Paddling the Pacific

When David's friends Tony and Randy decided to visit, we I spent a lot of time trying to think of a good trip to take them on while they were here.  Luckily we had a 3 day weekend, so that made getting out of Cali for a bit a little more reasonable, but still didn't give us much to work with.  After lots of blog stalking, Lonely Planet reading and advice from friends, we decided to do a kayaking trip to the Pacific with Julio and Bicivan, the same group I went with to Volcan Purace.  I had heard nothing but good thinks about this trip and it really couldn't be worse than the volcano hike, that is off course unless I were to fall and tear my MCL again, but that didn't happen, thank goodness.  In fact, it was probably my favorite thing that I have done so far.  Now, I know I say that a lot, but it really was quite the experience.  Even better, we had 4 other co-workers join us, 3 of which had done the trip at least one other time and Kristin's cousin visited last minute and jumped on board.

Saturday started off early, and to a bit off a rough start with me thinking at 4am that they had been kidnapped as they weren't yet home and David's phone mysteriously shut off mid ring.  Luckily, they were ok, well at least not kidnapped, and we eventually made it to meet up with the rest of our group and were on our way to Buenaventura.  After about a 2.5 hour drive, we were in Buenaventura, a major port city on the Pacific Coast.  While there are actually a lot of goods and money coming through the port, the city itself appears very poor because the people benefiting from the port don't actually live there.  While I wouldn't have minded exploring the city a bit, it left much to be desired and I was OK with jumping onto our lancha for the ride to Juanchaco.  I had been warned that this trip was rather bumpy, but we lucked out and although it was the bumpiest boat ride I had been on, it was smooth compared to normal.  Even better, I didn't get seasick at all since my tolerance for motion (cars, taxis, buses boats etc) has improved about 100 fold since being here. 

After settling into our camp-like cabins, we made our way to the beach to get our kayak on.  A quick tutorial from Julio and we set out to the Pacific.  The first day out was filled with the usual coastal rain, which actually wasn't bad since the weather was still warm and we were pretty wet from the ocean anyway.  We spent the next several hours kayaking through caves and caverns (I don't actually know the difference between the two) and exploring the many little tributaries off the bay.  To my surprise, David and I only flipped once and it totally was not our fault.  It was however David's fault when he "accidentally" hit me in the head with his oar going under the dock.  Then we flipped coming back onto the beach and I was covered EVERYWHERE with black sand.  All in all though, a good day out.

Some people needed more instruction than others.

Julio showing us a map of where we were headed

Sunday was an unusual hot and rain free morning and we set out to explore the three islands across from our beach, including a short walk, several waterfalls, tide pools and even a bat cave.  The sun and stops to hike and explore made for a long day, soar backs and ridiculous tan lines; I was wearing Chaco sandals and capris, so even one week later I have white strap lines zigzagging across my feet and it looks like I am wearing socks.  So attractive.  But oddly enough it was quite relaxing.  Our free afternoon was spent by most sleeping and then we went to watch the sunset over the water.

Hanging out in the bat cave

"We're the three best friends that anyone could have..."

Monday was a no kayaking day and we all thought we were hiking to Ladrilleros about 45 minutes away, but we ended up going to La Barra almost 2 hours away which was not good news for my already-had-enough feet.  My sandals are not three-day-in-a-row shoes.  Ouch.  Walking back on the beach in bare feet helped and then came the socks and sandals which was a significant improvement. 

All in all a was an adventure filled weekend with good friends, good guides, good food and beautiful scenery.  Getting out of the city was a great way to enjoy time with visitors and a long weekend break and explore another part of Colombia.

Thanksgiving in San Vicente

As I mentioned before, one of the perks of teaching at a bilingual school is that we get off for Colombian holidays, as well as a select few American holidays like Thanksgiving.  This gave us a four day weekend at the end of November.  Now having already had two Thanksgiving celebrations, most teachers head out of town for a long weekend.  A big group of our friends were planning a trip to an island in the Caribbean, San Andres, and while warm(er) weather and beaches and all you can eat and drink was appealing, my over-my-head in debt self decided a smaller (and cheaper) excursion was a bit more financially responsible.  I also think I was looking for something a little quieter, and there were a couple places in the coffee region, not too far from Cali that we were interested in visiting.  With not many plans made, David and I set off Thursday morning with two other primary & pre-primary teachers, Lauren and Carlos.  We all shared a cab to the the bus terminal where we got a bus to Pereira for $22.000 (about $11 USD) where we could then get a bus to Santa Rosa.  We were planning on going to the natural hot springs (termales) in Santa Rosa where some friends had spent some time during Semana de Receso.  From Santa Rosa we found a jeep that was advertising his services to the termales.  When we got in Carlos asked our driver his opinion on the two different locations with termales and after going back and forth a couple times, we decided to change our original plans and actually head to San Vicente to spent the day and night, the same place our 8th graders go for their field trip.

