Greetings dear readers! Sorry for the delayed posting. I only have a week left in Colombia and I just can´t bear the thought of leaving (but I won`t whine too much about it since most of you are reading this from florescent-lit cubicles).
I ended up staying in Barranquilla for five days for Carnaval. Our host procured tickets to one of the best parades for us, so we spent an entire day drinking free beer in the Aguila stand (Colombia´s most popular beer), eating fried street snacks and dancing to LOTS of salsa. I am a terrible salsa dancer, by the way. I love to dance but have never been good with coordinated dance moves, and salsa is no exception. However, if you have a good dance partner, you can look really good! It´s amazing.
After the parade started winding down around 5pm, we headed home to change and then off again to a few more outdoor salsa parties. When you are at these huge outdoor parties it feels like the entire city of Barranquilla has shut down, except to celebrate Carnaval (which is pretty much the case). After drinking all day and dancing til 3am, we went home and slept like hibernating bears.
Two more days of Carnaval followed, but I must admit that I did a whole lot of nothing besides lazing around Camilo´s posh apartment – rented some movies, cooked some amazing meals and met his friends. Barranquilla is not usually very interesting to travellers because it`s a port city that isn`t particularly attractive. It reminded me a lot of Los Angeles actually – tons of shiny malls, flashy cars, palm trees, high-maintenance women, wide roads and vaguely Spanish-colonial apartment buildings. Oh, not to mention the Tower Records, Blockbuster Video, etc etc.
After Carnaval was over, Darren and I peeled ourselves off of Camilo´s couch and headed to Cartagena, the crown jewel of colonial towns in South America. Camilo drove us and we met up again with Chris, a British guy we met on the Ciudad Perdida trek. Cartagena is by far the most touristy place in Colombia, and you feel it the second you arrive. You do see lots of beautifully restored colonial buildings, but it feels a lot like a Florence or Venice – absolutely gorgeous, charming, romantic, etc. but totally overrun with tourists and businesses that only cater to the tourist industry. We walked by tons of dressed up Americans eating in fancy restaurants, not something I have been seeing much of in the country. The highlight may have been Camilo’s aunt’s apartment building in Cartagena, where we lounged on the rooftop pool and watched the sunset over the ridiculously picturesque city.
After two days in Cartagena we spent a day at Playa Blanca, a huuuuuuge white sand beach with warm blue-green water and gentle waves, perfect for floating and evening out my stomach tan. Within hours of arrival we had been plied by friendly beach vendors with oysters, fresh fish, beer, mango (excellent with pepper and lime, by the way) and massages. I desperately wanted to stay for a few days, but with only a week and a half left in Colombia at that point I felt obligated to move on. So I said goodbye to the Caribbean, goodbye to the coast, goodbye to Darren (he stayed back a few days to hang out with his new Colombian lover) and boarded a overnight bus to Medellin with Chris.
Bus travel in Colombia is always interesting. Overnight buses are pretty nice here – plush seats, bathroom and air-conditioning so cold that you need blankets or layers of extra clothing. As usual, a crappy action/thriller/suspense movie came on. This time it was Blood Diamond. Leonardo DiCaprio stills looks like he is overacting when he´s dubbed in Spanish, in case you were wondering. I was a bit startled during the movie when a soldier with a huge gun came onboard and walked by. I hadn´t realized that the bus had stopped at a police check, which is very common here. Most long bus journeys pass through multiple police checks. Sometimes they just get on and take a cursory look around, but other times they make everyone get off the bus. After that they search your belongings, pat you down and look under the seats for god knows what (drugs I think). Sometimes these police checks add hours to your trip, which you need to factor in when planning to get anywhere. It can be annoying, but it also means that the main roads of the country are actually navigable again, as opposed to being overrun by paramilitary/ guerrilla groups.
After the thirteen hour bus journey, we arrived in Medellin on Saturday morning and took a cab to what is now possibly my favorite hostel in all of Colombia. It´s time for dinner, so more on Medellin later!
