Colombia´s Caribbean

Cartagena

My flight arrives at 3.30 pm on the 28.9.10 in Cartagena, the most popular and most touristic city in the north of Colombia. I take a cab to my hostel “The Chill House Backpackers” which is located in the beautiful old part of Cartagena. After the check-in I take my cam and walk around the city. It is still bright outside and very very hot but that doesn't bother me at all!! I ask the girl at the hostel where I can find a book shop and get the direction. Already at the airport in Bogota, where I had to stop-over, I found 2 stores which unfortunately didn't have me LP but that gives me hope that I will be more successful here. I find the shop very easily but what I get to hear from the shop assistant shocks me. The LP only for Colombia costs more than $50 and the one for South America is not in stock. I can´t believe what I hear and leave the shop but I realize now how bad it was from me not to trade the book in Panama City straight away. I continue walking through the old part of the town for another two hours. Its colonial style is absolutely marvellous and compared to Antigua and Granada for me this is the best colonial town I have been to. It has the perfect mixture of beautiful architecture, vibrant lifestyle with many many restaurants and bars, excellent climate and the Caribbean Sea just across the street – you couldn't ask for more could you!?!

When I get back to my hostel I am in serious need for sleep. Since I have been to InanItah in Nicaragua I didn't get to sleep properly and my body is crying for rest. But instead I find the hostel rocking with loud music and partying guest. Bienvenido a Colombia – welcome to Colombia. From all the hostels I could have picked I chose one that never sleeps. And so instead of a break I spend my first night in Colombia rocking and rolling. The next morning I check out very early and go to another hostel where I check into a private room. The TV in my room helps me through the day and the next morning I am gone. I ask the hostel guy for a bus to Santa Marta and he asks me where I would like to go there. I have no idea and no guide and realize that from now on travelling will be some kind of a gamble and that in South America...The guy tells me Taganga seeing my clueless face and I say yes. Check a hostel on the internet and take off. I have got to admit that Cartagena with all its beauty is a very very dangerous place with an extremely negative vibe. One in that you can easily drawn, it chews you and then spits you out on the streets. I am relieved when the bus arrives and I can leave Cartagena but at the same time I am worried since I have no idea where I am going next...

Taganga

The bus ride along the Caribbean coast is fantastic. The landscapes are amazing with the Sea and tropical vegetation on one side and the mountains of the Sierra Nevada on the other. Here in this part of Colombia the tourism prospers and you can see villas being build all along the coast. Well, I got to admit that if I had enough money I would do exactly the same. After 4 hours drive I finally get to Taganga and when I leave the bus I forget my cell phone and my mattress. Here we go again...I wonder what will be left of my clothes at the end of my journey when I get on the flight from Rio to Frankfurt. Luckily it’s all just materialistic things that and as long as I will be on that flight everything will be just perfect :D Anyway, I check into the hostel “La Tortuga” which is run by Mona, a young Colombian woman. When I tell her about my travel plans she starts telling me about all the places that I should visit and at the end prepares a 5 day tour along the coast. I am delighted about her help and feel really good about the trip. During that conversation I ask Mona how it comes that the hostel owners in Colombia are so young (in all three hostels I stayed so far they were all my age or younger). She tells me that the tourism in Colombia has only now started to grow and become profitable and that her generation, which is familiar with back-pack tourism, is using the chance to start their own businesses.

