Thursday, September 25, 2014

Cali: Last Stop Before Ecuador

We planned to come to Cali only because it is the closest major city to the Ecuador border, but we ended up staying an extra day because we had so much fun.

To get to Cali we bussed 5 hours from Santa Marta to Cartagena and took a 45 minute taxi ride (still only $10) from the bus terminal to the airport. Then we waited in the airport for three hours, flew the 1.5 hour flight, hopped on a 30 minute city bus to the bus terminal, where we caught a cab another 15 minutes to our hostel. WHEW! 


Salsa Dancing
Cali is the salsa dancing capital of Colombia, so by default it is the salsa dancing capital of the world. We chose this specific hostel because they had free breakfast and free salsa lessons. We arrive in the middle of a salsa lesson so the owner helped us throw our bags in our room and we ran to the patio to jump in on the lesson. After 30 minutes they declared us expiertos (experts) and put us in a cab with 6 other gringos bound for "the best place to salsa dance on a Saturday night". (Plot twist: we were definitely not expiertos yet.) An extra stroke of luck is that it happened to be El Dia de San Valentin, Colombia´s take on Valentine´s day: The Day of Love and Friendship. So the club was PACKED and we were the only non-Colombians. We managed to make our way to the bar and I tried to order us 2 bottles of Poker (cheap Colombian beer.) No can do. They only sell pitchers and bottles of liquor (yeah, bottles!) past midnight. So I ordered us a pitcher, which turned out to be 5 Poker´s dumped into two giant cups. At a price of $11, we were happy to cheers to that.

Next came the actual salsa dancing, easier said than done. We were terrible and people laughed us at but we had a good time. At one point we were really starting to get the hang of it and then a song came on and every single person left the dance floor to sit at a table which they had apparently claimed ahead of time. We nervously kept dancing since we didn´t have a table until one nice Colombian came up and told us that the song was a "singing song" not a "dancing song". It sounded the same as all the other songs, but there you go. So we retreated from the dance floor and looked like idiots since we obviously didn´t know any of the words and didn´t have a table. Oops!

Keegan and I managed to have 2  cool moments. The first was when we were dancing and this older, very skilled Colombian couple grabbed us and danced with us for a song. The guy was crazy good so I just tried to follow his lead the best I could. I didn´t see, but I think Keegan panicked since guys are supposed to lead in salsa dancing. We both survived and the Colombian couple went away laughing so everyone was happy.

At another point, they played a few American songs and then people got really excited and started dancing with us because WE knew the words. We got lots of high fives until the Colombian songs came back on and they realized we still couldn´t salsa dance.

At 3am we were exhausted from the day´s travels so we hopped in a cab and headed back to the hostel. Good thing because the other gringos stayed out until 5am!

Futbol!
In the cab ride to the salsa club, the other gringos we were with offered to let us tag along to a futbol game that was going on the next day. We enthusiastically agreed immediately.

The next afternoon (the rest of the gringos were pretty hungover, so the day started around noon) we headed downtown to buy the tickets. One guy was too good at Spanish for his own good and he managed to attract about 7 scalpers before we got to the ticket office. We became a massive spectacle until we finally convinced him to stop haggling with them over tickets that would likely be fake and just buy from the ticket booth since the tickets were only $9 each (the sign said 12 but I think we got a gringo sympathy discount.)

After that debacle the rest of the game went smoothly. Keegan and I stopped before hand to eat some dinner: 25 cent empanadas from a shop right by the stadium.

We met up with the other gringos inside the stadium (yeah, gringos really stick out here. It was pretty easy and we didn´t have any way of contacting them.) The game was really fun and Cali won 2-0!

The stadium wasn´t packed but the fans around us were passionate. I got a few high fives with each goal and yelled some spanish curse words at the ref. You know, trying to blend in.



As we were leaving the game, the local news station saw the big group of gringos and immediately ran over to us. I was elected the best Spanish speaker in the group so I got to give an interview! Hilarious. She asked me where I was from (United States), which team I was rooting for (trick question to try to get me killed, Cali obviously), if I was happy with the results (test to see if I watched the game I guess. Cali won, so yeah) and finally "say something to the camera". I panicked here and went with an "hola" and was promptly giggled at. I made the other gringos jump in to save me, and they went with a Vamos Cali! so it ended up alright.

15 minutes of fame!


