Travel update #34 – San Blas & Colombia

So, here we are again. Or rather, here I am again, I should say. After a very long time, I’m by myself again. By myself in the sense that I don’t know anyone where I’m going to be soon. Because right now, I’m sitting at the bus station in Medellin, waiting for my bus to Salento. I can’t actually remember the last time I was truly alone. And actually, I’m quite enjoying it haha, completely making my own plans. But don’t get me wrong, I’ve had a fantastic time these past few weeks with the people I was with. And I’m going to tell you more about that now, here it comes:

Okay, we finished last time in Ecuador, where I traveled for three weeks with one of my best friends, Younes. I don’t think I need to tell you that traveling with a friend from back home is, to say the least, a lot of fun. And that’s why I’d decided beforehand: when Younes leaves, I need to do a group activity, just to get back in touch with people. I expected there was a good chance I might get a bit homesick. Traveling with someone from home is great, but it also breaks away a bit from the backpacker world I was living in. That’s why I’d decided to fly back to Panama and sail from there to Colombia. Several people recommended that sailing trip. The trip lasts five days, with the first three days exploring the Panamanian San Blas Islands, followed by a two-day crossing to Colombia and hopefully it would be smooth sailing 😉 And in hindsight, it was the right decision (well done, Jari) because I made plenty of new friends here, but more on that later (crazy cliffhanger, I know).

With 12 other backpackers and three crew members, we boarded the Ti-Vaou sailboat and prepared for the journey. Well, the crew prepared everything; we didn’t really have to do much. You just have to hope for a fun group, because in the end, we’re all in the same boat 😉. And it was a fun group! Together we explored the islands, snorkeled every day, ate our cook’s best meals (even lobster!), got sunburned (now we were the lobsters!), and played Kaboot (a card game). We even had a karaoke night where we easily blew the other boats away. Was it our performance of “drunk & drugs,” “lose yourself,” or “¿y que fue?”, who knows? The fact was, the locals never wanted to see us again after all that off-key singing 😉

My intention was to sleep outside on the boat, and I kept it. Sleeping under the stars on a boat for five nights: that’s what you call life. It was a challenge now and then with the rain and storms, but miraculously, I slept through most of it. I was often quite laughed at the next day. One time, I did wake up. We’d been caught in a huge storm that was tossing the whole boat around, and I suddenly got a wave in my face. I didn’t quite realize what had happened, thinking someone had thrown a bucket of water in my face as a joke, so I turned over my pillow and went back to sleep. I don’t know how, since I’m not a deep sleeper, but apparently sleeping in nature had rekindled something within me. So, luckily I didn’t miss the boat on sleeping outside (last boat joke, I promise).

After five days, we finally set foot on the mainland again; we’d reached Cartagena. And dios mio (I already speak fluent Spanish), we quickly realized how hot it was there. Together with a group of people from the boat, we explored Cartagena, where we immediately noticed that Colombia was quite different from the previous countries. So many people approaching you for all sorts of things, it was quite intense at times. After we’d worked up a sweat, we headed to our next destination: Tayrona National Park. And when I say “we,” I’m talking about a group of Australians: Jonty, Jayden, Kaya, Niamh & Tayla, plus Dijan (a German girl with Turkish roots). The “Aussies” knew each other from down under, and Dijan had already been adopted into this group earlier in the trip. In the past, I’ve often noticed that when people travel as a group, they’re not really open to meeting new people. But that was completely different with this group, and that’s why we clicked so well. Besides, Australians (and Brits, even Germans!) often have the same dry, sarcastic humor as the Dutch. And that was the case here as well.

Tayrona National Park—you can hike there and even sleep by the sea with a stunning view. And that’s exactly what we did. No phone service, so the best conditions for living in the moment. Although, when I suddenly lost the group after getting a bottle of water, it would have been nice to have phone service. Instead I went for a nice swim, and we eventually found each other again pretty quickly (I still suspect they were trying to get rid of me…). But in the evening, we became much closer. The showers were designed for Colombians, so we could make eye contact while showering. The soap and shampoo were passed from left to right, and later that evening, it was the same with the toilet paper. I won’t write much more about that. Let’s just say you get to know people very quickly when you travel!

Time to move on, and even say goodbye to the Aussies temporarily. Because just as Australians are mandatory to vote, they are also mandatory to surf. They went surfing, I went to Minca to explore waterfalls and coffee plantations. The view in Minca was breathtaking, and I even found a lunch spot with amazing baguettes. Believe me, finding good quality bread is definitely in the top 5 of my happinesses as a European traveler in the rice countries, it’s like the best thing since sliced bread 😉. Getting my clean laundry back is still number one btw.

