Day 1: We arrived at our place around 1 ish in the morning and were greeted by the good looking half of a lesbian couple. Glenn and Adam were more than stoked, she was an actress and showed us some of her work (read: a few naked still from something she worked on). However, the gods were not with the boys and the water to their building was shut off so we were taken to another house. The new couple was incredibly nice and didn´t seem the least bit bothered by our late arrival or our decision to go out for our first of many mojitos, only to return at 5am. Our accomodations were relatively nice, 1 clean room with a/c in the downtown area.
Day 2: We decided to wander around the city and eventually ended up at a cafe by the sea sipping on coffee and enjoying the people and car watching. By far, our favorite person was this little old man wearing a newspaper hat. It was literally an oragami hat. So cute. We sought out some famous ice cream and after a long day of walking in the heat, it was perfection. Later that night, the boy found some nice local ladies to give them an impromptu dance lesson. Glenn and I ended the night around 5, but the night was young for Adam. By the time he returned to our place, not only had he sucessfully navigated the city while innebriated, he busted his ankle (he´s ok, just a nasty sprain) and broke through a locked door with his `Sholder.`
Day 3: We hopped on a bus and headed for the country. It was a sleepy little town where the primary mode of transportation (other than walking, of course) was by horse or horse and cart. Half the houses had one tethered outside and while we didn´t ride one, it sorta looked like fun. That night we checked out the bar scene, which was pretty much just 1 discotech and 1 bar that people went to after the disco closed. There was a benefit for someone so there was live music and lots of locals willing to give dance lessons in exchange for drinks. The boys had to borrow money as they quickly learned that it was easy to find yourself buying drinks for whole groups of people you don´t know. It was another late night.
Day 4: After one of us recovered from a wicked hangover, we hired a man, Luis, to take us through the countryside and into some caves. The country was stunning.... Working farms manned with oxen, humble little homes, barns, and more animals than Glenn could take pictures of. We stopped in a little hut where a man and his wife made us a sugar cane juice and rum drink, then the old man rolled a cigar for each of us. It was surreal. We left the hut and headed for the caves, which would have been a law suit waiting to happen in the states, but there, everything was `tranquila.` In he far end of the caves was a fresh water pool and we all took a refreshing dip in the mineral water. We have pictures, but some will have to be photoshopped-- the water was perfectly clear. That night was pretty much a repeat of the one before and the one before that, only we made friends with a local, Ivan, who invited us to come with him the next day to a town without tourists. Seemed like a questionable idea at the time.
Day 5: But the next morning, it seemed like the thing to do. We were done with the town we were in and since we didn´t have any specific plans, we decided to take a chance. It was quite the adventure. We got a late start to the day and didn´t end up leaving in our hired Fiat taxi until quite late. We arrived at our desination and as promised, there were absolutely not tourists. I´m not even sure that they had even seen tourists. Never the less, after hold our breath, the taxi pulled up to a modest house, even for by their standards, it was well maintained, but didn´t have running water. The family we were staying with gave us the whole house for the duration of our stay, and they went and stayed with other family members. The 9 year old daughter, Omara, was a sweet as they come and enamored with my camera. (her pictures to follow at some point). It was too late to really do any real beach time, but we went anyways, sat on the pier, and Glenn and Adam played a lot of Hotel California and Let it Be-- the clear local favorites. It started raining after an hour or 2, lightly at first then quickly turned into a classic tropical rain storm and just dumped on us. We ran back to the taxi, but it was gone. While Ivan searched for our taxi driver we sat under someones porch. The nice family brought out extra chairs for us, which was key as it took Ivan a good hour and a half before he returned with the cabbie; at which point we were considering sleeping in an abandoned school bus. Thank god it didn´t come to that. When we finally got back to our house, the mom had dinner waiting-- chicken, rice, beans, and the best avacado ever. Or maybe I was just hungry.
Day 6: The cab driver said he knew a better beach and was willing to drive us and stay for the whole day, after which he invited us to his home where they slaughtered a pig for our dinner. We made sure that he wouldn´t disappear again, and agreed to go. It was a little different than promised. No white sand, dirty water, etc and having not found any coffee that morning, we were all a little grumpy. But, we made the best of it and things started to turn around after coffee and after we sat at a bar and Glenn and Adam entertained the locals with more renditions of Hotel California and Let it Be. Everyone was singing and a local borrowed Glenn´s guitar and played some local songs. Dinner was awesome. They literally butchered a whole pig and we ate incredibly well. Plantain chips, rice, beans, lots of pork, cucumber,and avacado. There were multiple more renditions of Hotel California and Let it be with the others joining in on the choruses. It ended up being a really good day, just very different than we could have imagined.
Glenn and Adam finally woke up from their 3 hour nap, and are telling me that it´s time to go explore Columbian nightlife, so the rest will have to wait.
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