Caribbean Crazy!

Tomorrow I'm flying to la costa! I am so unbelievably excited. First I'll be going to Cartagena, a Unesco World Heritage site that is also listed in the 1,000 Things to see Before you Die book. It's described as fairy-tale city, and it's super hot and coastal. I can't wait. From there, I'll be going to Santa Marta and El Parque de Tayrona, two places with best beaches in the country.

I've been reading a lot about narcotrafficking and it's devestating effects on Colombia and the Andean region. I found a great bookstore, so I stocked up on books on the subject along with a new Márquez book. I'm really looking forward to lounging on a hamaca and reading for hours on end. Speaking of which, I've learned a lot in my short stay here. I would say that I've learned even more than in Mexico, at least it feels that way. Maybe it's because it's not 102 degrees every single day so I feel more motivated to talk to people, walk around and explore, and read. In any case, I feel much more informed about the social situation in Colombia and definitely have more ganas to get involved in political reform in the US. So much to do!

Anyway, I haven't done any packing, and it's 10:15. I'm leaving reallly early tomorrow morning, so I should get going.

I miss you all! I wish you could be here to share this beautiful country with me...

So much love,
gina

Hot Springs and River Rafting...

I didn't take any pictures on the third day, because I didn't feel like bringing my camera. To make a long story short, Olivia and I decided to go to the hot springs while Diego and Caro (novios) went to some farm to learn about Colombian agriculture. I think you can guess why Olivia and I chose the hot springs. While they were absolutely amazing, by far the best ones I've ever visited, it was a major process to get there. We had to take two busses, which took about 2 hours, and then we had to take another willi to get to the springs. While the willi from the day before was moderately comfortable, this one was from, like, 1948. I kept hitting my head on the top of it as we bounced along the country roads. But we survived the journey, and were able to relax in reallllly hot water for about three hours. The scenery was also really beautiful--mountains and waterfalls. To get back, we took a chiva, which is pictured above. Chivas are an older mode of transport only found in rural areas; they're very recognizable due to the colorful paint. In the past, they would be filled with everything from people to agricultural products to chickens. If something didn't fit in the main compartment, they would just put it on top.

Our final day we went for a river ride on el río La Vieja. It was kind of like floating down the AuSable in Grayling, except we were in rafts and didn't have to paddle. It was very relaxing, and kind of boring at first because we were just floating along. I thought it would take an hour, but was soon informed that it would take FIVE hours to get to our destination. It ended up being really fun, though. We all got out and floated along with the river current and were able to go through rapids. Of course, I was afraid there were pirañas, crocodiles, or worst of all, snakes, but I didn't see anything of the sort. Ew, I cannot even imagine if I had seen a snake.

When we stopped for lunch, we took a hike (all uphill) to another beautiful waterfall. By this time it was really hot and humid, but it was breezy and wonderful by the falls. We stayed there for about thirty minutes enjoying the mist.

Another view of the rafts and the pretty scenery. There were two rafts in total, and Olivia, Caro and I were the only foreigners. The other group was a large, noisy, and very endearing Colombian family.

In typical out of order fashion, this is me, obvio, with Caro and Olivia. This was a really nice moment, actually. We were in yet another willi after the river ride. The climate was perfect, and the breeze was blowing as we drove along. Fonseca, my favorite group of the moment was playing one of my favorite songs on the radio, and everyone was singing along. It was definitely a, "wow...I'm in Colombia and having the time of my life" moment.

Ha, our ubiquitious guidebooks, bottled water, and Colombian soda. I like this picture. The water is potable in Bogotá, but not in smaller cities.

Aguardiente, or an anise flavored liqueur, is VERY popular in Colombia. It's found at any party, and I'm always forced to take the obligatory shot every single time I go out. Not my favorite, but not bad.

Another picture of the rafts. They were just as rickety as they look. We had to put all of our clothes and cameras in special bags so they wouldn't get wet.

The lunch they served us was amazing. It was chicken, yuca (kind of like a potato), platano, and rice wrapped in a big banana leaf. The banana leaf kept it warm, and it was just so smart. So much better than plastic! And no waste! Very smart. They also served us hot, fresh coffee, and soda.

