well tried emailing before but had a computer problem and deleted everything i wrote.........so i was discouraged and will try to remember all that has happened since then.
well my plans to get the young acne faced tourist police drunk completely failed as i went back and his girlfriend was also waiting for him ....he kinda looked at the ground and slowly shook his head, no, and strangely enough chose to be with his g.f. rather than get drunk and watch cock fights with me.........................where is his priorities?
oh well maybe for the best as i taxied to cock fighting place and it was closed. Some guys told me of another place on outer edge of town..........but when i confirmed this by asking some locals on the street and asking if it was dangerous they said it was after dark.....so i decided not to go(see mom i am being cautious so worry not!)
i caught bus to san andres..........the road was the bumpiest I´ve ever ridden. on side of road were piles of dirt and rocks some as big as a motorcycle, where landslides had previously occurred............one big rock even had paint marks and broken glass n plastic beside it where a car must have hit it............glad our big ole bus was safe. I could type for an hour to describe how bumpy but u still couldn´t imagine...........................I was completely lifted right off my seat at least 6 - 8 times.....crazy ride went through the middle of nowhere They said 6 - 7 hours and it took almost 10, and we went less that 126 kms. The countryside was gorgeous though ; mountains on both sides and a little bubbling white rushing creek beside the road...........a few cows on the road and in some spots the farmers didn´t even bother to have fences, as i guess cows had no where to go, so why bother building a fence. We stopped at a lil restaurant. Some people had broth soup n bread n cheese........i asked if they had beer and the woman just laughed................i guess so bumpy that bottles would smash before they got there???????? I thought it was a valid question?
i had quite the ordeal as we finally stopped in a bigger town and i asked fellow riders if this was san agustine..............they should their heads, yet everyone got off and i saw my bag hauled out of back and laid on ground. I asked bus driver and he lifted his hand as if to say waìt`` a minute``..........but everyone started heading to different buses or their awaiting rides. Finally a younger kid working for bus company motioned me to follow him then he pointed to a group of three buses..........i went to each and asked driver san augustine of which they all shook their heads..............now i was getting upset and frustrated.........finally i went to ticket booth asked again and a different man walked me like a lil child to the correct bus....................finally an hour later i arrived at 7:15 am(having left at 9:30 ísh the night before) Well, I found a room..........talked to 2 travel agents making them both try to undercut each other, and booked a 4 hour horse back tour that started at 8:00 am..........................pretty hectic 45 mins so brushed teeth, put on some sweats and off i went. Tired, but trying not to waste a day by sleeping..........ride was awesome and my horse totally knew where to go on his own, prob did the trail twice a day every day. Saw some nice statues, waterfalls, mountain sides, but my ass hurt for next 2 days after.
There was a weekly market that day so I walked round trying to find a cheap hat, no luck but did get 2 slices of watermelon that was juicy and 1 pineapple slice very sweet. Walked around some more then at 3:00 slept for 2 hours and got up then finally saw a cock fight as I heard there was some going on 1 .5 kms outta town. I rushed there only to find it didn´t start till 7:00 so i flagged down a local bus for .30 and went back to town as an old couple that i took horseback tour with said this rest in town has lasagna on week-ends that was good. I am quite sick of french fries, rice n beans and grilled mystery meat.
It was great........then grabbed another local bus, everyone else on bus starting at me wondering where a ´gringo´would be heading outta town after dark..........................got there and the fights were in full swing........it was great. All the men smoking n drinking n yelling. All crowded around this lil cement ring with 2 roosters inside facing off against each other. i sat next to a couple and started asking the man about the fight; how it worked, if his wife liked it......................then i offered to buy him a beer, he accepted, we chatted more. I was the only tourist there and the whole time I´d look around and catch everyone looking, paying more attention to me than the cock fight, then would quickly look away . I thought this was quite funny. t
This man bought me a beer we chatted more and i practised my Spanish quite a bit.....then before he left he said it was long walk back so he´d give me a ride back to town then come back to pick up his wife. Also he had coffee farm and wanted to give me a bag of his organically grown coffee. He dropped me off at my hotel and gave me his cell number to call next day so he could deliver the coffee . The next day I went and once again haggled with both tour agencies in town, luckily only 3 businesses apart and took an all day tour in back of truck. I saw more statues tombs and waterfalls and narrowest part of Magdalena river in all of Colombia was cool as 4 other tourists, and 3 local tourists, so the whole time bouncing around in box of truck . I got advice on northern Colombia and gave out advice to them about Ecuador. I saw the coolest abandoned hotel that was glorious in it´s day no doubt. Made all of stone and mortar but windows were broken and rocks crumbling, plus outdoor bathroom covered in green moss. Had a poor family living in it looking at us tourists as we looked back in at them. The dining room still had faded fancy table cloth and no doubt there was more tables in that room than number of family member now living in it! cool ole hotel thought chunks of concrete fallen out from it´s balconies overlooking the waterfall!
