http://www.travelblog.org/Bloggers/MrMendoza88/ Travel adventures in journals and photos from MrMendoza88 en-us Wed, 06 Jan 2010 18:09:39 +0000 Wed, 06 Jan 2010 18:09:39 +0000 The cabin smells of Bojangle's Are they serving Bojangle's for our inflight meal you suppose The coastline is growing out of the UV haze. Goodbye Colombia. Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants 2 streams to the television screens. Intrigue sweeps through my body. NO I will not let my masculinity be assaulted by this incarnate evil. Annuals' lyrics flood through my brain. Experimental sounds leak http://www.travelblog.org/South-America/Colombia/Bogota/blog-363498.html This is it. This is the end the last day. Tomorrow night I will not be sleeping in this bed....I walk outside to meet with Lili she lives around the block. We meet up with Leonardo in front of Cafam a grocery store to hop on a bus headed for El Candalrie an older district I haven't visited yet. As we walk around The Cathedral Lili looks for a ring in the market and I snack on one of those http://www.travelblog.org/South-America/Colombia/Bogota/blog-363490.html So today uneventful. Seems that is how my trip will end. Not complaining. Everyday can't be an adventure and look at all the great things I've been able to do. Leonard picked up me again at 2 today and we met Lizbeth where she works to hang out for the afternoon. We went to Exito to get another gift and then returned to Lizbeth's house. Exito is a supermarket but also like a Walmart. Back at http://www.travelblog.org/South-America/Colombia/Bogota/blog-361819.html How glorious it feels to lay in bed until 1130. I haven't really slept in since I got here. Not that I've bee deprived of sleep either. Didn't do a whole lot this morning Surfed the web worked on a mixtape playlist. Diego's dad came back from work and we ate lunch together that Diego's mom had fixed. It was chicken and rice and I had to force down some more fried plantains. But I'm so thankful http://www.travelblog.org/South-America/Colombia/Bogota/blog-361814.html It's safe to say that today was not what I expected. I woke up at 830 and got ready and of course Diego's mom insisted that I sit down and eat the cereal I was going to take out the door. I waited on the street for an hour to find out Mauricio was running late. Went back to the house for another 10 minutes before we finally got on our way. It as me Mauricio Leonardo and Nadia. I was under the http://www.travelblog.org/South-America/Colombia/Bogota/blog-361310.html There is a little yappie dog barking his head off right outside my window. He better hope he's done squealing by the time I finish this journal entry. So at 8 am I awake to Diego telling me that Leonardo will be picking me up at 1030 so much for sleeping in. Once I had fallen back to sleep Diego's mom came and proceed to tell me something in Spanish which I took to be I'm leaving. I wake up ag http://www.travelblog.org/South-America/Colombia/Bogota/blog-360872.html Quite an interesting day. 845 I'm rolling out of bed and doing my best zombie impression on the way to the shower. This Sunday it's Diego who is running late. Diego's parents drop us off at church and we slip into the back to begin singing as if we had been there the whole time. All the songs except one were familiar worship songs so I knew what the general ideas were even though they were s http://www.travelblog.org/South-America/Colombia/Bogota/blog-360543.html The days are slowing down which isn't a bad thing considering that I leave in a week. I don't understand how time can go by so quickly and so slowly at the same time. Perception is an odd thing I guess it really is all relative.So today we hung out at the house until after lunch. Diego's aunt and uncle and I'm assuming his cousins came by and we all ate lunch together. It's always awkward meet http://www.travelblog.org/South-America/Colombia/Bogota/blog-360103.html What an easy relaxing day. so I woke up this morning and ate some breakfast with Diego and then had nothing to do until about 2. This was actually good because I finally got the rest of my journal entries on the travel blog. I also bought the rest of White Ladder by David Gray on iTunes why didn't I do this earlier. Diego was getting his hair cut during all of this so when he was finished w http://www.travelblog.org/South-America/Colombia/Bogota/blog-359693.html So this is the new year and I don't feel any different.So this morning we woke up early to head for Girardot Colombia southwest of Bogota. That is where Diego's aunt lives. It took about two and a half hours to get there. We drove through even more amazing countryside winding around large forested mountains. I saw things you only find in the pages of National Geographic. There are some beaut