Checking in after week 1 in Colombia. Still alive and unkidnapped! Just arrived in Villa de Leyva, a small colonial town in the east Andes. I finally figured out how to get to the bus terminal in Bogota and with much hand signals and writing stuff down on pieces of paper, I got a bus. We stopped in lots of small towns to pick people up and drop people off. The town is packed today but should empty out by tomorrow. Apparently, lots of people in Bogota travel away from the city on weekends, and it is a holiday weekend since they celebrate Colombus Day. Walked all over with my backpack trying to find a place to stay. A guy that had no single rooms helped me find a cute little hostel around the corner that had one open bed in a four bed dorm for $15,000 Colombian Pesos (about $7.50 US dollars). The owner seems very sweet and she keeps calling me "my love" and kissing me on the forehead. Haven't met the guys in the room yet, but hopefully they are okay. Otherwise, I should be able to find a single tomorrow. The town supposedly has lots of day hikes and a few waterfalls to explore.
Bogota was crazy-- in an organized chaos type of way! It is a HUGE city... I think the biggest one I have ever been in. It is gritty and colorful with lots of graffiti and some brightly painted places. I stayed with Carlos and his girlfriend Paula, who I met in a bar in Seattle a few months ago. They were wonderful hosts. They made me one of the specialty soup of Colombia, arepa for breakfast, and even took me to a very nice lunch on the last day. They both work in a university (Carlos has an engineering degree and a PhD in physics and teaches and specializes in some kind of solar cells). They, much like most Colombians are very hard workers, sometimes leaving for work around 8 am and returning at 10:30 or 11 pm. Traffic is horrendous, but I have learned to use the very packed TransMilenio rapid transit. Spend the days in museums, sipping coffee, exploring the city, and eating everything new I can get my hands on. So much fresh fruits, soups, roast pork, etc. Oh, and my favorite... jackfruit ice cream popsicles! Carlos says I have lots of favorites, because all the food is delicious (except the soup with cow stomach... not a huge fan). Found a woman names Nancy who teaches English and takes her students on tours to Cano Cristales. Although not a student, she was taking an Italian guy who had been working as a lawyer with an NGO to get better child rights in Colombia. It was way more affordable than the tours I had seen, and was only about $100 US dollars more than trying to hitchhike on a cargo plane (which I decided was worth it for my safety and not having to deal with the trouble of using my very limited Spanish to try to attempt it). She also let me stay at her house the day before and the day after the trip. We were to leave early on Thursday morning.
And now for my now funny, at the time terrifying, Bogota experience. I read in my guidebook that on Wednesdays, you could watch the changing of the guard at the Presidential Palace. I heard it was really nice to watch, so after meeting Carlos and Paula for lunch, I headed to check it out. When I tried to get to the area to watch, the guard said no. We went back and forth with my translation dictionary, and I got out of him that it wasn't going to happen that day, due to some student thing. Okay, that would explain the extra military out and about, but there was always so many police and military people everywhere that it was hard to tell something was up. The guard suggested I take a longer way back to the TransMilenio station to avoid the growing number of students. I took his advice, but could tell I needed to move fast. As I rounded the corner for the station, I saw them slam the gates down, and all the shop owners around me did the same. I could hear loud bangs heading my way. Tried to ask people what was going on and what to do, but apparently, the Lonely Planet translation guide doesn't include a "riot" section. Finally, one guy just points in a direction and says "GO!" I turn around, see hundreds of students running towards me followed by tanks and police, and take off running. I try to head towards another TransMilineo station, but get caught up in the protest again. And that is when I got tear gassed. There were tanks spraying water on one side so I took off away from that, but ran into another bunch of students who were followed by tanks dropping gas bombs. Don't know which came first, tears from the tear gas or tears from the frustration of wanting to get out of the situation and not being able to, but thankfully a sweet woman grabbed me and another scared pregnant girl and whisked us around the corner, where she convinced the shop owners of a bakery to open the gates and let us in. We all hunkered down until it passed (yes, I was scared, but did consider that if I had to be stuck somewhere, a bakery was a pretty brilliant place to be). Anyway, got out okay. Took three hours to get home. And now, if ever I play the game "I Never" and someone says "Get gassed by the Colombian Police", I will have to take a drink.
I couldn't have been more glad to leave Bogota in the morning. Nancy, Mario, and I took the bus to Villavicencio and then a small 5 person Cessna to La Macarena. I was told by several people not to say too much when visiting Cano Cristales, as it was technically guerrilla area. Luckily, I can't understand anyone or communicate with them, so that was not a problem! It was was really strange to a Wanted poster in the airport with rewards for certain people. And La Macarena seems to have more military than civilians (and they pop out of nowhere). At one point while enjoying my fruit juice, I was surrounded by nine military guys with big guns. Despite this, La Macarena is beautiful. It is part of the Llanos savannah plains but also the entrance of the Amazonas. So it is full of ranchers with a few hills and lots of green. After about an hour, I wanted to live there. Stayed at a beautiful campsite under a full moon right by the river and played Tejo for the first time (a game kind of like horseshoes, involving little packets of gun powder and metal discs, and often copious amounts of cervezas). I had my butt whooped by a 5 year old (he wasn't drinking) who then talked to me in Spanish for 45 minutes, even after everyone explained that I didn't understand him. 
The next day was maybe the best day ever. Woke up early (okay, was woken up early by a pig and roosters) around 4:30am. Couldn't get back to sleep, so walked the town and watched the sun rise from the top of the military hill. The horses roam around all night, so the ranchers all come out with a rope and look for their horse, which is often down the road in a neighbor's yard. Then we met up with our guides and got in the motorized dugout canoe to head to Cano Cristales. River to a jeep and then an hour walk brought us to the military checkpoint. And then I saw the red river. Seriously, words can't describe it. I have lots of pictures, but I don't think they capture how amazing the place is. We spent all day hiking the river, swimming in pools, playing in waterfalls, and jumping off rock ledges into the water. I am sunburned, but it was incredible. I kept begging for just a few more minutes, but finally it was time to go. Went back to town, had a lovely dinner, and then the guides came back later to take me and another solo traveler to a bar for Friday night music and dancing. Days like this are the reason I travel. Oh, and I want to retire in La Macarena.Hope all is well in your part of the world. I miss everybody, but not enough to come home :) Off to explore this town and hopefully find postcards (and empanadas... and ice cream). Will be traveling the little towns of the Andes this week and then heading to Cartagena by next weekend for beach week. Will try to check in again in another week or so.
Love,
Betsy
No comments:
Post a Comment