We ate on wooden benches in the middle of the forest. The guides said it was "guerrilla style dining." Quite the experience.

And that was it! The following day Olivia and Caro headed off to Medellin (they're doing a five month journey through South America), and Diego and I headed back to Bogotá. This time my seat wouldn't stay reclined, so I had trouble falling asleep. This meant that I also felt the crazy turns and the driver's ridiculous speed as we descended the mountain, meaning that I was soon vomiting in the back of the bus. Lovely. But we arrived safe and sound...all in all, an incredible trip.

Riding Horses en el Valle de Cocora

We went to El Valle de Cocora the second day of our adventure. It was a truly stunning sight, and many say say that it's a lush version of Switzerland. I believe it! The landscape was really unique. In fact, I had never seen anything like it. It was a broad, green valley framed by mountain peaks; however, since we're so close to the equator, there were also tons of palmas de cera, or wax plam trees. It was a beautiful combination.
To get there, we first went to Salento, a small, old, colonial town. The main square was really pretty, and we were able to climb a huge hill to have a good look of the mountains. Interestingly, Salento was "attacked" by guerrillas in 2000. But nothing really happened, and nobody was hurt. Apparently when guerrillas used to take pueblos, they would kill la policia and take over the buildings until the army arrived. In 2000, however, they came in, and within hours, a huge force of more than 1,000 soldiers was there (at least this is what our guide told me).

Anyway, from Salento we had to take a willi to get to el valle. Willis are a prime mode of transport in la zona cafetera, kind of like a jeep safari vehicle. Let's just say that my mother would not have approved. Everyone sits in the back, and they usually fit up to eight or nine people in there with people hanging off the back. Don't worry, I didn't do any hanging. We were really high on the mountain and there weren't any guard rails. This is the willi we took right before we got in. It took about thirty minutes to get there....lots of bouncy, rural roads, and lots of sharp curves. Yikes!

We rode horses through the valley for about an hour until we got to this waterfall. Like I said before, it was a combination of landscapes. Arid in some parts, and then all of the sudden we were in the tropics, but colder. As you can see above, this is the tropical area. Really beautiful. That's Olivia on the left; she's from Belgium.

Here you can see Diego and Caro riding their horses with the gorgeous scenery in the backround. Again, my apologies. My photographic skills are especially limited when on a horse. And may I just say, I always seem to get stuck with the bad horse. Or maybe I'm just a bad rider. I was realllly slow. I was like the grandma of the trip. The day before I was the really slow one in these race cars we drove around and then today I was waaayyyy in the back with the guide. Like my mother, I don't like speed. :)

After our ride, we ate lunch at this delicious restaurant surrounded by the green valley. Trout is a regional specialty. I don't normally like fish all that much, but I thought it would be lame to not eat the specialty. I was glad I ordered it, because it was fantastic. I think the owner had gotten the trout that same day and she cooked it up right there. Yum!

Just another mountain view. Do you see those thin lines sticking up on the dark hill? Those are the palmas de cera, Colombia's national tree!

xoxoxoxoxo

Coffee Coffee, Buzz Buzz

Mmmm, I think the title of this entry is a Ben and Jerry's flavor...at least it was at Middlebury. I didn't have any coffee flavored ice cream last week, but I DID have lots of other coffee flavored delicacies, including cafequipe, or coffee flavored caramel (Colombia's famous for caramel). Last Tuesday I went with three other people to La Zona Cafetera, or an area of Colombia west of Bogotá. Incredibly lush and verdant, this region yields nearly half of Colombia's coffee crop. It's never too hot or too cold, the food is delicious, and one constantly has a view of deep valleys or impressive snow-capped peaks--all in all, a great place to be.

I think Colombia is on the brink of a major tourist boom, because we had an adventure-packed four days. And I didn't encounter one American, not like I had a problem with that. Each day was so exciting that I think I'll do separate entries for each.

And still, after all this time, I still don't understand the order in which photos get updated to blogspot. If anyone has figured it out, PLEASE let me know. I tried a new layout...don't know if I like it.

