Bus Sleeper Expert, Hammock Sleeper Amatuer.

After consulting a map, as I do every so often on this trip, I realized that La Paz is VERY far away from Quito. After busing Peru, I opted out of returning this way to my departure city in Ecuador and booked a flight to Cartagena, Columbia. Prior to leaving La Paz, I visited the cinema for the recently released Love in a Time of Cholera ( I wouldn´t recommend it, but the book is wonderful) and thought to myself that Columbia does indeed look nice.

Easter Weekend in Cartagena was fabulous. The walled in city is a step back in time, directly into a Marquez novel. Brightly colored buildings, huge bougainvillea covered balconies, music drifting down every alleyway and cigars lit like fireflies in the plazas. My traveling buddy, Sven joined me up to Columbia where we met up with a life long family friend, Erin. As stubborn and independent as I feel at times, it has been great to have two guys with me at all times as the evenings get a little rowdy and drug dealers don´t really listen to "no gracias, nada para mi..." Cocaine dealers and drug trafficking policia are EVERYWHERE. Almost as if they have a symbiotic relationship... it makes one wonder. Alas, the city had much to offer- beaches, scenery, cut- out shirts and spandex like I´ve never seen before even when recalling the 80´s, museums and fresh squeezed juices of all varieties. It was a great weekend of ron and cokes, puffing a couple of Cubans, and overall the longest siestas this trip. Erin and I took a couple of salsa classes and plan on trying them out at every opportunity.

Santa Marta- I am writing from a smaller beach city,. Santa Marta after returning from a stint in the Teyrona National Park. The national parks here have some similarities to the national forests in Northern California. Large expanses are not regulated whatsoever and therefore too dangerous for hiking due to drug agriculture. Erin and I considered doing a guided tour to the Lost City, but pretty much ran out of time. Instead we hiked along the beaches, slept in hammocks and avoided the donkey droppings the best we could. Sleeping comfortably in a hammock is certainly easier than finding zzzz´s in the semi cama, however its takes so experimenting. turns out you sleep perpendicular to the hanging hammock, a notion that I had not considered in my previous existence. and then keeping oneself inside of the mosquito net all the while is the yellow belt up. Its great though- suspended in a little white pod of net and canvas as the waves crash near by and air sits heavily around me.

Somewhere along this trip I realized, I may hate the jungle and its probably for the best that i did not make it into the Amazon this time around. Upon entering Teyrona the three of us were searched by the armed Colombian drug traffic cops which put me on edge. Shortly down the path into the park, I heard these horrible guttural, killing a lion growls from the trees above. Every instinct in my body told me not to move forward and Erin and Sven immediately move towards the noises. Monkeys. Of course. They were really neat to see- but honestly sounded terrible! The rest of walk donned blue butterflies, armies of ants fanning green leaf sails back to their mud mansions, palm trees bursting with coconuts, a dead snake or two and ruins from Pre- Colombian communities. After three hours of dusty trails and sweat pouring from my body in the humidity, a freshly juiced Lulo (persimmon like fruit) blended with ice cools my soul.

From Santa Marta we are headed to an eco lodge alongside a river. From there I think I will quit of the coastal heat and humidity and head towards Bogota. Bolero and Gold Museums await me.