Visiting Paradise. Twice
Hello! I would talk about my week at FSY that I just got back from, but I still have our vacation to the coast to talk about. Also, a clarification before we begin, please read this straight from the blog if you receive it as an email, it solves issues with formatting. Just click anywhere really. Also, for my beautiful Colombian friends who read it translated into Spanish, google translate is very imperfect and a lot of things get messed up and sometimes are super inaccurate. It also sometimes repeats paragraphs several times, so just be aware it's not me, and I don't know how to solve it. Sorry. Anywhooo, starting from where we left off, we headed out Monday morning, the 10th, for Barranquilla. We took a transit van for the 4 hour ride, which we caught at a bus terminal. The station was so weird, it was like a little airport but without security and dirtier. We bought the tickets from the transport company, they tagged our bags, and we were off. I wrote a bit and tried not to catch pneumonia from the freezing cold A/C. Overall it was chill. Around noon we arrived, and took two taxis to the hotel. It was pretty basic, just beds and a bathroom, but cute. We had a separate room from the parents, so we hung out and watched TV for about an hour while they finished preparing their seminar. In the afternoon we got changed and headed to the temple. It was just dedicated in December so everyone was really excited to go see it. This temple is a big deal for them because it's the only other LDS temple in the country. The other one is in Bogotá, about 40 minutes from where we live. Most people here have never seen another temple unless they’ve visited the ones in Peru or Ecuador, so a brand new temple in Barranquilla was pretty remarkable. Unfortunately it was closed for maintenance, but we walked the grounds and looked around the little dorms and visiting area. It sits on top of a hill with a great view, and the landscaping was really well done. It was pretty lovely.
Later, we got lunch, checked out the building for the seminar, drove around a bit, and had empanadas for dinner. The next day the parents had their seminar, so they left early and we slept in. We stayed at the hotel until lunchtime when the parents came to eat with us. Afterwards they went back to work, and we (me and the daughters, Andrea and Carolina) took a taxi to the mall. In case I haven't mentioned before, for some reason the malls in this country are like, excessively nice and modern. Most public spaces are, actually. There are some realllly high-end brands and usually at least three levels in most malls. Anyways, we went to see a movie, and the only one that worked with our schedule was A Dog’s Journey. I didn't really care to see it, but they didn't want to watch X-Men so I dealt. The movie wasn't great, but honestly it wasn't as bad as I expected it to be either. When it was over, we bought ice creams and took another taxi to meet up with the parents. I would've liked to spend more time in Barranquilla or at least seen more of the city, but it was more of a quick stop. We reserved an uber with a minivan, and started the other 4 hour drive to Santa Marta. Haha, I was so happy in that backseat. I guess I missed the spaciousness, but it reminded me a lot of home. It's weird, but there are seriously no minivans in this country. I've seen maybe 2 in the ten months I've lived here. Pretty different from Utah where basically every family has one.
After checking into our hotel, we walked 5 minutes to the beach. It was too dark to really see anything so we just waded around a bit in the water. We had dinner at a restaurant closeby and a three-man vallenato band played some songs for us. Vallenato is basically the Colombian equivalent of mariachi, although the sounds are pretty different. Our hotel was cute, although I felt terrible because the rooms had enough space to sleep 4, but they bought two rooms because I was number 5. Everywhere we went, in fact, they paid for two hotel rooms, and even two taxis because they only seat 4 max. My family just makes someone sleep on the floor on the couch cushions if there’s not enough space in a hotel room. I felt bad that they had to spend so much extra money solely because I was there, but they really went all-out on so many things that weren’t because of me, so I think they were chill with it. I guess we’ll just have to give Andrea the same treatment so it’s fair.
