Traveling Soul

We landed from our 2 hour flight from Bogota to Leticia on Wednesday, June 7th. Our hostel (Anaira) had complimentary airport pickups and sure enough, waiting for us outside of the gate was a sign with my name on it (I had made the reservations). We quickly got acquainted in our rooms which were constructed on- they were making a door for the room. We listened to the different guide options for the jungle. We had 2 choices - stay in Leticia and go on day trips or spend 3 nights and 4 days in the jungle using military hammocks. As can be assumed, we chose the latter option. The rest of the day was spent relaxing and preparing for tomorrow. There were 2 other travelers who joined Hugh, Juspal and I. The three of us had been teaching in Tunja the previous month. Alice, a Canadian from the french part joined us, as well as Niklas from Germany. They were both traveling by themselves and while Alice was just ending her trip, Niklas was only beginning his. I opted out to not take any malar...

As I’m sitting in my bedroom, listening to the soft putter of the rain hitting against the roof, I stop to reflect on my weekend… but more than that, I think about the people that I have met on this journey in Colombia and how truly happy I feel no matter where I am. I have received numerous gestures of kindness whether it was someone simply giving me directions when I was lost or escorting me all the way to my hostel. I forget- for a brief second- all the injustices that this country has endured through and the many more that it continues to struggle through. This weekend was one for the books for sure! I left Friday morning for Zipaquira, but since there  are no direct buses from Tunja, I arrived in the Portal del Norte in Bogota which is the main site of the transmilenio in the North of Bogota. Once there, I was searching for another bus to Zipaquira and ended up walking in the wrong direction (for quite some time) but eventually realizing that I needed to be on the other s...

On Friday morning, I took a 3-hour bus ride to Bogota. Upon my arrival at the bus terminal, I asked the police for directions to my hostel which stated that I needed to take the Germania bus towards the centro. They took me inside to ask another officer who was speaking with a different woman.Coincidentally the woman was also heading in the same direction and she walked me to the right bus station. We chatted a bit and she warned me to not have my phone out in public (this would be the first of numerous warnings regarding possessions). After waiting for about 15 minutes, I caught the right bus and while on it, I asked the driver to please let me know when Carrera 4 was near. This proceeded him to ask me where I was from. Not long, the entire bus knew that I was foreign and that I needed help (the bus driver even asked a policewoman to escort me to my hostel). A stranger on the bus responded to the bus driver's request, claiming that he also needed to go to that area. He walked ...

Thus far… I tried tamal- a typical plate of Colombia. It is a combination of rice and meat cooked in plantain leaves. It was so delicious! I have given up on trying to be vegetarian while abroad...There are too many traditional plates that I want to try that I feel are important for learning about the culture and it has become impossible to maintain the meatless diet (sometimes a choice between eating or nearly starving for the day) My host family took me out on Saturday night. We went to a hip beer/restaurant called the Bogota Beer Company which specializes in artesinal beers. Classic American songs were playing in the background, making it very difficult to concentrate solely on the Spanish conversations. Oddly the basketball game with the Trailblazers against Houston was also playing….it was strange because most Colombians don’t speak nor understand English but it seems that Americanization was prevalent even in the small town of Tunja. I was mistaken as being the Colombian ...