WEEK SIXTY ONE, SHARK, SALSA, SCARED?
Trip Start
Jan 17, 2008
1
18
44
Trip End
Dec 31, 2008
Santa Marta, Colombia
Friday, May 16, 2008
The boys have no got the kite surfing bug bad and they do not want to hang around or go visit any towns or cities so we drive right past Caracus and keep on going! I was gutted! I wanted to see every Capital city in South America and wanted to visit the most dangerous one! Not a chance with these two boy! Having driven 14 hours in one day to get to our destination of Adicora on the Caribbean Coast of Venezuela http://www.windsurfingmag.com/article.jsp?ID=5850&typeID=101&categoryID=533 I was expecting something worth while, not the dead to the world ghost town that it was! The streets were made of sand and the buildings were small concrete shacks that someone claimed were colonial and the whole town could be walked in less than ten minutes! I was not impressed, the beach didn`t even make up for the lack of life in this place as it was just an empty slab of grey sand washed by grey water, in fact grey is the word I would use to sum up the place! But we were here because it was a good place for kite surfing, which is what the brothers wanted. That was all very well for them as they have their own equipment but what was I to do as I couldn`t afford to pay for any more lessons or rent equipment!! So I spent the four days lying in my hammock reading and walking around the empty streets looking for something to do. But for 50% of our time here we had no electricity so what was open was now shut! Nightmare! So our second night there was spent at a BBQ by torch light where we cooked shark, but it wasn`t very nice at all.
The morning we left the town we drove to Coro, http://www.venezuelatuya.com/occidente/coroeng.htm a glorious sunny bright leafy town with the oldest surviving church in Venezuela but we spent feck all time here, as the boys don`t like cities, what about me? so all too soon we were back in that bloody moving oven of a van! However the journey was now a little different as we had found a huge bull skull fully in tact and we fixed it to the front grill of the van and boy did it cause quite a stir wherever we went. Everybody who saw it pointed, laughed, screamed, called their friends, took photos, clapped, gave us thumbs up or some other gesture to let us know they thought we were crazy.
When we stopped for a few hours in a town just before the Colombian border we were the highlight of the town and centre of attention as every school child in the town and some of their teachers came over to stare at us and talk to us and just look at us as if we were aliens! I tell you now I never want to be famous, it was so unnerving having everybody hang on you and not give you any privacy and take photos of you and all that. By the end I was so uncomfortable and exhausted from it all I just wanted to tear out of there.
We finally got to the exit of Venezuela and did all our paper work but couldn't go any further till morning, something to do with insurance for the van so we booked in to the nearest hostel for the night. Border towns are really strange places, lawless and rowdy like old wild west movies and full of people selling cheap things, they always feel that anything could happen or a fight could break out any moment But I love them, they are full of life and adventure. The hostel was horrible with a big metal prison cell type door! I was too tired and swollen from being in the van all day so the boys went out and got some street food for me and we all relaxed by watching Dr House on the TV! I love the street food in South America! It is so cheap and such great value! I have never once been sick from it or got something that didn't look or taste right! I wish all these people and guide books would stop scaremongering backpackers and start praising local caught, made, cooked food that gives money directly into the pockets of the people who need it most!
The next day we hit the road and finally crossed over to Colombia, I have been looking forward to being in Colombia for so long. It is somewhere I have always wanted to go and now I am finally here. It is not so much different from Venezuela at the moment cause we are still sticking to the Caribbean coast, so lots of nice beaches and towns but it is really green and lush and jungle like and it has the Serra Nevada mountains as a cool back drop.
Our first day here we picked up some hitch hikers who make their living from selling hand made bracelets and the like so we dropped them home, which was off some dirt roads in what looked like the jungle to me. They had a cool two story brick house, the first I have seen in South America with an outside toilet and cool wooded thatched hut out the back full of books and hammocks. They had electricity, which was a surprise to me as they seemed in a remote area but they were listening to The Doors on the stereo. They then offered us cocoa leaves to chew.
It is suppose to be a natural stimulant like coffee and the people who live in the Andes chew them to help with the altitude sickness. I tried some and didn't like it at all it tasted remarkably like leaves from a tree! Yuck! They offered us to stay in their place for the night but we decided not to, I mean it would have been a really cool thing to do and not many travelers get the opportunity to live with the locals but Ryan had a bad back, from catching some silly drunken Irish girl who fell off a table, and I was being eaten alive by the mosquito's, and I have not bothered with malaria tablets at all for my travels so I was quite happy to push on to Santa Marta and get a nice bed for the evening. The great thing about having our own transport is that we get to see and do the most amazing things ever! How many people can say they drove into and pass the foot of the Serra Nevada mountains, through the first layer of jungle on dirt track roads with no lights of signs or way of knowing where we were going to spend the evening with some locals? How many people would have said no way too dangerous, think of the FARC? Well, I for one am so glad that I don't have a guide book, never have and never will! They are a deterrent and in my opinion a backpackers worst nightmare and hindrance! I am also quite happy to say that I am a little naive and clueless when it comes to politics and security situations in South America and places I visit, but that makes me open minded and not held back by anything,
I went to Fiji and there was a government coup on the island whist I was there! We crossed over the 'dangerous' Venezuelan Colombian boarder just days after a FARC member was found shot in Venezuela and hundreds of Venezuelan solders where deployed to the border and Bush condemned all the fighting and a very dangerous situation was developing! But we didn't find any of this out until afterward cause we have no newspapers, TV or Internet access, and more the better for it I think!
Santa Marta is the oldest Spanish city in the Americas and it is built on a beautiful stretch of coast. It is a lovely colonial city with great architecture and history and things to do! It has lots of statues and cultural and historical places and lots of markets and cafes and street sellers so I am as happy as a pig in shit! The first day was spent walking around the old part of the city and along the water front and tasting the Colombian coffee, which is so good! And finally after a week off from partying we went to a club, a big proper packed hot sweaty dance club where the dance floor was packed by people who could actually dance! It was great! I had a blast, and a danced so much and even did some Colombian salsa with an Israeli, go figure! I also managed to get a snog in there too! Get in! Maybe Colombia will be all that and more than I have expected! So all in all I am loving Colombia and Santa Marta and will be gutted to leave here but plan on coming back real soon!
