Caribbean Faces [English]

• Gonna see Central America

  Got my cute feet flown to San Jose, Costa Rica

  This year I had decided to go to Central America exploring Costa Rica, Panama, and Colombia. Landed in San Jose, Costa Rica, it was an easy flight. Got in my hotel around 3 PM. I found that this town was not easy to move around. Even though the town is small but the place was not safe to walk around especially after the dark.  The town was similar to Guatemala City. Not much going on and people was so disconnected. It was kind of boring place. Went to see some museum, it was nothing to impress. Looking into a city tour, it was not really impress either. My life was doom here. Run into many difficulty people where ever I went, it was not fun. It was a total turned off. Went to get the bus ticket next day to go to panama for Miraflores Lock.

  

   

• Move along the plan to Panama Canal

  Move along the plan to Panama Canal 

  The goal to see the engineering wonder of the lock systems that move the boat from Pacific to Caribbean Sea. Torturing myself with 17-hours bus ride form San Jose, Costa Rica to Old town, Panama City. It was not a pretty way to do this, not recommended. It’s suck. There are 2 classes of the bus system: tourist and executive. The differences are one leaves midday and other leave later at night. The price was $37. Note, Costa Rica does not have a nice luxury bus like Argentina. The Tica Bus is just standard nothing special. No service but stop 2 times for food and 1 time for crossing the border. The bus has about 32 seats. I did make sure that I will not stuck on the back of the bus because of toilet smell and the throwing motion that I don’t like.  

  There were many backpackers on the bus mostly Canadian. It took 7 hours to reach the border. We hit the rain most of the time. The country side was not interesting that I thought it could be. A stamped out from Costa Rica was done through bus driver who took everybody paper and had them stamped out at the border. Then return the document back to us. We didn’t have to do anything. The challenge came at the Panama border. Around 7 PM at this moment the immigration area was a chaos. There was no telling from the bus driver of what to do. I had to ask other local passengers what to do, so I can get my passport stamped-in for Panama. At this moment, the Panamanian custom was not amused. There were 3 buses load of people but only him has to do the work. There was no smiling on him but slightly nasty attitude toward many tourists which me included. Talk to myself, if my great Thai smile can’t undue his stress, this much be a heavy-duty task here. When my turn came, at the window…bam… the gentleman was not excepting the plane ticket confirmation in my computer. He threw my passport back at me told me he needs the print out. Here came the challenging where the f*k can I print at the border at this time of the night. All gringos and other got the same treatment. A few of us began to complain and asked him where to print. He didn’t answer anything to all of us and continue working ignoring us totally. Finally, the bus helper came around and took us to the Internet place where they can print for us. It cost me $2 just to print 2 pages. Back to the windows again this time my little Chinese sprit pop up, got smart so I cut the line by standing on the side and waiting for him to take my passport. Five people passed by, he’s still ignoring me. Nevertheless, some of the guy that stand in line told the custom to take my document. This time the point was taken he turned toward me. I gave him a biggest goofy sweet smile try to melt his heart. He stirred at me. The guy whose was standing in line said something again, finally he took my document. It took him 3 second to process the stamped without looking at the paper that I just manage to print. I smiled at him again and say thank you very much. He didn’t say a word to me but throw my passport back at me.  Well I got a first-class service here, will see who can beat this service on this trip? 

  More chaos when the bus driver announced to come and get our luggage so the custom will check our luggage. So, we have to drag our belonging and put on the table waiting for them to begin the searching process. The twist was they called your name and checked mark. We still had to wait until the last person on the bus had the immigration stamped. That took 2 hours standing with a bonus of body odor that generate by a large group of people in a small room…amazing day.

  Got off the bus at 4:30 AM. Arrive at the hotel at 5 PM of course they had given my room to other. So, I got a chance to sleep in 6-bunkbeds dorm room. Well no one fart or snore. I was fine. Had 3 hours sleep so I ready to see this own town.

  

• Site seeing the old town , Cosco

   

  Site seeing the old town , Cosco

  Began my walk, I saw some indigenous women were pleasant here. They sell things on the street nearby near a ruined site. All streets are narrow and buildings are run down. Church of course is always standing while every else falling apart. Welcome to another Catholic country. Run into many rundown houses that have a real architecture challenges. Demolition or remodeling, I would know where to begin.  After 55 minutes, my walk was done. Time for a wine and a nap.

  Night fall, it isn’t really safe place to walk because no one around, not even a police. Treating myself with a nice meal in a fine restaurant near my hotel. Panamanian fusion, a menu set of 15 courses for $30. Well, the first dish that I liked was a salad dressing with passion fruit vinegarette. All the dishes came with small portions and the quality didn’t match the price. The rest of them were craps; but good wine though. Well tomorrow will head to down town where all the sky scraper take place. Are you ready?

  

• The great Panama City... city by the bay

  The great Panama City… city by the bay

  Got up early and ready for the new event. Checked out and walked 5 blocks to catch the taxi to the new Panama City… city by the bay. Taxi cost $5 from old colonial to the new town. Checked in for a new hotel and got myself situated, then I started my walk. To me nothing exciting because it all construction for the skyscrapers. I counted, it was about 17 giant buildings are being built concurrently. It’s blooming! The irony was there was no water for 2 days when I arrived. It is because the rain water had flooded and contaminated the water system. Here we go, paid for a hotel room and couldn’t poop because there was no water.

  This town was similar to any port city where the high building intertwines with the sea. Nothing new to me…kind of bore. On the main street heading to downtown, I have seen construction for days. And I haven’t seen any Panamanian culture. So far, all they are just shopping and eating places. It was sad that many buildings were a banded and falling apart while the new condo is being built. All these high-rises were for the condo and shopping center. Soon it would be a mess I can see it. The water front was dirty and had intense smell from sewage. Along the shore line were plastic bags floating everywhere. People couldn’t go into the water because it was polluted. If you swim you could lose you’re an eye or two…make a pick. It was a turned off, so I went back to my hotel.

