Festival of lights
The next day was MUCH less death defying, but not any less wonderful. In fact we spent most of the day not doing a whole lot other than walking around Armenia. Armenia itself is not the nicest city in colombia and is WAY off the gringo trail. I can confidently say I did not see a single other gringo the entire time I was there. So for that fact alone I really enjoyed my day there. James did his social rounds (i swear we couldnīt walk more than 20 feet before he had to stop and chat with somebody else) and when we werenīt walking along we were parked in little cafes sipping on coffee and eating the local cheese bread (yummmm...cheeeeeseee....). My new vocabulary word that day was "oso pelisoso", which means sloth, unless there was something really lost in translation with James.
We were waiting around most of the day to borrow James' cousin's scooter again so we could go the nearby town of Buena Vista. They were having a festival of lights where the entire town shuts the electricity off and the streets are filled with candle lit lamps. I thought I had experienced something special that most tourists wouldn't, but i found out later that the entire country participates in this festival of lights, but it's really good in buena vista because of its small size. Still, finding that out only took away a little bit from the overall experience.
Eventually we figured out that we wouldn't be able to get the scooter, so Julien and I moseyed our way to the bus station to catch a bus instead. Due to some technical difficulties, however, we ended up getting dropped off 5 km from the town. In theory, really this isn't SO far, except that it was getting dark fast, there was a lightning storm (which, oh i dunno, usually indicates RAIN???), and we were also at the bottom of a MASSIVE massive hill. It was so humid and warm, i was worried that at any moment there would be a huge clap of thunder and rain would start pissing down on us, sans umbrella and wearing far too much cotton. But there wasn't much we could do. James said they started lighting the lamps at 7, and we were at least an hour away by foot. So we just started climbing, in the hopes that we would make it in time. Blessed the powers that be, after 20 or 30 minutes of seemingly never ending inclines I flagged down a passing jeep. The older colombian woman, upon finding out I was from the US, told me she had 3 sisters living in the US. "oh really?" I said,"Where in the US?" She gave me a mystified look and said she had no idea. Julien told me later that this was the first time he had ever hitchhiked, which I thought was funny. I guess I haven't done so much hitchhiking either, but after the middle east a lot of the mystery has been taken out of it.
At the edge of town we passed by James, who was at the local store waiting for our bus to arrive. He had a lot of family there and arranged for us to stay with one of his aunts, and then we checked out the small town slowly being brought to life.
you guys, it was STUNNING. I had this incredibly happy feeling the entire evening. Imagine every street in your neighborhood filled with paper lanterns of all shapes and sizes--think mini dioramas of towns, helicopter lamps with candle powered rotators, butterfly lamps hanging from strings, even a set of lanterns designed to look like a gondola moving off into the distance! etc. etc. I'm not kidding, these people went ALL OUT with these lamps, and they were lined up on the street, sometimes 5 across and hundreds deep, giving the entire town this wonderfully mystical and euphoric feeling. We walked around up and down all the hills and I cooed each time we turned the corner. Each street even had its own theme! I took a moment to notice that there were maybe too many little kids lighting up things unsupervised, but again I put it down to south american kids just being a lot tougher than their north american counterparts. seriously, i think maybe we're coddling our kids too much. I even saw a few lamps go down in flames, but the colombians just laughed and stamped out any dangerous embers.
The town was in a GREAT mood and in a state of celebration--the local bands were playing upbeat salsa meringue hybrid music, everybody was hefting around bottles of aguardiente (including us!), and people were dancing in plaza. Julien and I even attempted to participate (me in flip flops, him in crocs, no less), but I think our inexperience was obvious. Still, I loved that the cliche was true, colombian kids literally come out of the womb dancing. I watched 8 year old kids show Julien and me up without even working up a sweat. an amazing experience, i can't express it enough.
By 1 i was warped and headed back for sleep, although I later heard James stayed out until 5. When i gawked he just gave me this shrug, as if to say "what? that's how we do it here." James, his cousin, Julien, and I later rode some motorbikes up to a new artesanal coffee shop that overlooked the valley and town, and up there you could see why this amazingly beautiful place was called Buena Vista.
We were waiting around most of the day to borrow James' cousin's scooter again so we could go the nearby town of Buena Vista. They were having a festival of lights where the entire town shuts the electricity off and the streets are filled with candle lit lamps. I thought I had experienced something special that most tourists wouldn't, but i found out later that the entire country participates in this festival of lights, but it's really good in buena vista because of its small size. Still, finding that out only took away a little bit from the overall experience.
Eventually we figured out that we wouldn't be able to get the scooter, so Julien and I moseyed our way to the bus station to catch a bus instead. Due to some technical difficulties, however, we ended up getting dropped off 5 km from the town. In theory, really this isn't SO far, except that it was getting dark fast, there was a lightning storm (which, oh i dunno, usually indicates RAIN???), and we were also at the bottom of a MASSIVE massive hill. It was so humid and warm, i was worried that at any moment there would be a huge clap of thunder and rain would start pissing down on us, sans umbrella and wearing far too much cotton. But there wasn't much we could do. James said they started lighting the lamps at 7, and we were at least an hour away by foot. So we just started climbing, in the hopes that we would make it in time. Blessed the powers that be, after 20 or 30 minutes of seemingly never ending inclines I flagged down a passing jeep. The older colombian woman, upon finding out I was from the US, told me she had 3 sisters living in the US. "oh really?" I said,"Where in the US?" She gave me a mystified look and said she had no idea. Julien told me later that this was the first time he had ever hitchhiked, which I thought was funny. I guess I haven't done so much hitchhiking either, but after the middle east a lot of the mystery has been taken out of it.
At the edge of town we passed by James, who was at the local store waiting for our bus to arrive. He had a lot of family there and arranged for us to stay with one of his aunts, and then we checked out the small town slowly being brought to life.
you guys, it was STUNNING. I had this incredibly happy feeling the entire evening. Imagine every street in your neighborhood filled with paper lanterns of all shapes and sizes--think mini dioramas of towns, helicopter lamps with candle powered rotators, butterfly lamps hanging from strings, even a set of lanterns designed to look like a gondola moving off into the distance! etc. etc. I'm not kidding, these people went ALL OUT with these lamps, and they were lined up on the street, sometimes 5 across and hundreds deep, giving the entire town this wonderfully mystical and euphoric feeling. We walked around up and down all the hills and I cooed each time we turned the corner. Each street even had its own theme! I took a moment to notice that there were maybe too many little kids lighting up things unsupervised, but again I put it down to south american kids just being a lot tougher than their north american counterparts. seriously, i think maybe we're coddling our kids too much. I even saw a few lamps go down in flames, but the colombians just laughed and stamped out any dangerous embers.
The town was in a GREAT mood and in a state of celebration--the local bands were playing upbeat salsa meringue hybrid music, everybody was hefting around bottles of aguardiente (including us!), and people were dancing in plaza. Julien and I even attempted to participate (me in flip flops, him in crocs, no less), but I think our inexperience was obvious. Still, I loved that the cliche was true, colombian kids literally come out of the womb dancing. I watched 8 year old kids show Julien and me up without even working up a sweat. an amazing experience, i can't express it enough.
By 1 i was warped and headed back for sleep, although I later heard James stayed out until 5. When i gawked he just gave me this shrug, as if to say "what? that's how we do it here." James, his cousin, Julien, and I later rode some motorbikes up to a new artesanal coffee shop that overlooked the valley and town, and up there you could see why this amazingly beautiful place was called Buena Vista.
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