Trío de Viena

The other night, Brian and I noticed there was a show at the Teatro Heredia. I posted about it here. It only costs 20,000 pesos per seat. In America, something like this would easily cost about $75 USD, and this amounted to almost $25 TOTAL!

The group is from Austria. You can read more about them here.

The inside of the Theatre was absolutely amazing!!!! It was heart-wretchingly, and breath-takingly astouding. Words really can't describe the feelings I had when I stepped foot in there. Of course, I got some pictures, and of course, again, no justice is possible:


^^^ We were front and center of the stage. There were rows 5 stories high circling the stage in a panaramic style. These were the lower costing seats. On the floor you get a much better view in my opinion.

^^^This was directly to our right.


^^^This is the stage right before the performers came on. The backdrape is specific to the theater and not to the performance. The backdrape has a cartoonistic presentation of all the landmarks of Cartagena. It was fun to look at it and named everything. =)

^^^ This is the ceiling. In the middle is a beautful chandelier.

The show lasted about 2 hours. Having played the cello in the past, I was heavily enthralled in watching the cellist. It didn't take much time for me to actually "see" the music rather than just hear it. There were a couple of times where I noticed a note or two were out of tune.

So yes, I don't think many of you know, but I played the cello for several years when I was younger. Little did I know before, when this Trio played their second set, I recognized it immediately! It was the same exact piece I played in a quartet at regional competition in the 7th grade. Added to it was a Violist though. The piece is called Catorce Variaciones sobre un tema original en Mi bemol mayor, Opus 44 (1804) by Ludwig van Beethoven.

My eyes lit up and I lightly gasped when they started to play, as Brian promptly noticed. In retrospect, I'm not sure what Brian enjoyed more: the show or him seeing how much I enjoyed it.

For months before the trip, I've been aware that I'm in need of a creative outlet. Now I've found it. I'm going to do all I can to get a cello when I return. At least it will drown out the crappy saxophonist that plays out of key in our neighborhood.

Anyway, I keep learning over and over again, and on this trip especially, that the more you experience new and different things, the more you learn and discover about yourself. It all comes with the law of balance. Everything you experience that is uncertain, you can guarantee that you will have an equal, if not greater, certainty discovered as a result.

History of Cartagena

I never heard of the city Cartagena until it was mentioned as a possibility of vacation a couple months ago. Now, after being here for 2 weeks, I'm realizing how important the history of this city is - not only to Colombia, but to the whole world. Between the confrontations of the French, British, Americans, and the Colombians... hmm, I dunno how to explain it all. The story is told in the Museo Naval here in Cartagena. You just have to come to experience it yourself if you're interested.

First, you have a guy named Rafael Núñez. He is the only 4 time president of Colombia and he also wrote the country's National Anthem named ¡Oh Gloria Inmarcesible! (Oh, Unfading Glory). Núñez was born in Cartagena and the airport here is named after him. It goes without saying how much he is respected.

This is a bust of his stature in the park that houses his masoleum.









Here is the house he lived in the last 17 years of his life. His wife remained here for 30 additional years after his death. It's now a historical momument.



Here's where he rests with his wife.












One of the next places we went to was the Palacio de la Inquisición. It was the torture house in the 16th and 17th century. They tortured people for any reason possible. The list is endless. You walk through the place and it reeks of death and suffering. I don't think I was allowed to take photos but I still did.





The Guillotine.














La Horca - hanging post









You can't really see it, but there a contraption with sharp points that hold his chin up and the other end presses against the trachea.







They're having a great time.






















If you can't tell what this is, a person is laid flat and one piece of rope ties to each limb. The wheels tighten them and pretty much pull your arms and legs out of their sockets. Now, this is some pretty kinky stuff. Not my cup of tea though.





These last two pictures are of a dungeon cell. There is only one small one and many people were squeezed into here at a time. The second picture doesn't really capture it, but that a hole from above at ground level where they dropped people in. Being in there gave me absolute chills, and since I'm claustrophobic, I wasn't in there any longer than it took to take those pictures.

