Photos from the Coast

Here are some photos from my trip with Michael to Taganga, Parque Tayrona, and Cartagena. For a description of the trip see the next two posts.

Man painting Alcoholics Anonymous sign

Orlando giving Michael his guitar lesson

Orlando singing

Interior of a home in Taganga

Boats in Taganga

View of Taganga

Me on my horse as we went through the rain forest on our way to Tayrona

Michael on his horse along the beach on our way to Tayrona

View of the beach – where we slept in hammocks was on the second floor of the bungalow in the distance

Me hanging out in the hammock

Love the gafas! We are now officially in Cartagena

Gotta love meat hanging out on cardboard in 90 degree weather

I loved all the details on the wall of this restaurant

People were very friendly and willing to have their photo taken by a gringa

I loved all the doors in Cartagena, each one was a beautiful color with neat details

La Vitrolla where Michael and I had a fabulous meal

Club Havana where I hung out for a couple of nights – great music and even better mojitos!

2nd Half of the Great Adventure

What follows is a recap of the remainder of my trip to the coast. After Taganga Michael and I made our way by taxi and then a 2 hour horseback ride through beautiful rainforest to get to the most incredible beach I’ve ever been to called Cabo San Juan in Parque Tayrona. It’s a refuge from the rest of the world and is fairly remote. Michael and I snagged two hammocks on the second floor of a shelter on the beach, with the most unbelievable view of the ocean. My time in Taganga was a nice mix of sleeping, swimming, sun bathing, reading, and general relaxation. It’s a pretty rustic place so thank goodness I’ve had years of camping under my belt to deal with the circumstances.

To get back to Tayrona we decided to take the water route back. It was quite an adventurous boat ride – very reminiscent of an amusement park ride, the only exception being that we didn’t know we would be alive at the end. Thankfully all went well and we made it back safely. To then get to Cartagena we took a 4 hour bus ride and arrived around 7pm fairly exhausted. Since Michael wasn’t feeling well (he said he had Yellow Fever, but did not, clearly) he went right to bed at the hostel, while I decided to go to the cool looking salsa bar called Cafe Havana down the street. I ended up drinking awesome mojitos, listening to a really good cuban/afro band and dancing salsa with a really nice man from Cartagena named Pablo.

The rest of our time in Cartagena Michael and I stayed at the apartment of a friend of his. It’s in a beautiful building in the old part of the city and I certainly felt like we were living a sweet life. Our days in Cartagena were split between walking around taking photos and drinking/eating well. As a birthday treat I decided to go to a restaurant that the NYTimes had recommended called La Vitrolla. I had grouper steak with coconut risotto and white wine sangria. It was awesome to say the least and since the smallest size of the sangria was a half bottle I was pretty happy. Sadly our time in Cartagena had to come to a close and we took a 12 hour bus ride Sunday night back to Medellin. As sad as I was to leave Cartagena I was really happy to come back to Medellin. I realized how quickly I’ve come to feel like Medellin is a place I can call home.

As my last week here is fastly coming upon me I have a number of fun plans. Today for my birthday I’ll be going to watch a world cup qualifying match between Colombia and Peru. I’ve never been to a soccer game in a country that loves soccer this much. I’m sure it will be a blast. I’m going with my friends David, Maria Monika, Justin, and David’s uncle from Bogota. Then a bunch of my friends and I are going to a fun nightclub – it’s also my good friend Mauro’s birthday so we’ll certainly be living it up! The rest of my time will be spent going to dance classes, hanging out with friends, and enjoying Medellin as much as possible.

I get back to Madison next Wednesday the 17th at 10:30pm.

It has been a long time coming,

Hello  dear friends and family. I apologize profusely for the delay in writing. I’ve been a little overwhelmed as of late with all my exciting adventures in Colombia and my visit back to Boston last weekend.

While I was in Boston, sitting at Jeff’s desk at Oxfam, I checked my email and found out I was accepted to the University of Wisconsin-Madison for the Law School class of 2012! Not only was it such great news to hear for my future career and all that I hope to accomplish, but it was so great to share the news with my friends in Boston.

I went to Boston to surprise Tim Fullerton at his going away party from Oxfam. As we had worked together for four years and have had many memorable times together I thought it only fitting to go. It was wonderful to see the good folks at Oxfam again and to see Bill Buffett and family.

