My Last Couple of Weeks in Colombia

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On the 5th October I headed back to Bogotá to meet Phil who was visiting for 11 days. I met him at the airport (which was to become an all-too-familiar place for me), where unfortunately he also had the same problem that I did when I first arrived in the country, and was unable to withdraw any money. It just so happened that another British traveller (who he had met on the flight) had exactly the same problem with her bank card. (As you can't get Colombian pesos anywhere in England this meant that neither of them had any local currency at all - not a terribly pleasant start to any trip). So I was able to get my charitable thang on and pay for the taxi ride for all three of us and ensure that she got to her hostel safely. The bank card situation meant that a lot of our time in Bogotá was taken up with trying to call Phil's bank and get his card unblocked (can I just say here that Lloyds proved far more difficult to get in touch with to resolve the issue than Natwest did for me. In fact, in case anyone is wondering, from my experience I've found that Nationwide is the best card for abroad; no issues so far... touch wood). However, in the couple of days that we had in the chilly capital we did get to see a few sights like the Botero museum, as I had enjoyed it so much the first time and thought that Phil would too. As I'm sure I mentioned in my first blog on Bogotá and as most of you will know, I am really not a fan of cold weather, and so we made a rather hasty retreat from the capital and hopped aboard a 7-hour bus to San Gil. I've written a seperate blog about San Gil for See Colombia Travel, which you can find by going to this link if you are so inclined: http://seecolombia.travel/blog/2012/11/guest-post-laura-pollard-on-adventure-and-travel-in-san-gil/ And I suggest you do, because it is awesome. (The city that is, not the blog. And if you are considering visiting Colombia then I would strongly suggest that you check out some of the See Colombia site's articles for travel tips and up-to-date information on the country. Anyway, enough casual advertisement...) One thing I omitted from the San Gil blog is that it was there that we began our "Go Go Brownie Mission" which basically entailed finding and eating as many different brownies as possible, with the ultimate plan of creating a website to review the world's brownies, and assist brownie-lovers the world over in the quest to find the best brownie. (So, my new life mission and career plan is to become rich through advertisement deals which I will DEFINITELY be offered thanks to the GUARANTEED popularity of said website and said quest. There is, of course, the slight possibility that I will succeed only in becoming fat and cavity-ridden, but it seems a worthwhile risk, wouldn't you agree?)

From San Gil we headed over to the picturesque little town of Villa de Leyva. We spent a lot of our time there wandering through the cobblestoned streets and sampling the food and drink on offer in the town's many cafes and restaurants. In fact, it was here that my taste for coffee grew, mostly thanks to the array of cappuccinos with liquor, like Amaretto and Baileys, which were available! However, as lovely as the town is, we did take a break from our strenuous itinerary of rambling, eating and drinking, to go on a tour of some of the surrounding sites, from a bizarre house made of terracotta, to an ancient site with giant penis-shaped statues to represent the fertility of the earth, to a huge and very well-preserved Kronosaurus fossil. As it was Phil's birthday on the 15th, I said he could choose the day's activities. He opted for quad-biking. Imagine my deep joy! But regardless, I went into dutiful girlfriend mode and donned my crash helmet and hopped (or perhaps, stumbled, ungracefully) onto the back of the bike. Holding onto him for dear life, I tried to enjoy the views (which admittedly, were very nice) and ignore the mud that was accumulating on my legs as we splashed through deep muddy puddles. However, when the guide we were following stopped and advised us that he would have to take our bike and head back to the shop to get help because his bike was broken, I did struggle to maintain my good humour! After 15 minutes waiting in the scorching sun, the guide finally returned, with the cavalry in tow. When they managed to fix the bike, we rode off again over mounds and through puddles, before returning to the shop.

Phil's flight home was supposed to be from Bogotá late evening on the 16th, but unfortunately, after an 8-hour journey that should have taken 4-hours (never underestimate Colombian traffic, and never overestimate Colombian bus companies' time-keeping skills!), he missed the flight check-in by about 10 minutes. The staff at Lufthansa were fantastically helpful (not) and simply informed us that he could not get a refund or change flights, and that he would have to return in two days time (when the next flight was scheduled) and pay about £1000 for it. And thus it was that we found ourselves in Bogotá for another night, before a glorious day of attempting to re-book another flight home for him. Thankfully, after many joyous hours of calling his bank, the travel website and the airline, we managed to get him booked on a flight back to London, this time with Iberia for the much more reasonable price of £400, late that afternoon. Now, this litte hiccup did alter my plans somewhat, because whilst we were in San Gil I had booked myself a flight to Santiago in Chile for the 16th, and a return flight (to Bogotá) from Buenos Aires in Argentina on the 27th. The intention was that I would spend a couple of days in the Chilean capital which I had loved so much when I visited in January, and then cross through the Andean mountains and spend a week in Argentina, before flying back to Colombia for my flight to Mexico. Fate (or Colombian traffic) had different plans of course, and as I couldn't really leave Phil stuck in Colombia with no flight, no accommodation and no Spanish language, whilst I sauntered off to have a great time in Chile and Argentina, I had to cancel my flights to stay with him in Bogotá until we could sort out his flight. Taking this as a clear-cut sign that there was more for me in Colombia, once Phil was successfully onboard a plane home, I hopped (or, gloomily dragged myself) onto an overnight bus to Santa Marta on the Carribean coast.

