There is a sign in my hostel that says 'Anything Purple is mine, and anything that isn't can be dyed or painted' and as its a nice bit of humour I thought I would share it.
I woke this morning to the sound of heavy rain and sadly the sound and the rain continued all through the day and throughout the night, being the longest that I have ever experienced rain before.
The hostel is called the Purple House International and the place would make even one of my sisters jealous of the colour after awhile, as there is the colour purple just about everywhere and in everything. Walls, table, chairs, desks, bed sheets, knives, forks, dresses, plates, cups and everything in between.
It is also the first hostel that I have visited that is obsessed with travel to the level that they dont just have a few fliers form nearby hostels, but entire folders full of information from all the surrounding countries complete with tours, guides, places to stay, palces to eat, things to do and general tips and advice.
The place is a haven for travellers and travel information and everyone here has their own story to tell, be it the owner ( a former member of the peace corps ) to the french / suisse group ( who got stuck up a mountain due to heavy rain ), the pair of Californian surfer dudes ( who slowly drove down all the way from the USA and are now selling the car that they used ) or the solo Dutch lass ( who is meeting her boyfriend in Costa Rica and has just spent the last few days surfing on the pacific coast after visiting the Galapagos Islands and seing sealions and turtles come right up the beach beside her).
Because of the rain half of the guests who were her last night made plans to leave early to pastures new ( and hopefully drier ) or just resigned themselves to a boring day stuck in because of the rain and instead order pizza and watch movies all day.
For me it was a chance to talk English to fellow Europeans who really and truly understood me, to catch up on unanswered emails, to plan a trip to the Mayan ruins in Copan near San Pedro Sula and contact my friends in Mexico and ask for their help in visiting some of the various Aztec and Tultec's citadels that are numerous throughout their country.
It did not help that it was a Sunday ( with a bank holiday Monday coming up ) and my wifi adapter has died on me for perhaps the last time so I had plenty of time in the dry to type up and store emails only in order to go to the nearby internet cafe and send them all off in one go.
What did surprise me is that apart from me heading off in the wrong direction, I blame the constant driving rain as I had my eyes down for so long that I got all turned around, was that even though the rain was flowing constantly from 2am this morning and that the army was even out to keep the traffic going and not bottle necking up anywhere, that the local cyclists decided that the rain was not hard enough to prevent them from racing through the streets around 1pm ... and I thought us British were crazy.
Aday stuck in a house watching movies with the windows open ( because of the heat and condensation ) has given me quite a lot of time to think, not to mention a blinding headache, so I am off to an early night in order to catch the bus tomorrow morning along with the Dutch lass and one or two others.
Sunday 30 November 2008
Not even a flying visit through Panama City
After the flight and the change of hostels I ended up sharing a night in a place where my room had no lockers and thus I slept the whole night fully clothed and clutching my wallet and camera in one hand while my passport was safely tucked up in my hidden pocket, while my other room mates chatted away about the Mayan Calendars, Aliens, Conspiracies, 9-11 and that in the year 2012 the entire world will shift to an alternate dimension and we will all find ourselves in a place where we are ready for a higher state of conciousness.
Next morning I woke up a little later than all the rest of my room mates and as I had to check out by 10:00 I figured I had just enough time to sort out a few things before heading out to my original hostel where I could start my city tour proper of Panama City.
Before I could go I just had enough time to call my bank back in the UK to ask why my cards were being declined and it turned out that not only had I used up my overdraft ( which meant that I am even further off budget than I earlier feared ) but as I had not used my credit card abroad before they needed me to call and confirm that the transactions were genuine and not fraudulent - pity they didn't call me up to tell me this before hand.
During the conversation I told the guy on the other end that I was travelling around the world and it turns out that he was a traveller too, and so despite this being my mobile phone bill, he rabbitted on for about 10 minutes on gossip and stories he had, which was kind of cool for the first few minutes but as I was paying for this quickly became an unneccessary expense.
Once that was done I had to grab a taxi to my other hostel long enough to drop off my luggage, however my non speaking hostel owner, the rain and the taxi drivers of the city had other ideas, as at first the hostel owner wanted me to get into a taxi driven by a couple of local guys ( not going to happen ) then there were no taxis for love nor money and I ended up spending an hour in a shelter occupied by an excitable security guard who thought that if he spoke fast enough and often enough I would somehow learn enough Spanish to talk to him before long.
Needless to say, it didn't happen and I ended up just getting confused, frustrated and finally iritated before he finally managed to find me a single taxi driver willing to take me, but by this time the rain had drenched my appetite for this city and as I had not had any phone calls from my friends to say that we should meet up I decided to move on while I still had any money left, as I wasn't sure when the money from my 3 month term deposit account would finally come through.
The taxi driver didn't speak any English either, but I managed to explain enough in Spanish that I needed a bus to David City and I think that he said that the direct road to there was flooded, but he could take me to a nearby bus stop where the roads were clear from. This sounded good, til I asked how much and he said that it would be US $26 to reach the city, at which point I just laughed, said it wasn't possible and then asked to go to my original hostel.
The fact that I laughed I think got to him more than the refusal to go along with his instant money making scheme, and in less than a minute later he clicked his fingers and said that if I got on at a place just down the road I could catch a bus from there to a nearer town past all the flooding and this sounded much more promising and all this for only US $2, which was more within my price budget.
He dropped me off at a bus stop and I had to ask directions from the other locals standing around before jumping on a bus, corssing my fingers and hoping that the direction I was going in was the one I needed. The bus must have stopped about twenty times before it got anywhere near where I needed, then the passenger in front of me urged me to get off here and change buses to get one that goes to someplace nearer where I could then catch the rapid bus that goes all the way to David City.
Thus it was that it was on my third bus trip in the morning that I found myself on a intercity bus bound for the west of Panama and still my cellphone was not ringing and so I guessed that my friends from Panama City had given up on my visit due to the horrid weather.
What amused me was that local buses here all give out different coloured poker chips depending on where you got on and where you needed, and at the other end you gave back the chip and paid either 25 cents, 50 cents or the maxiumum was a dollar.
Of course the intercity bus, which was on a bigger air conditioned bus with movies, costed more like US $12:50 and took around 7 hours to go from Panama City to David City, including a half hour stop over in the middle where everyone else hopped out to get something to eat while I took the opportunity alone to change my socks and shoes to my spare dry pair that I had in the rucksack.
I arrived in David just a little after 7:15pm and managed to catch a taxi for just US $2 that took me right to the door, which was cool as although the weather was drier here, it was still cloudy and looked like it was threatening to rain at any moment.
I checked in, said hi to the New Yorker who owns and ran the place before I went out to get a bite to eat, and as I had not tried a McDonalds in a few weeks it was nice to taste something familar. I was very impressed with the choice of menu, and in the end had a McNifica chef special burger and fries, with apple crumble and ice cream for desert, and all for around US $7. One of the best I had tried in ages, but the ketchup could do with a little modification, as it was a bit too rich for my pallate.
