You know I have a big brother right? Well, his name is Phillip and he graduated college a couple of years ago. Long story short he had an old college friend who wanted to come to Colombia. He came to Colombia, stayed on our boat, and watched our dog! While he and Prince explored Santa Marta and the surrounding area, Mom and I explored Colombia! Buses were our main form of transport around Colombia, besides that we walked! Our only luggage was the backpacks on our backs which we lived out of for 3 weeks. Our first stop was Mompox. After riding a nice bus with air conditioning, wifi, and comfy seats for 8 hours straight, we arrived at a completely empty bus depot! Since it was 11 PM and the bus depot was a few miles outside of town, we were a little nervous and there was absolutely NOBODY else there. So what could we do? We started walking down the road and after about 15 minutes of eerie silence, a donkey cart pulled up alongside us. A very elderly man was driving the cart which looked like it had been used to transport hay. From our clumsy Spanish we surmised that he was offering us a ride to our hotel. We handed him the address (which handily we had written down on a piece of paper) and then we hopped in the back! We rode in the back of the cart looking very out of place I assure you! We reached our hotel after another 20 minutes, which was more than long enough to ride in a donkey cart. We collapsed on our bed and fell asleep listening to the whirring of our one-speed ceiling fan. And that was the first day.
Now, I won't go into all the details of every day of the trip but I'll cover the highlights. We went white-water rafting in San Gil ( pronounced San Hill). We went with a tour agency, and the river ran right through the middle of the town, so we just paid the fee and went! There were 3 other people in the raft with us, not including the Instructor. We took the beginners course much to my disappointment but afterwards my mom said, "I'll never do something so terrifying again!" Moms! The instructor had us practice all the strokes to make with our paddles on land before we got in the raft. Then all we had to do, was do the exact stroke he told us to do, and when! We started off quite intense but the instructor guided us smoothly through it. When we reached a calmer area of the river he told us to get out and swim! So we did! The water was very cold but refreshing since it was such a hot, sunny day. We drifted around for several minutes holding onto the raft. Then one by one he helped us back in, just before we reached some rapids. As we were going down the rapids, the raft flipped over upside down! Nobody was hurt, except my mom, whose sunglasses had cut her nose, but all the adults were shaken. Getting back in the raft was harder that time but we managed. We didn't flip again but had quite an enjoyable time before leaving for our next destination!
Next stop was Bogàta, Colombia's capital! We arrived by bus (again) and took a taxi to our hotel in the Candelaria part of the city. Our hotel had a pizza parlor on the first floor and hotel rooms on the second. The room was small but had a bunk bed and had a nice view of the city. I got the top bunk! After dropping off our bags I went downstairs to get a pizza while my mom took a short nap. The altitude of Bogàta is 8,675 feet, and my mom suffers from altitude sickness, which means that when she is in an area with a high altitude for a long period of time, she gets dizzy, lightheaded, and weak. We only stayed in Bogáta for four days during which mom gathered the strength to do all the touristy things like visit the Gold Museum, (you guessed it it's all things gold), the Colombia Capital, the historical district, downtown, and all of the national museums of Colombia (think Smithsonian but on a smaller scale).
Next we took another long bus journey to Medellin which is a very beautiful city with lots of museums. One of the things that first pops into my head when I think, "Medellin" is Botéro "the artist of fat people. Botéro is a Colombian artist who painted and sculpted fat people, animals, everything fat. He is quoted to have called his subjects, "voluminous". He became very rich and famous. The other very cool thing of Medillin were the cable cars! The people of Medellin use cable cars for public transportation. Medellin is a very hilly city and they have some subways but it is mainly cable cars, it costs the same as the subway too! You just swipe your pass, then you hop in! That was one of my favorite parts, was just getting to and fro in Medellin.
Well, that’s all I can think of now. Maybe more later…
Now, I won't go into all the details of every day of the trip but I'll cover the highlights. We went white-water rafting in San Gil ( pronounced San Hill). We went with a tour agency, and the river ran right through the middle of the town, so we just paid the fee and went! There were 3 other people in the raft with us, not including the Instructor. We took the beginners course much to my disappointment but afterwards my mom said, "I'll never do something so terrifying again!" Moms! The instructor had us practice all the strokes to make with our paddles on land before we got in the raft. Then all we had to do, was do the exact stroke he told us to do, and when! We started off quite intense but the instructor guided us smoothly through it. When we reached a calmer area of the river he told us to get out and swim! So we did! The water was very cold but refreshing since it was such a hot, sunny day. We drifted around for several minutes holding onto the raft. Then one by one he helped us back in, just before we reached some rapids. As we were going down the rapids, the raft flipped over upside down! Nobody was hurt, except my mom, whose sunglasses had cut her nose, but all the adults were shaken. Getting back in the raft was harder that time but we managed. We didn't flip again but had quite an enjoyable time before leaving for our next destination!
Next stop was Bogàta, Colombia's capital! We arrived by bus (again) and took a taxi to our hotel in the Candelaria part of the city. Our hotel had a pizza parlor on the first floor and hotel rooms on the second. The room was small but had a bunk bed and had a nice view of the city. I got the top bunk! After dropping off our bags I went downstairs to get a pizza while my mom took a short nap. The altitude of Bogàta is 8,675 feet, and my mom suffers from altitude sickness, which means that when she is in an area with a high altitude for a long period of time, she gets dizzy, lightheaded, and weak. We only stayed in Bogáta for four days during which mom gathered the strength to do all the touristy things like visit the Gold Museum, (you guessed it it's all things gold), the Colombia Capital, the historical district, downtown, and all of the national museums of Colombia (think Smithsonian but on a smaller scale).
Next we took another long bus journey to Medellin which is a very beautiful city with lots of museums. One of the things that first pops into my head when I think, "Medellin" is Botéro "the artist of fat people. Botéro is a Colombian artist who painted and sculpted fat people, animals, everything fat. He is quoted to have called his subjects, "voluminous". He became very rich and famous. The other very cool thing of Medillin were the cable cars! The people of Medellin use cable cars for public transportation. Medellin is a very hilly city and they have some subways but it is mainly cable cars, it costs the same as the subway too! You just swipe your pass, then you hop in! That was one of my favorite parts, was just getting to and fro in Medellin.
Well, that’s all I can think of now. Maybe more later…