Tney visits Colombia! DayQuil delivery, chicken gloves, big trees and lots of stairs!

Turns out making real friends post college is really hard. Traveling has made it quite easy – always new, interesting people to meet. I am going to go home and start talking to whoever is sitting next me… hey, whats your name? Where are you from? And they will all think I’m crazy. Who is this weird girl talking me?? With that in mind I realize how fortunate I am to have made such a good friend while working at Towson University. Courtney and I shared the same position and therefore similar frustrations and luckily similar senses of silly-fun-dress up themed humor. Courtney, or Tney as she is known to me was in on my plan to travel from pretty much the beginning. She was incredibly encouraging for the whole 2+ years that I was thinking, dreaming and planning this year away. She said from the beginning that she wanted to come meet me on the trip and I knew that she would make it happen! Just a FYI, Tney and I both love taking photos to this post contains approximately 1 million pictures. The good news is Colombia is beautiful and so are we so get on board & enjoy the photos!

She’s here!!!

So many goodies! EXCEPT for that horrible promotional hat that I absolutely hate and can’t seem to every get rid of!

Turns out you take out the guava seeds BEFORE you make juice. Or like us you can spit out hundreds of seeds while drinking your smoothie. You know, options.

Arepa de Choclo… Colombian’s best glutten free option!

Tney came down for Towson’s Spring Break and we had an amazing week together. To start with she brought me a list of things I was missing from home – peanut butter, Frank’s RedHot, Pepto and Dayquil! Amazing. We spent our first few days exploring Medellin. We went to Botero Plaza and visited Mueso Antioquia to check out Botero’s work. Courtney is a huge fan of street art and statue parks so Medellin was a good fit for her! We took a walking tour all through the city and I learned a lot of new things. We checked out the street art in Cuidad del Rio, wandered through Parque Explora (a hands on science park), hide from the rain in the Botanical Garden and rode the metro cable to Bibloteca Espana. We did a lot! Packed it in but also relaxed. Courtney was very interested to hear that Colombians eat chicken – rotisserie style or wings with plastic gloves. She had a great time in Medellin and really liked all the things we did but I think her favorite thing was the chicken gloves!

Another memorable experience from our time in Medellin was when we took a taxi and our driver fell asleep. Fell asleep while driving us. Courtney and I screamed from the backseat and he woke up as we were rolling into the back of a bus. Thankfully we had been coming up to a red light so we were moving very slow. The driver just giggled like it was cute or something. Courtney and I were NOT pleased. Who falls asleep while breaking for a red light?? Oh Medellin, your taxi drivers do leave something to be desired. But, you know, no one was hurt so all’s well that ends well.

From Medellin Courtney and I headed into the Zona Cafetera, the Coffee Region of Colombia. We stayed at a beautiful ranch house turned hostel in Salento. We wanted to do a coffee tour and decided we would go to one that was supposed to be about a 10 minute walk away. Mmmhmm, an hour and a half or so later and we finally arrived. Lucky for us it was all down hill and the scenery was beautiful. We had a very sweet tour guide who showed us all about the process of planting, harvesting, picking, roasting and brewing coffee. Courtney and I were given a chance to pick beans. I thought we did great. Our guide… NOT impressed with our work. Guess its office life for us.

The most important thing we learned is the difference between Tier 1 and Tier 2 coffee. Anything we drink in the States is Tier 1 – obviously there are differences in quality but it is all Tier 1. Colombians and most coffee producing countries drink Tier 2. Tier 1 coffee smells delicious and rich. Tier 2 coffee smells like dirty gym socks. It amazing the difference. It’s sad that the people who are producing the best coffee drink absolute shit coffee. So drink up gringos and enjoy the good life!

Here we go!

The main reason people come to Salento is to hike in the Valle de Cocora. This valley is famous for having the tallest palm trees in the world. The Wax Palm is the national tree of Colombia and it is beautiful. We hiked for about 8 hours but only spent the last two hours or so among the palms. The hike was beautiful and muddy. We both slipped in the mud at different times. At one point we decided our best option was to get off the trail, shimmy under the barbed wire and walk among the cows. You know, as you do. The trail criss crossed over a river for a while which involved going over incredibly sketchy bridges that are actually really fun. We also explored an area full of hummingbird feeders – another of Tney’s favorite things! It was a great but exhausting day. When we finally made it to the palms we were amazed. It felt like we were in a Dr. Suess book. Just amazing. I couldn’t recommend it more!

Happy place.

Towson Abroad! #howbigisyourworld

Nature is crazy, awesome, beautiful, amazing, captivating…

Peace out trees, it’s been fun.

Salento was amazing but with only 9 days it was already time to move onto the next! We came back to Medellin and from there took a day trip to the pueblo of Guatape. Guatape is probably the most popular day trip from Medellin. It is famous for La Piedra, the rock. A giant rock with a staircase built into the side. You can climb to the top. All 740 steps. People will tell you that it’s not that hard and it really isn’t but I mean, 740 is a lot of steps! The views from the top are amazing so its vale la pena, worth the climb.

Made it to the top!

Is this real life? So pretty.

Time to go all the way back downnnnnnn

What I didn’t know until I got there was how pretty the town of Guatape is. This was the only town that I saw the buildings decorated in this way. It was a fantastic last day to an incredible visit! It was so important to me to share a place I loved so much with someone who total gets my love of travel! Tney thank you for visiting!

Lamby friend.

House of the zebra?

Lovely town to just wander around.

I want a seahorse on my house!

Calle del recuerdo.

Neighborhood watch.

It appears cats ARE allowed here.

Need a ride?

We decided this was Santa’s secret summer home.

birdie! birdie! birdie!

La piedra

I’ll meet you at the unicorn house.

Bread & Life. Carb lovers unite!

What an ass.

COLOMBIA!!

Lady of the Lake

Courtney and her husband, Mike (my former roommate!) have just recently moved to Colorado. I am so excited to visit them and have our next adventure!

Congrats guys! Looking forward to a reunion!

 

Ohhh, so that’s what being homesick feels like. Medellin, te quiero!

So I’m catching up! The blog has officially made it to Colombia! Even though I left about 7 weeks ago it still feels too close to really think about, write about. I loved Colombia. I loved it while I was there and I think it’s possible that I love it even more now that I am gone. Absence makes the heart grow fonder and all that good stuff.

Before I left the States I had made a plan: travel for 5 months, live in Colombia for 5 months and then travel for 2 more months. As I’ve said before, I like plans. I am good at plans. This one was specific enough that I had a sense of what I was doing but general enough that I was able to leave lots unplanned. It kept me from getting homesick. When it came time to leave Colombia I was sad to go but also excited for the next phase of my trip.

When I left Colombia I flew directly to Granada, Nicaragua. Right before I left Colombia I somehow tweaked my back and was having very bad sciatic nerve pain. So that sucked. First of all I was in pain, secondly I felt like I should be 85 years old hobbling around and finally nothing is worse for a backpacker then not being able to walk! I still have some pain but it’s mostly gone now, gracias a Dios. At the time though it was definitely bumming me out!

So anyway.. I left Colombia, my leg hurt real bad and first the first time in 10 months I experienced a new feeling, homesickness. While I love the States and my family and friends there it wasn’t them  I was homesick for. I missed Colombia! I missed my people! I couldn’t have been luckier with the group of people I had to live, teach and explore with in Medellin.

Missing a few of the originals and adding in a few news one but I love how happy we all are!

We started the program with a huge orientation and had a chance to meet people who would teach all over the country. Thanks to the wonders of facebook I am able to keep in touch with people spread all over Colombia. From that I know that several different cities have formed tight bonds and really enjoy each other. That’s great, I am so happy for those people but no doubt in my mind, Medellin Spring 2015 group was the best. With representation from Canada, the USA, the UK, Ireland, India and Australia we were quite a diverse group and we got on so well.