Back in the hostel there was a friendly group of Euroeans, a mix of Swedish, French, Suisse and Icelandic and together we watched a couple of movies most of us headed on over to catch a concert of Samy and Sandra, one of Panama's top three bands. I guess it is a different culture, and of course not understanding the lyrics didn't help, but to me it was a lot of fun to watch everyone get up and dance the way they did, but nothing for me musically.
The entrance was US $6 for men, women getting in half price, and all drinks were 50 cents each, but even this was good value when you considered that the concert was a last minute rush event and half of all the proceeds were meant to be given to the victims of the floods that the extra heavy and long rain season had created.
The night was made complete by plenty of local guys coming and trying to pull one or all of the girls in the group, despite the language difficulty, and it was only after the novelty had worn off and the girls were all getting very pissed off with it before I fully stepped in and as politely as I could I told them to get lost and that we, as a group, were not interested in anything they had to say or offer.
I have to say though, that the concert security staff not only spoke Engish, but came up and made sure that I was aware that this was not a entirely safe place with all the drink and locals going by, that pickpockets were always a danger and if any of the locals gave us any grief then I should contact them immediately and they would sort it out for us.
The walk back to the hostel was refreshing, from the humidity of the day, and as it was a clear night we all had hopes that the morning would be dry and that we could all do some sight seing in the morning, there was even talk of some of us going White Water Rafting, however the torrential rain that started up around 2am and rained and rained and rained soon put pay to all but the most determined and modest travel plan.
Next morning I woke up a little later than all the rest of my room mates and as I had to check out by 10:00 I figured I had just enough time to sort out a few things before heading out to my original hostel where I could start my city tour proper of Panama City.
Before I could go I just had enough time to call my bank back in the UK to ask why my cards were being declined and it turned out that not only had I used up my overdraft ( which meant that I am even further off budget than I earlier feared ) but as I had not used my credit card abroad before they needed me to call and confirm that the transactions were genuine and not fraudulent - pity they didn't call me up to tell me this before hand.
During the conversation I told the guy on the other end that I was travelling around the world and it turns out that he was a traveller too, and so despite this being my mobile phone bill, he rabbitted on for about 10 minutes on gossip and stories he had, which was kind of cool for the first few minutes but as I was paying for this quickly became an unneccessary expense.
Once that was done I had to grab a taxi to my other hostel long enough to drop off my luggage, however my non speaking hostel owner, the rain and the taxi drivers of the city had other ideas, as at first the hostel owner wanted me to get into a taxi driven by a couple of local guys ( not going to happen ) then there were no taxis for love nor money and I ended up spending an hour in a shelter occupied by an excitable security guard who thought that if he spoke fast enough and often enough I would somehow learn enough Spanish to talk to him before long.
Needless to say, it didn't happen and I ended up just getting confused, frustrated and finally iritated before he finally managed to find me a single taxi driver willing to take me, but by this time the rain had drenched my appetite for this city and as I had not had any phone calls from my friends to say that we should meet up I decided to move on while I still had any money left, as I wasn't sure when the money from my 3 month term deposit account would finally come through.
The taxi driver didn't speak any English either, but I managed to explain enough in Spanish that I needed a bus to David City and I think that he said that the direct road to there was flooded, but he could take me to a nearby bus stop where the roads were clear from. This sounded good, til I asked how much and he said that it would be US $26 to reach the city, at which point I just laughed, said it wasn't possible and then asked to go to my original hostel.
The fact that I laughed I think got to him more than the refusal to go along with his instant money making scheme, and in less than a minute later he clicked his fingers and said that if I got on at a place just down the road I could catch a bus from there to a nearer town past all the flooding and this sounded much more promising and all this for only US $2, which was more within my price budget.
He dropped me off at a bus stop and I had to ask directions from the other locals standing around before jumping on a bus, corssing my fingers and hoping that the direction I was going in was the one I needed. The bus must have stopped about twenty times before it got anywhere near where I needed, then the passenger in front of me urged me to get off here and change buses to get one that goes to someplace nearer where I could then catch the rapid bus that goes all the way to David City.
Thus it was that it was on my third bus trip in the morning that I found myself on a intercity bus bound for the west of Panama and still my cellphone was not ringing and so I guessed that my friends from Panama City had given up on my visit due to the horrid weather.
What amused me was that local buses here all give out different coloured poker chips depending on where you got on and where you needed, and at the other end you gave back the chip and paid either 25 cents, 50 cents or the maxiumum was a dollar.
Of course the intercity bus, which was on a bigger air conditioned bus with movies, costed more like US $12:50 and took around 7 hours to go from Panama City to David City, including a half hour stop over in the middle where everyone else hopped out to get something to eat while I took the opportunity alone to change my socks and shoes to my spare dry pair that I had in the rucksack.
I arrived in David just a little after 7:15pm and managed to catch a taxi for just US $2 that took me right to the door, which was cool as although the weather was drier here, it was still cloudy and looked like it was threatening to rain at any moment.
I checked in, said hi to the New Yorker who owns and ran the place before I went out to get a bite to eat, and as I had not tried a McDonalds in a few weeks it was nice to taste something familar. I was very impressed with the choice of menu, and in the end had a McNifica chef special burger and fries, with apple crumble and ice cream for desert, and all for around US $7. One of the best I had tried in ages, but the ketchup could do with a little modification, as it was a bit too rich for my pallate.
Back in the hostel there was a friendly group of Euroeans, a mix of Swedish, French, Suisse and Icelandic and together we watched a couple of movies most of us headed on over to catch a concert of Samy and Sandra, one of Panama's top three bands. I guess it is a different culture, and of course not understanding the lyrics didn't help, but to me it was a lot of fun to watch everyone get up and dance the way they did, but nothing for me musically.
The entrance was US $6 for men, women getting in half price, and all drinks were 50 cents each, but even this was good value when you considered that the concert was a last minute rush event and half of all the proceeds were meant to be given to the victims of the floods that the extra heavy and long rain season had created.
The night was made complete by plenty of local guys coming and trying to pull one or all of the girls in the group, despite the language difficulty, and it was only after the novelty had worn off and the girls were all getting very pissed off with it before I fully stepped in and as politely as I could I told them to get lost and that we, as a group, were not interested in anything they had to say or offer.
I have to say though, that the concert security staff not only spoke Engish, but came up and made sure that I was aware that this was not a entirely safe place with all the drink and locals going by, that pickpockets were always a danger and if any of the locals gave us any grief then I should contact them immediately and they would sort it out for us.