In the end, I've seen the similarities and disparities of the history of North and South America in general. Each was taken over and most indigenous persons were tormented and forced off their land, each had slaves from Africa and that were stationed at the Carribean islands, and each had a period of torture and torment to those that were believed to be non-religious - witches. You come to realize that the history of any place is really fucked up, but back then, it was normal thinking and doing. Hopefully, we've learned from our past and this will never happen again. However, unfortunately, race is still a huge unspoken issue in both of the Americas. We each have laws that prevent blatant and direct discrimination, but it still happens in an indirect and passive aggressive manner. If you don't believe me, then you are absolutely delusional.

Anyway, this is my last weekend in Cartagena before I go to Buenos Aires. This officially marks my vacation as being half over =( BOOO!! But whatever. After nine days in Buenos Aires, I'll be in Bogotá for a couple days. This is because Aerolineas Argentina decided to cancel our return flight on the 15th and return back to Bogotá on the 13th instead. Yup - just like that. Oh well, we'll get a chance to see Bogotá for a couple nights. We'll make the best of it!

Islas del Rosarios

I spent the entire day yesterday at one of the Rosario Islands which is about a 90 minute speedboat ride into the Carribean. Unfortunately, it was overcast the entire ride there and it was a little boring. The waters were calm and the ride was smooth.

Once we arrived at the island, everyone got their snorkeling or diving gear together. Brian and I were the only ones that went snorkeling out of the entire group. Most everyone else were rather experienced divers. Brian and I contemplated switching over to diving, but besides it being about 110,000 pesos more ($50 USD), and me wanting to just have, I guess, a romantic time with just Brian, we decided to just snorkel on or own.

I had a rough time getting myself going once in the water. I was explained what to do, but the instructions were in Spanish, and that led to the more specific instructions being hard to understand fully especially since they were speaking fast.

The hardest part was getting used to breathing only through you mouth through the snorkel tube. Then, once I realized I wasn't going to sink, in salt water, I was fine. You simply float belly down on the surface of the water. What you begin to see is a very diverse ecosystem that is a world of it's own! I'm so glad I have a waterproof camera. Here are some pictures, though, as I said, it was cloudy, and the sun didn't shine these up very well. Nevertheless, the pictures, of course, do no justice when you witness how peaceful this life underwater appears to be. It makes you wonder why and how humans can make things so complicated on the surface. Anyway:












The last two are Brian and I, respectively. This was right around the time Brian and I were tired because we were fighting the current going out, plus a storm was approaching so we turned around. The whole way back we just floated with the current to the shore.

The divers came back, too. We all went into the boat and went far out to the warmer waters around. It was raining pretty hard, but it was okay to dive because, well, you get wet anyway, lol. Here are some pictures of that:





This last one was after we returned from our second snorkeling trek. The pictures I took there didn't come out good at all. There was absolutely no sun. It was still beautiful to see for myself. Just take my word for it. =)

Later, we picked up all the divers and returned tot he island for lunch. It was fresh fish with all the fixings. It was amazing! I'm not a huge fan of fish, but man, this was awesome. I wish I had taken a picture of the dish.

Then, after nearly wanting to take a nap, we played sand volleyball with Ben and Felípe, who were a couple of guys we got to know. Ben is German and Felípe is Colombian. We played for awhile and went back to relax before having to leave the island back to Cartagena.

The boat ride back was fun!! The water was all choppy from the storm so the boat was bouncing a lot. I'm glad I don't get sea sickness. =)

It was a realy fun day for a rather reasonable price of 90,000 pesos - which comes to roughly $50 USD. That included everything. I don't think we could get something that afforable and exciting back in the States, and it makes you wonder whose currency really is worse.

The only thing negative about the day is that I didn't think to put sunscreen on my back! My whole back is burnt like, Woah! It was from my back being shown to the sun, and no matter what anyone thinks, this is PROOF that you can still get a sunburn when it's overcast. The UVA and UVB rays still penetrate through the clouds. It's not that I had thought I wouldn't get burnt, I simply forgot to put lotion on my back despite applying it everywhere else. I'll live, though.

I have five more full days left in Cartagena. We'll find many things to do, I'm sure, before leaving to Buenos Aires on Monday.

Teatro Heredia

One more thing, this place is about 15 feet away from the house I'm staying at in Cartagena. Last night, all of the streets around this place and my place were blocked off... by the National Army!!!