  My main focus in Panama was to see the Lock system. First I was attempting to take a cruise on the Panama cannel to see the great engineering wonder. When I talked to a handful of tourists, they pretty must said the same thing…expensive ($295)…boring…and not worth it. There goes my heart failed to my knee. First, I think these people know nothing…elegant me. But when many people said the same thing … my little light grown. It must be true. Skip the cruise and go alternative way. Just take a local bus and learn about the bus system… how bad can it be! Here I come taking a taxi $3 to the bus station and paid $0.05 to get into the bus terminal. Taking $0.75 bus ride to Miraflores lock.  Yes, I had asked for the direction which bus to take and yes had to wait 30 minutes. It was about 25 minutes’ bus ride. People are helpful and friendly. The bus was pack at the beginning. By the time we arrived at a bus stop for Miraflores, it was about 5 people left. Got off and walked for 10 minutes to the lock. The boletta was $8 to get in that included the museum and the short movies. Hit some light rain at the beginning but this was a part of the great Panama because it was raining all the time. No wonder they have enough water to move more than 100 boats a day. 

   

  The lock system is a straight forward task. The lock chamber has one gate open and other close. The boat come in, the open gate is closed. When both gates closed, the water began to drain to the lower level until the both side are equal. Since the door has no pressure on both sides, the door can easily open. When one side of the door opened, the boat move to the lower lock. The same process again at the second lock. The million cubic feet of water discharged to the ocean for every boat that passed through. It cost $100,000 per giant boat to use this system. 

   

  Boats were line up at the first lock. And there I saw the cruise boat that I suppose to take. Grad I didn’t do it, it didn’t look like a tone of fun. It arrived 20 minutes before the big boat come. Now I know why it is boring. Because you sit there and wait. Since there are 3 locations of the lock, the waiting time could be 3 hours or more on that boat.

  When two boats appeared side-by-side at the lock, it was astonishing. It’s like comparing Chihuahua and St Bernard. The carried boat is muy grande.  Moving in to the second lock through the cloudy sky. The observation deck was 4 floors up and the boat was twice as high. Clearance between the boat and the lock wall is less than a foot on each side. The movement of the boat was control buy the electric cable car that ran parallel on both wall. There were 6 of them in operation per boat. These poppies cost $2,000,000 a pop. 

  Here came the ocean cruise ship.  It beautiful to see up close at the same high. I would love to get in one of this day. It would be fun to go up on the roof top and pee, to see how many second from the time I pee to when it hit the water. That was that… the fudge about the Panama Canal. I did it and saved myself for $270.

  Went back to town and checked out the mall. Now I saw the American culture was buried deep in Panamanian kids, everyone just been eating at McDonnell. Carry the gift box of home… charming. Soon they will be a big fat boys or girls running around with gust hanging out, giggling and screaming for fun.  Or fighting for their life dealing with obesity and diabetic. Pay now or pay later. Not much to see and noting to be excited about it…hated it. Left this country over the cloudy sky.

  

• Cartagena the paradise of some

  Cartagena the paradise of some

  After had enough of Panama, time to get the hell out of there. There are 2 ways that I can go. Sail boat which takes 3 days and $475 or 45-minutes flight with Copa Airline for $371. So, I took a plane from Panama City directly to Cartagena, the port town which established by the Spanish. 

  Cartagena is quite pretty itself especially the old colonial town. The beach was ok, not as outstanding as many Asian beaches. The temperature was right 30°C (86°F). The sad part was people that sell craps on the beach. They were pushy and not left me alone. Especially the black woman that claimed she does a massage. I have denied a dozen of them. While walking along the beach there were many black men, young and old were hassling me to sit on one of any plastic garden chair which they provided. I kept walking and denied all the offers. These men were not giving up, kept on following me. By the time, I hit the end of the beach, I had 5 of them following me try to offer a seat. At the end, they were end up shouting to each other arguing who will have the cut. As wise as me knowing how to deal with these suckers so I pulled out my beach cloth and lied on the sand. Then got my iPod out and put in my ear speakers. Lied face down and took my book out pretending I was reading something. It took a good 10 minutes for those men to leave. Of course, the next group came and put their goods on my face over my book…When I say no, they were not seemed to be deter. Finally, I asked the Colombian guy who sit on the chair be hide me what to say to get rid those annoying vendors. He said. “No quiero nada, por favor.” It worked out well with the vendors but not with the black ladies that try to give me a massage. Majority of them were dirty with short tied gym pant and a filthy T-shirt. They look like a cheap hooker. I’d been watching many of them gave a massage. That was the lousiest one I had ever seen. They rubbed their client with lotion mixed with sea water and rubbed all over them. The whole process took about 20 minutes. I asked people around me how much these masseurs ask for. They said about 70, 000 COP, almost 38 dollars. Gold digger…That much for that lousy rub, no way Jose. I have a better use of my money. I made sure that no one touch me.

  Practice ignoring to the surrounding is a real art. Practicing it before you heading to this beach, you will be better off.  They aren’t going to change. Seventy percentages of people in this town were living way below the poverty line. Heard many bad comments from the black people about white foreigners who had a business in Colombia. That seemed to be common everywhere I went in the world. Have and have not issues and who’s to blame. It got old really quick. Got to enjoyed my fried fish now… See you later.

  Snooping around, I found the real Colombian stuffs here. Deep fried everything you see. The sausages, stuffed meat in flour, fried plantain and corn flour. They were very greasy and not yummy. Got one bite on the sausage have to drink a whole bottle of beer at once, to get rid of that rancid test, so I can kiss someone. 