In Colombia news. I’ve finished my level 9 course and am now traveling for a week. My friend Michael, the photographer, said he would join me and we are currently in the small fishing town of Taganga, Colombia. Over the next few days we’ll be headed to Tayrona, a Colombian national park, and for the weekend we’ll be in Cartagena. Since next Wednesday is my birthday I’ve decided to treat myself Friday night to a really nice hotel in Cartagena. It will be fun to be a little luxurious for just one night. Also, Mom, it looks like I’ll be in Taganga for another day so I’ll be online tomorrow. Michael was jamming out with some local musicians and they’re going to play together again tomorrow (I’ll take photos). I’m happy to stay as well as I can hopefully get another $4 massage on the beach, it was seriously the best massage I’ve ever had.

To get here we took a 16 hour bus ride from Medellin to Santa Marta. We were making really good time until about 1/2 an hour from Santa Marta we were brought to a halt by a group of locals protesting in the street with sticks and tires as a blockade. No one was really quite sure what they were protesting but after 45 minutes of sitting on the bus a bunch of us got out walked across the “protest line” (really it was quite pathetic) and caught a ride in a bike carriage to a bus that took us to Santa Marta. Surprisingly the 16 hour bus ride went well except for it was FREEZING the whole time. Thankfully I knew this would happen so I brought a jacket – but that still wasn’t enough – oh well.

When I get back to Medellin it will be a whirlwind of a week. On my birthday at 6pm I’ll be going to the world cup qualifying game between Colombia and Peru, then dinner with some friends, then out to a club called B Lounge with my good friend Mauro (we share the same birthday) and a bunch of others. The rest of my time before I head back to Wisconsin will be split between dance lessons, the gym, seeing friends, and seeing more of the touristy part of Medellin.

Well I think this is about it for now. I’ll be sure to add photos once I get them downloaded to my computer.

Busy Week

It’s incredible to me that just after 2 weeks I have a very full life here. Between class, the gym, salsa, and hanging out with friends my days are almost always chaotic.

Last Sunday I headed back to my friend’s finca (farm) in Santa Elena. The pic below is of her house:

and this is of my friends Diana (left) and Betty (right)

I took a lot more pics but haven’t loaded them yet to my computer. I went with a new good friend named Michael from Florida. He’s a photographer and living here in Medellin for at least 6 months. He has a blog at http://www.slinkygenius.com and he has posted a couple of pics from Santa Elena as well. The top photo of him from the farm post was taken by yours truly. It was a fun night as always. We caught 3 trout from their pond and made the most amazing dinner of fresh trout (with lots of herbs), potatoes, kale, and salad – all of the food save the potatoes came from their garden/land. It was to say the least one of the best meals I’ve had in such a long time. I long to own a piece of land as beautiful and sustainable as theirs.

This week I had an exam for level 8 of Spanish. I did well and now am in level 9. We’ve changed the schedule from an intensive to semi-intensive timeframe, so now I have class from 10-12 everyday for a month. This is ideal for me as I’m sadly realizing how little time I have left here (6 weeks, gulp!), and so now I can stay out later at night without having to worry about being up for 8 am class.

Yesterday I had an interview for a job in Bogota for a year. Technically it’s a fellowship which would have me working in Bogota. It’d be a great opportunity if I don’t get into UW. So, the interview, it was all in Spanish and I think it went well. I’ve been thinking that if I don’t get into UW and don’t get the fellowship that I will come back to Colombia for awhile next year. I have a number of great connections with non-profits here in Medellin and will pursue them if need be.

Other than that I’ve been enjoying my time with my friends. Grandma McFarlane made a request for photos of me (since she’s not on facebook), so below are some different pics from a trip to Tutucan with my Spanish class:

This is us all at lunch. From left to right (Jonathan, Rosaura (teacher), me, and James).

Catching Up

It has been a long time coming for me to update everyone…sorry I’ve been so delinquent. But, I’ve found the perfect venue to relax and catch up on everything. The cafe that I come to the outdoor movies (last night was American Beauty – what a great movie) now has jazz thursdays with 2 for 1 cocktails. I, however, after coming straight from the gym can’t imagine drinking my favorite cocktail right now (Mojito) so am opting for a glass of red wine instead.