The walk back to the hostel was refreshing, from the humidity of the day, and as it was a clear night we all had hopes that the morning would be dry and that we could all do some sight seing in the morning, there was even talk of some of us going White Water Rafting, however the torrential rain that started up around 2am and rained and rained and rained soon put pay to all but the most determined and modest travel plan.
Taking the weather with me
During my trip I have had plenty of good experiences and days but I think that I chose a really bad time to go visiting. From the very first country of my tour being Holland, I think that with only a couple of exceptions I have been rained on in every single country I have visited and I have lost count of the amount of days that it has prevented or at lest very hampered a days activities.
For this reason alone, I think that it is worth picking the right time of year to visit a place, and even if the high season costs a little more the fact that you can actually leave your hotel or hostel and go out and about sight seing makes all the difference and should not be lightly dismissed.
I am also thinking that package holidays with an organised tour guide is also not as bad as I first thought, as they will not only have all the information but will have things arranged and ready to go the second you arrive in a place, whereas on my trip often I have missed many of the areas big attractions through either ignorance or the inability to get anyone nearby to understand what I want or how to get it.
For much the same reason hostels and cheap hotels are not always the best route, even for trips on a shoestring, as I have lost count of the times I have been speaking to people in hostels and when I mention that I have gone somewhere they say "Oh and did you visit ..." or "What did you think of ..." only for me to shrug and admit that I did not have the opportunity to see it.
If you can't speak the language of the locals then plenty of research and organising excursions is often better than arriving at a hostel and hoping that you can find lots of activities and find how to get there as well. For this tour guides can be great, as they often not only tell you what you can do, but how to get in contact with the people there in order to do it in advance, and often how much you can expect to pay in order to budget accordingly.
However all things considered, it is not entirely my piss poor planning that has meant I have been rained on as heavily as I have, as according to other tourists and hostel owners the Central and South American region is currently experiencing its worst ever prolonged period of torrential rain since records began. And not only this, but I am also experiencing extremely bad luck, as I keep arriving in places that have had days of sunshine before I arrive but as soon as I turn up the have a week long downpour.
Judging from the conversations with other backpackers and the hostel owners much of Central America has had floods, bridges collapsed, mud slides and road closures from the extended rainy season, that by all rights should have finished in early November, so this being the last day of November it should have stopped weeks ago.
Global warming! Well I am no scientist, but the worse ever rainy season in terms of both daily rainfall and duration from start to finish ( which of course it hasn't done yet ) and everywhere I go the locals say that it is getting harder and harder to predict with any certainty the weather these last few years, to my mind at least all point that something is going wrong and I am pretty sure that Global warming isn't helping the situation.
Last week David City experienced an earth quake measuring over 6.2, which is pretty strong let me tell you, and he locals are only just beginning to get over that, but many are blaming that for the increased duration of the rains.
Saturday 29 November 2008
Leaving South America
I woke up this morning and knew that I had a few hours before my friend C' would arrive at my hotel to share a breakfast and to meet me before my flight to Panama via Bogota.
I had just enough time to have a shave, sort myself out and get packed before C' arrived, so I was confused and a little off balance when the hotel reception called me to say that my other friend M' had arrived, as I had thought that I had managed to contact her last night and tell her of the change of plans, but apparently she had not fully understood.
Realising that C' was going to arrive at any minute, we just chatted in the reception for a few minutes until M' and her cousin arrived and then we all four went to have breakfast.
As coincidences go even I was unexpecting C' and M' to be not live in neighouring streets but both have teacher mothers who work in the same place, and so it is likely that they might have seen each other in passing without even realising it before now. C' speaks a little less English than M' but still more than I speak Spanish, and as her age of only 23 I feel even more determined to learn Spanish when I get back.
As I was with M' there was no problems finding the restaurant for my continental breakfast, which we shared but they must have changed how they make their hot chocolate cos the one I had today just wasn't as good as the one I had the last time I was there, but for 27 mil pesos for 4 of us so I was not complaining that much.
It was a pain that the hostel would not accept credit or debit cards and furthermore for some reason my normal bank card was now being refused when I try to use it ATM machines, so I was forced yet again to use my credit cards to obtain money enough to reach the next destination.
I had to check out at midday, and I was very upset that they not only charged my the 50 mil pesos instead of 40 mil pesos per night, but they also charged me for having M' in my room even though she never stayed over night and only stayed in my room during the day while we watched the movies or television while the rain was pouring.
The thought also occured to me that as I arrived with my friends A' and A' I did not book it in advance and thus there is nowhere easy that I can leave some form of neutral or negative feedback of these facts.
The weather outside was not only above 30 degrees but also it was the clearest skies I had seen in Cartagena, and I thought that it was just my sodding luck that on the best day weather wise I would be on a flight out of there, and unable to enjoy the sun.
After breakfast we moved on to the Airport and it was here that things started to get really interested, as M' met a few friends in the aiport and spent a few minutes talking to them while I was trying to talk to C' and then I let them all go, sharing a cab home before I tried to check in as I was about 2 hours early.
I decided to get rid of all my lose change and swap over the last of my pesos to dollars, and got back US $ 62 for my 140 mil pesos, which was a fraction less that I had hoped for but never mind, this was an airport after all.
In the queue for the check in I was standing in line with a couple of nice American travellers, and we quickly got chatting about travel and all sorts of things, and they said that their flight was in a few hours and was a direct flight to Panama City, not indirect to Bogota like mine.
The leaving customs officials were very thorough and went through all my baggage by hand as well as passing it through their scanners, but even they did not go through my parcel of letters for home!, but in the end I was told that there was a mix up and I was meant to check in with a different airline as they booked me on a different flight, but as the luggage control took so long I was too late to catch that flight so they instead bumped me up to the next direct flight, which turned out to be the same one that the American couple were on.
I had to get pay a leaving airport tax, which blew my mind as it was also exactly US $62, which seems very high and left me nothing with which to pay a taxi fare, coffee or anything at all when I arrived in Panama.
Once through the check in I met up again with my American friends, told them that I would be sharing the flight with them, and together we all left for a nice chat while waiting for the direct flight, which was not til 5pm but still arrived a little earlier than my second flight would have.
During the wait they told me that they were a member of the Travelling Centinary Club, having visited more than 100 countries together, which certianly put my mere 35 or so to shame, but they also said that one of the members had visited all 350+ of the worlds recognised countries which is definetly a claim that few people can boast.
The are also very up to date with the latest scams and tricks that the locals try to pull, and only a few days ago had barely managed to get away without being robbed by the bird-poo scam, where they get someone with a squeezy bottle from above to pour in on a tourist, and they they 'helpfully' try to clean you down while frisking you for wallet, camera, etc, at the same time. In those instances it is better to be dirty than let the street locals clean you, and they had their shirts half way up their chests before they managed to beat them off and continued on their way.