We decided to stay one extra day in Cali since we have a 10 hour bus ride ahead of us. That didn´t really work out because we decided to go on a run in the morning and 5 blocks in I tripped and face planted, taking two good chunks out of my knee. I hobbled back to the hostel and our "explore Cali" day became a "catch up on blog posts and back up the photos from the camera" day. (Fear not, I´m totally fine. Walking just opens the scabs up and then people think I´m crazy walking around with blood dripping off my knees.) 

We were supposed to head to Ecuador after this but sadly our bag and passports were stolen 7 hours from the Ecuador border. :( Now, 3 days later, armed with new emergency passports (thank you US embassy!!) we are OFFICIALLY back on our way to Ecuador and we should be there by tomorrow morning!



Cartagena, Minca, Santa Marta and Tayrona National Park

I know the title sounds like a lot, but we managed to squeeze it all into one week (including taking one day to rest because of a scratched cornea) so buckle your seat belts folks!


Cartagena
Our first destination was Cartagena. It is famous for the walled portion of its city that was used to fend off pirates and the French during the colonial era. It was a really pretty city, but so hot! This was also the first city we´d been to where we (inadvertently) booked a hostel in the tourist neighborhood, so the $10-$15 lunch prices really shocked us. (We managed to find a restaurant that had a gringo menu and a local menu and got some traditional rice, beans and meat for $3.50. We´re on a budget man!)

The wall was really cool and stretched for miles

For parts you could walk along the top, but then it gets up to about 20 feet off the ground. We attempted to walk on that part, but quickly retreated and walked on the sidewalk instead.

They have some old replica cannons along it so you can feel like you are at war against pirates.

Cartagena was crazy hot and there wasn´t much to do, so after 2 nights we hopped on a bus and headed for the little mountain town of Minca.

Minca
In Minca, we stayed at an eco-lodge that was a 15 minute hike outside of town. They had plenty of space for camping so we finally got to use the tent we´ve been lugging around. Minca is a sleepy little town, but its got some great nature hikes. The only problem is that it downpours almost every afternoon.

Really neat pathway up to the hostel.

The campground was actually a sacred ground from pre-Spanish times. The hostel worked with some local indigenous people to upkeep its spiritual purity... or something like that.


One day we hiked out to a waterfall. It was awesome because we were pouring sweat but then we got to swim.
As promised, every afternoon it pours rain. We just made it into town when it started pouring so we quick hopped into the nearest restaurant which turned out to be owned by some Canadians. We didn´t feel like looking for a local restaurant in the rain so instead I had the most delicious cheese burger I´ve ever eaten (or maybe I was just really hungry.)

The plan for our second day in Minca was to do another waterfall hike and then hit the road, but things do not always go as planned. My eye had been bothering me the day before, but I woke up in the morning with an unmistakably scratched cornea. We changed plans and headed down early, grabbed a colectivo (shared cab) back to Santa Marta (the largest town from which travel to Minca is based) and grabbed a hostel for the night. Santa Marta is not that great, so we don´t have any pictures. Additionally, light was really painful, so I spent most of the day inside the dark hostel room sleeping.
I will spare you and not make this picture very big.

Parque Tayrona
Mercifully, I woke up the next morning feeling good to go. A scratched cornea usually only takes 24-48 hours to heal on its own, so I wasn´t suprised that I was feeling good. We hitched a ride to nearby Parque Tayrona, a national park right on the coast first thing in the morning.

Armed with very little knowledge of the area, we headed off from the park entrance knowing only that we were trying to get to "El Cabo San Juan". The hike took 3 hours and we actually didn´t get lost. It was 100% humidity and 95 degrees though, so we reached the El Cabo Campground pouring sweating and probably smelling terribly. The campground was right up against a beach so after we set up camp we hopped into the water. 
One morning we got up early and watched the sunrise

It was beautiful!

We also hiked up to some pre-Spanish ruins called El Pueblito. The hike was really neat, but all the pictures are on Keegan´s phone which isn´t working right now. I will add them in later!


After two days in Parque Tayrona we hopped back on a bus bound for Santa Marta. We stayed one more night in Santa Marta and woke up early to catch a 5 hour bus back to Cartagena. From the bus terminal, we caught a cab straight to the airport and then jumped on a plane bound for Cali.