Anyway, we took the bus to Armenia, one of the main towns of the region. I slept most of the time, which was good because it was six hours of hairpin turns as we climbed up the mountain. We lucked out and were able to rent a finca with a pool AND an empleada for just $25,000 pesos/person/night, so something like $18.00. This included breakfast made by Rosalba, and we had the whole house to ourselves. It was reallllly nice. The pictures above are of our of the yard...you can see the pool and then the other caretaker is in the background of the other photo. It was right outside Armenia, so we were able to catch colectivos to get to every sight. Each night we played cards and cooked.

The rest of the pictures are of El Parque Nacional del Cafe, which is kind of like Colombia's Disney, but dedicated to coffee. It was really beautiful; these pictures don't do it justice. Everywhere I looked there was jaw-dropping natural beauty. Soooo pretty. We went to a show with traditional Colombian dancing, took a train ride, rode various rickety roller coasters, learned about the coffee cultivation in Colombia, ate over-priced food, took a ride in the teleférico, or cable car, and walked through a bamboo forest.

I think the pictures are pretty self-explanatory. That's me, obviously, with a man, his burro, and his café. The other with the sign was a funny translation mishap. "Puente Colgante" was meant to translate to "Hanging Bridge," but someone forgot the g, making it read, "Hanging Bride." Oops. The others are of the beautiful views, and one is of Olivia and Diego, two of my traveling companions. They were bargaining outside of the park for the traditional Colombian sombreros, which you can see here.

This was just the first day of our adventure...more updates to come!

Love,
Gina

The Best Compliment...

I started salsa dancing in 2005, my first year in Mexico; I didn't do it much, though, because my hips just didn't seem to move correctly. I danced a lot more last year in Mexico, and finally started to "agarrar el ritmo latino." But still...I always felt like my turns were off.

Today, however, the instructor of my Super Rumba class asked me where I was from. When I told him I was from the US, he seemed surprised and said, "¡pero pareces a una latina cuando bailas!," or "but you seem like a latina when you dance!"

Finally!!! I think he was probably just being nice, but really, it was the best compliment I've received in a looooong time :)

Libertad y Celebración

As anyone who knows anything about Colombia already knows, kidnapping is relatively common. The number of kidnappings nowadays is pretty low, especially when compared to 2000 when there were something around 3,500 kidnapped people. In the year 2006, however, there were only around 680. While one should definitely exercise caution in certain areas like the border or the Amazon, most of the country is quite safe. Anyway, the majority of Colombians want peace and are fighting for the release of kidnap victims. The pictures above and below are of large signs placed in the main plaza asking for "libertad para todos."

Last weekend I met Javier, or, as many call him, el gordo. He´s one of Federico´s best friends, and is wonderful. Super nice and funny and just fun to be with. Anyway, we spent some time walking around the older part of el centro. Above is just a random shot. Ohhh, we also ate traditional Colombian delicacies. It is a common practice to put a special, creamy cheese in hot chocolate and then eat it after it has melted. Yes, I know this sounds absolutely revolting, but it's really really good. I also winced when I was first told of this combo, but it's delicious. We also got obleas with caramel. Yum!

The following day, he took me to a family party at a finca about 30 minutes outside of Bogotá. There were at least 100 people there, and it was beautiful with lots of yummy food (again, what a surprise). It was really fun to meet his family and talk about the various social situations Colombia is currently facing. Here you can see the gorgeous Andes in the distance and get a feel for what it was like. Having a finca is a great thing...one can enjoy the ammenities of a big city like Bogotá, but then escape the city by going to a country home. I've realized that having a finca in Colombia is kind of like having a cottage in the US.

This is a horrible picture, and I look lame, but I thought I should include it anyway. This is el gordo...as you can see, he's not at all gordo anymore.

More blog updates to come! I just got back from a week en la zona cafetera, so for those of you that I haven't yet written, I haven't forgotten about you...just give me some time :)

Love to you all,
gina

A VERY Important Lesson

As I sit here en la casa after eating a huge lunch of soup, salad, chicken, rice, squash, juice and dessert (all for just $3.75!!!), I feel that it's important to share my most recent banking drama. Hopefully my few faithful readers will be able to learn something and not make the same mistakes I made.

