CARTAGENA

Okay, this blog is a bit of a fail. I'll catch up on Galapagos later because at least I have notes for that; I'll just tell you all about Cartagena. So I get back from Galapagos around 6 and I'm dead tired and I have a final project to do. I talk with Z who mentions for the first time that I'll probably have to pay her in order to stay here until the next Monday. Although she's known since forever that I'm planning on staying, she never mentions this to me until now. Great. I do my project, sleep in a little, do more of my project and pack and talk to Mom and play way too much Solitaire. Z and I talk (well, Z talks) over lunch and she asks me if anything bothered me while I was here. I said I was a little lonely and was about to mitigate it when she starts going on about how I knew she lives alone (I didn't) she could never ask me to do anything with her because I was studying (fairly true). She seemed kind of mad which was weird because it hadn't been too big a deal for me; she ended up talking about a lot of her other students and especially emphasized that the other girls put on makeup and nice clothes to go out and bring home boyfriends to meet her although she has had a couple of gay students. This struck me as a little weird until I was telling the kids about it later and Margo is positive that tomboys don't exists in Ecuador, therefore if you don't act stereotypically girly you are automatically weird. Wish I had thought of that earliler. Anyway, I did end up dressing up that nice because our farewell dinner was in the central/historical district. Really nice. We took a bus there, then I sat next to Felicia for the dinner. Appetizer, bread, soup, main dish, dessert. Really fancy. I had forgotten my camera so I made Felicia take pictures of my food :) I was thinking about going out but we had to be at the airport at 4AM to go to Colombia, so I just went home after a misunderstanding with a taxi driver who apparently couldn't speak Spanish. I HATE taxi drivers. Anyway, I got to the airport on time and all would have been fine and dandy except Andrew's flight wasn't with ours. We had known this before and Brenden's dad actually came to the airport to try to get Andrew on our flight. It didn't look like he was going to make it and we almost missed our plane, but we all got on. We had to switch flights in Bogotá, the capitol, and that was a nightmare, but we all got on the plane. It's really Abby's fault because she had forgotten her bag :) When we finally landed, we had to wait around for a van to take us to our hotel. It wasn't there at first, but it eventually showed up. As we were driving to the hotel the driver explained how Cartagena was pretty much the safest city in Colombia because it's a tourist city. We drive past the walled city (Cartagena is an old Carribbean port where the Spaniards dropped off their gold before taking it back to Spain, so pirates liked to ransack it. They built a wall around it and it's pretty well kept up; there's a bunch of old buildings with tourist shops inside.) Oh, and Gabriel García Márquez has a house inside the walls. He's only like my favorite author ever. I luckily had the presence of mind to change money at the airport, so they used me for tips and covered a couple of cabs for me later. The hotel was nice (right across from the beach)and I roomed with Abby, who was in the other program but I knew her from rooming with her at the beach. We all took naps because we were that tired. We had had lunch, too; all meals were included with our package. We explored a little and sat by the pool and there was a Juan Valdez right across the street (it's the Latin American equivalent of a Starbucks). We ate dinner and walked around a little more, enjoying the fact that it was warm and we were sweating.

We met for breakfast at 9 the next morning and decided to walk to the old city because our driver had said it's a pleasant 30-minute walk. It was SO HOT. I'm not sure if I've ever sweated so much in my entire life. Anyway, once we finally got there we sat in a shady plaza and looked at all the old European-style buildings. A couple of the guys bought paintings that turned out to be pretty big ripoffs. Pobrecitos. We walked around a lot and wandered into this church, which was really nice. The kids wanted to go up into the tower, but there were a lot of stairs so I stayed below. I was actually really lucky because Mass started the same time they went up and ended right before they came down. It was super interesting... my only complaint is that I accidentally gave a Sacagawea dollar instead of a peso piece. Whoops. They came back down and we split up for lunch; I went with the guys to a typical Colombian place. I didn't want anything because I didn't have any money and had eaten a big breakfast knowing this would happen, although at least two of the guys offered to pay for me. All of them are really sweet and big-brother-ish; Andrew has actually been calling me little sister for the past week or so. But anyway, they ordered fish (and rice, beans, salad, and juice), except it was a WHOLE fish. It looked a little wierd but Brenden gave me a piece to try and it was to die for. We met up with the girls just as it started to rain and ended up taking cabs back. I'm pretty sure we all ended up taking naps. I think I remember that we went swimming in the ocean, which was really warm, but it closed at 5:30. We migrated to the pool, which closed at 6, then waited for the sunset. I took a shower, we ate, and I was handed over to Margot who wanted to do my clothes, hair, and makeup. It turned out really well; she loaned me some skinny jeans and a nice top, straightened my hair, and went creazy with the eye makeup. We hung out by the pool but people were getting irritable, so we left for the old city. We did a lot of walking around, and it got pretty late. Andrew and Abby went back with me; they're the best. I tried to get my eye makeup off and went to sleep.

