Playa Los Angeles and Playa Blanca

The last couple days here in Mariposa (las afueras de Santa Marta) have been really enjoyable. I am staying in a hostel called The Dreamer, and is definitely one of the best hostels I've stayed in.

The rooms are shaped in a U form with a pool in the middle. An open air kitchen, pool table, and bar closes off the U shape, creating a nice courtyard lined with hammocks.

Each room has the name of a different country painted above the door, and a few symbols particular to that country painted beside each corresponding door.

The first night I got here, I decide to keep to myself a bit, recharge from the craziness of Cartagena.

I ended up joining in the hostel-wide game of Killer Pool (basically everyone has 3 lives, take turns knocking balls in, lose a life if you miss, last one standing wins). I ended up winning in the finals against a coke head from Lake Tahoe who works at the hostel.

The next day, I took a small rickety-ass bus 40 minutes away to Playa Los Angeles. Myself and my two Argentinian friends who I had met the night before squished onto this tightly packed bus full of people bringing supplies up to their villages in the mountains. Sacks of potatoes all over the floor, a mattress attached to the ceiling, a box of fish that stunk to the high heavens, and then there were the colombians heading up into the foothills with us.

We past shack-towns with dirt floors, people getting on and off regularly. One thing that remained constant was the kindness of these poverty stricken people. They'd ask where were from, where we were going etc, always willing to lend their opinion of places to go.

We hopped off the bus after about 40 minutes and took the only nearby path that we could see into the forest. It looked pretty dodgy at first, and doubts about this place streamed through my head.

We walked for a bit and finally reached a bit of a clearing. Plants of red, purple, orange, yellow, and green lined this path we were on. Before I knew it, we were seeing lizards, a flying squirrel, a bunny (the kind that people usually have as pets), an a monkey eating berries.

If this hadn't already erased my doubts about this place, our first view of the beach took me for a whirl.

The best way I can describe it in the fewest words is "Jurassic Park." Forests and mountains creeping all the way down to the beach, mountains in the distance, and not a soul in sight.

I went for a long walk taking pictures down the beach, and noticed that my footprints were the only ones on the beach. So awesome.

We headed back to the road at the end of the day, and waited for a bit. Before long, a coach bus was approaching fast around the curve. We gave the universal signal for a lift, and the bus came screeching to a halt. We hustled up to the bus and asked how much it would cost to get back to Santa Marta.

"12,000 pesos cada uno"

After negotiating the price down to 5,000 ($2.50 USD), we climbed aboard and got comfy.

Everything is negotiable here. And it's extremely easy to bargain. Taxi drivers and such are used to people bargaining so they set the price higher than it should be. Just tell them it's too expensive, and low ball them. They'll settle somewhere in between real quick.

The next day me and the 2 gals headed off to Playa Blanca. An english dude names Rupert moved into my room that morning, so I invited him along.

Hopped in a cab, went to Rodadero, and negotiated a price for una lancha to playa blanca. Few minutes later, we were cruising in the carribean heading to a beautiful bay nestle between two points.

This is a very popular beach for middle class Colombians, and was absolutely packed.

Boats coming to and the beach nonstop, so many people in the water you could hardly move, and people walking around trying to sell you stuff all day.

I much prefer the much more relaxing beach experience. Don't get me wrong, I still enjoyed every second of Playa Blanca, I just imagined how awesome the beach would be prior to such exploitation.

We returned back to the hostel, made a huge salad with my boy Rupert, and got going on some rum.

He left for La Ciudad Perdida today. 3 nights, 4 days. Apparently some of the expedition companies take you to a cocaine plant. Sounds pretty crazy to me.

Anyways I think im going to do that next week sometime. There's so much to do here, I see myself staying for a solid couple weeks. La Parque Nacional Tayrona has 20-some beaches, and is 75 times the size of Central Park. It's also filled with the second amount of biodiversity in the world.

