Quimbaja!

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Heylo everyone!

OK here comes the first of three entries for the last week!!.......

Last Thursday, Paulas parents took us to Bogota train station for 6am, where we got the bus to Armania. Freaked ourselves out a little bit before boarding the bus as Paula had been chatting to a woman, who had asked her where Siemei and I were from, where we were going etc., and then left! I didn’t really think anything of it, as everyone here is so chatty and friendly but Paula started panicking a bit saying she had to stop giving out so much information about us when chatting to people and she thought it was weird that the woman didn’t have any luggage with her and disappeared quite quickly and didn’t come back, so obviously hadn’t been waiting for a bus at all! In a nutshell, Paula thought the woman was linked to the FARC and had gone to phone her bosses to tell them that an English, Chinese and Colombian girl would be on a bus heading to Armania and that we would be stopped on the way! Luckily the bus company we were travelling on is a “vaccined” company bus, which means that the bus company pay money to the FARC not to intercept the buses and take any hostages! Paula checked with the bus driver before we got on the bus and told him she was a bit worried, he said he didn’t know about the “vaccination” as the administration dealt with that kind of stuff (although personally if I was a bus driver in Colombia that would be the first thing I would want to know!) but in the seven years he had been working as a bus driver for that company nothing had ever happened, so we got on the bus! Unfortunately I got sat next to the most annoying guy ever who decided that just because he was a man and had longer legs he should get my leg room too and kept falling on me every time we turned a corner when he was asleep! But a found a free 2-seater in the end so moved! :o)

Once we got to Armenia we had to get another bus to Quimbaja and went into the first hostel we saw, which turned out to be really cheap so we decided to stay there! We got our own private room with bathroom and it was soooo nice!! There was a festival going on when we arrived, like everywhere in Colombia, so there was a big stage set up and lots of bars, stands etc.! We tried to find a tourist office to ask about tours to the Parc del Café (coffee growers park!) and bamboo-float rides down the river! There was no proper tourist office there but we found a small stand who told us the prices! The bamboo floating thing was really expensive and as we had just come from the Amazon we decided it wouldn’t really be worth it! That evening we just wandered around, drank massive fruit juices, watched agua panella being made (panella is sugarcane which has been boiled down and then reduced and is used a lot here to make tea, lemonade etc!), ate BBQd cobs of Maize (sweetcorn! Katrin - you would have been in heaven hehe!) listened to a bit of the music and then had an early night!

The next day we got up early to go to Parc del Café, after having the most amazing Colombian breakfast in the hostel! We got a Willy there (a traditional jeep which the coffee growers have been using since the 1950s and which apparently never breaks like other cars) which was so much fun as it was full so Paula and I had to stand on the back of it and hold on, with lots of other people jumping on and hanging on along the way! A little old woman was standing next to us when we were deciding who would sit where and Paula kept telling her that she should go and sit in the front where there was still a space and we would stand on the back of the jeep, a guy laughed and told Paula she would be sitting in the front as she is the driver, at which Paula wet herself (not literally!) and found it the funnies joke ever as it was obvious that this tiny old woman would not be driving! We were still laughing when the little old woman told us to get on, went and got in the drivers seat and accelerated off! Hehe! Turned out she really was the driver! The drive there was sooo much fun!!

The Parc was really nice… first of all we did the ecological walk, where you could see lots of different types of flowers, wildlife, types of coffee, old monuments and also learn about the different stages of the coffee making process! Then we looked around a typical Colombian coffee growers house where the tour guide there telling people about the history, insisted that we try on all his traditional clothes he was wearing and take pictures! :o) Then we walked to the top of the mountain, looking at the flowers and statues and explanations of all the traditional myths and legends! Then we got the Telefonica (cable car) back down to the bottom of the mountain/hill where we had lunch and then went to the small theme park area! I was acting like a child as usual and had been ridiculously excited about the rollercoaster and log flume all day and had even brought a change of clothes incase we got really wet but unfortunately all the rides were ridiculously expensive so we decided not to go on anything!! Gutted! :o( We then went to the famous orchid show, which to be honest was quite rubbish and babyish! It was just lots of singing plastic flowers, as Paula pointed out luckily plastic flowers don’t have feelings because everyone left before the end…. We ended up staying the longest and Siemei and I didn’t even understand anything!

