Coast mish

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Well that little side trip to Medellin turned out to be a 2week residency filled with great people and lots of dancing... my clases of salsa were excellent, so when they finished I took up a few more of Merengue and Porro which were just as cool if not cooler... I kept meeting great people and feeling very at home everywhere I went, I think Medellin is definately a place I will re-visit one day and would reccomend to anyone interested in travelling through Colombia.
The only thing that helped me drag myself away, was the Carribean coast calling me for some beach time before going back to Argentina for Christmas, so thursday arvo after sending off a few belated emails I caught the metro to the north end and started walking. The $60 bus fee had seemed way too rich when I was enquiring back at the bus terminal, but as I was resting on the safty barrier after 2hrs walking uphill with no rides, a scene unravelled before my eyes that made me start to think that maybee it wasn't so steep after all. A little ute loaded up to the sky with tables and chairs pulled out to overtake a tired old Bedford truck that was having the same trouble as I was trying to climb the mountain... all the same he didn't want to lose pole-position to this little wanna-be, so he put the boot down and managed to hold the youngun off for a couple of blind corners. Then the passanger of the ute(obviously tired of these childish games) produces a hand-gun and blasts a bullet through the drivers door of the bigger truck... who finally admitts defeat and gives way to the triumphant, horn-tooting Clint Eastwood who cruises off into the horizon leaving the limping, rusty old Bedford in his victory smoke.
Russ keeps walking, brain chewing on a million options,(something he probably should of encouraged before starting this little "adventure"), maybee the trip costs $60 because no-one dares hitch-hike this 16hr trip, so the bus companies can charge what they like... maybee no-one's picking me up because generally the people who roam around these parts are of a bad nature... hopefully all those bullet holes in the road signs is just the police having target practice... and so on. Another hour went by and it was getting dark so I started thinking about where was going to be a good place to pitch my tent for a sleepless night. But when I knocked on a farm house door to ask for some water my luck changed dramaticly, or you could say that God stopped messing with my head. I was greeted by a sweet old lady and a couple of her kids and their kids, who invited me in for a refreshment and some bread... which turned into dinner, fireworks, poker and rum with the oldies after the kids went to bed, my own bedroom, and a hosing down of some natural liquid to take out the "aches and pains" of my boby, which was like deepheat x10, all over my back and legs applied 2 or 3 times by a slightly drunk, teary-eyed 65 year old Grandma who was giving me the whole family story starting from her grandparents.... I soon drifted off into a deep sleep thinking about the best and "out of the movies" part about this whole situation... the fact that they'd scored me a lift in the back of their nieghbours truck at 7o'clock the next morning, who was driving just about all the way to Cartagena to deliver a load of double bed mattresses - you little ripper!!!
So now I'm at the beach, and spent all of yesterday just swimming in the warm Carribean ocean and talking to Lucho, some cool guy who's going to give me a tour of "his city" later on today.
Big love God, big big love.

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Photos

Christmas lights - Medellin
this is the river throught he centre of Medellin, there are lights like this all around the city and they turned them all on for the first time on the 7th of Dec - big party.

Druggy - Medellin
there are a lot of people who just sleep in the streets like this through the day, and at first I thought they were all really poor people without a home, which they probably are too but the truth is actually that there is a really cheap drug here called "Bazuco" that after a very good short high, kicks the life out of you and makes you sleep for ages... a real problem in Medellin.

Skaterboys - Rio Negro
bring back any memories fallas, these guys were lining up a big hill to race down on their butts. Cool to know that small town Colombia isn't really much differant to small town New Zealand

Betting on dice - Rio Negro
Betting is another huge part of the Colombian culture, everyone buys lottery tickets, goes to casinos, plays cards or other table games to try and get the big win... these guys tried pretty hard to get me to play but "I had to catch a bus", next time guys

View from Santo Domingo
I went back up the Gondola to say goodbye to the Rodriguezs and met a whole lot of other little kids who were playing on this rooftop. You can buy a house up here with this view for the price of 2 silicon boob-jobs.

The action spot
I was just crossing back over the road from taking this photo when the two idiots drove past me shooting at eachother, I didn't bother trying to flag them down for a ride.

A very, very content russ
I had to take a photo of this, I was lay here in a dreamy state for atleast an hour after Grandma finished her family story and tucked me in for the night, thinking about how lucky I was. How many times on this trip God had put good people around me in potentialy bad situations... angels. Then slept like a baby untill I was woken for a cup of quality Colombian Coffee before we got on the road

My ride
it's usually a cattle truck but luckily for me it hadn't been used for a while and there was shortage of mattresses up north :)

Arriving in Planeta Rica to deliver the mattresses
We arrived in the afternoon and i had to wait untill the morning to catch the buss the last few hours to Cartagena because they close the highway from here up to the coast at night because it's too dangerous. But it was friday night so I found myself a little discoteka and danced the night away with a bunch of locals who I don't think had ever seen a foreigner before in their life. real funny night

Comments

[anonymous]

I have to say that I am really impressed by you and your travels!It's really intresting to follow! Today was my last day at the fish factory..hmm.. it feels really strange, I can hardly belive it. When I said goodbye to my (ex)working pals it felt like we where just saying a normal weekend-goodbye..not like I-might-not-see-you-again-goodbye..=( It's going to be nice to come back to family and friends but this place has been my home now for over 3 months and I will miss it! How and where are you going to spend your christmas? Take care!big hug/Amalia - Amalia

[anonymous]

OMG
That is the most amasing thing that have ever seen in my life and im only 12 years of age OMG HA LOL JK THAT IS SO STUPID!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! - TheNice Gurl

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dammn kid u had to be 12 u so imature

[D.Voss]

What was your mision?
It seems that you have been to Colombia for a poverty photografy competition.I must say,I have seing most of the world and Colombia and its regions are just blessing,I think you have missed all what Colombia is about,you better go back and have a better look and take more exiting pictures.