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Up at six again this morning, for some reason I’m getting up way earlier than I do when I’m not traveling. Maybe it has something to do with the fact that there’s nothing to do in Santa Marta once the sun goes down, and almost way too much to do when it comes up. After a cup of tinto and some fresh orange juice to get the day started, I caught a minibus ten minutes north through a windy road to the small fishing village of Taganga, known as a laid-back fishing village and as a jumping-off point to get to one of the best beaches in the area.

After a failed attempt along a foot path to try to reach Playa Grande, I backtracked to the village and hired a boat, which ended up being a good decision anyways because there’s not much coral at Playa Grande and the boat I rented took me to an outcove further away from the beach with some amazing coral. I have no idea of the names of fish, but I saw fish with black and white stripes, giant purple fish the size of a dinner plate, and those trumpet fish that are long and thin and have a huge nose (maybe they’re called trumpet fish? I have no idea). I would make a horrible scientist.

By noon I was able to head back to Santa Marta and took the unexpectedly long trip to Cartagena via Baranquilla, which is where I am today, somewhat wet, really tired, and looking forward to checking out the town.

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Well the weather didn´t turn out to be nice until almost exactly when I arrived at the beach, so what else can you ask for? I can´t do too much typing given the sad state of the keyboard that I´m using right now (I don´t even want to know why some buttons are barely working) so this post is going to be a photo/video essay, which, given the scenery, will do far more justice than my words ever would.

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Well if you’re wondering what this weather phenomenan looks, then click here. It’s not all bad, it’s still pretty warm and from what I’ve heard, it gets almost oppressively hot here so this may be a blessing in disguise. I’ll be heading out to the beach in Tayrona this morning to try my hand at a little snorkeling. The closest I’ve come to snorkeling in my life was looking for my goggles at the bottom of the pool at my gym, so this should be quite a step up.

Some cool things I saw from the roof of my hostel this morning around 7:30 as the city was waking up: a little girl walking to the corner of the street and calling for the tinto man — the guy that walks around the streets with about six thermoses of coffee that he dispenses right there on the street for you for about 500 pesos. Right after her I saw an older woman step out from her kitchen to buy some bananas and plantains from another vendor wandering the streets with a packed cart of fruit for sale. How’s that for service? And here I am back home, like a chump, wasting my precious energy and walking all the way to the coffee shop and store to buy my coffee and groceries.

Well that’s it so far. It’s only been 2 hours, give me a little break. There’s only so much that can go on before breakfast.

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This really should have been a shitty day. Am I allowed to say “shit” on the Internet? Anyways, I woke up this morning bright and early, hoping to catch a boat out to one of the beaches in Tayrona National Park. Instead I woke to what everyone was referring to as a “weather phenomenan,” which is basically a cold front that’s not that cold but is packing a ton of rain. The streets in Santa Marta, the town where I’m staying, looked like New Orleans post-Katrina and the river near town was overflowing. To help kill time I decided on heading to one of Santa Marta’s shiny new malls, Buenavista, where I drank lots of coffee and wandered around aimlessly, wishing the rain away. Did I mention I loathe shopping? I like shopping as much as I like rain during my vacation. In the taxi on the way back I watched as townspeople were sandbagging the river and standing along the river banks, watching the river seeping into the many houses lining the river.

On the advice of someone at the hostel I decided to head south for a ten-minute ride to El Rodadero, one of the region’s premier vacation spots and nicest (but most developed) beaches. Here I munched down on some of the famed fish of this region and took in the amazing views all around me. It only took about 15 minutes of wandering along the beach until I had about 30 kids following me, shouting, and asking me questions. It was quite a scene. I kind of felt like Gandhi during his Salt March, minus the noble cause or a khadi loincloth. What an amazing end to the day. I guess, when in doubt, head to the beach.

Mmmm, lunch. Okay, I couldn’t think of a better caption. I’ve had a hard day at the beach.

These really don’t need much explanation. Amazing beaches. The sand is this odd shade of black and the water is much, much hotter than the water in my shower this morning. Guess where I’m bathing tomorrow?

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It’s not always best to try to fit in too much in a small amount of time, but with only a couple of days in Medellin I really had no choice, although I did feel like I saw alot.

Bright and early Monday morning I hopped on Colombia’s only inner-city train system, Medellin’s Metro Line, and headed south to the Metrocable, an extension of the train system which are actually cable cars heading up into the outer barrios of the city and back to the train. Kind of like Disneyland’s, but fewer colors (and much cheaper). From here you really get one of the best views of the city. As you look out across the cityscape you can see the clouds in the distance rolling along against the hills, making the tops of the hills look like they’re floating over the city valley.

