a vacation from my vacation
I couldnīt get sarah to stick around cartagena for another day. I sort of wanted to wait for the boys from Medellin to catch up with us, but instead somehow got convinced to join in on a convoy to Santa Marta instead. I had my qualms since I knew it would be hard to find accomodation over the christmas/new year period, and I was already snug and safe with a bed in Cartagena. Nobody else seemed to be too concerned, so i quieted the worrying voice in my head and went with the flow.
Sarah, Thea (the australian girl from medellin), Annie (the australian girl part of the sick TV club in Cartagena), and I banded together and hopped onto a bus heading for Santa Marta, a beach city about 4 hours away by bus and gateway to Parque Nacional Tayrona and the Ciudad Perdida, both of which I had no intention to do. I really had been set on staying in Cartagena so had no idea what I would get up to in Santa Marta, but I realized that spending christmas and new years with sarah and the girls would be far more preferable than potentially being alone. We found a hostel to check into the night we arrived, but were informed that we would have to leave the next day because they were completely booked out for christmas and new years. This threw all of us into a tizzy, getting ourselves worked up about maybe not having a place to stay. I immediately heard the voice in my head go "Why didnīt you just do what you originally planned to do, idiot?"
After a good nights sleep and in the end, it all worked out. Thea went onwards to Taganga (a backpacker village about 15 minutes away by bus) while the rest of us found a really cheap hostel about 5 blocks away. We settled in and decided to stick it out in Santa Marta, which I think we all ended up deciding was the better decision.
Santa Marta is not in and of itself a NICE city. In fact, itīs not really that nice at all. And the beach isnīt nice either. And the church isnīt nice either. Itīs just another town! but what the three of us (who were getting on stupendously well, i felt) liked the best is that it felt LOCAL, you know? It was filled with colombians, with little to no tourists about. When we went dancing (and dancing we have) we werenīt hanging out with other foreigners, we were in the corner booth with the crazy colombians sharing their aguardiente and teaching us salsa. When we went to have dinner we werenīt frequenting the gringo restaurants, we were out on the street scarfing down hawaiian pizza and making friends with the stall owners. It was in general just a very relaxing time and as annie said, it was nice to "be somewhere where there isnīt really anything you have to go see". Sarah deemed it our vacation from our vacation, which after being sick for the third time in colombia has been a very, VERY welcome respite.
I bought another dress, this time bright yellow (i KNOW. i donīt know what sarah is doing to me that is making me buy such bright things. I feel slightly like a banana when I wear this dress, but people canīt stop complimenting me on it when i wear it) and debuted it on christmas day, my first summer christmas to be more accurate. We packed up food for a picnic (bread, pesto, avocados, tomatoes, grapes, etc) and went to taganga to finally see the beaches and all the other gringos. What we underestimated was that all the other locals would also flock to the beach, so when we got there we were absolutely surrounded by people. Nonetheless, the beach had a relaxing, refreshing charm about it despite it being a completely mediocre beach. We ate, swam in the clear waters and made a very stupid attempt at trying to bore a hole in a watermelon and pour some vodka into it...but this really didnīt work out.
Other notable activities--
Dinner with the hare krishnas! -- Okay not really. But we were roped into a fundraising dinner for a local school for a poor barrio, and it was catered by the hare krishnas. It was quite a small fundraiser, and when we arrived we realized we were being set up to eat in a mechanicīs garage and served on nothing more than flimsy plates and plastic cups for 15,000pesos (considered expensive for a meal here), but it was one my favorite things we did the entire time in Santa Marta! Some of the local kids came out to perform what they had been learning from the foreign volunteers (kung fu and guitar, apparently) and they took to us immediately, making us pose for endless photos and giving us kisses and hugs as they left. You could tell that the kids who performed were so nervous before they started, but soooo giddy after they were done. Every single person there clapped their hardest for the nervous little performers. I certainly felt the entire thing was in the spirit of doing something wonderful for the children, and I happily forked over my 15,000 for surprisingly good food (who knew the hare krishnas were such pros in the kitchen?) and feeling like the money was going to helping these poor kids have something positive in their lives.
Yoga with a crazy english lady -- Back when I was in India with Kieran I remember meeting this older british woman from the bus. She had been in India for YEARS and had that eccentricity about her that foreigners get when theyīve been out of touch with their home country for too long. This yoga teacher was sort of like that. Certainly not as intense, but still had that lilting voice of somebody who has found "enlightenment" in india, had the excessively kohl lined eyelids, and spoke a lot about chakras and spirituality. This, luckily, took nothing away from the actual yoga, which made me feel MILES better than when I came in. I generally enjoyed her talks and once again considered picking up yoga as a regular practice.