I'm at a crossroads concerning Colombia so far. I'm tempted to begin fabricating horror stories just so people will keep thinking Colombia is an incredibly dangerous place, just so I can selfishly enjoy this country with the rest of the lucky souls who are getting in before the tourism absolutely takes off and complete exploits everything.

I can't do that though. Colombians deserve to have the negative image of their country to vanish and be replaced with one that portrays how wonderful this country really is.




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Nos vemos Cartagena

Just left Cartagena heading to a smaller city up the coast, Santa Marta..

The last couple days have been great..

I've just been hanging out with my two Brazilian buddies, Felipe and Rafael, and my Uruguayan friend Pupi.

We went up and toured the castle fortress type thing on top of a hill overlooking the entire city. Got some really good pictures. They were all about getting really goofy-ass pictures of the four of us. Got some crowds watching and laughing at us here and there..

I watched the sunset at a really cool bar which is located actually on top of the wall, almost every night.. The bar charges like $3 a beer, so I just hang out next to the joint and buy a beer or two from my homies pushing around beer carts for like $.75..

At night we usually start out hanging at the hostel meeting people, then go out to dance at a club around midnight with everyone.

Clubs in South America are awesome. They play a lot of raggaeton, salsa, and Latin pop. They're so different than clubs in the states, SO much better. First of all, you can get in wearing sandals shorts an whatever else you want. You don't need to wear your finest silk shirt or designer jeans to fit in. Second of all, everyone is dancing and it's very crowded, but you will NEVER have someone pushing you out of the way in order to walk through. A polite tap on the shoulder is the norm down here. Respect, even/especially to strangers, is a huge part of this culture.

In Australia if you're in a crowded bar/club, you're guaranteed to get shoved into at least a handful of times by some drunkass rugby player.

I like it much better the way it is down here.

On Sunday, I went to the only place in Cartagena that was airing the Bears/packers game, the Hard Rock Cafe. I went alone for the start of the game, and Pupi ended up meeting me there and cheering on the bears for most of the game. The result wasn't what I wanted, in fact it was an awful game to watch, but it didnt really bother me. I'm in Colombia after all.

Anyways tomorrow I go to Playa Los Angeles. Heard the beaches are sweet!

I'll try to get pictures up sometime soon.

Until then, chau chau!







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Cartagena

Love Colombia so far. Only been here for 3 days, but so far it's been really really good.

I'm staying in a hostel which is inside the city walls, which is filled with old Spanish architecture mixed with carribean flair. This city is filled with narrow cobblestone streets, blind corners, horse drawn carriages, houses in every vibrant color possible, balconies with tons of flowers on every street, and friendly colombians.

Theres a few plazas around, and at night everyone around town just goes to the plaza and hangs out, which is common in many countries obviously. The thing is, the plazas aren't huge open areas like I'm accustomed to in the rest of South America that I've been to. They're tiny, and filled with tropical trees and fountains to the extent that you can't see from one end to another.

There are street dancers often found in these plazas once the sun goes down. Really Afro-carribean type drums and dance.. Very impressive..

Last night, my 2 Canadian buddy's and I joined the owner of our hostel and went to Hostel Media Luna, which is just outside the wall.

We walked about 30 minutes outside the city center, into a part of town that is a bit dodgy.. I got asked if I wanted cocaine about 12 times. And prostitutes. Female hookers, male hookers, and male hookers dressed like female hookers. Weird.

A local raggae band was playing really good music all night on the rooftop, everybody was dancing, and drinks were cheap. My favorite part of the whole night was when Shakira came on..

No I don't like shakira's music any more than the next straight-guy. Her videos on the other hand.. I digress. She's probably the most famous Colombian in the international music scene, so when she came on the speakers, everyone went nuts. Chills ran down my spine just being in the presence of people having so much pride. Colombians love their country and want you to love it too.

There were some really amazing dancers there by the way. There were like 3-4 couples dancing in the middle at any given time, just flying around twirling spinning flipping dipping in such unison that it almost looked choreographed. It wasn't though.

