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Karate Kids
Who can jump the highest??? As I lifted my bare foot from the smooth, dull grey, slippery surface of another round topped river stone to fight through the current that seemed to cut my feet from beneath me, and then stretched out through the flowing, fresh, cool water to find another sure spot to set down my slowly shifting weight, I realised how great things at that exact moment in my life were. And as I think of that thought, and take into consideration this moment right now, I feel pretty fortunate still.
I am here at the Northern tip of South America, just out of the jungle covered valleys of the Sierra Nevada of Colombia taking another step in a journey that has run through all kinds of different worlds, and has put me in company with some wonderful people.
Well That´s Life!
6 days in the jungle, 5 nights in the dark.
Spiders, Snakes, Frogs, Giant Ants, a Scot, a Kiwi, a Pom, 5 Canadian Nurses, A thong wearing english lad, a dutch Lass, and a guy from holland who speaks like 'Goldmemeber' (well not really), make for quite the 'Ciudad Perdida' trekking team. Throw in there a young porter named 'Missile',
Here We Are
Ciudad Perdida a guide named 'Walter', a cook named 'Omar', and a crazy mula man who seems to speak to animals with waterfalls, cocaine factories, armed paramilitary, camera-phobic indigenious people, 1600 stairs, and a Sean Connery accent, and you have the makings for my last week. Doesn't it sound just like a trip to the hills of Colombia should?
I need not ramble on about moments, as you can see them in the photos, but here are one or two things (4 things) that the pictures just don't reveal.
1. A man in a 'Banana Hammock' or 'Male thong'. Yes, and he wore it swimming with us too!
2. A group of four guys forming a boy band, and singing wonderfully different versions of existing songs (you can find our album cover photos throughout the pics). We are called '4 Nations' by the way.
3. A couple of wicked dives from the top of a waterfall, and into a river swimming hole.
4. The smells wafting of our gears, and ourselves on the final days.
5. My Sean Connery, Forrest Gump, and other accents, that kept some happily awake, and others well unhappy.
A Word
4 Nations
Fallen From Grace album cover of Caution!
I have never liked black jelly beans, and I have often been bitterly disappointed after having been offered ice-cream or cake to discover that it has a cafe (coffee) flavour in it, but none of these flavours match the horror that was beset upon my tounge by a coca leaf and sugar cane tea. If anybody ever offers you a coca leaf and sugar cane tea, then proceed to administer a fatal beating upon that person so that they may never have the oppurtunity to re-offend the pellet of another human being.
What is this about Coke Factories???
We were offered the oppurtunity, whilst striding up what would be considered a challenging leg of the trek for some (haha not me or the wee brown dog with different coloured eyes), to visit a coke factory. I found myself opposed to the concept of paying money to coke manufacturers so that I could appreciate their poison producing methods, but some of the others were lucky enough to not be concience crippled and embrace the idea. So they saw how the basic cocaine is mixed up with chemicals and made. Interesting, I am told.
Timing.
Whilst standing along
Fly
Some fun shots from the Colombian hill tops side an armed military check for a bag search Patrick decided to inform me that in any hostage situation the men are generally killed as they are more trouble to keep captive then the women, so if these paramilitaries that happened to have us lined up, whilst the brandished there machine guns decided we were hosatge material we may have been in a little strife. Para military don´t ofcourse take hostages, that is Guerilla tactics.
But I still suggested to Patty that it wasn't the best moment to tell me such things. He thought I should simply know the facts!
What else have I done? Because I need to include it all here for you intensely interested readers (thanks by the way for checking in on my adventure).
After finishing the trek, we got into a little bit of a pattern. We would spend the days engaging ourselves in banter with street venders, and eating ice-cream on the beach, and then every night we would gorge ourselves on meaty foods, before heading out to the nightclubs, and consuming the local beverages (Aguila cerveza, and Medellin Ron). We called these activities 'Quenching'. This pattern continued for three nights, until the
Frog
In the Colombian jungle Scot and I escaped to Cartagena on an afternoon bus. Here we are recovering for a few more days before heading to Medellin to possibly re-enter ourselves into the Matrix, and fight off the Smiths, or just indulge in a little more nightlife. We do each fancy ourselves as 'The One' tho.
Those crazy aerial photos you can see that I have flooded my blog with, are just us jumping around like idiots in Ciudad Perdida so that we can look at the photos and satisfy our super hero complexes a little. I do look like I am actually flying in a couple, don´t I? (Retorical Question)
I now have a little dilema about what I am going to do next. I can hear the beat of the samba rumbling up the Amazon from Brazil, but then the people here in Colombia may not want to let my interest go. I have to spend more time in Buenos Aires, but time is not infinite, so I think I will waste a few precious days deciding upon my path, and organizing my route. Wish me luck with my pondering.
Good Bye to all for now,
Anaru (Exactly)
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Dhiresh
non-member comment
Man of my dreams
Kia Ora bro ! I had a dream that i was with you and your crazy crowd of people ambling through the jungle, and you all were showing me around and pointing out the snakes and such. It was good to "see" you again =) I'm glad you're STILL having an awesome time exploring and pondering. I suppose someone's got to do it. Today...that person is you ! =)