Refajo, a Pool & a Hammock

I woke up early this morning to golden rays of sunshine on my face as I swayed gently to and fro in my hammock. A couple hours later, I walked to the local supermercado (supermarket) called "Exito!". I bought about $40 worth of groceries since this place doesn't provide breakfast and I figured I could make myself lunch as well. Mario (from my plane ride here) told me about a local drink called refajo. It's basically Club Colombia beer mixed with Colombiana soda, two products of Colombia. You should have a 2:1 ratio of beer to soda. This mixture produces a malty tasting beverage with a sweet and bitter finish. It's very good. The soda is like kola champagne for those of you who have had West Indian drinks before. For those who haven't, it's like cream soda. 

Mix to create Refajo

This is the view of the pool from the balcony where all the hammocks are located. The pool is very refreshing especially during the middle of the day when it feels like it's approached 30C. Where I sleep is a long hallway with several hammocks strung across it. I can't believe I have to pay for this! Just kidding. This is the best hostel I've been to so far. It's called Drop Bear Hostel and it's run by a very friendly and helpful Australian guy and his Colombian wife. Today I spent the whole day alternating between my hammock and the ledge in front of my hammock overlooking the pool. I didn't realize how draining that travelling was yesterday. I didn't even make breakfast until about 11:30 even though I had come back from the market at 9:15.

Not much privacy

Dinner was at 6pm and was empanadas again. I don't know if I'll get tired of them. They're good. They're cheap. And they are everywhere. A light pastry filled with seasoned chicken and beef then fried to a golden crisp. The restaurant, Sol de Oro, was just a few technicolour picnic tables covered by a corrugated metal roof with an incubator for the empanadas outside. Simple, but so good. I've taken a picture below with a stupid grin on my face.

The nights are warm here in Santa Marta, but you can tell from the video that there is a strong sea breeze that blows in and cools your body after a long day of the sun. The rocking at the end is me getting back into my hammock.

Getting to Santa Marta

This place is absolutely heavenly compared to Bogota. Very different cities. Bogota is on a mountain. Sta. Marta is on the coast. There are palm trees and cool breezes here in Santa Marta.

Left the hostel at Bogota at 11:30am. Arrived at the hostel in Santa Marta at 8:30pm. Got to the airport really early and the flight was delayed. After arriving in Barranquilla's airport (because there were no cheap direct flights to Santa Marta), I asked the tourist information desk how I could get to Santa Marta. The guy clearly didn't care about his job and just pointed at an old man who started walking towards the parking lot. I asked him how much the ride to Santa Marta would be and he said $150,000 pesos, or about $88. We told him no, and went to the taxi stand to grab a ride to the Terminal Transporte ($15,000p) where we took a bus to Santa Marta's bus terminal ($16,000p), then a cab to our hostel ($8,000p). It was a long trip. Looks way closer on the map. I'm hanging in a hammock right now typing this blog and about to go to sleep. Oh yeah, this place has hammocks as well as beds.

Interesting stuff. Pics and more stories tomorrow. It's been a long day.

The Colombian Police, Obleas, Ajiaco and Apologies

So after coming back from Paloquemao, I watched some futbol, downloaded a movie and was getting ready for a nap when the police came calling at the hostel. They said that the previous crappy hostel we were at claimed we didn't pay them. I thought we were done with that place! Another lesson: always get a receipt for payment...especially from a terrible hostel. The police called the hostel (who had just called them to come talk to us) and then they confirmed that we had in fact paid in full. The police were very apologetic once those idiots realized that they were paid.

Never ever go to Alterego Hostel in Bogota! That is the title of my TripAdvisor review.

After that, I went for a walk and bought some empanadas. One with beef and rice, one with chicken and rice. No pics. I was too hungry and inhaled them. However, I did promise a picture of an oblea on the last post and I'll do you one better with a video. The lady had already layered on the caramel and one layer of cheese. In the background there is a lot of music because someone was trying to sell something. Bogota is not always buzzing with music, so please don't think that is the case.

The girl from the hostel came by to apologize. She said her manager made her call the police. She looked like she was genuinely sorry. I couldn't really tell from her words even though she brought an interpreter with her. Oh yeah, she speaks no English. But she could have told her boss we paid the full amount and avoided this whole thing. Oh well...a mildly entertaining story with a ho-hum ending.

Met an old guy at the restaurant we went to for ajiaco. He's been travelling the Pacific coast of the Americas on his boat. Seems like a pretty good idea. Ajiaco is a semi-thick stew of three types of potato with spices and chicken breast. The soup is topped with capers and cream. Rice and avocado is served on the side.

