Santa Marta: another epic first night

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Prelude: I started writing this entry the day after, but didn´t have time to finish before leaving for Ciudad Perdida so for lack of time, so I appologize for quoting Simonne´s blog for the rest of the night....

Last night we flew out of Bogotà at around 8pm thinking we were going go arrive at the hostel late and crash right away. Little did we know we were going to befriend Pillao Rodriguez, the famous vallenato singer, on the plane to Santa Marta. He seemed nice and invited us to his concert in the Bahìa de Santa Marta square, but we were cautious and declined his offers of a taxi and flagged down our own taxi.

¨He gave us one of his promotional CDs (http://www.pillaorodriguez.com/) and I thought OK maybe he is for real. He again asked where we were staying and we said we couldn´t remember. He gave us the specific about the concert and we said we were tired so we might not go.

On our way to the hostel, we seriously calculate the risks associated with this interaction. We are fine because he knows nothing about us but would it hurt to go to his concert (if there even is a concert)? We ask the taxi driver and the guy at the hostel and apparently the concert is one block away from the hostel. OK, this dudes story is checking out... there is actually a concert. We decide to go and get ready to head out. The concert was literally right next to the beach in a big parking lot. Tons of people were there with kids playing, couples dancing and families hanging out. It was a very well organize concert with security everywhere. It was awesome and the Vallenato music was so colorful and fun. We waited for a little while wondering if this dude was actually going to be there. Right before we were about to leave we hear the announcer say his name for the lineup of performers so we decided to go up to the front and stay for a little longer. While waiting, these merry older men that were clearly enjoying drinking and dancing with their families came over to dance with us. Again, "why not" we said to ourselves. We danced with us and they asked to take pictures with us (we didn´t have my camera so there is no evidence so you will just have to trust me). It was a little uncomfortable as everyone was watching us (clearly gringas) but it was fun to dance and they were very well intentioned and jovial. Finally, the guys name was called again, Pillao Rodriguez, as the final special act. Lots of people get up and rush to the front. Wow... this guy must be quite famous. And there he is on stage with a full band and the crowd singing his songs. We thoroughly enjoyed listening to him sing and he even yelled out our names to recognize that we were there. OK wow... he is for real!
After the concert he waves us over as we is taking pictures with all of his fans and tells us to come with him to his private after party. OK, now we have become groupies! We accept...but we continue to calculate our risk and make sure we know where we are and how to get our of the situation if we need to. At this point though we both realized that this guy generally wanted to welcome us to his city and was excited that we came to his concert (we knew that we had to be safe but both of our instincts said that this situation was OK). So we go to his friend´s bar (which is officially closed but he opened it up for this "private party"). We ended up meeting his family and friends and dancing. Mariya and I kept looking at each other and asking ourselves if this was really happening (this is all at 3 in the morning mind you). Eventually we decide its time to get out of the situation. After observation and chatting with the other ladies, we realize that he is a little bit of a ladies man so although we believed he is completely harmless, we left with one of the ladies we befriended. He wanted us to call him in the next day and our new friends invited us to another party they were going to have the next day. Unbelievably crazy night but in the end safe and sound! New city, new image...VIP groupies!

We didn´t call him today.¨

It was an awesome first night in a new place. I got to speak loads of spanish and dance vallenato with hilarious drunken Colombians in front of a massive crowd. Everyone was also really impressed with Sim´s dancing since she has so much experience with salsa. I´ve decided that the two of us combined, between my spanish and her dancing, make the perfect latin woman. :P

Today Sim and I explored Santa Marta and weren´t really impressed. The beach is pretty dirty and VERY crowded with locals. It´s a downtown beach town so it´s not really a surprise. The best part was when I went to the water to cool off and a group of about 6 children flocked to me and starting asking me questions. They were fun to talk to because I they were so curious about when I was from and traveling to.

Now I´m just excited for our 6 day trek to La Ciudad Perdida in the Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta. Apparently it´s about 20k each way so I guess this will be our test run for Machu Picchu....

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