The flight itself was quick and at the other end they insisted that If ever I go near their home city that I had to pay them a visit, which of couse I was very glad to accept, as I have yet to visit the USA properly, and they were kind enough to even let me ride with them from the airport to my hostel.
The hostel I was in did not appear very friendly from the outside, being in the old town centre, and as I had come a day early, depsite giving them notice they were full up and were unable to let me just doss their the night and find my lodgings in the morning.
The rain was coming down heavily by now and I really didnt want to have to spend the night on the streets, but thankfully the hostel receptionist used his little book of numbers to find an alternative hostel for me for the night and organised a taxi for me, which cost me US $5.
The new hostel was closer to downtown, but even in a more ugly looking neighbourhood, and the dorm room was just four beds in a row segregated from the tv room by a set of french doors, and no lockers or anything to store your stuff in, certianly not a place that I would have chosed for myself had I the time or other alternatives.
With the rain coming down heavy, and nowhere to store my stuff, I watched a movie til I was tired, then still clothed slept with my laptop, wallet and camera in my bed hoping that should anyone try to rob me in the night that I woudl wake and be able to stop them.
I woke up next morning with no emails or phone calls from my Panamanian friends, despite it being a Saturday, and the rain was still coming down, so it looks as if my time in Panama will not be one of the best days of my trip, but hopefully not one of the worst.
I had just enough time to have a shave, sort myself out and get packed before C' arrived, so I was confused and a little off balance when the hotel reception called me to say that my other friend M' had arrived, as I had thought that I had managed to contact her last night and tell her of the change of plans, but apparently she had not fully understood.
Realising that C' was going to arrive at any minute, we just chatted in the reception for a few minutes until M' and her cousin arrived and then we all four went to have breakfast.
As coincidences go even I was unexpecting C' and M' to be not live in neighouring streets but both have teacher mothers who work in the same place, and so it is likely that they might have seen each other in passing without even realising it before now. C' speaks a little less English than M' but still more than I speak Spanish, and as her age of only 23 I feel even more determined to learn Spanish when I get back.
As I was with M' there was no problems finding the restaurant for my continental breakfast, which we shared but they must have changed how they make their hot chocolate cos the one I had today just wasn't as good as the one I had the last time I was there, but for 27 mil pesos for 4 of us so I was not complaining that much.
It was a pain that the hostel would not accept credit or debit cards and furthermore for some reason my normal bank card was now being refused when I try to use it ATM machines, so I was forced yet again to use my credit cards to obtain money enough to reach the next destination.
I had to check out at midday, and I was very upset that they not only charged my the 50 mil pesos instead of 40 mil pesos per night, but they also charged me for having M' in my room even though she never stayed over night and only stayed in my room during the day while we watched the movies or television while the rain was pouring.
The thought also occured to me that as I arrived with my friends A' and A' I did not book it in advance and thus there is nowhere easy that I can leave some form of neutral or negative feedback of these facts.
The weather outside was not only above 30 degrees but also it was the clearest skies I had seen in Cartagena, and I thought that it was just my sodding luck that on the best day weather wise I would be on a flight out of there, and unable to enjoy the sun.
After breakfast we moved on to the Airport and it was here that things started to get really interested, as M' met a few friends in the aiport and spent a few minutes talking to them while I was trying to talk to C' and then I let them all go, sharing a cab home before I tried to check in as I was about 2 hours early.
I decided to get rid of all my lose change and swap over the last of my pesos to dollars, and got back US $ 62 for my 140 mil pesos, which was a fraction less that I had hoped for but never mind, this was an airport after all.
In the queue for the check in I was standing in line with a couple of nice American travellers, and we quickly got chatting about travel and all sorts of things, and they said that their flight was in a few hours and was a direct flight to Panama City, not indirect to Bogota like mine.
The leaving customs officials were very thorough and went through all my baggage by hand as well as passing it through their scanners, but even they did not go through my parcel of letters for home!, but in the end I was told that there was a mix up and I was meant to check in with a different airline as they booked me on a different flight, but as the luggage control took so long I was too late to catch that flight so they instead bumped me up to the next direct flight, which turned out to be the same one that the American couple were on.
I had to get pay a leaving airport tax, which blew my mind as it was also exactly US $62, which seems very high and left me nothing with which to pay a taxi fare, coffee or anything at all when I arrived in Panama.
Once through the check in I met up again with my American friends, told them that I would be sharing the flight with them, and together we all left for a nice chat while waiting for the direct flight, which was not til 5pm but still arrived a little earlier than my second flight would have.
During the wait they told me that they were a member of the Travelling Centinary Club, having visited more than 100 countries together, which certianly put my mere 35 or so to shame, but they also said that one of the members had visited all 350+ of the worlds recognised countries which is definetly a claim that few people can boast.
The are also very up to date with the latest scams and tricks that the locals try to pull, and only a few days ago had barely managed to get away without being robbed by the bird-poo scam, where they get someone with a squeezy bottle from above to pour in on a tourist, and they they 'helpfully' try to clean you down while frisking you for wallet, camera, etc, at the same time. In those instances it is better to be dirty than let the street locals clean you, and they had their shirts half way up their chests before they managed to beat them off and continued on their way.
The flight itself was quick and at the other end they insisted that If ever I go near their home city that I had to pay them a visit, which of couse I was very glad to accept, as I have yet to visit the USA properly, and they were kind enough to even let me ride with them from the airport to my hostel.
The hostel I was in did not appear very friendly from the outside, being in the old town centre, and as I had come a day early, depsite giving them notice they were full up and were unable to let me just doss their the night and find my lodgings in the morning.
The rain was coming down heavily by now and I really didnt want to have to spend the night on the streets, but thankfully the hostel receptionist used his little book of numbers to find an alternative hostel for me for the night and organised a taxi for me, which cost me US $5.
The new hostel was closer to downtown, but even in a more ugly looking neighbourhood, and the dorm room was just four beds in a row segregated from the tv room by a set of french doors, and no lockers or anything to store your stuff in, certianly not a place that I would have chosed for myself had I the time or other alternatives.
With the rain coming down heavy, and nowhere to store my stuff, I watched a movie til I was tired, then still clothed slept with my laptop, wallet and camera in my bed hoping that should anyone try to rob me in the night that I woudl wake and be able to stop them.
I woke up next morning with no emails or phone calls from my Panamanian friends, despite it being a Saturday, and the rain was still coming down, so it looks as if my time in Panama will not be one of the best days of my trip, but hopefully not one of the worst.
Friday 28 November 2008
Final Day in Cartagena, Colombia
I once again tried to find that dratted restaurant for breakfast, but once again I was unable to find it, and I think it is because I was not paying close enough attention when we went the first time and so I not only don't remember the location but even its name, all I know is that it had nice comfy leather chairs, a book exchange and did a better choice of a continental breakfast that most other places in the city.
