I'm sitting in Ezezia International Airport in Buenos Aires, preparing to board my flight home. It's been a while since I've updated this blog. I got really caught up in all the things I was doing and neglected to make another post for almost the last two months. This obviously will be the last post, since my trip is now nearly over, but I will try to catch you up on the places I've been and the things I've been doing. When I last wrote in this blog, my girlfriend Emily was on her way to meet me in Medellin. We [View Full Entry]

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Don't worry. I did get robbed with a knife, but all's well that ends well. I'll tell that story shortly. Neil, callum and I arrived in Medellin about 2 weeks ago. After a bad experience with a hostel employee at The Palm Tree in the Suramericana barrio, we decided to move to barrio Poblado, the Zona Rosa. This place is jumping every night, but especially on Friday and Saturday. The clubs here are a bit expensive, though, so when we went out, we generally would buy beers for 2,000 pesos ($1US) and sit in Parque Lleras, the park around which all [View Full Entry]

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Colombia is a hard Country to leave. After Medellin, I went to Bogota, which was excellent, and then to Zona Cafetera, the coffe center of Colombia, which was also excellent. But when it came time to leave the Zona Cafetera and head south toward Ecuador, I felt a tug back toward the center of the country back to Medellin. Here´s what has happened since my last post, which was too long ago. I left Medellin on the night bus and woke up in Bogotà, the capital of Colombia. The elevation in Bogotá is around 2,800 meters, so it is a good [View Full Entry]

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I don't know how I'm going to pry myself away from this city. Most of the people I've talked to in the US about travelling to Medellin either have never heard of it, or have only heard of it because of the legacy of Pablo Escobar and his infamous drug-fueled reign of terror in Colombia centered in Medellin. Those people think that I'm either nuts or extremely brave for travelling here. News flash: Pablo Escobar is dead. He was killed by the Colombian government in Medellin in 1993. Since then, not only has Medellin become the incredibly safe, clean, beautiful, fun [View Full Entry]

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Traveling is pretty amazing. The local language, amazing people, stunning views, exotic food, surreal experiences, different cultures, and new ideas. It makes you wonder why everyone doesn't do this. Why you didn't do it sooner and why you can't do it more. It can also suck. The local language of Spanish is one of the main reasons that I chose to travel in South America. I studied for 1 year in High School, 1 in College, and for another year independently on my own before coming...and I can't understand what people are saying to me. I can usually say what I [View Full Entry]

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I added 49 pics to the prior post, since most of them corresond to it. I also added a video of dancers/street musicians from Taganga. The next post will be in a couple of days. I think I'll leave for Cartagena tomorrow. Enjoy the pics. [View Full Entry]

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Everything about this trip so far has been surreal. But even moreso since I left Caracas. In Caracas, I had Alejandro and his family so it was pretty familiar still, and the malls were almost like a slice of Americana (except for the whole Spanish thing, but even that´s not a stretch). Since I left Caracas, however, every waking minute is entirely different from anything I´ve ever experienced or dreamed. I left Caracas on Tuesday night at 8 on the overnight bus to Maracaibo. It was a very nice double-decker bus and they played the movie "John Q" with Spanish subtitles, [View Full Entry]

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At around 9 this morning, Ale and I went to a futsal club (they call it futbolito around here...little futbol) to meet some of his friends and play. It really is a little futbol and little field. It´s a little bigger than a basketball court, covered in supersoft rubber flakes, and they play 5 on 5. For those of you who don´t know, I do play back home, but I was a little worried that I was gonna get housed here! Thankfully, I held my own very well, scoring 4 goals and making some friends. They were all very friendly and [View Full Entry]

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I got to Caracas this afternoon at about 2 PM. My first encounter in South America (besides inmigracion) was my good friend from Newberry College, Alejandro. Thank God I had a familiar face in my point of entry. After dropping my stuff off at his house, we went to eat Arepas and have a couple of the local beers, Polar Solaras. Then we went to Valle Arriba to get some good pics of Caracas. I think I´m going to go for a run now. Don´t worry, Ale assures me I´ll be safe, as long as I don´t carry a wad of [View Full Entry]

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It's 7:30 AM. I'm sitting in my office at work. It's my last day here. This job's been good to me. I've made more money here than any other I've ever had, and I've been endowed with full day-to-day control of every aspect of this furniture store's operations. Being the boss is good. But this is not my purpose. I'm quitting the best job I've ever had so that I can travel through South America for 4 months. About a year ago I stepped back and took a look at my life. I had recently gotten promoted to Store Manager younger [View Full Entry]

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