Okay, first of all, the actual police of Cartagena carry around large guns. It's freaky, but in a way relieving. You know that if shit goes down, they're gonna fuck someone up. However, the National Army carries around larger *automatic* guns. Now, this alone is enough to make anyone nervous, especially if you aren't used to this.

After coming back home from a long day's trip, we tried to get past the street gates. The men guarding that gate simply said NO NO NO!!! We stopped dead in our tracks. After some siple phrases between my broken Spanish and Brian's broken Spanish, we managed to let them know that our house was right down the street and we were just trying to go home. They let us proceed.

Along the street, there were more guards stationed around. We just logically deducted that something or someone important was either or going on there at the Teatro. The next day, we found out that the son of Álvaro Uribe, the president of Colombia, was getting married there!!!

How cool is that?!?!

We really came to Cartagena at a great time. First, we were here for Colombia's Independence Day, and next, we were just a few feet away from where the President's son was getting married. Not to jinx it, but nothing but positive things have been happening to me and around me since I've been here, despite the initial negativity that was ever egoically created.

Colombia is safe and FUN. Get over it, y'all! :-P

Santa Marta, etc

Today, Sunday, I finally felt like I had the type of vacation that I imagined. I spent most of the day at the beach under a cabana and in the very warm waters of the Carribean Sea. This is by far the warmest water I have ever been in. It was amazing! I don't have any pictures for that because it's advised not to bring anything of value to the beach. You will just have to take my word that it was awesome, and that I got a good amount of sun.

Earlier this week, a guy from my Spanish school, named Maciej (ma-SHAY), threw a party at his partner's place here in Cartagena. He's Polish, and one of the greatest and sweetest guys I've met here. He's "family". He also speaks around 5 languages: French, English, German, Polish, and Russian - along with understanding many other languages, too. Maciej has travelled a lot, so he has several stories to tell. He lives in Warsaw, Poland and has graciously invited Brian and I to visit him. Well, he demanded that we visit, lol.

Anyway, here's some pictures of the fun we had:


^^^From left to right: Simon (Swiss), Ana (Brazilian), Ariana (Washington, DC), Tara (Jamaican), and another Swiss gal. I forget her name.





^^^(most of) The gang from the Spanish language school. A lot of these people are from Switzerland, a few from Sweden, England, Brazil, Poland, and Italy.


^^^ This is Maciej having a "tequila bomb". I never heard of it, but it's a shot of tequila shaken up on a half pint of 7up. No thanks. =)


^^^ This is me at Café del Mar. As I mentioned before, Cartagena's Centro district is walled off where visible to the sea. It was a fortress during the Spanish colonial period hence me sitting on one of the several cannons along the wall that is over 20 km (12 miles) long. It was erected in the in the late 1500s for protection against the English and the French from invading the area. Cartagena was also considered the "door of the new world" where everything was traded from crops to slaves.

History lesson: back in back in 1810, right before the war of 1812, Cartagena was the center battle stage that led to the independence of Colombia. It was led by a good friend of George Washington and he was named Patrick Vernon. Under Vernon's command, he successfully wisked away the Spanish and Colombia became a sovereign country of their own. George Washington was so impressed and pleased with Vernon, that he named the estate, that we now know as Mount Vernon, after him. Pretty cool huh? This is one of the many reasons Colombia has such a great appreciation for America and they welcome them here with open arms.

I wish I had more pictures. The wall around the city, you are able to walk atop it and see all the cannons atop it, too. It's REALLY cool to imagine how it was back in those days - seeing the cannons shooting at any trespassers, etc. Furthermore, in the background, you can hear horse carriages clapping around on their hooves. The feeling of being taken back four centuries in time becomes more and more evident each day I'm here in Cartagena. It's a wonderful experience eventhough I'm sure what I imagine is nothing like how it really was.

On Saturday, after partying until 3am, I had to wake up at 7am for a day long trip to Santa Marta. It's a resort city like Cartagena, but without the history of it. The region is a national park, too. Parts of the Santa Marta park is still controlled by the ELN rebel group, but not to worry, they rely more on drug trade to keep themselves financed as opposed to kidnappings. Furthermore, they're dwindling in power. Plus, I made it back okay to post this blog, so it's not death-defying unless you live, right? =)

The trip to Santa Marta was very stressful. We were told it was going to be a 3 hour drive, but it turned into being a 5 hour drive. Plus, Colombians drive like maniacs. Imagine the worst driving experience you ever had and think of that happening every moment of your trip and all the time. Stop signs, stop lights, speed limits and lane dividers, especially, are considered mere suggestions to Colombian drivers. I was so tired and all I wanted to do was sleep. Yeah right, I wasn't able to do that.