After midday my friend M' arrived at my hotel and with the sun out and high in the sky we were determined to try and take a few nice photos while we had the chance, despite this meaning that we would revisit a few places that I had been to alone over the last few days.
The old town of Cartagena has many nice places to visit as a tourist, and all within walking distance. You can visit a Museums dedicated to Gold; Cinema; Emeralds, Spanish Inquisition or Naval History, and those are just the ones that are in a ten block radius, with a few more if you travel to the unrenovated side of the old city.
There is also a newer part to the city, with tall sky scrapers and expensive modern hotels, but M' said that they were strictly for commerce or residential use and nothing much for a tourist to take a photo of, so although I was tempted we spend our time milling about, grabbing some great food and enjoying refreshing drinks and ice creams where we were.
Our trip to the Palace of the Inquisition was amusing in a bizarre way, as outside there was a local guy who tried to sell us a private guided tour in English for 20 mil pesos, but when you consider that the museum is just a large town house and you don't really need anyone to tell you what a rack is, I figures he was trying to pull a fast one on a Gringo, and was happy to dismiss him and continue on my own.
Coincidentally the entrance to the Palace was also 20 mil pesos, 10 per adult or 7 per child, but if you like looking at warped items of torture then you can't go far wrong in that place.
Above the museum was also a museum more dedicated to the arrival of the Spaniards and the indigenous indian folk who lived there prior to the conquest, complete with maps, pottery and a few scale models of how the towns and villages are thought to have looked during this period. It was here that I found out the original name for the area that the city of Cartagena now occupies was actually Kalamary, so called because the area was a very great place to fish.
After the musuem we headed on over to try and catch a glimpse of the sun going down over the ocean, but although the sun was out there was way too many clouds to see it set, so we gave up and went back to wait for her friend in a nearby restaurant.
Before we met her friend we once again crossed Bolivar Plaza and here was a group of kids and yung adults all playing musical instruments and doing a very crazy dance, that apparently is almost unique to Cartagena, being a cross between African and Caribbean style, but to me just looked like they were seing how fast they could flex and flick their arms, legs and bellies as fast as possible. Because it was late at night I was not really able to photograph it very well, but I did manage to get a low quality film clip.
Eventually we made our way and met M's friend S' and we shared an acceptable Chinese meal just down the road from my hotel before it was time to call it a day, and I had to say goodbye to my friends in Colombia for the last time, as my flight to Panama leaves tomorrow afternoon.
Thursday 27 November 2008
End of day four in Cartagena, Colombia
I didn't seem to have such a good day today, as things just kept on slipping from the positive to the negative and I was having a hard time keeping my cool and remember that I am still technically on holiday and thus should be having a good time.
It started when I was unable to find the good cafe where I had a great breakfast the day before, and ended up getting tired and then bored of wlaking before going into the first cafe that I found to be given a piece of meat and fried banana as a breakfast.
My friends A' and A' had left the hotel yesterday and with my two wing buddies gone I was back on my own til my local friend M' came back, but she was not due til around 2pm and in the end she arrived more closer to 3:30.
The heat of today was around 32 during the day and 27 at night, which sounds great, but without any light breeze to take away the heat it becomes unbareable very quickly.
When M' arrived she remembered that I had a package that I wanted to send home, now much reduced as I had earlier dumped much of what was originally going to be posted, and she offered to help me go to the local post office and see about having it sent home.
The more I see of the Colombian postal service, the more angrier and frustrated I become with it. Not only is it extremely expensive to send anything abroad from here, not only do none of the staff have any grasp of English ( why would they ) but they are rude and intrusive.
My small package is nothing more than a few receipts, fliers, adverts, tour leaflets and such so why did a huge, fat, bloated, ugly and stupid female decide that she had the right to go opening a package I had all ready to send home, and start going through it item by item.
I didn't complain too much when she opened it, as I fugured that perhaps she just needed to check the overall contents ( although in no other country have I had my privacy invaded thus ) but once she started looking at every item inside the bag my rage just rose up and I had to snatch it away from her and storm out before I ended up hitting her.
M' was a little uncomfortable with the whole episode, but I am just not used to my stuff being scrutinized in public by an absolute nobody, not even the airport customs officers went through my stuff in such minute detail, and at least in the airport I almost expect it and certanily can mentally prepare myself for the indignity of it all, but here in the postal service sending a normal package back home.
After the disasterous trip to the post office we went to the shops to grab some food in order to save on pennies for the rest of the day and not have to pay any more expensive delivery charges on food from the local restaurants. However the local stores near my hotel didn't have such a good variety of foods or drinks and the counter lines were so slow moving that I saw a store clerk give a speeding ticket to a snail for attempted queue jumping.
Back in the hotel the water was off for some reason, and remained off for the entire day, so we just watched a bit of tv til it was time to grab a taxi to the nearby cinema. However the local taxi drivers had other ideas and we at least three ignored us or refused to take us before we finally found one that would, despite the distance being only a few minutes and through some safe neighbourhoods of the city.
Eventually we did find one, but the delay of finding a taxi willing to take us and the delay of the cinema clerk being out for a break meant that we missed the first few minutes of the film, and with it some of the understanding of the film.
The film was ok, but I think it was one of those films where they are trying to get a message across, but it completely missed me as I just saw it as a film with no proper beginning or proper end and would not go and see it a second time if it cost me anything.
After the film M' had to go back to her house, so I grabbed a taxi and came back to my hotel, where my wifi adapter was having a funny five minutes and refused to work for the entire night, which was the last thing that I remember before slipping into an early nights sleep.
It started when I was unable to find the good cafe where I had a great breakfast the day before, and ended up getting tired and then bored of wlaking before going into the first cafe that I found to be given a piece of meat and fried banana as a breakfast.
My friends A' and A' had left the hotel yesterday and with my two wing buddies gone I was back on my own til my local friend M' came back, but she was not due til around 2pm and in the end she arrived more closer to 3:30.
The heat of today was around 32 during the day and 27 at night, which sounds great, but without any light breeze to take away the heat it becomes unbareable very quickly.
When M' arrived she remembered that I had a package that I wanted to send home, now much reduced as I had earlier dumped much of what was originally going to be posted, and she offered to help me go to the local post office and see about having it sent home.
The more I see of the Colombian postal service, the more angrier and frustrated I become with it. Not only is it extremely expensive to send anything abroad from here, not only do none of the staff have any grasp of English ( why would they ) but they are rude and intrusive.
My small package is nothing more than a few receipts, fliers, adverts, tour leaflets and such so why did a huge, fat, bloated, ugly and stupid female decide that she had the right to go opening a package I had all ready to send home, and start going through it item by item.
I didn't complain too much when she opened it, as I fugured that perhaps she just needed to check the overall contents ( although in no other country have I had my privacy invaded thus ) but once she started looking at every item inside the bag my rage just rose up and I had to snatch it away from her and storm out before I ended up hitting her.
