Bogotá, Colombia

Greetings compadres!

Here we are in Bogotá, getting along quite well I must say.  On Sunday night Laura Bleier (Adi's good childhood friend) and I picked Adi up at the airport around 9 PM and headed back to the Bleier's after getting a bit lost in this enormous city.  Bogotá is like the New York City of South America.  Everywhere you go at all hours there are people walking, driving, etc. and it consists of 8 million inhabitants.  The city is very cultured with many libraries and several universities, and so is also known as the "Athens of South America."  It's incredible how well the people here dress and furthermore how well they carry themselves.  No sweatpants in public, and there is just an aura of elegance everywhere.

After finally arriving at the Bleier's apartment we had a few glasses of wine with Laura and ended up chatting until 3 AM.  Adi brought with her a list of relatives and family friends to call to catch up with, so she spent Monday morning making her phonecalls and re-connecting with everyone.  We spent the first part of the afternoon walking around and trying to get to know the area after yet again getting a bit lost.  Unfortunately upon our return a distant family friend of Adi's family, Alicia Caballero de Gomez, passed away, so in the evening we attended a funeral service- something I had never experienced, and Adi only once before.  It was an interesting experience, and there were lots of people- it seems as though Alicia made a pretty big impact in a lot of lives.

The first part of the afternoon on Tuesday was spent getting to know the area again, and this time we walked down to "El Andino" which is a downtown area with all sorts of shops and restaurants.  You can literally find anything from Nike to Cartier jewelry, as well as flea market goods and an Audi dealership.  We were thirsty for a beer, because the weather was sunny and warm, and stopped at the Bogotá Beer Company to try an artesanal beer.  Needless to say, best beer I've had in the past 4 months!  The beer was accompanied by some Bogotan empanadas which are fried deliciousness stuffed with ground beef and potatoes and topped with lime juice and chile salsa... demasiado rico.  Enough to make my mouth water as I sit here typing.

Later in the day on Tuesday the family reunions began.  By the end of the day Monday we had already made a full schedule of events for the week.  Birthday dinners here, luncheons there, and a few coffees or "onces" to reconnect with everyone.  What a great family.  Everyone has been extremely happy to see us, and has really taken me in as a member of the family.  An "once" typically consists of a small meal or coffee or tea around mid-afternoon, between lunch and dinner (5 PM or so since dinner takes place around 8 or 9 PM).  Yesterday's "once" was at a restaurant called "Crepes y Wafles" in downtown Bogotá in an area called "La T."  They have incredible crepes, and quite the selection of ice cream.  You can order them with chicken, beef, spinach, Nutella, arequipe, and the list goes on.

Today we went to "El Museo de Fernando Botero" downtown- Botero is a famous Colombian artist from Medellin who has a very unique perspective and style.  For him it seems there's just something about drawing, painting, or sculpting oversized objects.  See below.  After the museo we struggled through the crazy Bogotan  traffic only to arrive late to our lunch date with Gloria Elena and Jorge Enrique, Maria Lucia, and Juan Carlos (family friends of Adi's).

Bogotá has been really great.  I'm very excited to get to know more of the city and the rest of Adi's awesome family.  Hope everyone is doing well and starting to enjoy the nicer summer weather.  More to come soon.

The view from where we're staying

My bedroom

Adi and Laura's bedroom

Adi & Pita (the Bleier family's dog)

Best fruit basket ever- can't find anywhere else.  Gracias tía Rosita!

Curuba- pomegranate-like Colombian fruit

Reunited at last!

Bogotá Beer Company

Finally a good beer. 

El Museo de Fernando Botero

Adi y Pablo Picasso

"El sueño"

Tonight's sunset in Bogotá

Chao,

Travis

El Próximo Capítulo

Hola amigos,

Hope this post finds everyone in good spirits.

Yesterday evening I arrived in Bogotá, Colombia.  I have yet to get to know the city and all of its beauty that I'm always told of, but that will come over the following weeks.  The climate is chilly, and it had just rained before my flight landed.  The people have been very friendly- my first time through I met a Colombian woman named Sara who offered me a ride to my hotel and helped me find an ATM and figure out the Colombian currency (I wish the dollar was as cool-looking as the peso here).  The tap water here is potable!  Apparently it is known for being some of the best in the world- I really hope this is valid information, I guess I'll know by tomorrow.  


