http://www.travelblog.org/Bloggers/Buddy-in-SA/ Travel adventures in journals and photos from Buddy in SA en-us Mon, 04 Jan 2010 08:58:31 +0000 Mon, 04 Jan 2010 08:58:31 +0000 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 t http://www.travelblog.org/South-America/Argentina/Buenos-Aires/Buenos-Aires/blog-444780.html 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 http://www.travelblog.org/South-America/Colombia/Medellin/blog-426514.html 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. Heres what has happened since my last post which was too long ago.I left M http://www.travelblog.org/South-America/blog-420195.html 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 drugfueled reign of terror in Colombia centered in Medellin. Those people think that I'm either nuts or extremely brave for travelling here. News flash http://www.travelblog.org/South-America/Colombia/Medellin/blog-415528.html 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 Hi http://www.travelblog.org/South-America/Colombia/Cartagena/blog-412694.html I added 49 pics to the prior post since most of them corresond to it. I also added a video of dancersstreet musicians from Taganga. The next post will be in a couple of days. I think I'll leave for Cartagena tomorrow. Enjoy the pics. http://www.travelblog.org/South-America/Colombia/Santa-Marta/blog-410909.html 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 thats not a stretch. Since I left Caracas however every waking minute is entirely different from anything Ive ever experienced or d http://www.travelblog.org/South-America/Colombia/Taganga/blog-410318.html 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. Its a little bigger than a basketball court covered in supersoft rubber flakes and they play 5 on 5. For those of you who dont know I do play back home but I was a little worried that I was gonna ge http://www.travelblog.org/South-America/Venezuela/Capital/Caracas/blog-408594.html 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 http://www.travelblog.org/South-America/Venezuela/Capital/Caracas/blog-408264.html It's 730 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 daytoday 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 http://www.travelblog.org/North-America/United-States/Tennessee/Memphis/blog-407781.html