Most recent updates…. Mike G., a friend of my brothers who I met in India sent me a message. He is leaving the wife at her job and coming to chill with me in Colombia! Tuesday evening!!! January 12th! AWESOME! Ill have someone to celebrate my birfday with and we had so much fun in India together, especially eating!
My friend Kasia wrote to me from Cusco. She is this ridiculously crazy and fun girl who has been traveling for the past 5 years or so. She was dating a boy but decided they needed a break and we are meeting in Arequipa, Peru on February 1st and doing this… (this is 1/45th of what Kasia wrote to me for plans as to options we can do to get to Rio for Carnaval… it really did give me a head ache reading everything so I took out the hight lights)
chile and then turn to argentina (Mendoza, cordoba, Buenos) and up north through iguazu falls to brasil.
go through brasilia do Salvador de bahia, I’ve been there twice and I absolutely love it and from there we could go south towards rio. Mind you those distances are huge, and buses pretty pricey and there would be a lot buses involved, maybe form Puerto velho it would actually be cheaper to take the flight, they aren’t cheap either but still it’s domestic and you can get something decent I suppose).
So let’s go through chile for salta (I know a guy who is a guide in san pedro de Atacama, so I asked him for advice if there is something really worth the stop on the way to salta, hope he’ll get back to me). And once we are there we’ll figure out if we wanna go south of argentina (I am not so crazy for baires but would love to try tango and I know very good salsero ther who would probably take us for good salsa) or if we stay in the north.
go through brasilia do Salvador de bahia, I’ve been there twice and I absolutely love it and from there we could go south towards rio. Mind you those distances are huge, and buses pretty pricey and there would be a lot buses involved, maybe form Puerto velho it would actually be cheaper to take the flight, they aren’t cheap either but still it’s domestic and you can get something decent I suppose).
So let’s go through chile for salta (I know a guy who is a guide in san pedro de Atacama, so I asked him for advice if there is something really worth the stop on the way to salta, hope he’ll get back to me). And once we are there we’ll figure out if we wanna go south of argentina (I am not so crazy for baires but would love to try tango and I know very good salsero ther who would probably take us for good salsa) or if we stay in the north.
She will plan where we go and what direction since I am not the best planner in the world. And my job will be to find us accommodations on couch surfing before we arrive! We are going to dance our asses off together.
Background: Kasia and I met dancing in Cusco together. She is a passionate, energetic and crazy blonde from Poland who speaks perfect Spanish and gives not a fuck about what others think of her situation and choice of lifestyle. True inspiration.
Victor, on the other hand, is my new couch host. He is soo fucking cool.
First stop, his studio to pick up the key. I walk into this amazing little kitchen where people are preparing and creating all sorts of food and other people are taking film of it. Walk through to the back to find about 8 people on computers editing, writing, marketing, etc.
It was such a sweet set up. Then he takes me home and we go to Exito. Think of Bloomingdales for food. This place is massive, overwhelming and fantabulous. It has everything I can ask for except Crest Scope toothpaste. Oh how I miss you! We bought a mattress for me and the other random couch surfers who will be joining us in the next few days. Like Santiago, Victor’s place is huge but its not cookie cutter. He says he has nothing worth stealing and doesn’t care who comes and goes and the night before I arrived he had 5 guys from Venezuela partying with him!
The next day Eric arrives as his next couch surfer. Eric is this strange guy from New Hampshire who had been living in Santa Fe before he took off to Brazil for 3 months and decided to live between Rio and the Vipassana Center there. Immediately I was hooked on him. He had a girlfriend from Angola who he broke up with to move back to Santa Fe to study transpersonal Social Work. Tell me this wasn’t meant to be! He also is setting me up with (or going to try to) the girl who rented him an apartment in Rio so I can save some bucks during Carnaval since it will be WAY out of price range! Everything he said, his speech, his actions, his openness and retarded humor, I knew I loved this guy. And, the 3 of us together, Victor, Eric and myself just became a pack of blubbering idiots. Eric also fascinated me because he dated someone in the OneTaste community when he lives in Hawaii. Oi! Look it up if you need to. (sex cult!)
Finally I began traveling according to my own desires. We woke up early, hung around a bit. Exchanged stories before taking a bus 40 minutes away to a smaller town where Victor’s friend picked us up in her car and we went to a small plaza where we all drank, ate chocolate covered strawberries and other weird combinations of food: favorite combo cheese and caramel. Who would have guessed! We then went to a marga (field) and played Frisbee amongst the mountains, cows and horses. It was magnificent. If I ever DO come back to live in Colombia this will be it. Its high in the mountains outside of the city and lush and delicious with lakes, birds, flowers and amazing people. And its so close to Medellin which is like living in a city in the states.
People from everywhere were stopping us to talk to us. They would hear us speak English and want to know everything about us, including how we were traveling alone and if we loved their city. They went out of their way to give us directions and when we would buy stuff, like in all Colombia they would always throw something else in for free. Supposedly its tradition. You buy 5 bananas and they guy at the market will “throw in” 2 mangos. Its amazing and beautiful and the people just continue to shock me every moment.
Staying with Victor 2 more days until I head off to Bogota to gather up Mike. But I could live here, I could be here. Just not now.
No comments:
Post a Comment