Minka: The Preview

Note - this blog is automatically imported into facebook, but unfortunately it loses some formatting in the process. Click here to visit the real thing.

If this seems oddly familiar, it's because several weeks ago I embarked on a weekend trip to a nearby town called Taganga and spent an entire week blogging about it, starting with a post called Taganga: The Trailer. I just had a 4-day weekend, surprisingly unrelated to Canadian Thanksgiving, and took a trip to another nearby town, this one a mountain village in the Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta. I don't think I have a week of blog entries in me this time, but at least a couple of days.

Anyway, one of the first things that happened on the trip was mosquitoes. Tonight, I decided to count all the bites I was left with. Below is photo documentation of my methodology.

I counted 147.

Taganga Episode VII: Wrap-Up

Note - this blog is automatically imported into facebook, but unfortunately it loses some formatting in the process. Click here to visit the real thing.

This week is "Taganga Week" at Xave's Xlog. Check it out:

Taganga Episode I: The Trailer

Taganga Episode II: The Town

Taganga Episode III: Wildlife

Taganga Episode IV: Cacti

Taganga Episode V: Sunday

Taganga Episode VI: The Recovery

What a week at the old Xlog! How did I stretch one weekend out of town into 7 full days of blogging, you ask? Well, it takes a special talent. I just have a knack for finding the boring in everything. Anyway, today's post is devoted to mentioning smaller things that weren't worthy of their own full post.

-----

I don't eat fish. Or any seafood. The reason is simply that I don't like it. However, I've never liked seafood, so I eat it so rarely I don't even know what some things taste like. Therefore, I've made it my mission to try some seafood while I'm living on a coast. So, on Saturday night, I had this for dinner:

This is a very common meal 'round these parts: fish (I don't know what kind), with lime to squeeze on top, coconut rice, patacones (fried green plantains - green meaning they're not sweet plantains), and a salad consisting mostly of lettuce and onions.

And at the risk of sounding totally cliché, it wasn't that bad! I almost ate the whole fish. I probably ate parts I wasn't supposed to eat, too.

-----

Anticipating I would do some hiking while in Taganga, I brought my running shoes along in addition to my sandals. But I forgot to bring socks. Good work, Dave. So, as it turns out, climbing a steep foothill with no paths while wearing sandals isn't the greatest idea. There were several occasions in which I nearly became an avalanche. H

Speaking of avalanches, here's a formation I found which I assumed to be the work of avalanches.

-----

I had a fun time getting home on Sunday. First I took a small bus from Taganga to Santa Marta, followed by a moto-taxi to the bus terminal in Santa Marta, followed by an inter-city bus to Barranquilla. All of these things were documented yesterday.

That wasn't the end of the journey, though. After retrieving my iPod, I was determined to figure out how to take the bus back to my part of Barranquilla rather than paying for a more expensive taxi. This proved difficult, as I got wildly varying opinions from the locals.

After a cat and mouse game of seeing the bus go by on the other side of the street and going to that side only to watch a bus zip by where I had just been standing, I decided to see how much the moto would cost. The first guy I asked flat out refused to go to where I wanted to go. The second guy quoted a price that was almost as high as taking a cab. Soon, I somehow found myself among a group moto drivers, asking all of them simultaneously if they would take me where I wanted to go at the price I wanted to pay. This was an unproductive bargaining session, because I just kept saying my price, and I'm pretty sure their response was something completely incongruous. Here is how the conversation might have gone (honestly, I have no idea):

Me: I need to go to Buena Vista.

Them: We don't go to Buena Vista.

Me: How about 5000 (pesos)?

Them: That's way lower than we would accept, even if we did drive people to Buena Vista. Generally, if you're trying to convince someone to perform a service for you that is outside of their regular duties, it's not a good idea to make your offer less attractive in an attempt to convince them to perform said service.

Me: What if I paid you 5000?

Them: You already said that.

Me: 5000? Yes? No?

Them (to each other): Maybe he means 5000 dollars? I wouldn't put it past this guy to actually pay us 5000 dollars.

Me: Do you go to Buena Vista? What about for 5000?

One of Them: okay, just get on, I'll take you to, umm, Buena Vista, yeah, haha, that's right. Cough.

Me: 5000, right?

That Guy: yeah, um, right.

