Medellin (Pronounced Med-a-yeen, not like Magellin with a D)

Heyo everybody,

I'm currently in Medellin, Colombia, formerly the drug trafficking capital of the world, but that lost its title after the impressive execution of Pablo Escobar. For those who don't know, it took an elite team of 1500 men 499 days to find the bastard and they gunned him down like whoa back in 1993....

ANYWAY, let's talk about Colombia (who lots its title of Kidnapping Capital of the World to Iraq in 2005 or something like that).

We peaced out of Ecuador the night after their new constitution passed, which happened the night me and Dan got back from Mindo.

Have I spoken about Mindo yet? It was really cool, it's a cloud forest about 2 hours from Quito, lots of cool nature stuff to do. Me and Dan got soaking wet walking to and from the many waterfalls that were there. In order to access the waterfalls, we took this hair raising journey across the 530 meter cable car, over a gulch about a few hundred feet deep. When I get time to skank my pictures from Dan, those will be posted. Anyway, fun times, and a moth the size of a bat at dinner.

So, onward to Colombia. We took the 5am bus from Quito to the border town of Tulcan, crossed the border in a surprisingly painless fashion, and hopped on the bus to Popayan , the first town of any actual substance after the Ecuadorian border. We got there late at night and stayed in a hotel, and peaced out the next morning for Cali. It was a long ride, but we got there in the afternoon. Cali was really cool, kind of reminded me, weather-wise, of somewhere in Florida. We basically took those few days to relax and just sit out on the hammocks listening to music. Also, as much as I didn't like Aguardiente in Ecuador, the Colombian aguardiente is especially nasty, thanks to its licorice-like flavour.

After Cali, we headed over here, to Medellin. Medellin is quite the city. They have this subway system that is gigantic and ultramodern and clean. Quite nice.

The people in Medellin, and I think Colombia in general, are a little odd. They're very nice...VERY nice...TOO FREAKIN' NICE. To the point that it's a combination of rude, inconsiderate, and condescending.

ITEM- Michelle and I get arepas at this panaderia, and the lady sitting in the table next to us first of all starts cracking up at watching Michelle cut the arepa, and then proceeded to spend the next 10 minutes of her and our lives trying to teach her how to cut the arepa the correct Colombian way...please, it's a freakin' arepa. There's no wrong way to cut it as long as it gets cut.

ITEM- The hostal we're staying at, we can't tell if it's a hostal (there aren't really too many travelers), a halfway house (lots of older transient Colombians) or a drug den (lots of hyperactive, older transient Colombians). The people are very nice, and were really nice about taking care of Dan (somehow he contracted a similar stomach infection as Michelle did and spent most of the other night hugging porcelain), but it got to the point at the 9th person that entered the room to pet him and make sure he was okay.

ITEM- Being woken up like, 12 times in the morning by people coming in and out of the room and having casual conversation in their normal (LOUD even by my standards) voices, leaving the door open to let the light flood in (when we haven't really slept thanks to an older transient Colombian's extreme snoring), or running the water in the adjacent bathroom at full blast with the door wide open.

ITEM- They just have too much friggin' energy and I don't drink enough coffee to deal with it.

Anyway, we're bound for Bogota once Dan gets better, which will hopefully be soon. From there, Michelle is headed straight for a volunteer position in Xela, and I will by not too far behind. I start off in Costa Rica on the 14th, and aim to be in Guatemala on or before Halloween. That will hopefully be an interesting experience. But maybe not as much as the ostrich farm outside of Bogota....


STAY TUNEDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDD (Cue lame ass music...)