52. 19-1st June. Modeling in Medellin and walking past cows and palm trees in the clouds!

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19/05/09

The alarm went off at 5.30am but I didn’t mind. Waking up knowing you’re about to cross the Colombian border gives you the urge to jump out of bed anyway! Pete and I got a taxi from outside our hotel to the border for only $3 and during that short 15 minute taxi journey both Pete and I both admitted we had no idea to what to expect. I’ve done my fair share of hairy border crossings and I was kind of expecting this one to add to my experiences of those. We arrived and were both shocked but in a good way. There were no queues, plenty of security guards and men exchanging currencies that didn’t jump down your throat as soon as you stepped out of the taxi. We exchanged our money for a good rate (something that doesn’t normally happen at border crossings!), got our passport stamped and jumped into another taxi to take us to the bus terminal. We drove straight through the border crossing without even getting checked…easy! Within 15 minutes of being at the bus terminal we were in a mini bus which charged $45 to take us to Bogota. There are times when you feel like things are going to easy, well, this was on of those times!ha The scenery was amazing! At some points you were surrounded by dense jungle and at others times, it really felt like you could have been back home driving through the country side on a warm summers day. I even got excited about seeing cows grazing in fields…sad I know!ha Pete and I were the only tourists on the bus and there were plenty of locals jumping on and off the bus at all times. I have to admit tough that I was fairly excited about seeing the Colombian ladies as I had heard so many great things about them. They are regarded as some of the most beautiful ladies in South America. But on this bus journey I was doubting that to be true! After driving through the countryside for a few hours, we were back to what I felt to be the true Colombia, the Jungle. On these roads you feel like you can reach out and touch the nature from the bus window and when one of the ladies on our bus was actually sick, we were literally hanging out the windows trying to very that. Pete and I couldn’t decided whether or not it was a comforting thing or not to see so many armed check points along the way and at one point we really did fear for the worst. We got ordered to pull over by men with machine guns who were not wearing any type of obvious uniform and standing in the middle of the road. We then got ordered to get out of the bus, line up along the side of the bus with our hands pressed against the windows. Within a minute or two we realized that they were military which was a huge sigh of relief! We were even trying to crack a few jokes with them with our very broken and limited Spanish which did bring a few laughs. In return they were doing the same and even though we had no idea what they were saying, we laughed anyway. After all, they had machine guns!ha We finally got to Cali at 7pm where the driver went out of his way to help us find our connecting bus to Bogota. This bus to our delight was a coach where we could stretch our legs and get some sleep. We arrived in Bogota at 5am.

20/05/09

Arriving at the main bus terminal in Bogota was quite daunting due to the size of it alone but one thing happened in that bus terminal that I had never experienced in South America to date. The security guards approached you to ask if you needed any help. That was just one of the many obvious things that Colombia are doing to pull back the tourists and hats off to them. We found a decent internet café in the terminal to find a hostel and then joined the short queue for the amazing taxi system they have there. You tell the clerk in a little office booth where you want to go, they print you off a ticked with a price on it and then point you to taxis waiting outside the terminal. It’s the best system I have ever seen where you can’t get ripped off. We arrived at Alegria’s Hostel where we were greeted by friendly staff and headed straight to bed! By the time I woke up Pete had already headed out to explore the town. I took the opportunity to have a long hot shower in an old fashioned shower tub that was the size of a mini bus! Amazing! I went for a walk around the old town which is just simply beautiful. The main square has so many different types of architecture and I have never seen so many pigeons! I met up with Pete later on and we were amazed by all the smiles wherever we went. The locals seemed to be so happy to see you in their shops or cafes. I spent a few hours on the internet where I saw the photos from my mum’s surprise 60th birthday party. I found it very emotional seeing my mum crying, looking at the happy birthday photos my friends an I had taken throughout my travels in South America. She was standing along side my amazing friends back home which meant the world to me in my absence. We spent the night in the tv room chatting to the other travelers there before heading out for dinner where I had a traditional Colombian dish…Lasagna!ha