The ride was a little scary to start, with the repairs of recent mudslides and other construction along the way, but that was over quickly and then we spent the 45 minutes ride taking in the beautiful views of the Zona Cafetera from the back of the jeep.

After a somewhat chilly and rainy (but gorgeous nonetheless) ride up, we wasted little time deciding which room we were going to stay in, put some food in our bellys and made our way to the thermal pools. After the initial feeling that I may have just willing given myself third degree burns by stepping into scorching water, it felt wonderful; it was the prefect combination of cool air and cozy warm water. As is now normal here, there were little Colombian children asking us to speak English and responding with the few phrases they know like "How are you?" and "I love you". Weird. We explored some of the other pools (there were five in total), some of which were only for people who were staying, as opposed to those who come just for the day. This allowed us the relaxing solitude I think we were all hoping for on our mini vacation.

 



We hung out in the thermal pools and the natural saunas until after the sun went down, when we finally decided it was time to go to dinner.  After some delicious trout, we had them light the chimney in our room, in hopes that it would warm our now shivering selves.  It didn't.  And so we all fell asleep curled under our blankets and in sweatshirts pretty early.  But this allowed us to get up early and enjoy the wonderful sun and made for great opportunity to take some morning pictures.

View from the back patio on our cabana

Our Cabana: Siete Cuervos

After breakfast we decided to go canopying (zip lining) with our guides David and Felipe.  Turns out, I was the only one in our group of four that had ever gone before.  There were only two towers on this canopy.  One of our guides set off in front of us to the first stop so he could be there waiting for us and went flying without holding on hanging upside down.  The rest of us followed, in the normal seated position and made it safely across.  On the second leg of it, they informed us we could go sailing across "como un murcielago" (like a bat) too.  David and Carlos promptly declined the offer and Lauren went zipping across upside down.  I tried the position out before I went across and although my brain was perfectly willing to let me fly across with no fear, we body just wouldn't trust it enough to kick my legs up and drop my upper body to the position I needed, so I went across the normal way again too. 

The afternoon left more time for warming up in the termales and some appointments with the spa.  David and I decide to try out the Baño Peeling first, a hot sand (arena) peeling near one of the natural pools and sauna.

Then we had time for another massage, deciding on the honey and oatmeal (miel y avena) treatment.  Sounds weird, felt a little weird but also very relaxing and after these two, my skin felt great.  We rinsed off in a thermal pool, showered, packed up, got one last meal and were headed back to Santa Rosa with our jeep driver, with a little setback on the way. 

Churrasco

Bandeja Paisa

Fixing our flat tire

When we got the bus back to Pereira Carlos stayed there the spend time with his family, Lauren was headed back to Cali to teach her Body Combat class and David and I were off to our next stop of the trip in Salento.

Binationals in Pereira

Every year, the schools in Colombia that are part of SACS get together for Binationals, a several day sports tournament hosted by a different school each year.  The high school, middle school and teachers all have different locations at different time of the year.  As I mentioned at the end of my Panaca post that I went straight from Quimbaya to Pereira with three other 7th grade teachers for Binationals.  As you can imagine, three days filled with activities with 7th graders followed by more traveling and a weekend of sports is exhausting.  Good thing this was all followed by Semana de Receso. 