Before coming to Colombia I had done some research and found out about the voluntary organisation Mariposas Amarillas, which had remained in the back of my mind during my travels in the country. I have written a seperate blog on my time volunteering at the school (http://www.travelblog.org/South-America/Colombia/Santa-Marta/blog-755082.html) which I wrote seperately so that the organisation could use it for prospective volunteers or anyone interested in the organisation (and also to try to exploit my friend's and family's good hearts to try to convince them to donate!) Thus I won't repeat myself on this blog entry by describing the place again. What remains to be said about my week in Santa Marta is actually very litle, as most of my time, when I was not drawing up lesson plans or attending meetings or the school, was spent drinking coffee and jotting down notes for my blogs. In general, I managed to do very little else whilst in the city, as I reasoned that I ought to try to save money to make up for the money I had spent on the flights to/from Chile/Argentina which I had to cancel! (Cue, world's smallest and saddest violin?)

Santa Marta definitely has some nice spots, but it is not exactly the most exciting of places, and so I decided to spend my last couple of days in Colombia in the little village of Minca, about 15km from Santa Marta and set in the foothills of the Sierra Nevada, which is the world's highest coastal mountain range. The mosquitos and bugs were a pain, but I could not have chosen a better place to spend my last couple of days in the country which I had fallen so madly in love with. Set by a gorgeous river, Minca is a peaceful little place and has gorgeous tropical trees surrounding it in all directions. The hostel I was staying at, Casa Loma, is at the top of a hill, which means it boasts an incredible view of nearby Santa Marta and the mountains that surround the area. The downside is that you have to climb up a beastly hill with steep and treacherous steps to get there - but the view alone makes the hike worth it. But the hostel itself provides much more than just a beautiful panaroma, with friendly staff and homely cooked meals each evening which all the guests and staff sit down to together. Even better - get this - they serve porridge in the mornings. Real-life porridge. And with it they serve probably the nicest coffee that I´d had during my entire stay in Colombia. I had heard that the coffee they grow in Minca is some of the country's finest, and I would have to absolutely and whole-heartedly concur with that statement. It was truly delicious, and since then I have found myself to be an all-out coffee fan. Some pleasant walks from the hostel took me to some beautiful points along the River Minca, notably a tranquil little waterfall with a pool where you could paddle. My peaceful stay was disturbed slightly however, by an adorable but troublemaking kitten at the hostel who was hell-bent on playing with me, and seemed to view my backpack as the world's most inticing toy. When I wandered up to my dorm to sleep on my first night at the hostel, I found him sitting on my bed eyeing me narrowly in a way that suggested that I just try to make him move. My attempts to tempt him out of the room by following the trail of my scarf failed miserably, and in the end I had to pick him up and put him outside before quickly shutting the door on him. Unfortunately, the door did not lock, and so to keep him from simply pushing the door open and re-entering, I had to barricade it with my backpack. This turned out to be rather unwise as he naturally thought that this was a simply brilliant game, and enjoyed tugging at the many straps on the backpack through the door for a good 15 minutes before he finally sulked away. Obviously his adventures in the rest of the hostel did not keep his attention for the entire night, because at 5am I found myself awake and sitting bolt upright in bed as there was scratching and banging at the door. In my sleepy haze I temporarily forgot the evening's antics with the kitten and decided that this was clearly a killer who had trekked up the hill to the hostel with the aim of murdering me. So, in a sleep-induced state of confusion and panic I attempted to get out of bed to defend myself, and in the process got myself completely tangled in the mosquito net around my bed. Luckily at this point I saw the kitten's paws darting underneath the door to grab the backpack's straps, and I remembered the evening's saga and thus was able to calm myself, realising that the psycho murderer outside the door was, in fact, simply a psycho kitten. After untangling myself from the mosquito net I promptly lay my head back down in bed and went back to sleep!

2 days, 2 delicious bowls of porridge, about 8 cups of coffee and untold amounts of mosquito-repellant later, I had to make my way down the treacherous steps, pile my bags into a taxi, and wave goodbye to Minca, and to Colombia as a whole. I hope that these blogs have gone some way in portraying my love and respect for this incredible and diverse country, because even now, looking back on my adventures in Colombia, I don't think I could convey my feelings concisely. All that I will say is, for those of you considering visiting the country, do it. As one of the country's tourism slogans says, "The only risk is wanting to stay!"

Thanks for reading and for following me on my journeys through the country. As you may have gathered, I am now in Mexico, which is proving to be incredible as well. More updates to follow soon!

Ciao,

Laura P

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Photos

The Cavalry
Fixing the broken quad bike!

View of Minca and Beyond
From Casa Loma

Photo taken from the quad bike
When I was brave enough to loosen my grip for a second to take a photo!

Comments

[Dad]

Great to skype yesterday. Two quick comments....you can leave the pesky cat behind .... but I hope you can bring some of that coffee back! xxxx