 The same night we all go to another hostel where we are supposed to have a 10 course dinner. A challenging proposition which ends in a disaster!!! We are more than 20 people and the chef in the restaurant is new and has never done this set menu before in this place. We get there at 8.30 pm and get the first plate at 9 pm. It is a small portion of so called Sushi – in reality simply rice with fish. It tastes good but we all get the picture that it will take a while before we get filled up. Unfortunately for us it gets worse because the next plate arrives half an hour later - boiled tomato in strawberry dressing. Imaginative yes, but I am starving to death and want to eat a full plate instead of getting a taste of something every now and then. The next plates arrive in the same speed and with the same quantity of food only different things so that by 11 pm we are just half way through and a few of the group have left already. The only thing that keeps me happy is the conversation with Mona who sits next to me. She tells me about her travels and experiences and how she became the owner of a hostel. I love listen to her because she belongs to the very few people in this world who lives her life without regret, with passion, is guided by visions and realizes her dreams. At 11.30 pm we are told that there will be no 10 courses but 6. The chef probably resigned and freaked out I assume and we are served rice and one shrimp. This was supposed to be the highlight of the menu but in reality it´s a shamble, a bad joke!!!! The rice is pretty average at best and the shrimp has the size of 1 Euro coin. Its a real disaster but to make things worse the staff of the hostel tries to charge us the full price. Ridiculous and totally unacceptable! Mona talks to them and at the end we pay a bit more than the half which is still more that we should have paid for that crap. When we leave the hostel we hear load screams from a woman just around the corner. Since they don´t quieten we run in their direction and see the two girls from our hostel, Mary and Ali, as well as guys chasing someone through the dark. The girls have left the hostel just minutes before us and have been mugged in the dark. The way they have taken had almost no lights, just like most streets in Taganga. Luckily for them nothing has happened and the thief disappeared in the dark without a trophy. Mona is totally annoyed and calls the police but it takes half an hour until they get there. Two locals have seen the thief but the police have no interest to do anything about it. This night I get to see the dark sides of Colombia with its danger and the lack of support. The police here is not trying to reduce crime and only cares about their additional income. They do that by catching foreigners with drugs – which is a very lucrative and extremely easy income. But real crime is not something they want to be dealing with. Mona is pissed off when after the conversation with the two sleazy policemen. She wants to do something about it but in reality she knows that there is nothing that can be done. We get home after midnight, me starving, and Mona prepares a simple but absolutely filling pasta with tuna which ends my day on the good side ;)

The next day we have no light until the evening and I spend it playing cards and Yenga with Mona. We play who will pay the dinner tonight and lucky me ends up getting the better share of the deal. How do they say – luck in the game bad luck in love. According to that saying I should become a professional card player :) To make up for the horror dinner last night Mona brings me to her favourite place in Taganga where we both have a mouth-watering peace of lamb served with an extremely delicious blue cheese cream. The food is accomplished with a Bordeaux  that makes it a perfect dining experience!!! The night ends with golden Tequilas and a night club in Santa Marta but since my body is exhausted I call it a day very early. From the next morning, Saturday the 2nd of October, until Wednesday the 6th I fall in a hole of laziness. Mona's hostel has a huge TV, Internet and DVD and since I feel absolutely comfortable here, just like in my own 4 walls, I decide to take a break from travelling and just hang out doing nothing. My energy level is pretty low and I carry a cold with me since Cartagena which is very annoying and disturbing. During these days I delay my departure day by day and seem not to be able to do more than one thing a day. I can´t really explain what it is that keeps me grounded in La Tortuga and Taganga. On one side I feel I had enough of travelling especially on my own. Only here in Colombia I actually realize how huge my journey is and how many kms I have in front of me. I speak to my dorm mate Micheal who has been on the road now for almost 2 years and he tells me that all travellers reach a point where they just don't wanna go further and wish to come back. After almost a week in Mona's hostel, watching one movie after another, I finally get back to normal and decide to leave for Parque Tyrona on Thursday.
 

Parque Tayrona and the Shaman

The driver drops us off at the entrance of the park where our hike through the jungle begins. Two girls from the hostel in Taganga told me about the muddy hour walk to the beach and so I am prepared for it. The English couple who I walk with are not and the girl is getting pretty upset after a while. They just came back from the 5 day hike to Ciudad Perdida and just wanted to chill out on the beach. Bad luck! After an hour we finally reach the beach but cannot jump into the water and cool down because some 100 people have managed to die here due to strong current a message on a board says. I look around and absorb the beautiful landscape - to my left the Caribbean Sea and to my right the green mountains of the Sierra Nevada. On my travel I have never seen anything like that and take my time to enjoy the moment while we are walking to the next beach. 10 minutes later we are all in the water. Despite the long walk I feel like swimming and without looking back I swim 200 or 300 meters out in the sea. Even though there are no waves I enjoy it and realize that the time at the Pacific has made me love swimming again. In my mind I am already competing at a triathlon next year J When I am done I take my little rucksack and continue my walk. I get to see 5 more beaches along the coast one more beautiful than the other. My favourites are the last 2 since they are almost deserted. For me the perfect place to spend time with your girlfriend and thats exactly what some of the Colombian tourists are doing.

