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Published: July 29th 2008
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a last class
christian, wilson, and celeste what a fantastic weekend...
Sascha and I went to this little town called Tamesis. When I say little, I mean little. You could never get lost because from one side of the main town to the other takes about 10 minutes to walk. Much smaller than the University of Maryland campus I am used to walking across!
The first thing we did when we got there was drop our stuff off at our adorable and friendly hotel to go eat lunch at a highly recommended restaurant. I will explain right now that every single meal we had at every single restaurant was amazing. It was all made with fresh food from the farms that surround the town, first of all. Secondly, they were all big meals with a variety of deliciously cooked foods and fresh juices. Third of all, the coffee was the best coffee I have ever had, by a long shot. Furthermore, the food was all cooked right there next to you, because all the places were practically houses where we were eating in living rooms near the kitchen. The people were all SO friendly and happy ANNNNND I never paid more than 6 american dollars for
a hugely satisfying meal. MAN I will miss all that.
At the restaurant, Rodrigo, the tour guide we were going to call, came up to our table and asked if we were Sascha and Christine. He picked us out mostly because Sascha is the only tall blonde in the whole town (also because we were speaking English). He is friends with the woman who coordinates the volunteers here in Medellin, which is why we went to this town in the first place. He told us to meet him in from of our hotel in 30 minutes, so we did just that.
He picked us up, we met up with Andres, and the four of us went on a wonderful and difficult hike in the afternoon sun. After exploring fruit trees and indigenous engravings, we got to a huge rock face and repelled down. I felt totally safe, and it was an awesome feeling. Andres and Rodrigo did not speak any English, but I understood most of what they said and they were so friendly and so fun. After all that, Rodrigo took us on a tour of his mini-town. Along the way he greeted almost everybody with a
huge smile and expressed the pride and happiness these people feel about their town. He took us to a pool where his friend made us delicious treats. They were: Platinos split almost in half to form a hot-dog bun type shape. The platinos were cooked with ham and two types of cheese in the middle. That sounds so gross but it was SOOOOO delicious and rich and different and mmmmm.
The next morning, Rodrigo picked us up at 7am. Before that, Sascha and I got breakfast and DELICIOUS coffee and watched the peaceful amazing view from the porch of our hotel. We started our hike around 730am, and it was, once again, straight freakin' vertical. There were even parts we had to be attached to a rope to climb up. When we got to our destination, we were almost 1000 meters higher than the town at a glorious waterfall. We proceeded to repel down that, and it was certainly a new and exciting experience for me. The only time I was scared was going over that first drop. After that, I was good to go. I slipped a few times, but that just made it more exhilarating and interesting.
I was literally in a waterfall, getting soaked to the bone, holding onto one rope and sliding down cracks and crevices and rocks and such. Incredible.
From there we hiked back down, showered, and went to eat the freshest fish I have ever eaten. We then went to someone's house and had the most DELICIOUS coffee I have ever had (I will say that about 6 times throughout this weekend). The people there were of course unbelievably friendly. They looked at my pictures and thanked us for coming to visit their town.
Later that night we went and got another amazing meal and then went to the plaza to drink warm milk with brandy, which put me right to sleep! Especially since I have had a total of 8 beers since I have been in Colombia, all in 4 different nights.
The next day we were picked up by a high school student who gave us a 4 hour walking tour of the farms outside the town. It was an incredible walk. All the houses we passed had people listening to music with big smiles going about their farm-work. We saw tons of coffee fields, a small
place where they purify and bottle water for a lot of Colombia in such a simple way. We saw tons of fruit trees, rivers, we went up and down hills and breathed in the freshest air in the greenest hills. The walk was physically demanding a lot of the time, but somehow it was extremely relaxing at the same time. There is so much to be said for the simple, natural life-style of the area and it is certainly a way of life that I feel so much more at home in than when I am in cities and in lots of traffic.
It was a perfect last weekend in Colombia. I did a lot of thinking, a lot of reading Emerson, and a lot of writing. I ate healthy, fresh food, and I did outdoor activities. I realized how there is not a single possession that I left at home that I miss. Of course I miss people. I miss people a lot. I miss the hell out of my family and I miss my close friends and I miss Matthew and Addy and Ethan. But there is not a single possession, not a piece of clothing, that
I miss. I am living out of a backpack and loving it.
Today I am eating as much Colombian food as I can because tomorrow I am off to Peru. I will be meeting Krugy upon landing, and I am so damn grateful for that I could burst. Every wonderful experience I have is an experience I wish I could share with someone I love, and for the next 16 days, I will get to do just that.
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Mrs. Griffin
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This entry made me cry!