Like nothing before!
Colombia has been like nothing I’ve ever experienced before. As I mentioned in last weeks blog, the language barrier has been a huge challenge. Every time I order food, jump in a taxi, go to ask somehow how their day was, has been a puzzle. The landscape is vast, from barren dry desert-like landscapes with cacti in every direction to super lush tropical mountains only 45 minutes apart. It’s incredibly beautiful really, and before coming to Colombia I knew none of this even existed. This week had many highlights for me, I went from kicking back on an oversized jungle trampoline to playing soccer for hours on end in the Comunas (slums) of Medellin.
Calle 11 Hostel, Santa Marta.
Same same, but from above. Pretty cool hey. PC. Jackson Groves.
Mansions to Minca Mountains
After staying in the ex-cartel mansion in Santa Marta, we were recommended by our hostel manager Brock to venture up into the mountain regions of Minca. The bus ride was a mere $2.60 for a 45 min bus ride to make it to the base of Minca and I was puzzled when the next ride was triple the price for what seemed to be only a short distance. We dropped the idea of catching the bus and went for the faster, riskier, wilder option of catching a ‘mototaxi’ to Elemento park. This road was dilapidated, ridden with potholes and switched from gravel to mud to broken concrete every fifty metres or so. I was holding onto the back of this motorbike for dear life as my young and very confident driver took off up the mountainside. It was evident this wasn’t his first time, I felt like I could have been racing around the cobblestone race of Isle of man. Alas, we made it to where we needed to be and I was very happy I paid the extra for the mototaxi, not only did I make it to where I needed to be, it doubled was a adrenaline filled ride to the top.
Insane.
Discovering an old adventure course.
Our first stop in Minca, was Casa Elemento. A mountain hangout and hostel with huge trampoline/hammock nets built off the side of the mountains. A truly terrific idea, it really takes enjoying mountainside views to a new level. Jacko and I spent a few hours here kicking back. Down further in Case Elemento, there is a more hidden net paired with an old adventure course. It’s clear it hasn’t been used for a long time because the rope lines were green with moss and the structures would crumble if you would try to climb up. However, there was a platform 25-30m off the ground that I had to get to. I’m always inquisitive so I thought it would be great fun to try and get to this point. It turns out it really wasn’t as easy as I first imagined. I ended up slacklining, walking a tightrope and a extremely dodgy rope bridge with no safety harness. In the process, I managed to convince Jackson to do it too, it probably wasn’t our smartest idea.. I think there is saying that goes something along the lines of “You should do at least one thing every day that scares you”, so we certainly did that.
Living. It’s great.
Photo by Jackson Groves, what a hideout.
Long shot of Jacko high-lining over.
Jacko probably wondering why he committed to this, that’s a long drop underneath.
Tightroping the way back.
From here our next stop was Casa Vijas, a hostel buried deep in the coffee lands of Minca. We thought our first stop had a great view, well… this was on another level. Potentially one of the best hostel locations I’ve ever been too. It was lovely to be there, with no wi-fi we could disconnect for a couple days, run, explore and do our best to find the waterfalls scattered around the walking trails.
Jungle lands.
Minca to Medellin
Our time in Minca and Santa Marta came to a close. Next on our itinerary was the wild city of Medellin. Medellin has a cityscape like I’ve never scene before. On our first morning, Jacko and I naively decided to go a 10km to see what was going on in the area around us. In the first 5km we climbed 560m to one of the viewing points of the city. If you’re into running, Medellin certainly gets your legs burning quickly. However, the view we found of the city was insane. Red house and buildings fill the city as far as the eye can see, I’ve never seen a city so large. Maybe it’d be comparable to places in Asia, but I was overwhelmed with the view.
A day at Marina Orth Primary School
Hostelworld in partnership with Marina Orth foundation organised for a group of us to visit a local school high in the hills of Medellin. The school we visited was the first public school in Colombia to implement to teach both Spanish and English. Not only do they do this, they also give every child a personal computer. These computers have no market value as they are highly customised to classroom learning. It’s amazing because it allows the childen to learn skills such a coding, video editing and many more that wouldn’t typically be possible in a low-socio economic school. Along with Jackson and I, plus three youtubers Steve, Alex and Luke were asked to teach the children our respective skills. Jackson and I taught the children photography and let them play with our cameras. The school believed it was important to showcase to the children the opportunities out there in the world, especially within the social media/digital world. Running around the school with these kids and observing how enthusiastic they were about education filled me with happiness. Education for children is quickly becoming a strong passion of mine, because it truly has the power eliminate poverty, create change and bring so many opportunities to the lives of these children that were there before.
Marina Orth children.
Comuna 13!
A group of us assembled as we headed off to see Comuna 13. Previously Comuna 13 was the most dangerous place of Medellin and Colombia as a whole. Previously known as the most violent city in the world due to the urban wars between drug cartels in the 1980s, Comuna 13 has made massive changes to it’s culture. For sometime, Medellin had a murder rate of 167 people per 100,000 annually. To put this in perspective, if you lived in a town of 100,000 people, each year 167 of them would be murdered. I don’t fully understand how the change came about, but I know that the community decided to make drastic changes to it’s cultures. Within the community there are escalators from the bottom to the top of the Comuma (Slum) and nearly every wall has exquisitely coloured murals.
Rock, paper, scissors? You got me mate, I’ll go goals…
Jacko, ready to play ball. Comuna 13, what an arena.
Still can’t get over this place. I just wanted to play on here all day.
World cup fever is in full flight.
The rest of the week, Jacko and I laid pretty low in the hip suburb of El Rodadero. I have been extremely impressed so far with the vast array of landscapes and cultural scenes of Colombia. Before arriving in Colombia, everyone would always tell me how dangerous the country is. Now that I have been here for two weeks, I can say this is not the case. This may not apply everywhere, but this is same for any country in the world. The people of Colombia are extremely friendly and proud to show off how beautiful their lands are.
My laptop broke on me this week, I hope I can get it fixed. Fortunately, Jackson has lent me his laptop so I can publish this. But I hope to keep these updates as frequent as possible.
Make someone smile today, do something that scares you and appreciate the little things.
Big Love,
JL
“Society project fear onto others every day, this is the last thing we need. The danger is in the negative mindset people adopt, not the countries and cultures we immerse ourselves in. If you choose to broadcast an influencing opinion, let it be positive – it has a much better chance of changing the world.” – Joshua Lynott
