I'm not sure where I left off as the notes in my word processor don't match the notes that I thought I posted last. Will have to review this all when I have more time. In the meantime I think this will catch us up to the point when we left Santa Marta and headed into Tayrona National Park for two days and a night. Lots to report on but will do that later. All went well there. I have about 50 bites on my legs only and don't think they are mosquito bites - not itchy, but they're red so I'll watch them closely. We're guessing bed bugs or perhaps a spider. Jody has a broken blister on her big toe and is watching that closely. Diane, Jim and Jen are all ok except for being a bit tired and aching here and there. Will check in later when I get a moment to write some catch up notes.
LB
20080520
5/20/2008 16:35 PM
I’m sitting at the Juan Valdez Café in a very modern shopping mall in Santa Marta waiting for the others to return from a tip to a museum which is nearby. I’ve found that there is very little English spoken here and in many cases none at all so I have to rely on my language skills which are proving to be somewhat less than adequate as I have trouble processing the differences between English, Spanish and French. The museum would only confound the matter so I thought I’d enjoy a Juan Valdez coffee, which I might add, is far superior to Tim Horton’s. I can tell that even though I’m not what you’d call a connoisseur of coffees.
It’s clear to me that if future when visiting a country like this where there is limited English spoken, that whenever possible an English speaking guide would be an enormous benefit. We are managing just fine but I have so many questions about the many different things that I see and no one to turn to for explanation. (Chris isn’t always with us and I know that his limited time spent here doesn’t give him a very in depth understanding of questions that I’d have.
On another note we all witnessed an amazing spectacle this afternoon. I have pictures that I’ll try to upload later once I resize them to send onto the blog. When walking in downtown Santa Marta along the ocean front we saw about a half a dozen men (actually about two men and four or five very young boys – many children don’t attend school here as they can’t afford to go) pulling on a line that extended out to the Caribbean Sea. On a closer look I thought that the line seemed to head out to a small wooden boat that was about two hundred yards off shore (two football fields out). Sure enough it did. Then I noticed that there was a similar line of people about 50 or more yards further along the beach doing the same thing. It didn’t take long to figure out that that both lines were heading out to the same boat – they were drag-netting fish by hand. This is a far cry form the way they do it in the Maritimes with their huge and powerful processing ships! When I started watching there were only a handful of spectators – all seemed to be Latins but many were Latin tourists I’m sure. After ten to fifteen minutes the boat and nets had been pulled in closer to shore and the “pullers” were having to work much harder. Then three pelicans flew in and settled in the water just outside the net lines which now I could see had floats on them.
Another ten minutes or so and the boat and the net was fairly close to shore and the size of the spectators increased suddenly and dramatically to about fifty or sixty people. An event was happening! When the net was about fifty feet off shore in quite shallow water a number of fish were leaping over the top of the net and on to freedom. They were virtually leaping about three feet over the top of the water. The net finally was dragged up on the beach and there was the catch – I would guess about 150 pounds of fish, the largest probably being only a couple of pounds and most of them being under a pound. There was lots of excitement and a couple of the workers who noticed may keen interest and my camera beckoned me over to stand in front of the crowd to take a picture. It was quite exciting. I stepped back and looked up to see about six to eight pelicans flying in formation like geese approaching us and they just carried on, apparently well fed or not wanting to intrude on the others already there.
When we left the downtown area we all hopped on a local bus about the size of a small handy dart sized bus that we have at home – it seated about 25 people, and headed out to the shopping mall. This gave me a bit better view of all sides of life in Santa Marta as we passed several impoverished areas and commercial strips. Much different that the downtown core where we had been spending time and areas that I wouldn’t want to walk around in. The bus driver was just as aggressive as the cabbies and it truly is amazing that we’ve yet to see a single accident.
Tonight will be our last night at this location as we have a trip planned for us to go into a National Park and we have the choice of sleeping in a cabaña or a hammock outside. I know which way I’m leaning at the moment but we’ll see how adventurous I feel once I check the situation out. I’m glad that I decided to have my yellow fever vaccination because there is a higher risk of being bit by a mosquito in the park. So far I haven’t seen a mosquito or anything else that might bite so I’m feeling quite relaxed. The water here is not supposed to be the best so I’ve been drinking only bottled water, have avoided salads and anything else that might be washed in tap water so I’m doing my best. Some of the others have ventured into the swimming pools and have brushed their teeth with tap water. Jen said that she was feeling a little upset yesterday but is better today and surprisingly, Chris is the only one needing to take Imodium at the moment.
5/20/2008 18:56 PM We just got of the bus from Santa Marta and it was quite a bus ride. The bus is really a good way to travel here if you don’t have a car and you want to travel at a slower pace so you can take in the sites. Much less stressful than driving yourself – in fact I would be crazy to even think about driving here. The inside of the bus reminded me of busses that I’ve seen in movies or perhaps news clips of the ones in South East Asia and India. Inside this small bus that sat about 25 there were bangles, neon lights, neon signs and other ornate doo dads hanging around – mostly on the front half of the bus. The honking of horns is constant and they’re some sort of signal that the bus is going to pull over or have someone transfer to another bus or ?? On this trip we had two different street vendors hop on the bus and then hand out what appeared to be mini marshmallows in one case and some sort of candy in the other, both wrapped in cellophane. They handed out three each to all of the passengers and then gave a short spiel about what they were (I think) and then proceeded to walk around collecting them and putting them back in a bag. No one that I saw bought anything. The bus ride lasted at least 45 minutes and when we got off we had to walk about four short blocks to our hotel.
It started raining about two hours ago and the streets were filled with puddles and standing water that was sometimes three or four inches deep. Traffic seemed to be careful not to speed through the puddles to avoid splashing the pedestrians. The museum excursion that I opted out of was mostly outdoors and mostly in the rain as well so I was even more pleased that I opted out as I left my rain gear at the hotel. This is the time of year just before the rainy season so we’re maybe getting a bit of a taste as to what it might be like then. Jody and Jen are off to get rain jackets for our excursion into the national park tomorrow and Jim, Diane and Chris are just down the street having a beer so I’ll join them now.
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