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Published: December 10th 2010
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Santa MartaGood food and lots of fun I met the definition of a Colombian woman and her name is Karen. She is beautiful: long dark hair, big earrings, huge personality and a desire to do everything for her man…basically passionate about life in every sense of the term and it is nice to see that kind of fire emanating from a person. They tried to show me all things Colombian…from dancing and nightlife to home cooked meals and even taught me how to play Tejo (an old man game that involves mud, beer, throwing cement balls and gun power, you really can’t go wrong!). They are both working with a volunteer after-school organization called Mariposas Armarillas and if you are interested in this please contact me and I can put you in touch with Oscar. I actually got a few ideas from him that I want to add to our organization upon my return. Anyways, I made Santa Marta my home base for about 10 days and did my favorite thing…fell into normal life and saw the surrounding sights. I like the idea of waking up and knowing exactly which stalls in the market have the freshest vegetables, where to find
a good coffee and which plazas are best for chatting with the locals… and that is exactly what I found. The first excursion was to Parque Tayrona.
Parque TayronaRain, Sun, Trash and….Crocodrilos??? I can honestly say I was a little jaded setting off on this adventure…after people had talked up Cartagena and Playa Blanca I really wasn’t sure if I could believe all the good things I had heard about this national park…turns out you can. Even though I arrived in the rain and had to walk to the campsite through mud that at some points arrived at the knee I decided to stick it out for at least one night. I slept in a hammock under a thatched hut and fell asleep to the howling winds and woke up to the noises of…a braying donkey?? I think the guys working (working is a relative term because every time I saw them, they had beers in their hands and smiles on their faces) had had too much to drink and forgot to bring the donkeys to the beach, where they were the following night. Luckily the rain let up and the following day was beautiful. On this trip I met
two people who had positive influences on me: Jess and Anna. Jess shared her philosophy of finding something beautiful in the way every person lives their life. So that leads me to Anna. Anna’s beautiful trait was her love for the outdoors. She picked up countless bags of trash during her holiday and left the park in a better condition than she found it in…I found that admirable. So we walked the beach chatting about life while wading in the mud and happened upon a Venezuelan couple that was sleeping in the surrounding hammocks. They taught us a another very valuable lesson- how to open coconuts!! Granted it was a lot of work for a not-so-delicious treat, but lots of fun! Later on the next day Jess and I were in the water (in one of the few places you are allowed to swim due to the deadly currents) and a couple starts yelling at us…we turn and see Pancho, the neighborhood crocodile swimming just behind us!!!! When I think of the ocean I think crabs, sand sharks but crocodiles???? The poor guy then had to endure the ensuing paparazzi while he continually tried to make it to the nearby river. We passed the rest of the day enjoying the opportunity to do absolutely nothing, well that is until the 1.5-hour walk back to the bus. It was a really pretty walk (took a different way than I took upon arrival) and even saw a group of wild monkeys in the trees! After a stopover in Santa Marta Jess and I took off to Minca.
MincaMountains, Black flies and coffee
It is amazing how much things can change within a mere hour of driving. The air got cooler, the bugs came out and the ambience got a lot more chilled out. We settled in pretty quickly in an apartment overlooking a powerfully flowing river, which seemed like a wonderful idea at the time due to the beautiful scenery. We took off to see the Pozo Azul. For those who don’t know, I have prided myself on not getting sick. I like to think I have conditioned my stomach and I basically eat anything and everything put in front of me…and then I got sick. Precisely when we were over an hour away from the house…so while I wound up spending my Thanksgiving laying in a wet and mold filled room (due to all the moisture from the nearby water source) feeling ill, Jess went out and basically met the town. She wandered and people just kept telling her, “If you think this is beautiful, walk on over to so-and-so’s house…” And that is what she did. We moved to a different hostel the next morning and stayed with Oscar 1 and Viviana in Buenavista, an insolated place with a spectacular view of gorgeous flowers, Santa Marta and monkeys frolicking in the treetops. Again, I must praise the Colombians for their creativity in regards to bananas. Who knew cooking unripe bananas and simply adding cheese, butter and some veggies would make such a delish lunch? I can’t wait to try out some of these new recipes when I return to the jungle. Anyways, after lunch we all went on a hike with a local biologist. It was cool seeing the sights (and hearing from our 3 companions) that there really is more to the world than The Lonely Planet; (Of course there is!!) Anyways, we saw the terrazas and some carvings still in the rocks from over 500 years ago all while listening to the biologist, Pacho, talk about his thesis….the black fly. During the hike Jess and I learned all about the possible diseases we could be unknowingly accumulating in our blood stream at any given time. Wonderful. I guess keep your fingers crossed and rub some more lemon on your body, right? Later on we walked over to Sandra and Oscar 2’s home…, which was absolutely lovely. I have added to my “one-day” house. Currently it contains an indoor patio, outside shower, tons of flowers and now a kitchen with an open window that forms a bar. Oscar 2 was a very interesting middle-aged man. He was a trained computer programmer but doesn’t even have an email address or any other form of electronic gadgets, loves to smoke the good stuff but still kicked our butts hiking. And he smoked a lot. Everyone got together for homemade pizzas, cervecitas and English practice that night. The following day was an adventurous jungle trek throughout Oscar 2’s property, no trails but lots of excitement, especially considering Tomasa, the dog, liked to stop in her tracts whenever she so pleased, causing many an accident. We finished out trip with, “If I don’t get some sort of tropical disease from this hike I will be offended”.
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i finally got to read your entire blog. it probably is a good thing that i did not know about parts of it. just keep yourself safe and come home healthy. you have turned into an amazing young woman. i think you will soon be able to write for the food network. keep up the wonderful experiences. tomorrow we are going to estero for an overnight. i love you lots.....gram