After a very eventful afternoon of shopping in el centro (I bought new leather boots, a total steal!), I stopped by the ATM on the way home to take out cash. I brought three cards with me to Colombia, but for some reason, only one card was working at the ATM. One card was from an account I hardly ever use, so I didn't remember the pin, and the other one was from my Wells Fargo account in California. I use this card all the time, and still don't know why it won't work. Luckily, my smith barney citibank card was working fine, at least until last Friday. Unfortunately, no matter how many ways that I inserted my card, the machines kept saying that the smith barney card couldn't be read....uh oh.

So, I was stuck in Bogotá with $8,000 pesos, which is around $4.00. But I figured I would be able to go to a bank the next day and get a cash advance on one of the cards. No big deal, right?
WRONG.

Mauricio was kind enough to go with me on Saturday to a large shopping center where there are lots of banks. We tried every imaginable thing, but for some reason, Colombia doesn't do many cash advances. Each bank said it was impossible because I had a foreign credit card. We then thought I could buy something at a grocery store and have them charge me a little more and give me some cash, but that didn't work either. It was horrible, and I'm surprised I didn't cry. Mauricio was great, though...he kept telling me to "tranquila." We finally stopped our fruitless attempts, and figured that we would just have to wait until today, Monday, to go to citibank where they would give me a cash advance since I'm an actual client.

Again, WRONG. We walked there at 9:00 am, and I didn't get home until 1:15. At first they also told us that there was nothing we could do, but then Mauricio told me to go in by myself and tell them that I was completely alone and that they simply had to help me. He also told me to pinch my nose and cry a little. So, I went in alone and he waited for me outside. The manager and her assistant luckily took pity on me and were kind and wonderful. They kept saying, "imagine...being completely alone without family in a foreign country without a single peso." They were able to connect me to smith barney in Traverse City (I love them), and they're sending me a new ATM card since mine somehow was damaged. It was good to do this all at the bank, because I was on the phone with Traverse City for at least an hour, and I don't have to pay anything to get the new card here. Then the bank tried to give me emergency cash, and again, we were on the phone trying to get authorization for HOURS. Literally, hours and hours. I finally went out to tell Mauricio that I would just meet him at home.

Finally I was able to take out $300,000 pesos from my Grayling account, because my amazing mother was able to change the pin number for me, because her name is also on the account. Whew! As you can imagine, it's very stressful to have no money and no means of getting it. I don't know if the emergency cash thing would have worked out, but it wasn't looking good.

So, to avoid this unhappy fate, I recommend the following to all of you:

1. Bring at least $500 in traveler's checks. Yes, they're kind of a pain to get, but totally worth it because they can't get stolen and are accepted in most banks. I repeat, I am NEVER going to a foreign country again without them. Never ever ever.

2. Always have the account numbers for all of your banks and accounts along with the routing numbers (key for the emergency cash...I only knew the pin numbers and the credit card numbers, which complicated things).

3. Look up the specific emergency credit card number for the country you are visiting and carry it with you at all times. There is one listed on the back of your card, but it's difficult to access. Take the time to find it online, as it will save you money in costly international calls.

4. Bring $200 in American currency if you need to exchange it (I only had $20...big mistake). Exchanging money is fast, easy, and painless.

5. And, luckily I did this because of what happened in Mexico, always have multiple copies of your passport, driver's license, and credit cards numbers. They were also asking for my social security card, which I don't have...I'm going to bring it next time.

6. Make sure to have at least three different ATM cards on hand in case one doesn't work, gets lost, stolen, deactivated, or, in my case, damaged.

7. Always call your banks ahead of time to tell them you'll have international charges.

I consider msyelf a pretty experienced traveler, and I've never ever had problems with ATM machines in other countries. I didn't even think to bother with extra American currency or traveler's checks. Big mistake! But after this disastrous, stressful weekend, I will never ever again travel without a backup plan. I repeat, NEVER EVER. And luckily I speak Spanish well, so I could communicate...I absolutely cannot imagine doing this if I couldn't speak the language.

Don't make the same mistakes as I did!!!!

Love,
gina