The next day we ate breakfast in our hotel, changed into our swimsuits, and left early for our chiva. We ran into a guy that morning who was part of a tourist company that does day trips to different places in Santa Marta. The region is a really big tourist destination for the beaches and other natural features like waterfalls and river rafting, so tourism is big business. Anyways, this dude tells us about the trip of the day and I guess it sounded good so we went with him. We go to this parking lot full of chivas, which are basically windowless party buses with huge speakers for blasting salsa music. We climb aboard along with about 20 other people. Along the way our guide points out interesting things and we stop a couple times for pictures, and arrive 40 minutes later to Taganga. It was this beautiful bay with a little town near the water, and the view from the mountain was stunning. The first picture makes it look like the weather was bad, but in reality it was really sunny and warm. The mom's camera tends to desaturate bright light. I did my best to make it look good with the edits.
We drive down, gather up our things, and walk to the beach. It was at that point that I thought we'd been scammed. The beach was full of dinky little fishing boats and strewn with leaves, tree branches, and trash. I mean, a beach is a beach so it was cute and all, but I wouldn't willingly swim there. To my relief, that wasn't our final destination. The tour guide directed us to a little motor boat., we all climbed in, and upon going around the mountain, Playa Grande came into view. Tucked between two mountains and reachable only by boat was the most beautiful white-sand beach with crystal clear blue water and palm trees swaying in the breeze. There were hut-like hotels built into the mountainside, and a row of restaurants all lined up with cabanas and canopies. We followed our tour guide to one of the outdoor restaurants where we drank some coconut limeade and left our stuff under his watch. Our group went with a diving instructor who provided us with the gear and.. instruction, and we went scuba diving. We saw schools of tropical fish and several different types of coral. Unfortunately a lot of it looked dead, and the sea floor looked like it had once been very alive and was now pretty barren. That made me sad honestly. It was still really cool nonetheless.
Afterwards we ate a huge lunch at the restaurant and I ate Mojarra like everyone else. It's that entire fried fish dish that I talked about forever ago in a prior post. I finally got over my disgust and tried it, and it's really good and now I eat it pretty frequently. Well, when we were on the coast at least; I ate fish at least once a day there. We spent the rest of the afternoon swimming and trying to enjoy this paradise to the fullest. The water was so perfect, not too cold but also not too warm like in Cartagena, and a crystal clear aqua blue. All my life I've wanted to visit a beach worthy of being a computer screensaver, and now I have. It got pretty crowded after a few hours so it was hard to get a picture without someone photobombing, but I still managed to get some good shots with the little waterproof phone sleeve they bought me. At 3 o'clock our group boarded the boat and we went back to Santa Marta. We took a longer route on the way back through el centro and saw the main port and other historical monuments. While walking back towards our hotel, we stopped to buy some souvenirs and I got a Tshirt, a keychain, and a bunch of bracelets for myself. I'm a good tourist.
We made it back to our hotel around 5, showered and changed, and walked around town. It's basically the same at night as during the day, but without the intense heat. We rented a little five person bicycle and bought some Italian shaved ice (like from Rita's), and rode around for a while all taking turns steering. Andrea hit the curb a couple times, came close to hitting several parked cars, and almost killed us when she almost swerved into a bus that she didn't see passing us. I turned around and grabbed the steering wheel as we were only a foot away from the huge vehicle going pretty fast. It made me a little worried about my promise to teach her how to drive when she comes to the states. At least the roads are a lot calmer there and she won't be able to get a license anyway.
The next day we slept in a bit and spent the rest of our morning at the beach close to our hotel. It wasn't as good as the beach from the day before, but it was still up there on my list of best beaches. It was pretty crowded as well, but the vendors were on a whole nother level. We rented a little canopy by the water, and I swear someone came by trying to sell us something every 15 seconds. They were selling everything. From margaritas to jewelry, to massages and braiding hair, to tanning oil and ice cream. There were people selling beach toys, shells, crabs, paintings, fruit, sunglasses, and everything else you'd expect to buy on a beach; plus a bunch of wild stuff you wouldn't. They'd all stop in front of our canopy and pitch whatever they could think of to get us to buy whatever they had. The tanning oil guy promised his stuff would protect from burning, and upon seeing me and Andrea pointed to us and said, "les quita el color de yuca." Yuca is kind of like a potato, and he said his oil would get rid of our yuca skin color. Tania was laughing about that one for days. One guy came by freestyling for money, and just started rapping about each one of us. Caro got compared to Bad Bunny cuz of her glasses, Andrea to Sofia Vergara, and he compared me to Angelina Jolie. I'll take the compliment, but I'm guessing he just couldn't think of another white celebrity on the spot. We paid him cuz he was actually pretty good even though he just showed up and started without being solicited, but that's how you make money here I've noticed. Other than the crazy swarm of vendors, the beach was pretty relaxing. The water was blue and clear like from the day before, and had white sand and palm trees. It's a shame I didn't get any photos. Anyways, I just swam for a while and read my book while guarding our things under the canopy. It was a really nice way to wrap up our last day on the coast. We had lunch and I gave my patacon to a kid begging for food. I noticed that there were more kids on their own begging in Santa Marta than I’d generally seen anywhere else. I imagine because the weather is easier to handle at night on the streets, and the tourists are pretty generous. At least, I’d hope so.