We finally arrived at the park and it was a hassle getting in. We waited about 30 minutes before being cleared to go. We get off the bus, and there was a trail that we had to hike on in order to get to the beach where we were supposed to eat. This was straight up a Jungle. There were red ants everywhere, spiders the size of my hand, bug that sounded like eagles cawing, and the occasional monkey scurrying across your path. It was soooo humid but such a beautiful and amazing experience. Here are some of those pictures:









This trail was about 7km (3 miles) long. I had noticed at this time that my battery was running low on my camera. I decided to keep it off until I got to the beach for the better pictures. It was worth it!!





It was so beautiful here. I wish the pictures could do it justice. If you could picture the best vacation with just yourself and paradise, then this is it. Right after this last picture, my camera died. There were some cabana houses with hammocks that you could stay overnight in. I didn't do that because I just wanted to get back to Cartagena. Several people in my group decided to stay in Santa Marta, but I just wanted to get back. We got back into town at 10:30pm. It was just as stressful of a drive coming back. Brian, Devin, and myself all went to dinner, came home, and passed out.

Today we had a chill day, went to the beach, and then went out to dinner with Maciej and his boyfriend that had arrived the night before from Europe. We had an amazing dinner in Town Center. I had Langosta, which is similar to lobster. They just don't have the pinchers. It was a 500 gram (~1 pound) Langosta and it cost only 39,000 pesos, which is about $20 USD!! It is definitely the best "lobster" I have ever had in my life. The drawn butter was like no other. As I type this, my mouth is still drooling over it. I didn't take any pictures, but Maciej did, so I'll have to harrass him for pictures. We also returned to Café del Mar and had a drink in the brisk, warm wind from the Sea. It was the perfect close to the not-to-perfect week.

But who cares! I'm on vacation and I still have 19 days left of it. I have one week left in Cartagena, and then I'm off to Buenos Aires! Update on that: we secured an apartment there which is right next to the cemetary the Eva Perón is buried. I'm trying real hard to keep my expectation low for Buenos Aires. According to many, it's one of the best cities in the world. But, I'll see for myself!

Totumo Volcano, etc

As I said, I went to Totumo Volcano after Spanish class. It took about 90 minutes to drive there from Cartagena on a rickety bus that I named Rolskin Harley (a play on words for Rolls-can-hardly) - Rolls DOWN the hills, can hardly make it up a hill, hehe.

Okay, that's corny, but I daze out on long road trips to absorb the scenary, and let me tell you, Colombia's like no other when it comes to breathtaking scenary - especially in the "suburbs". Here are a few pictures:







This last picture is a FARC checkpoint - a rebel group that kidnaps people and uses ransom to finance themselves. After convincing them we were all Canadian, they left us in peace.

I'm sooo kidding! Okay, not a good thing to kid about. In fact, it's nothing to worry about in northern Colombia. A different rebel group, the ELN, controls some areas around here, but they're also deteriorating in their power, as well as the FARC, according to many locals. The government and Colombian army are regaining their upper hand against rebel groups and drug cartels - which is great because the people of Colombia are now, for the first time in a long time, able to experience true liberty. This may be why Colombia shot up really high on the list of the world's happiest countries. I don't blame them, though I don't know what it would feel like to have been under such an instable country plagued by corruption.

Okay, enough for the history lesson: back to Totumo Volcano.

This place was just awesome. It's a volcano that's been dormant for hundreds of thousands of years, apparently. I didn't quite understand the numbers that were being used. It's the first picture posted. When you climb up to the top, you get an amazing view of a lake to the south. It's fresh water and it's very warm! Inside the volcano, there's mineral mud that is all natural!

