Hotel Betoma Santa Marta

... the bike. He had just washed our car! Devin tried not to pay him, as we didn't want the service and we were a little fed-up with people being pushy and obliging us to services that we didn’t ask for, but we couldn’t stop laughing. The guy was hilarious, running around frantically, wiping everything down. So we gave him $1 and drove off in our clean car ...

... they're called here? or is that just the states?) and a few mountains off in the distance. The bus took about 3.5 hours (I took the non-express) and so I arrived in Salamanca about 8:45 or so. I briefly met up with Katie Phillips and Taylor Winn (both Wake students on the Salamanca program) at my hostel and we headed to meet everyone for dinner. We ended up eating at a fancy-schmancy place that cost everyone but me quite a bit of money. I luckily had arrived so ...

... p;hei=230&op_sharpen=1 Sort of.

I don't like spending the money but I'm going to be freezing all day in class if I don't get some stuff to wear. I guess I'll at least have a nicer, dressy coat when I get back to the states.

Nothing much to update. I uploaded a few more pictures from Salamanca that didn't fit onto the last entry.

... US. The pictures can just speak for themselves.

We spent most of the day in Salamanca. It was a lot of fun, but extremely hot and tiring. We have similar trips the next two weekends to Burgos and Valencia.

Sunday is the last day of the festivals. I'm ready for them to be over. It has been two straight weeks of crowds, loud music and street vendors. It's time for a break. I want to see what the city is like, normally.

Salamanca go in the morning for some siteseeing on salamanca. Hang out in square. See Church. Look for frog. Lunch on the steps. Naps and pool for the afternoon. Sue stays with kids and Ev, Julie and Tom Listen to music on the square drinking beers. 13.50 for 4 beers, coffee, and drink. Not in Switzerland any more.

           

... in them. I guess we are obviously in the Aussies in the group.

The first 2 days are about 4 hours hiking each - the terrain is very hilly, constantly going up or down. We are lucky and it hasnt rained too much so the going is not too muddy. Day 3 gets much harder - steeper uphills, rocky ledges on cliff faces and 9 river crossings through waist deep water with strong currents. Our guides all prove to be experts at shoe retreival - leaping in ...

... We had the middle row section of seats and in front of us was a wall so there was no place to put our bags or stretch out our feet. We were directly next to the bathroom and the TV was too close and so bright it made it more difficult to sleep.

We eventually made it, got our bags, and met the Aviatur person at the airport to take us to the hotel (about a 4 hour drive). There must have been 15 check points on the way to the hotel.

The hotel is nice but a bit ...

... through dirty white cloth into jam jar.
Step six: Marvel at sticky white paste on top of dirty white cloth and wonder how anyone can ingest this stuff.

This is 90% pure cocaine paste. From here he sells the paste to narcotraffickers who add acetone, just like the icing on the cake. This 100% pure cocaine powder is then sold on through the machinations of drug trafficing and cut and cut and cut...mm mm.

... I did buy one a drink (chump...) and we got talking. Nice girl, perfect body. She was off to get plastic surgery done next Monday(!) What the hell. More money than sense.

The next day we hit the beach. When pre-drinking on the beach later on, a local got talking and told us he knew a bar that we would like. Apparently it was a bit edgy and dangerous and we would be better off if we had a local...like ...

... and Toledo. I still had the excitement, but overpowering the excitement were nerves. My hands and legs were shaking with angst on the entire bus ride to Salamanca. As soon as we arrived, we each met our host family--the Spanish-only speaking family that my roommate and I would be living with for two weeks. Next, we went to their home--a third story flat about a 5 minute car ride from the plaza mayor. Their home was fairly small, relative to the average American home ...