Travel in the North..

Cartagena: in need of a clean-up day.

"You guys don't get the full experience!"Lunch with a traveler.

It's been a week since you last heard from me.

I've been through a bit. I'm still traveling with my friend, Aidan, from Minnesota. He's a chill guy. From Cartagena, we cruised out to Playa Blanca, an hour boat ride to a white sand, palm tree, clear water island of bliss. It was like the wallpaper your computer probably has as default. We stayed at a little camp-ish place in hammocks. We snorkeled. Everything was perfect. WAS perfect - that's past tense. I woke up covered in these:

Pictures don't do them justice, but still gross, right? They have Dengue and Malaria here.. but so far I didn't get it in those 200+ bites. We left the next day (I was miserable and gave up trying not to scratch) and spent one more night in Cartagena. From there, we went to Santa Marta.


Beauty.

Your new computer wallpaper:Yep, snorkeling. Buddy Aidan diving down.
Ray. I'm happy with my waterproof camera.

Santa Marta is unbelievably mellow. It has a strong wind from the ocean 24/7, and everyone's alright with you just wearing boardshorts, sandals, and no shirt everywhere you go, so that's what I did. It sits right on the coast, the water's not the cleanest but it's warm. We spent two days there doing absolutely nothing and relaxing. The third day we went to a nearby town that was exactly the same, and we just poked around.

It's a bit of a port.

We saw some dogs.. this is the worst I've seen in South America, though."How did you get purple?"Making guacamole in Santa Marta.Santa Marta by night.Ah, can't leave out the giant rum. I could put so many captions for this.

The fourth day, Thanksgiving day, we went to a national park about an hour away. It was amazing. After an hour walk through the jungle, it opens up to deserted beaches and cool, refreshing, clear water. We walked along those and jumped off some rocks.

Unfortunately we were in a bit of a rush to catch the last bus from Santa Marta to Medellin. We only stayed a few hours in the national park, then headed back. Since it was Thanksgiving in the states, we decided to treat ourselves to a great meal on the way out. We each bought two extra-giant hotdogs (they do them well here, better than the US) and fries. We also grabbed cookies, snickers, a 2 liter of coke, chips, and some beer. We planned to eat it all on the bus, but the bus was an hour late, so it was consumed at the station. No turkey, but hey, they have CHICKEN flavored chips. It sounds gross, I know. But they really taste like actual chicken.

Check out the rainclouds.. It didn't rain.

Jumping the gap.The view was better upside down.This picture of Aidan is awesome.This was the hour hike (Aidan) - through knee-deep mud mixed with horse urine.Our Thanksgiving. Clockwise from center: Giant hotdogs, fries, beer, redbull, snickers, Coca Cola.

So this is my second day in Medellin, Columbia. I'm leaving on a bus today back to Bogota (check last post) to figure out some travel details. It's very close to the end of my trip. I don't quite know how I'm getting back yet. I'll likely have another post or two before I'm home. I really appreciate everyone who's reading and commenting, it makes me feel great to know that I can always come back to open arms. I'll keep this post short (like I usually say and it's not, really). I miss everyone, and thanks again, it really does mean a lot to hear from you all.

Ciao,

Brian