Monday I head to Santa Marta. I heard there are really nice beaches there with your squeaky clean white sand, crystal clear water, and the rainforest right next to the beach. Can't wait. !





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This update is well overdue- a lot has happened!

I decided Australia wasn't the place I was looking for, and got out of there. I figured, why spend exhorbitant amounts of money on something that I wasn't absolutely loving? The way I saw it, it was better to cut my losses and get out of there ASAP.

So, what didn't I like about Australia you ask?

Well, first of all, its not that I hate the place. It is simply not a place I would recommend for a backpacker. I put way too many eggs in one basket expecting to want to stay in Melbourne with my buddies working as a bartender, but after spending 48 hours in that city I bought a plane ticket to leave the next day. The beach was garbage-ridden, the water was brown, and the view consisted of oil tankers in the distance. It just wasn't the paradise that I had envisioned.

I never seriously considered what I would do if I didn't like Melbourne. Of course I planned to find a different job if that job fell through, but never once did I question whether or not I would like Melbourne enough to want to stay. I think I'm the only person EVER to have had a less than positive experience there, so take my opinion with a grain of salt. I couldn't have spent another night there. I think I would have tried swimming to Tazmania instead.

So I went to Noosa. Which was an overall huge improvement from the place I left behind in Melbourne. Great beaches, decent weather (most rain during the month of December in 75 years or something), and free accommodation at the hostel. Surfed everyday and drank beer every night. Ok, so whats wrong with that?

I found myself comparing a lot of things in Australia with my previous trip to South America. Bad idea. When it comes to backpacking, South America wins by a slaughter rule.

Australia prices are at least double those in the US (at press time, 1 USD ~= 1 AUD). A case of beer 3.2% domestic beer, when on sale, is $45 (not to mention they don't have higher percent than that! terrible!!). A burger and fries for lunch is at least $18. A night at a hostel, on average, is $32. Internet wi-fi cards are available for $4/hour.

In Argentina, liters of beer were equivalent of 75cents. The best steak of your life and a bottle of wine wouldn't be more than $10. Hostels are between $6-10 per night. Internet is always free!! Which blows me away that South America has better communications infrastructure than Australia.

I also just craved more of a cultural experience. I feel like after going to Oz, Australians are basically Americans but with funny accents. There are very few differences. Whether Australians like it or not, American and British culture has infiltrated their society to the extent that it is very difficult to find anything distinctly authentic Australian. They have the Queen of England on all their currency for God sakes.

I caught a flight from Brisbane to Sydney, stayed with my buddy Luke at his place for a few days, then flew back to San Francisco on Christmas Eve.

Spent 7 days hanging out in Oakland/San Fran Bay Area with Andrew and Corina, and caught a flight back to Chicago for New Years Eve.

Booked a flight to Cartagena for this upcoming Tuesday, January 18th.

I could have gone to nearby Southeast Asia to quench my thirst for culture, but still have unfinished business with South America. On my previous trip down there, I can't tell you how many people told me that Colombia was their favorite place they had been. That came as a surprise to me as I'm sure it would for anyone who listens or reads news media in the US. All I previously knew, or thought I knew, about Colombia was that it was the cocaine capital of the world, everyone was a guerilla freedom fighter, and everyone either gets murdered or kidnapped. Or Both.

As far as I know right now(but will find out real quick), that couldn't be further than the truth. Apparently the government has gone to great lengths to clear out the FARC (Fuerzas Armadas Revolucionarias de Colombia or Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia), the cartels, and the crime out of their country. Or at least out of the cities. Apparently traveling at night in the jungle isn't a good idea. Who would have known?

One thing many backpackers emphasized about Colombia was how friendly the people were. It will be tough to beat the Argentinians and the Uruguayans, for they showed me so much kindness and hospitality when I was visiting their countries. They really made me feel welcome, as if they wanted to really make sure I had nothing but the best experience possible.

Here's to hoping my backpacking buddies were right, and the US media isn't!

Next stop, Cartagena!