 30 minutes and then ask a taxi how much it would cost to San Gil and they quote $100-120. What do we do? Thank god we're together because Laura and I can just look at each other and start cracking up.

There are no public phones anymore, anywhere, but South America solves this problem by having a cell phone that they lend you and just charge you by the minute. Genious really, just walk up to a random "phone person" and ask to make a call. So we call the lady that booked our tour and apparently there was an accident so our driver has been delayed. We wait another hour and finally he arrives. Diego, our driver, speak 1 million miles and hour and only in Spanish. He just keeps going and going. Laura and I learned a long time ago, just keep saying "no" or "no entiendo", that didn't stop Diego, though. Of course our 2 hour drive, which started 2 hours late, took 3 hours and we arrived to San Gil around midnight. I won't bore you with the stupidness that took place when we got here. The receptionist couldn't find our "cabin", she literally didn't know where the number was, and at this point we've had no food, we are exhausted and Laura starts to loose it. We finally end up in a room with the neighbors blasting their TV until we had to call security. Whew, it was a RUFMITA moment.

Today we got up to head on our rafting tour. The guide was there right on time and we were pleasantly suprised! The company took photos and we bought the CD, so when I get a chance I'll upload them and you'll pee your pants laughing.

We get back to the hotel to be told they are moving us. Not sure why, NO ONE here speaks any English and when the conversation gets remotely complicated, we are stuck, but we are glad to be in a new room. We are staying in Hotel Cuchicute and it is very nice! So far San Gil seems much better than the places we've been. We're headed on an afternoon adventure to Barichara which is supposed to be "beautiful" so I'll bring my camera and let you know.

I'll keep you posted on what's next. Of course I have no idea really...

The glorious hammocks. There are more than 60 hammock hanging under one roof!

This little guy was jumping around the hammock area the morning of our escape. It was a nice way to close up the journey to Tayrona.