We spent a few days at a friend of Jenny´s in a town called La Paz near Santa Marta. The town was known for processing cocaine and apparently there was a gang hiding from the police somewhere in the area. Despite that, it has a very relaxed, peaceful feeling about it.
I had enough of the coastal heat, so we headed for Bucaramango, a city of about 500000. The plan was to check it out for a day and head to some smaller towns and parks. I got sick - really sick. ´Today, I can say that I am 90% better but it has been a hard week. I don´t know how I could have got through this without Jenny. I might have needed to stay in the hospital. Basically I had a fever and a lot of pain in my whole body.
Today, I´m so happy to be better and moving on. This city is ok, but does not have the magic I have come to expect from Colombian cities.
Tuesday, August 28, 2007
Friday, August 17, 2007
Santa Marta and More
So now I´ve met 4 people who live in Banff. At the same time I have only met 3 Canadians including the Banffites. I met a few folks from town when in Tyrona National park. One of them just missed her boss as Josh had moved on two days earlier. Tyrona Park really is something special. It was a real slog to get into though. By law, everything must be brought in but foot, horse or donkey. It makes Banff National Park look like West Edmonton Mall.
You can rent a room in some places for $70-150 but most people go with a $5 Hammock. There isn´t a lot to do in the park other than hike and swim. Jenny spent most of her time cooking. She found a lot of food and a pot. Any other tools she needed were crafted out plastic water containers.
It´s amazing how much more busy it is in the park than when I was here two years ago. The tourist from Israel probably outnumber all the other international tourists put together.
I can´t remember the name of the beach we went to a couple of nights ago but it was a really nice spot. We didn´t arrive until about 10pm but it was a good time. The beach was quite large with small groups of 5 - 10 people, most with a band. Often there were more people in the band than were listening and dancing. It was a really cool scene. The music was usually fantastic. One of the more popular songs is about spending all of your money on hookers, drugs and rum and not having any money for food or God in the morning.
I went to see a couple of dentists for the first time in years. I was expecting to need $1000 in work at the most. I was quoted $2500 by one and $7500 by another. I guess I won´t have money for food or God either. I will probably get the work done in Medellin. We will just travel around until we find a nice place to hang for a month because the work has to be done in different stages. I know that it would be more like $15000 in Canada.
I´m not sure where we will go next. Jenny has some family business to take care of for a couple of days. We will probably head into the mountains as I have had enough of the heat.
You can rent a room in some places for $70-150 but most people go with a $5 Hammock. There isn´t a lot to do in the park other than hike and swim. Jenny spent most of her time cooking. She found a lot of food and a pot. Any other tools she needed were crafted out plastic water containers.
It´s amazing how much more busy it is in the park than when I was here two years ago. The tourist from Israel probably outnumber all the other international tourists put together.
I can´t remember the name of the beach we went to a couple of nights ago but it was a really nice spot. We didn´t arrive until about 10pm but it was a good time. The beach was quite large with small groups of 5 - 10 people, most with a band. Often there were more people in the band than were listening and dancing. It was a really cool scene. The music was usually fantastic. One of the more popular songs is about spending all of your money on hookers, drugs and rum and not having any money for food or God in the morning.
I went to see a couple of dentists for the first time in years. I was expecting to need $1000 in work at the most. I was quoted $2500 by one and $7500 by another. I guess I won´t have money for food or God either. I will probably get the work done in Medellin. We will just travel around until we find a nice place to hang for a month because the work has to be done in different stages. I know that it would be more like $15000 in Canada.
I´m not sure where we will go next. Jenny has some family business to take care of for a couple of days. We will probably head into the mountains as I have had enough of the heat.
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