Half an Update Post. The Road to Manizales

Sorry I haven´t written more, but the I´ve either been busy or the internet has been spotty and I´ve been unable to post. That being the case, this is going to be a long one.


I´ll start by wrapping up the Taganga portion because there were some things I forgot from the last post.
First, I had a great experience getting my advanced diving cert. The two notable dives were the deep dive and the night dive. The deep dive was in rough waters. So much so that we had to sit behind an island protecting us from the wind and waves while the instructor prepped us. We were to suit up immediately. As soon as we were suited, we´d head around the corner of the island to the dive spot, the instructor would count to 3 on his hand, we´d all tip back off the boat, the boat would get out as quick as possible, we´d make visual contact with each other and then immediately descend. This went off with military precision; mostly. The visibility was so bad on the first 5 meters that the instructor had to grab me and another guy to keep us within sight. However, at 20 meters there was a thermocline and the visibility improved significantly. We dove down to around 30 meters and started the games. These involve answering questions on a waterproof board, like 12*19 and 2351+9373 and write the presidents name from the end first (not backwards). These establish if anyone has nitrogen narcosis. NN isn´t got it and his answer to the president question was Amabo Karab. I didn´t get NN; I finished the 3 questions in about 20 seconds. The other games were: opening an egg, which mantains its consistency, guessing the fruit (the light is all fucked up that deep), and something else I can´t remember. Anyway, it was sweet even though you can only stay that deep for 8 minutes on a normal tank because you use more air the deeper you are. The second dive was a night dive. This was by far the best of the 5 dives, but since I already mentioned it in the last post, I´ll move on.

On the day of returning from Tyrona, a couple things happen/occured to me. One was my first experience with the police and the other was a meditation on begging.
Since the I´m sure your all more interested in the police part, I´ll start with the meditation. Suckers...
I parked my but for lunch at a place along the beach road. As I was eating, a adolescent came up to my table. He didn´t say a word, just smiled and stuck out his hand and made the gesture for a fist pound. I obliged him of course. He then made the jesture of putting food into his mouth. I did not oblige him. He moved on to the next table with the same procedure. This got me to thinking though - what was the right course of action?
He did look thin and I had noticed him peeking into a trash can at some point, so he probably was very hungry. What if I gave him some food? Giving him food would encourage that behavior from him and lowers the incentive to work. I don´t pretend to know the employment opportunities of the area, but they appear slim. Meaning, that incentive or not, he might not be able to work and denying him would mean starving. However, if enough people encourage the behavior it would certainly draw the attention of others that don´t want to work either, increasing the competition for begging. This would likely end up with more aggresive tactics as a whole due to the spreading thin of the resources. Obviously, this is bad for everyone because it will deter tourist and make things worse.
That being said, looking into the eyes of someone who is starving, while you are only slightly hungry and can afford to give some food away is painful and denying them really takes a little of your soul away.
Lastly, there may be consequences that you may not think of at the moment. He may remember that you denyed him food and later you may need his help or something. Honestly, out here, esp. in a small town, you never know. He may choose to react with the same indifference to your ply. Or, you may make a friend whom will greet you every day, help you about town (like getting local´s prices for stuff) and have your back. Or, nothing will come of it.
There is no rule that applies to every situation and neither answer is particularly a good one. Ultimately, I think you just have to go with your split second reaction and be okay with it.
Now, the police. Sitting in the same seat while writing in my journal, about 10 police in uncommon uniforms were meandering about. I could tell I had there attention, and after some talk amoungst themselves, 7 came over to my table. They told me they were in some program in Bogota where they were being taught english for 2 months and they wanted an opportunity to practice. Being weary of telling them to bugger off, I asked them to sit down and that I´d be happy to be of service. They were quite pleasant, but it was still a unnerving. After a brief round of introductions, they asked a slew of questions, ¨Where are you from?¨, ¨what is your job?¨, ¨how long are you here for?¨, ¨what are your plans?¨, ¨where are you staying?¨, etc. These are questions that seemed to have a purpose or pattern, even though they were mixed in with harmless ones like ¨what do you miss from home?¨ They very well could have been honestly genuine and innocent motives, but the entire time I felt like they were casing me. Having nothing to hide, I answered all there questions with as much charisma as I have and tried to ask them similar questions in Spanish. Eventually, they tired of me or were satisfied and decided to move on. I metnioned it to some people back at the Hostel and all agreed it could have been either.