Sarah, Thea (the australian girl from medellin), Annie (the australian girl part of the sick TV club in Cartagena), and I banded together and hopped onto a bus heading for Santa Marta, a beach city about 4 hours away by bus and gateway to Parque Nacional Tayrona and the Ciudad Perdida, both of which I had no intention to do. I really had been set on staying in Cartagena so had no idea what I would get up to in Santa Marta, but I realized that spending christmas and new years with sarah and the girls would be far more preferable than potentially being alone. We found a hostel to check into the night we arrived, but were informed that we would have to leave the next day because they were completely booked out for christmas and new years. This threw all of us into a tizzy, getting ourselves worked up about maybe not having a place to stay. I immediately heard the voice in my head go "Why didnīt you just do what you originally planned to do, idiot?"
After a good nights sleep and in the end, it all worked out. Thea went onwards to Taganga (a backpacker village about 15 minutes away by bus) while the rest of us found a really cheap hostel about 5 blocks away. We settled in and decided to stick it out in Santa Marta, which I think we all ended up deciding was the better decision.
Santa Marta is not in and of itself a NICE city. In fact, itīs not really that nice at all. And the beach isnīt nice either. And the church isnīt nice either. Itīs just another town! but what the three of us (who were getting on stupendously well, i felt) liked the best is that it felt LOCAL, you know? It was filled with colombians, with little to no tourists about. When we went dancing (and dancing we have) we werenīt hanging out with other foreigners, we were in the corner booth with the crazy colombians sharing their aguardiente and teaching us salsa. When we went to have dinner we werenīt frequenting the gringo restaurants, we were out on the street scarfing down hawaiian pizza and making friends with the stall owners. It was in general just a very relaxing time and as annie said, it was nice to "be somewhere where there isnīt really anything you have to go see". Sarah deemed it our vacation from our vacation, which after being sick for the third time in colombia has been a very, VERY welcome respite.
I bought another dress, this time bright yellow (i KNOW. i donīt know what sarah is doing to me that is making me buy such bright things. I feel slightly like a banana when I wear this dress, but people canīt stop complimenting me on it when i wear it) and debuted it on christmas day, my first summer christmas to be more accurate. We packed up food for a picnic (bread, pesto, avocados, tomatoes, grapes, etc) and went to taganga to finally see the beaches and all the other gringos. What we underestimated was that all the other locals would also flock to the beach, so when we got there we were absolutely surrounded by people. Nonetheless, the beach had a relaxing, refreshing charm about it despite it being a completely mediocre beach. We ate, swam in the clear waters and made a very stupid attempt at trying to bore a hole in a watermelon and pour some vodka into it...but this really didnīt work out.
Other notable activities--
Dinner with the hare krishnas! -- Okay not really. But we were roped into a fundraising dinner for a local school for a poor barrio, and it was catered by the hare krishnas. It was quite a small fundraiser, and when we arrived we realized we were being set up to eat in a mechanicīs garage and served on nothing more than flimsy plates and plastic cups for 15,000pesos (considered expensive for a meal here), but it was one my favorite things we did the entire time in Santa Marta! Some of the local kids came out to perform what they had been learning from the foreign volunteers (kung fu and guitar, apparently) and they took to us immediately, making us pose for endless photos and giving us kisses and hugs as they left. You could tell that the kids who performed were so nervous before they started, but soooo giddy after they were done. Every single person there clapped their hardest for the nervous little performers. I certainly felt the entire thing was in the spirit of doing something wonderful for the children, and I happily forked over my 15,000 for surprisingly good food (who knew the hare krishnas were such pros in the kitchen?) and feeling like the money was going to helping these poor kids have something positive in their lives.
Yoga with a crazy english lady -- Back when I was in India with Kieran I remember meeting this older british woman from the bus. She had been in India for YEARS and had that eccentricity about her that foreigners get when theyīve been out of touch with their home country for too long. This yoga teacher was sort of like that. Certainly not as intense, but still had that lilting voice of somebody who has found "enlightenment" in india, had the excessively kohl lined eyelids, and spoke a lot about chakras and spirituality. This, luckily, took nothing away from the actual yoga, which made me feel MILES better than when I came in. I generally enjoyed her talks and once again considered picking up yoga as a regular practice.
1 Comments:
Hello everyone! Who knows where to upload the film Avatar?
I even bought the film Avatar for a SMS to http://rsskino.ru/kinofilm/avatar.html , the link was, but download fails, the system will boot quite strange cocoa something.
Men, advise where to normal as quickly download film avatar?
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