Adi and I will be meeting in the airport today around 9 PM- it will be great to see her.  It seems strange that my week with the family has already passed, but at the same time it feels good to be back on the move after my great week-long vacation.  Aruba is sunny, windy, small, and the atmosphere is a lot of fun.  The people are very friendly and very intelligent- even the cab drivers know at least 3 or 4 languages (one our drivers told us he knows something around 7, and he learned them in grade school).  


The journey throughout the rest of South America continues and I am very excited to get started.  For me, the past few months have been a great learning experience and have helped me get to know the South American vibe.  I think I'll be getting along quite well over the next three months down here.  My Spanish has really improved and I'm ready to continue advancing- Adi and I agreed that Spanish will be our primary language, even between the two of us, while down here.  We have also been briefly discussing our destination plans, and trying to map out where we will be going.  More to come on that.  


I've been missing my home in Mérida, but it's been really convenient to maintain contact with all of my family and friends, and I am looking into a return trip hopefully within the next year. 

My wonderful home in Mérida.

Pabellón Criollo- best Venezuelan dish, hands down

La laguna just down the street from home.  If lucky, got to see crocodile sunbathing.

VEN-USA (school) kind of looks like a prison.

Arepas.

Maru's early birthday gift from me.  A gigantic Dora the Explorer blanket.  She loved it.

Mi familia; me, Yazhira (cousin), Andrea (sister), Franko (brother-in-law)

Cheers,
Travis

The Lost World

Sorry everyone for taking so long to post again. Time has really flown by.

This past Saturday I arrived in Aruba to meet my family after a day-long layover in Bogotá. The end of my time in Venezuela was great- April and the beginning of May were very busy with the semester ending and preparing for our spring break trip. 

For the trip, as I've mentioned in earlier posts, a group of 7 friends and myself made our way out to the eastern part of Venezuela- Canaima National Park- to hike Mt. Roraima. We left Mérida on Friday, April 15 without much of a plan as to what we were going to do. There were numerous tour companies offering the trip at a pretty high rate, but we decided we would hold off until we made it there to try and find the best price.

In the late morning on Friday the 15^th we headed out to Barinas to catch another bus to Ciudad Bolívar. At 11:30 PM on Friday we left Barinas to Ciudad Bolívar, and after a 16-hour bus ride, we finally arrived. Traveling during the holy week in Venezuela is pretty difficult and the buses tend to fill up quickly, and unfortunately we weren't so lucky as to find a bus from Ciudad Bolívar to Santa Elena (the town where we would pick up a guide and everything we needed for the hike) for the same day, so we paid a little bit extra and scored a cab to a town called 88 (Ochenta y Ocho). The cab driver dropped us off at a Brazilian restaurant where the owner told us we could spend the night, or at least stay until we found another bus. At around 3 AM we flagged down a bus passing through, and were soon dropped off at San Francisco, a small tourist town on the outskirts of the national park between 6 and 7 AM.

Immediately the search for a guide began. The first people we talked to, Ludwig, André, and Luis, had just found a guide, and needed 5 to 10 more people in order to get the trek started. What luck, as we found a price that was a fraction of what the tour companies were offering us. Our new friends brought us to meet the guide, Jaime, who took us to buy food and supplies before we would take off on the hike. In the evening we made our way to the base camp town called Paraitepuy, where we camped on Sunday night.

Monday morning we set off around 11 AM and hiked about 10 km to another camp on a river. Jaime had told us we would reach the top on the third day, and be back in six. We stopped at the river to camp on Monday night, had the chance to clean up, wash some clothes, and get a good sleep before another 10 km hike to the base camp on Tuesday. The weather in this area was pretty unpredictable- during the first part of the day it would typically be sunny with lots of fog that would clear up late morning, and continue to get cloudy, and likely rain by the evening into the night.

We made it to the base camp on Tuesday with plenty of time left in the day. It was amazing the number of people that were there- it must have been at least 150 people that left on the same day we did. Lucky for us, Jaime was a very ambitious guide, and insisted that we go to sleep by as early as 6:30 PM so that we could get up and going by 5 AM.