As in any group we all subtly and in some cases overtly played a role. There were the quiet ones and loud ones, the good dancers, the DJ, the excellent teachers, the chill ones and the hyper ones. I tended to be the organizer. We had a few amazing weekends – Chiva birthday bus and two hilarious fincas stand out in my mind. Everyone was just game for whatever. Medellin is a FUN city. There is lots to do both during the day and at night. We really lucked out with our placement as well as our group of people. Beyond our fellow teachers we also added to the group with roommates, bfs/gfs and people we just randomly met. The people of Medellin are famous for being friendly and it is absolutely true. I love the Paisas! Medellin is amazing and I highly recommend a visit.

 

Beyond my English teachers group I was lucky to meet another group of people. There is a park in Medellin that is very popular to hangout and have drinks at night. Open container is legal. There tons of people, mostly tourists but a mix of other too. One of those nights Victoria (another one of the English teachers and my partner in crime) and I met Raul. Even though Medellin is a big city it’s also tiny. We later ended up running into Raul for a second time. He is the owner of a CrossFit gym and offered us each a free month of personal training. I was super nervous. It had been a long time since I worked out and CF is nuts. I did a lot of googling, read reviews and got more information about it. I decided, por que no? Who gets offered free personal training? I couldn’t pass up that chance.

Like all good crossfitters Victoria and I started and got hooked. The space was fanatic. It was in the back of a Harley Davidson motorcycle store and bar – which is still hilarious to me. The walls were open so there was a ton of fresh air and we even had a fully grown mango tree coming up out of the floor. It is just next to a nice, quiet park (where we would do my least favorite thing – run) and you could hear the river flowing when the music was off. Using mostly basic equipment (mats, kettle bells, weighed medicine balls, jump ropes, pull up bars – that kinda thing) we did the crazy hardest workouts of my life. I have never sweat so much. Raul, the owner and Jose, the trainer knew how to push each individual person to work their hardest but not hurt themselves. The vibe of the gym was incredible. The biggest sessions had maybe 10 people at a time which gave us a chance to all get to know each other. The classes were partially in English and partially in Spanish. I would walk into the gym and each person greeted me while a big hello and kiss on the cheek. Raul being the huge goof that he is was constantly give hugs and cracking jokes. Jose was constantly focused and incredibly positive. Who would have thought that joining a gym would be one of my best Colombian experiences? And it worked too! I lost somewhere around 25lbs in the two and a half months that I worked out with them. Alpha Kettlebell Club I may never find another place like you but I will be forever grateful!

Photo credit to Raul!

Colombia I still miss you! I miss the idea of living and working in another country even actually doing it isn’t quite as romantic as thinking about it. I miss the dancing. Pues, I miss the accent of the Paisas. I miss all the places that I didn’t get to actually visit but have seen and heard about. I miss working a 15 hour work week and having enough money to live pretty comfortably! I miss the gym, the trainers and all my friends from there! While “Colombia” now means so many different things to me what I will always miss most is the people and the sense of family we created in just 5 short months! Te estraño, te amo.

SENA photo!

Cuenca v. Quito – it’s a clear winner.

When I wasn’t being visited by college besties or off being a biker babe in Banos I had a chance to explore a few other places in Ecuador. Cuenca is for sure the prettiest city in Ecuador. To be honest I didn’t do a whole ton while I was there. My hostel had an amazing wifi connection so I watched lots of Netflix. Even in a beautiful place sometimes you need to just chill out and binge watch Orange Is the New Black. One day when I finally turned off Netflix I happened upon what may be the weirdest religious parade ever.

While I was there I also did a week of Spanish classes at CEDEI. I went to that language school because I met the Director at a work conference and because Katie, a friend from Baltimore had studied and worked there in the past. These were definitely the best Spanish classes I have taken. The professor was so good. He explained several questions about Spanish that had always confused me. If you are looking for a great Spanish school I would highly recommend it. While I was at the school I was also able to tag alone of an excursion to the Ingapirca Ruins. It was initally a site of a pre-Inca tribe that worshipped the moon. At first the Incas came in and they lived side by side but eventually the Inca just took over with their superior knowledge of argiculture, construction, mathematics and understanding of the sun which allowed them to seem god-like.

Other then Spanish lessons and netflix I developed an obsession with chocolate coconut ice cream and even though it was pretty chill I ate it every single day! I walked around and was amazed at how pretty the city was. I took lots of pictures.

After Cuenca I went to Quito. I got to meet up with both Ellen and Josta again but seperately this time because we had split up at that point. Great to see the girls again! I bought and lost 3 scarves… in like week. Leaving things behind is kinda my super power but I have been pretty good on this trip all things considered. Got a chest infection and waited for Mary to arrive! I didn’t love Quito. It was cold and a little unfriendly. I found it a bit intimiating, it reminded me of a much more developed La Paz. I think I’m just a number 2 city kinda girl. I like Boston over NY. Medellin over Bogota. Cuenca over Quito. Baltimore and Buffalo are perfect examples of two more smaller cities that I love. So, no doubt, hands down… I’m a team Cuenca.

Mary in Ecuador! Being in two places at once, lots of screaming and unavoidable face tats.

Way back in January Mary was my first visitor on my trip. Since then I have been visited by Courtney, Rachel and Megan then my parents who only left Mexico a few days ago. I have been thrilled to have so many visitors! I can still remember being soooooo excited for Mary to arrive! Mary is one of my best friends and roommates from Bonaventure. Whenever we are together there is lots of laughing, some serious talk and tons of ridiculousness. We only had about 8 or 9 days and there were tons of things we wanted to do in Ecuador.

We’re so happy to be hanging out!

Pretty lady.

We spent our first few days in Quito. We visited a market, got Mary a fresh coconut and made it to the Mitad del Mundo – the equator line dividing the hemispheres. The Mitad was very cool. We got to explore all over the mostly empty site, take a million photos, befriend some llamas and balance an egg on a nail. Plus if you stand over the line you are in two places at once, who doesn’t love that? There was also a green screen where you used a timer to take your own picture. We of course took about a dozen pictures, each one somehow more awful than the next. #talented

 

Two friends, two hemispheres.

Check out these green screen skills. There are seals behind us but you can’t tell.

While we were there we did some bridal shower gift shopping. In the years since college our friend and the then bride-to-be Kat had developed a love for ugly sweater vests. She had a Halloween cat vest that came out at all times of year once she had enough drinks in her. Bolivia and Peru are all about the llama sweaters. I have two, its easy to get obsessed. When we saw (for the first time ever) llama sweater vests we knew we had hit the shower gift jackpot. Matching his and hers llama sweater vests? Yes, please! Mary gifted Kat the vest of both our behalf and thankfully Kat loved them as much as we hoped she would!

Next to the official site is an non-official museum and the actual equator line.  That place is hilarious and we highly suggest a visit. There all sort of displays about the indigenous cultures in Peru and the surrounding countries. Shrunken heads and a house full of guinea pigs were our favorites. The museum also had science experiments that were intended for kids but we were totally into it. Did you know that you can’t walk in a straight line on the Equator line? That water spins in one direction North of the Equator and in the other direction South of the line? Also we did our balancing egg trick again – champs!

Super blurry but there how to make a shrunken head if you were wondering.

There were replicas of religious figures from all over the Americas.

This is the actual equator line, not where the scientist had said.

Shrunken heads!

She can’t do! It is impossible to walk on the line!

From Quito we went to Mindo, a little mountain town with some adventure activities. We had a crazy full day of exploring. First thing we woke up at 6am to go to a hummingbird garden. It was incredible. The garden was in the back of a small hotel and had dozens of bird feeders and all the plants and trees hummingbirds like. There must have been at least 200 hummingbirds. There are tons of different kinds, all beautiful and tiny.