http://www.travelblog.org/South-America/Colombia/Bogota/blog-359393.html For those of you who didn't catch that the title is a reference to an Outkast song B.O.B Bombs Over Baghdad. Outkast is amazing go listen to them.I swear they must have an Enrique Inglesias radio station. I must have heard him 10 times in a row on the bus. That or they just worship him here so his songs come up all the time. So today I was going to sleep in until about 11 but I ended up wakin http://www.travelblog.org/South-America/Colombia/Bogota/blog-359388.html You haven't lived until you have ridden in a bus going over 100 mph. I was actually more scared than anything else. We took a day trip to Zipaquira to see the Salt Cathedral. The bus ride there had a speedometer for the passengers. We had been going these ridiculous speeds since I had arrived but now there was no fooling myself. When the speedometer started flashing 99 I knew were were going fas http://www.travelblog.org/South-America/Colombia/Bogota/blog-359381.html Money is always an issue. Diego and his family have already spent too much money on me. I feel terrible Today I was finally going to make it to an ATM but the only card I had on my didn't work because it was a credit card. So Diego paid for me again so I could go up to Monserrate. The view was spectacular but it was hazy so no great photos. We went downtown and ate lunch with Diego's dad an http://www.travelblog.org/South-America/Colombia/Bogota/blog-359377.html So this morning my alarm failed to go off maybe because the phone is in another country but its okay because apparently all Colombians are late. We got to church and it last about 2 hours pretty much what I expected. I has restless because it was stuffy and I didn't understand the Spanish. I made an attempt to sing and followed the Scripture though. Monica one of Diego's friends came back http://www.travelblog.org/South-America/Colombia/Bogota/blog-359370.html These have probably been the most beautiful flights I have ever been on. The water is turquoise and royal blue. We flew all around Miami and passed over little green islands. As I look out the window there is a huge infinite line where the turquoise meets the richer deeper waters. I can't wait until we start flying over Cuba and South America.I've come to realize that traveling is great but it http://www.travelblog.org/South-America/Colombia/Bogota/blog-359363.html This was written on the plane from Columbia SC to DallasFt. Worth at 720 am. I was surviving on 3 hours of sleep.This is how the world ends not with a bang but with a whimper.IF you've never seen a sunrise from an airplane above the giant fleece blanket of dewdrops known as the cloud line then you haven't lived. Some of the most beautiful scenes of my life have been from an airplane. Li http://www.travelblog.org/North-America/United-States/Texas/Dallas/blog-358892.html I'm writing this in the DallasFt. Worth airport. I missed my flight to Columbia. I went to the gate I thought I heard the airline attendant call out on the flight from Seattle and didn't check a thing. Luckily I'm still getting out today but I won't be home probably until about 6 pm. I have to keep reminding myself that I have nothing to complain about in comparison to all I have to be thanksf http://www.travelblog.org/North-America/United-States/Washington/Gig-Harbor/blog-358888.html What a great day yesterday. So we ended up playing Cranium and Matt Lynch never showed but that's ok. So yesterday we all woke up and went to breakfast in downtown Portland at Byway Cafe. Apparently it was featured on a Food Network show and rightfully so. I had blue corn pancakes talk about interesting. They reminded me somewhat of grits. They also have amaretto infused french toast and th http://www.travelblog.org/North-America/United-States/Washington/Gig-Harbor/blog-358640.html Talk about the longest day of my life. I got into Seattle today at 1245 pm. I've returned to the west coast for a Summer Staff reunion that is to take place at the camp. Chris picked me up and we toured Gig Harbor where he lives and ate at a good teriyaki place. The homemade dressing tasted just like Zax's sauce from Zaxby's if anyone knows that amazing restaurant. Then after playing some Ca http://www.travelblog.org/North-America/United-States/Oregon/Portland/blog-358634.html I'm finally home from Oregon. Ok so I've been home for about three weeks but it's taken me this long to get back into my groove. Let me just tell you that this camp is not what I expected. When I think of Oregon I think of forest and mountains and those tall trees you see on the license plates. Well I definitely saw that when I landed in Portland but the camp is a good four hours east of Portl http://www.travelblog.org/North-America/United-States/Oregon/Antelope/blog-302903.html