Bogota:
Flew to Bogota because it is almost the an artifacts of Colombian ancient tribes gold museum, which were alright. Did a street fair that was cool. But it is just a normal 8 million people (I think that´s how many) city. It´s a bit dangerous and I haven´t really felt like partying, so I stayed in each night. What was a highlight is the people I met there. There is a large amound of people you meet traveling that have incredible stories or are just amazing. Many of older people in the hostels (35+) have been traveling off and on for many years. My roommate, Marco, has been traveling in different forms for over 20 years. His current strategy is to live someplace for 6 months, teaching english, then move on to the next place that sounds interesting. A guy named Michael, who I ended up traveling with (more on that later), has been driving the Americas for 18 months. He had great stories and advice for future travels - Drive through Norway. Buy a used car in Germany and as much boose as you can carry. Use the boose as tradable goods because Norway is outrageously expensive. Drive the northern part and then sell the car.
Another guy I met named Marc, from Melbourne, traveled around Bogota and up to the Salt Cathedral with me. We took transit up to Zipaquira instead of buying a tour, and pieced everything together ourselves to save $. On the way up we met a dude from the states named Carlton (yes, he was black and I couldn´t stop thinking of Fresh Prince). I felt bad for him cause he spoke no Spanish and was binge traveling (which meant he was spending way more money than us). He was a nice guy, so Marc and I kinda took him under our wing. The city of Zip was quite pretty, with a really great square and a very helpful attitude. I know this because I had to ask a few people directions and some offered help without prompting and seemed quite excited to get the chance to help out some gringos. The guide book of course was bullshit about the town, making it seem way smaller than it was. When we finally got to the Cathedral we got on a tour with a guy named Andres that was supposed to be giving a Spanish tour, but after we told him we´d do the tour without a guide made us go with him and gave the tour bilingually. Our guide and the tour were pretty great, a lot better than I thought a tour of goddy type stuff would be (I put some pics on FB).
After I got back to the hostel I got an email from my travel agent. To go to Cusco and then later to Iquitos (both Peru), would cost damn near $1,000. Being way out of my budget, I had to start thinking about changing my plans. This is what I decided - go to Medellin, then fly out next weekend from Bogota to Leticia and go down the Amazon a few weeks earlier than anticipated. This had some interesting consequences to later plans too. It meant doing a Amazon trek out of Leticia (because of boat schedules). It meant not spending Christmas on the Amazon (it looks like Iguazu Falls now). It meant not spending New Years in Rio (Buenos Aires now, which worked out for the better because Rio Hostels wanted to charge a minimum of $120 per night starting on the 28th and I wasn´t about to rest my accomodations on an long shot couchsurf). Lastly, it meant that I have to shift around my Argentina itinerary so that I can be in Cusco before Feburary because they close the Inca trail that month for maintenance. Also, it meant that I´d be traveling with Michael (Mike from now on) to Medellin.

The road to Medellin, fraught with peril:
I took off on Saturday with Mike in his Ford (looks more like a Suburu Outback). He is quite an aggresive driver, which makes sense since he´s German. Little did I know then, but the entire trip I would spend pressing invisible breaks and gripping the frame. That being said, the drive to Manaziles, our first stop, was fucking awesome. This drive isn´t in the guide book, but it should be. The towns we passed were mostly shitty, but there were some gems that I could have definitely spent time in. Even the shitty towns had something good to them, like a taxi driver that helped us find a way through Honda because the highway next to town was closed. But that isn´t what made the drive; it was the scenery. This drive had such a diverse scenery that I can´t compare it to any other drive I´ve ever been on. We passed by farms on the side of hills that were on the side of mountains and plains that were speckled by 200 foot table tops with shear cliffs, and that was before we started the pass. We then started climbing. We must have climbed a minimum of 2,500 meters. Just when we thought there was no possible way we could go any higher and that we were at the peak, the road would turn upward. We stopped for photos near the top. 3,000 meter mountains surround the road and if you took a step over the barrier on the side, you´d plummet down 70 degree slopes for 1,000 meters. I´m not sure how it was possible, but every now and again I´d see a cow standing on some island of flat in the see of what amounted to cliffs. I find it very difficult to put into words how stunning these vistas were, and the pictures I posted to FB do no justice either.
We finally hit the top about 3ish, the normal rain time, and so we descended in clouds and rain. It obscured most views, but we were able to see the scenery change a few more times. There was a pine forest, high mountain jungles, boulders hanging, and finally a high pasture/plains with rolling hills that reminded me of Colorado. Still, we were lucky to make it because of the landslides that were every 500 meters, some of which were barely cleared before we got there. Later, in Manizales, we learned that this is the wettest rainy season in 40 years.
Manizales, is a great town with hardly any mention in lonely planet. It is young, safe, clean (air, water, and ground), and fun. It is ¨nestled¨ on a brief level ridgeline midway between the valley floor and peak of a 3,200 meter mountain. It has some fantastic natural surroundings like dormant volcanos, national parks, hot springs, lakes, yada yada. Not to mention the incredible view it has since it is at 1,800 meters. The one thing it doesn´t have right now is hostels. The one (of 3 or 4 citywide) we stayed at was impeccible. It was the cleanest, most comfortable, and organized hostile yet, with a friendly staff to boot. I highly recommend it, it´s called "Mountain House". Anywho, I think Manizales will become a backpacker destination soon, so if you end up in Colombia All the mountain roads in Colombia are really fucking dangerous and not because of some FARC thing. If it isn´t semis passing semis uphill on two lane roads in the middle of blind curves, it´s land slides, it´s fucking random animales and people wandering around the backs of blind corners, or giant bumps or potholes or speedbumps with zero warning, or road work with zero warning, or people pulling out onto the highway without looking. It is a complete clusterfuck of driving and the two rules are 1, give the thumbs up to military personal at stops because they will let you threw if you do and 2, there are no rules other than number one.

Part two, the road to Medellin, will come later.
I´m tired from the drive today and glad that I will only have one more day of being on Colombia´s fearsome mountain passes.
D