The Fifth Season

The Midwest in December is not really known much for tourists trying to escape the warm climates of the south. For me personally, it was a bit of a culture and climate shock after Colombia. The Midwest is also not known for being a place of booming industry and job opportunities. I took a few photos from the center of Cedar Rapids. After the flooding of the Cedar River in 2008, most of the area feels forgotten and depressed. As the city expands on the north and south sides, the middle and downtown seems to have been left to the follow the classic story of urban decay that has plagued other cities of the Midwest.

Rainy Daze

The final stop in my never ending tour of South America was the capitol of Colombia. It rained nonstop for the 4 days I was in Bogota. I went to every free museum in the city. In the end crippling poverty, lack of internal heating, and the thought of facing a non-stop onslaught of Gringos can make someone melancholy. That being said, Bogota was a bit of a bummer for me. I still got to see the massive city from the top of the cerro, ride the cable car, see Botero's "huge" collection, and walk around the city.

Chao Sudamerica. Te extraño muchísimo. Teníamos muchos momentos buenos junto. Algún dia, quiero regresar a tu abrazo: para explorar tus cordilleras, nadar en tus mares, amar tus hijas, subir tus volcanes, enseñar con tus niñatos, y vivir en la patagonia. Me has dado tanto. Gracias por los amigos. Gracias por las aventuras. Gracias por la plata, las noches locas, y el aire fresco. No te recordare, y lo se que tu tienes muchos mas secretos que tengo que descubrir. Chao Sudamerica.

Tierra de Paisas

After an eternity in the heat of the jungle and coast, I finally made my way back to my old friend the Andes. I stayed a couple of days in Medellin in the neighborhood of El Poblado. Medellin is hands down South America's most modern city. Far from its recent past as the World's most dangerous city, Medellin is a sparkling jewel of what Latin America is possible of and an example for the future. I spent a day in the village of Guatape and La Piedra near Medellin that supplies 65% of Colombia's power through hydroelectric dams and creates an amazing landscape for Paisas trying to escape the very business oriented Medellin center.

Medellin itself is built in a valley with the Medellin River running through the middle. Most travelers see Medellin's amazing night life and their dorm bed during the day. If you can find time to wake up when the sun is up, Medellin is pretty cool in the light as well. Famous for its drug cartel past, the cable cars that are part of Medellin's public transport system are now safe for a traveler to go and see and amazing views of the city. Also Medellin has parks and cerros that give travelers a unique perspective of the city. I was able to get a private tour of the city from my Paisa friend Ana Maria to see the beautiful urban Medellin landscape along with my friend Sina.

Love in the Time of Festival

While on the Caribbean coast I read Gabriel Garcia Marquez's novel Love in the Time of Cholera. While the city remains unnamed throughout the novel, it does not take much time in Cartagena de Indias to figure out the novel clearly transpires in one of South America's most important cities. The old port city which once housed the Viceroys of Nueva Granada, fell into almost ruin at the turn of the 20th century when cholera almost whipped out the largely African populations of the city. Today, Cartagena stands as an access port to South America; as sail boat leaving Cartagena is the only option for continued travel to Panama. The city itself is a hot one. With temperatures around 90 degrees during the afternoon and a continual 100 percent humidity, Cartagena is for made for siestas and fiestas. The Cartagena independence celebration started the day I arrived. In between getting sprayed with soap, booming salsa music, and fireworks, Cartagena's soul showed.

Near Cartagena is a mud volcano where one can go to a very natural spa named Volcan de Lodo El Totumo. I had to go take a dip in its muddy depths. Well... it was muddy, but I found the whole messy process a lot of fun.

Mariposas Amarillas

As mentioned before, I spent time in Santa Marta volunteering with a program called Fundacion Mariposas Amarillas. The program works in the outer barrios of Santa Marta where education and basic services are lacking. There is two schools: one in the barrio of Oasis and one in the barrio of Fundadores. I worked exclusively in Fundadores as a teacher. The program runs each afternoon during the week as an after school program. In my tiny room in the back of a private school, I had students ranging from 5 years of age to 13. It was not an opportune teaching situation. I wanted to have actual classes since I knew about half my students did not attend another school before the classes. In order to do this the curriculum had to be catered around attempting accomplish a learning opportunity without resources and a vast difference in intellectual capacity and education level.

The experience, like many volunteer experiences, was frustrating, hard-work, and sweaty; that being said ultimately rewarding. If you are going to be in Santa Marta or want more information, check out the website at here. Plus the kids are really cute.

Caribbean Blue

After the Amazon, I had no choice but to fly in order to connect with the rest of Colombia. I decided to fly directly to the northern Caribbean coastal city of Santa Marta where I would start volunteering. I will talk more about my volunteering in the next post, but now I will enlighten you on Santa Marta and its surrounding area. Santa Marta is popular for Colombian tourism. Its surrounding area contains pristine beaches including Parque Nacional Tayrona. Santa Marta the city is the oldest in South America. All that being said, the truth is the city of Santa Marta (not without charm) is a dump. The residents of Santa Marta live in a dirty, crime-ridden city that has largely been untouched by the wealth of tourism in the area. My first night in Santa Marta was an interesting one. I was shut in when all the streets turned into an impression of Venice as garbage and raw sewage washed away into the sea. These types of floods are not usual for Santa Marta, but this year has had so much rain that when the rain comes off the over soaked Sierra Nevada, the city of Bolivar becomes a flood plain.

While I was in Santa Marta for quite a long time, the majority of that time was spent volunteering so I really only got a small amount of time to see the area. I did have the chance to go to the famous Parque Nacional Tayrona. The beaches are paradise. The park earns its reputation from being as beautiful as you could imagine the Caribbean could be.

Note the crab in the last photo.

Rio Amazonas

Welcome to the Jungle; We've got fun and games. Also really large insects, angry street dogs, a popular importation site of Mototaxis, loose immigration laws, and really really nice juice. After Lima, I flew to Iquitos. Iquitos is located on an island with rivers on each side. These rivers merge into one at the further eastern point in the city creating the Amazon River. Iquitos is well into the jungle though. It hold the world record for the largest city unreachable by road, giving two options: to fly or to take the long and hot boat ride down the Amazon.

From Iquitos, it is a easy to access the jungle. The rivers act as a highway penetrating into the almost humanless expanses. Small pueblos dot the river side, but close to the reserves, the jungle become too dense to even see in.

The Amazon is full of animals... none of which are easy to catch on film. I did get to see monkeys, slothes, river dolphins, pink dolphins, bugs, fish, and tons of birds though. I took a long and slow ride down the Amazon after Iquitos to the point where Brazil, Peru, and Colombia meet. The Colombian side is called Leticia. I stayed far too long as Colombia stops functioning during their national holidays.