Santa Elena!

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Hello!!!

We had one last yummy breakfast in the hostel on Sunday morning and then got the bus to Armenia, where we then got a 6 hour bus to Medellin! Paula gave us an altitude sickness tablet which knocked us all out….have never slept so well on a bus hehe! Had lunch at the bus station and then got a bus up to Santa Elena which took nearly an hour! There Paulas uncle and his girlfriend picked us up! They don’t really speak any English but are soo lovely! Its so sad though - the girlfriend, Janeth, is in a wheelchair as she was shot in the back 15 years ago when she was just 17 and hasn’t been able to move her legs since! That was back when Medellin used to be the most dangerous city in the world and some gang wanted to kill her boyfriend so whilst they were on his motorbike they shot him dead and shot her in the back! Horrible! She is amazing though and is nearly fully independent, she works as a psychologist, drives, cooks and does pretty much everything!

The house is at the very top of the mountain and is really lovely and the views are amazing!! They have 3 dogs who are really really lovely! One of which, I think it’s a black retriever (so lovely!!) was in a pen though as they rescued him from the streets and if they let him out he usually runs away for days and comes back with diseases etc so he spends most of his time in the pen until he gets used to being here! I kept visiting him in his pen and playing with him (he was SO excited, he kept knocking me over!) but I couldn’t stand seeing him on his own in there any longer so yesterday afternoon I asked if I could let him out (after cleaning out a weeks worth of poo and giving him fresh water!) and the uncle said yes and he hasn’t been back in there since!! He spent all afternoon playing with the other dogs (and me!) and I kept giving him lots of attention and treats (when no one was looking!) so he wouldn’t be tempted to run away, however, it didn’t work and just before going to bed last night we realized he had gone! I was really worried and felt a bit guilty as it was me who had let him out but luckily he was one of the first people I saw when I got up this morning so he came back!! So happy! I think he realized its nicer here than on the streets and Paulas family have gone to a wedding today so I have been spoiling him lots to make sure he stays here and doesn’t have to go back in his pen….. I think its working as he doesn’t seem to want to leave the house at all today so I think the transition has been successfully made and he is now a member of the family! I think my work here is done, I will be able to leave tomorrow with a happy conscious! :o) Anyway, sorry, got a bit carried away with the animals!

That evening we just had dinner and then I went to bed early to let Paula spend time with her family without having to translate! It is really nice here and they are very welcoming but it is really frustrating not being able to communicate properly and join in with everyone!

The next day, Siemei and I went into Medellin for a day of sightseeing, which wasn’t really very successful! We spent nearly 3 hours in an internet café, as hadn’t had internet for ages so needed to catch up with people and I needed to catch up on my blogs! Then we went and had a yummy local lunch, fish again! Then we went to the Plaza where we eventually asked a couple of men how to get to the big park we were looking for where you could apparently go swimming etc.! He pointed us in the direction and off we went….. and oh my goodness what a mistake!! We suddenly ended up in the dodgiest area (which we later found out is the worst and most dangerous area of Medellin) and found ourselves walking past prostitutes (I think im allowed to write this…. Think Jenna is the youngest person reading my blog and im sure she must have watched pretty woman by now hehe!), not all of whom were originally female if you know what I mean, drunks, crazy people, homeless people displaying all kinds of horrific wounds etc.! For the first time since travelling I felt genuinely scared and could foresee us getting robbed within the next 5 seconds so I announced to Siemei that we were going back the other way, turned around and walked away as quick as I could!! I then found a security guard and asked him if the taxi rank across the road is safe to get a taxi from, he said it was, however, his eyes looked rather red and weird so I think he might have been on drugs which slightly discredited his opinion but we didn’t really have much choice so got in a taxi! Most of the park was sectioned off as they were setting up for the festival so we got back into a taxi and asked him to take us to a big plaza with a cathedral and lots of Boterro statues that we had seen on the way there! He didn’t seem to understand what we meant and ended up taking us to a big shopping mall shaped like a cathedral! We went in for a look around but it wasn’t very nice and the sales people stood in the doorway and tried to drag you in every shop you passed which puts you off looking a bit! So in the end we just gave up with sightseeing and decided to go to a hostel we had seen advertised in the Lonely Planet where they have a book exchange as I had 2 books to swop! Even that turned out to be complicated as after driving around lost for ages the taxi driver finally told us that the street Siemei had written down didn’t exist, but then she realized he was reading her 7 as a 1 so eventually we got there and luckily the hostel guy let me swop the books even though we weren’t staying there! We then had another little stint in an internet café and by then it was nearly 6pm so decided to get the bus back up to Santa Elena before it got dark!

Well….that didn’t happen….. the bus took a crazily long route which took an hour and a half and we were going past places in the mountains we had never seen before so were worried we has missed our stop! And at one point we were the only ones left on the bus and it did cross my mind that we would be in a lot of trouble if the bus driver was in any way linked to the FARC and looked in his mirror and saw he had an European-looking and Chinese-looking girl in his bus! Luckily a woman got on who assured us that the bus would eventually stop at our stop after going back round the other side of the mountain and when she got off she nicely told the driver to tell us when we were there which he did! The only problem then was that we needed to find the short cut up to the house which Paula had shown us that morning, but everything looks so much different in the dark! On the way to the path that we hoped would lead us up to the mountain house, a guy passed us who we had met that morning who works at the house, so I asked him if we were going the right way! His reply was asking me if I wanted some rum because he was going to buy some, I said no thanks its getting late we need to go! I thought he told us to wait there for him but I wasn’t completely sure and when he didn’t come back after 5 minutes I decided I didn’t want to wait around in the freezing cold, on the side of a road half way up a mountain so we started going!

We finally found the dirt track leading up the mountain and started walking, trying to use my mobile for light, which didn’t really work and it was pitch black! When I saw the shadow of someone walking towards us I honestly nearly had a heart attack but luckily it was just some woman who just walked past! 20 meters further up, I nearly had a heart attack when we walked past 2 huge horses which I only saw when I was right next to them! We were both soooo scared…. Siemei even had to stop for a wee in the middle of the dirt track hehe! Eventually we heard Paula whistling for us in the distance, but that relief was only short-lived as I suddenly heard a man shouting behind us! Siemei thought it was just Paulas uncle but I knew the noise came from behind us and I could hear he was getting even closer! I thought it was going to be like in the horror films when the victims are soooo close to safety and then get caught or killed or whatever just before they get there, so I started running (not even waiting for Siemai in my panic… oops!) and finally saw Paula and her uncle who helped us climb up into the back garden! It turned out the guy who works at the house did tell us to wait for him and then he would lead us back to the house, and that was who was following us and shouting at us the last 50 meters!! Whoops!! :o) He couldn’t speak any English so I told Paula to tell him not to take it personally that I ran away from him, it was just because I thought he was going to kill or abduct us! Hehe!! I haven’t been that scared in such a long time, if ever, and decided that was the last time I was ever going to be so irresponsible and try and get home in the dark when I didn’t really know where I was going! :o( I think I over-exaggerated slightly as I don’t think Siemei was nearly as scared as I was, I was nearly on the verge of writing “I love you” goodbye texts to everyone hehe, but still, it was very silly of us!! We then had dinner and big cups of tea to relax and went to bed early so that the nightmare day would be over sooner!! We packed a rucksack that night for our 2 day trip to Rio Claro (got back yesterday) but this blog is long enough already so will do a separate entry for Rio Claro!! ;o)

Love and hugs xxxxxxxxxxxxx

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