That afternoon we took another transit van back to Barranquilla, and basically everyone almost threw up. Right after leaving everyone started noticing how hot it was despite the fact that the A/C was turned on. The driver said it was as cold as it could go, even though it was the exact same type of vehicle (same company too) that we’d taken from Cartagena was freezing cold. I started feeling nauseated around the same time everyone else started complaining and saying the same. I felt so carsick, which is rare for me, and had to stand up for a while because it was less stuffy near the ceiling. A group of Spanish girls in the back had to ask the driver to pull over because they needed some air, and eventually we opened the only two windows in the front. At least it got the air circulating a bit, but 3 hours in a hot van with a big sweaty guy next to me on Colombian roads made for the worst car ride I’ve ever been on. That even beats the time in 8th grade when our school bus got stuck in stopped traffic on the way back from Lagoon without A/C, and some kid got heat stroke.
After arriving in Barranquilla we switched over to another transit van (that had air, thank goodness) and we drove another 2 hours to Cartagena. I spent the majority of the ride writing, and the time went by fast. It’s wild how much easier it gets to sit in a car for hours on end as you get older. I could barely handle the 40 minute drive to East Canyon as a kid.
We took an uber to the grandpa’s apartment, and slept there for the night. Friday morning we woke up early to go to the airport, and made the hour and a half flight back home. Just to make a point about the traffic and geological wackness of this country, it takes 24 hours to drive to Cartagena because it’s through the Andes mountains, even though it’s only 412 miles; about the same distance between Salt Lake and Las Vegas.
After 10 days, 4 beaches, 3 hotels, and a lot of good seafood, our vacation was officially over. It was truly magical, and I don't think I'll ever forget it. It was amazing to see more of this beautiful country, and the extensive diversity it boasts. After being in paradise for so long, it's hard to be back in cold Bogota, but I've also missed my friends and home. I can't express how grateful I am to the Bermudez family for taking such good care of me, and giving me an unforgettable experience. It was definitely one for the books.
We took another taxi to the apartment in Suba where Alejandra and Camila made us lunch and we picked up Juanes. He stayed with them while we were gone, and didn’t want to go back home with us because they spoiled him. Jeez, as if he wasn’t already spoiled enough by us. I had started feeling a little sick back in Santa Marta, but I think the sudden change in altitude (like an 8,000 ft difference) was what tipped me over the edge. I really quickly developed a really bad head cold, which later turned into a chest cold. My nose, ears, and overall all sinuses were really clogged, which gave me a super fun tension headache. At least I didn’t get sick until after vacation though, right? It just got worse and worse for 5 days straight, and eventually started getting better and mostly went away, although I’m still coughing a bit. Anyways, that same day I went and got my nails done and then was super sick the rest of the weekend through Andres’ birthday and Father’s Day so I didn’t do anything but go to church and lay in bed. That is, until Tuesday when we left for Medellin to go on vacation AGAIN. This is insane, I was on vacation basically the entire month, and I just got back from FSY (latino EFY) yesterday. I don’t know how I got so lucky to only be sick the days we were home, but I will take the blessings. I’ll write about our trip to Medellin soon, and then about my incredible week at FSY. June is treating me too well. Okay so anyways I love being on vacation and finally seeing more of Colombia, and they spent a loooot of money on me, and I feel kinda bad about it. And my life is charmed, and I don’t know why. Bye bye, stay chévere.