After the stop in Minca, Medellin was on the horizon, and I would be staying there for a while. My first week I was with the Aussies again, and that was a lot of fun. We did a Pablo Escobar tour with someone who had worked for his cartel for years (and had served 18 years for it…). It was a very impressive tour. We were allowed to ask him anything, and you can probably imagine the kinds of questions, and the answers too. It’s hard to describe, but hearing the stories from someone so close to the action sometimes made you need time to process everything.

On this tour, I also unknowingly bought a small spoon as a souvenir, which is apparently used for snorting cocaine. That might need a bit of explanation. Ever since I was a child, my parents and I have been buying teaspoons when we’re abroad. My grandmother had a teaspoon collection. Unfortunately, my grandmother passed away a few years ago, but my father took the collection over. So I still bring a teaspoon from every country. You can probably see where this is going. At one of the stops, the guide said: spoons are very popular here. I thought it was strange; normally, I have to struggle to find a teaspoon. Without thinking, I bought the spoon, which was considerably smaller than all my other teaspoons. The Aussies were already giving me strange looks, so I went on to tell them all about my grandmother’s teaspoon collection. Yes, it really was that bad. Anyway, it took me another half a day to realize what I’d bought. That tells you all about my drug use (say no to drugs people!). I think an apology to my grandma is in order: sorry, grandma!

After that, we went to a football game, took day trips to Comuna 13 & Guatapé, explored Medellín’s nightlife, and had a cooking and movie night. I could tell you much more about this, but I can’t subject you to having to read six pages of this blog. We finished at a delicious restaurant where the waitress accidentally turned our last photo into a video, and then it was time to say goodbye. I was supposed to stay in Medellín longer, but everyone else had to move on. And that was a bit harder than I thought. Over the past few weeks, I’ve been able to create a really good bond with everyone in the group, and you definitely feel that when you say goodbye. They’re all people with good hearts, and that’s why I still miss them. Despite the great distance, I am convinced that our paths will cross in the future, at least they will always have a place to stay in the Netherlands 😊

So why did I stay in Medellín longer? I decided to work on my Spanish again. A two-week Spanish course was on the horizon, and I was really looking forward to it. Finally, back into a rhythm. I thought it would give me energy. Well, I was exhausted for two weeks, haha. I had group classes from 9:00 AM to 12:40 PM and private classes from 2:00 PM to 3:40 PM. Speaking and studying my fourth language, and then spending the rest of the day speaking my third, took more energy than I expected. But I can now say that I feel very comfortable speaking Spanish, and that was the goal. And that’s partly thanks to my private teacher, Beatriz. She taught me a lot, and in those two weeks, we built a really good bond. In fact, she said, “With most students, it takes two weeks to build a friendship; with Jari, it takes three days.” That’s a sweet compliment. We went to the lunch restaurant where I literally ate almost every day for our last lesson, to finish off the two weeks together. She eventually regretted teaching me local slang, because I kept saying it to everyone. Anyway, muchas gracias parcera! 😉

I was in good company these weeks. I stayed with a host family where Stella and Hugo were my Colombian parents. Karolína (a British-born girl but with parents from the Czech Republic and Lebanon, are you still with us?) was also with that host family and at the same school. We had met in Minca, and when we discovered we both wanted to do a Spanish school for two weeks, we decided to book everything together. We walked to school together (and with Jo, also from our host family!), tried to go to the gym regularly, and ate dinner in a shopping mall with a stunning view of Medellín. Going to the gym had a negative effect on Karolína, because the first time we went, she got stung in her finger by a bee. The swelling worsened in the days that followed, so she decided to go to the hospital. Her Spanish isn’t as good as mine, so I came along as a translator (and you should never let friends go to the hospital alone anyway!). It felt like my practical Spanish exam, translating medical Spanish. But luckily, I passed with flying colors. Karolína was given the right medication (from the patient doctor’s backpack), and in the next days her finger got much better.

It was nice to experience that daily life again for a bit. Stella & Hugo were incredibly sweet people and regularly tried to take us to different places (tried, because we were exhausted most of the time). But we did go to Santa Elena as a family for “el festival de las flores,” for example, which was fun. It was also the first time in my life that I experienced what a brother/sister relationship is like. After a school day or a day trip that we didn’t do together, Karolína and I always bothered each other for a bit. Knocking on the other persons door and starting a conversation about your day. And then annoying each other throughout the day was quite fun, I can tell you. But ofcourse we also looked after each other. As an only child, I’ve never had that in my life, so that was nice to add to my experiences.