They are so fast that it’s hard to take a good picture.

WIFI is everywhere!

After that we took a dip in the pool and then decided we should go white water tubing. White water tubing is a lot like rafting but instead of a raft there are just six inner tubes tied together. Normally groups of 5 go out but since it was the low season they were happy to just take Mary and I. We strap on our helmets and awkwardly climb into our attached tubes. Our guides tells us the river is very high so we should always hold on to our rope handles and if he says hold on tight we gotta hold on REALLY tight. OK… let’s do this. Just before Mary came I got a really bad chest infection which included a horrible cough. So the whole time going down the rough water I was sucking on a cough drop and Mary was screaming at the top of her lungs. The guide thought we were insane but fun.

It was Mary, myself, our guide, a driver and another man taking our picture at different view points. #talkaboutservice.

Green vests, red helmets and giant sunnies… we are clearly ready for adventure.

Notice my face.

We made it!!!

We went over a pretty large drop and Mary’s tube just catches it wrong. She is all of a sudden doing  of backward head stand, up on her shoulders, feet swinging and nearly kicking our guide in the chest. She manages to hold, he manages to duck and all three of us are laughing hysterically. Not 5 minutes later and the same thing happens to me! Once again the guide successfully ducked out of the way and I somehow managed to hold on. The river was cold and crazy and I think with our weirdly balanced weight our guide was struggling a bit but it was awesome.

After that we got into to town and decided what the hell – we were up for another adventure. This time it was ziplining. We went on a huge ziplining course. The lines were really long and we were super high up. I thought Mary screamed while we were rafting but she really let it out – super high, crazy screams every time she went ziplining. Again, hilarious. Our guides died laughing as she screamed her head off. I went through about ten cough drops by the time we were done and nearly pee’d my pants laughing.

Mary got an awesome shot of me on cruising above the trees.

This time we went with yellow helmets.

Our final day in Mindo we went on a chocolate tour. The tour was excellent. First we were shown all the stages from the cacao fruit, cocoa butter, to the chocolate nibs and finally, candy bar! We had a great tour through the gardens. They diversify the plants as a natural insecticide. Banana plants next to cacao next to coffee and so on which keeps insects away somehow. We saw the drying stations. Chocolate making and packaging processes and then it was time for our tasting! We had a brownie that was legit the best brownie of my life. We also had chocolate sauce – first no sugar which was HORRIBLE. Then a little sugar which was better. This place specialized in sauces – a ginger sauce, a chili sauce and a balsamic sauces. All were amazing the ginger and the balsamic were for sure my favs. We decided to eat there and it was honestly one of my best meals in all of my trip. We share steak with coffee sauces and a chicken with chocolate sauce. My mouth waters just thinking about it. SO GOOD.

On the left are chocolate nibs (which have no sugar and taste awful) on the right is dried cacao.

Wrapping up the candy bars in a super air conditioned kitchen.

Pretty coffee plants.

Mary among the cacao trees.

This tiny bit of stevia was insanely sweet when you ate it.Wr

Yum-o chocolate chicken.

Sorry dad, never did get that marinade recipe. #so good

BEST. BROWNIE. EVER.

Drying out the cacao.

From Mindo we wanted to get some beach time. The trip wasn’t quite as quick as we expect and we ended up spending almost a whole day on the bus. Canoa was a lovely little beach town. We spent our first day just hanging out, swimming and hitting up the different happy hours. There were lots of little shops near our (super crappy) beach motel. One of the shops was owned by Face Tat. A man who had tattoos on both sides of his face who became obsessed with Mary. We avoided him but the town is small and he seemed to pop up everywhere! That night we went out and danced under the stars at a beach bar and who was there but Face Tat. Alright we’re calling it a night. On our final day we decided to just camp out of the beach. Around hour 4 Face Tat came and found us and didn’t want to leave. We went from politely disinterested to aggressively telling him to leave us alone. In all the excitement Mary forgot to apply sunblock and later that night climbed onto the bus with a truly terrible sunburn. Whoops! Just what you want for a plane ride back to the States!

Looking forward to another beachy vacation with Mary again sometime in the future!

It was blast having her. There is nothing like spending time and sharing your adventures with the people you love!

Welcome to Peru! Machu Picchu, Sacred Valley & friends… it’s a good life.

So we are caught up on all of Bolivia and its many wonders… time for Peru! I took a group open tour bus from La Paz to Cusco. The bus company is called Bolivia Hop. They take you from La Paz to Lake Titicaca for an overnight, stop at the Floating Islands and then an overnight bus on to Cusco. Its designed for backpackers as a good budget option with young tour guides and lots of chances to meet other travelers. It was a good experience, I would recommend it.

So our first day we spend in Copacabana which seems very small. We went for a boat ride of Lake Titicaca (the name still makes me laugh) and did a little hiking on Isla del Sol. The lake is the highest navigable lake in the world. Again, crazy elevation… 13,451 ft so lots of shallow breathing and shuffling of feet. I remember thinking that when I finally left Bolivia I was going to appreciate the luxury of a deep breath. All together now… deep breath, yup there’s something you can´t do in Bolivia! The island is very pretty though so it was nice to explore.

Thirsty donkies

Isla coastline

God of the Sun, Inti

An Incan temple

There are a few spots you can stay on the island

Isla del Sol

The llama love continues

Incan creation story says that Lake Titicaca is the birthplace of the Incans and the world. One of the god raised the sun, the moon, the stars and the first the Adam and Eve of the Incans out of the center of the lake. It was interesting to hear the stories as we were cruising around the lake. The water is pretty clean but absolutely freezing so we did not get into the water at all.

On the second day we crossed the border in Puno, Peru which is also on the lake and did a tour our to the Floating Islands. I was really excited to see them. Basically they are islands that are made of sod and then many, many layers of reed. Every two weeks the reed has to completely replaced to keep the islands from sinking. They were originally created as a way of protection, keep floating around so no one could attack you!

In the end the tour was a bit of a let down. For sure the most “made for tourist” attraction I have seen. They claim that the community still lives in this way but it was super obvious that it was set up for our visit. I do believe that they originally lived like that but my guess is that they just take the boat out for the day and actually live in Puno or Copa for real. My group wasn´t too impressed and they were pissed we didn´t buy much! Sorry.

There are a chain of several islands all connected. Each family has their own island.

Showing us how the island are made.

Your chariot awaits!

From there it was on to Cusco! In Cusco I was able to meet up with three friends from Sucre. It was so nice to see Ellen, Kevin and Jenaya! We had a few days to hangout and enjoy the city together. Cusco is very pretty and filled with churches and tourists. I saw more Americans in Cusco then I had during my entire trip through South America. It does also have a great central market full of produce, food stalls and just about every random thing you can imagine.

All that produce.

Cusco market for all your shopping needs.

So many flowers!

Sucre reunion!!

Bidding time.

Sarita.. my spirit animal

Lunch time in the market.

I still managed to get lost…

Ellen! Can you grab me a beer?

The national beer of Peru

From Cusco I booked a two-day trip to Machu Picchu. Those would be two of the best days of my entire trip! The first day we went to Pisac which was an Incan agricultural site. The Incans were incredibly smart and did a lot with agriculture. The site was HUGE. We were way up high and the views were beautiful. You basically have free reign to just climb all around. I loved it!

Each tier was huge and would hold a different variation of crop

The walls still stand with nothing hold them together, just perfectly cut

Stunning views

Way high up so everywhere looked gorgeous

Our next site was Ollantaytambo. This was a strong hold for the Incas during the Spanish invasion. They were able to hold them off for a long time by flooding the lower parts and staying in the terraces. It was few hundred stairs to the top. Up, up, up! Again, gorgeous views and interesting history to keep you moving.