Anyway, after the buses taking everyone back to Cali dropped us off closer to town, we wandered our way around asking how and where to catch a bus to Pereira.  And by "we" I mean Christian, one of the PE teachers.  Thank goodness for him because the collective Spanish of Durkee, Scott and I probably wouldn't have gotten us far.  We found a helpful little old man who informed us we could just wait at this corner for a bus to come and he would flag it down for us.  Sounds great.  We grabbed something to drink and waited with all of our bags outside a little tienda for the bus to come, with no specific arrival time.  After about 15 minutes, the man informed us that we in fact had to go somewhere else to catch the bus.  I didn't actually catch what he said, but we had to get up and do more wandering so that's what I inferred.  We wandered for about another 10 minutes until we found a bus place, where they told us we had to go to a different corner to catch the bus to Pereira.  Five more minutes of wandering and we found the bus, ready to leave.  Luckily it was the first stop so we all got seats after paying our whopping $5000 pesos (close to $3 USD) for our 1.5-2 hour bus ride.  As is the case with most Colombian buses, the driver stopped anywhere and everywhere to pick up anyone and everyone along the way, which is why our trip was a little longer.  It got pretty crowded and hot, but luckily I had grabbed a seat next to the window and exhaustion from Panaca allowed me to sleep the majority of the time.  Even when an elderly gentlemen was jabbing his elbow into my side for about 30 minutes.  Thank you sir. 

When we got to the bus terminal in Pereira we caught a cab to our hotel and Christian got us all checked in.  Then we went out to the centro to grab a bite to eat, at which point we realized that Christian, bags still in hand, wasn't actually staying at the hotel.  His parents live about 30 from there and he was going to stay with them.  So in other words, he went COMPLETELY out of his way to make sure we got to our hotel and found a place to eat safely and double and triple checked that we knew how to get back before he had more traveling of his own to do.  Amazing.  Yet another reason I love Colombia, my school and co-workers.  Scott, Durkee & I grabbed some Italian food and looked around the mall a bit before heading back and waiting for the people from Cali to arrive.  Their bus wasn't leaving school until 6pm so they weren't scheduled to arrive in Pereira until about 9:30-10:00.  When I got back to the hotel I caught up on Internet, attempted to read before passing out around 8pm.  Woke up when David knocked at the door and then pretty much went back to sleep until morning.  Field trips are exhausting. 

Volleyball and basketball games weren't until 1 in the afternoon the next day, so neither David nor I bothered to set alarms.  Luckily we woke up at 7am to discover our bus was leaving for the school at 7:30 for the day and we would be back until midnight or later.  Quickest shower and re-packing ever.  We made our way to Licio Ingles, the host school for the morning soccer games.  Still somehow exhausted and having little knowledge in the rules of soccer, I spent my morning sitting on a bench attempting to read/nap.  Lunch came around and then it was time for volleyball and basketball.  One of the other three schools didn't have a team and Bolivar had enough for two, so we split up.  Not sure if it was A and B teams (in which case I was definitely put on B) but we both lost to the other two school playing, but I will say we put up a heck of a fight.  I still have floor burns from all my awesome diving for balls sans knee pads.  Three games in a row was exhausting and while it was fun, I was certainly fading and glad it was over.  After our games, the basketball moved from the outdoor court to the covered (but still open-air) court.  Good thing, because most of the players were sun burnt from playing outside for 2-3 hours. 

Most of the Bolivar competitors

After all the sports we showered and changed to get ready for our evening with all the athletes at a finca another school was renting out.  Although finca literally translates as farm, it refers more to a countryside house or estate.  After several stops along the way we finally got there and I got to enjoy my first ever lechona, a traditional Colombian meal consisting of a roasted pig stuffed with rice and other vegetables.  Looks gross, tastes delicious.  The rice from the pig is served with an arepa and some of the crispy skin from the pig.  In general, lechona is made for special events or occasions, our co-worker had one for his wedding, and they can feed MANY people.  Although I was originally very excited for a night of fun, the blaring music and onset of continued exhaustion (I'm telling you it was a LONG 5 days) and excitement wore off and all I wanted to do was sleep.  Others agreed.  While some partied and danced, especially when the live band came, many of us sought hammocks, empty couches or any open floor to rest on.  Finally around 11:30 our friend Lyndi had had enough and called several cabs, since our bus wouldn't be going back until after 1am.

Sunday was meant to be another day of sports, but instead of school against school, we integrated teams and played.  The day started a little later and there was one soccer game and then lunch and then a basketball game.  No one who played volleyball had any interest in playing so we didn't.  We're a bunch of bums.  We packed up and boarded the bus for our trip back to Cali.  After 5 days gone, getting back and sleeping in my own bed never felt so good, but I'd probably do it all again given the chance. 

Oh and in case you were wondering, the school that hosted Binationals didn't have a softball field, hence, no softball.  Bummer.