Spanish Classes
I’m now in level 7 (out of 9) and continue to love my class and the school. A great development is that one of my classmates, Marcos, from level 6 has decided not to continue with Jonathan and I. I’m happy about this for two reasons, 1, he has the worst Spanish accent I’ve ever heard and listening to him was like nails on a chalkboard, and, 2, whenever he could he would talk about how awful the US is. It’s actually really interesting to hear him as he is a Republican and thinks the US is so bad because of Obama (among other things), quite the reversal of the people who disliked the US during the Bush era. Jonathan and I are now joined by a guy, James, from England, who has been traveling around South America (Bolivia and Argentina) for the past 6 months and has a great accent. It’s nice because the three of us each have different strengths and we’re able to help each other out. We’re actually doing so well that our Professor thinks that we can skip level 8 and go right to level 9. I’m feeling more and more confident everyday with the language but find that although I’m strong with grammer, my vocabulary is lacking. I’m reading as much as I can in Spanish and working to improve the number of words I know, but I’ve come to realize that to master the language will take a lot longer than I had initially thought.

Salsa Dancing
The week of Semana Santa (Easter Week) I started my salsa lessons. I’m taking private lessons at a small school and am loving every moment of them. After 2 classes my teacher told me that I have latin blood. I’m going 2 or 3 times a week and plan to continue through my time here. I’m doing well with the steps but find it difficult to add the sexy attitude to the dance. Everytime I try I start laughing, but I’m getting the hang of it.

Gym
Going to gym continues to be part of my daily routine. I’m there about 2 hours 5 days a week. I’m getting to know all the trainers really well (none of them speak English so I’m learning a lot of gym vocabulary) and feel so much stronger than a month ago when I started. Now that I’m going into my second month I can feel that I’m back to normal and now able to really push myself and am seeing the results. I’m just so grateful to have the time to work on my health and fitness, as when I was working my 3 jobs in Boston it was really hard to concentrate on my health. I plan to continue my regiment throughout the summer and will devise a plan to continue through law school, as I’m so much happier when I’m in good physical shape.

Friends
Every weekend I’ve been able to hang out with my friend Yasmin. I’m so grateful for her friendship and know that it will continue after I leave Colombia (I do plan on coming back in the future either to visit or stay for a few months). Two weeks ago she and I went out for dinner and then ended up at her favorite bar in Parque Poblado (close to where I live). It’s a hole in the wall bar that has really cheap beer (50 cents) and plays old classical salsa. It makes me think of what a bar in Cuba would be like, darkly lit, and full of people crammed in dancing salsa. A few weeks ago when we went there was an Australian who took a liking to her. It was a funny experience as she doesn’t speak English and he didn’t speak Spanish. Regardless he fancied her although she didn’t fancy him. I found it incredible how forward he was and chalked it up to him being a foreigner thinking he could get away with it. Well, I was wrong on one point. The last time she and I went I ended up dancing with a Colombian guy who was nice enough but I wasn’t interested in him. At the end of the night (2am) he asked me to his house (I said no), so I had to admit that apparently all guys here are very forward. The funny part about him asking me to his house was that he had to make a point of saying that he lives with his brother and not with his whole family. If you don’t know much about latin culture, you’ll be interested to know that most people live with their family until they’re married. Case in point, Yasmin, who is 33  lives with her family as do most of my friends here.

Last weekend Yasmin and I went to La Piedra de Penol, which as the name in Spanish will inform you, is basically a huge rock. It was fun to get out of the city and hike up to the top of this popular destination for Colombians. Here are some photos from the trip:

Yasmin as we’re walking up to El Penol

The side of El Penol, and Yasmin (she has photos of me, so will post when I get them)

A random regligious statue protecting us on the hike up the rock

View during the climb up

View from the top

Well that’s about as much energy as I have to update tonight…Will do better about posting (I hope!)

Love to you all from the most beautiful city of Medellin!

Paradise and other things

Yesterday I made the trek up to my friend Deana and her boyfriend’s house in Santa Elena, Colombia. It was one of those evenings that I will carry with me forever. They live in paradise, simply that. I foolishly didn’t bring my camera with me so will return to take photos to show the beauty of this place. They own a perfect house with a huge garden and even a small pond for fresh trout.