Next I headed to Cerro Nutibara, a small hill near the center of the city where there’s a re-creation of an Antioquian village (Antioquia is the name of the state where Medellin is located). On the topic of Antioquia, the word on the street was that they’re some of the nicer people in Colombia, which I couldn’t agree with more. From the employees to the random people I met, they were all extremely friendly and seemed like they really wanted to know what I was trying to say, even in my broken Spanish.

Anyways, I finished up the Botanical Gardens which has this giant, alien like structure plopped in the middle of the complex which, from what I can tell, really doesn’t serve much of a purpose other than allowing for some pretty cool pictures (see below).

I finished up by hopping on a plane north to the Caribbean coast to the town of Santa Marta, just outside of Cartagena, which is where I am today, and which is where there’s also a massive rain system as well. So much for heading to the beach and trying out snorkeling for the first time. Hopefully I can get out there tomorrow, otherwise the extent of my encounters with water this trip are going to be limited to the flooded streets here in town.

Medellin at night.

Here are the cable cars heading into the hills of Medellin. Probably one of the cooler attractions that’s really not an attraction (and even better, the ride is included in your Metro trip).

A balcony in Pueblito Antioquian.

Me again, Medellin.

Medellin city street (this is by far one the less chaotic ones).

See, I told you I wouldn’t be able to keep from doing another pictures of food. Anyways, this is a typical Antioquian meal, consisting of such healthy items as rice, ground beef, fried plantain, sausage, avocado, and various fried pork items from areas of the pig I probably haven’t even heard of.

Here’s that really cool structure in the middle of the Botanical Gardens.

If you can’t tell what those are, those are massive raindrops falling in Santa Marta (taken this morning). Sigh.

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What happened to day four you ask? Well, I really did nothing of note, or at least nothing that was so significant that I wanted to blog about it. I went to this giant outside mall with a couple people from Germany where we shopped for shoes in about a hundred different little shoe stores, each selling the exactly same shoes. Then the rest of the day was spent arranging travel arrangements, picking up a few souvenirs, and finally watching “In The Name Of The Father” back at the hotel with an Australian, an Englishman, and an Irishman. We almost had the entire British Commonwealth covered. Amazing movie though, I wasn’t expecting to come all the way to Colombia to discover a new-found interest in the Northern Ireland conflict.

Anyways, after nearly everyone I met and spoke with (both in English and in broken Spanish) I took their advice and headed to Medellin. It really is true what everyone said, the people here are amazingly friendly and the weather really does feel like an everlasting spring. Too bad I only have a couple days here; I’m flying out to Cartagena and finally to the beach tonight. Time to start experiencing some sun again.

Here’s the view of the rolling green hills around Medellin.

Medellin is known for their amazingly colorful buses (amongst other things).

This trip is shaping up to have alot of Botero in it. The Museo de Antioquia is definitely the best museum I’ve been to so far. Out front is the Plazoleta de las Esculturas, which has about 20 giant Botero sculptures to see. Even better, even though being a Sunday, it felt like I had nearly the entire museum to myself (for only about US$2.50) where I saw everyone from Diego Rivera, Julian Schnabel, Botero, and perhaps one of Medellin’s most famous artists, Pedro nel Gómez.

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One of the most popular day trips from Bogotá is to head about an hour north to Zipaquirá, home to the famous Salt Cathedral. To get there you have to head to the end of the line of the Tranmileno (see above), Bogotá´s above-ground subway system.

Zipaquirá, like most towns settled by they Spanish, has an immense square with a beautiful cathedral towering over it as well as many side streets with small shops and restaurants.

After another incredible lunch from a local restaurant’s Menu del Dia, I took the short walk to the edge of town to the Salt Cathedral, the location of a working salt mine where a cathedral, complete with an entire stations of the cross, was dug out of the middle of the mountain. As I was taking the tour with my own personal guide through the caverns (I was the only English-only visitor that day) he told me, “Five miners died in a methane explosion here four years ago, but we should be all right today.” This may have explained my new-found religious feelings as I stood in the main cathedral.

As I was walking back into town I got to thinking how you see some of the coolest dogs here in South America. I’m thinking of doing a photo essay of sleeping dogs along with some of my pictures from me last trip. Here’s a couple down below that I’m going to add to my collection.

