Greetings from Bogota. Krista just ran to the bathroom, so while she's gone, I'll fill you in on where we are right now. On Thursday, we flew from Santa Marta (on the coast) back to Bogota, where we will be for the next two weeks (flying home less than two weeks from now, crazy!). We are staying at Glenn and Glenda's house again, who have graciously lent us their space while they are in the States. Krista wasn't feeling so hot yesterday, so we spent the day relaxing at home, her sleeping and me hanging out (and going to the store a TON of times to get various things that we needed). Krista is back now, so we can tell you about Santa Marta.
(One other thing, my camera turned itself on in its case a couple of days ago, and is now dead; Krista decided that it was a good idea to leave her cord at home. So, between the two of us, we have no way of uploading pictures at this point. We'll keep taking pictures with Krista's camera and upload them when we get back, so make sure to check it out after we return!)
Santa Marta is a city of a little less than 500,000 people that sits right on the Carribean coast (we walked to the ocean pretty much every day). The temperature there was much more agreeable than Cartagena, but still plenty hot. We spent the first couple of nights in a hostel right by the beach, and then spent our last 3 nights with Glenn and Patricia Davis, who kindly offered up their home, their delicious food, and their wealth of knowledge to us. We had some of the best Colombian food we've had thus far in their home (Busma, their helper, and Patricia were phenomenal cooks). Glenn and Patricia were extremely helpful in finding places to go, giving us directions, and showing us around their favorite beach, which was magnificent. We owe them many thanks for their kindness.
Highlights:
-The hammocks out on the roof of our hostel were awesome. We spent a good amount of time reading and journaling out on the hammocks. It made us really happy about our most recent purchase (a hammock!)
- Nearly every night, we went to the beach to watch the sunset. It was awesome. If you've never seen a sunset from a westward-facing coast, I highly recommend it.
- Not really a highlight, but I (Josh) was sick for about 72 hours, so went spent some time laying low. Krista did a great job taking care of me, going to the store for granola, juice and medicine for my bowels (sort of like bad-tasting Gatorade).
- We spent a day in the fishing village of Taganga, where we relaxed on the beach in a beautiful Carribean bay and got some sun (a little too much for the both of us, but worth it). There we had awesome fresh fish for lunch and enjoyed the clearest ocean water I've ever seen.
- We went exploring in Santa Marta and saw another beautiful, really old Catholic church. We also went to the Museo Archeologico, where there was a really cool picture exhibit on the history of Colombia from the 19th century to present, and well as some sweet pre-colonial pottery and a real mummy! (very different from how they are portrayed in movies).
- More football. All of the team we rooted for lost, which was a bummer, but the games were exciting. Final is tomorrow....
- We spent a morning in the small village of Minca, high up in the Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta, which is famous for organic coffee and a beautiful landscape, as well as birdwatching (not really our thing, though). We had a couple cups of wonderful coffee, and went for a short hike to los Piedras (literally, the Rocks). It was a beautiful river with lots of large rocks to climb on. Of course, Krista had to take of her shoes and walk in the stream for a while (while I had to run off in search of a bathroom....). It was marvelous there, and much cooler than Santa Marta. A nice change.
We really enjoyed Santa Marta, but we were happy to be back in Bogota, where there is less heat and far fewer bugs. Krista left the coast with a few massive bug bites on her thigh, which swelled up quite impressively, but are now much better. We'll hang out in Bogota this week, and then this Thursday we start the SEED learning tour, which we are really looking forward to. That lasts until next Tuesday. We'll have the day Tuesday and Wednesday to savor last bits and pieces of Bogota, and then we fly back to the US! Time is flying.......
-Josh and Krista
edit: i don't really know about the white background on this post, google decided that we needed it, and i can't change it. highlight the text if you can't read it
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