Leaving Colombia

Hi,

Cannot believe we have been here over two weeks now. Time is passing way too fast. Doing Europe last year I think we had already fit in four countries by now, so South America is a very different kind of travelling. Most of the people we have met have been travelling for many months now in SA so Corey and I are really doing an expedited trip of this massive continent.

We have just spent the last 3-4 days in Medellin, a fairly big city in Colombia with a pop around 2.3 mil. It is very interesting coming to the city compared to the beach towns we´ve been hanging at previously. City´s have a very different traveller clientele or type of tourist. Generally, I think they can be summed up as coke tourists. The hostel we have been staying at is super nice ($11 per night btw), has a pool, bar, pool table, basketball court, etc, but the people staying here are a bit weird (besides ourselves of course, we are 100% normal). Scene at this hostel is to sleep til noon-2pm, hang around all day indoors with your laptop, and party like there is no tomorrow at night. A ton of the people it sounds like have been here for 2 plus weeks, not to check out the city, explore museums or go to any type of cultural attraction. nope, they are here to do cheap cocaine, allllll night.

Saying that, we have been having a good time, and to be honest, not been doing much art/ cultural/ museum crawling ourselves. Acting very much like we are on vacation, we´ve been hanging by the pool, drinking beers (75 cents), watching tv (ugh, i know), and generally lounging. I forgot to mention that we have been travelling with a trio of German guys since we went on the trek, so hanging a lot with them. The other night I actually stayed up til sunrise, talking and laughing at all of the funny German/ Dutch words. Think my favourite, Snoggen in de Coggen, is pretty funny, wish I could remember what it means. Yesterday we went out as a big skate possy (well I was the skate groupie) and went on the hunt for this big skate park near the stadium. We got a LOT of stares, particuarly Erin because she´s rad, don´t see too many tattied skater chicas around these parts. Unfortunately the skate mish was unsuccessful, with Ben our German friend getting his camera jacked, and skate park being behind the non skateboard barrier as there was a futbol game going on.

Tonight think the whole group is going to take a 10 hr bus to some smaller town on the coast as we´re ready to get out of the big city. From there, we will probably spend a day and then head to Quito, the capital of Ecuador. Ecuador is supposed to be really cheap but uses the American dollar as their currency. Hope the can/ america dollars are still at par!

Anyways hope all is well at home, and you aren´t getting rained on too hard. hah.

Hessica