Mi Ostra: hola colombia!

(5/28 - 6/5: Colombia)

vuelo

so my long flight from madrid to miami wasn’t first class this time, but it was still cool. it was in the middle of the day, so i didn’t miss the recliners too much. when i got to the states, i realized that i could make phone calls again… !!! but first, i had to get my shoes cleaned.

yes, you read that right. when i entered the passport checkpoint, the machine asked if i’d been on any foreign farms or been in contact with any livestock. shit. i considered lying, but i was traveling on someone else’s confidence (thanks treece!) and i didn’t want no trouble. so...i had to pass 3 more checkpoints before i entered a large room with only 4 other travelers and some salty-looking airport employees. most of the employees were presumably there for the purposes of cleaning farm dirt and shit off the bottoms of shoes. so i sat around and charged my phone (because there were absolutely no phone calls allowed in this area) while this dude cleaned all of my shoes for me (thanks!). this took forever, so my 2-hour layover turned into 45 minutes, which dwindled again to about 20 minutes by the time i checked my luggage and passed the security checkpoint again.

once i got to the gate, i only had time to buy a salad then call mommy and stephanie for a bit.

as a consolation (gracias, universe!), i did end up in first class for the shorter flight to colombia. sat next to another rich white dude who had some encouraging words for a late 20-something who quit her job to travel the world: ah, you’re doing an early life crisis. that’s great. when you’re my age and married, a mid-life crisis won’t be so easy. maybe this will delay the mid-life crisis a bit for you, too.

thanks rich, white man. since you’re so understanding, can i get like $1000 off you though? that would make my crisis way more manageable!

don’t worry, i fought my urge to actually ask that...and i won. though i wonder just how he would have responded. lol.

after sobbing at saving mr. banks while washing down a medium rare steak with some dry vino tinto, i arrived in bogota around 8pm. unfortunately, my body’s clock was still in spain, where it was about 3am. i sleep-walked through the airport and somehow ended up in a cheap cab with my luggage (don’t even remember going to baggage claim). by the time i got to corie and santiago’s house, i was slap happy and chatty. we talked for a spell, and then i crashed around 11. few! long day(s).

bogota

so i met mi amiga, corie, the last time i left the country. i was studying with a group of 18 americans in vienna, austria and a few of us decided to take a weekend trip to paris. one of my friends (hey ann!) went to college with corie, who happened to be living in paris at the same time we were going. so we hung out with corie and her (then) boyfriend mark for a couple days, and it was a blast! (find details in my 2008 photos on facebook, if you want.)

coincidentally, corie and i also found ourselves living in chicago at the same time, and now here we are, doing a colombian coincidence too! (corie, i hadn’t thought of this before, but now i’m wondering what the next continent will be!)

so corie now lives in bogota, colombia with her sweetheart santiago, and they have one of the most interesting homes i’ve seen. i stayed there for a week while i tied up arrangements with the next wwoof place.

because i’m tired of writing, here are some highlights:

1. one night, corie threw a little potluck get-together, which ended up being a big, sort of house-warming party at her house. some dirty latin dancing happened, which i may or may not have been involved in. after a while, everyone was doing the macarena, which i realized that the body recalls as easily as riding a bike (seriously, put the music on and try it). then as much as corie tried to fight it, shakira happened too.

2. one early, early morning, corie, a few of her friends, and i hiked to the top of a very high andes mountain. it took 2 hours to get to the top, and i was almost out of juice. the view was cloudy at first, but eventually i could see all of bogota. vast.

we made it down ok, and then it was time for a long nap.

3. an italian guy who worked for a cheese company came to stay at the house through airbnb.com. he fixed us some beautifully authentic italian pasta for dinner. it was awesome. thanks luca!

4. i was introduced to colombian juice, which is typically the juice of any friut you order, plus water or milk, plus sugar. it’s what we call a smoothie in the states. but, as shakespear said, what’s in a name?

5. I biked bogota's ciclovia to the historical center!

and that was my entrance to colombia. i'm here!

hiking!

in bogota, all the sports stores are together, all the leather stores are together, and ect. this can be very convenient, or very inconvenient, depending on how you're shopping...