I met a lovely family while I was there. They were both surprised and confused that I was traveling alone so they decided I would travel with them. So sweet. From there we left for the train to Agua Calientes, the town where we would spend the night and head out to Machu Picchu in the morning. I was planning to walk the half hour to the train station but my new Peruvian family were having none of it. They insisted that I get in a tuk tuk with them. The only problem was they had already completely filled up the tuk tuk. Sarita! Venga! Nina, tranquila, vas con nosotros. So I had no choice but to just climb in and half sit on-lay over the top of the brother and sister. Gotta love that Latin hospitality.

The train was beautiful. It has giant windows and the train ride itself is gorgeous. A lot of it is along a river and it cuts right through the mountains. Plus the complimentary drink service was delicious! The train is more than the bus but totally worth it for the experience. I spent that night in Aguas Calientes and the next morning I got up early to take the bus up to Machu Picchu. The bus ride up was again, gorgeous. If you ever go make sure to take the bus from AC to MP, the “hike” is just a walk up a never-ending paved road where you will be passed by lots of buses. So grateful I had gotten that advice so now I tell everyone!

Machu Picchu is wayyyy high up the mountains. It was never found by the Spanish which is why it’s as well-preserved today as it is. I was there on just the edge of the rainy season so it was really cloudy at times. Then all of sudden all the clouds would blow out and the whole Incan city was just shining in the sun. It was incredible and added to the mystical feel of it all.

Modern day Incas

They legit don´t use lawn movers, just llamas.

Pre planned Christmas card!

So cool in black and white!

The famous view!

I made it! Dream come true!!

I was supposed to go on around with a tour group but I was really excited and decided to just explore on my own. I climbed up to the watch tour which is where you get the classic Machu Picchu view. It was stunning. I was worried that it would never live up to my expectations but it totally did! MP is so much bigger then I realized. I spent about 6 hours exploring all over before the heavy rain started and to be honest there was probably even more to see.

Originally I had planned to do MP with Ellen and Jenaya but because of the big ATM card issue I was stuck in Bolivia when they did their trip. In the end I think it might have been for the best. I loved getting to explore on my own. I went at my own pace. I took a million pictures. It was great having some quiet time, just me and MP. It really was an actual dream come true. I can´t recommend it enough, it was the coolest single place I have ever been and a something I will remember forever.

SO HAPPY.

Amazon exploring… all fun and games until A FISH HAS ENTERED THE BOAT!

Visiting the Amazon was one of things on my South America must-do list. The Amazon! I did a little comparison shopping in La Paz and in the end I found a package trip which included my roundtrip flight and a 3 day boat trip on the Amazon including food, lodging and a tour guide for under $300. My flight was at 6am and with La Paz traffic I thought I needed to give myself about 2 hours to get to the airport and check-in. In the end it only took 45 minutes so that was a lot of wasted sleep time. The La Paz airport is pretty modern. I had heard we would be on a small plane and I was ok with that. When it was finally time to board the ten of us on the flight went through the gate expecting to see a plane. Nope. Instead we walked for about 15 minutes all around the tarmac. No areas off-limits, no concern for safety – we just walked. We walked under planes, around planes, across two runways, over a small field and eventually arrived at our baby tiny plane. It was a plane were you could see the pilots and had to crawl to your seat because it was too small to stand up.

Hello Captain!

The plane was freezing. We were all bundled up and still shivering. The plane took off and we were flying over beautiful, snow-covered mountains. It started to get warmer and then warmer and then everyone is simultaneously sweating and stripping off their layers as fast as possible. It was like in a snap of your fingers we went from freezing cold, snowy mountains to hot, tropical rain forest. Bolivia is crazy!

At that point I was super hot and super tired and I fell asleep. I woke up to the plane landing and I was absolutely freezing again. It seemed everyone had fallen asleep so we all a bit dazed and frantically putting on layers. We get out the plane and I know something is off. Everyone said the runway in Rurrenabaque was really remote? And it was supposed to be hot? Why does this look so much like the La Paz airport? Oh, because it was. Our pilots had said nothing in English or Spanish but seems we had turned around. After our 20 minute walk back to the main terminal we were told that due to weather the plane couldn’t land and we had indeed turned back. Great. We spent the day in the small domestic terminal. Every hour or so one of the 10 of us unofficially took turns going to ask for an update. Every time the response was the same… um, we should have an update soon. Seven hours later we finally got put on another plane, the last flight out for the day. We made it! We got to Rurrenabaque and as I had been told the runway was TINY. It was just a small, dirt landing strip in the middle of the jungle. Nuts! We all climbed into a small bus provided by the airport and then were told, for a fee drove us into town. Always looking to make a buck!

Me and the Belgians!

Rurrenabagues booming airport.

I had made friends with two really nice Belgian girls during our airport camp-out and they decided to join my tour group. I had missed day 1 of my tour but the company was great and just pushed my start date to the following day. The girls and I found a cheap hostel with a pool and drove right in. The next morning we headed out for our tour. We had quite the tour group. Myself, the two Belgian girls and two more British girls became fast friends. We rounded out the group with an interesting Australian couple which would turn out to provide both frustration and comic relief during the tour and one more couple, a German girl and French Canadian guy who in the end we would all kind of hate. We piled into two cars and then headed out deeper into the jungle.

We met our boat captain, load our tons of things into the tiny boat and we are off! It takes no less than 10 minutes for us to crash at about half speed into the riverbank for the first time. Everyone is yelling, everyone is attempting to duck for cover and Nial, the Australian man begins ranting in what sounds like gibberish but apparently is English? Over the next two hours we will crash into the riverbank another 5 times. Ok, this is not working. The boat captain says there is too much weight in the front so we are trying to reposition things and I end up using a giant gas can for a foot rest. Way fewer crashes now, down to about 1 every 2 hours. Success!

NELSON! Prepare for a crash landing.

Boatmates

Amazon!

On our first day we saw lots of birds, turtles having sex and some adorable monkeys! Not as many animals and certainly not doing quite the positions we were expecting! We arrive at our lodge but completely miss the dock and instead.. you guessed it, run – full speed this time into the riverbank. The captain, Nelson just gives up. We now have to climb out of the boat without tipping it, unload all our stuff and climb up about 6 feet of vertical muddy river bank. No worries, Grandpa the 1,000 year old tiny, little man who is the lodge keeper will help you. Grandpa, seriously, stop offering me your hand. If I were to accept your offer I will probably end up flinging you into the piranha filled Amazon while I would just lose the little bit of progress I have made myself! We all make it up, covered from head to toe in various amounts of river mud and then we met the lovely Mulan!

Home sweet riverbank home

Adorbs.

Mulan was our cook. Mulan has long black hair in a bun on the top of his head and is super excited to met all of us. Seriously one of the friendliest Bolivians I met during my entire time there. I am still not sure what gender Mulan identifies as but it was not important. Mulan cooked amazing food and was always smiling. When we told Mulan that he reminded us of the Disney movie character Mulan he was THRILLED. Loved it. So Mulan it was!

That first night we went out to the sunset spot where all the different tours hung out for the night. A fun spot with hammocks, volleyball, soccer and decent views. On the way back for the night we went croc hunting! That basically involves shinning your flashlight and being terrified as there are tons of yellow eyes staring back at you. Nelson! Do Not Crash! We make it back fine.

It was so hot that even as you were taking a cold shower you were sweating. No point in drying off. For an added bonus you need to wear long pants and long sleeves to for Malaria prevention. We decided to go with 50-50 appropriate clothing and a prayer. Leggings and a tank top. Everything completely sweat through in under a minute. Climb into your mosquito net and then talk amongst your neighbors about the symptoms of Malaria. Give up on that and just play several games of Archie Bunker. Good times!