This one's for you Gabby

Paloquemao

Prounounced pah-low-kaym-ow is a huge indoor/outdoor market in Bogota. They sell everything you can imagine. There's also a huge flower market. One of Colombia's leading exports is flowers. I'll let the pictures speak for themselves.

Vegetables and Fruits

Potatoes

Live hens and roosters, the lady was not too impressed with me

Cereal

Seafood

Meat, those are full cows hanging

Cheese

Me in the outdoor flower market

Truck full of roses

Eat Like A Colombian

Today I got to move out of that terrible hostel. The music was playing again, this time until 3 in the morning. Who are these people? I also booked my flight to Barranquilla. From there I will go to a beach town called Santa Marta on the Caribbean coast of Colombia where the average daily temperature is 27.2 Celcius. I might do some scuba diving there as there is loads of coral reef and lots of dive schools competing for business.

I went down the street to a new place called Chocolate Hostel. But not before calling into the corner Arepa y Rellena shop. I ordered an arepa con queso y Milo for breakfast. Arepas are a Colombian flatbread first made on a flat-top then put on a grill. Queso is cheese. Milo is a chocolate flavoured drink. Delicious.

Back to Chocolate...this hostel is amazing. They upgraded the room for free, have more people, seem more professional and actually care about keeping the place clean. After dropping off my stuff, I went on yet another unsuccessful search for post cards. Another 3 hours walk around downtown Bogota (the centro). I knew how to ask for post cards in Spanish now (tarjeta postales) but still couldn't find any. There is a souvenir shop that is selling them for $1800 pesos, which is about $1 Canadian, but that's highway robbery! It's five for a dollar at home, and ten for a dollar in NYC. I may just print some pictures and mail them back home.

There is a street food here called an oblea. For the uninitiated, this is a snack food which consists of two circular wafer cookies about 8 inches in diameter. On one cookie, the vendor spreads a thick caramel sauce called Arequipa sauce (at least that's what I think it's called). Then she sprinkles on cheese and nuts. I know it sounds a little strange, but the taste is amazing. The cheese has a mild flavour  which goes well with the sweet Arequipa sauce and the crunch from the nuts contrasts with the crunch you get from the cookies. It's a perfect mid-afternoon snack. By the time I remembered to take a photo, it was already gone. Sorry.

There is a restaurant here called 2 Gatos y Simone. There was always a line-up outside for it and I didn't want to queue up for it. Today there was no line so I decided to see what the hype was about. It was a Mexican restaurant with a wide variety of selection. I ordered burritos and had a quesadilla. Even though it was a burrito, it didn't feel right, because there were no beans. I don't know which way I like better. The green drink is Limonada. It's lime juice, with sugar, cilantro and mint. It's really good.

Now the blog loses some momentum, because those are the only two pictures I took all day. However, I did watch Bruce Lee's "Enter the Dragon" and went out for coffee and dessert, then dinner. In that order. At Cafe del Sol, I had an espresso with Chantilly whipped cream, chocolate sauce and a sprinkling of cinnamon as well as a warm brownie with cold, delicious vanilla ice cream. I forgot to bring my camera, so no picture. There was a girl there playing the same fruit-slicing game on her phone that my sisters play. Technology eh?

It was getting late and I didn't want to stray too far from my hostel (apparently this area, La Candelaria, has a bit of a reputation after dark). So I went one block down to a place called ChoriDeli where they make and sell chorizo. I ordered a chorizo con arepa. You may think you've had chorizo before, but this tasted like nothing in Canada. It was a pork sausage which tasted salty and savoury with fennel seeds, onions, various spices with just the right amount of heat. It was so good, I ordered two. My mouth is watering writing about it. Maybe tomorrow I'll get another one so I can take a picture. Hopefully they're open!

Museo del Oro

One of the great things about Sunday in Colombia is that museums are free. I decided to go to the Museo del Oro (Gold Museum) to take in some pre-Colombian jewelry and learn a thing or two. This museum is impressive. There is a good pace and flow to how they present the information and it's not overwhelming. You can easily spend a few hours there and not even realize it. It starts with explaining how older civilizations extracted, refined and transformed the various metals they found, such as copper, silver, platinum and gold. It then shows tools of the metalsmith trade and how they created intricate designs with each metal. It then dives into the importance of various metals and the people who wore them, especially village chiefs, priests and shamans. They describe the beliefs about the balance in the world, animals, man, the underworld, middle world and upper world. All sorts of interesting things. But of course, there was a lot of gold and ancient relics. You enter this part of the museum through two vault doors!