21/05/09

Pete and I found some local cafe where we had breakfast and It became obvious from there that eggs and rice plays a very important role in their diet. One of the receptionists from our hostel convinced us to go to Medellin for the weekend and seeing that it was a Thursday we had no time no time to waste. A few of us went to the Gold Museum which was full of…gold surprisingly enough. Very impressive but by the time i left, I never wanted to see gold again!ha One of the girls with us called Junior was Canadian so there was plenty of light hearted banter going on calling her American and so on. Back at the hostel, one of our room mates, Omero from America asked if he could join us in our quest for drunken fun in Medellin. So two became three. Omero was a great lad and could speak fluent Spanish so that was a huge bonus!ha The receptionist showed us a video from one of the night clubs in Medellin and oh my god! She said, “if you like blondes, flat stomachs, tight arses and fake boobs you will love Medellin!” So it’s fair to say we were all excited about getting there! Our bus was at 10.15pm and we had a few beers at the terminal whilst waiting.

22/05/09

I woke up around 4am feeling sick so I quickly swallowed some anti sickness tablets that my sister got for me which are normally only subscribed to pregnant ladies. They done the job! Thanks sis! Once awake I couldn’t fall asleep again due to the amazing jungle like scenery. We arrived in Medellin by 7am where we got dropped off on the side of a roundabout as we got told that bus terminal was closed…yeah right!ha The three of us jumped into a taxi and headed to our hostel, The Pit Stop. Inside the hostel was like something out of a zombie film. People were lying all over the place looking half dead, well, hungover anyway! We all caught up on some sleep before heading to the local supermarket where we bought loads of fruit. We knew fruit was going to be essential for keeping our bodies working over this up and coming weekend! This was also our first glimpse at the beautiful ladies in this city. Wow! That night we headed to the main square to have dinner but all of us were shocked by how expensive it was. Being on a tight budget we ended up buying a bottle of rum and coke and sat in the main park soaking up the atmosphere. We found a local club where we felt very welcome. We did notice though that it was all couples. No groups of girls to be seen anywhere. Wow, I sound like a perv!ha

23/05/09

I had breakfast by the hostel pool soaking up the sun before heading to the supermarket with Omero. We found a Colombian coffee house where I had a…herbal tea! I did get a lot of stick for that when people we knew walked past and noticed I wasn’t drinking the so called famous Colombian coffee. A load of us spent the afternoon watching films in the tv room trying to reserve our energy for the night to come! We ended up in this huge club which was a disappointment. It was half empty and to touristy for my liking. We left early.

24/05/09

I was up around midday to find my Israeli friend Gal had moved into the hostel. I knew Gal from my time in Quito. A really funny lad! I joined Gal and his friends Scott from Dublin, Carlos from America and Kirk from Jamaica on an adventure to the shopping mall. We all squeezed into one taxi but none of us realized at that point what a life changing experience this shopping mall was going to provide! I really can’t think of any words that will do this day justice. Not only did we have none stop laughs in all the clothes shops to the point we were all crying but the ladies were out of this world breathtaking! The company I was in was first class and the ladies provided our eyes with sights that should only be seen in dreams!ha In one shop I tried on some jeans and a top, came out of the changing room to get the reaction from my friends and Gal said, “I love it!” We burst out is laughter and Gal had no idea why as that would be the literal translation you would use from Israeli to English. From that day on every time we liked something we said in a very camp voice, “I love it!” Somewhere along the way we managed to loose Carlos so Gal and I went off on the hunt to find him…and a certain shop that Gal wanted to find. Bearing in mind this shopping mall is basically a large circle on two levels could we find him or the shop…nope! But to be honest, I think we were distracted by all the ladies!ha This whole experience reminded me of shopping on the weekend with friends back home. It was good to feel that again. Back at the hostel, Kirk the Cook, jumped into the kitchen and started on our chicken curry dinner whilst we all lazed around in the tv room. A very random thing happened to me in this tv room. One of the cute receptionists poked her head into the tv room and said, “Barrie, how long are you here for? Are you going to be here next Monday?” I gave her a puzzled look before following her out to reception. There waiting were two young local ladies and the receptionist introduced me to them. At this point I had no idea what was going on! In their broken English they then asked me if I would be prepared to model for them on Monday which was eight days away. They were willing to pay me but that meant me staying in Medellin for over a week and seeing that I found a group of lads that were such awesome company I didn’t know what to say. Plus the surprise of being asked to do some modeling didn’t help either!ha I ended up swapping contact details and I said I would let them know as soon as I knew what my plans were. Talk about random! Love it! After an amazing dinner cooked by Kirk, Gal’s local friends came to our hostel where we spent the night playing drinking games by the pool. One game we played was called, I Have Never. An extremely funny game when in good company. One of the innocent looking girls took us all by surprised by starting off saying, “I have never…fingered a girl!” We all spat out our drinks in shock that these words came out of her mouth! It was a hilarious night which ended a day full of laughter perfectly. A day that I will remember for the rest of my life.