Day 2! Everyone put on boots and goes Anaconda hunting. Here is the thing… I am so hot I fear I could actually die. I hate snakes. I have no desire to go tramping around for several hours in water that is always almost up to the top of the rain boots all while actively looking for a giant snake. Ugh, Nelson, I think I will pass. Nelson was having none of it. Peer pressured by a Bolivian boat captain it is. Naturally at one point I get stuck in the mud. The mud is like quick sand. I panic. The British girls I am with panic. Somehow one of the girls finding a giant stick and we act out a cartoon style, super over dramatic rescue. As you may have figured, I survived. Later when we told Nelson about our heroic feat he just laughed and laughed. Silly gringas. Whatever Nelson, you know you were impressed!

Hard to tell but there is a snake in there!

Fancy a walk in the mud.

Height of Amazon fashion.

Ok, so, it´s almost time to give up and then we found one!! Oh god. There is a giant snake in the grass! Nelson just looks and starts telling us scary snake facts. Then another guide and group come over. This guide decided to pick up the snake. Scarier. He is holding it over his head when the German-French Canadian couple comes over yelling. You can´t touch it! Don´t  pick it up! Leave it be! The guide does not listen so the French Canadian dude literally hit him with a big stick. A1 what adult hits another adult with a stick? B2 who hits someone holding a freaking ANACONDA over their head? Some sort of fight or flight survival instinct kicks in and I just start running as fast as I can away from the snake. Keep in mind I am in rain boats, running through mud and knee-high grass, in crazy hot heat so I get like 20 feet and I am completely exhausted. After that there is a lot of yelling. The Brits, the Belgians and I just sort of huddle off to the side in awe of the whole situation. We spend the next day and a half singing My Anaconda Don´t, My Anaconda Don´t, My Anaconda Don´t Want None Unless You Got Buns Hon at the top of our lungs while the German-French Canadian couple glare at us.

Capabera family meeting.

Gator!

Eyes only

Capa!

These respectful turtles were not getting it on.

Some kind of giant bird!

We spend the rest of day tooling around the river. See tons of capybara, more birds and some pink dolphins! That night we head back to the sunset spot and hang out again. The French Canadian is still pouting. On our ride back we are cruising at full speed and no lights. A fish jumped out of the water and landed in my lap. It is so dark I cannot even see my hand in front of my face much less see what is in my lap. I FREAK! I start screaming A FISH HAS ENTERED THE BOAT! A FISH HAS ENTERED THE BOAT! I am flailing around and so is the Brit next to me. Nelson stops the boat and we can hear the fish flopping at the bottom of the boat. The German girl scoops it up and throws it back into the river. The Brit and I are a complete tangle of arms and legs. We somehow have managed to upside down turtle ourselves on the tiny little folding chairs – stuck on our backs with are hands and feet in the air clinging to each other for dear life. Now, upon looking back this is not the most logical reaction. I mean who shouts A FISH HAS ENTERED THE BOAT? Apparently, I do. I asked Nelson later if that was a normal occurence. He said in his 10 years of guiding he has never seen or heard of that happening and then proceed to laugh even harder than he did about the quicksand rescue situation from earlier in the day. Mmhmm, I´m here for your entertainment Nelson.

Day 3 is our final day on the river and we´re all kind of over it. There are now three groups. The girls – we are just there to have fun and sing as loud as possible. The French Canadian – German who are making PETA proud. And the crazy Australians. Nials is convinced the boat will tip at all times and is constantly yelling at someone to sit still. He also blames everything on the government in his crazy accent. No more rice? Aahhhggghab jusss like da Bolivan goberment! Is it so hot that you feel ill? Aahhhggghab jusss like da Bolivan goberment! Did we run into the river bank AGAIN? Aahhhggghab jusss like da Bolivan goberment!

Ok, final activity – piranha fishing. I have been nicknamed the fish whisperer after the fish-in-lap incident. What do you know… I catch the first 3 piranhas! So we are cruising along, fishing in a few spots. The Australian lady hooks one! Awesome! It´s flapping around and then Nial freaks out, takes off his plastic flip-flop and just starts smacking the piranha with it. The piranha is flying around, stuck on the fishing line and everyone is shouting for Nial to stop but he doesn´t, he just keeps on smacking it. The French Canadian tries to grab the fish away from Nial and the fish ends up biting him and taking a good size chunk out of his finger. Turns out there are 3 kinds of piranhas in the Amazon and this is the most vicious with the biggest teeth. Ekk. We end up going back to camp so he can get first aid, packing everything up and leave immediately.

The trip out was a bit somber at first but we got bored and started singing Pocahontas Just Around the Riverbend! You know, us girls wanna have fun and all that jazz. The flight back was uneventful. We made it out of boiling hot Amazon and back to freezing cold Bolivia in one piece! I can now check the Amazon off my bucket list. So… not as I expected but certainly an adventure!

And then I got stuck in Bolivia.

The time had finally come, I was finally ready to move on from Sucre, Bolivia. Except I couldn’t. I ended up being stuck for another 15 days. I am a planner. I did a ton of research before I left. Research says you need to have a back-up for your ATM card and then if you want to be really careful have a back-up for your back-up. So, I did. When I went to use my primary ATM card (which I had been using without issue for three months) and I got a message saying it had been destroyed by an ATM machine “for my protection” I didn’t panic. I was annoyed but I just used my back-up card which was pre-authorized to be used abroad. Except since I hadn’t used it in three months and I was in Bolivia where if something can go wrong it will go wrong… when I tried to use the card it triggered some alarm with the bank at home and was shut off permanently. You know, also  for my protection. More pissed but I still didn’t panic. When I realized that my third ATM card, the back-up for my back-up was actually expired because honestly who uses there back-up for their back-up… that was when I started to panic.

At that point I was still hanging out in Sucre for a bit and thankfully I had made lots of good friends from the hostel that I could borrow money from. Bolivia is dirt cheap so I managed to live on about $145 that I borrowed (including a few drown my sorrows during happy hour mojitos) for the next 15 days. My parents were able to get me replacement cards and when they arrived my sister was able to overnight FedEx me a package through a work connection. FedEx should have taken no more then two days. It took 17 days.

My phone booth buddy.

The package was lost in Bolivia. Not good. Everyday I would walk to a small store and call the Bolivian FedEx Office. More then half the time the number wouldn’t connect. The majority of the other times no one answered. The few times I actually spoke with a real person and I was sent on a wild goose chase. I went to many places around Sucre where my package might, maybe, possibly, should, definitely will be but never was. I held it together. As soon as I would walk back to the hostel every bartender, maid, office worker and all my friends would ask the same question… did you get your package?!?! I had the pleasure of saying at least 10 times a day, no, it’s still lost. The day I finally found it I went to three stores in three different parts of the city probably walking a good seven miles because I didn’t have cab money (which in hindsight would have been about $3). When I finally found it I cried for the first time on my trip (wasn’t too dehydrated to make tears this time.) I went to the ATM and then went to a nice restaurant and ordered a giant ice cream brownie in celebration! When I got back I shouted it from the balcony that my package finally arrived – there was lots of cheering! I paid my friends back, paid my remaining bill at the hostel and peaced out the next day for La Paz, Bolivia.

My package FINALLY arrived including a fun new scarf.

