So a few months ago I bought a one way ticket to Colombia. I know what you're thinking "wow, what a total badass." I know right? 'Cept they actually make you buy a return ticket at the airport cause South American immigration isn't really down with that kind of thing. Apparently, they have enough bad asses. The flight and everything went fine, but Spirit Airlines tacks on tons of fees and occasionally hires nazis for flight attendants. She literally would let no one use the restroom.
We got in and got a taxi pretty easily. Amanda is CARRYING me with her Spanish. I know nothing of any use and I feel like a tool constantly. Also, she knows Mexican Spanish which is a lot different so we're trying to make note of differences here and follow along. The drive to Medellín was gorgeous and it made me realize that despite just living in a small mountain town I'm still not interested in going back to big cities. I just wanna live in a valley that's not covered in snow, but I still want street food...so there will need to be some compromises. Since learning Spanish is one of our goals, being in rural areas would probably be our quickest route to fluency. We came to Medellín because we had a house to stay at, Amanda's friend from college, and to get our act together before making a plan. We made a plan then changed it around entirely. Right off the bat we can tell flexibility is going to be important. However, we did come to South America with every intention to work. We spent the first day wondering around the neighborhood, found a bakery (obviously) and a fruit market. We met the neighborhood 'representative' whose name is Ruben. He's just a friendly helpful man who speaks English. He told us what was good at the corner store and offered us his two rooms for rent if we were interested in staying longer. Everyone is the house knows him and trusts him, so mom stop freaking out.
The next day we decided to get out of the city and start exploring so we took the metro which eventually attaches to a cable car that leads to a park. You can see the whole view of Medellín from there and the city is massive. It was interesting going up the mountains because you can see the class change as you go up over the hills out of the valley. The valley itself is sky scrapers and businesses then you see the houses built up into the hill with children running around. Higher up you see a large shanty town with houses of tin roofs and eventually you back up enough to see the whole sprawling city's Medellín.
After our little city tour we agreed to go on a bike ride with our host. We were at the park waiting for our rental bikes when we started realizing we had no desire to do a two hour bike ride. Then we found out it was fourteen miles and we started eyeing the restaurant next to us. Long story short we ended up eating the most delicious pizza I've ever had at a place where our waitress was dressed as a German beer girl despite the place only serving pizza. I can't compare here to Thailand because literally nothing is the same, but one thing that makes the language barrier more difficult here is that everyone assumes if you're here you speak Spanish, whereas in Thailand they look at you and try to speak to you in English. This is playing a part in our strange diet. The first day we ate a carrot salad, rice, beans, and eggs. The second day we each got something from the bakery, ate some strawberries at the park, ate fried chicken, got fruit from the market ( amazing mangos), then had pizza and beer. Classy.
When we returned to the house we changed all our travel plans around. Initially, we were going to do a beach trip with our host and then go to Chile first and work our way back up for Amanda's yoga class, which started in April. Upon realizing that plan would only give us three weeks in Chile we quickly decided to try and get Amanda in the yoga session that started at the end of this month. Giving us only ten days to get to Peru, we're going to be hauling ass to get down there in time. This involves one 34-hour bus ride and likely two flights. Into Ecuador by the end of the week, flying to Lima, Peru for a few days then on to Cuzco. Although there's still a lot up in the air we've found a place to stay for our time in Peru and splitting the cost it will be reasonable. We'll be living in a house where we can use the kitchen with a woman who was born in Peru but lived in New York for twenty years. I wonder if I'll ever live in a place for twenty years. Seems weird.
So anyways, the internet situation right now is fantastic but I don't expect this to be consistent so you shouldn't either. Until next time...
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