So anyway, That Guy drove me a few blocks (for 2000 - $1), and then waited with me for, I assumed, a bus. Turned out he was waiting for a new form of transportation I hadn't even been on yet - a taxi with a little trailer on the back of it, and several people already in the taxi, so it was really carrying like 8 people. The moto guy said something to the driver, so I assumed I'd be taken to Buena Vista.

Nope. I got about halfway there, but not before one of the guys in the trailer almost got in a fight with the driver over, well, I have no idea, obviously. But I did exchange eye rolls with the guy beside me. Even if I didn't know what was going on, I played the social situation to a tee. Smooth, Dave.

Anyway, I had no idea where I was when the cab driver told me he wasn't going any farther (i.e. when he kicked me out), so I just found a cab, which was the thing I was trying to avoid in the first place.

In the end, in getting from door to door, I took a small bus, a moto, a big bus, another moto, a shared taxi, and a private taxi. 6 things! That's a lot.

-----

E and K (twice) both blogged about Taganga, so if you just haven't gotten enough over the past seven days and 8 million words here at XX, check them out. We didn't spend much time together over the weekend, so they have lots of different stuff.

-----

This isn't Taganga-related, but sometime in the last couple days, the little visitor counter on the right side (if you scroll down) crossed the 1000 mark! Sweet, thanks guys! (And that's just 1000 since I installed the counter, which was 3 or 4 weeks ago.) I'm sure most of those are mom and me though.

Also, after a 2 or 3 week absence, I finally got internet at home today. So that means lots more bloggggggg!

-----

Finally, here are some more pictures from Taganga.

Upon climbing the foothills beside Taganga, I was amazed to discover I could see Santa Marta. I suppose I shouldn't have been so surprised since I knew it was only about 5km away, but I was so disoriented when we arrived I had no idea which direction we had come from, so suddenly seeing a huge city just over the hills was a pretty startling sight.

It thought this house looked like Lego.

A shot of Taganga from above.

A cool tree.

Triangle hills.

Taganga Episode VI: The Recovery

Note - this blog is automatically imported into facebook, but unfortunately it loses some formatting in the process. Click here to visit the real thing.

This week is "Taganga Week" at Xave's Xlog. Check it out:

Taganga Episode I: The Trailer

Taganga Episode II: The Town

Taganga Episode III: Wildlife

Taganga Episode IV: Cacti

Taganga Episode V: Sunday

After Sunday's activities I took a quick swim in the hostel pool, then packed up my stuff and headed out in search of a bus stop. I quickly found myself on a little van bus, sitting in a seat directly next to the door which stayed open (or didn't exist?) throughout the winding, somewhat mountainous drive back to Santa Marta. Eventually, after everyone else had exodused, the bus driver told me to get off, assuring me the bus station was nearby, and I'd just have to take a cheap moto-taxi. I had never taken one before, but it was fast, and fun, and soon I was on a bus back to Barranquilla. (note: these buses have air conditioning, a TV constantly going, and drinks/snacks available, and cost less than a $5, and this is a 2 hour trip we're talking about. Greyhound could learn a thing or two)

After watching the news cycle a couple of times, I got bored, despite the fact that I probably needed a few more watches to understand what was going on, so I got out my iPod which I had brought along precisely for this situation. In the summer, I discovered eBooks on my iPod, so I flipped open to my current iPod book (I do most of my reading on my computer, so I've got 2 books going simultaneously - the iPod one is more of a long-term effort since I don't use it often), Les Miserables. I read for most of the trip, but as we entered Barranquilla I set it down so I could try to figure out where we were/where to get off.

Of course, I should have realized that since the bus comes into a part of the city I am totally unfamiliar with, my decision about when to get off would likely be spur of the moment, triggered by the first thing I recognize. This is exactly what happened, and as you can probably guess, I left my iPod sitting right there on the seat.

Naturally, I didn't realize what I had done at first since I was pre-occupied trying to figure out where the bus back to my part of the city stopped. Eventually I figured out the guys were telling me I was in the right place, I just might have to wait a few minutes since it was Sunday night, hence infrequent service.

(I could have just taken a taxi and avoided all this hassle, but buses are cheaper, and I like taking them anyway, I find it's one of the best ways to learn a city. In the end, it's a very good thing I didn't hop in the first taxi I found.)

That's when I remembered the last place I had put my iPod.

I panicked, but when I looked down the street, the bus was, miraculously, still within eyeshot. So I started sprinting after it as it pulled away from the curb and turned onto some sort of on-ramp. I followed the bus' future path and discovered it was about to a complete 180 on a sort of cloverleaf construction. I still had hope! I could simply run across and cut the bus off.