25/05/09

I spent the morning swimming in the surprisingly cold pool trying to burn of the alcohol. I was joined by an English girl called Caroline and a few more of her girly friends. It wasn’t long till the conversation got to the point where I felt the need to escape. Men should never hear ladies talking about their lady parts that should only be thought of in sexy ways! Our mission today was to go up the cable cart but gathering he troops after a night on the booze is always a difficult task! We finally left the hostel around 2pm. In our gang for the day, Gal, Pete, Scott, Carlos, Daniella, Omero and myself. Kirk was sick so decided to stay in bed. On the way we stopped off at a little café by the subway station where we fed our hungry bellies as well as the fat pigeons. The metro system in Medellin is very good but it did get crammed! We all jumped into one cable cart and enjoyed the views going up. At the top we walked to these three strange black square buildings where the view over the rest of the city down below is immense. We did hand an unlucky lady our six cameras where we had a ‘bad arse’ group photo taken. We stumbled upon a square that was full of locals enjoying the beautiful day with their families so we had a few cold beers to try and soak up some of that atmosphere. It was great to see so many kids being so caring towards their younger siblings. Pushing them around in toy cars in the scorching heat over and over again without a single moan. We decided it would be more interesting to walk back down rather than getting a lift by the cable cart. Looking back now I think we only managed to come out of that unscathed due to our size in numbers. To say I felt intimidated would be an understatement! I wouldn’t recommend anyone to do this. At one point I saw some bloke in a phone box keeping an eye on where we were heading which rang my alarm bells straight away. At that point I really thought we were going to get jumped on but thanks to us all looking like we hadn’t showered in weeks nothing happened!ha The night was a quiet one sat around the pool talking away and eating take out chicken.

26/05/09

Feeling fresh I swam laps in the pool whilst waiting for everyone else to wake up. Gal found out this morning who had been sleeping in his bed for the last two nights. Up until this morning he only knew what their feet looked like as every time he went to bed, someone was sleeping there already! Gal, Scott, Pete, Omero and myself headed into town to visit the Fat Museum. I wasn’t that impressed but I’m not one that’s into modern art anyway. We then walked to the cinema where we watched Angels and Demons. We were back at the hostel by 8pm where we found Kirk (who was feeling better) in the kitchen cooking us all a fish dinner. He’ll make a great house wife one day!ha Gal and I started a quiet game of Shit Head (a card game) by the pool but it wasn’t long till we were joined by others. One being a very arrogant Israeli lad. You ask any Israeli and they will admit that when you meet a group of Israelis they can be a bit…offish. This one lad was being very rude and abrupt and when asked to calm down he replied, “”I’m very competitive!” Si I responded with, “so why do you keep loosing then?” Gal almost fell off his chair laughing!ha