Last laughs
For those of you wondering how Keegan and I haven´t killed each other yet, you will enjoy this story. To pass the down times we´ve been playing a lot of card games: rummy, stress, speed, this crazy Russian game we learned in Panama, you name it. For some reason the last couple of weeks, the card gods have looked upon me favorably and I have handily kicked Keegan´s butt the majority of the time. While we were waiting for the bus to leave the parking lot in Tayrona, Keegan made me play this stupid squares game with him. I won handily several times and this was the result.
Evidence that Keegan is a terrible sport (although he claims he was joking.. hmm..)

I made him keep the page in the journal though.


The Caribbean coast was awesome but so dang hot! We are looking forward to some milder weather once we hit Cali!




Wednesday, September 24, 2014

Guatape & the Piedra de Guatape

As I mentioned in the last post, on our last day in Medellin we did a day trip out to Guatape. A two hour bumpy bus ride got us to this small mountain town that our Swiss friends recommended to us. The main draw to this town is a giant rock (La Piedra de Guatape, the Stone of Guatape) that you can climb up and get a great view of the surrounding area. We had no idea what to expect, but we were not disappointed. I´ll let the pictures do the talking. (We can´t find the pictures from Keegan´s phone so there are some gaps here, if we end up finding them I´ll add them later.)

The town itself was adorable. Everything was brightly colored and the food was delicous and cheap

Really dug the town, wished we could have stayed another day in fact.

Like every good South American town, it had a gorgeous church in a plaza

Then, on to the main attraction. The giant rock. 706 steps to the top!

The stairs twisted and turned all the way up, it was really impressive and slightly terrifying

Finally, the top. 360 degrees of stunningly landscape. Bridges connected a lot of the islands

But many were totally untouched.

Really happy (and sweaty) gringos

We didn´t want to leave, but we had to catch the bus back to Medellin to make our morning flight up to the Carribean town of Cartagena.


Monday, September 22, 2014

Medellin, Colombia

From Bogota we moved on to Medellin.




Medellin is famous for a couple good reasons. First, the amazing weather. Supposedly it is always springtime there. This was a nice change because Panama was crazy hot and Bogota was actually pretty chilly. We really appreciated being perfectly comfortable in shorts and a tshirt.

Second, it is the birthplace of Botero, the most famous Colombian artist who paints everyone and everything really fat. When he died a few years ago, he donated most of his personal art collection to the state. Bogota got about half of his stuff, but a lot went to Medellin as well including more than 20 giant statues. The city put the statues into a plaza (aptly named Plaza Botero) for people to enjoy and take goofy pictures with.

Fat Cat

Fat Roman Soldier

Keegan and a fat horse

Piper and a fat man on a fat horse


And third, it is famous for its progressive social policies. Pablo Escobar based his massive drug cartel out of Medellin, so two decades ago it was ranked the most deadly city in the world. It has come a long way since then, mostly from added security and progressive social policies. In 2013, Medellin was given the award for the Most Innovative City (beating out Tel Aviv and New York.) One example of why it deserved this award was how and why they created their comprehensive public transportation system. The city is pretty sprawled out, so for the poorest people living on the hillsides surrounding the city, there was no good way for them to get to the city center. The area was so dangerous that cabs would mostly refuse to even drive up there. So, Medellin created an urban gondola that stops twice along the hillside and ends at a national park at the top of the hill. Tourists and locals alike use the transportation system and it is really pretty ingenious. Keegan and I rode it to the top to go for a long run in the park, and it was awesome.

Gringos in a gondola

The city view from the gondola

Medellin has 2.5 million people and is the third largest city in Colombia, so the view from up here was really impressive

Since we mostly ran in the park we didnt take any picures, except this one that I photo-bombed. The park was beautiful though and vendors at the top sold all sorts of delicious and cheap sweets that we chowed down on after the run.


A few other fun tidbits. The city has the largest cathedral in South America and one of the largest brick buildings in the world. It was closed though, so we didn´t get to see inside.


This is the entrance and the building ran for a full city block



Medellin was good to us. We ate some delicious food and really enjoyed the night life (so much so that we spent one rainy day trapped inside our hostel with a hangover.) Our last day in Medellin we took a day trip out to the small city of Guatape before heading on to the Carribbean coast in the north. Stay tuned!



A terrible but passionate band we found in a plaza one night

Some new hostel friends. Two Swiss guys, a Spaniard and a German! :)





That´s all for now, folks!




