Thursday, January 13, 2011

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!

2 comments:

Mary Yemma said...

I think because you put the disclaimer in such small print you may have secretly enjoyed the food better than my company :) But that is ok, I understand that you can't have Moe's or Chick-Fil-A whenever you want like I can.

Love you sis!

Jane said...

As I was reading your blog to Dad, he said I wonder what Mary will think with being #3, 2 below food. Then I read your disclaimer, bearly!! Great blog. I can't wait to travel somemore. Dad really wants to go the Hawaii, but Mike has not e-mailed him back.