Wednesday, January 17, 2007
Tuesday, January 16, 2007
cali, bogota,....mexico city...dallas
i am writing from "home" in dallas, where it's -4C!!! considering that yesterday morning i woke up in bogota at 28C, it is quite a change and i am still not used to it!
so it's been a whirlwind of emotions and places, and while it's nice to enjoy the amenities that this place has to offer, it is still pretty strange being here where everybody speaks english, seems very bratty and complains a lot, all while not smiling very much...but here i am and here i am to stay for a bit.
the day after the valle del cocora, my host J, 2 of his friends and I went to a "finca cafetera", pretty much a "coffee farm" that had a 4-hour visit which explained everything about coffee, from its origin to the structure of the plant and how it grows. it was really interesting, the guides were really good, very interactive as well. i learned a lot about where coffee really comes from and where it goes (i didn't know it came from a plant that has leaves and gives "fruits", inside which is the coffee bean!). i also was told that the best colombian coffee is exported to be toasted and then packaged and sold, so what they're left with in colombia is not that great (only at Juan Valdez, the colombian version of starbucks, can you find the same good-quality coffee)...i also learned that the coffee bean is more or less the same color of a peanut, and then it's when it gets toasted and roasted that it really becomes what we can see in the shop...before that it really doesn't smell or taste like anything!
after that i went to cali for the weekend, and i had another great host, G together with all her friends! it was an interesting experience, we went out, witnessed the infamous cali nightlife, and had a good walk through the city, including a daytrip to the rio pance, where all the calenos go spend their sunday. it's kinda like their beach i guess, although the water is definitely freezing cold!
i was also glad to finally hear something about the current political situation in colombia, and learn a tiny bit about the guerrilla groups, the paramilitary groups and so on and so forth...surprisingly enough for me, it is something people are very reticent to talk about, so it is hard to hear about it from people...and the media abroad doesn't really talk about it either,...
from cali i took an evening bus to bogota, spent the night at the airport, then in the morning i spent "all" the pesos i had left (about 12U$D!) before embarking on a plane to mexico city, endure the pain that is the mexico city airport, and then embark on the plane to dallas, with a bunch of chicanos and mexican-texans...quite interesting! now i just woke up in "my bed" and i am using my computer, i don't have a timer for my internet connection for the first timein a while! hehe but it's already the first day of class, i didn't get too much sleep and i need to bundle up and put gas in my bike and brave the cold and the hoards of students on campus! i am looking forward to that! sadly, who knows when the next trip will be...probably not sooner than march for a week to 10 days, and then mid-may for big ass one! :)
so it's been a whirlwind of emotions and places, and while it's nice to enjoy the amenities that this place has to offer, it is still pretty strange being here where everybody speaks english, seems very bratty and complains a lot, all while not smiling very much...but here i am and here i am to stay for a bit.
the day after the valle del cocora, my host J, 2 of his friends and I went to a "finca cafetera", pretty much a "coffee farm" that had a 4-hour visit which explained everything about coffee, from its origin to the structure of the plant and how it grows. it was really interesting, the guides were really good, very interactive as well. i learned a lot about where coffee really comes from and where it goes (i didn't know it came from a plant that has leaves and gives "fruits", inside which is the coffee bean!). i also was told that the best colombian coffee is exported to be toasted and then packaged and sold, so what they're left with in colombia is not that great (only at Juan Valdez, the colombian version of starbucks, can you find the same good-quality coffee)...i also learned that the coffee bean is more or less the same color of a peanut, and then it's when it gets toasted and roasted that it really becomes what we can see in the shop...before that it really doesn't smell or taste like anything!
after that i went to cali for the weekend, and i had another great host, G together with all her friends! it was an interesting experience, we went out, witnessed the infamous cali nightlife, and had a good walk through the city, including a daytrip to the rio pance, where all the calenos go spend their sunday. it's kinda like their beach i guess, although the water is definitely freezing cold!
i was also glad to finally hear something about the current political situation in colombia, and learn a tiny bit about the guerrilla groups, the paramilitary groups and so on and so forth...surprisingly enough for me, it is something people are very reticent to talk about, so it is hard to hear about it from people...and the media abroad doesn't really talk about it either,...
from cali i took an evening bus to bogota, spent the night at the airport, then in the morning i spent "all" the pesos i had left (about 12U$D!) before embarking on a plane to mexico city, endure the pain that is the mexico city airport, and then embark on the plane to dallas, with a bunch of chicanos and mexican-texans...quite interesting! now i just woke up in "my bed" and i am using my computer, i don't have a timer for my internet connection for the first timein a while! hehe but it's already the first day of class, i didn't get too much sleep and i need to bundle up and put gas in my bike and brave the cold and the hoards of students on campus! i am looking forward to that! sadly, who knows when the next trip will be...probably not sooner than march for a week to 10 days, and then mid-may for big ass one! :)
Thursday, January 11, 2007
medellin, armenia, salento.
