Colombia

So as my last Colombia post, I decided to put together some photos that may or may not have already made it to the blog of great times and some of my favorite people that i met during my time there.

Cali

So i just realized that I ordered these last blogs incorrectly. I went Bucaramanga last, so this should have been before it, but oh well, it's here now :)

The second trip in Colombia i made was to get to know cousins i have in a city called Cali. It was extremely hot, so after taking an hour long walk through the city you would want to go home to shower and then take a very much needed nap.

Bucaramanga

Bucaramanga. Isn't it a funny name? Bucaramanga. But Barrancabermeja is worse I think. It took me a week to be able to pronounce Barrancabermeja. But that's not where i went. I visited family in  Bucaramanga, a growing city in the department of Santander, north of Bogota. It's supposed to be hot but when I was there it really wasn't. It rained a little everyday, cooling everything down to a comfortable temperature.

Taganga

Well hello there! Did you miss me? I'm in Brazil now and I realized that i haven't updated my blog in months, so i'm here now to catch everyone up on what I've been up to!

I'll start off by saying that I did a bit of travelling to various parts of Colombia. I went to the coast with a couple friends and the moment we got out of the airport we were frolicking across the beach. We all had been in Bogota for months where it rains everyday and is no where near the beach, so we were eager for some fun in the sun. This first place was a very small town called Taganga. And I do mean small. I think it took about 20 or 30 minutes to walk (slowly) from one end to the other.

Dame tu Lengua :P

Dame tu lengua. Give me your language. Or more literally, 'Give me your tongue'. That was the name of an event I went to with my school. It was a mix of an artisans bazaar, an art exhibition, live music, and a club inside a small bar in downtown Bogota. Here I had some good food ( I ordered a Colombian hot dog, but Colombians being Colombians, i got to try a bit of everything :) ), and shared some laughs with the staffers of Nueva Lengua.

Stumble Upon 3: There's a Mall Here?

Since the last post was small I decided to put up two today :)

And we've done it again, folks! Beth and I were heading to a mall called Unicentro and took the wrong Transmilenio Bus. Being tired from the earlier activities of that day we got off the buss and looked around a station called Niza-Calle127. I have been here a couple times before but somehow managed to not take notice of the gigantic mall that was there. We ran inside to find some food and bathrooms and also ended up getting a bit lost in the mall, but really you can't blame us.

La Bomba

Today at about 10:50AM there was a bombing about 5 streets from my school where I was at. I just wanted to write a quick update saying that I am alright since i have received a couple of worried emails making sure I was ok.  I am perfectly fine. I was on my coffee break at the school when we heard the bomb, but since  there are many university protests around our area we assumed it was just that. I did not find out until later that it was an actual bomb.

Stumble Upon 2: The Maze at Andino

Once again Beth and I have come across something we weren't expecting. We walked from our school to a mall called Andino ( or Atlantis maybe?) And by one of the entrances was a little maze for little kids to go though, nothing to big, but pretty cool none the less. So of course we had to go through this and we succeeded!! No biggie. :P

Museo de Botero

The same day that Beth and I stumbled upon the protests, we were enjoying a quiet afternoon walking around the Botero Museum. Fernando Botero was a Colombian painter and sculptor born in the early 1930´s, and many of his works can be seen in this museum. Ranging from drawings to paintings to statues, the museum holds more than 120 pieces of Botero´s as well as others.

Stumble Upon 1: Protests

My English friend Beth and I both tend to have a bad sense of direction, but because the streets are all numbered, we manage to find our way around easily enough. We also don´t often stray far from our comfort zone, so we´ve never been truly lost together. Something we´ve noticed that almost always happens when we are walking somewhere is we find something odd or interesting or just out of place. We´ve found things like people walking on tight ropes next to the road and random parks in the city.

Festival Iberoamericano de Teatro de Bogotá

A  few weeks ago, on one miserable, dismal, rainy day, Bogota held the Theater Festival like it always does every 2 years.  This year Groups from The States, Belgium, Germany, Mexico, Spain, Argentina, Japan, England and others came to perform. I didn't have the chance to see any actual performances,  but i have friends that went and said some were amazing and others not so much.

Andres Carne de Res D.C.

          Andres Carne de Res D.C. ( otherwise known as Andres Carne) is a 4 or 5 floor restaurant where you also dance and have fun. It is always playing music that is upbeat and good for dancing (salsa, pop, etc.)

Tejo

         Tejo is a game so popular in Colombia, it is considered the national sport. I've played it a couple times already and I really enjoy the game. It's a combination of throwing rocks, explosions, and what is a better addition than alcohol?

Museo del Oro

I will apologize ahead of time for the lack of writing here, it is mostly just pictures.

          A couple weeks ago, I went to the Gold Museum with my school. The Gold Museum is downtown near La Candelaria, an older part of town. It's near many shops and a small flee market area. In the Gold Museum is, of course, lots of gold. Lots and lots of gold.  And everything has been molded into things by ancient tribes of Colombia.

Guatavita

         Lake Guatavita is a very famous lake in Colombia for myths about gold. When deciding to go to Guatavita i was told that we had to walk for about an hour. However, no one said the walk was up a mountain. It was a nice surprise when we kept walking and the stairs kept coming. And coming. And coming.

Chiva

Let´s talk about chiva. A few weeks ago the school organized a chiva, which is a traditional Colombian party bus. On this bus, you get driven around the city while you dance and, more often than not, drink :) The chivas also take you to a discoteca, which is basically a club where you dance some more and drink just a bit more. Of course, I did not drink very much, UNLIKE many of my friends...

Catedral de Sal

     Another cultural activity did with my school was go to a town called Zipaquira to go see the Salt Cathedral. Zipaquira is about an hour and a half from Bogota, so not a long bus ride, though it makes is very interesting to be launched into the air every time we hit a bump or pot hole.

Cultural Activities

Well, I've finally started taking classes here in Colombia. It's this great institution called Nueva Lengua specifically for foreigner's learning Spanish. The classes have 6 levels, Basic 1, Basic 2, Intermediate 1, Intermediate 2,Advanced 1, and Advanced 2, and I believe I am in one of the Intermediate levels. The Standard class that I am taking is from 9AM to 12PM, then i eat lunch with friends from the school and either go home or do the cultural activity the school offers, if there is one that Day. There are also dance classes for free every Thursday.  I have only just started my second week but I have already gone to the Botanical Gardens near here, and had movie night, plus the dance class and some group lunches.

The Lights!

  I forgot to talk about the lights! The city Christmas lights here are amazing!!The buildings all sparkle and glow and have neon lights in the shapes on fairies, stars, swirls, ornaments, lizards, flowers, and i even saw a Nativity scene ( a 'pesebre' here) on the Metropolis mall. I couldn't get any good pictures of the amazing sights, but we did visit one place where we took pictures. Sorry for the bad quality, but i forgot my camera so these were taken with my aunt's Blackberry.

First Post!

  Well it has been a few weeks since i left the US so i guess it's time i started posting on this blog, right?  So, here goes.