Pottery with intricate designs

The following items are only about 2-3 inches (4-6cm) in length, but the detail and craftsmanship is amazing. 

This is one expensive necklace. 

The traditional dress of a typical woman and a shaman of the time. 

Woman

Shaman

Finally, what I thought was the best piece in the entire museum. It's a depiction of a high priest and other priests on a raft in a lake offering gold and emeralds back to the earth. They would do this when there was an imbalance in their tribe, either a disease running wild, crops not growing or something else. They believed by giving the earth back her produce, they would restore the balance. 

Zipa! Zipa! Zipa!

I decided to go to the Salt Cathedral at Zipaquira. It's about an hour north of Bogota. Getting there was half the journey because we didn't really go with a tour. Just got on the TransMilenio to the northernmost station and got on a bus with a guy outside yelling, "Zipa! Zipa! Zipa!" (zeepa)

BBQ

The ride up showcased some of Bogota's lovely landscapes. Bogota is a city set between two mountain ranges, so there are some picturesque shots. We got off of the bus a little early in Zipaquira and wandered around the town. The bus we got on didn't go straight to the Cathedral because it's meant for locals, not tourists. During the stroll, I saw some delicious meats (below). And ended up getting some chicken. SLowly rotating over the coal ember made the chicken juicy and tender and made the skin super crispy. They put some spices on it that make it taste that much better! It was delicious.

 

After asking for directions once again, I finally made it to the Salt Cathedral in Zipaquira. This is an old salt mine that was converted into a church. At first the walk in is underwhelming as you look around and all you see is long shafts with crosses at the end. But the further you go, the better it gets culminating in the beautiful sanctuary and sculptures everywhere.  

After exiting the caves, you are greeted with this sight of Zipaquira. Little known fact, Zipaquira is one of the oldest settlements in the Americas being inhabitated by Natives, then Europeans and finally Colombians.

Colombian money is the Colombian Peso. The current exchange rate is about 1800 pesos = $1CAD. At the exchange houses they give you 1700 pesos. There's some coins below. Bills will follow in a later post.

Lazy Day

4 am Friday morning.

6:30 am Saturday morning.

These are the times that the music has stopped playing at this hostel. For any future travelers, do NOT stay at a hostel which has a restaurant and bar below it. You will not get a peaceful night's sleep. I woke up early and often due to the music. And it's not even latino music. It's American music.

There was no real plan yesterday, I just wanted to check out a few places. Maybe find a laundromat. The National Parks office. A post office. The tourist booth so I could get a map. But first, I had to get lunch. Breakfast is included at this hostel, but it was a cup of coffee, two slices of untoasted bread and half a scrambled egg. Who really wants dry, untoasted bread in the morning? ;)

Lunch was an executive menu. Down here, they have these things called executive lunches. It's usually a meat (chicken, beef, fish) with soup or rice, a salad and lemonade. This will run you about $3-4. There are two lunches pictured below.

After lunch, I went with my laundry bag to find a laundromat. But I couldn't find the one that they described in my Lonely Planet book. Lesson 2 for today: buy a guide book that is more recent than 2006. I didn't find the laundromat, but I did see this cool mural spray painted on a wall.

After this development, I walked for a while more to find the national parks office of Colombia. I wanted to go to the Guatavita Laguna, where the legend of El Dorado was born, but you need a permit and there are only a limited amount. When I spoke to the lady at the counter with my broken Spanish and her broken English, it quickly became apparent that I was at the wrong office. Turns out Guatavita is a regional park, not a national park, and I would have had to walk another 16 blocks to find it. No thanks. Maybe next time.

I was hot by then, so I stopped in at an ice cream shop where I had a Helado Copa (cup of ice cream). But it was so fancy! Much better than DQ.

This led me to the third and fourth items on my list, find a post office and the tourist office. I wanted the post office to send some post cards and the tourist office because I like maps. We've been navigating the streets pretty well without one. And I'm not really going to pull out a map in the middle of Bogota to announce that I'm a target. But it's nice to have one just in case. I asked the guy in the office, "Usted tiene una mapa de Bogota?" which means do you have a map of Bogota. And he started going off in Spanish. Apparently my pronunciation was good enough that he thought I knew Spanish. I was very impressed with myself.

Me and my sack of laundry

In the last post I mentioned that I went to watch a championship match between the top two clubs in Bogota, Millonaros FC and Santa Fe FC. As I was leaving the tourist office, I saw the entire Millonaros team getting on their bus.  There was also a marching band. I don't know why. Just cuz I guess. Lol.

After carrying around my laundry all day, I ended up doing it at the hostel. Hahaha. What a day.