The view from the entrance of the mine out across the rolling hills outside Bogotà.

Here’s my picture of someone taking a picture of a family in the main square in town. They look so unimpressed with their surroundings, don’t they?

Don’t you hate people that take pictures of their food before they eat? That being said, a couple pictures of my lunch before I ate it. Once again, I promise, no more pictures like this.

The view of the main chapel of the Salt Cathedral. It’s hard to describe how huge this really is inside.

A little barbecue was going on at a small restaurant that I walked past on my way back to the bus. So that’s where dinner came from.

Dogs. Everywhere. It’s hard not to love them though.

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Plaza de Bolivar is the historic center of Bogotá and is just south of La Candeleria, the neighborhood where I´m staying that´s full of old single-story stucco houses in Spanish colonial style. It´s also where most of the city´s universities are located so, not surprisingly, it´s also full of small bars, cafes and restaurants.

Here´s my obligatory inside-the-cathedral shot. I promise this will be the only one of the trip. Allright never mind, I doubt I can keep that promise.

You can pretty much find anything in Bogotá´s nightlife, from clubs playing pounding electronic music or traditional Vallenato, dive bars, or cafe-style. Here´s La Ventana (window in Spanish — guess why) which, with 2 for 1 Mojitos, is hard to beat.

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Today, I checked out the massive museum complex, the Colecion de Arte del Banco de la Republica, which is actually a series of 5 museums, all free, and all nearly empty during the weekdays. The highlight is the Museo Botero, a collection of 123 pieces by the artist himself, Colombias most famous artist, Fernando Botero.

The computer Im using at a nearby internet cafe is sooo slow, and its not letting me use that one key that you find on Spanish keyboards that lets you use the at sign or apostrophes, hence the improper contractions. I hope I dont have too many English teachers reading this site. So Ill stop typing and post a couple more pictures. Check back tomorrow and I promise to do more around the city and Ill even try to post a little video of beautiful Colombia.

Great grafitti all over the city. Brooklynites should take notice.

Incredible view from the museum of one of the citys oldest cathedrals

Very cool exhibition. This artist has a thing for kitchen furniture.

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My hostel´s located in the historic La Candeleria district — Bogotá´s ¨Old Town¨ — which is full of old Spanich Colonial buildings as well as most of the city´s main universities. After a traditional Colombian lunch of vegetable soup and a small steak with rice and plantain, I trekked my way to Cerro de Conserrate, one of two bulking mountains surrounding the city where I took a funicular to the top for a spectacular view of the city that any gringo would love. (Did you know that the word funicular is dishearteningly derived from the Latin word for rope? I´d rather it was derived from the Latin phrase for: Safe mode of transport that has no chance of plummeting down the mountain and has nothing to do by way of mechanics with ropes.)

Mañana? I´m actually hoping that it might rain tomorrow (today was warm and clear despite the weather prediction) because I really want to explore at least a few of the over 50 museums here in the city, the first at the top of my list being the Donación Botero, a museum featuring 208 pieces of Colombia´s most famous artist, Fernando Botero.

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Anyways, we did go ahead and got aloft safely. The movie that was playing during the flight was ¨Mamma Mia.¨ This movie has actually become one of the highest grossing flicks of the year and just moved in to second place in the U.K. as the second-highest grossing film of all time there, so I decided I may as well give it a viewing since the likelihood of me ever seeing it when I wasn´t a captive audience was slim at best. After about an hour into the film I began to wish that it was I that was locked in the luggage compartment where the hum of the jet engines would drone every other sound out. I really liked Sweden when I was there, and they really have a fantastic culture, but Abba is clearly one obvious blot on Sweden´s otherwise rich history of cultural exports. I began to think that this is what the rest of the world probably thinks of America when they hear a Josh Groban song come on the radio or watch a Michael Bay film. On behalf of the United States I officially apologize to the rest of the world. I now know the pain that you have felt.

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As is my tradition now, a photograph of my things pre-bag. You know, just in case I forget something while I’m gone I can at least have a picture of it for memory. (Ahh, my used pair of New Balance shoes, I had so many good memories of you).

Anyways, I’m heading out tonight and will be arriving in Bogotá tomorrow. Check back beginning tomorrow and throughout the next 10 days or so for daily updates, pictures and video from the trip. Oh yeah, apparently there’s nowhere in New York City that carries Colombian Pesos for exchange. What’s up with that? And they say this city has everything . . .

Hasta luego.

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