  Saw the tour bus sound interesting because of the drum and the music form the bus every time it passed by. Decided to have a ride on this local tour that cost $20. Four-hours city tour. Inside the bus was decorated with Colombia arts. The seats were a plank of woods, small and narrow. It was not comfortable to sit for a long period of time.  Warning, bring your own cushion or your butt will hurt. You have to climb up and down on this bus and squeezed in…high-heel is not recommended.  

  We were on the back of the bus drinking rum and singing throughout the tour. The two Chinese were form El Salvador, surprise! The hat lady was very funny. We stopped for shopping, I found the stuff for putting on the shaved ice…look amazingly doll. I didn’t try it, just having an on-ice fear factor that day. And I also want to save my underwear for tomorrow. Found the lady sale the sweet which I didn’t want any. It was tickling me. If you don’t buy her product, she will ask for money for taking her picture. She missed out on me I took it when she was busy selling her thing. Opportunity can shape your life…why not taking a risk…right?

  Got opportunity to see a comparison of a high-rise building and the Cruise Ship. If you really want to know how big the cruise ship can be, look closely to the middle via your right. That ship is as high as that building on the left. The white one with the pyramid on the top. Well it could be the best place to jump off more than the Golden Gate bridge.

  The whole tour, I got to see 2 things, the rest was for shopping. I left the tour before it ended. So, that was another one of a ripping off too. I can do it on my own for less than $5, and more time to explore. Got a dinner at my hotel and packed for the next town.

  

• Cartagena Antigua, The legend of Catalina

   Cartagena Antigua, The legend of Catalina

  It’s a lot of old horse carriage that ran around town. It was for servicing the tourists who like to smell horse poop. It was stink when they were passing by. How they kept the town clean was at the rear of the horse had a canvas that catch the poop and transfer to the bucket under your seat. I called this outing “a beauty ride on a pile of shit.” By the time you finish of 25-minutes ride, your nose would numb from the horse shit odor. Still curious when the male horse pee, where it goes.  

  There were many neat old houses in this town. But I was wandered, it has people live in these house or not. I saw no activity of people around these pretty houses. The only way to fine out was to knock on the door. If they don’t shoot I’ll be fine. Did knocked a few doors, heard some noise, so I ran.

  I saw Catalina, the stature and a live one. There were load of Catalina women at the high-end wedding reception. It was an Italian couple getting married and the theme was the pilot of the Caribbean. It was quite a commotion here. Everything was pretty and really up scale. These girls were the hosted for the event. When the guests come, they guide them to their table. It organized by Sofitel Hotel. Imaging the cost of this wedding…a life time earning of my working day…probably you too.  I overheard the whole wedding cost $2,000,000. I doubted it.

  At night, also was pretty and fun to walk. I didn’t feel threaten by the night fall because many tourists walked everywhere at night in this town. It was perfectly save.  Glad I did worth to see Cartagena. Let go to the real beach…eat some fish… get some tan. Life is to be good.

  

• Cartagena to Santa Mara to Taganga

   Cartagena to Santa Mara to Taganga

  Left Cartagena with a minivan 4-hours ride and $50,000 COP.  It was an interesting ride. They were a group of Italian man that come to Cartagena for fun with hookers. They were a fun group to talk too. We joked about sexual adventure and comparing notes. Try to beat each other up about who got the best last night. After 2-hours we arrived at Barranquilla. The town was not interesting, buildings after buildings, it had no character. Basically, a new town that had established after Cartagena bloomed. We changed to another minivan and continued to Santa Marta. This part of the ride was so beautiful. On left side, fresh water met the sea water. It was a paradise for these birds. They were million cranes along this massive shore line. Right hand side, was vegetation and water. It was imaged that I saw the same cactus similar to the one that are grown in Arizona.  Since there were so much rain for many months, as the result, it had been flooded everywhere as you can see along the road. Most of the houses of these poor people are in the water. Boats are the only transportation that available.

  It was because the vegetation, landscape and massive amount of water that had flood the plain for months. Along the road side I could see the real Colombian lives. It was more interesting to see about the way of life here. They take anything they can find and make something out of it. So far have not heard about a complain of the government.  As far as I know the government subsidized them with cheap electric, food and water, but not the money.  Hope…my government do that too… Tell Obama, would you?

  Before we got in Santa Marta, we witness the bad flood along the road. It took a bad tolled to the people. They were on the road begging for money to live on. By using the rope with some red flags or pieces of cloth that tied to the rope. They were a person on both ends and another was on the middle of the road begging for the money. When car came, they pulled the rope up higher to try to stop the car. It was more than 20 of these ropes. All operated by the family that got hit by this flood. Now I can really see how generous Colombians are. Live and let’s live like Thai people. Helping each other when someone needs help seemed to be a common thing here. Majority of cars gave small money to most of them. The givers understood that these poor people have no way out. Helping each other once for a while was the best gesture of the Colombian culture and I agreed. Two hours later the we arrived Santa Marta.

  

• Santa Marta a main hub

   Santa Marta a main hub

  In Santa Marta, at night the decorated lights were lit up and the vendors emerged. Found this nice guy selling every fried food again. This time I was curious about it. So, I ordered a bit of everything. The guy gave me a full whole plate for $3. The chicken and pig nose were good. The sausage was awful. It almost like Thai Northeastern sausage that has some meat and rice in it. It got some bitterness taste. It must have some liver or kidney of the cow or pig in it. But he was the only one that had a fresh Picante salsa (hot chilies sauce). Took back to my room on the 3 floors of the hotel. I didn’t want to get up and down the stairs buying my beer. I bought 2 at time. Drinking one and keeping cool one on top of the air conditioning vent. This air conditioning will do a job just fine if I could consume within 20 minutes. So I managed to finish in 10. Munching on those greasy food and drinking beers, kept me up all night with a heart burn. I am so ready for a fish for my next meal.