The next morning we had a plan, which was good. Bensito got us organized and six of us went to el Castillo de San Felipe, this huge fort. It took forever to walk there and cost 8000 pesos to get in (1750 pesos to the dollar) but it had nice views and creepy tunnels. We meant to go to the embassy so the School of Foreign Service kids could talk to the ambassadors, but they wouldn't let us in. We met back up in the old city and split up for lunch again. I went with Brenden and Bensito to this other typical Colombian place; soup, meat, beans, rice, salad, banana chips, juice, for 6000 pesos or less than $3.50. I ate there and it was fantastic. We met up with the other kids and the girls wanted to go back but the two boys and Andrew wanted to go shopping for linen suits, the typical Colombian dress. We spent two HOURS shopping; there boys are worse than women. We spent most of our time in one store, trying things on and negotiating price, decided, left to go find an ATM, walked into another store, tried stuff on, negotiated, decided, and FINALLY left. It would have been torturous, but it was SO freakin funny. My patience was rewarded because we went to see Gabriel Garcia Marquez's house. Even though he's still alive so it's a private residence so we couldn't go in AND he wasn't even there, it was still super cool. We talked to a security guard in the hotel across from the street and he told us a couple of stories. We took a cab back and I'm pretty sure this is when Abby bought me my first-ever frappuccino, which was good but then I couldn't nap. Maybe this was the day we went swimming. I can't remember exactly because the days were the same and a little different at the same time, plus I was tired all the time. Anyway, we had dinner and got ready... in between a lot of this Abby and I had a few nice talks in our room, making fun of the guys and talking about home and running. Needless to say, she's one of my best friends now. Charlie and Alana, the two grad students from the program, showed up to be with us for the rest of our time there. We went off to the old city again and a couple of the kids got food at the HardRock Cafe. We went to a cool little discoteca outside the gates and talked; I went back with Kevin, Ben, and James because I was tired and they were going anyway. Police officers stopped us on our way back, but I guess that's normal. They're pretty hard core. I went to sleep.

Wednesday was technically our last day; I think it was Brenden this time that had a plan. We walked to the Inquisition Museum, which was pretty interesting. I think we went for lunch right after in the same place, but I didn't eat anything because I was so tired and not hungry and running out of pesos. I snagged a couple of scapulars for the Grandmas and Brenden and Andrew Almost went shopping, but they thought better of it. We took a cab back and Brenden and I went to Juan Valdez to buy packages of coffee for our families. Credit card. I went to swim when we got back, and it was a lit of fun because I love waves so much. Brenden even found a sand dollar, and James said it was alive. We got ready for dinner; the guys had made reservations at a pizza/pasta place. I was a little upset about missing dinner and I wasn't going to eat because I had had snacks beforehand at the hotel, but two or three people offered to pay for me because they were splitting a pizza; they wouldn't have been able to finish it by themselves and Ben ended up paying for me. A guy from the street asked him for leftoevers, so Andrew gave him the rest of his pizza. We dropped Kevin, Ben, and James off at the hotel because they were tired and took a horse-drawn carriage to Cafe del Mar, which every gringo we had met raved about. It was really sweet, just a cafe with a lot of open air seating and a great view of the ocean. Unfortunately it started raining, but that was okay because I had the craziest Shirley Temple of my life; it had cherry, apple, pineapple AND kiwi fruit in it. We went outside the walls after a while to go to a discoteca to dance, then I went back to the hotel with Charlie, Alana, and Margot. Sleep. Yes.

The next morning we got up, ate what I swear were donuts, and left. Our flight to Bogotá was delayed, but we made every flight. Back in Ecuador I took a cab back with Brenden and Kevin, decided to stay in, settled $100 with Z for the next couple of days I'm here (even though she wanted to charge me for the days I was in Colombia) ate dinner and skyped Mom. The rest of the world is eagerly awaiting the 7th Harry Potter movie, but I think I might go up a mountain tomorrow. And see the movie for $4.50, yes.