27/05/09

Today Gal, Scott and I had time to kill before catching a bus to Armenia at 4.30pm. As my friends were happy to stay in Medellin for another weekend so I could stay for the modeling job on the Monday a few of us decided to head further down south where we could do some more active activities. The Champions League Final was on so the whole hostel was watching that anyway. We caught the bus and Gal was asleep even before we started moving! I watched The Fast and The Furious in Spanish which made just as much sense as it does in English. We arrived in Armenia at 10.30pm and seeing that all the shops had bars on the windows and all the streets looked dark and rather dangerous we decided to stay in the little hotel within the terminal…even though it smelt like babies nappies! Gal and I sat in a café in the terminal for a few hours talking about how random life can be.

28/05/09

Our Alarms went off at 5.30am to catch our bus to Cocora at 6.30am. It was only an hour bus journey which took away from the city life and deep into the green mountains and valleys. We got dropped off at the Centre Plaza and jumped on a jeep to take us to our hostel, The Plantation House. This hostel is what dreams are made out of. The setting was breathtaking and you really felt part of the surroundings. The owner was very friendly and showed us his house where his back garden overlooks an amazing valley with a river running through it. It was a magical moment tll his small dog started shagging my leg!ha We visited his coffee farm where we were greeted by more dogs but luckily not so frisky! After walking around his farm we headed back to the Centre Plaza to find somewhere to eat. We got recommended a place by the hostel but we couldn’t find it. So we went into some random shop and asked a man for directions. The man we asked only worked in that very restaurant we were looking for! What are the chances?ha Now with food in our bellies we jumped on another jeep and headed for the walk we all came here to do. The walk itself was incredible and easily worth the journey getting to this out of the way little town. The first part of the walk is through a valley with tall palm trees on the surrounding cliff tops looking down on you looking as if they were using the clouds as camouflage. The second part was completely under tree cover which was very muddy and all up hill. At the top you have the option of paying 3000 pesos to see visit a small nature reserve which for the humming birds alone is well worth it. There is a crazy old lady that lives there who asked me to try and find reception on her mobile phone up some hill. So up I climbed! The walk back was thankfully mostly down hill but the views again were outstanding. We passed many wild horses and at one point walking amongst the clouds we passed cows in fields standing alongside palm trees. Something I never would have even of dreamed of seeing!ha We jumped back onto a jeep around 5pm back at the collection point and started a bumpy journey back to the hostel. The small jeep got so packed we were literally hanging of the back of it! Back at the hostel I noticed they were advertising massages so I leaped at the chance to have one. The traveling life is tough so I felt I earned the right to have a massage! For dinner we headed back into the town centre where we ate pizza. A dog followed us back to the hostel and it fell in love with my leg. Twice in one day! I quickly checked my emails and I had one from the girl in Medellin asking for my measurements so she could sort out the clothes I was to wear on the Monday. A really busy day and I hope the photos taken do it justice.

29/05/09

We were making our return journey back to Medellin today so it was an early start. We said our goodbyes to the staff at this fantastic hostel and caught a bus to Pereira at 8am. Once there we only had to wait 30 minutes for our next bus which was taking us back to our beloved city, Medellin. Back at our old hostel, The Pit Stop, there had been some confusion with our booking. They somehow booked all of us under one bed. We are close but not that close! So we had to find another hostel and ended up one called Tiger Paw which was much better located to the town centre and a bit more relaxed. Plus they had Dianna the receptionist who was a goddess!ha Before heading out Maria (the lady I’m modeling for) came round with some clothes just to confirm measurements. Very strange clothes! We had a few drinks on the main square and ended up in a club called Red. Once again it was all couples.