  Next morning I walked around town. I saw the garbage man wearing his uniform. It was a best-looking uniform for a street cleaner I’d ever seen. I learned that every city has its own color uniform. Santa Marta got the green. Hat, boot, mask, back bracing and a bag pack. So far has not seen any country beat that. May be LA need one too, don’t you think?

  This town, when it rained, it flooded. Water was stay for hours because of clogged up of the drain systems. Garbage were everywhere. Colombians need training about throwing garbage on the street. People did it without hesitation…training time needed I would say. When it flooded, the fishes come! I bet they might end up in some restaurant. Hang around for a day changing my money and buy stuffs for my next adventure. Then heading to the beach in Taganga, the fishing village. See ya.

  

• Taganga the frontier to Tayrona

   Taganga the frontier to Tayrona National Park

  Taganga is located further North about 20 minutes by mini bus ride from Santa Marta. As the book said love it or hate it. I had mixed emotion when I arrived. The weather was hot but pleasant at the beach. But further away from the beach was a dump. Because of the heavy rainfall had destroyed all the streets that had not paved. And of course, garbage was everywhere as I turned. By the time, I got myself situated, it was 2 PM. time for the fish feast. The fishes here were cheap and fresh with variety for me to choose. Local told me if you want to cook them yourself, you can buy directly form fisherman in the morning and in the evening. Since I got that information, my experience that I gained in Puerto Escondido, Mexico with fresh sea food, is to cook it yourself. It is a must. So, I decided to rent a room in the small guest house that I can cook. It also saves me quite a bit and dam…surely, I did the right thing got to enjoy those fish day in and day out.

  The main beach of Taganga. There were many fisherman boats and dive boats. There was no pounding wave here…don’t bring you surfboard. I hiked further for the second beach, It was small and not much of the place for beaching. The fisherman nets had occupied most of the sand area and they are not sharing. Further along was the big beach. Unfortunates there were well established by food vendors. I could see the continuous roofs of the restaurants. Not surprise when I see the menus, they were selling the same things. Sad there was also no wave and even less people here. They said, Colombians come only on the weekend and holiday. The beach-chairs cost $2 to sit on. At the time when I was there, it was 1 PM. Most of the restaurants were empathy. There you go, competition drove the customers…away.

  Moved on another beach, I saw a biggest wave and rocky sand beach. No…no…no, there was no white sand beach around here. You see rock mixed with black sand and many young Colombian hippie hovering around the beach with music instruments. They gathered and would play music in the evening. This beach was so much garbage that people had left them. It also had so much of spray dogs that were running around. Of course, pooping on the beach was the fun thing for these dogs to do. They thought… ya you people got the beach we got the poops for you to step on…we are even…screw you.

  

• Taganga, the best fresh fish on the beach

   Taganga village, the best fresh fish on the beach

  Taganga is a fishing village, so let go see the fishes. Big fishes usually come in the morning from the bigger boat that go further out. The activities were taking place around 5 -6 AM. Most of the restaurant are buying a fish form those boats. They seemed to have a better deal. When I tried to buy the price as almost double. Second time around I asked my house keeper the one I teach her how to cook Thai food, to go with me. Sure, she does know how to cut the deal. We got about 3 kilos for fishes about $5. One thing I noticed that for some reason red snapper was more expensive than other leaf fishes.   

  Night activities in this town excited when the small boats came back from day fishing. People gathered to buy good-looking fishes. I saw sharks. They were small and death lied on the beach because too small and no value to them. I felt sorry for those youngsters. These leaf sharks were cough and left to death for no reason…sad. I also saw many truck-loads of fishes. It took 3 people to wheel out of the beach.  It must go to the fancy restaurant somewhere.  

  Went out for a lunch for a fish of the day at the open restaurant on the beach. They cleaned and cooked for you. All you have to do is point to the one you want. Ten minutes later, there came the fish. It had been fried. Served with fried plantain (banana), some plain salad and coconut rice. It was so good. I did perfecting it real fast, that included fish head too… Yum. For some reason Colombiano do not grill the fish, I don’t know why.

  

• Colombian style Christmas party

  Colombian style cross culture at Christmas party

  Well got a chance to experience the Colombia Christmas style in a small-town call “Taganga”. My land lady that I rented a room from had asked me to joint them for a Christmas dinner. So, I brought a bottle of wine and a dozen of Colombia beer (Aquila). It was fun. It was heavy raining, lightening and surprisingly it was not a cold win. It was pouring so much that my room was flood with the rain water. Met a group of a Canadian, American, and Indian. One was married with a nephew of the land lady. The girls were funny, smoke like shimmy and drink like a fish. Wine and short of Colombian rum were the main course for them. They were having fun. We all were making fun to each other, conversed back and forward. After many bottles of wine had gone, I couldn’t remember anything. Now time for the dinner it was 9:30 PM. 

  The chef of the night was Rosés (the big sister of the family, white shirt) and her sister, they cooked food for her families and guests in the hotel. The main dish being serve in this dinner was roasted pork, dry rubbed spices and mashed potato. It took 4 hours to cook. Served on a small paper dish with plastic fork and knife…simply and so elegant! Can’t live without dessert, it was a chocolate cake make with Colombian rum…Yum.

  Here come the Santa Claus with the rings. He is 78 years old. I think he is a boyfriend of a grandma (82) who lives here. When he arrived, they were hugging and touching each other like a young couple. Will ask her tomorrow how was a honeymoon last night. Curious and stunned…hopefully I still alive and kicking at these ages! 