M' was a little uncomfortable with the whole episode, but I am just not used to my stuff being scrutinized in public by an absolute nobody, not even the airport customs officers went through my stuff in such minute detail, and at least in the airport I almost expect it and certanily can mentally prepare myself for the indignity of it all, but here in the postal service sending a normal package back home.
After the disasterous trip to the post office we went to the shops to grab some food in order to save on pennies for the rest of the day and not have to pay any more expensive delivery charges on food from the local restaurants. However the local stores near my hotel didn't have such a good variety of foods or drinks and the counter lines were so slow moving that I saw a store clerk give a speeding ticket to a snail for attempted queue jumping.
Back in the hotel the water was off for some reason, and remained off for the entire day, so we just watched a bit of tv til it was time to grab a taxi to the nearby cinema. However the local taxi drivers had other ideas and we at least three ignored us or refused to take us before we finally found one that would, despite the distance being only a few minutes and through some safe neighbourhoods of the city.
Eventually we did find one, but the delay of finding a taxi willing to take us and the delay of the cinema clerk being out for a break meant that we missed the first few minutes of the film, and with it some of the understanding of the film.
The film was ok, but I think it was one of those films where they are trying to get a message across, but it completely missed me as I just saw it as a film with no proper beginning or proper end and would not go and see it a second time if it cost me anything.
After the film M' had to go back to her house, so I grabbed a taxi and came back to my hotel, where my wifi adapter was having a funny five minutes and refused to work for the entire night, which was the last thing that I remember before slipping into an early nights sleep.
Wednesday 26 November 2008
Day Four in Cartagena, Colombia
My friend M' was not due to come round until about 2pm in the afternoon as she had a few things to do and with the weather being predicted to be heavy rain I knew that it would be another day inside with not much to do except talk and watch tv, so I may as well get things up to date while I had the chance.
In the morning it was still fairly dry, so I tried to go for a walk and find the cafe once more, yet even knowing that it was close by it was still impossible for me to find and I ended up doing a large twisted and overlapping loop that took in almost all the streets and side roads til eventually I was bored of walking and hungry enough to stop anywhere and grab a bite at the next restaurant that I came to, which wasn't too bad in the end as the food was cheap and the hot chocolate was good.
As the sky was still dry for the time being, though the ground was very wet indeed, I chose to take the opportunity to take a few more photos just out and about on my travels while I twisted and turned my way back to my hotel, always on the lookout for either thre restaurant or a road that was familiar, and for better or worse I found the hotel before I found the cafe, so I came back and just finished up where I left off before M' showed up.
As we were going to be inside, I did not want to waste even more money on expensive pizzas so I suggested that we go out and grab some provisions while the sun lasted and then head on back to scoff ourselves in the hotel before we visited the cinema later, to see the new intrigue thriller with Russel Crowe and Leonardo di Caprio.
Day three of Cartagena and the rains came down
After grabbing some beakfast the rain started up lightly and over the course of the day it got heavier and heavier.
M' and I went up to the old Spanish port castle, which was super, the entrance fee was almost nothing at all, and if it wasn't for the rain I could easily have stayed up there for ages just taking in the sights and smells. The place is remarkably well preserved and apart from the cannons being rusted solid the place has a timeless romance and feel to it, and even without any previous historical knowledge or education it would not be hard to imagine the place at its height, filled with spanish soldiers, gunpowder and indiginous slaves and traders milling around.
The castle itself is high on a hill, overlooking Cartagena centre, the river estuary and has a few tunnels that run deep underground and beneath the very river itself, that you can visit and travel along, but being that far down and with the rain already beating down hard venturing deep into the earth didn't have enough appeal to lure down for long before I wanted to go somewhere dry.
We made our way back to my hotel and as we went the rain started to come down even heavier until the lows of the roads around the city centre flooded and it became hard to move about unemcumbered, and certainly any photos I would take would have just a horrid dark grey skyline and close up buildings ill lit themselves.
We tried to speak a little in both Spanish and English, but soon I had exhausted my vocabulary yet again after the frequently asked questions had all been asked, and soon I was either repeating myself or dropping back into English and hoping that she could understand if i kept it simple enough.
Around dinner time we figured on being lazy and ordering in a chinese or an Italian, but we couldn't find any restaruants that were open and would deliver in the current storm raging outside, so in the end we chose a pizza place very close to us, yet still it took them over an hour as they were initally waiting for the rain to stop before we chased them for it and explained that the rain was not only not going to stop but also was not our problem and was the reason why we was using them and not someone else.
By the time the pizza arrived the rain was so loud that we could hear it with the door closed and over the noise of the rooms aircon unit and the television and I almost felt sorry for the delivery woman, that was until I saw the price of the pizza and at around 40 mil pesos for a medim pizza and a couple of bottles of coke I lost all sympathy and for a second hoped I was back in the UK or in the US, where is the pizza is late beyond a certian time you would be entitled to accept it for free.
With very few films on at the cinema I checked the weather forcast on my laptop and was saddened to know that it would be even worse weather tomorrow, but at least on Thursday the weather should remain dry enough to do a proper daytime visit of the city centre, its museums and take some outdoor photos, as the folks back home love to see photos of me.
Despite being almost caged indoors all day, the rooms facitlies was comfortable and with the good company of M' I had a nice evening and went to bed at a normal time, hoping to wake to a dry morning and trying to remember how to get back to the restaurant where we had breakfast this morning.
A second day in Cartagena, Colombia
After the mini-late night I barely managed to wake in time for our 8am cruise up the river and ot the beautiful and pictureque sandy white beaches and islands that Cartagena has is famous for.
I met up with my buddies A' and A' and after a bit of classic keystone cops of us all rushing back to our rooms a few times to get towels, bathing suits, money, cameras, etc, etc, we finally got it together and only a little later than plannned we foudn ourselves wandered on down to the pier.
On the way to the pier we passed a few bits and bobs worth taking a snap photo of, including a couple of beautiful ships that were either renovated originals or just very creative copies, named The Phantom and the Galeon Bucanero.
When we arrived the price was 10 mil pesos for the port fee, a further 35 mil for the cruise which included a free meal at the beach, but didnt include the 15 mil pesos required for the entry into the Aquarium.
The boat was a nice big boat that must have accomodated about 100 people easy, and it had to be big as we also were housing about that many kids / early teenagers in what appeared to be a large school outing for them, complete with music and party games held all day long on the upper deck. Games like how many hats and sing alongs were going on all the day and althogh at first I found it irritating, mainly as the only thing I wanted to do was get some more sleep, but by the end of the day I was joining in with all the fun.
The cruise was pretty comfy, although the windows had seen better days, as had the life jackets, but all in all it was a fun and exciting trip and yet again I was glad that I don't suffer from sea sickness as the ship was pitching up and down and from side to side quite a lot.