Oh my gosh, last minute edit: My sister Madelyn just got called to serve a mission in Lima, Peru! Ah it's so exciting! She's going to learn Spanish like me, except everyone says Peruvians speak really ugly, so hehe I guess I'll still be the best speaker in the family. Also, they're so so short, that'll be interesting hahaha.
 |
| Weather was a bit cloudy, but it was really hot outside regardless |
Later, we got lunch, checked out the building for the seminar, drove around a bit, and had empanadas for dinner. The next day the parents had their seminar, so they left early and we slept in. We stayed at the hotel until lunchtime when the parents came to eat with us. Afterwards they went back to work, and we (me and the daughters, Andrea and Carolina) took a taxi to the mall. In case I haven't mentioned before, for some reason the malls in this country are like, excessively nice and modern. Most public spaces are, actually. There are some realllly high-end brands and usually at least three levels in most malls. Anyways, we went to see a movie, and the only one that worked with our schedule was A Dog’s Journey. I didn't really care to see it, but they didn't want to watch X-Men so I dealt. The movie wasn't great, but honestly it wasn't as bad as I expected it to be either. When it was over, we bought ice creams and took another taxi to meet up with the parents. I would've liked to spend more time in Barranquilla or at least seen more of the city, but it was more of a quick stop. We reserved an uber with a minivan, and started the other 4 hour drive to Santa Marta. Haha, I was so happy in that backseat. I guess I missed the spaciousness, but it reminded me a lot of home. It's weird, but there are seriously no minivans in this country. I've seen maybe 2 in the ten months I've lived here. Pretty different from Utah where basically every family has one.
After checking into our hotel, we walked 5 minutes to the beach. It was too dark to really see anything so we just waded around a bit in the water. We had dinner at a restaurant closeby and a three-man vallenato band played some songs for us. Vallenato is basically the Colombian equivalent of mariachi, although the sounds are pretty different. Our hotel was cute, although I felt terrible because the rooms had enough space to sleep 4, but they bought two rooms because I was number 5. Everywhere we went, in fact, they paid for two hotel rooms, and even two taxis because they only seat 4 max. My family just makes someone sleep on the floor on the couch cushions if there’s not enough space in a hotel room. I felt bad that they had to spend so much extra money solely because I was there, but they really went all-out on so many things that weren’t because of me, so I think they were chill with it. I guess we’ll just have to give Andrea the same treatment so it’s fair.
 |
| Vallenato is very accordion-based |
The next day we ate breakfast in our hotel, changed into our swimsuits, and left early for our chiva. We ran into a guy that morning who was part of a tourist company that does day trips to different places in Santa Marta. The region is a really big tourist destination for the beaches and other natural features like waterfalls and river rafting, so tourism is big business. Anyways, this dude tells us about the trip of the day and I guess it sounded good so we went with him. We go to this parking lot full of chivas, which are basically windowless party buses with huge speakers for blasting salsa music. We climb aboard along with about 20 other people. Along the way our guide points out interesting things and we stop a couple times for pictures, and arrive 40 minutes later to Taganga. It was this beautiful bay with a little town near the water, and the view from the mountain was stunning. The first picture makes it look like the weather was bad, but in reality it was really sunny and warm. The mom's camera tends to desaturate bright light. I did my best to make it look good with the edits.