  After the dinner was over I felt numb on my upper lip later it’d swollen, right away I knew, I had allergic to something in that food. Drank a lot of water and took allergy pill. The swollen went down. I think god was punishing me when he saw me having a good time. Hopefully he took a vacation after this holiday. So, I can have more fun for the New year party in Bogota. Merry Christmas. Love ya…all.

  

• Caribbean water with Scuba diving motion

  Caribbean water with Scuba diving motion

  Well, got a chance to check out the Caribbean water and wanted to verify that Taganga has the cheapest scuba diving course in the world. It sure did about $10-$15 less than Thailand. There were about 15 scuba shops at this moment. Mostly new and equipment are also new. That was a plus. I settled down with one, Aquatas, it cost me $62 a day 2 dives and lousy cheap ass sandwich with a cup of warm Coca-Cola. How is that for a lunch…people?

  A dive boat is small and divers have to flip to go down. First dive I did, it was so dam difficult because of not enough room to move around. Second dive I put my gear in the water, that much easier. Got a photo moment before get in to the water. Love that wetsuit, it was 3 mm to keep me warm. I pee on it about 5 times during my dive. That also help maintain my body temperature under the water. Good part of the dives was just me and my guide, Carlo. He is a Colombiano that try to get his dive master certification. First dive we did 18 meters and 66 minutes. Second dive was 17 meters and 63 minutes…not bad for air consumption…improved. I think the big reason was not much to see or excited about it. I saw a few fishes here and there. Majority of hard corals were death from the warm spill of the warm water a month early. Well the second dive site was similar to Kho Tao, Thailand, nothing but death corals that died from the pollution that human created. The visibility was ok, water temperature was 49°F, but there were not a lot of dam fishes to see. Oh…I found one the Caribbean lobster and some soft corals with tiny yellow fish. Carlo said “I don’t know the name of the fish and you can’t eat them.” There goes my chance… fish for lunch had vanished.  A nice place for a lunch break on a rocky beach and lousy lunch. No place to buy anything, I saved a ton. 

  Finally, I saw a Caribbean Seahorse. It’s about the size of my thumb, I was thrill. That was worth for the dive. I was planning to do 2 or 3-days dive, so it’s not worth it. One day was enough to see many death corals. There go Colombia diving; una historia…next.

  After 2 days of fish feeding, I am ready to explore the famous Tyron national park. Come along please.

  

• Pristine Paradise, the Tayrona National Park

  Pristine Paradise, the Tayrona National Park

  Two ways to go to Tayrona National Park is by bus or high speed boat. You can stay in this park, the reservation is required. You can book a hammock ($3 a night) done through the tour agency only. The room are reserved for official and the rich Colombiano. It sounded like a fun thing to me to sleep on one of these hammocks. Either you deal with mosquito, gecko, bug, spider not to mention snake…or thieves…how bad can it be?

  The only fun way to go to Tayrona National park is to take high speed boat. Make sure that you can ride the waves. It took about 45 minutes for this fun ride.  The trip as fun as the one I took a boat ride at Iquazu Falls in Argentina…have to get wet to have fun. The boat ride cost $22 round trip. We left Taganga at 10 AM to avoid the heavy wave. That was the time of the heavy win and the large swell of waves are less.

  The boat driver had shown me, he is the man that really know this sea. We flew across the sea water splashed over and over. Many time people had failed backward. Screaming their lung out repeatedly though out the ride. One young lady sat next to me had a freak out, she jumped off her seat and tried to hold-on to the man whom she is traveling with. Unfortunate he denied her and pushed her away. She was down on her knee at the boat floor begging him to hold her. The caption had to stop the boat and asked her to get back at her seat. I helped her up. She was in tear and frighten. Her left knee was cut and some blood start coming out. Someone pulled out the bandit and handed to me. So, I dried her would with tissue and put the banded on. Her face went pale. I held her hand and said you have fight through this. I told her you got to overcome the pounding waves by close your eyes and fell the motion. I advised her to focus on the swaying motion by go with the flow. Pretending you are a fish swimming in a current. Swaying with current by moving with the direction of the throw. When the rise come slowly take a deep breath, don’t pulled your stomach in, and hold your breath until wave start to fall. Slowly breathing out while falling. Tied your stomach as it landed. She seemed to be comprehended. The boat continued its pounding. But this time she seemed to be calm. I guessed she took my advised by doing this mediation. Fifteen minutes into the ride, she was more comfortable with herself, even though she still looked pale. Nevertheless, she survived the ordeal when with boat reached the shore 30 minutes later. To me these tourists had to do some homework before they got into a real surprise. Living learn. I only hoped, she takes a 10-miles rough bus ride to get back to town.     

  Why Tayrona park is famous? I knew one thing, it was difficult to reach. It was a beautiful stretch of those mountains. They shoot up to the sky and yet lie down underneath the sea. Yes, it was a stunning beach with large waves and clear water. The weather was perfect 30°C (86°F) and water temperature around 14°C (57°F). Loved it, it was an ideal place for beaching.  A lot of rocks and giant boulders that spread out. The body of water and mountain intertwined. The heat from the sun and fresh air made this place a must-see. It reminded me of Khao Sok Nation Park in Southern Thailand. Clear water, high mountains and beautiful sky. On top of that, there were many places that have not been touch by the tourist because some of drug cartel still present in the area. The risk is too high in some area, no one yet dare to explore. Many walking trails were closed and some needs an escort with the ranger which you pay for his guiding services. Yes, this place is so beautiful and worth to visit. If it is not limited of time, I would plan to hung around more. Around 5 PM, we were calling back to the boat and ridded the waves back to Taganga village. Had a fried fish for dinner that night. Hopping around, drinking my way to the hotel. Packed and ready for the airport in the morning heading to Medellin. Well, see how happy I am. Jealous? want to stay longer but didn’t have time because the plane is waiting for me. See you in a bit…Ciao.

