2nd full day in Cartagena, Colombia and already Susan and I feel like we have packed in so much and had such an amazing time. Yesterday began slowly, partially because my vision of life was still a bit tainted.. and it was Sunday! But by the evening, the place was packed, people were out and it was alive with a beautiful energy. We ate at this AMAZING ceviche place and then walked around for a few hours. We heard music crawling down the streets so we followed it to a spot overlooking the beach and found a bunch of locals harmonizing their instruments and vocals and others joining around them with maracas, dancing and playing. So amazing!!!
Anyway. Today from the beginning was perfect. It was the day of the motor boat ride to the white sandy beach, 45 minutes away. Our boat comes to the dock and the woman pushed me on board first. Three super local Colombian men without a word of English and a crazy accent that I could NOT comprehend for ANYthing grabbed my hands and pulled me on board. I jump to where the seats were, excited to have first choice of seats and by the time I turn around to look for Susan, the boat, me and the 3 big men take off from the dock. I did a quick two second panic (OH MY GOD.. what the hell is going on .. SUSAN!!!!!!) and Susan is staring at me with wide eyes as the boat creeps further and further away from the landing. I start shouting.. WAIT WAIT… SUSAN… (of course, I lost any Spanish I had at exactly that moment) and Susan is standing there giving me this limp wave that I read as… :”I don’t know what to do.. bye.. sorry” A few seconds later, which felt like minutes, I realized they were going to get gas on the other side of the dock area and since we were paying with credit card, they needed to slide the credit card through at the gas station. I shouted that Susan is the one with the card and finally the stopped, went back, picked her up and the two of us went together. Fucking chaos, so early in the morning… This was going to be an AMAZING day.. ( I would have liked to add in that I had flashes of kidnappings for drama.. but that didn’t even occur to me until afterwards!)
30 people get on the boat when it re-docks and we end up sitting behind 2 Americans, awesome people. And then it begins. We start speeding towards our next destination and I don’t know if its because im now 32, if im in Colombia or if I really don’t trust these guys.. but it’s the scariest fucking ride of my life. It doesn’t help that we decided to do this trip when its raining, so the ocean’s waves are HUGE and this was a speed boat.. well the whole boat, besides smashing back and forth was bouncing like mad the whole ride. I was literally praying for my life. (haven’t done that in a while) The only thing I can think of comparing it to is when you are in a plane and you have no control of whats happening and then you hit turbulence. The difference is, on a plane, I cant really scream when im frightened. On the boat.. it was so loud, so fast, water everywhere that I cleared my lungs of any mucus, germs, bacteria, ANYTHING that may have been floating around in there.. wow, what a thrill. Would have been great if it weren’t for the fact that I had to do it two more times and then it just got frightening. I felt like I was testing my luck. (mind you, as I write this, the whole keyboard is moving underneath my fingers, scratch that.. the whole ROOM is moving…
Anyway, we stop at the aquarium, and most people get off and the guide, Juanchito (or as I called him, enano) starts asking us what we want to do.. me, susan and the other 2. Unfortunately in this scenario, im the only one who has an inkling of Spanish and they are waiting for me to translate. Juanchito keeps looking at Hank, the only man amongst us, thinking he will get it.. but Hank keeps looking at me.. and I have noone to look at. With time I get that he is asking us to get off the fucking boat and get our asses into the beautiful blue ocean and go scuba diving where half of the group is waiting for us!! Lol (in that time, Junachito also asked me to marry him.. the only reason I got this out of everything was because I know the word matrimonia.. and he pointed to me and said “YOU”) so
I got my first proposal.. from the same man who was trying to kidnap me earlier! J how fabulous. (read that with sarcasm please)
Blah blah blah.. we do that.. worth the gannorhea we may have caught from putting the snorkeling gear (most likely NOT clean) in our mouths, ate some amazing crab, took another roller coaster of a ride to the white sandy beaches and then headed back. At one point, Susan was holding on so tight and even let out a “I don’t like this anymore”! it was frantic and so much fun! Only one casualty.. her sunglasses.
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