 |
| I will never stop loving my hippie pants |
 |
| Taganga from above (taken with my phone) |
We drive down, gather up our things, and walk to the beach. It was at that point that I thought we'd been scammed. The beach was full of dinky little fishing boats and strewn with leaves, tree branches, and trash. I mean, a beach is a beach so it was cute and all, but I wouldn't willingly swim there. To my relief, that wasn't our final destination. The tour guide directed us to a little motor boat., we all climbed in, and upon going around the mountain, Playa Grande came into view. Tucked between two mountains and reachable only by boat was the most beautiful white-sand beach with crystal clear blue water and palm trees swaying in the breeze. There were hut-like hotels built into the mountainside, and a row of restaurants all lined up with cabanas and canopies. We followed our tour guide to one of the outdoor restaurants where we drank some coconut limeade and left our stuff under his watch. Our group went with a diving instructor who provided us with the gear and.. instruction, and we went scuba diving. We saw schools of tropical fish and several different types of coral. Unfortunately a lot of it looked dead, and the sea floor looked like it had once been very alive and was now pretty barren. That made me sad honestly. It was still really cool nonetheless.
 |
| Just some cool diving pics |
Afterwards we ate a huge lunch at the restaurant and I ate Mojarra like everyone else. It's that entire fried fish dish that I talked about forever ago in a prior post. I finally got over my disgust and tried it, and it's really good and now I eat it pretty frequently. Well, when we were on the coast at least; I ate fish at least once a day there. We spent the rest of the afternoon swimming and trying to enjoy this paradise to the fullest. The water was so perfect, not too cold but also not too warm like in Cartagena, and a crystal clear aqua blue. All my life I've wanted to visit a beach worthy of being a computer screensaver, and now I have. It got pretty crowded after a few hours so it was hard to get a picture without someone photobombing, but I still managed to get some good shots with the little waterproof phone sleeve they bought me. At 3 o'clock our group boarded the boat and we went back to Santa Marta. We took a longer route on the way back through el centro and saw the main port and other historical monuments. While walking back towards our hotel, we stopped to buy some souvenirs and I got a Tshirt, a keychain, and a bunch of bracelets for myself. I'm a good tourist.
 |
| My favorite thing about this photo are the classic "celosas" in the background. Lol, it looks staged. |
 |
| We got some pretty nice pictures in the water |
We made it back to our hotel around 5, showered and changed, and walked around town. It's basically the same at night as during the day, but without the intense heat. We rented a little five person bicycle and bought some Italian shaved ice (like from Rita's), and rode around for a while all taking turns steering. Andrea hit the curb a couple times, came close to hitting several parked cars, and almost killed us when she almost swerved into a bus that she didn't see passing us. I turned around and grabbed the steering wheel as we were only a foot away from the huge vehicle going pretty fast. It made me a little worried about my promise to teach her how to drive when she comes to the states. At least the roads are a lot calmer there and she won't be able to get a license anyway.
 |
| I want one of these for myself. Imagine this thing on the river trail, wooosh |
The next day we slept in a bit and spent the rest of our morning at the beach close to our hotel. It wasn't as good as the beach from the day before, but it was still up there on my list of best beaches. It was pretty crowded as well, but the vendors were on a whole nother level. We rented a little canopy by the water, and I swear someone came by trying to sell us something every 15 seconds. They were selling everything. From margaritas to jewelry, to massages and braiding hair, to tanning oil and ice cream. There were people selling beach toys, shells, crabs, paintings, fruit, sunglasses, and everything else you'd expect to buy on a beach; plus a bunch of wild stuff you wouldn't. They'd all stop in front of our canopy and pitch whatever they could think of to get us to buy whatever they had. The tanning oil guy promised his stuff would protect from burning, and upon seeing me and Andrea pointed to us and said, "les quita el color de yuca." Yuca is kind of like a potato, and he said his oil would get rid of our yuca skin color. Tania was laughing about that one for days. One guy came by freestyling for money, and just started rapping about each one of us. Caro got compared to Bad Bunny cuz of her glasses, Andrea to Sofia Vergara, and he compared me to Angelina Jolie. I'll take the compliment, but I'm guessing he just couldn't think of another white celebrity on the spot. We paid him cuz he was actually pretty good even though he just showed up and started without being solicited, but that's how you make money here I've noticed. Other than the crazy swarm of vendors, the beach was pretty relaxing. The water was blue and clear like from the day before, and had white sand and palm trees. It's a shame I didn't get any photos. Anyways, I just swam for a while and read my book while guarding our things under the canopy. It was a really nice way to wrap up our last day on the coast. We had lunch and I gave my patacon to a kid begging for food. I noticed that there were more kids on their own begging in Santa Marta than I’d generally seen anywhere else. I imagine because the weather is easier to handle at night on the streets, and the tourists are pretty generous. At least, I’d hope so.
