The First of Many

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So the day has finally come. Tomorrow, I will be getting on a plane with two full bags and a large appetite for adventure. The plan is to stay in Colombia for the year and teach English, the only catch being that the agency that has placed me in a teaching position is still waiting on the contract from the Colombian government. So hopefully taking this leap of faith and actually going to the country will speed up the process. I won't start worrying about that though until after my first 2 week introductory vacation in Colombia which will be the main topic of this post. After my 19 hours of travel tomorrow I will land in Medellín a town famous for its beauty and infamous for its history with the Colombia drug cartels. We will be staying there for two days before continuing onward to the old Caribbean port city of Cartagena de Indias -- commonly shortened to just Cartagena. In Cartagena the main order of business will be chilling on the beach with some adventurous excursions (skydiving) to keep things interesting. After 5 days of relaxation we will be heading up to Santa Marta which is the staging area for the trek to La Ciudad Perdida which is known as the Colombian Machu Picchu, even though it is significantly less famous and smaller. The ruins are significantly less touristy than Machu Picchu so this means that the only way to access them is 2 day trek through the rain forest which is exactly what we will be doing. After 4 days in the rain forest, I'm sure we will enjoy being back in the air conditioning of a hostel. The next afternoon we will be back in Medellín and I will be saying goodbye to and sending my friend Aya back to Denmark. Hopefully, I'll be able to write intermittently during my first two weeks but if not then I will definitely update afterwards.



Hasta la proxima,



Nik

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