My Trip

Right now I feel like absolute crap, so forgive me if this blog lacks that sense of "voice." About an hour ago, I started feeling nauseous and now my body aches. The school doctor says I have a virus, which sucks, but on the flipside, I get to take off some work! But enough about that. You all don't read my blog to hear me complain about my medical issues.

Amazingly enough, I survived the 4 day trip with my friend Kristin to Santa Marta. It's funny because I honestly think people were taking bets to see if we'd get along for that much time. In fact, when I got back, Sarah called me and asked how the trip went. She sounded disappointed that there was no drama to report. That's pretty much how we operate around here. We live for drama.

We left on Wednesday after school got out. We rode in the shittiest car I've ever been in. The car kept sputtering the whole way there and I honestly didn't think we'd make it. The funniest part about the car is that it said, "Injection" on the side. What was really scary was when the driver decided to pass a car going uphill. I thought that was it for us.

We took off on our first flight to Bogota and as we were heading down the runway, I thought to myself, again, that we were going to die. The plane seemed like it wasn't going to take off. My inner dialogue was saying things like, "Why aren't we taking off yet? Shouldn't we be taking off? If we're not going to take off, why doesn't he hit the brakes? If he hits the brakes now, will we have time to stop? Will KOVR 13 do a special report on the local teacher who went to Colombia and died in a plane wreck?" I leaned over to Kristin and said, "I think we're about to die." She didn't think that was at all funny, but I was serious. Finally, we took off and then the pilot started making these crazy turns. He'd bank to the right, then turn to the left, and he did this about 3 times. I told her that I thought we were going to die again.

We made it to Bogota and I immediately found a bar to calm my nerves. I threw down some tequila and cervezas and as we were heading back to the waiting area, I spotted a huge man with a tiny head, who I immediately named Beetlejuice. The more I thought about it, the funnier it got. When we got on the plane, this guy was the last to come on and since I was in the aisle, I could see his head at all times. I literally put myself into a laughing fit for about 10 minutes. I had tears running down my cheeks and started making a mild scene. I think Kristin got a little scared that we were going to be kicked off the plane, that, and she was completely embarrassed by me. What's new?

We got into Santa Marta about 9PM and found an apartment to stay in for the night. We headed out onto the town for drinks and dinner. Nothing exciting to tell about there. Oh, I did lose my cell phone, but that's about it. The next morning, we got up and headed to the beach where we laid out for about 4 hours. Oh, but not before I had to go buy the two things that I forgot to bring TO A BEACH TOWN. Swimsuit and sandals. That's what happens when you pack at 6 in the morning still drunk from the night before. Nothing really funny happened there besides this 2 year old boy who I caught out of the corner of my eye who had dropped trow and was pissing right behind me, but he didn't stop there. He then proceeded to fondle himself for about 10 minutes. I got up and left and waited for the show to end. When I got back, Kristin told me that she had had a staredown with the kid and that he sat there as if to say, "What? Do you have a problem with this?" While on the beach, I was also harrassed by about 150,000 vendors who wanted to sell me this and that. The only ones who I took up were the shrimp cocktail guy and the cerveza lady. By the end of our day there, she and I were buddies.

That evening, we headed to Tagonga, which is a small fishing town. We stayed in the ultra backpackers hostel. It was cheap, dirty, and full of people from all ends of the world. We had a kick-ass view of the ocean and I slept listening to the lapping of waves all night. It was great.

The next morning, we packed our stuff and took a bus to Parque Tayrona which is about an hour away. We got there and met up with 2 of Kristin's friends, Juliet who is 24 and Consuela who is in her 40's. Both of them were very cool. We hiked in for about 2 hours. The park is absolutely breathtaking. It's Colombia's version of Yosemite or Yellowstone. We hiked all the way to the end, which is where we stayed. In the pictures, you can see that we stayed in a hut that was fitted with lots of hammocks. I was kind of nervous about sleeping like that because I'm a stomach sleeper, but it was all part of the package. The weather there was great. It literally stayed at about 70 degrees all day and all night. The water was just as warm. The next two days, I pretty much laid in the water all day long. Oh, and we went to a nude beach, but you don't want to hear about that, do you?

So, that's about it. It was a good trip and Kristin and I are still friends. Good times.

16 days!!!