Deana’s boyfriend is making wine from the grapes and other fruits on his property so I was even more in heaven trying all his different combinations. We danced samba, listened to Gillian Welch, ate Indian Curry, spoke in mostly Spanish and had an amazing time. So amazing in fact that we wanted to make brownies but didn’t know the recipe. In my wisdom I called Dad in Sauk for a recipe (it costs like $2/minute to call the US from my phone, but it was that important!) It was great to hear Dad’s voice if even for a brief moment and he did in fact have a recipe at his disposal. With some chalenges with measurements and Celcius to Farhenheight we pulled off an amazing batch of brownies – thanks Dad and Ann! It was certainly the icing on the top of a very fine cake of a day.

I’ve had a great couple of days. School continues to go well. We have a new professor, and she is really nice but I miss our old teacher. Next week is easter week and I’m not sure what I’ll be up to – I hope to get to the coast with my friends Mauro and Juan Diego but things are a little up in the air.

Friday night I came to the hostel to meet some friends and wound up going to a dance club with a friend, Jose. It was a ton of fun to dance salsa and enjoy the Medellin nightlife. Saturday I hung out with my friends Mauro, Juan Diego, and Yasmin. We went to a big mall here to see the movie Gran Torino, which we all enjoyed. We wound up going to the coolest hole in the wall classical salsa bar. I felt like I was in Havana and danced my heart out (Yasmin has photos, will post when I get them).

I have my first exam this Thursday so am trying to focus and study but it can be difficult when I just want to hang out with friends!

New school and new friends

Well I’ve had a couple of wonderful days. I’m sorry it’s taken awhile to post but there has been quite a bit going on lately.

Last Thursday I started my class (at 8am, ouch!) and it is fantastic. I really like my teacher and there are only two other students, so we each get a lot of our time in the classroom. My teacher’s name is Beatriz and she is Colombian/French Canadian. She’s fluent in all three languages and will even be translating at a big event here in Medellin next week, which Bill Clinton will be in town for. Apparently he loves Colombia and especially Medellin. I might try to see if I can go down but apparently the city is expecting about 5,000 more tourists in the city, which isn’t a lot, but I don’t really want to be bothered by large crowds.

The two students with me are very different. One is a young guy who grew up in Boston and is in his first year at Berkelee School of Music, but his father is from Colombia so he took a year off to come down and spend time with his family here and learn Spanish. The other is an older guy who lives in St. Marteen. He’s has the typical American accent in Spanish so sometimes it hurts to hear him speak, especially because people here speak so beautifully.

Yesterday I spent the day with some new wonderful friends of mine. I met Mauro and Juan Diego at a club last week and we became instant friends. Ever since we met I see Juan Diego at the gym a lot and Mauro and I have been talking on facebook a lot. They want to make sure that I see more of Medellin and the surrounding area, which I appreciate because it’s great to travel with locals. Yesterday I met up with them and their friend Yasmin at the botanical gardens. Sadly I didn’t bring my nice camera so the photos aren’t as great as they could be. I hope to return with them so I can take better pictures. But in the meantime, here are a few:

Mauro, Me, Yasmin

Juan Diego, Yasmin, Mauro

We hung out at the botanical gardens for awhile and then went to the park of wishes where there was a movie on this big projector against a building and lots of fun playground areas for kids to play in. We got dinner and went to a bar. Overall a fantastic day and I’m so happy to meet people as cool and welcoming as they are.

Everyone I’ve talked to that is from here just keeps remarking on how much the city has changed in the last 5 – 8 years. There has been a lot of work to build up cultural centers and to provide opportunities for the citizens of Medellin to know they’re culture and also to have financial opportunities.

Both Juan Diego and Yasmin are graphic designers (no wonder I like them so much Jess!) and Mauro is studying to hopefully be the Minister of Culture one day.

Tomorrow is a religious holiday here so I have the day off, I’ll probably just spend the day hanging out and doing my homework before class on Tuesday.

I got up for this?

Yes, I admit it, even though I hate it. I am now sitting at a McDonald’s. That’s right a McDonald’s. I swore to myself that when I came to Medellin that I would avoid situations like the one I’m in. Alas, there was nothing to be done!