i had a very good time in medellin, met a lot of travelers at the hostel i was staying at, visited with some of them the town of santa fe de antioquia, and then did medellin on my own...unfortunately, it being vacation time for the locals and being the middle of the week, i could not check out the supposedly crazy nightlife! next time...the center seemed a little scary from time to time, even though the guidebooks say it's one of the safest cities around...maybe it's also because of the movies about the infamous times that i have watched, such as "la virgen de los sicarios"...at the hostel the first night we watched another one like that, "rosario tijeras", and a lot of people said i had to check out "la vendedora de rosas" or something like that...
from medellin i took a 6-hr bus ride through some lush valleys to get to armenia, in the middle of the "zona cafetera", where most of the colombian coffee is produced. i am being hosted by J., a really great host, and today we checked out the Valle de Cocora, where some strange wax palms grow amidst valleys that seriously look like a lush-tropical version of switzerland! i didn't really get the whole deal with those wax palms, but maybe i will try to look it up when i have time...we took a jeep with a bunch of backpackers, so we got to meet a lot of new people too, and it was really fun! we hiked most of the day through the valley and then up to some farm in the middle of nowhere...
tomorrow i was going to go see the parque nacional del cafe, a disneyland-like park that's all about coffee...but i decided instead to go visit a local "finca" where they really make coffee! :)
and then after that i am onto cali, the salsa capital of the world, which also contends to medellin the prize for best-looking girls and best nightlife...so it should be fun! i will be there exactly for friday and saturday night, before jumping on a bus on sunday morning that will take me back to bogota, where my plane leaves the next morning...yes it's almost all over...sadly...especially when you're surrounded by people who spend 6 to 12 months around here! oh well...
from medellin i took a 6-hr bus ride through some lush valleys to get to armenia, in the middle of the "zona cafetera", where most of the colombian coffee is produced. i am being hosted by J., a really great host, and today we checked out the Valle de Cocora, where some strange wax palms grow amidst valleys that seriously look like a lush-tropical version of switzerland! i didn't really get the whole deal with those wax palms, but maybe i will try to look it up when i have time...we took a jeep with a bunch of backpackers, so we got to meet a lot of new people too, and it was really fun! we hiked most of the day through the valley and then up to some farm in the middle of nowhere...
tomorrow i was going to go see the parque nacional del cafe, a disneyland-like park that's all about coffee...but i decided instead to go visit a local "finca" where they really make coffee! :)
and then after that i am onto cali, the salsa capital of the world, which also contends to medellin the prize for best-looking girls and best nightlife...so it should be fun! i will be there exactly for friday and saturday night, before jumping on a bus on sunday morning that will take me back to bogota, where my plane leaves the next morning...yes it's almost all over...sadly...especially when you're surrounded by people who spend 6 to 12 months around here! oh well...
Saturday, January 06, 2007
san gil (rafting!), villa de leyva
the last day spent in san gil was really a lot of fun! we went rafting down the rio suarez (grade 4) with a bunch of aussies and some kiwis from the hostel we were staying at! rafting is a lot of fun i discovered, the guides were good too so it was a success!
in the afternoon we left to villa de leyva, the route was really scenic, we were stopped and body-checked a couple of times by the police (or army rather). we arrived in villa de leyva when it was already dark, so we discovered what it looks like during the day only today. yesterday we hiked up to the santuario de iguaque, where there is a lagoon that is sacred to the muisca indians, the native inhabitants of this area. the hike was through a forest and then through a "paramo" (open highland), longer than 2 hours each way, and much harder than i thought! but the lagoon and the nature up there were worth it! the paramo has a special vegetation with plants i've never seen before, and we were drinking the water from the lagoon before walking all the way down. once we reached the visitors center at the bottom, it started raining pretty bad! we started talking to two siblings from bogota who were waiting for their friend to come down the mountain, when they suddenly offered us a ride back to villa de leyva! so we got in their car and listened to (american) christian rock all the way back, with them singing along of course! it was really fun, they're happy people, very christian too they said...so they invited us to bogota tonight, they're going to show us around in their car (with christian rock included, i am sure!) before my brother catches his flight back to italy...i have about 10 more days, but by now all the little problems disappeared and the travel bug has caught onto me: i wish i could keep traveling for much, much longer!!! i am already thinking about my next destination...oh, my stomach is also holding up pretty well considering everything, contrarily to my brother's. last night for example we decided to cook "at home" instead of eating out, so we picked some stuff from the supermarket, and i mistakenly grabbed a big jar of ketchup instead of tomato sauce!!! it said "salsa" and it had a picture of tomatoes, how could i know?? so i ended up cooking and eating pasta with ketchup! hehe tonight it's onto bogota for some night tour of the capital city, and then tomorrow i am taking off to medellin, the hometown of higuita (possibly the most entertaining soccer player ever) and the infamous drug cartel! should be fun!
