Day 9-Leaving for Guatemala

Ok, so done with Colombia...moving onward and upward to Guatemala! We wake up, take a taxi to the bus station, where the taxi driver begins to argue with me how much I owe him, at the beginning he told me 6 quetzales(8 quetzales = $1.00) then when we get to the bus station, he tells me 10...so I began to argue with him, and he goes into some crap about his family, and food, blah, blah...so I got over it and gave him the 10, SO ready to get out of Colombia! We buy our bus tickets to Barranquilla, Colombia where we are going to take a plane flight to Guatemala City. Buy the tickets for about 80 quetzales, get on this really swanky bus compared to the crappy, no seatbelt, fold down seats ones we've been riding on. Bus ride is about 2 hours and its pouring rain the whole way, had to sit next to this colombian woman who kept talking really loud on her cell phone, so just plugged in the Ipod the whole way! Now the fun begins, we get to the Colombian airport, and have about 5 hours until our flight....we decide to check in early to get rid of our heavy mochilas, good thing we started early because it was HELL trying to get out. Where do I begin?? We wait in a very long line, and when we get to the lady who is going to check us in, she starts in with the questioning.....(all in Spanish, mind you.....which is good for me, but can be exhausting when it goes on for 2 hours)why did you come to Colombia? what is in your bag? what did you do here? where are you from? who is that man you are traveling with?...why are you traveling with him? where are you from? why would you come here? what do you do? what did you buy? how much money do you have? ...on and on, then after that, she wants to see proof of us leaving Guatemala and going back to the U.S.....well, we don't have that because we are taking a bus from Guatemala to Belize, but luckily the day before we bought our tickets home from Belize but of course do not have print outs....so she proceeds to take me down into the basement of the Colombian airport where I have to use a computer to access my email and print out proof of my ticket home....crazy, being escorted downstairs, security staring us down, other people in the airport staring....I felt like I got busted smuggling kids or something. Anyways, we printed out our tickets, the lady finally let us go, our bags got searched by customs, we got felt up and down, and tons more questioning before getting on our plane to Panama and then to Guatemala. Oh, upside to all of this, I think the lady felt sorry for us, and I think she liked me because she told me that my Spanish was perfect and when we got on our second plane in Panama to fly to Guatemala City, we had somehow been bumped to "Clase Ejecutiva"...which means first class!!! Dude, so awesome, we had reclining leather seats, free alcohol (which was much needed at the time) and a full meal. Got to Guatemala city around 10 pm.....took an hour long taxi to our hostel in Antigua because Guatemala city is dangerous and everyone said to just get out as soon as we arrive. So, needless to say, freaking long day, my head hurts, but my Spanish is 'perfect' (supposedly) and we are going to bed. Yeah Guatemala!

Day 7

Back to Tagonga for our last night in Colombia, oh I forgot to mention that our hostel room had5 sets of bunk beds, that means 10 others rooming with us, tons of fun! Meeting so many cool people from all over the world.... So our last night in Tagonga....got back from the hike and craziness from the island, showered (this time not a 3rd world shower from a spicket) and headed out to dinner. We sat at this outdoor restaurant, and weird but we noticed there were no police out tonight which is really unusual for Colombia...anyways, we got our food, and some kids ran up and tried to grab the food off of my plate, I yelled at them,...it scared me more than anything....really sad though, then about 15 minutes later, some other creepy guy came up to our table and tried to grab our food also, then some kids got into a fight, and on our walk back to the hostel...guys were yelling at us to buy drugs or something......anyways weird night, we went right back to our LOCKED hostel and went to bed......I´ve had enough of Colombia I think....beautiful, just crazy!...tomorrow we fly to Guatemala! (I hear its safer and cleaner there...feel better mom???)

Day 6-headed to Tayrona

Met some more friends who just got married and are from S.F.....we are going to the island of Tayrona on a speed boat with them and a bunch of other people.
Crazy waves, we probably shouldn't have gone out there.....but its Colombia. Crazy, fast, speed boat ride, getting wet from the waves....some girl pukes off the side of the boat without telling anyone, all of a sudden, someone says, "Stover, did a bird shit on your hat?"...no, some girl puked and says nothing and not until later does everyone notice the dry puke on our shirts, hats, and in our hair. SICK!!! ...oh and she didn't even apologize! Dammit! Tayrona--beautiful island, went swimming, hiked around.

Night: We are sleeping in hamacas and tents, get caught in a freaking tropical thunder storm(hard rain, hail, wind, thunder and lightning)....I wanted to cry, but I didn't....think I can do anything now.
Hiked out through the jungle -2 hour hike, passing burros, sweating in the humidity, but laughing deliriously all the way!!

Day 5

Staying in a really dirty hostel, for about 5 bucks a night....but met a bunch of cool people partying upstairs(Aussies, Irish, British), they invited us up for a game of charades....we got up there to find massive amounts of Colombian cocaine on their table.....again Colombia is crazy. We decided to pass on the cocaine, drank their beer and rum instead and actually had a great time playing charades!

Day 4

Heading to Tagonga....crazy, scary bus ride for 4-5 hours, which probably would have been faster had we not stopped 50 times so the bus driver could do all of his shady side jobs! Almost safely to Tagonga, when this Israeli kid starts to argue with the bus driver in horrible spanish, yelling that his service is 'Mierda'!!! for being picked up an hour late I guess.... The bus driver got pissed, and made us get out of the bus in the pouring rain and we all had to walk to our hostels. Colombia is crazy!

Cartagena --Day 3

Took a viaje to the mud volcanoes today....natural mud. 2 hour crazy bus ride(as always), hiked up a little volcano, got in this nasty, hot, thick mud with about 20 other extranjeros, and some colombian dudes that start to massage you, I got out quick....this was seriously grossing me out, then some cute little niño that I wanted to take home and give a bath to, walked me to a river, where there were many colombian women waiting to wash you off. Got washed off, while being asked numerous times to take off my swimsuit....but i didn't....don't worry, then found out we had to tip them all at the end. Real cool.

Cartagena--Day 2

Walked around Cartagena today,(hot as hell here, trying to hold in my sweat but its not working) took a taxi to the shitty beach....black sand, hot water, and people BUGGIN to give you a massage with your own sunscreen. So we headed back to the town, shopped around a little bit, met up with the British hostel homies who taught us a Cartagena secret....when you get really hot and feel like your going to die, just walk to "The Exito" (grocery store) and hang out in there for awhile because its air-conditioned.......we proceeded to visit the Exito 3 to 4 times a day.