  

• A journey from Taganga to Medellin

  A journey from Taganga to Medellin

  Took a taxi from Taganga to Santa Marta Airport. It’s about 35-minutes ride cost $18. Not that bad considered the distance that I had to travel. Along the road were many high rises and condos on the beach similar to Puerto Vallarta, Mexico. We cruised along the water front through the Airport. Again, there was no big waves like Tayrona. The countryside was not pretty nor interesting. The plane was a propeller not jet that took 1 hour and 10 minutes (and $275 one way) to reach the small airport in Medellin. Then I had to take a 40-minutes taxi ride to town.  It was interesting to see the landscape, architecture and plantation. This area was vegetable producer that has large greenhouses on massive of land.

  Arrived at Casa Kiwi around noon. The room was nice and the price is $25 a night. The neighborhood was very pleasant and beautiful. This hostel has been famous for backpacker. But majority of the guests were traveler/tourist not a real backpacker. Many old folks were here. The room that I have was in the same floor at the bar. It was bad because Colombians love disco music. It was loud, people screamed at night for them to turn it down. And it was last until 2 AM every night. That was a drawback of this nice hostel. 

  A five-minute walk, you would hit 2 beautiful parks that lid up at night. Many restaurants were surrounded. All of these were bars and restaurants open 7 days a week. If you like the night life. This is a town to be in. Increasing your daily allowance first, it’s expensive here. A plate of Italian dinner with a beer cost $27….exceed my meal budget that meal. The neighborhood was very pretty. You can walk on the pretty pathway that goes on about 5 blocks. It has more trees and less smog. There were many typical buses that you can run around town. Ridden one it was not interesting. There was no air conditioning and smog was very annoyance.

  Every major place was the mock artist who stood around the corner and posted. If you take his or her picture, immediately they will ask you for the money. Unlike other place you throw the money on the bucket. If you don’t give, they don’t ask for it and still not moving. But not true in Colombia they moved to confront you and demanded the money. That spoiled it.

  Medellin has sky train that connected to Gondola that took you up the mountain. It is quite interesting to me. It was a best way to see the pretty town on cheap budget, $0.75.  You could run from the North to South and West side. Only the East end has no gondola.  The sky train was clean…no graffiti or garbage. The solution was no eating, smoking and drinking in the train and a lot of polices hanging around at the stations. 

  The Sky train was simple but confusion with the name. They use Indian name for North and South. Well this confusion leaded me to meet my volunteer assistant, Leonardo. He was on his way back home from buying a gallon of paint. He spoken a few English and offer me an assistant for running around town. First, I think here come the twist and what is he into? He was sincere and quite pleasant so I decided to taking up the challenge. We click and have so much laughs about it. And he was my tour guide for 3 days. I think Colombians are eager to be friend foreigner. I was tagging along with a real Medellinian man visiting his house. He had a wife and three grown daughters and a son. They all eager to meet me.   

  At his family house. The grandma didn’t want her picture taken because she claimed she looked old and would be an awful in picture. I told her that my camera was expensive and took good picture…she smiled and we all laugh. His son is a policeman he speaks a lot of English. The daughter and the son both just had baby girls. In Colombia, statistically one boy for every four girls. There you go the boy is on demand. Bad news for the girl. In Thailand if you a pretty girl you can choose. Not the case in Colombia when you have to deal with 3 others. Pretty wouldn’t be enough. The house was clowned with members. Well similar to Thai family, they stick together. They offer me a meal so I decline politely.  I told them I we will go around the town taking more pictures. So Leonardo and I left his house.

  The view right in front of Leonardo’s house was once the latest drug cartel killing field that wiped all of them out, 6 years ago. Leo said he saw all the guns fired and burned of the building. And it was quite a show better than Hollywood movie.

  Leonardo explained to me about how the sky train works. He took me the end of the line that connect to gondola. Frist, we attempted to go to the top of the mouton that can be reached by other gondola line that takes passenger to the top of the mountain. And there is a public park there. When we arrived the gondola that supposed to run was not running…so bad timing. So we set it up for the next day…again we didn’t make it because it closed by 1 PM, a total screw up here. So, we changed the plan to the Zoo. Had been looking for Colombian man look like the ad for Colombian coffee, finally found one. But he didn’t wear his poncho and no donkey. He much takes a day off today.  

  Medellin river run all year round, carrying water from the mountains pass through town. Even though it is located in the valley, but it has less pollution. I think the city is much prettier than La Pas, Bolivia. The higher you go the cheapest the houses are. I saw the hanging bamboo bridge it was a major accomplishment. I was wondered how safe can it be?

  I asked Leonardo to take me to a good typical Colombian food, he agreed and took me the one near his house.  The food was a bit tastier than normal. The feedholes and grill mixed meat was good but did finished the whole bowl. Didn’t touch the beef. The Chorizo and Chicharron (fried pig belly) were good. Didn’t care must of the rest. 

  Cellular phone is very popular here. Everyone had one or two. I was stopped by the young polices 3 times asking to see my cellular phone. I told them I do not have one. They kind of disbelieve they look at me suspiciously. So, they asked for the ID, I showed them my California driver license and told them I am a tourist. They let me go every time I revealed myself. Surprisingly California driver license work in Colombia. Ya…The police always asked people on the street for ID and cellular phone. I saw them check the number to who he or she had been calling. People told me that polices were controlling the drug trafficking. Here the flip. I saw many small vendors, man or women, offering cellular phone service which you can call anyone for $200 COP per minute. I am wondered If the police ever check on him or her. And how the hell do they know who were using his services!  Let’s go to see more of the city.