At the Aquarium we stopped off for about an hour and a half, which was just long enough to see it if you wanted to, and if not just a bit too long to jus sit around and wait, so both A's decided to go for a swim while I kept guard over the bags, which was fine as I hadn't got changed into my swimming trunks at this time and we still had yet to reach the beach proper.
A group of Colombian teenagers preferred to go diving from the boat that was morred up at the rear of the Aquarium and so I had a bit of fun taking photos and filming them dive in, only I missed the best as three of them all flipped in together at the very end, all very sudden and I had already put my camera away at that point.
I was surprised by the fact that the Aquarium was more outdoors than I expected and was more based around pens where various fish were living in, rather than tanks and partly because of this, the whole place was barely built above water and at many places the water had risen up around a foot higher than the level of the land and so you had to be wearing flipflops or nothing on your feet.
There were sharks, dolphins and sear turtles all just swiming around, so the place was very cool. Hoever I would avoid the local fish being sold outside the front from the local vendors. They get a couple of locals to appear to be tourists and pay around 10 mil pesos for a tiny plate of king prawns or mini lobsters for about 10 mil pesos thus trying to give you the appearance that that is a fair price, but when you consider how much of shellfish is shell and how tiny the plate they give you is, that is a fairly high price to pay, especially from a location where you can fish for them.
When we finally arrived at the beach, a mini docking boat came out to meet us, which was basically a flat bottomed skiff or such like and in two trips it conveyed us all over to the island for a couple of hours before the 2 hour journey back to the city centre.
On the beach there were the many sea shell vendors and such, selling necklaces and other souveneirs, but all for the same price you would pay back in the UK, which reminded me that this place was making a big profit from the rich Colombian tourists as much as from foreign tourists, as a good 80% of the cruise was national folk here to enjoy the weather and the beaches.
The beaches were amazing and we all took turns in having a dip, and the water was just a bit warmer than cold which was amazing and the other Colombians played a game of swimming out a bit and then letting the tide wash them back onto the beach, it was very fun to watch and be a part of.
There are plenty of massage women also wandering around the beach, which was both good and bad, as they were very hard sell, would often come back several times in a few minutes regardless of what you said, and frequently tried to fix a sale by just going up to people and start to massage them whether they asked for one or not, so you had to be very firm with them and if they came up and start to touch you very quickly tell them no or else you will end up being massaged and then be in the often awkward position of having to try and negociate a price post event.
I am a sucker for massages myself, so after a swim I let a couple of them have a bash for 20 mil pesos, which is only fairly cheap but not really worth it as they used a home made mixture of sea water and oil to rub into my skin, and did not clean their hands or run me down first so ended up just rubbing sand into my skin in places, so I would strongly advise against getting one unless you are prepared to go a bit away from the waters edge and ensure that you are all completely free of sand.
I got chatting to a fellow brit traveller, who had quite a few amazing stories to tell ( but as she has half a mind to write a book herself I wont steal them or mention then here ) but I will say that as she had a passion for languages and as she had lived in Venesuela for a couple of years to boot, her Spanish was not just good it was fluent and with an accent.
As we seemed to share a few common interests, and were both brits, we sort of got chatting and ended up sharing the journey back just sitting and talking, which was great as the guys were a little on the quiet side after the swim and the lazing on the beach.
Once it started to rain a bit, I dived inside the boat, but mild sea sickness kept the guys and my new chum E' from sitting down with me and so in no time at all I figured that getting a bit wet was preferrable to sitting down for a couple of hours alone, so up again I came and found E' who was at the front of the ship with the guide and a few of the locals.
Making my way to the front I found that she was engrossed in a cross ways conversation with a few of them, but as soon as they heard me speak in English too they quickly made room for me and by the end they were not only encouraging us to talk in English so that they could all hear and learn, but also trying to match make us up together, as to their way of thinking people our ages shoud not be single so they did what they could to throw us together, while we did our best to show good humour and play along a little just for fun.
E' also knows quite a bit about south american dancing and so once the music got going asked me if I could dance, which of course I can't, but while I'm sobre I can follow most beats in a simple one step, two step, so although we didnt wow the locals, we pleased them enough while we had a mini dance together right before the ship pulled in to dock and received a small smattering of applause, which was fun and then it was time to go back to the hotel.
I arranged to meet up with E' a bit later to grab something to eat while in the meantime I headed on back with A' and A' for a shower and a change of clothes, and it was only back in my room that I cursed myself for being stupid enough to continue to carry my watch mounted compass after my watch strap had broke as sometime during the day it had slipped out of my pocket and is snow surely lost for ever.
A' and A' were still feeling very hungry so they nipped out early to grab a bite to eat, while I did a few bits back in my room before meeting up with E' at the clock tower for a couple more hours and although the sky was grey, it was still very warm even at 8pm at night.
We grabbed a bite to eat and chatted for a few hours til it was time that she had to go back to her hostel, as she had an early start for Santa Marta in the morning, and so I headed on back and somehow managed to catch up again with A' and A' back in my hotel lobby before the three of us went out again to try the local discoteques that we had heard on the grapevine would not be as dead as they were last night.
On the way to our chosen venue, a local guy came up and told us that both the clubs we wanted had shut down months ago, but that he could guide us to a great new happenin club with very cute girls, and although we all smelled a scam we fugured we had little to lose so we went along, only long enough for us to reach it and hear about the 10 mil pesos cover charge, and to see enough cleavage on display in red lengerie for us to know that this wasn't the kind of place we were looking for and as they would not even let one of us inside to scope out the inside for ourselves we figured it was better to split rather than waste time and money in a place like this.
A few minutes later we found a different bar, after walking down streets with shady characters lurking about and found a great club very near our hotel that wasn't too expensive and had both locals and tourists, men and women all dancing together, which was exactly what we wanted, so we went on in and spent a good few hours before I had to leave.
On the same road as my hotel I passed a good sized sprinkling of what looked like wet 50 mil pesos notes all strewn on the ground, but considering there were a few policemen around and certainly plenty of vagrants very close by all doing nothing much about it I figured tha they had to be forged noted so just walked on by back to my hotel and then went to sleep.
I met up with my buddies A' and A' and after a bit of classic keystone cops of us all rushing back to our rooms a few times to get towels, bathing suits, money, cameras, etc, etc, we finally got it together and only a little later than plannned we foudn ourselves wandered on down to the pier.
On the way to the pier we passed a few bits and bobs worth taking a snap photo of, including a couple of beautiful ships that were either renovated originals or just very creative copies, named The Phantom and the Galeon Bucanero.
When we arrived the price was 10 mil pesos for the port fee, a further 35 mil for the cruise which included a free meal at the beach, but didnt include the 15 mil pesos required for the entry into the Aquarium.
