Colombia, the first few days

---

Well I finally made it to Colombia! After nearly 30 hours of flying I was relieved when I got to the hostal and saw my very comfy looking double bed waiting for me! But sleeping would have to wait. There were heaps of people to meet and greet first... the hostal is full of Americans Brits and Aussies. I met a girl from Wales who is also volunteering at the same orphanage as me and she said it was great fun with the kids but also a bit sad. I will be starting there on monday. I'm meeting licorice all sorts! Most of the Americans are crazy and very opinionated. I'm actually stuck talking to this American guy who is complaining about everything!!! He is driving me nuts and I cant get away (there's only so much bluffing my way thru a conversation about the stock market)!!! Oh well I'll just keep typing. I think today I'm going shopping to buy some stuff for my room. I went on an excursion to the mall yesterday and that was an experience and a half! You have to walk everywhere so I went off in the rain with a really dodgy map and crossed my fingers! After making my way thru the crazy traffic where pedestrians have no right of way at all, I got to the mall cause I needed to change some dollars and the first thing I noticed were how many army and security people there are. Every which way you look there's one! So I went up to one to ask where to change money and suprise suprise he didnt speak english. So in my best sign language he worked out what I was saying and actually walked me all the way there! I've found sign language is great but I'm going to have my first spanish lesson tomorrow. Nobody speaks english - not even the people in the airport. Oh well, it's the best way for me to learn I spose.
Anyway, I'm rambling now. Colombia is great and incredibly beautiful. It's warm and humid and hilly. I'm going to have calves like pete soon!!! The hostal is cool. There are about 35 people that stay here but many more who just come here during the day to hang out. There is a stocked beer fridge and it only costs 70c a bottle! Everything is really cheap. Cigarettes are $11 a carton which is good and bad for obvious reasons! Hmmm thats it for now. I'm going shopping with this other volunteer now...cant wait!
Adios!

---

Photos

The Miami Hilton
This is where I stayed on the final leg of a long journey to Colombia

The Andes
This was the view I had from the plane coming into Colombia

Black Sheep
This is my temporary home at the Black Sheep Hostal

Crazy Buses
The buses all around Medellin are all old and painted in crazy colours!

Photo 4
Eleri and I at the museum cafe

Street Art
There is a lot of great street art in the centre

More Art
The whole side of the building was painted like this and looked awesome!

Lazy Sunday Afternoon
The whole square was filled with people singing and playing guitar

El Poblado Station
Me outside El Poblado train station

The Balcony
Just chilling out on the balcony before the sunday bbq

The Balcony 2
After the bbq and the talking was still going!