Unfortunately, it was a little too quick - I shouted and waved, but wasn't quite at the other side when the bus passed in front of me. Once again, I didn't give up - I looked to where the bus was headed next in hopes that I could attempt a similar maneuver.

This time, though, the outlook was bleak. There was no cloverleaf, and no bus stop that I could see nearby. It was on a fairly major street, too, with little traffic. It looked like it would just blast straight down the road, into the horizon, and out of my hopes and dreams.

I kept going in the bus' direction, but slowed to a walk, having given up. I half-heartedly checked my bag just to make sure I hadn't subconsciously thrown it in there in my haste to get off the bus, but I knew in my heart (well, really in my head) that the search was fruitless. It was over: the hardly used iPod Touch I had been given by a friend this past summer was gone forever.

But then, I saw the bus stop some 200m ahead of me. Once again, I broke into a dead run, and this time, luckily, whatever the bus had stopped for was taking its sweet time, and I managed to catch up before it headed off again! Relief swept over me like a broom over a floor (get it?).

But when I returned to my seat, there was nothing there. I turned to the girls across the aisle to ask them if they had seen anything, but all I could do in my panicky state was attempt to translate sign language into Spanish, which resulted in confused stares.

Just then, the bus operator (different from bus driver) emerged from the cabin (yeah) and handed me the iPod.

Success! I had left something valuable on a bus, and knowing there was likely no other way of retrieving it, had literally chased the bus down. Nice work, Dave. Tu eres el hombre. (As you can probably guess, this translates to 'you are the man', which isn't a thing in Spanish, but I'm trying to get in the habit of directly translating English slang into Spanish, because it's fun)

Taganga Episode V: Sunday

Note - this blog is automatically imported into facebook, but unfortunately it loses some formatting in the process. Click here to visit the real thing.

This week is "Taganga Week" at Xave's Xlog. Check it out:

Taganga Episode I: The Trailer

Taganga Episode II: The Town

Taganga Episode III: Wildlife

Taganga Episode IV: Cacti

Upon arriving at my hostel last Friday, the owner informed us (the two American guys, John and Brian, I had met on the bus, and me) that he organized trips into nearby Tayrona National Park every couple days. He explained that his trips went in by boat, and because we were sneaking around the back, we didn't have to pay the park entrance fee of $32,000 pesos (16 bucks), or the cost of transportation into the park. In addition, the day included fishing, snorkeling, wakeboarding, breakfast and a BBQ lunch. The total cost was $90,000, so after mulling it over for a few seconds, we figured it was worth the extra 29 bucks for all those activities and meals and fun times! We found a couple more hostelers interested on Saturday, so on Sunday morning the 8 of us (the 5 guests, the owner Santiago, his 9ish year old son Santiago (Santi), and a teenager Santiago is training to run these trips whose name I forget), headed out for a day of awesome.

I'm on a boat, mother f***er!

After a 15 minute boat ride and a bit of unsuccessful fishing (which was to be expected, though I was kind of disappointed, because on Saturday the Santiago trip had returned with a fish that was seriously like THIS BIG (I'm holding my arms up really wide right now)), we arrived at our almost-private cove. First we had to pay off the other dudes who (work? live?) in the cove with several huge jugs of water (a precious resource when you're surrounded by salt water, I guess) (just to be clear, we paid off the guys with water, the guys don't live with water. Confusing grammar, sorry). I didn't get a great photo of the exchange, but it's something:

And here are a couple photos of the cove:

After the bribe, we headed across to the other side of the bay and set up camp. John, Brian and the Filipino woman whose name I forget headed out for snorkeling. The Irish guy whose name I also forget and I stayed back because there was only enough gear for 3 people. So we took that opportunity to eat our breakfast of sandwiches, fruit, chips and many other little things:

After breakfast, Santiago suggested we go check out the natural salt mine nearby (nearby turned out to mean like less than a 100 meters away). Here's what it looks like:

When we got there, Santi (i.e. little Santiago) dared us to step in the pink stuff (objects in picture are pinker then they appear). Turns out, under the white and pink surface is extremely thick mud:

Also, it was incredibly hot! For the second day in a row I pulled a jumping around going ow-ow-ow-ow-ow-ow. Note: the first time we went we weren't wearing shoes. The above pictures are from the second trip.