  We went to the botanical garden, it was free of charge. But this train cost $0.75 to ride it. I saw many Colombian Orchids. Well the most pathetic on this zoo was the animal were neglected and majority of them were not in a good shape. There was an example of a big bird that has no fur. I bet the big bird on Sesame street didn’t know about it.

  Unlike Mexico, Christmas was not celebrating here. It was quiet and no celebration here. The light decoration mostly for a new year. After all Colombia is one of the Catholic country that I think it could be. It was a surprise to see no charismas ceremonial in a Catholic country in Medellin.  

  I found some of the Fernando Botero works. Had visited his worked at the main square museum. He is a local artist in Medellin. He was famous because of the fat people and objects. This one was a fat lady and the head. Naked devil. Now you know there are also a fat devil too…watch out…people…

  When the night fall, I asked him to take to the place that had lit up and it was a fair that have food and entertainment. We walked around taking pictures and ate local food. Don’t feel threaten or fear of getting rob. It was a wall of people…fun…fun…fun. Main snack here is corn or hot dog. Here how to eat the rotisserie chicken in Colombia. You have to each with your hands. They gave you throw away plastic gloves to handle this chicken. It was great my hand wasn’t dirty but my underwear was. Shit my pant after 6 hours of consuming that meal. The Aguila, Colombia beer, wasn’t save me form this disaster, the lomotil did.

  

• Ponel, the stunning landscaping

  Ponel, the giant bolder for stunning landscaping

  Have a chance to see the country side heading to Ponel. This place was not in my traveling scoop, but Leonado had convinced me to come. The bus station, on the way to Ponel, was quite organized.  I didn’t have to carry your luggage up and down stair…cool. There were escalators for handle the leagues only. People went up and down on the stairway right next to the escalator. That was quite interesting and a bit nervous about losing my luggage.

  It took 2 hours on local bus ride heading the North of Medellin to see one of the biggest bolder in the world in Ponel. It was an asteroid that failed from the sky and land it in the middle of nowhere. You can get up to the base of the bolder by car or a 10-minutes house back riding for $3. Got a chance to be on a horse, it was fun and loved it. It an uphill ride on the road to the Ponel. It was my lucky day the weather was good about 75°F and no fog. The visibility was totally clear all around. It took about 30-minutes to get to the top. It was steep and narrow. I really experienced the Colombia casual life style that they were pretty much like Thai people. They are smiling and eager to know people. They are funny and polite. We said hi to each other from the ground level to the top of the observation. Some even offered the watermelon for free. But the beer was $3.

  It was worth every minute of it. To see the 360-degree landscaping. Nothing like it. The water way and the green form tree make this place was an exceptionally stunning. It was so peaceful and relaxing. I am glad that it did make it through here.

  

• Bogota, the high land and the capital

  Bogota, the high land and the capital

  Took a night bus from Medellin to Bogota…499 Km, 9 hours and millions of curves. Half sleep and half awake, it was an interesting ride. Got to see a real Colombian driver that managed to pass each other in no passing zone. Dangerous but didn’t see any head-on collision anywhere. Get used to it, is the name of the game here…you are not going to die so they said. Arrived the North terminal bus station around 10 AM. Took a taxi to downtown. It was a traffic jam so took us 35 minutes to get into my hotel. Didn’t feel dizzy form the altitude sickness like I did in Cusco. But I can feel the dried heat mixed with smog that caused my nose to itch and dried. Luckily that I didn’t hit any rain when I arrived, but it was a bit cold had to pulled out my sweater. Downtown was not quite as pretty as I thought. They were many homeless and druggy that snipped the glue. They were aggressive beggars like San Francisco. They yelled at me when I ignored them. Even though the polices were present, they also paid no attention to those druggy. The best way to do was to look ahead while I walked and avoid them totally.

   

  Well many people were asking if there was a McDonnell in Bogota. Here it was and they were every place in Latin America. Didn’t try any of McDonnell meal because I am afraid, my face will not fit the lens. I found a beautiful church that convinced me to sit and pray for my sole…almost went to heaven if the bell didn’t wake me up. Pattering around the market, I found that shopping had become a human entertainment everywhere I want. And cheap shit Chinese seemed to be popular here too. The lamas were for kids to ride. I told them that I am small and weight 120 lb. your lamas can handle me. The owner say yes but it was for kid. I said to him I pay you double, can I ride it? He smiled and said no. So, I pet these lamas, their fur was very soft. They were a good sport, they didn’t split on me.

   

  Continue my walk and I had met my match…the stuffed roasted pig. Pig was stuffed with its own meat mixed with rice, potato, corn and spices. Then slow cooked until crispy brown. Got a plate for $0.75. Tasting the pig skin, it was not as good as Chinese roasted pig. Well it was sure fun to look at something eatable and larger than me…next.

   

  Continue exploring Bogota… Found many houses and buildings that were interesting and unusual. Walking was the name of the game here. I had walked more than 30 blocks toward Northern part of the City. It was a nicer part of town. There were less homeless and graffiti. Some neighborhood was quite pleasant and had many beautiful old houses with trees. Some house has interesting architecture. They were not a factory… It was someone chimney…and it is the original Bogota styles. Many nice old churches everywhere most of it closed; didn’t know why?   

  Well I ran into the familiar smell, it was the incense that used for burning around the church. That took me back to La Paz where the voodoo section that I had failed to use a voodoo magic spell on my future love life. Talking to myself, I want to do it this time. I asked her how much for doing a spell?  The old lady told me that “I don’t have a dried baby llamas, you are out of luck.” I was surprise she caught on so fast. We both laughed. There you go my little love life. Can’t even get help form the unconventional witch.

  Found a strange fruit, it looks like fruta bomba, but the owner said no they weren’t. I asked for a sample, he refused to open. The one that he had opened were in the glass container that had made into the juice drink. Didn’t try it because it has the block of ice floating in it.  