La Paz is a crazy-intense, super hilly city located about 12,000ft above sea level.  I had been warned quite a bit about how dangerous La Paz can be so I was pretty nervous. Everything in La Paz is a struggle. It seems no matter what direction you are going in it is uphill and at 12,000 feet every breath takes a bit of effort. I was thrilled to meet up with Josta (someone I would later run into many times throughout my travels) so that I had someone to do some exploring with. The city really is amazing. So big, so crowd, so much going on but like I said, kinda nerve racking too. Together Josta and I did some exploring and some shopping! For me La Paz was really just a layover on my way to Rurrenabaque and to be honest, I couldn’t get away fast enough.

I ended up having to spend three freezing nights wrapped up in my llama sweater and avoiding going out at night. If you want to you can make La Paz a real party city but it just wasn’t my scene and I never felt safe. I just ate bad hostel food and read a lot while I was there. I finally had a semi decent wifi connection and was able to call home too which was nice!

You’re not legit on the South America backpacker scene without a llama sweater. (Ellen, I’m talking to you!)

Beside shopping with Josta my favorite thing in the city was going up the metro cable. The metro cable in La Paz is so modern it is almost too modern. It is beautiful and efficent though. You fly over a HUGE cemetery. I’m bad at guessing space but I would say at least 5 football fields worth of cemetery. Crazy. Also you go over some decent areas of the city and lots of slums. The bird’s eye view is a little sad but mostly amazing.

 

After my Amazon tour I had a had two more days in La Paz. I was more then ready to leave and excited to head into Peru!

 

Getting thankful.

Bolivia throw back! While I was living in Sucre I was doing a work exchange. I volunteered with a Spanish school and they paid for my hostel. Along with watching The Wire, playing with Luna and running out for photocopies I was also asked to put together one activity. I apparently have a need to go completely over the top so instead of setting up language tables or something simple I decided to host Thanksgiving dinner. What started as a small group event turned into a crazy feast with 25 guests from many, many different countries. Go big or go home! I made a list of what I needed, totally guesstimated how much it would cost and everyone chipped in. For about $4 a person I was able to make a full, proper Thanksgiving dinner.

Thanksgiving is one of my favorite holidays. My family is very traditional – the same foods, cooked the same way. In the last few years we have had a few additions to the menu but for me there is something perfect about the consistency. That and my dad is an amazing cook so the dinner is always delicious. The thing is because my dad’s such a good cook he doesn’t really need anyone help him so I had no idea how to actually cook Thanksgiving dinner. Thankfully my Aunt Katie has taught me over the years how to make the stuffing so that was the one thing I knew how to handle!

Ok, so shopping for Thanksgiving dinner is hard enough in a giant grocery store where everything is available and there are shopping carts. People. Do not undervalue the shopping cart. Shopping carts are the best. For me that was not an option, neither the grocery store nor the shopping cart. I spent three days tooling around 2 giant outdoor markets and one sorta grocery store. At this point I had become very friendly with the hostel owners who not only agreed to let me use the restaurant kitchen but also to do some of the shopping with me. I never would have been able to pull it off without them. The owner’s wife was a machine. She zigged, she zagged, she bargained and she pretty much always made me buy double what I thought I needed.

Such a variety of things that are NOT on my shopping list.

 

The finding part of getting what I needed was quite the experience. Ok so, it’s just not Thanksgiving without Turkey, gravy, mashed potatoes, stuffing, cranberry sauce and pumpkin pie. The only thing easy to find was the potatoes and the flour for the gravy. Bolivians do not eat cranberries and no matter how hard I looked there were no cans of Ocean Spray cranberry sauce in sight. In the end I did find a giant bag of ridiculously expensive crasins. Yup, we’re gonna make that work. Next it was a search for pumpkin. Mind you I have never actually made a pumpkin pie but all of the foreigners really wanted to try so I figured I could wig that too. No pumpkin. Instead I bought a giant green squash and again decided that too was just going to have to work. Next up is the turkey. You guessed it, no turkeys. I don’t think they have turkeys in Bolivia? Instead I bought chickens. I knew somewhere between 25-30 people would be coming to dinner. I had no idea the appropriate chicken to person ratio. At this point the two of us were lugging 4 GIANT bags of food that weigh approximately 1 gillion pounds (hence my new found love of shopping carts), everyone in market seemed to be yelling over each other and I was not only the solo gringa in the mercado but also the only person over about 5′ 2”and therefore a giant. It was a lot to handle all at once. 

For all my animal loving vegetarians out there you may want to skip this paragraph! Sarita cuantos pollos? Cuantos pollos Saritaaaaaa? Um. Um! Seis?  Seis pollos? I don’t know.. ummm pienso seis? So I ordered six chickens. Then a tiny woman reaches into a giant plastic bucket and start pulling chickens out by their necks. Thankfully they are defeathered (is that a word? Idk.) So, shes just slapping this chicken onto a metal table and I then ask for um, chickens without heads, please? She takes out a giant machete and start chopping chicken heads off. Great, except apparently I should have been more clear because the chickens still have necks. Could have done without the necks, thanks. Also the feet, um, puede cortar los pies tambien, por favor? Yup there go the feet. So the lady is now just shoving necky chickens into a bag and then she scoops up all the feet and puts them in a smaller bag. She tries to forces the chicken feet on me all while telling me they will give me babies. Bolivians believe chicken feet are good for infertility. Lady please keep your baby-making chicken feet to yourself. That is NOT the souvenir I am looking for.

Naked chickens.

Ok, so we head back to the hostel completely loaded down with grocery and the cooking begins. I spent the entire day, like the WHOLE day cooking. Really makes me appreciate Thanksgiving now, thank you, Dad. First order of business was the stuffing. The hostel had a huge bag of stale bread they used for croutons or making into breadcrumbs that they let me have. There was no Bell’s Seasoning so I made my own with dried herbs. Lots of thyme and sage plus some black pepper. I also could not find any sort of pork sausage. I didn’t look very hard because the meat section of my market was disgusting and unsanitary. I really struggled to be anywhere near it so in end when the Dona said she had sausage back at the hotel I could use I was thrilled.  When I asked for the sausage she handed me a package of frozen hotdogs. I held in laugh and graciously excepted the hotdogs, not quite what the family recipe called for but again, make it work.

Once the stuffing was ready one of the cooks helped me stuff all my chickens. It was hilarious. They apparently don’t stuff chickens so they entire time she just held the chicken up by its legs and looked at me like I was violating the chickens. I tried to explain how this would normally be a turkey and it helped give it flavor and it would be delicious and she could try it when it was ready but really I was just some crazy giant gringa speaking broken spanish and shoving a bunch of stale bread up a chicken’s butt.  She didn’t get it. Mmhmm, gotta love cultural exchanges.

Hey-o! Let’s awkwardly stuff some chickens!

Next was mashed potatoes. I wanted to do garlic mash so I roasted three heads of garlic. That was actually really cool because the cooks didn’t know how to roast garlic and unlike the chicken butt situation they were really interested. They helped me prep things and also put together a few salads for us which made fun as we were all cooking together. In the end we made wayyyyyyyyyyyyyyy too much mashed potatoes but I noticed that the hostel menu featured many mashed potato items for a few days following our fest so I think in the end it all got eaten.

The cranberry sauce was a real gamble. I was super nervous because I had spent a lot on the crasins and I wanted it to turn out well. It did! So well! I slow cooked the crasins in water on a low boil. They plumped up and then I added in the juice an orange and two lemons, and let it slow cooked it a while longer. In the end it was delicious!

It may not look that good here but I promise, it was delicious!

 

I cut up a bunch of carrots and onions, mixed it with thyme and olive oil and made roasted veggies (another request from the group) which turned out really nice. Alex, the only other American to be attending Thanksgiving dinner was in charge of making a pie crust. She did great and together we attempted a pumpkin pie. Turns out with enough nutmeg, cinnamon and sugar you can kinda of, sort of make squash taste like pumpkin pie. The consistency was a bit off but the real winner was the ingredients mixed together turned the pie green. It really looked baby poop. Oops. Oh well. We made our own whipped cream and then decided to blend in some passion fruit jelly which turned out amazing. So it was conflicting favors but actually quite good. Passion fruit-green squash pie for everyone!

