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Hey Guys,
Hope you're well. Welcome to what looks to be the penultimate blog entry of my trip. I've been a bit lazy with the blog recently mainly because I haven't done that much recently.
Last time I posted I was in Medellin. Frm there I made the journey north to Cartagena on the Caribbean Coast. it was super humid when i got off the bus, it felt like getting off the plane in Delhi, it was hard to breathe. I'd been told the people aren't as friendly on the coast as they are in the rest of Colombia and I found this out when i used the internet cafe in the bus station. They ignored me for ages and then were talking aboutme. They must have thought I didn't understand what they were saying, luckily for them I didn´t!
We went to the beach, which was actually quite nice and I took my first steps in the Caribbean Sea. it was quite dark and brown. The next day we booked to go to Playa Blanca, an island 2 hours away by boat. The island was nice, and we stayed the night in hammocks. It was quite basic living, and the next day we awoke hungover, and covered in sandfly and mossie bites, not nice. The journey home on the boat was also not very fun. I was glad to get back to the hostel and to the a/c and bed, although it wasn't that comfortable it was still better than a hammock!
We spent the next day or so walking around Cartagena, and the old town. The highlight was seeing the police chase a criminal, and his getaway was to jump into the sea and try to swim away. He didn't look like the best swimmer and he seemed to be stuck about 20m out from the shore. He tried t swim away further but I guess the current was too strong. Meanwhile the police and a crowd of observers watched on from the shore, no one seemed to know what to do. This went on for about 30 minutes, before this fat guy (I'm not sure if he was chosen who he volunteered) was sent in to get him. Either he was a great swimmer or the criminal was scared but it worked and he came back to shore where he was apprehended, and handcuffed. The most bizarre thing was they put him on the back of the pickup truck, which is probably quite easy to escape from.
After Cartagena, we journey 5 hours along the coast to Santa Marta, the hometown of the famous footballer Carlos Valderrama, the guy with the crazy hair from the early 90's. The beach here wasn't so good, and to be honest I didn't do much here besides watch lots of football on the tv. After 4 days, I left, and this is where I bid farewell to my travel buddies Dustie, Catie and Jodie for the final time.
I made my way back to Medellin and spent almost a week there. All the people I knew before had left bar the girls that worked there. I saw a bit more of the city, went to cinema a few times and did some spanish practice in preparation for Ecuador.
I then made the non stop journey from Medellin to Banos in Ecuador. It was 20 hours from Medellin to the border. Then once all the formalities were done at both borders, it was another 5 hour bus to Quito, and from there it was a 3.5 hour bus journey to Banos. I left at 2.30pm on a Tuesday and arrived in Banos at 10pm the next day.
It was raining when I arrived in Banos, I was also really tired so just found a room and slept. It's called Banos becuase it has natural hot thermal baths, and Banos means bathroom in english.
The next day I explored the town, did some more spanish work and generally did nothing too taxing. The next day I decided to do a bike ride that takes you past a load of waterfalls. It looked like a nice day but 10 minutes into the ride the heavens opened and stayed opened for the rest of the day. I got soaked, it wasn't pleasant but I continued on. It was worth it as the final waterfall, although it was no Iguazu Falls, was still really impressive, and the sheer volume of water dropping was immense.
I was glad to get my clothes washed and have a warm shower afterwards, but my iPod had an error, think it was due to putting it in my bag when it was still wet, so I was distraught.
The next day I returned to Quito, and on the way I passed the volcano Cotopaxi, which is a really cool looking mountain. It slopes up straight from flat ground. I had intended on climbing it initially, but after the trauma of climbing the one in Bolivia, which is higher, I decided to pass. I spent a couple of nights in a hostel in Quito, before moving in with my homestay family.
I was a little nervous as I didn't know what to expect when I arrived. The parents were out so the youngest son let me in. I was glad to see 3 other volunteers were staying at the house so they helped me settle in straight away. I was going to be here for 4 weeks, while I was coaching football to kids and training with a university football team.
The family, once I met them all were really nice, and I felt at home quite quickly, although the bed I have is really hard. I found out I wasn't going to be able to coach for a couple of weeks as the kids has just started school and they were still sorting out the schedule, so I was left with just training for the first 2 weeks.
It's hard work, mainly because my fitness isn't very good, too many cervezas and hamburguesas, but I'm slowly turning it around. The coach, an elderly guy named Coco, is so cool. He's always smiling when I say hi and bye to him, he's the kind of guy you just want to give a hug to!
The pitch isn't the best that we train on, it has big patches of mud, which are uneven so it's quite bobbly, I've blamed it a few times for my initial poor performances. The first few days of training, I returned really tired and just wanting to sleep, but I'm getting fitter and slowly, and I mean slowly getting better at football too. It's so fast that its taken a while to adjust to the pace, plus it scares the life out of me when I'm passed the ball and it bobbles all over the place! It reminds me of the Baseball Ground but worse!
I'm determined to get better, and I've learnt a few things off Coco about coaching that I'm hoping to use when I start coaching this week. I have a few aches and pains but I'm going to keep going, got plenty of time to rest later, although I'm tempted to buy some new boots as I think they'll make me better....
Last weekend we went to Montanita, which is a beach resort in the south of Ecuador. We left on Friday night, which pretty much has been like most Fridays for me in South America, spent on a bus. It's a nice place but a combination of tiredness and not overly great weather meant I was quite happy to return to Quito the next day as I didn't want to miss football. I did get to see Titanic for th first time ever on my bus ride home. It was however in Spanish but I got the gist of it!
I have just over 2 weeks left here in Quito, after which I make the long trip back to Colombia and to Bogota, from where I catch a flight to New York. I decided to go to New York only recently, bit of a bad choice as the place is so expensive and I have no money! Afte a weekt here I catch a flight that goes to London Gatwick via Iceland, and from Gatwick i catch a flight to Barcelona. I'm there for 3 days and looking forward to catching up with friends and family, before catching another flight to Mallorca for 5 days with my mum, sis, brother in law, and his parents, before finally arriving home for good on October 21st and ending my journey, which is when I'll probably post my final blog update.
I can't believe it's almost all over. I'm looking forward to seeing everyone but I'm pretty sure i'll want to go traveling again after a few weeks. For some I'll see you before my next post, for others it will be once I'm home.
So until then, take care and hasta luego!
- comments
Ranjit Cooner C U in Barca bro, it's going to be messy!!
Sandra Sanjeev - have really enjoyed reading your journal, it's had everything in it and made me smile - happy you've had the best time - take care on the last leg of your journey. Sandra & Richard. xx