I woke up at 6:40am to make myself breakfast and to head down to the University to start my first day of classes (about a 30 minute walk). Upon arrival though I was told that I was being bumped up to another level and therefore won’t be starting until tomorrow morning. My first reaction? Annoyance that I woke up so early for nothing. But in retrospect it’s a good thing as I need to get my body used to this schedule anyways.

So, why am I at a McDonalds you might be asking? Well, when I left the University I figured I might go to the bookstore nearby as I have been meaning to pick up some books and it’s about a 45 minute walk uphill back to my apartment so I wanted to take advantage of already being in the area. However, upon inspection of the area for about 20 minutes not a single store/cafe would open until 10am, expect, that is, of course, McDonald’s. With free wi-fi and a cold coffee, I am content if not a little stupified.

Not too much new on any other front. I’m sad that the Swedes have left Medellin as I really enjoyed hanging out with them. A great part of spending time with them was that they didn’t speak any Spanish so I got plenty of exercise translating for them with Colombianos.

My apartment is great, I will take photos. It’s in a fantastic neighborhood, and although sparse it fits the bill perfectly. My roommate and I trade off cooking each night, which will help financially. Last night I made a really good chicken stew. I will keep the recipe to make back in the US.

Tonight I’m going to watch a French film with Spanish subtitles at an outdoor cafe. Should be a good test of my language skills!

I will write tomorrow to fill in on the class experience. Until then I’m off to the bookstore and to home to study a little before I go to the gym.

Here’s the photo of Jaime that I promised. You can’t see the sparkly shirt so much but it still captures him pretty well I think.

First Impressions and Further Adventures

Over the last few days my time has been divided pretty equally between sleeping, going to the gym, and going out at night. Really this first week has been a time of transition and has been very tranquillo (chill / relaxed) for me, which was very much needed. I already feel a hundred times more healthy and relaxed.

School was supposed to start today but it has been pushed back till Wednesday. That’s fine by me as I have some errands to run and I’m not quite ready to start waking up at 7am. Tonight I’m moving into an apartment for the month. It’s a really good deal ($160 for the month) and is really close to the hostel I’ve been at so I know the area. I’ll be sharing it with a teacher from Ohio. I had wanted to live with a host family but I hadn’t had any luck finding one that worked out and I didn’t want to stay at the hostel spending as much money as I have. Although, I have very much enjoyed my time at the hostel. I especially like the Colombianos that work there. I’m sure I’ll be by to visit though.
To recap my time since I last wrote: Friday I joined a gym for the three months while I’m here. It’s called BodyTech and while it’s a little expensive it’s a really nice gym and they have locations in Bogota and Cartagena, so when I travel I won’t have to worry about finding a gym. When I joined I had a free training session with a very good looking Colombiano. I have to admit in general the women here are much better looking than the men, so I was pleasantly surprised by my trainer. Anyways, he didn’t speak any English so we had a fun time telling each other different names for body parts from Spanish to English. After my 2 hour workout I went back to the hostel to take a nap before going out for the night.

The night started off with a game of beer pong, yes, beer pong in Colombia. The owner of the hostel is from South Carolina and has started a beer pong tournament every Friday night. It was a lot of fun to play with some locals. It was especially fun because my partner and I (Astrid) beat two guys. They weren’t too happy about that. I didn’t win the whole tournament but it was fun to make a new Colombian friend in Astrid.

Another great thing about beer pong was that I only spent 10,000 COP ($4) and didn’t need anything else to drink for the rest of the night. After beer pong a group of us went to a club called Blue and danced until about 4 am. While at Blue I made some more friends, Maruo and Juan Antonio. We’re going to a Merengue bar this Wednesday night, which I’m looking forward to.

