Friday 8 November 2013

Nearing the end

Its been a crazy week. Let me describe my last couple of days for you. 2 days ago, I arrived in Cartagena by plane. Cartagena is a port town about 24 hours north of bogota, Colombia. I was really impressed with bogota. Many of the capital cities I have visited in south america were pretty western and frankly, a bit boring. Bogota has a really great feel to it. The city seems east to navigate, the people are friendly and it seems to have held on to a lot character and charm in its growth. I caught a taxi from bogota airport to a hostel I had heard about from a friend. When my taxi turned the last corner into the street the hostel was on, I saw tom, cat and Maddie walking on the sidewalk. I jumped out to an exciting reception of hugs and smiles. A couple of nights of salsa, cocktails and delicious pastries and we hopped on the plane to Cartagena.

From Cartagena we caught a 2 hour bus to a spot where we jumped on the back of a few motorcycles with no leathers or helmets and sped off to a ferry that took us to playa Blanca, a nicer beach. All I could think of was 'if I fall off right now, I will die'. A couple of times tom and I stopped while the guys riding checked there bikes. The 2 girls riding in front sped off, far from our view. I worried something suspect was going on but tom didn't seem to be worried, so I tried to relax. We finally arrived at santa Blanca and grabbed some lunch. A man came out carrying a tray of three massive fish and asked us to choose which cut we wanted from which fish. Pretty cool. We all chose a fillet of the biggest fish. It came out served with lime, rice, salad and fried banana patties. It was delightful and wasn't expensive at all.

For accommodation, we went with the cheapest option of hammocks. In hind sight, I would have paid a bit more and got something away from the ridiculous amount of mosquito's and sandfly. I got exactly 0 hours of sleep and am covered in bites. Turns out you don't need much sleep when you live on a beach though. Today I sat down, had a drink, ate some food, went for a swim and I think I smiled at some people too. Tonight I'm getting on a speedboat back to Cartagena and then a bus to Medellin. Not long at all until I'm back in Australia.

2 comments:

  1. All sounds good Mitch(except for the bit about the motor bikes!)
    Skyping with Andrew Monday for his birthday, shame we can't make it a "conference Skype. Keep safe til we see you next weekend! Mum

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  2. I will tidy your bedroom for your return.
    Leaping

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