Baranquilla
After three legs of a long flight (RDU - ATL - FLL - Baranquilla), we arrived in my classmate Nadia's hometown of Baranquilla at around 3:30 am. Since we arrived so late, Nadia took all of us to her parents' house, where we took every inch of her floorspace that we could. The original plan was to hit the town after arriving in BAQ, but sleep took priority. After a few hours of sleep, we showered, checked in at our hotel, then headed out to a Carnival parade. Baranquilla's Carnival festivities are the most famous in Colombia, and one of the biggest in South America next to Rio. The parade was pretty tame.
Later that night we all had some local food (a delicious mess of meat, something that tasted like McDonald's special sauce, another thing that tasted like those crispy asian noodles, and some rice), then headed to a park in front of the cathedral where we listened to some Colombian music. The weather here isn't as hot as I expected - I wore shorts and a t-shirt and was pretty comfortable.
Taganga
The next day we took a 2 hour bus ride along the coast to Taganga, which is a very small village at the end of an inlet. Taganga has become a tourist town, but I kind of like it. It's small - you can walk from one end to the other in about 10 minutes. Taganga is more of a jumping off point for the Tayrona National Park.
Tayrona
This place is where everyone told us to spend our time. Another 1.5-hour bus ride took us to this national park on the coast. We trekked about 2 hours, going through some forrest, then bouncing from beach to beach until reaching our destination - a popular (yet still remote) campground. The place reminded me of Interlaken, Switzerland, where hippies pretty much run the place. Luckily (or maybe not so luckily), our accommodations were away from everyone else. We stayed in hammocks on a two-level cabana, which was perched on the top of a 100-foot high rock formation. The idea of sleeping on hammocks on the beach is idyllic, right? Well, not in gale-force winds.
After a half day of hanging out, sleeping proved fairly impossible, as the cold, strong wind, and... hammocks proved not to be the best sleeping conditions. Rhianon, Dani, Jessie, Marcy and I stayed up until about 1:30 talking on the deck and sharing a bottle of rum, until we finally decided to "sleep." I probably got about 3 hours of actual slumber, but it didn't matter at all. This is a vacation, right? With absolutely nothing on my to-do list, being in top form isn't my priority.
Today I generally hung around the beach until we trekked back to the beach and boarded another bus back to Taganga. Tonight in Taganga, most of us were pretty beat, so Josh, Matt, Jess, Gordon, and I went to a fantastic pizza place (in Taganga, Colombia... who knew) and had a leisurely meal. Tomorrow we go to Cartagena, where we'll stay in two separate swanky houses (the one we're staying at has an ocean view) for 4 days, then head to Bogota.
Random extra thoughts:
- I get pumped up when I speak Spanish. This is a fairly obvious statement, but I have to remind myself of this. My friend Jessie and I have done some pontificating around why this is, and we have many reasons. Mine revolve around showing respect for another culture by speaking their language, and generally being able to connect with an entire culture. It's also empowering to be able to navigate a foreign country with relative ease. I also enjoy being relied upon to translate.
- I'm always amazed at the different professional passions and experiences that my classmates have. On this trip, I've learned from friends who work in solar panel manufacturing, diplomacy, politics, etc.
So, there's my narrative for the night. In all, having a great time in Colombia, and will have more details to share later. Tonight I just wanted to document the main things I've done thus far.
Let me know when you arrive in Cartagena.
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