That evening we were just about to go to the festival down the road and have dinner and wander around, when it started pouring with rain for ages….we got quite bored sitting there and waiting for it to stop so I decided I would provide the entertainment and let Paula cut my hair including cutting a sweeping fringe….oh dear!! That was apparently not one of my best ideas… hehe!! The sweeping fringe ended up being a little shorter than I imagined but I think the general hair cut was good… considering it was done with Paulas swiss army knife scissors!! ;o) Thank goodness hair grows! :o) The rain finally stopped and we went to go and get a cheap dinner from the little foot stalls! We weren’t sure whether or not it was safe to go clubbing especially as there were lots of people there for the festival, so in the end we decided to stay in the hostel and watch a film! We were just about to put a film on when suddenly all the electricity went off….. a big power cut in the whole town! We fumbled our way out of the hostel and onto the street to see what was going on, the only lights were from the occasional car passing! We walked back to the main square where one bar seemed to have a their own generator and was still playing music, we thought about staying but decided it might not be very safe especially when we couldn’t see much so we went back to the hostel, where the hostel guy led us back to our room using the light from his mobile!! I was the first person to walk back into our room and round the corner to the bathroom where I nearly had a huge heart attack as it was still pitch black but I could make out the shape of someone hiding in the corner of our room…. In the end it turned out that it was just Paulas jacket she had hung up…. Paranoia! Hehe!

The next day we got the bus to the Botanical gardens (forgotten the name of the town), stopping off at the cash machine in town on the way, where I have officially perfected a little acting demonstration which Paula taught me… where I have to come out of the bank shaking my head, saying it didn’t work and then pretending to look around for another bank!! Hehe! The lengths you have to go to to stay safe in South America… although that’s actually a good trick I might start using everywhere! The botanical gardens were amazing, it was a 3 hour walk in the forest looking at all the different flora, wildlife etc! Our tourguide couldn’t speak any English so poor Paula was translating as usual, although there was another woman with her grandchild (who we thought was about 12 she was sooo mature but she turned out to be 6!!) who could speak English so she helped! Then we got to an insect house where we saw tarantulas (gross!) and other disgusting things, hehe! Luckily they were in glass cages so I didn’t need to run away screaming this time! :o) Then we went to the butterfly house which was really cool… the tourguide told me I have “good energy” as all the butterflies came flying straight to me, where they landed and stayed! There was also a cool tortoise! After that the woman in our tour gave us a lift to the station where we then got the bus to Salento, an old colonial town, famous for its amazing trout so we had lunch there! It was yummy…. Im now officially a big fan of fish and can now even eat fish that looks like fish, has a head and eyes and is looking at me!! Then we struggled up a million steps to get a view of the Kokara valley and despite being sooooo full, managed to eat an icecream with the help of my 2nd stomach! ;o) Had to sit backwards on the floor on the bus on the way back as the bus was full…… felt a teeny bit sick as we were going up and down mountains and round sharp bends! That evening we went to the Plaza again and got food at the food stands, I fed some local dogs and then we went back to the hostel to watch a film! There was another blackout but luckily it didn’t last as long! Actually, neither did the film as it was a pirate copy so stopped working half way through!! Then we packed and went to bed, ready to leave for Santa Elena (where Paulas uncle lives in the mountains) just outside Medellin!!

It has been brought to my attention that my blogs are too irregular and long and it has been suggested that I write blogs more often so they are a bit shorter!! Apparently some people don’t have a big enough attention span, mentioning no names……. Michi!! Hehe! ;o) So I will write a separate one for the next couple of places we have been to this last week so you can all go and get a cup of tea in between blogs! :o)

Lots of love xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

P.S - cant seem to rotate photos at the moment, its taking ages and im soooo late so sorry if theyre not rotated!! :o(

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Comments

[Michi]

not long???
Hej! I think you still don't understand what is meant by shorter entries! :-) Hehe!

[zoe gardner]

I agree with Michi, as enjoyable as they are your blogs leave me mentally exhausted!!