A Chance to be a Kid Again

Most of you would say that I am still a kid so the title of this entry is quite misleading, but my latest trip to Medellin really gave me the chance to let that little girl inside of me bust out and play. It is a fantastic city located more or less in between Cartagena and Bogota and is known as the city of eternal spring because the weather there is so nice. It is clean, big, and friendly, filled with museums and parks. I loved it.

To begin with they have a metro that runs clear across the city and also cable cars that run off it up the mountains surrounding the city making the city accessible to all. We spent one whole morning just riding around the city in them.

Lindsey, Iveth, and Josa Angel on the Metro

MetroCable

They have the sweetest interactive museums and I have sworn to find a job there as a bilingual guide if I ever have the chance to live in Medellin.

Rock climbing at the Parque Explora

Bubbles!

We also took the opportunity to just have fun, play mini golf and ride the ferris wheel in the mall.

Iveth rockin' the mini golf equipment

I found a little car...

...and Jose Angel found some swings

There was also the sweetest park called the Barefoot Park that had fountains, a forest, and a huge sandbox all for people to play in. I took off my shoes and really got into it (not surprising since shoes and I don't really get along) but I have no pictures from that because it was dark by the time we found it.

It is a beautiful place and I highly recommend a trip there. It is well worth it. Definitely my second favorite city in Colombia.

Views of La Guajira

Megan, Manon, and I decided to do a bit of traveling last week since it was Semana Santa and we had some free time. After a bit of a fiasco in which we boarded a bus that would mosey its way to the transportation terminal in an hour and a half when we only had 40 minutes causing Manon to demand our money back and transfer us to a taxi who speed his way through the back streets of Cartagena, we finally arrived at the terminal in time to buy tickets to Mompox, a small little town that everyone says is just divine, and to sit down to have a juice before leaving. While gulping our juices (it is impossible to drink such satisfying juice slowly), we came to the realization that we didn't want to go to south... we wanted to go northeast. So, relying on Manon's fantastic negotiating skills, we changed our tickets and headed to Riohacha instead.

Our first bus had problems, so they let us off on the side of the road to wait for another. It arrived after a short wait. Super. But hang on a sec... with the addition of us on this bus they were short exactly three seats. Oops. So the driver motioned to have us sit up on the floor by him. What a kind gesture.

Megan in her first class luxury seat next to our new friend, the bus driver, on the way to Riohacha.

After a few more bus changes we finally ended up in Riohacha, which turns out to be a beautiful city on the main drag by the beach, but once inland, quite regular. This part of Colombia is known to be impoverished and inhabited mostly by the indigenous people called the Wayuu (More on them later). It is also mostly desert.

The next day we took a trip out into the desert with our trusty driver, and fan of reggaeton, champeta, and hiphop, Andres. The drive was quite interesting and I was fascinated by how he knew where to go when we seemed to be in the middle of nowhere.

The views out the front window changed from some dry vegetation...

... to absolutely nothing...

... to my favorite: a drive right along the shoreline. Quite beautiful and exciting. (I must remember this excellent feature of owning a jeep when looking into investing in an automobile of my own, although I am still set against buying a car that uses gas...)

After a few days exploring the northeastern peninsula of Colombia, Manon and I decided on a whim and some great reviews to go to a small, super touristy town called Taganga. We hopped on another extra crowded bus and after a few minutes we started hearing some strange whimpering noises and noticing some foul smells. The smells I attributed to the cute kid sitting at my side, and I thought maybe someone had brought their whimpering puppy along but I was having trouble locating it, until I felt a nip on my butt... I turned to look behind my seat and Manon let out a yelp when we noticed someone's cargo of live chickens that they decided to leave under our seats. Thanks fellow passenger. The chickens continued to squeak, reek, and peck at my buns until we arrived at our destination. Gotta love the transportation here!

Another view... not quite as pretty (nor comfortable nor entertaining) as traveling around with Andres!

It was a great trip filled with hammock sleeping, hiking, shell hunting, floating in the ocean, and sunset watching: a wonderful relaxing time getting to know the Caribbean Coast of Colombia even better.

Planes, Trains, and Automobiles

I have deemed it time to write about the streets of Cartagena. Now, many of you already know about the dangers of transportation in third world countries. Colombia is no exception. And although the drivers are crazy and I have yet to find some sort of rules or method to the craziness, I have to admit that I have not seen any accidents; not even a fender bender or minor tink. But still, the drivers scare me. The part I love best is when we are waiting at a traffic light (yes, they are generally obeyed, except one time when I was in Cali, we were in a taxi that kept speeding through red lights at night and my friend just kept yelling "rojo! rojo! rojo!" everytime we went through) and the very moment the light turns green everyone starts honking, as if the person at front didn't realize it, even though it would be impossible to start up that fast. It makes me giggle.

There are four main forms of transportation in Cartagena. First you have the bus. Many of you may remember my love affair with buses in Argentina. I have developed another one here in Cartagena as well. I love the buses, and this makes everyone here laugh because they hate them. They are loud, crowded and either drive way too fast or way too slow. The thing is, they have a certain time limit in which to make their round and if they are late they have to pay a fine. So sometimes, in order to avoid the fine, they go super fast, weaving, and not picking up people who are trying to flag them down. If they are early, they go so slow, like, never leaving first gear. There is nothing more annoying than getting on a bus when you are late only to find it moving slower than you could walk. The buses have helpers who take your money for you while the driver drives. It cost 1.200 pesos, but they let you pay 1.000, or if you are really cheap and not going very far, you can negotiate. The helpers can be pretty rude people tell me, but I've never had a problem. In fact, they have been very helpful, telling me when to get off if I don't know where I am going and giving me a hand when I get off the bus. The buses are also all decorated to the driver's taste and usually blast music. If the bus is really full and you have to stand, people that are sitting usually offer to hold your bag for you. That's nice. The worst part about the buses is the heat. Especially if it is raining because then all the windows get closed and the sweat just drips down your back. Gross. There are a couple that are air conditioned, but they don't generally go to where I need to go. Plus, I am too cheap to pay 300 pesos more (that's like 15 cents... wow, I am cheap.)

There are taxis, of course, but I generally avoid those because they are too expensive for my taste, although sometimes it is necessary. At night, the buses change their route and no longer pass my hotel, so we have to take taxis, but if you split them between five people, it is the same as a bus ride. Similar to taxis are colectivos. These are taxis that are shared. You can pick them up anywhere on their route, although it is best at the beginning because they get filled and in the mornings you have to wait a long time to find one that has an empty spot. It costs the same as the bus, but is faster and a bit more comfortable. I take these in the morning on the way to the center because the buses don't pass in that direction.

Lastly, there are moto-taxis. These are the most interesting, and definitely the most dangerous. They are motorcycles that carry people to whatever destination they want. They are everywhere! But they weave in and out of traffic like crazy. If traffic is stopped they find their way to the very front, going in crevices I would never dare to enter and over grass and medians. There really are no rules. I have been on these moto-taxis twice, but only when I was traveling with other people. I don't know if I have enough faith to get on one by myself and let him speed off with me. I don't know, I am super intrigued by them, but have received many mixed messages about them from friends.

My absolute favorite part is that on the back of every public transportation vehicle, they have this sign: "¿Cómo conduzco?" and then a telephone number.

Translation: "How's my driving?"

HAHAHAHA!