rufmita: 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...