The second time, Santi decided it would be a good idea to actually cross the salt mine, because there was a path to the beach on the other side. I had worn shoes, so I didn't object. Irishguy did, after watching me run across the first part in quite a bit of pain despite the sandals. So he headed back, but Santi was all for it. Since he wasn't wearing shoes, he instructed me to catch him at the end of his run:

For the rest of the trip we skirted around the outside, avoiding all the intense foot heat. We came out several hundred meters down the beach, and on the way back Santi caught a crab by digging it out of its hole. Coolest kid ever.

Crab Series #4: Santi-y

Sandwiched between our salt mine trips, it had been our turn to snorkel. Oh, and I forgot to mention: our time snorkeling included the use of a spear-fishing gun. This is me practicing my technique:

Because that's the stance you normally use when in water with a snorkel shooting at fish.

Anyway, I was unsuccessful at the spear-fishing, as was Irishguy, but Santi, once again, re-affirmed his status as coolest kid ever.

The last activity before lunch was wake-boarding. I had never wake-boarded before, but it couldn't be that hard, right? Well, this is probably the closest I ever got to succeeding:

Also: it is really hard work. I only tried 5 times, and my arms are still sore. It is now Friday, and this was on Sunday. It could just be that wake-boarding uses muscles I never use (bottom of your forearm - I don't even know what to call that). Anyway, nobody else (including Santi) got up either, so I didn't feel too pathetic.

After a BBQ lunch of steak, chorizo sausage, chips and other stuff, we headed out, tried a bit more fishing, and then went over to one of the main camp sites of Tayrona to drop off John, Brian and Filipinochick. On the way, we saw flying fish! I'm not sure I've ever seen flying fish before, but they are so weird.

Anyway, I don't have much to tell about the Tayrona site - yesterday I showed you a couple picture of animals I saw there, and that was about all I did. But here's a nice picture:

Before we go, just a couple more quick words on Santi. That kid could do everything. He drove the boat, he set up the fishing lines, he caught crabs, he shot a fish, he even spoke pretty decent English (I'm assuming he doesn't go to an English school given the size of Taganga). Obviously it helps when your dad does all that stuff for a living, but still, he was a very impressive grade 5.

Anyway, it was a great day. I guess it goes to show that when you travel, don't over-plan. I didn't know the hostel offered these day trips - hell, I didn't even know what hostel I was staying at. We just asked the cab driver to take us to a hostel. If I had set a detailed itinerary, I wouldn't have done all this fun stuff. Alright, later!

Taganga Episode IV: Cacti

Note - this blog is automatically imported into facebook, but unfortunately it loses some formatting in the process. Click here to visit the real thing.

This week is "Taganga Week" at Xave's Xlog. Check it out:

Taganga Episode I: The Trailer

Taganga Episode II: The Town

Taganga Episode III: Wildlife

As I mentioned yesterday, on Saturday I decided to go for a hike in the Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta - one of the many mountain ranges in the world called Sierra Nevada (it translates to "snow covered mountain range"). It's the highest coastal mountain range in the world, reaching an altitude of about 5700m, though that part is a little more inland. Here's a view of the foothills surrounding Taganga.

There certainly weren't any official trails, and the trails that did exist, presumably used by locals for everyday life, which includes leading their pack animals around, as I surmised by all the 

around, were few and far between. It was pretty exhausting in the 30˚ heat, but luckily it was a cloudy day, making the temperature a little more bearable. I saw lots of great animals, and also some excellent scenery. Including cacti. Look at all the cacti!

There is a dude in this cacti! Look in the middle. He must not have been comfortable. But he must have also been like "dude, I'm sitting on a cactus, this makes me a MAN." Maybe it's a rite of passage around here.

This looks like a cactus and a stick got in a fight and then at the end they got their clothes tangled up and now it's just awkward.

Aww, a baby cactus! I wonder what its first words were. Probably "guys, this is a really painful existence. I would not recommend being a cactus"

This is a cactus that I sat on. Obviously, this caused my butt to suddenly expand to 8 times its normal size, caused me to instantly leap 3 meters in the air while my legs made a fast running motion in the air, yell "ow-ow-ow-ow-ow-ow-owwwwwwww" and then upon landing run around in circles until I found a pond where I extinguished my butt which was suddenly also on fire for some reason.

A cactus farm! I think that every morning the farmers get up at first light and milk the cacti. This is why there is such a high rate of hand injury among Colombian farmers. This is also why all the milk in Colombia is green. (the milk in Colombia is not green.)