That afternoon we took another transit van back to Barranquilla, and basically everyone almost threw up. Right after leaving everyone started noticing how hot it was despite the fact that the A/C was turned on. The driver said it was as cold as it could go, even though it was the exact same type of vehicle (same company too) that we’d taken from Cartagena was freezing cold. I started feeling nauseated around the same time everyone else started complaining and saying the same. I felt so carsick, which is rare for me, and had to stand up for a while because it was less stuffy near the ceiling. A group of Spanish girls in the back had to ask the driver to pull over because they needed some air, and eventually we opened the only two windows in the front. At least it got the air circulating a bit, but 3 hours in a hot van with a big sweaty guy next to me on Colombian roads made for the worst car ride I’ve ever been on. That even beats the time in 8th grade when our school bus got stuck in stopped traffic on the way back from Lagoon without A/C, and some kid got heat stroke.
After arriving in Barranquilla we switched over to another transit van (that had air, thank goodness) and we drove another 2 hours to Cartagena. I spent the majority of the ride writing, and the time went by fast. It’s wild how much easier it gets to sit in a car for hours on end as you get older. I could barely handle the 40 minute drive to East Canyon as a kid.
We took an uber to the grandpa’s apartment, and slept there for the night. Friday morning we woke up early to go to the airport, and made the hour and a half flight back home. Just to make a point about the traffic and geological wackness of this country, it takes 24 hours to drive to Cartagena because it’s through the Andes mountains, even though it’s only 412 miles; about the same distance between Salt Lake and Las Vegas.
After 10 days, 4 beaches, 3 hotels, and a lot of good seafood, our vacation was officially over. It was truly magical, and I don't think I'll ever forget it. It was amazing to see more of this beautiful country, and the extensive diversity it boasts. After being in paradise for so long, it's hard to be back in cold Bogota, but I've also missed my friends and home. I can't express how grateful I am to the Bermudez family for taking such good care of me, and giving me an unforgettable experience. It was definitely one for the books.
We took another taxi to the apartment in Suba where Alejandra and Camila made us lunch and we picked up Juanes. He stayed with them while we were gone, and didn’t want to go back home with us because they spoiled him. Jeez, as if he wasn’t already spoiled enough by us. I had started feeling a little sick back in Santa Marta, but I think the sudden change in altitude (like an 8,000 ft difference) was what tipped me over the edge. I really quickly developed a really bad head cold, which later turned into a chest cold. My nose, ears, and overall all sinuses were really clogged, which gave me a super fun tension headache. At least I didn’t get sick until after vacation though, right? It just got worse and worse for 5 days straight, and eventually started getting better and mostly went away, although I’m still coughing a bit. Anyways, that same day I went and got my nails done and then was super sick the rest of the weekend through Andres’ birthday and Father’s Day so I didn’t do anything but go to church and lay in bed. That is, until Tuesday when we left for Medellin to go on vacation AGAIN. This is insane, I was on vacation basically the entire month, and I just got back from FSY (latino EFY) yesterday. I don’t know how I got so lucky to only be sick the days we were home, but I will take the blessings. I’ll write about our trip to Medellin soon, and then about my incredible week at FSY. June is treating me too well. Okay so anyways I love being on vacation and finally seeing more of Colombia, and they spent a loooot of money on me, and I feel kinda bad about it. And my life is charmed, and I don’t know why. Bye bye, stay chévere.
Oh my gosh, last minute edit: My sister Madelyn just got called to serve a mission in Lima, Peru! Ah it's so exciting! She's going to learn Spanish like me, except everyone says Peruvians speak really ugly, so hehe I guess I'll still be the best speaker in the family. Also, they're so so short, that'll be interesting hahaha.
Comments
Post a Comment