Colombia...a summary :)

(Okay, this is a long post. So, if you like to scan rather than read, go to the bold...it's my favorite part :))

Before we got to Colombia everyone informed us of the country´s motto... El unico riesgo es que te quieras quedar (The only risk is that you will want to stay...). SO TRUE! I haven´t figured out what it is quite yet, but there is something about being here that makes you want to stay. Don´t worry, I´ll be back in the states come August 14th, but I will also be coming back to Colombia someday. Breanna and I arrived to Bogota this morning and have a flight early tomorrow morning to Leticia--a town on the border of Colombia, Peru, and Brazil. From Leticia, we´ll take a boat down the Amazon River through northern Peru to the jungle city of Iquitos. Here´s hoping that boats are actually leaving this weekend that that we aren´t stuck in Leticia. Ha. Here are some highlights/reflections on Colombia so far:

Border:
We were all a little on edge about the Ecuador-Colombia border crossing and Colombia in general. Everyone told us it was fine, but let´s face it: it´s got a reputation for bad stuff. The border crossing was so easy and without event.

Cali:
We spent our first week in Cali. We had so much fun relaxing, walking around the city, and just taking everything in. The zoo was impressive...it was clean and interactive and not sad at all, which is often the case in Latin America. We also took a day to drive out to a smaller town in the jungle where we tubed down a river, swam, saw some impressive landscapes, and got to experience another face of the country/region. Cali also prides itself on being the salsa capital of the world. Whether that´s accurate or not, I´m not sure, but we enjoyed some dancing too :)

Cartagena:
We managed to tear ourselves away from Cali and get on a 24 bus ride north to the Caribbean coast. According to the lady next to me on the bus from Cali, Cartagena is the 36th most spectacular city in the world. It strikes me as a humorous thing to know or to boast...I laughed on the inside. It was a sweet city nonetheless...it has an old city enclosed by a wall that goes along the coast. The streets in the old city are all gorgeous, the lighting is soft, there are horses and buggies all over...it´s got a magical feeling to it. The highlight was probably being there for their independence day and seeing the concerts and festivities that went along with it. We spend some time on the beach in Cartagena, but they weren´t the best beaches. We knew we could find better. So...

Taganga:
Arguably the best part of the trip so far...that means a lot. Just a 5 hour bus ride from Cartagena, we ended up in this small beach town known mostly for scuba diving. The beach is central with just the right amount of people; the water is warm, calm, and blue; you can walk everywhere (no taxis...sigh); the people are so warm and welcoming; and we met up with friends we´d met earlier in the trip. Overall, just wonderful. I learned how to scuba dive too, which was incredible. I didn´t have time to get certified (it´s like a 4 day commitment), but a mini-course of 5 hours was enough to get me hooked. There are some coral reefs that were so cool to explore. Anyone interested in a trip to Honduras or Australia to really learn? Or I´d be open to going back to Taganga...let me know :)

Medellin:
We almost all cried leaving Taganga, but wanted to see Medellin also. It was a pretty and modern city that we probably didn´t do justice, but here´s my favorite story from Medellin:

The 3 of us are sitting in the city center on the stairs watching the world pass us by (this is a common passtime for us...). A boy walks up to us with a piece of paper that he asks to translate. He has a letter that a girl wrote to him in English that he needed help translating. We translate the love letter and start talking with him. Here is his story: His name is Andrew and he´s 16 years old. He goes to school during the day and sells candy and cigarrettes in the street in the afternoon/evening. His mother died a month ago, his older brother has disappeared, so he lives alone with his 4 year old brother who he takes care of with the help of a friend. This is why we meet him as he´s selling candy out of a box. We chat for a long time on the stairs, and Miriam mentions that she wants to buy Cuban cigars for her dad. Andrew says that he knows where she can buy them, so they walk off together to get them. He asks Breanna and I to watch his box of candy in the meantime. So imagine this: the only two white girls in sight are sitting on the stairs dowtown Medellin with a box of candy on my lap. There are tons of people around. Soon enough, people are walking up to us and buying candy and cigarettes...keep in mind we don´t know the prices of anything, so have to take everyone´s word for it. I was practically peeing my pants laughing while frantically trying to remember everything we sold to be able to tell Andrew and pay him any extra in case people cheated us. Amazing. After 10-15 minutes Andrew and Miriam come back cigars in hand...the look on Andrew´s face was priceless when he saw his new American friends surrounded by people wanting to buy stuff...he said we sold more than normal :) I think we attracted a bit of attention. We continued to sell sitting on the stairs for awhile and Andrew really wanted to take us on the metro and on the cable car to see views of the city. So, we got on the metro with him for a mini-tour of the city. We separated with a hug a few pictures. He was one of the sweetest and kindest of all of people we´ve met so far, and definitely made an impression on me. Just amazing.

So, that leaves us here in Bogota...I´m not anticipating too much excitement (it´s cold and rainy right now), but the strangest things always happen at the strangest times...

Flying home two weeks from today! Time flew by...see you soon!