Thursday, September 11, 2014

Bogotá, Colombia in (mostly) pictures

Normally, I prefer traveling by bus, but we did a little research online and found out that no buses go between Panama and Colombia. The route is "highly not recommended" because most people that attempt it are never seen again due to hostile native tribes, inhospitable jungle conditions and drug thugs. A lot of people take a 5 day boat cruise, but at $400, it was a little over our budget. Thus, we took a cheap and painless two hour flight (only $80 each!)

Bogotá has been wonderful to us. In no particular order, these are some of the things we´ve loved the most. (Be kind if there are mistakes. I'm on a Mac with a French keyboard that is set to British English so it autocorrects me to British spellings. Also the z and y are switched places on the keyboard, which is a lot more inconvenient than you might think.)

The sheer size of this city of 8 million
One of the first things we were told we had to do here was climb the hill to Monserrate. Bogota sits at 8000 feet, but it is actually in a valley with much higher mountains surrounding it. On one of these hills some crazy person decided to build a church. We set out early in the morning and hiked up the thousands of steps to the top. In total the climb took about an hour or more and we gained another 1000 feet in elevation at least. Of course, the views from the top were breathtaking and the church itself was really stunning so that made it worth it.
This picture still only shows a part of Bogota. The city stretches out as far as the eye can see for 180 degrees. Cars looked like ants from up here.


The church was beautiful

 This is part of the original walls. Plaques thanking god for various things.


On the way down we decided to take a lift instead of walking. The hill was so steep that it was really an amazing feat of engineering.

They also have a train you can ride down. This is one of the original ones. The track is so steep that the seats are set back at an angle.



Cheap and seemingly endless food
This phenomenon is best exemplified by an experience we had a few days ago. We sat down to eat at a small restaurant. They didn´t have menus, so we ordered the one thing we had heard of before, "ajiaco con carne". We didn´t actually know what it was, so we only ordered one in case it was terrible. After a few minutes the waiter came out with a huge bowl of vegetable soup. We remembered that we had ordered it "con carne" (with beef), but it was really tasty so we didn´t mind. About 5 minutes later the waiter came out with a plate which had a small steak, three boiled potatoes, three stripes of patacones (fried plantanes) and a side avocado and tomato salad. Half way through finishing the unexpected extra plate of food, the waiter brought out a small cup of super tasty homemade limeade. The two of us were stuffed and the whole meal cost $3.50.

Unrelated to the above story, this is Mega Burger. The burger cost $2 and the hot dog was $1.50. Besides the meat, they had grilled onions and mushrooms, tomatoes, lettuce, ham, cheese, chicken, and potato chips. It cancelled out the exercise we got climbing up Montserrate.


The museums and churches
Bogota is well-known for its many museums and churches. While we were there we saw the Mueso de Oro (Gold Museum) the Museo Nacional (National Museum) and the Museo de la Moneda (The museum portion of their national Mint). We learned a ton of Colombian history and saw some gorgeous architecture.
A church

We knew the Gold Museum would have a lot of gold, but we were pretty amazed  by how much they actually had.

Seriously.

Four floors of this. (Most displays had plaques that explained the significance.)

Botero is a Colombian artist who donated the majority of his personal collection to Colombian museums. He is famous for drawing everything really fat.

I really liked the Mint Museum. We learned a ton about Colombia's economy. Also we learned that the largest bill they have in print is equal to about $25 USD. It helped explain why people are so reluctant to break those bills for us (highly inconvenient since that is what we usually get from ATMs)

The graffiti
Another cool part of Bogota was the street graffiti. Truly amazing murals were scattered throughout the city. Here are some of the ones we found.










Chicha
Ugh, chica. Chica is a native Colombian drink that you can't find most places, but in Bogota there are some bars that serve it. It is a fermented corn liquor that tastes terrible, but tons of Colombian kids our age were drinking it. Presumably they pretended to like it because for $2 you could get an entire gourd filled with the stuff. The first time we tried it we got strawberry flavor which was a horrible mistake. It tasted like Pepto Bismol. Before we left, we tried it again getting the traditional flavor (which we didn't realize was an option the first time.) The traditional was significantly better than the strawberry, but still pretty terrible. Some people added beer to theirs, and that helped a little. Sorry, no pictures because we were the only non-Colombians in the bar and we didn't want to look like idiots.

Tonight we take a midnight flight from Bogotá to Medellin, the second largest city in Colombia which is supposedly gorgeous and famous for its good weather (they say "siempre primavera" for eternally springtime.)