Indeed we were the first group to get going on Wednesday morning around the scheduled time, and we made it up in a short 2 hours, 30 minutes. Reaching the top was like stepping into another world. The plants, rock formations, everything was really amazing. We took a break when we reached the top, and after an hour of rest and nourishment, we continued on to find our “hotel” where we would be pitching our tents for the next two nights. Those who had the smaller tents were able to set them up under the overhang provided by the “hotel” while our tent was too big to fit, so we set it up nearby, below.

Thursday we spent the day hiking on top and got to see several different parts of the tepuy. We went to crystal valley, where quartz crystals grow in huge quantities. Next stop was el foso, or “the pit” which is a large hole where underground rivers have caused the ground to cave-in. There were a few meters of water in the bottom of the pit so we got to do some cliff jumping, which was awesome. The water was incredibly cold, and it presented a huge challenge getting out, but it was worth the struggle. After the foso, our last stop for the day was Punto Triple (Triple Point), the point where the borders of three countries meet. I had the chance to stand in Guyana, Venezuela, and Brazil all at the same time- pretty cool experience.

That night we had to suffer a pretty terrible storm. The wind, rain, lightning, etc. was unfortunately too much for our tent to handle. I was woken up around 2:30 AM to the tent poles collapsing in the wind. We decided to try and wait out the storm, since it was raining so hard and there was really no other option. The rain was leaking through the seams of the tent and before I knew it there was a puddle at least one inch deep in my side of the tent. Sleeping bag soaked and exhausted, I woke the others in the tent, and we soon decided that our best option was to abandon the tent (at least 3 inches of standing water at this point) and make our way up to the “hotel” where the other tents were pitched.

Finally the rain let up and the clouds broke, and around 5 AM on Friday morning, we were able to disassemble the tent and leave it out to dry. Later that morning we made our way down and the trek back to Paraitepuy began. We made it back by Satruday afternoon, and found a private bus to take us to Ciudad Bolívar, but we would get back on Easter Sunday. When we arrived, we were quite surprised by the huge line of people waiting to find bus tickets. Due to the holiday, we couldn't find a bus back to Mérida the same day, so we had to buy a pass for Monday night at 7 PM. Fortunately we found a great posada where we slept in hammocks and were able to cook our own meals. Monday night we took off to Mérida and were back by Tuesday afternoon, having missed three classes.

All in all, the Mt. Roraima trek made for quite the spring break. Jaime told me we hiked 102 km during the whole 6 days, which is about 63 miles. Roraima presented all sorts of challenges, but the hike was an incredible experience, and I hope that I have the opportunity to do it again in the future so that I can see more of the tepuy, and more of Canaima.  

Enjoy some pictures from the trip below!

The Brazilian restaurant in 88 where we stayed a few hours

"El rincon del mosquito" and Jaime's house- Sunday

View from Paraitepuy base camp- Sunday night

On the trail toward Roraima (tepuy on the right, on the left is Kukenan)- Monday

Campsite at the river, night #2- Monday night

Awesome prehistoric plants along the path

Indigenous pot made of clay

Santa Maria church- colonial church established to convert indigenous population in the area

View from base camp- Tuesday

La Garganta del Diablo (Devil's Throat) start of path to the top

Jaime on our way up to the top

View from halfway up- Wednesday

Our guide Jaime hard at work

Finally arrived at the top! - Wednesday

Beautiful rock formations, plants, etc. from the top- clouds passed over all day

Crazy slimy plant on the trail up to the top

Viewpoint #1 on the way up

More prehistoric-looking plants

View on the top- Wednesday

These tiny frogs were one of the endemic species we encountered

Punto Triple- Thursday

Sitting in three countries at once

"El Foso"- Thursday

Freezing cold water

Thanks for reading.

Saludos,

Travis

My apologies

I hiked Mt. Roraima over semana santa (holy week) and have plenty to share from the experience.  However, unfortunately I didn't bring along an extra camera battery and my only one died before we reached the top because I went a bit trigger-happy on some lightning shots (only a few of which actually turned out).  I realize it's been a month since my last post, but I will be posting in the next few days after I scrounge up a few pictures from my friends.

Saludos