22/03/2011

What a fun day! I woke with a little bit of a hangover - like most mornings I suppose – whether I drank the previous night or not. But I spent the morning gathering myself when I ran into a Swedish girl I first met in Nicaragua (Natalie) , a very cool chick who's folks were Columbian. Her, her friend (Jessica) and myself wondered around the beautiful colonial town of Cartagena through several markets and parks, it was fun times.

When I left the girls I got a little lost around the city and managed only just to make it in time to leave to the trip I had drunkenly organized with some others last night.

This trip was great, a heap of us from the hostel went to a small volcano that had pushed volcanic mud to the surface where people could bathe as the grey liquid clensed your body. The bathing area was only small but the guides managed to squeeze the 30 plus people into the warm mud.

At first I didn't want to get my dreads muddy for obvious reasons but I really didn't have a choice when I was in there. One crazy thing was that you could float with no effort involved and apparently the mud goes down 200meters into the earth.

It really was (another) great experience and with great people too and thankfully the mud washed out of my hair in the nearby lake and a later shower sorted out the issue although it took quite a while.

Later when we got back to Cartagena I cooked up for KJ, Arezoo and Sophie a nice simple sweet and cheap curry I first concocted in Germany a few years ago. Everyone loved it including the people who smelt it whilst it was cooking and so after we finished eating I shared the wealth and offered others some of the left overs, I was constantly asked to write down the recipe by several of the taste testers.

Everyone in the hostel had a few to drink in the evening and later a group of us headed out to a discotec for a bit of dancing - which is never my thing and as such I stayed outside chatting to randoms.

       

21/03/2011

It was, I think one of the best nights sleep I had on the bus… and also one of the most expensive bus journeys ive taken and at $50 for a 12 hour journey… ouch Arrived at the hostel at 10am was a little too early to check in so myself and the massive group I came with hung out in the sun until we could. I did my usual run around the hostel for the day meeting all I could and did not see anything about the town as most people do. Later I grabbed some alcohol and being a Monday night we didn’t go out and just made a lot of noise disturbing the people in the hostel trying to sleep. I met some wicked people including a Persian Canadian girl named Arezoo, a massive and funny Norwegian that has been travelling for 7 years and a Danish girl who didn’t like dreadlocks named Sophie. These are the nights I much prefer, no loud music, drinking, everyone socializing and good times all round.
I did meet some people who had never met me but knew a story about me that the 2 Swedish girls (My and Jen) had told them – kind of embarrassing – but its great stories are spreading to all over the place that are linked to me.

 

20/03/2011

I took a sleeping pill last night, the ones that I bought in Panama but the problem with them is that they make you drowsy all day. I hung around playing pool for the evening and went out with some British girls to see a view of the town from a cable cart; it was part of the metro system meaning it was dirt cheap and the views of the city from above were spectacular.The group of us accidentally took the next cable cart continuing further for another 20 minutes well out of the city, over a forest and then to somewhere where it seemed no foreigners were allowed… we tried to get off here but some officials’ told us to stay in the cable cart and took the 20 minute journey back to the city.
When I got back to the hostel there were about 15 or so others I had met on previous nights (mostly Irish) heading in the same direction as me and so we all organized taxis to the bus station where we had to hang around for 3 hours before getting the bus to Cartagena.
It’s a 12 hour journey throughout the night and it was all good because I took a tiny bit of a sleeping pill and crashed.

  

19/03/2011

I did leave the hostel today where I wondered around for a while with Shaun and Amy (who I met in Laos), really not much else to mention today, I did have a few whisky cokes in the evening but again I wasn’t too keen on drinking so again I crashed early. I also bumped into Mario and Thomas who I met in Bocas, Panama.

18/03/2011

I didn’t even leave the hostel today; to fight the hangover I started the day with a couple of beers for breakfast and had a bit of banter with people who I apparently met last night. God my memory when im drunk is terrible – maybe it’s a sign I should stop drinking – meh, who am I kidding.
The evening for me was a bit rough and despite there being a massive party with midgets (leprechauns’) serving green jello shots I still enjoyed myself but couldn’t get to the level like everyone else, but this is because a lot of people were taking 'other' stuff on top of the booze.

17/03/2011

A lot of distance was covered today, leaving Sapzorro on a speed boat carrying 30 or so people literally hopping into open ocean to a town called Turbo. The boat journey itself was a rollercoaster where pretty much everyone was drenched from all the sea water slashing up and soaking them, thankfully for me I was sitting in just the right spot were I only got splashed a few times, meanwhile Valle and Henric were drenched head to toe and obviously not very happy about the 2 and a half hour experience.
Arriving in the town ironically named Turbo not only because you honestly want to get the f*ck out of the dusty, dirty and dangerous town but also the way you arrive and leave the place… I say this because I thought the boat ride was crazy enough but the 8 hour journey on the bus to Medellin was driven but a complete lunatic. The minibus did not have any seatbelts and there was no chance for catching any shut eye because the road was unforgiving, relentless and treacherous – at times the road was non-existent, muddy, situated at the top of shear cliff drops and the loco (Spanish for Crazy) driver even ran over a dog; all these issues equate to ‘close to pissing yourself terrified.
One good thing about this journey was the scenic views but really that didn’t make up for the driver throwing us around the back seat of the minivan.
The boat journey and the bus trip came to about $60 which was damn expensive considering I thought things were going to be cheap here – yes the drugs are but things like food, accommodation and transportation are not so much.
Arriving in Medellin we hopped on the underground and made our way to a hostel called Pitstop, a frat house vibed Irish hostel and as a bonus unexpectedly we arrived on St. Patricks Day, I don’t need to tell you it was a messy night but it certianly was and I bumped into a Canadian couple I met in Laos last year – again a crazy small world.

16/03/2011 Columbia!

People told me that the Coca-cola here is so great. I had some today and it tastes no different from anywhere else in the world! ;) Despite us arriving in Sapzorro close to midnight we still slept on the boat and as we were all nackard and couldn’t be bothered to find a hostel. For most of the day I had an issue walking properly, you see after spending 5 days on a rocking boat and having to take care every step trying not to fall over, being on solid ground was a little difficult I unconsciously took every step more carefully, almost looking like I was drunk… maybe I was... It took a few hours to get over this issue and a few beers on dry land helped the issue.