in the afternoon we left to villa de leyva, the route was really scenic, we were stopped and body-checked a couple of times by the police (or army rather). we arrived in villa de leyva when it was already dark, so we discovered what it looks like during the day only today. yesterday we hiked up to the santuario de iguaque, where there is a lagoon that is sacred to the muisca indians, the native inhabitants of this area. the hike was through a forest and then through a "paramo" (open highland), longer than 2 hours each way, and much harder than i thought! but the lagoon and the nature up there were worth it! the paramo has a special vegetation with plants i've never seen before, and we were drinking the water from the lagoon before walking all the way down. once we reached the visitors center at the bottom, it started raining pretty bad! we started talking to two siblings from bogota who were waiting for their friend to come down the mountain, when they suddenly offered us a ride back to villa de leyva! so we got in their car and listened to (american) christian rock all the way back, with them singing along of course! it was really fun, they're happy people, very christian too they said...so they invited us to bogota tonight, they're going to show us around in their car (with christian rock included, i am sure!) before my brother catches his flight back to italy...i have about 10 more days, but by now all the little problems disappeared and the travel bug has caught onto me: i wish i could keep traveling for much, much longer!!! i am already thinking about my next destination...oh, my stomach is also holding up pretty well considering everything, contrarily to my brother's. last night for example we decided to cook "at home" instead of eating out, so we picked some stuff from the supermarket, and i mistakenly grabbed a big jar of ketchup instead of tomato sauce!!! it said "salsa" and it had a picture of tomatoes, how could i know?? so i ended up cooking and eating pasta with ketchup! hehe tonight it's onto bogota for some night tour of the capital city, and then tomorrow i am taking off to medellin, the hometown of higuita (possibly the most entertaining soccer player ever) and the infamous drug cartel! should be fun!
Wednesday, January 03, 2007
cartagena, santa marta, san gil, barichara
it's nçbeen a while since i last updated...well, i am glad i got to leave cartagena for good, that place was too much...maybe i'd like it not during peak season or something, i don't know what it is! we did 2 excursions outside the city and those were fun. the first one was the islas del rosario, some islands right outside the bay, cristalline waters, coral reefs and big waves to make a lot of people on our boat throw up and stuff! hehe we had the whole array of families with grandmas and such traveling so it was quite entertaining! we stopped at playa blanca for lunch and that was easily the best beach i've seen on this trip! not as clear water but very very photogenic! then the next day we went to a mud volcano called el totumo. that was super fun, because we went mud dipping, and the mud is very creamy so it feels good, plus it's so dense everybody is floating, there is no way you can sink even though your feet are not touching the bottom...it was exhilarating! and in the middle of our dipping session it started "erupting" bubbles of mud!!! haha then we washed off in the nearby lagoon...apparently the whole thing is created by some strange phenomenon in the lagoon where the water pushes the mud from underneath all the way up till it erupts, and throughout the years it eventually formed the volcano that many tourists now enjoy! we also got to visit, once back in cartagena, the spanish fortress, that was pretty interesting. the most impressive part was the tunnels going down deep till they were submerged!
then we finally got to leave cartagena for santa marta on the 31st of december! we stayed with my brother's ex colleague's family by santa marta somewhere, and i very well enjoyed being taken care of, fed and all the nice stuff! we were shown around, visited the tayrona national park, spent 2 days at 2 different super nice beaches (guayraca, playa concha), spent new year's with a bunch of people, ate some good food and got interesting insight on the life of an upper middle-class colombian family!
last night we left santa marta and through bucaramanga we arrived in san gil where we're staying now. during the afternoon we visited the nearby colonial town of barichara, i had two "paletas", we walked around, visited some nice churches to escape the heat, then made it back here for some colombian fast food (fried arepas filled with mushrooms)...tomorrow we're visiting the parque el gallineral here, maybe going somewhere else before we take off to go to villa de leyva, another town in the colombian highlands. i like it here very much: it's very relaxing, people are very friendly and nobody is trying to sell you anything!!!
then we finally got to leave cartagena for santa marta on the 31st of december! we stayed with my brother's ex colleague's family by santa marta somewhere, and i very well enjoyed being taken care of, fed and all the nice stuff! we were shown around, visited the tayrona national park, spent 2 days at 2 different super nice beaches (guayraca, playa concha), spent new year's with a bunch of people, ate some good food and got interesting insight on the life of an upper middle-class colombian family!
last night we left santa marta and through bucaramanga we arrived in san gil where we're staying now. during the afternoon we visited the nearby colonial town of barichara, i had two "paletas", we walked around, visited some nice churches to escape the heat, then made it back here for some colombian fast food (fried arepas filled with mushrooms)...tomorrow we're visiting the parque el gallineral here, maybe going somewhere else before we take off to go to villa de leyva, another town in the colombian highlands. i like it here very much: it's very relaxing, people are very friendly and nobody is trying to sell you anything!!!
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