The boat was a nice big boat that must have accomodated about 100 people easy, and it had to be big as we also were housing about that many kids / early teenagers in what appeared to be a large school outing for them, complete with music and party games held all day long on the upper deck. Games like how many hats and sing alongs were going on all the day and althogh at first I found it irritating, mainly as the only thing I wanted to do was get some more sleep, but by the end of the day I was joining in with all the fun.
The cruise was pretty comfy, although the windows had seen better days, as had the life jackets, but all in all it was a fun and exciting trip and yet again I was glad that I don't suffer from sea sickness as the ship was pitching up and down and from side to side quite a lot.
At the Aquarium we stopped off for about an hour and a half, which was just long enough to see it if you wanted to, and if not just a bit too long to jus sit around and wait, so both A's decided to go for a swim while I kept guard over the bags, which was fine as I hadn't got changed into my swimming trunks at this time and we still had yet to reach the beach proper.
A group of Colombian teenagers preferred to go diving from the boat that was morred up at the rear of the Aquarium and so I had a bit of fun taking photos and filming them dive in, only I missed the best as three of them all flipped in together at the very end, all very sudden and I had already put my camera away at that point.
I was surprised by the fact that the Aquarium was more outdoors than I expected and was more based around pens where various fish were living in, rather than tanks and partly because of this, the whole place was barely built above water and at many places the water had risen up around a foot higher than the level of the land and so you had to be wearing flipflops or nothing on your feet.
There were sharks, dolphins and sear turtles all just swiming around, so the place was very cool. Hoever I would avoid the local fish being sold outside the front from the local vendors. They get a couple of locals to appear to be tourists and pay around 10 mil pesos for a tiny plate of king prawns or mini lobsters for about 10 mil pesos thus trying to give you the appearance that that is a fair price, but when you consider how much of shellfish is shell and how tiny the plate they give you is, that is a fairly high price to pay, especially from a location where you can fish for them.
When we finally arrived at the beach, a mini docking boat came out to meet us, which was basically a flat bottomed skiff or such like and in two trips it conveyed us all over to the island for a couple of hours before the 2 hour journey back to the city centre.
On the beach there were the many sea shell vendors and such, selling necklaces and other souveneirs, but all for the same price you would pay back in the UK, which reminded me that this place was making a big profit from the rich Colombian tourists as much as from foreign tourists, as a good 80% of the cruise was national folk here to enjoy the weather and the beaches.
The beaches were amazing and we all took turns in having a dip, and the water was just a bit warmer than cold which was amazing and the other Colombians played a game of swimming out a bit and then letting the tide wash them back onto the beach, it was very fun to watch and be a part of.
There are plenty of massage women also wandering around the beach, which was both good and bad, as they were very hard sell, would often come back several times in a few minutes regardless of what you said, and frequently tried to fix a sale by just going up to people and start to massage them whether they asked for one or not, so you had to be very firm with them and if they came up and start to touch you very quickly tell them no or else you will end up being massaged and then be in the often awkward position of having to try and negociate a price post event.
I am a sucker for massages myself, so after a swim I let a couple of them have a bash for 20 mil pesos, which is only fairly cheap but not really worth it as they used a home made mixture of sea water and oil to rub into my skin, and did not clean their hands or run me down first so ended up just rubbing sand into my skin in places, so I would strongly advise against getting one unless you are prepared to go a bit away from the waters edge and ensure that you are all completely free of sand.
I got chatting to a fellow brit traveller, who had quite a few amazing stories to tell ( but as she has half a mind to write a book herself I wont steal them or mention then here ) but I will say that as she had a passion for languages and as she had lived in Venesuela for a couple of years to boot, her Spanish was not just good it was fluent and with an accent.
As we seemed to share a few common interests, and were both brits, we sort of got chatting and ended up sharing the journey back just sitting and talking, which was great as the guys were a little on the quiet side after the swim and the lazing on the beach.
Once it started to rain a bit, I dived inside the boat, but mild sea sickness kept the guys and my new chum E' from sitting down with me and so in no time at all I figured that getting a bit wet was preferrable to sitting down for a couple of hours alone, so up again I came and found E' who was at the front of the ship with the guide and a few of the locals.
Making my way to the front I found that she was engrossed in a cross ways conversation with a few of them, but as soon as they heard me speak in English too they quickly made room for me and by the end they were not only encouraging us to talk in English so that they could all hear and learn, but also trying to match make us up together, as to their way of thinking people our ages shoud not be single so they did what they could to throw us together, while we did our best to show good humour and play along a little just for fun.
E' also knows quite a bit about south american dancing and so once the music got going asked me if I could dance, which of course I can't, but while I'm sobre I can follow most beats in a simple one step, two step, so although we didnt wow the locals, we pleased them enough while we had a mini dance together right before the ship pulled in to dock and received a small smattering of applause, which was fun and then it was time to go back to the hotel.
I arranged to meet up with E' a bit later to grab something to eat while in the meantime I headed on back with A' and A' for a shower and a change of clothes, and it was only back in my room that I cursed myself for being stupid enough to continue to carry my watch mounted compass after my watch strap had broke as sometime during the day it had slipped out of my pocket and is snow surely lost for ever.
A' and A' were still feeling very hungry so they nipped out early to grab a bite to eat, while I did a few bits back in my room before meeting up with E' at the clock tower for a couple more hours and although the sky was grey, it was still very warm even at 8pm at night.
We grabbed a bite to eat and chatted for a few hours til it was time that she had to go back to her hostel, as she had an early start for Santa Marta in the morning, and so I headed on back and somehow managed to catch up again with A' and A' back in my hotel lobby before the three of us went out again to try the local discoteques that we had heard on the grapevine would not be as dead as they were last night.
On the way to our chosen venue, a local guy came up and told us that both the clubs we wanted had shut down months ago, but that he could guide us to a great new happenin club with very cute girls, and although we all smelled a scam we fugured we had little to lose so we went along, only long enough for us to reach it and hear about the 10 mil pesos cover charge, and to see enough cleavage on display in red lengerie for us to know that this wasn't the kind of place we were looking for and as they would not even let one of us inside to scope out the inside for ourselves we figured it was better to split rather than waste time and money in a place like this.
A few minutes later we found a different bar, after walking down streets with shady characters lurking about and found a great club very near our hotel that wasn't too expensive and had both locals and tourists, men and women all dancing together, which was exactly what we wanted, so we went on in and spent a good few hours before I had to leave.
On the same road as my hotel I passed a good sized sprinkling of what looked like wet 50 mil pesos notes all strewn on the ground, but considering there were a few policemen around and certainly plenty of vagrants very close by all doing nothing much about it I figured tha they had to be forged noted so just walked on by back to my hotel and then went to sleep.
Tuesday 25 November 2008
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)