Naoise making some whipped cream. She is from Ireland and this was her first Thanksgiving!

Ok, so this is clearly not pie crust but that is Alex!

Our chickens took a while but they turned out a-mazing. Def couldn’t have pulled that off without the industrial size oven! In the end we had about 25 people, myself and Alex were the only ones who had ever had Thanksgiving before so it was really to watch people try everything for the first time. The stuffing and the cranberry sauce were for sure favorites. Turns out six chickens were about 2.5 chickens too many. We feed the entire hostel staff – about 15 more people with the remaining chicken and mashed potatoes. All the staff already knew me and were sweet before but after that I was definitely well loved and taken care of by the staff. Making friends by feeding people!

While they looked terrified I think they actually had a great day.

Yum-o!

Everyone was super appreciative, ate a ton of food and had a good time. Alex and I told about our family traditions and few people said what they were thankful for. I really wanted to do more with decorations – Pilgrim bonnets, Indian headdresses and paper hand turkeys were planned but didn’t happen in the end. Dad does the cooking and Mom does the decorating – I needed a partner in crime! I look forward to Thanksgivings in the future it was lot of fun but also a lot of work!

We did it!!

Let the feasting begin!

 

Are You Fincin’ What I’m Fincin’

Oh Colombia, I just love you and your puentes. A Puente is a long weekend and it seems between official holidays and SENA cancellations just about every other weekend is a puente. This past weekend was Caroline’s birthday and of course, a puente so a huge group of us met up in Periera, a city in the Coffee Region for a weekend at a finca (vacation house in the country.)

The group started relatively small and ballooned to 35+ people in the end. FInding a finca big enough turned into quite the adventure. Caroline, Mudit and I with the enormous help of our Colombian friends Juan and Jorge finally found one! It was meant to be gorgeous and modern and have a huge pool. Is it available? Yes. Can we bring 35 people? Yes. A few hours later.. oh wait, it’s already booked but don’t worry you can stay at the sister finca and we’ll even give you a discount. Ok, sweet, we’ll take it!

Medellin was the first to arrive. The bus ride was far longer and more complicated then originally expected but we made it! When we straight to the grocery store and it’s time to divide an conquer. The boys were put in charge of beverages – liquor, beer, mixers and water – in that order. The girls took care of getting enough food to feed at least 15 of the 35 people arriving on Friday for both dinner and breakfast. Kinda sexist but necessary. Oh god.. now we have to check out, let the money collecting begin. We did! And it didn’t even cost quite as much as we thought. Now we have two full shopping carts and 3 people to shove into a taxi and find our finca with only very vague directions. Lets do this thang.

We arrive and our beautiful finca turns out to essentially be a private motel with zero view and a smallish swimming pool. Um.. not what we expected, kinda a bummer at first but whatever, just go with it. Ryan, Victoria and I start unpacking all the groceries. We get distracted and wander out by the pool for a few minutes. All of a sudden I hear SHIT! SHIT! One of the many cats on the property wandered in and started eating the raw meat. Ughhhh, gross. The cat is shooed away and we decided just to chop on the section that the cat got into. (Yay, hygiene!) Except it’s raw meat and it’s already gross and both Victoria and I don’t want to touch it. RYAN! Help! Like the gentlemen that he is Ryan takes care of it. Scoops of the part that has had cat near and it goes to fling it off the spoon into the yard. At this point I say, no, Ryan just throw it out! He doesn’t want to waste it. Big fling off the spoon and suddenly I hear… Oh SHIT! What now? Mmhmm, Ryan has flung the raw meat into the pool. He just keeps shrugging his shoulder and saying I didn’t mean to! I didn’t mean to! Ryan tried to reach the bottom of the pool to fish it out but even with his super long arms he is no where close. Victoria nicely offers to go in and get it. Upon sliding into the somewhat chilly pool she decides she doesn’t want to go underwater and instead tries to pick it up with her toes. Fail. The meat just starts to dissolve in the pool. At that very moment the rest of the Medelllin people arrive via bus and the three of us are dying laughing.

Good start, good start. Everyone is very surprised because the finca looks nothing like we expected. The finca in the photos is just up a small hill taunting us with its fanciness. There is a young groupskeeper/manager guy who we immediately started referring to as Alfred (the butler from Batman). Alfred informs us of all sorts of wonderful things like – no, there is not toilet paper, yes, there will be a quinceanera (girl’s 15 year birthday party) tomorrow in the “event room” aka big open air room about 100m away from our pool, no, there aren’t speakers for music and no, there are any more beds (only room for about 20 people.) Great. Listen, Alfred, this just ain’t gonna do. A#1 you have to fix the toilet paper situation. I don’t care if you have to walk into town or what but there are 8 bathroom and each one needs at least one roll of toilet paper. Speakers were promised so go break in to the big house and russle some up because we need music. No more beds, alright well we’ll deal with that later. Alfred was super nice and these things weren’t his fault specifically so I tried to be nice but firm. He came through-ish.

Wasn’t terrible but not at all what was expected.

What was expected…

Time to start drinkin’! I started making dinner – pasta with meat sauce and that’s when I get my first good look at the kitchen. Alrightly.. we got three pans – a medium sauce pan, a very large pasta pan and an industrial sized pan that can only be referred to as a big ass witch’s cauldron. I get the pasta going and people are helping to chop things to put in the sauce. Pre-made sauce in Colombia is somewhere between tomato paste and ketchup. It is NASTY and needs a lot of doctoring. Elliot is chopping up a red pepper with the world’s dullest butter night and is using the cauldron lid as a cutting board. Ronan is peeling and chopping garlic. I’m browning the meat (in a saucepan) – things are going well. Whoops, the bowl of chopped pepper is dropped. The bowl shatters – peppers fly everywhere. No problem! 5 second rule! Scoop those peppers right up! Ronan goes to put the garlic in the sauce but I realize at the last second that its neither peeled nor chopped, it was just broken off of the garlic blub. Ok, a few more instructions maybe!

The meal turned out great, everyone is happy and fed and drunk. Alfred eventually brought us a few more rolls of toilet paper and he did find some decent speakers for us. The rest of the Friday night crew arrived and all had a blast. We snuck up to the fancy finca and swam in their pool, played a bunch of random games and dragged a giant trampoline to the pool area that was clearly intended for children but we spent the night jumping on and somehow not breaking. It was a good night.

Happy people.

Mojito station.

Jorge and Apio – two new favs.

The next morning we all sat around the pool hungover. A few of us tried to take showers or tidy up but then we realized the finca had no water. Alfred! He didn’t seem to concerned. On top of not having water the kitchen also lacked was any sort of dish soap or sponge which meant we had nothing to cook breakfast in or eat off of. I rinsed out the medium sized saucepan which had been used the night before for mojitos with some of the drinking water and used that to toast two loaves of bread (one piece at a time, talk about boring) and make 36 scrambled eggs at once. I had no potholder so went to the nearest bedroom and took a pillowcase right off a pillow. Through some sort of divine intervention it never caught fire even the flame of a gas burner even although there were several close calls. Basically we were camping a finca/no-tell-motel. Breakfast turned out great – white bread breakfast tacos for everyone! Everybody was was very appreciative of both breakfast and dinner the night before. What can I say… the O’Donnell need to both take control and feed people at it’s best.