 To finish the hike I need to get up to the Pueblito up on the hill. A warning on a board says that you should not go up after 1pm since the hike takes 1.5 hours one way. Its 3.30pm when I start going up. For me this recommendation is a challenge that gives me a reason to walk fast. I am in my runners which makes the hike pretty enjoyable. It takes me 45 minutes to the top. I knew before that there was not much to see and the hike itself through the jungle would be the appreciating thing. But I am still a little bit disappointed since I had expected to have a view on the sea from here above. No chance and so I don’t waste too much time up there and make my way down. While the hike up was tricky so is the way down risky because I decide to run. Almost the entire way is made of rocks of different sizes. Sometimes they are lying flat and sometimes inclined. I am jumping from one rock to another, accelerating, taking a few stones at once, bouncing sidewise from rocks to take the speed with me. My mind is totally focused. I know that a wrong move or step could mean that I slip in one of the wholes between the rocks. I could get hurt or break something in worst case and would end up lying around waiting for help which would probably arrive only the next day. Nevertheless, I am enjoying the thrill and carry on this way until I arrive at the bottom of the hill. I walk all the way down to the first beach where I get a hammock for a night.

 The next morning I enjoy the sun for a few hours before I leave for the exit. Today I am a man on a mission which is a 30km hike to meet a Shaman. The first time Mona told me about her experience and offered me to meet him as well I knew why I was pushing forward to come to Colombia. Part of my journey through Latin America was the soul searching process in order to find the key to the door that has been closed for too many years now. I leave the park at 10.30am for the next 6.5 hours walk the same way back along the highway that I came by bus the day before. I need to get to a white km stone with a 10 on it. The first 20km or so I am fine and enjoy my walk. The sky is cloudy which is to my benefit. But 10km before the finish the sky opens up and a huge rain shower comes down and wash the dirt away. I try to find shelter under a tree but without success and decide to carry on walking. I put on my plastic rain cover only to protect my dry cloth in the rucksack. After 45 minutes the rain stops but by then there is not one part of my body that is dry. Finally, at 5pm I reach the km stone 10 and enter the property next to it. A long way leads me down for a few hundred meters until I reach a small river where I stop. Just before that I another way leads to a dead end with a platform right next to the small waterfall. No house no roof over the top. I wonder what will happen if it rains tonight but take it as it is. I change my close wait for 3 hours since the meeting is scheduled for 8pm. After 6pm the sun goes down and I am lying in the dark wondering where I am and what I am doing here. I have no idea if I am in the right place and since I have no connection I cannot call Mona to find it out. Also, even when it was dark I had no more energy to go up again and at least wait at the entrance just in case. I am aware that if the session is not in this place I will miss it and have to sleep for the first time in my life under the sky on the wet earth. No sleeping back, no tent, under me my raincoat and a blanket as a cover. Despite all this circumstances I feel totally at peace and relaxed. I don’t know if its just the exhaustion or if the place where I am gives me this calmness. At 8pm, when I am already prepared to sleep in this place, a car arrives and stops not far away from me. I know now that I am at the right place, but only moments later I see the car moving further down...only where??And how?? When I arrived there was a river and I didn’t see a way going further down. Obviously there is one but I am in trouble since I have no flash light. I grab all my stuff and in flip flops start to follow the car using my cell phone as a flash light. I cross the river and wonder how I could miss the way going down. The curvy way leads another 500 meters down to the bottom of the property but at the end I reach the house and can eventually relax.

I briefly introduce myself and get to know the people who have already arrived. It takes another 4 hours before the ceremony begins. By then the group has increased to more than 20 people all of different age and with different reason to be here. The Shaman begins the ceremony with blessing words while his servants are cleaning our bodies with smoke. At the end all of us drink the herbal drink that the Shaman has brought and the journey begins. At 5.30am I wake up to the noise of the people who are talking next to my hammock. The night has passed and I have experienced absolutely nothing. All the others around me are exchanging their different experiences while I lie motionless in the hammock. Despite all my effort I accept my faith without bad feelings. To me it is very obvious that I am still not ready. Will I ever be?? I seriously don’t know! During a game of chess the Shaman invites me to come back the coming night and try again. At first I accept but when I leave the place a few hours later I have no desire to come back. My plan was to carry on travelling along the coast towards the Venezuelan border but all my close are wet and I my energy level extremely low. I return back to La Tortuga and when I am there I realize quickly that my time was up there and I needed to leave. Mona is totally surprised at first about what I tell her what happened last night. And when I tell her a few hours later that I am leaving the same night she is perplexed. I fail to explain to her my decision-making process which is no surprise. My taxi arrives at 7pm and brings me to the bus terminal where my night bus leaves to Bucaramanga at 9pm. I am finally going towards Bogota where Luis I will meet Luis for the first time since my time in London.