Okay, that's all the cactus pictures/stories I have. Seeya tomorrow for Taganga Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back. Or something.

Taganga Episode III: Wildlife

Note - this blog is automatically imported into facebook, but unfortunately it loses some formatting in the process. Click here to visit the real thing.

This week is "Taganga Week" at Xave's Xlog. Check it out:

Taganga Episode I: The Trailer

Taganga Episode II: The Town

I took lots of pictures of animals this weekend. Animals are cool! Check them out.

This was the view from my hostel balcony to the next yard over. Not pictured: a lot more goats and one extremely loud donkey.

On Saturday, I spent a few hours hiking in the hills surrounding Taganga. This was not something I was supposed to be doing, I think, given the lack of trails. Not that anyone cared. It was probably less against the rules and more why would anyone do that because there's a national park with hiking trails right beside Taganga you idiot xave.

"Long day? Take a load off. What'll it be?"

On my hike, I ran into a lot of these little dudes. I didn't get a great shot of this guy's underbelly, but it was bright yellowy green (you can kind of see it in the next shot). Some of them also had shockingly blue tails and faces, but I didn't manage to get a good picture.

Here's a picture of a really weird bee-like thing.

And his butt.

"Hey George, one of those giant things is here! 

Better show it the traditional peace offering!"

Near the end of my hike, I heard a high-pitched scream recurring every 10 seconds or so. Whatever was happening to this thing sounded really painful. It sounded like what would have happened if Nick Jonas had entered my classroom today (today is Nick Jonas' birthday, as I recently found out).

Eventually I spotted what was making the noise. I guess I can't blame for screaming, since it was standing on a cactus. Then when I got close enough to take a picture, it flew away... and stood on another cactus. Stupid bird.

Crab Series #1: Camouflagey

After my hike I went for a swim some 2 or 3 coves over from Taganga, which is where I had naturally ended up. I walked home through the shallows along the coast, and in one little cavey area I saw some crabs. They were really hard to capture, not because they kept running away, but because they were so camouflagey when I looked away to look through the camera I kept losing them.

On Sunday, I spent the day with a few people from my hostel on a day trip run by Santiago, the hostel owner. At the end of the day, we popped over to one of the camping areas of Tayrona Park to drop off 3 of the people who had come on the trip, as they were staying overnight in the park. We spent 30 or 40 minutes relaxing on the beach before heading back to Taganga, and I found some more animals, including the birds above.

 Crab Series #2: Blue

Crab Series #3: Red

Here are some more birds.

"Robert, we need to talk about our relationship. 

Robert! Robert, look at me."

Some other wildlife I saw but didn't manage to capture cameraly:

• a literally neon yellow butterfly
• many fish while snorkeling, including one that might have been an eel and one that might have been a republican
• a bigfoot (I swear!)
• a crazy guy who kept growling and then pinched K's butt

Taganga: The Trailer

Note - this blog is automatically imported into facebook, but unfortunately it loses some formatting in the process. Click here to visit the real thing.

You might have noticed a lack of blogging this weekend. You probably didn't, because you don't exist, since I'm talking to nobody. But anyway, whether you noticed or not, there was a lack of blogging this weekend. This is because I took off for the weekend, to a small village of about 5000 people called Taganga, which is very close to the much larger city of Santa Marta. Taganga is also right beside a National Park called Tayrona that is pretty famous around here.

The weekend was great, and I have much to tell/show about it. I think this whole week will be dedicated to blogging about various aspects of the weekend.

My idea was to have a sort of movie trailer ready for today, giving you a glimpse of what's in store for the rest of the week. Unfortunately, I forgot to upload the pictures on to my computer, and I don't have internet at home, so I have to post this before I leave school. So I'll just tell you some of the things you can look forward to this week, and I'll leave it up to you to imagine the accompanying images and deep voiced movie trailer dude.

"Xave was a normal guy. He worked 8 hours a day, paid his bills, and his pride and joy was a 5 foot tall, 1.5 foot-diameter, Hercules electric fan. Until one day, he went to... Taganga!

Taganga showed Xave a side of life he had never seen before. He stayed in a room with no air conditioning! He ate food! He walked... down the street! Now Xave's life is upside down, and he doesn't know if he can ever go back! All thanks to... Taganga!"