After tour we made plans to all get together. i got to hotel, was really clean for 5.00 per night and they had a cage with 3 sections about 8 - 10 birds and one was green parrot that talked n chattered quite a bit. Was a cool place to stay and totally friendly owner and workers.
I called my new made friend and he drove into town to deliver the coffee. I was gonna head on to next town then decided that was so nice of him i´d take him and wife out to supper. I called him back and he got his wife and met me again (between phone cutting out, and my poor Spanish, it was quite a mission. All I could do was keep repeating myself 1/2 in poor Spanish 1/2 in English). I let his wife choose restaurant and we went to this local place and got a heaping plate of rice, beans(like i haven´t eaten enough rice n beans in last 4 weeks?),salad, and fried beef, well some part of a cow at least? with fruit juice for under 5.00 for all of us.
We left and he offered to show me his farm, coffee, pineapple,banana, yucca, and other fruit trees.....................And as i walked away. low and behold there was the group of friends from my day sightseeing tour, English couple, guy from Spain and girl from Bogota!
They ate pizza at place i told them the lasagna night before was awesome at as they too were sick of beans n rice they said, and after we walked to a bar. There was a nice guy from Holland in there I chatted with so I invited him as well.............The more the merrier! The local girl had 3 Colombian friends join us so was about 9 of us and we were all drinking pretty good........i know i worry too much but first thing i thought was, what if the bartender adds another 10 beer to the bill or that sure, the locals sitting with us think we are all rich tourists and will expect us to pay!
For first time in my life beer didn´t taste so well as i just saw beer after beer coming to table and thought how the heck are we gonna sort this out.................the the Holland guy suggested we order a small bottle of aguardiente, kinda licorice flavoured liquor and was 7.00 for that , beer were .60 thankfully. Well, when the bill finally came........sure enough there was a problem......everyone else chipped in except for me and 2 other tourists to pay our share..........and we owed about 8.00 between the three of us............i kept track. I had 7 beers and 2 big shots of aguadiente(i had to pay less than 3.00)............The bartender didn´t add enough beer to bill or the Colombians had paid more than there share..........................I truly felt ashamed for what i had thought the last 3 hours ........................these people are truly wonderful. there was 5000 pesos left over after paying the bill and someone suggested a tip, when quickly i suggested we keep it and invest it in more beer..............the Dutch and Spanish guys both agree so everyone else stumbled home and we stayed. Was funny too as bars here are no smoking, but we would hang our hands over the balcony and smoke, and as we did we looked directly across the street at the police station as some army guys looked directly back at us smoking in non smoking bar.....................earlier the Colombian girl had said if we weren´t tourists it would probably have been a problem, but because we were tourists, no y problema!
THe bathroom there was interesting. Small stalls for each 1 women's 1 mans, but the mens was just a 3-4 inch hole in the floor with a steel grate over it ...luckily i only had to pee............but i still am unsure if a guy had to take a crap.............were u to go to ladies bathroom or lift the grate off and try to carefully aim at that lil hole????? hmmmmmmm no say? thank fully i only had to pee at end of night we paid for only the three of us now.........and bartender asked each of us which hotel we stayed at.............then promptly gave to directions to each as we said them....................pretty nice.
Next day my friend was busy to show me his farm till 1:00 pm, and was only 9:30 so i thought i´d save a day and head to Tierrendtro to see painted tombs. I walked to bus station to find out it was too late, no more buses till the next day unless i spend night in town 1/2 way there..............but it only 9:30 am? Not like i asked at 4:00 in afternoon. Welcome to 3rd world travel, especially in middle of nowhere! Oh well another day in this friendly lil town i guess.
I made friends with this old tourist operator lady, 70´s for sure. I bought her a coffee and we chatted She helped me with my Spanish and let me call my friend for free to say i could come see his farm.
In coffee shop met this Swiss guy living there with his wife and he told me that there was a farm 30 mins from town 2 hectares of land with coffee and banana trees, a house and well and electricity.............for 5000.00 US Wow that is cheap!!! Laura wanna shack up and move to Colombia? This guy also was interpreter so the old lady and myself had a nice chat that we could finally fully communicate. She asked when i would return for next visit, and i said only if she´d marry me then we could start a farm together. She laughed! I bought him a coffee as well. It is great here, fresh, in this cafe was .20 a cup but tasty.
I went talked to birds at hotel, watched them eat , then at 1:00 pm my friend arrived on his motorcycle, brought me to his house where i met his 2 young boys, brother,and parents . We chatted then his wife cooked us lunch...........never guess what it was.............rice and beans with 2 fried eggs that had runny yolks and even the whites were a bit runny..............I thought i was gonna puke i hate eggs like that, but couldn´t be rude so i mushed them up all together with rice n beans and choked them back. After lunch his brother, wife, himself, and me walked to his farm and spent 2 hours walking through all the land and he showed me all kinds of different fruit trees and how they picked and processed the coffee(they hire pickers twice a year, 12 hours of picking, on mountain slopes I could hardly walk on. Gets a guy 5.00 - 7.00 US depending on how fast they pick! yikes! ). We picked a pineapple right off the bush and ate it later, my god how sweet it was. Also played with some young puppies and saw his guinea pig pen . I smiled and made an eating motion with my hands and his wife and him both nodded! These lil guys weren´t pets, they were food!
