Leaving Buenos Aires, A Stop in Colombia and Arriving in Madrid

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I left Buenos Aires after a three day delay because of the ash from the volcano in Chile. It was nice to finally get on the road again but I didn’t want to leave. Buenos Aires is like my home now and I find myself here in Madrid a little homesick, but not for the USA, for Argentina and Buenos Aires!!! I made a lot of good friends and there are a lot of very special people to me in BA and I really really want to go back!! But anyways, I had to stop in Colombia to get my flight to Madrid, so I stopped in Bogota and then in Cali. Even from the airport I could tell that Colombia is somewhere I want to visit one day. It was warm and the people I met were friendly. I had a couple beers at the airport in Cali and waited for my plane. We were searched literally four times, our bags, our carry on, and our person. They had dogs go through everything and the customs guy flat out asked me if I had cocaine. I kind of laughed but he was dead serious, I was like ummm no cocaine here sir, I’ve only been in Colombia for about three hours! It was pretty funny. We eventually took off and I slept most of the flight. It wasn’t too bad at all, I watched “The Lincoln Lawyer” and it was a pretty good flick actually. I arrived in Madrid at 11am the following day and breezed through customs. They didn’t even say one single word to me, saw my passport stamped it and I was done. My bag was the first out of the conveyor and it was super easy for me to get onto the Metro and I was on my way. I arrived to my hostel, without a reservation because I assumed that there would be room, and I had to cancel my original reservations because of the volcano and the delay with my plane. Well they didn’t have any room but they knew of another hostel that was close by and did have a place for me so I took off again in the heat and headed for that place. The hostel was nice and it felt like a good vibe so I posted up and decided to go get some food at a restaurant nearby. I had a salad with potatoes, lettuce, tuna, and olives. It was great. I slept for a while and then met up later that day with my friend Raquel who I met in Cusco; she is from here and knows the city really well, though she did live in Colombia for the last three years so she was a bit foggy on some things which was pretty funny. I walked her to her dance class, and then I walked around a little bit and came back to the hostel to drink some mate and hang out for a few minutes. I had my mate and chilled out and then I was off again to meet Raquel for dinner. I met her at her dance class where I left her and afterwards we met up with a friend of hers, Esteban, and we all went to dinner a place nearby. We had some beers and some tapas which were really filling and did me right for dinner. We had another drink afterwards, talked a lot about all kinds of random stuff! It was great! Raquel is just a genuinely nice person and her friend was a cool guy too. Around two am I made my way back to my hostel, had a few drinks at the bar across the street with some Argentinian guys who work at the hostel. We were talking about soccer in Argentina and I was drinking Fernet, it’s like I never left! It was pretty nice considering, like I said, I am a little homesick for Buenos Aires. I watched some of the Argentina vs. Colombia soccer game with the dudes here and finally made it to bed around 5am which was pretty crappy considering I wasn’t really tired until that time due to the fucking jetlag!! I woke up because I thought I had to change hostels so I got my shit together and all that and then the guy here told me there was in fact room to stay so I was like great but what the fuck because I got my ass up all hungover for this!? Haha. I met up with my friend Inma, a girl I met in Arequipa, Peru when Brett and I hiked the Colca Canyon. We had lunch together and walked around for a while but I was noticeably tired and hungover we parted ways and I came back to the hostel to sleep. I didn’t sleep well; I had some bad nightmares and woke up feeling a little weird. I woke up, showered, had some mate and booked my flight to Holland, my bus to Granada, and my ticket to La Alhambra! It was a productive afternoon. After all that I went and met up with Raquel and then we met her friend Santiago. We had a couple drinks and had dinner together at an Indian restaurant of all places in Madrid. After dinner had a couple more drinks close to my hostel and then I had to say goodbye to my good friend!! It was kind of sad because I couldn’t spend more time here but at the same time I want to move on and see more of this country because I already know Madrid from the last two times I was here. Raquel is a hell of a girl and she wants to come to the States sometime soon so clearly I told her I would extend her the same courtesy she did to me and show her around! I am now in the hostel and about to head to bed, finally a night that I actually feel tired and I am not completely wasted! I will write more from Granada. The time is rapidly approaching that I have to go home so I am trying to enjoy my last couple weeks….talk to you all soon.

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