Panaca

First of all, I would like to say that MY grade school fieldtrips were a joke.  Trip to Chicago?  Thanks I've lived here all my life.  Springfield?  I'm sorry I know its the capital and all but NO 8th grader thinks its cool or entertaining.  And my class never even got to go to Medieval Times like every other 6th grade class.  What a ripoff.  Now Bolivar knows how to do it right.  I probably had more on our fieldtrip as an adult than I had on any trip I had in grade school or high school, with maybe the exception of New York. 

Wednesday morning we got to school around 6am and started loading children and baggage onto 3 buses and started on our way to Panaca in Quimbaya-Quindio.  Quindio is the department or state (Cali is in Valle de Cauca) and Quimbaya is the municipal.  I'm still struggling with how exaclty to classify what Panaca is, so I think the best way is simply to describe the various activities we had over the three days we were there. 

The bus ride was supposed to be about 3 hours, but with traffic and a certain incident in which a girl "accidentally" (this is still up for debate) broke a window on a bus with the emergency hammer, it took more like 5 hours to get there, setting our schedule back just a bit.  No worries though, if you know me, you know I slept 80% of the time, when I wasn't catching bits of Transformers 3 or Rio. 

We were originally suppose to stay in big malocas or huts with about 20-25 students each, but Colgate was having a convention there at the same time and partying all night, so they moved us into rooms at the hotel nearby.  When we arrived they introduced the kids to a general outline of the week and we had lunch before we were off to our first activity.  The first afternoon the students were split into "tribes" with Panaca guides to compete in Quim y Baya.  After being war painted with natural paint from seeds, each tribe had to complete different tasks from an egg toss to crossing a small pond and rolling team members in a wheel. 

About 1 min after this the boy in the stripes fell in again, and then again.  Being great teachers and principals, we watched and laughed.  And took video.

After dinner back at the hotel, two of the larger groups, including mine, set out for our camping adventure.  It had rained during dinner and looked like it might rain again, so we opted to camp where we had a roof to cover.  After students whined and fought about who was sleeping with who in what tents, the guides helped them put their tents together.  At which point it appeared as though the 6 teacher chaperones whould be without a tent.  We tried to work this to our advantage and figrue out a way to go back to the hotel, but in the end it turned out the guides had set up 2 tents for us.  One old, rickety tent not under one of the rooves and another on the hard floor right next to all the boys tents.  The females opted for the older tent furthest from the kids, even if it was't covered, and left the boys with the boys.  Of course it started raining again over night, and I was awoken by the terrifying sounds of the guides covering our tent with garbage bags so we wouldn't get wet.  I still woke up with wet feet but was greeted by one of the most beautiful views so it all turned out alright.

Day two was another busy day.  After breakfast, my group one started the day with canopying, or zip lining, a first for me.  I didn't really think much about it, so I couldn't syke myself out.  It wasn't until we started climbing the first tower that I freaked out a little bit.  The climb seemed unending.  Near the top I thought I was imagining the tower swaying or that I was just really shaky until Amy said something and I realized the tower WAS swaying because it was so tall.  Freaky.  Once I got hooked up to the cables it was no problem.  Except on the second line when I didn't make it all the way to the end and a worker had to come get me.  He started canopying toward me, flew into me, said "hola", and wrapped his legs around me and pulled me to the end.  It was a super special treat.  Then on the last line they have a photographer at the end taking pictures as you fly in, I got stuck again.  This time I was close enough I could pull myself in on the cable.  I hope a picture of that doesn't show up on the trip DVD.  Embarasing.

All the boys were the first in line.

Brian, the MS principal and Amy the 7th grade English teacher with me ready for canopy!

After canopying we spent the rest of the morning with the animals.  First was milking cows.  Some students even tried milk squirted straight from the utter.  It was both disturbing and gross.  While I didn't try any "fresh" milk, I did try my hand at milking a cow, and I have to say it was a lot easier than I thought.  In the same area were some baby and adult goats we could buy milk and other treats for.  Two of our most troublesome boys were the first to buy a bottle of milk to feed them, which I found cute and surprising.  They didn't even start teasing the animals until about 5-10 minutes in...boys will be boys.  Martin even offered me the rest of one of the bottles so I could feed the little guys too.  They were super cute.  Then there were the sheep.  The guides let the kids lay in the pens, put feed on the stomachs and had the sheep eat off the kids stomachs.  Weird, but funny.  We also had cows licking molasses off our hands and some students put it on their cheeks to let the cows lick it off, again weird and humorous. 