30/05/09

We spent the morning in the tv room and I got picked up by Maria and her friends around 2pm. They were taking me to the University to where the modeling…mmm…thing was taking place. I still had no idea really what I was doing! We almost crashed a few times but we got there in one piece. The university was set up in the mountains overlooking the city. Beautiful! I got changed into my clothes and hung round the cantine with the other students and models. The people there were so good looking you couldn’t tell the difference between the students and models. Straight away it hit me as well that I was the only non local there which surprised me. I had fun trying to hold down conversations with everyone there and we really didn’t do too much the time we were there. They drove me back to the hostel around 6pm and told me they would pick me back up in an hour! I met up with Gal in the tv room and there we had the gayest chat ever. I mentioned the fact that he wasn’t really talking and he replied, “you expect me to fill in the gaps!” I responded by saying, “we never talk, I come home from work and you’re watching tv!” It carried on like us being a married couple for half an hour. I got picked up again as planned by the girls and when we stopped off at the first set of traffic lights I got handed through the window a leaflet on sex. The girls burst out laughing! Back at the university I got changed and had to stand in front of a panel of judges to access the clothes before Monday. They were talking away in Spanish ordering us to do things which the girls found hilarious as I had no idea what they were saying. I kept turning to the girls who where making hand gestures to tell me what to do. After that they took me to a view point only known by locals which was amazing. The city at night really did look beautiful which is only just seeing that the people are so stunning. I was back in time to go out with the lads and we went to a club called Mangos. We had a great laugh, the dancers there were amazing and the end bill…was huge! Once again, all couples!

31/05/09

The day was spent recovering in the tv room playing the x box and watching films. I kept receiving phone calls from Maria concerning Monday and Dianna at one point laughed saying that she felt like my private receptionist…I wish!

1/06/09

We checked out at midday but the boys were going to wait for me to get back from the modeling…thing. I still had no idea what I was doing! The girls picked me up at 2.30pm and next thing I know I was sat in the cantine surrounded by lovely ladies doing my hair and makeup. I did joke that I spent months trying to get a tan and there they were covering me in white makeup! Once ready we walked round the back when I heard the booming music. We got closer then I saw this giant catwalk. I honelsty thought it was going to be a photo shoot or something! My heart started pumping! We walked into a huge tent where there was loads of models getting changed. They handed m my clothes and said, “you get changed now please.” So my female model partner and I started getting changed when I kept thinking to myself, “is this really happening?” There were beautiful ladies walking around half naked and I couldn’t wait to tell the boys when I got back!ha It was one of them moments where I felt like the luckiest man in the world. Next thing I know a man walks in, obviously the main dude and starts talking away in Spanish. This lasted about twenty minutes with people asking him questions in between. As soon as I finished I turned round to my ladies and said, “Help!” In broken English they described what I had to do in about…a minute! I was like, “surely you’re missing something out?”ha To cut a long story short we done three walks. The first being a couple walk, then a solo and then finally a couple walk with the designer. Due to the design of my trousers I couldn’t walk up the back steps so I had to do a stupid looking side step which made the models behind me crease up! We sat in the cantine for a few hours afterwards before they took me home. As a whole the experience was priceless and it really does sum of traveling for you. The boys gave me some stick for being covered in makeup but once I told them about the naked models in the tent, I felt on top of the world!ha We got two taxis to the bus terminal and we were finally leaving Medellin by 9.30pm. Our next stop, Cartagena for some beach fun!

My experiences within the first few weeks in Colombia is what makes traveling so addictive. You're in a city one day and the next, walking past cows and palm trees in the clouds. You're watching tv with a great group of lads one minute then the next, being asked to do some modeling. This never happens in the real world and luckily for me, the real world doesn't exist!ha

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Photos

Not a bad view from your back garden!
The owner of the hostel, The Plantation House.

Comments

[Mary Nichol]

Bravo!!
You are very brave to travel like this!! i would be too chicken. But it seems that you are gaining some really wonderful experiences and memories which will last you all your life!! You are showing those of us who are not there, what it would be like!! Keep on trekking. And the pictures are great. Mary

[Barrie]

Thanks Mary!
I'm glad you're enjoying the pictures Mary. You're right about the memories and experiences. It's something i'm going to cherish for the rest of my life! Back in the real world though at the moment so i'm not going to be trekking for a while. But my backpack will be out again some time in the future! ;-)