Colombian buses

Spending 33 hours on buses in a 3rd world country is enough to make even the most positive person a bit jaded, and well, you know that I wasn't this year's model positive personality winner. Let's see, what can I share... for one thing the vomit ride is alive and well. I briefly took off my headphones to the chorus of gags and hacks of bile being deposited into flimsy plastic bags. How about the cloth bags with top zippers that held roosters being shuttled to their fame, or death, at the cock fight? The lady with her seat reclined into my lap so she could accommodate her caged birds was not too pleasant. The one Paying lady with her litter of children that has to ride on her lap even though a paying customer can't really utilize the seat next to her. Don't even get me started on the smells... Oh Colombia - you will forever remind me of piss and vomit. Now I'm sure that for the total trips I spent less than $100 USD. I can't brag about the distances too much since a lot of the roads weren't real roads, but narrow dirt and rock paths barely wide enough for one car never mind cars traveling in opposite directions. My favorite part is that the bus stops whenever someone needs it to stop, so the "express" bus is just an adjective to make gringos pay a bit more.

Don't worry there are more adventure updates to come! Stay tuned for the latest shannagans of Lisa and her excellent decision making....

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!

Cartagena, Colombia

How to sum up the last 9 days in Cartagena... after some flight delays in Lima and Bogota we (Laura and I coming from Bolivia) finally arrived in Cartagena. My sister was already there and waiting for me in the hotel lobby and it was so awesome to see her! It's been a year and a half since we have seen each other and for her birthday this year I decided to get her to Colombia so we could hang out. I try not to have any regrets in life, but my true regret is being a terrible sister when we were growing up. Mary is such an amazing human being and I was such a super huge bitch to her when she was little that I feel like I want to make up for lost time. We have never done a sister vacation, so this was it!

We decided to splurge while she was here and stay at the Hilton. Luckily one of Laura's friends was also here and had Hilton points so we got hooked up with an awesome free breakfast every morning and access to the "excutive lounge".

Our first big excursion was to get on a bus (Las Chivas) and do a night tour of the city. Of course we had no idea what to expect, but it turns out that you get a free bottle of rum and some coke and ice to go along with it. I think they sat us five girls in the very front seat because they could translate more easily and it turned out to be a benefit for us because we kept getting new bottles of rum. Of course we end up at a "disco" and the fun begins...

Next day we wake up early to head to Islas del Rosario to chill on the beach. The ride to Bocachica (the little mouth) was ok, but then we reached open waters... whew, not a fan. I luckily didn't have to puke over the side.

Not 10 minutes off the boat we decide to jump back on and go see some coral. Mary orders the extra huge fins and we jump overboard and get masked up. Mary couldn't get her mask on right and it kept squishing her ears and the guide must have asked her 15 times if she was ok. She was kind of pale and looked pathetic, but we adjusted and enjoyed the waters. It wasn't as clear as I thought it would be, but still nice.

Mary left after 5 days and it was really sad to see her off at the airport. I wish I had planned to go home with her and spend the holidays with the family. Actually Raleigh just had 8 inches of snow, so maybe I'm glad I didn't head home. Hanging out with her made me realize that I want to be around my people. Thanks to Larry we all have similar travel styles, you know, get out there and explore!

The last 4 days in Cartagena were really unnecessary. Laura and I didn't know when we planned the trip that 5 days is a perfect amount of time to see what you want around here. I have done a bit of exploring and have some great photos of the walled city. We went to another island and hung out for the day, did laps around the streets in the city, ate really good, expensive food and found the Starbucks of Colombia... Juan Valdez. We made friends with street beer sellers and jewlery vendors, and hung out in the ritzy plazas as well as the ghetto plazas.

Now it's time to have one last meal in the city and then get on a bus and head north to Taganga and some real beach time!