We headed cak to the hotel for lunch and then our afternnon activity was horseback riding.  Much better experience than last time.  Nice and slow, no trotting or galloping, but nothing too exciting.  Except the Zorse, or zebra horse, which I thought was a Quagga that I once taught to a Biology class when discussing extinct animals.  Needless to say, when I saw this thing I was utterly confused and somewhat convinced that Colombian drug lords must have somehow had something to do with this.  However, upon further investigation when I returned to Cali, it appears as though zebra horses do exist in the modern world and there are different variations, some of which (the Quagga) are in fact extinct.  Glad I got that one figured out.  After our horseback riding, we watched the least PC rodeo show ever.  There were little people on little horses, who later dressed up as a little indian child that was kidnapped by cowboys after being lost by there hooting blonde pony-tailed indian friends, or so that is what I gathered from the story.  So weird.  After that little piece there was some pretty cool stunt riding though.

That night after dinner, the other group of students and chaperones camped while our groups went on a senses and solo walk.  The kids all put their bandanas on as blindfolds, and the teachers conviniently didn't have any, so I thought we were safe.  Luckily the guides offered their flags from Quim y Baya as blindfolds and we got to take part too.  We were all lined up blindfolded with our hands on the shoulders of the people in front of us.  The idea was to use our senses other than vision.  A special treat for me was also basically being without hearing as well since the guides, and therefore the students, only spoke in spanish.  I got the majority of it but it certainly was a challenge.  We walked blindfolded and then they put different things on us to touch and taste.  I didn't enjoy that very much.  After our senses walk, we took part in a solo walk in which everyone walked the path alone, without a flashlight until we came to a fork in the road that would lead us to our fire for the night.  Again, it waa difficult because I wasn't really sure what the fork was or where to go, but I managed.  And the moon was so bright we didn't need flashlights anyway.  At the campfire, our leader told some history and stories, most of which I missed because the vocabulary was foreign and the translation part of my brain shuts down after too much spanish comprehension.  They had a sort of graduation ceremony and all the kids got a certificate, a t-shirt and a hat, the teachers got a certificate too for completing the week. 

On our last day Friday my group had the dirtiest of all the activities: the Guadaventura.  I couldn't take anything without destroying or losing it, so I don't have photos, but I stole some from Rob the math teacher who has a waterproof/indestructible camera to give you all an idea.  The guides were also taking photos for the DVD they are making for us.  By the end of the activity I was literally covered head to toe, and everything in between, with mud.  We started by having to repel backwards down a steep hill surrounded by ominous looking plants and branches, down to the bottom where a huge mud pit and creek were waiting for us.  Of course the guides encouraged mud fights.  At the bottom it was quite slippery, so rather than trying to stay on my feet and falling, I chose to just scoot down the hill and embrace the mud and filth.  We had to get into the creek, several shoes were almost lost and countless feet stuck in the soft mud on the bottom.  We walked through the creek, got out up steep muddy hills and jumped back in.  Then we were tied to a rope by our wrist and had to follow the rope over and under branches and bamboo, which meant going under the muddy water.  Some girls cheated and slipped their hands out, so I was sure to give them BIG hugs and tell them what great students they are.  At one point I was up to my knees in mud and up to my waist in water, and gave myself some muddy war paint.  The end of our walk though the creek led us to an army crawl which is where things really got messy.  As we crawled through, those looking on were throwing and piling mud on our backs, easily adding 10 pounds as we slowly crawled through.  I reminded students that grades were due mid October, but that didn't seem to stop them.  Afterward we washed off in the water, then hosed off on our way back to the hotel and then rinsed off again in the shower by the pool before finally heading to our room to take a real shower.  So messy, but so fun and worth it. 

View of the army crawl area

Scott the Social Studies teacher crawling through

After cleaning and packing up at the hotel we had lunch and then waited for the buses.  Although everyone was heading back to Cali, Scott, Durkee, Chirstian and I got off the bus nearby about 15 minutes away and hopped on a public bus to head straight to Pereira for binational games.  Stay tuned for that recap.

Longest. Post. Ever.

Hope you enjoyed our field trip as much as I did!