More people arrived steadily throughout the day and night. More alcohol was drank. Caroline and I counted the money about a hundred times and referred to our spreadsheet to see if we had collected enough to send a group into town to purchase alcohol, toilet paper, garbage bags and dish soap. We did! Hooray. Go! Now! MUST. HAVE. MORE. ALCOHOL! They came back, drinks were drank, snacks were eaten, dips in the pool (which in addition to the raw meat now also had a huge dead spider on the bottom) were taken. Life was good.

Oh, god, we have to eat again. No way am I cooking or are other wonderful people cleaning the disaster of a kitchen again. We’ll just order pizzas. Pizza money is collected from 35 people – super fun. Everything becomes incredibly confusing but Jorge and I head into town to get the pizza. We had to make a last minute stop at the supermarket and then get the pizzas. Jorge’s dad had come to pick us up and taken us to run errands. While that was amazingly nice of him, the ride was a little crazy and I screamed more then once from the backseat while going over a huge bump. A big storm had come in and Periera flooded. The car turned into a boat. Roads were closed, alternative routes were taken. One ill timed puddle resulted in a tidal wave coming in through the front windows and nearly soaking me in the back seat.  After that we closedthe windows and the car fogged up so bad that Jorge had to constantly wiped down the windshield from the inside which involved him climbing over his father as he was driving. A real father and son team. I put on my seatbelt and they laughed at me – haha you Ameicans love your seltbelts! Yes, please, this is terrifying.

We got many messages about people dying of huger at the finca so when we finally arrived it was met with HUGE cheers! We walked in just about the same time as the quinceañera arrived at her party in her ball gown with attendants but we definitely got a louder, drunker welcome! The pizza was attacked, Ronan was sure to hand deliver me a drink immediately and my responsibilities were over! The night was great but crazy. Kids from the quinceañera came over to swim in our pool and just generally run around. Then the police came because they were underage but very nicely just made the kids leave and had no problem with us. Caroline had brought face paint and glitter and Maggie became our artist in residence, getting everyone decked out. It was great, like adult summer camp and our evening program was cannonballs and an all camp dance.

Everybodies happy, happy.

So many people!

Sick Mom tat.

Pool time early in the day.

Can’t find a bed? Make one.

There ended up not being near enough space so people slept in every nook and cranny available. Couch, love seat, lounge chairs, trampoline and a few extra people in each bed – we got cozy but it worked out. At least for me.. I think some people had a less then comfortable night.

The next day we surveyed the damage – not bad and we even had water! People cleaned up. We jumped in the pool to wash away our hangovers and it was time to get back on the road. The finca was super fun. We are planning to do it again but keeping it more local to Medellin and with less people!

** Credit goes to the wonderful and creative Caroline for the post title. Photo credit to Jorge, Marian and Maggie. Not a whole lot were taken!

Welcome to Bolivia, try NOT to get sick.. I dare you.

Bolivia I loved ya but you made me sick. Real sick. Looking back at my journal I realize now I had been sick for the first 3 weeks of my time in Bolivia. Nothing goes together better than Bolivia and food poisoning. Everyone got sick at some point. Those lovely breakfasts we shared often involved one or more people talking about how they had spent the entire night running to bathroom and exploding out of both ends. Getting through an entire conversation without talking about puking or pooping was a rare occurence.

I hadn’t been feeling great – really tired, very little appetite and lots of trips to the bathroom but I thought that was just normal. Maybe I was rundown from all the travel? My body was adjusting to the altitude? Bolivian was just different? Turns out I was wrong. Then one morning after feeling particularly crappy for a few days I fainted in the shower. Thankfully I didn’t full-out faint, I was able to slide down the tile wall and sit on the grubby shower stall floor all while willing myself not to black out. I was able to get out of the bathroom, get dressed and have the hostel call a doctor for me.

I took a cab to the doctor’s office but the cab got lost and ended up yelling at me and making me just get out. Horrible. I was only about 2 blocks from school so I was able to walk over and find Jo and Abel the owners. They were both shocked because I looked so bad. Abel called the doctor, got the address and took me over to see him. The doctor who “spoke English and had worked in Europe” turned out to be awful. He was wearing sweatpants and seemed far more interested in asking about the Statue of Liberty then helping me.

He took my blood pressure and was surprised that I was even walking because it was so low and I was terribly dehydrated. At that point I couldn’t keep anything in. I literally timed it, one sip of water and I was in the bathroom 2 minutes later. I needed IV fluids but he couldn’t provide them for one reason or another and instead he offered to walk me to a clinic. He wanted to charge to me $150 which by Bolivian standards is an obscene amount of money. He didn’t even treat me! I felt like I was dying but also super pissed. I refused pay him and just walked out. When I refused to pay he just stood there, shocked, in sweatpants. Even on my deathbed I think I could have taken him.

I hailed another cab and went to the hospital. Needless to say going to a Bolivian hospital was the last thing on my Bolivia Bucketlist. I was pleasantly surprised, it was clean and somewhat modern. Bad news, I had to wait about two hours to be seen. I finally laid down on a bench in the waiting room because I didn’t have the energy to sit-up. I’m pretty sure that got me bumped up in line because only a few minutes later I was seen by a doctor. He too was shocked. I had developed an intestinal infection. I was so tired and weak because my body was unable to absorb any nutrients. He demanded to know why had I waited so long before seeing a doctor? Eh, I thought I just had to stick it out? Bad call, Sarah. The doctor wrote down about a million things I had to go get from the pharmacy. In Bolivia you buy your own medical supplies. Your own needles, antibiotics, syringes, IV fluids, tubing.. the only thing they provide is the alcohol wipes and medical tape. On the plus side you know it is clean. On the con side it’s more effort and more waiting.

Ok, now so all I want to do is fall asleep on the exam table but the doctor is shooing me out the door. Down the hall there is a pharmacy. It feels miles away. I finally make it there and they tell that they don’t have the supplies in their pharmacy I have to go outside of the hospital to the pharmacy across the street. That’s it. Final straw. I’ve lost it. I start to cry but I am so dehydrated that I can’t produce tears. That then made me angry. I go back to my doctor’s office and tell him the pharmacy doesn’t have what I need. He says, fine go across the street. I say, you’re coming with me. You will help. RIGHT. NOW. He was both confused and not at all pleased but I took his arm and made him walk me to the pharmacy, order my supplies and walk me back to the hospital.

I finally get the IV and I kid you not, it was one of best feelings of my life. I literally felt my veins refill. I got a full IVs and was told to still drinks a lot of liquids. I had no idea how bad dehydration could get. My blood pressure returned to normal, my coloring came back and I felt amazing. I ended up spending most of the next three days in bed and had to follow a strict broth and cracker diet for a few days but I was feeling sooooooooooooo much better. Once I got back and the word had spread that I spent the day in the hospital everyone fawned all over me. People brought me crackers and Gatorade and incredibly disgusting but effective electrolyte fluid replacement solutions.

One good thing? The hospital visit, the IV fluids and the 10 days of antibiotics were all less than $30 in total. I have international travel and health insurance but it wasn’t worth the effort of doing paperwork to have that covered. Which just further proves that Dr. Sweatpants was full of it and I’m glad I didn’t pay him!

Looking back I feel dumb. I should have seen a doctor sooner. I should have listened to my body. I really should have taken someone with me to see the doctor. That is one thing about solo travel – sometimes to you become a little too independent. While traveling you make fast friends and I just have to remember, it’s ok to ask for help. After that every time someone was sick for more than three days I nagged them into seeing a doctor! We had it all Colitis, E-coli, and just various kind of food poisoning.

I think it speaks incredibly highly of both Sucre and the people I met that even with all the health issues Bolivia was one of my most favorite places on my trip! Since Bolivia I did get some sort of chest infection in Ecuador but I was much better at getting to the doctor and on antibiotics for that right away! And knock on wood… I am safe and healthy in Colombia!