After we went back he showed me a huge chunk of land on edge on town for 2 000.00 US , Laura wanna get shacked up and move to Colombia? Big enough for a house or hostel but not a farm we both agreed. We sat in his house and i was amazed, a few times we totally couldn´t communicate but we all chatted for 2 hours discussing Canada and Colombia and lots more. Some talking with hands, and me having to include some English words, but we actually understood each other. Finally i left thinking they had things to do. We took photo´s of each other , I got hugs from them all and I went back to hotel.
Later went to see that old lady she asked i pop by for her to give me her address, phone number, iIbought us 2 coffees from street stall. so tasty! She helped me with Spanish some more! She hugged and kissed me when I left and warned me to watch out in Bogota for pick pockets and not to talk to strangers there! nice lady!
Well sad to leave but next morning I left town at 7:00 am and bus people assured me by 1:00 pm i´d be in Tierendentro (i arrived at about 5:20 ticked off i spent entire day travelling!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! ) First i took bus then next 2 towns i had to take share taxi´s, which are cars that wait until the car has 4 passengers then it leaves..........some times u wait 5 minutes other times u wait an hour.(u can leave instantly if u pay for the other empty seats....but r u crazy . I`ve got more time than money on this trip, and plus i practised my Spanish while we sat in car waiting) The driver walks around and shouts out name of town we are heading to, and for laughs I even started imitating him out of pure boredom which the locals thought was quite funny , to see a tourist try to peddle rides to locals, as it is always happening the other way. I never saw another tourists all day of travelling, even the last town I´d see 1, then maybe a couple together hours later aside from my truck sightseeing tour ...........Its really nice as people here are still genuine and nice for sake of being nice, and not for money like so many other countries..............they see us as people not walking money machines...........Maybe it is a good thing the world is still scared to come here..............as tourism will ruin the niceness of the people, some of them, and turn it into greed..............sadly.
Beautiful scenery but mountain travel is so stupidly slow it is frustrating and bumpy too. Passed a bridge and saw on each side of the bridge and on both sides of the road were bunkers completely made of sandbags with only lil slits to look and shoot out of........Weird to see, not used to it at home, but obviously someone thought they were to be useful.....as they didn´t build them for fun. Also at my 3rd bus station as I waited for the taxi to fill up, I could hear explosions and asked locals to find out it was an army range nearby practising.............practising for what i thought. I definitely don´t hear that everyday!
Some some cool lizards or chameleons? on road in mountains. Finally got to lil town. I stayed in a home stay, nice house, clean room, hot water (was 5.00 per night but convinced her 4.50 was more fair and she nodded).
I got glass of fresh pure mixed fruit juice after getting there and today before i left, which was nice and made me feel guilty and bargaining her down the extra $.50. Supper was, I´m not joking, rice n beans and fried eggs with tomato salad and fried bananas with fruit shake and cup of star fruit for 2.00 My stomach hurt but i managed to finish the plate. It was weird as at 7:30 the lady showed me where the light switch was in dining room, locked the kitchen.........then left me totally alone there............kinda creepy feeling, but oh well. I locked myself in the room and read. I truly felt creeped out a bit, as I can´t recall ever the owner just leaving me alone.
Kinda like i was in charge of the whole place!!! What if someone else came and asked for a room? Thanfully no one did! whew!!
Today I walked up and down the friggen mountainside to numrous different tombs and statues. Tombs were cool, carved out of rock underground and painted nice designs. But my ass finally didn´t hurt from the horseriding, and my legs totally hurt.........It was hard work and climbed from 8:00 till after 2:00 pm till finally i said enough and left. I walked back to my hotel with seeing rest of tombs and stuff. Hardly any tourists there at all. What a shame, such beautiful place. I walked down the road about 30 - 40 mins with all my bags as it started to slightly rain to catch bus at a junction road.............I totaly hoped anyone would pass by so i could hop a lift and would have gladly paid the pittance that was expected if not ride given for free.
oh well, ride wasn´t too bad. Sat next to an english teacher..........awesome. Learnt some new words and her english wasn´t too good so i helped her as well.........in 4 hours we never stopped talking .
I am thinking of going zip lining, then to hot springs then tomorrow night, catch the 8 or 11 pm bus for a 13 hr busride to medellin..................of which i have another 12 hr bus ride to cartehena.. Planning on bus all night, check bags at bus depot then walk around all day, and then bus all night. It will suck but should be at cartahena in 1 1/2 days if all goes well!
I will try to email more as this was a long one! Probably forgot lots of stuff but to tired to re read this. Spell check not working neither!
oh well. Hey if u enjoy ready this thing..........pick a random date out of next 21 days and send me an email...................Aside from the hot n spicy ones i get from Laura.........i don´t get many others! nice to hear what is new back home!
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