  Well San Francisco has bicycles, Bogota also had motorcycle and a lot of it, there was about 3 blocks that were selling and fixing them.  Every repair was done on the street and boy walking on the oily street was not a fun thing to do. So many used oil spill and motorcycle parts on the street and walk way. Well I didn’t break my face there.

  Subway…no there is no sub way here. But has a bus system that run like Metro. Double cars and run only the main street. Bogota was on going building the bus systems all over the town. The construction was all the way to Airport which was about 30 miles from down town. I think another 2 years they should have done with all of these projects. 

  Well many people asked, how was my new year.  Well I had a blasted. Majority of the places were closed which including the fancy restaurant that I want to go. I stumbled into a little bar that had a few people in it. Ordered a beer and admired the wall of music album form central and south America. The owner has a great knowledge of these music. As a night went on the more people came in. A group of Mexican one with Canadian and other come with his wife, a baby and his mother in law. As exotic as I am, I was a hit. They want to know me. We talked a lot and got along well with the gang. They invited me for new year dinner meal…11:00 PM. So they brought food and drink to the bar.   

   

  The Canadian guy brought the wine. It was so cheap…I forced to open the wine and the top of the bottle was broken. We strained the wine with paper cloth and managed to finish this awful fine. Then ate the roasted cold chicken and bread. And followed with the Champagne at midnight. Then we yelled Happy new year. We did the group hug and drank more champagne. The party was over at 3 AM. The group were fun and we were drunk. Didn’t remember what I had promised them last night. Who knows? 

  Founded this church by accident. Forget the name. It located in the really nice neighborhood.  Love the gothic design.  After cursing around, I found the Paella restaurant. I jumped right to it. It was good and $5 for a plate of a meal, I was back in heaven.

   

  Like any other crowned city, Bogota had smog problem. After I hanged around for a couple of day, my throat began to dried and my nose itched like hell. I thought it was some allergy that I’d experience. But soon I recognized, the pollution in the air that was a smog. I wanted to see how intense it was, so I had to go up higher altitude. I want visit a church on top of the mountain. On the way up, I saw all of this cloudiness and sure it was a smog that rise above 2000 ft. City was spread out as far as I can see. It was a gigantic one. Thirty blocks of walking were just a scat the surface. At the top was a church…The view was spectacular as well as a police were present to check your ID and cellular phone. Imagine polices are every corner…ohm… how many are they? The other top of the mountain was an ultimate house that has the best view of Bogota. It was belonging to a church and guess who’s in it…the priests. Try to go in, one of the priest asked me “Are you Catholic?” I smiled and told him “can I just be a Catholic for a day so I want to have a tour of this house.” He looked at me and smiled then said “later” and walked away. Boy…was he friendly? 

  On the way down, it was a breakfast time. Here were on offered. Any of these meats, corn and a soup. After saw that chorizo, had lost my appetite. Skipped…skipped…skipped.

  After got out the gondola, I took 30-minute walk to the gold museum. It was free on Sunday. Surprisingly Colombia has more gold mines more than I thought. Over half of the country has gold. Here were some unique ones in this museum. Went to other museum found these statues in The National Museum. Woman flirted with snake. I thought it was quite interesting. I wanted one for my garden to see if my doggies would take it. Like any big city…Bogotanion have exquisite taste too. They also loved sushi. It ran into it by a chance, this restaurant, WOK, was serving it. It was good, I smeared up in no time…price wise…$10 a plate. After 4 days in Bogota, my trip had become an end. Want to shop for a fea thing then pack and hit the airport around 8 PM.

  On my way back to the US, my plane was delay because it was heavy raining. I arrived at Houston airport around 6:30 PM that was 2-hours delay. The dilemma was I have to do immigration here. I waited in-line for another 2 hours because it was packed. Got the suitcase and pass through immigration without a problem. The big problem was Continental Airline can’t check my luggage back in because my flight had to move to 7 AM next morning. It was more than 10 hours. There was also no luggage deposit at George Bush Airport. The security was not let me be inside the airport because the flight was in the morning. It was not a user-friendly airport here. Here we go…what’s to do? And so it begins, what’s to do? One thing I know that If I stepped out of the control (security) area, I am totally screw. Try my luck by talking to many officers and airline personnel to try to get some solution of either had the luggage deposit somewhere and be able to stay inside the airport. I had pissed many people off and got kick out the line many times. I realized that these the airline officers were not helpful.  

  I was so pissed off at them so my tiger mode had emerged. I demanded the right to be service. They hissed at me, so I barked at them. It was going on for 2 minutes, the security was called. I wouldn’t give-in demanding my right because it was not my fault. Police said I was distractive, I said no, I am demanding a service and compensation of this flight delay. They can off float me. It is my right to get the services. The police agree with me. I asked police to call the airline manager for me because the airline officer at the counter refused to call. So he did me a favor. After been through 3 different airline officers, finally had an assistant manager to deal with. The police left. I said to the manager I booked this ticket on line and you guy keep on changing my flight and now it was a delay and I am asked for a solution. She finally gave me a one night hotel vulture for the Holiday Inn. And they tagged my luggage and left them in the storage. I overheard one of them said he is a lucky duck. To me I wasn’t consider that I am a lucky duck, but I know how to deal with the system. And I know, I am entitled to have the compensation services because it was not my fault. Spend one hour get frustrated with the Airline clerks was demining. So I am looking forward to cancel them for good. Went to sleep in a hotel and rearrange my ride again. I hit SF airport at 9:40 AM, got pick up by Bill with my 2 doggies…happy…happy. Have to work for moths…will see If I have enough $$ to go to Chile, Argentina or Brazil.  Adios.