Saturday I slept in late as my body was exhausted from the gym and dancing for 4 hours. I eventually made it to the gym and then went to look at an apartment. It was owned by a guy from New Jersey and I knew instantly it wouldn’t work out. Although he wasn’t sketchy, he wouldn’t look me in the eye when we were talking and was just a weird guy all around. Also, his apartment had zero furniture save an outdoor table and two plastic chairs. The only good thing about the trip was the cab ride back. My driver was a guy named Jacob who lived in the US for 7 years (5 of which he spent in jail). He was so kind though (all paisas are so kind and welcoming) and he apologized to me as an American for having brought drugs into the US (why he went to jail). He isn’t allowed back to the US but he loves it and misses it. Now he lives in Medellin with his wife and son. It was a lovely ride as we both got to exchange our Spanish/English knowledge and he gave me his number if I’m ever in need of a cab (which will never happen as there are always plenty of cabs about and they’re cheap, and he also gave me a brochure for his wife’s dentist office where he said I could have a dental cleaning for gratis (free).

When I got back from my apartment adventure I went out for sushi with some friends. After sushi a friend, Brian (the teacher I’m moving in with) asked me if I wanted to go to the casino with him. I of course said yes as 1. I’ve never gambled in a casino, and 2. I wanted to see if they were any different from the US. To answer the second part, it wasn’t really any different than casinos I’ve seen in the US – although this was a really new one, so it was really nice. I limited myself to $20 (50,000). We played roulette and black jack. Poor Brian had to deal with my ignorance and explain the rules to me. I had a lot of fun and at one point was up 100,000 COP, but in the lost it all, which I’m fine with as we had a number of free drinks and food, and $20 for 4 hours of entertainment – fine by me! If I do go again I’ll make sure I cash out when I’m on the up side of things. I was excited just to play the first night and not worry about winning or losing, although, honestly winning would have been nice. I really only kept playing because Brian had a crush on one of the dealers.

Yesterday was another chill day. I again woke up at 11 (I need to get out of this habit!) and went with Brian and Laura to a place called Bora Bora. It’s a bar/restaurant up on the mountain side over looking Medellin. The owner is a guy from Barcelona and he was very welcoming and nice. It’s a place though where you can tell that there are all night drug raggers, but for the day, it was nice and tranquillo.

A couple of notes of my first impressions of Medellin:

1. It’s one of the safest cities I’ve ever been in. As anywhere one has to have caution when going out, especially at night, but even as a woman I’ve felt nothing menacing. The weirdest thing that happened was a little boy on the street two days ago that came up to me and said ‘dame pesos’ (give me money). Even talking with other travelers they havne’t had problems in Colombia, a lot have had issues in Ecuador and Panama, but knock on wood, nothing in Colombia yet.
2. The climate is perfect. Every day is around 75/80 degrees and semi-cloudy. Most days it might rain around 4pm, but that’s nice because it keeps everything really lush and green. When it does rain it’s quick and powerful – it wouldn’t be a good place for people who don’t like short and intense thunderstorms.
3. It’s one of the cleanest cities I’ve been to while traveling. People really seem to take pride in their city and treat it with respect for the most part.
4. The people are incredibly kind, generous, and welcoming.
5. Everything is at least ½ what it would cost in the US.
6. Some Spanish pronunciations are pretty different from what I’ve learned. Most dramatic for me is the way one prounces double ll’s. How I’ve learned to say Calle (street) is cay-yay, whereas here all double ll’s turn into j’s, so Calle is ca-jay. Although the way I say it is still correct I do want to speak with a more Colombian accent, so I’m trying.
7. Men who come here just for sex are gross – especially the 50 year old overweight guys who wear t-shirts that say ‘mission accomplished’ with a huge American flag and talk in very gringo type accents.
8. Number 7 goes with this one – plastic surgery for women, especially boob jobs is extremely prevalent – at least in El Poblado, Medellin.
9. I’ve had the best Empanadas of my life.
10. Being a vegetarian here would be awful unless you cooked at home for all your meals. Everything it seems comes with meat.

My first post of many (I hope!)

Hello friends and family. I’m sorry it has taken me so long to write but I wanted to take a few days to get to know a little of the city first. As a start, the city is really fantastic, and I understand why so many people want to come and live here.

I’m writing from a cafe in a part of the city called Parque Lleras. It’s also where the best nightlife is…more about that later. But first here’s a picture of the cafe and my breakfast. The breakfast is some french toast, plate of fresh fruit, juice and coffee all for $4.

I arrived in Medellin Monday night around 9pm after traveling since 8:30am from Madison. All the flights went well and I was pleasantly surprised that the flight from Miami to Medellin was only 2 1/2 hours and it was so empty so I had a full aisle to myself.