Seriously, though, I did these things:

• snorkeled
• ate a fish
• met the coolest kid ever
• wakeboarded
• climbed a mountain on which there were no trails and many shrubberies
• got a sun burn
• took 6 different vehicles for 1 trip
• fished
• got in a fight with a cactus
• took close up pictures of animals
• bribed
• saw a flaming torch juggling unicycle show that almost catastrophized
• chased a bus around a highway clover leaf on foot

Does this sound like something you want to read about? If you answered YES or NO to the previous question, be sure to stay tuned for the rest of the week!

Air Travels Continued

Note - this blog is automatically imported into facebook, but unfortunately it loses some formatting in the process. Click here to visit the real thing.

Hey guys, I would really like to tell you some actual exciting things, like the day and a half trip I just took to neighboring Cartagena, bathing in a volcano, or impressions of the school I'll be working at, but all of those things require pictures, so while I figure out how this newfangled technology stuff works, I'll continue my boring story about airplanes!

On Thursday I told you about my air travels, with an emphasis on airports. Today we look at airlines! I know, exciting, right? But don't go away - today's entry also includes Amusing Anecdotes, but they're at the bottom meaning you HAVE TO READ THE REST OF MY BORING DRIVEL TO GET THERE!

So, without further ado:

(I lied, there is further ado. Ado! Ado ado ado ado adooooooooooo! Ado all over the place, ado in your face! Ew. Adew?)

Airline Rankings

3. American Airlines - this wasn't even close. American Airlines sucks. They had no home entertainment system like the other two, they had no food (even though my subsequent flight, which was half as long, did), and they oversold it (I know all airlines do this - I even studied it in my undergrad (I know, industrial engineering sounds great right), but having people left behind at the gate is an indication you've over-oversold). Just an unpleasant experience.

2. Air Canada - Air Canada made a strong showing. They have the home entertainment system thing going on, and on the Toronto-Vancouver flight I watched Sunshine Cleaning, which was great. Unfortunately, the Vancouver-San Fran corridor wasn't so high-tech (i.e. no home entertainment system), probably because it was a shorter flight.

1. Avianca Airlines - Avianca Airlines, the flag carrier of Colombia, stole the show. They've got the home entertainment system, and it's better than the Air Canada one. It has a removable control thingee that is an interface controller, keyboard, and even a video game controller? Crazy. Also, they served me a meal... on a 2 1/2 hour flight... which was listed as having no meal. Big ups, Avianca Airlines.

Other notes:

• there was a kid sitting behind me on the Toronto-Vancouver leg who was friggin' hilarious. He was probably something like 2 1/2, old enough to be talking a lot but young enough to be an idiot (in a good way). Also, he had an English accent. So, when I tell you that he said "mommy! Are we flying yet?" (say it in your head with an English accent) when we were clearly still on the ground NOT MOVING, it was the funniest thing I've ever heard.
• the lady sitting beside me on Toronto-Vancouver is from Victoria, so she flies in and out of Vancouver a lot, and it has always been too cloudy to see the mountains. We saw the mountains. Apparently I really lucked out on that one, and it was unbelievable. Every time I see mountains it catches me off guard - I've seen them lots of times, and even climbed a couple, but I always forget how majestic and beautiful they are.
• Three hours later, I flew out of Vancouver at the height of sunset (does that make sense?) over the Pacific. I mentioned yesterday that Vancouver is #1 on my list of places to visit in Canada, and it moved up at least a couple of places based on those views.
• I watched Star Trek on the Avianca flight. I've never watched any Star Trek before (except for when I was a kid and re-runs were on all the time on every channel, but even then I never sat through a whole episode), but the movie was enough to make me think about getting into it a little bit. I really, really enjoyed it. The movie's only downfall: the climax occurred at the same time as South America was coming into view. I didn't know what to watch! Avianca made the decision for me, though - the movie automatically shut off since we were close to our destination. I still have to watch the end.
• On the day of my travel from Colombia to San Francisco, I woke up at about 9:30AM (PST), and by the time all was said in done, I was in bed by 10:30PM (CST) the next day. That's 39 hours of awake, which in and of itself isn't earth-shattering, but as far as I can remember is a personal record.
  

The Inaugural Colombia Blog Post

Note - this blog is automatically imported into facebook, but unfortunately it loses some formatting in the process. Click here to visit the real thing.

Well, I'm in Colombia. That's ColOmbia, with 2 o's. It's amazing how many of you silly North Americans spell that incorrectly (yes, 30 hours on a continent makes me one of them).