Check it out:

The view from atop





Inside the volcano














Isn't that COOL?!?! It was a VERY interesting experience. Apparently, the pit is completely bottomless, but since your body is less dense than the mud, no matter what you do, you simply can't sink. Also, there are clumps of mud and clay that float around in the mud. When you're kicking your legs around, you feel these on your skin and it kind of freaks you out! Moreover, people can't see where they're putting their arms and legs under the mud. It goes without saying what you may and may not do in those circumstances, lol. You were able to stay in as long as you like, but you're over it in about 20 minutes. Considering it only cost 25,000 Colombian pesos (~$14 USD) to go on this trip, I'm not complaining. This is a total tourist trap, and $25,000 pesos is a lot of money to the locals here.

Real quick: you get bills in denominations of thousands: 1, 2, 5, 10, 20, 50. Pretty much like US dollars but they're in thousands. What you can get for 20,000 pesos is about what you can get for $20 USD in the States. However, since the cost of overall living expenses are considerably lower, you're money goes a lot further in Colombia, especially in the smaller cities, and Cartagena is the third largest city behind Bogotá and Medellín (me-duh-ZHEEN), respectively.

Now, I digress. Once you get out of the volcano and are completely covered in mud, you are walked over to a small lagoon to get washed off. I sat down, and got completely disrobed under the water in order to clean out my shorts. There were nice ladies that were helping everyone as they were getting cleaned off.

Then, what turned into a very good experience quickly turned sour.

The moment you get back to the cabanas, you get bombared, almost to the point of harrasment, from the workers there for "propina", which means Tip in Spanish. It wasn't "Propina, por favor", it was a flat out *Propina!*, in a firm voice, an wiggling their index finger as in "gimme!". Being in the service industry where I work for tips, I became rather agitated by this.

To me, you get tips for performing services that are requested by the guest. Then, if the guest sees fit, they tip you at their discretion, and it is NOT to be demanded at all by the one providing the service. That wasn't the case here.

The moment you get off the bus and get to the stairs, one person tells you to take off your sandals or shoes. Understandable, they'll get destroyed.

You get to the top of the volcano, a guy takes your camera away before you get in. Okay, that's understandable, too.

Then you get into the mud. There are complete strangers in there that start giving you massages, and to be honest, they sucked. You don't ask for the massages, they just give them to you - at one point, I told the guy to quit touching me, but of course, he acted like he didn't speak English. Ugh.

You get out and someone scrapes mud off of you. Even though you tell him not to f-ing touch you, he still does. I ran from him pretty much but he still followed me.

Finally, like I said, you go into the lagoon and women help clean you off. That was actually nice, but I still could have done it myself.

So, yeah. I got completely annoyed when I got back to the cabana and these people that forced services on me were straight up demanding a tip. There was about a total of five people tapping an my arm or shoulder. Just to get them away from me, I gave them each a 1,000 peso bill. That's about $0.55 so I figured it was worth it to get them out of my face. Furthermore, they didn't say anything, but I can tell by the look in their eyes that my tip "wasn't good enough".

It gets worse: I dropped a 10,000 peso bill. Right as it happened, Brian noticed some quickly go to the ground to pick something up. Brian, not knowing until after he saw me looking for it that I had dropped it, asked me what I was looking for. I told these people I was looking for a "10 mille billeta". They acted like nothing had happened.

I tried to talk and explain to them in Spanish what Brian and I think had happened, but they acted like my Spanish was so bad that they couldn't understand me. I started swearing in English along with raising my voice, and they quickly clammed up and left.

Luckily, we left quickly after that and I quickly detached myself from the situation, hence releasing all negativity about it.

On the bus ride home, I couldn't help but try to analyze it outside the box. At first, I was feeling "cultralcentric" meaning I was holding the standards of my culture against theirs. Then, I realized it wasn't even about that. It's not "Centric" in any respect. It's about respecting your fellow human beings and not allowing selfishness and greed to overpower that. We're all the same more than we are different.

Normally, I'd damn them with the cliché, Karma's a Bitch. However, I just learned that releasing yourself from a situation by wishing more negativity accomplishes nothing. Instead, I will continue to live my life faithfully trusting that people on this earth are generally well-intentioned.

Sorry for another deep epiphany and moment of self-discovery, but every day that I'm here in Colombia, I'm learning more ways on how to spread things in this world more positively and it pleases me to help others do the same.

Anyway, we're having dinner tonight with friends from Spanish school, and tomorrow is an all day trip to Santa Marta. It's a National Park and is FULL of rare species of birds and plants.

Hasta luego!