When I came into Medellin I instantly felt all my Spanish drain from me as I started talking with immigration. I was able to get through immigration alright and went to find an ATM with no problems. When I went outside there were about a hundred taxis ready and happy to take me into the city. I didn’t know how far the city was from the airport (40 minutes) or that the drive would be through curvy mountains. As I’ve been the person saying that Colombia is really safe I was surprised to feel nervous when after 20 minutes we were still driving through the windy hills with hardly anyone else on the road. As soon as I started getting really worried with images of the FARC in my head we descended over a hill and were looking out over the magnificence of Medellin at night. It’s a stunning city nestled in a valley surrounded by larger hills/mountains.

We arrived at the hostel and I was warmly greated in the typical Paisa fashion. Paisas are people from Medellin and the surrounding area and are known for their kindness. After dropping off my things I went down to the bar to enjoy some beers ($1 each) and to meet the other people staying at the hostel. A picture of the bar area:

My first night was very interesting as I got to know people staying at the hostel. The most interesting person so far has been this guy named Jaime, who when asked where he’s from, said Cajun, which confused me. Basically he likes to say that he’s from all over but his people are Creole. He’s 41 years old and has lived all over Panama, Colombia, and the South. He has a mullet (of course) and is an interesting mix of a drug addict and a really nice guy who happens to wear sparkly shirts. I’ll try to get a photo of him to show you all. The other people staying here are all fairly normal (from Canada, New York, Australia, and Sweden).

I’m still working on finding a good homestay and should start living with a family within the week.

What I’ve noticed about other travelers is that they’re mostly men coming here to party and hook up with Colombian women. I have yet to meet another single female traveling. I try not to judge the men, but sometimes it’s hard not to. The great part about being a single female extranjera (foreigner) is that the women are so kind and the men are respectful. Apparently foreign guys don’t have necessarily as easy a time as I do as a woman.

The hostel I’m staying at is called Tiger Paw Hostel and it is in a great location in El Poblado, which is one of the nicest parts of the city, and also just a 2 minute walk from Parque Lleras.

Wednesday night I went out for some drinks in Parque Lleras with Dan, the firefighter from New York, and Darrell from Canada. We ended up at a small cuban bar with a table of locals. They were obviously having a fun time with a couple bottles of tequila and soon Dan ended up dancing with the woman from the group and me with one of the men. Needless to say Dan was an awful dancer but gave it his all and I was complemented on my dancing ability. As we were tired we left before los colombianos, but were happy we had made the most of the night. Dancing is very prevalent here and everyone is so welcoming so I know I’ll never be at a loss for a dance partner.

Over the past couple of days I’ve been wandering the streets trying to get to know the city and also working on my registration at EAFIT University for my Spanish program. While at the University yesterday (which is gorgeous – I’ll take photos) I was invited on a tour of the city with some of the other Spanish students. What followed was a very fun and interesting tour with a bunch of guys from the US, Norway, London, and Canada, and a bunch of Colombian women, who were our conversation partners. It was nice to see more the city, especially getting to practice Spanish at the same time with people from the city.

Here’s a photo of all of us. We got to visit some of the local barrios (neighborhoods) some of which used to be Cartels, and now the government has built in many of them cultural centers. We went to two of them and watched some puppet shows for the local children and a dance by some of the young girls. We made another stop in the city center, which houses some of the museums and a lot of Botero sculptures. Botero is a world renowned sculptor and is from Medellin. Medellin has an ordinance whereby new buildings need some art work with them for the public to enjoy so all over the city you can see sculptures (mostly by Botero) and other art forms. The city center was cool to see but it’s also one of the most dangerous parts of the city so if I go back I’ll certainly go with one of my new Colombian friends.

All in all it was a wonderful day. As the group got along so well together we went right from the tour to Parque Lleras to start drinking. Even after three days my Spanish has improved dramatically along with my comfort in speaking the language. In being out at the bars last night I hung out mostly with Colombianos and it was perfect because I would speak and they would correct me whenever I said something wrong. A group of us are going out dancing tonight so that should be a lot of fun.

I’m about to take off for the gym and will be sure to write more over the next three months as I travel around.