I have a lot I could write about, and for the first couple weeks I think there will be a bit of a backlog on the blog (backblog?), but I want to try to focus on just one topic per entry to keep things interesting. With that in mind, today's piece will be all about various aspects of my air travels in the last couple weeks. I've had four flights recently, because I visited my parents in San Francisco (through Vancouver) for a week before coming down south, and then had a layover in Miami on the way here, so I've got 3 airlines and 5 airports to blog about. Here goes!

Airport Ranking

4. Miami - This ranking is likely somewhat unfair to the Miami airport, given the state I was in (it was Florida). I had flown out of San Francisco at 11PM, arrived 7:30AM Miami time, having gotten no sleep (I can't sleep on planes), and then had a 7 hour layover. I wanted to sleep during the layover, and I thought it might even work out - even though I can almost never sleep on any form of transportation, I believe the primary reason for this is the upright position one is forced into, so curling up on an airport floor, after having stayed up all night, sounded perfectly fine. I even had a comfy travel pillow and a blanket. Last but not least, my dad had texted me his google results for "where to sleep in Miami airport".

So what went wrong? Well, I couldn't find these alleged best spots, since the map system was ridiculously bad. I never found "concourse A" on a single map in the whole airport (they had concourses B through J). And there just weren't any other good spots - it was loud, bright, and I didn't want to use ear plugs or a blindfold since I had valuable stuff with me.

Anyway, the point of me telling you all this was that the 7 hours I spent in the Miami airport were unpleasant, hence its low rank. Other things that suck about the Miami airport:

• I had to go through security again, since my connecting flight was in a different area
• the currency exchange place didn't have Colombian Pesos
• much of the airport was under construction, which might have accounted for my inability to find the supposed sleeping zones. However, this construction was not at all marked on any maps. When trying to find the gate for my connecting flight, an airport employee pointed me in a direction which ultimately ended up being under construction.
• The airport is shaped like a U, and I basically had to go from one tip to the other. It was honestly a couple of kilometers. I don't understand why there isn't some connection.
  

3. San Francisco - I really didn't spend much time in the San Fran airport, even though it was the only airport I visited twice on the trip. I had a beer at a bar literally right beside my gate on the way out, which was predictably overpriced. The airport was okay - I doubt it would have moved in the rankings if I had spent more time there. Perhaps over Toronto, but probably not to spots 1 or 4.

2. Toronto - another one that's difficult to rank, since I've been to the Toronto airport many times, and generally been pretty impressed by it (thanks to fatherly first class lounge connections), but on this visit all I really did was have a burger and fries in the "Red Rocket Grill", which was so tacky I loved it (they actually tried pretty hard to make it look like a subway car). Also, the burger was surprisingly good.

1. Vancouver - I've never been to Vancouver before. I've been to 9 provinces (Newfoundland), 20 states, and 4 continents, but not one of the biggest and coolest (so I've heard, anyway), cities in Canada. It's almost definitely #1 on my Canada to-visit list. And the airport did nothing to change that stance. It actually looked nice on the inside, something that could not be said for any other airports I visited, its wireless internet was free (which I took advantage of when we were stuck on the ground for half an hour and my iPod could still reach it, advising my parents to leave a little later to pick me up), and it had Orange Julius!!! I know this isn't exactly earth-shattering, but I got an Orange Julius, and I haven't had Orange Julius in probably more than a decade. I used to get Orange Julius somewhat often as a kid, so drinking an Orange Julius at the Vancouver was very nostalgic and awesome. Orange Julius Win. I also had a Monte Cristo.

Unranked: Barranquilla - Barranquilla's airport isn't exactly on the same playing field as the other 4 - for one thing, it's tiny, and for another, when I was there, I was ARRIVING IN SOUTH AMERICA. Obviously Barranquilla wins. Also, the Barranquilla airport was the first airport in South America (like I mean in history not in me)! Cool! One other great thing about this airport is that I didn't understand the customs form because it was in Spanish, and after a bunch of me being like "je ne sais pas but in Spanish" they were like screw it, just go.

You know what? Let's stop there. I still have an airline ranking and a bunch of miscellaneous notes, but I tend to babble, so let's break things up a bit. I'm off to Cartagena tomorrow, a trip organized by the school (they are seriously pampering me, I'll tell you about it sometime), so catch ya later folks.