My last weeks in Colombia; the last of everything

Those two last weeks flew past before you could say Colombia. Jeroen and I passed the Directors office a couple of times to talk about our project and all of us needed to organize all the paperwork concerning our stay.

The last weekend it was out of the question not to go party, so we went. Sunday we went to Girardot, about one or two hours away from Ibagué. There wasn’t a lot to see and it was extremely hot, so we –our ‘family’ and a bunch of friends- went swimming. 

Monday we gave a good bye party in and out of our house which was very nice. There were about 20 people, couple of them from my class, couple of neighbours and a couple of IAESTE people. Few beers, music, crisps and nice people, what more do you need?

We – Sebas, Jeroen, Marie and I- were invited again by the sweetest neighbours ever to come and have dinner. I will definitely miss them!

Thursday evening was our last evening in Ibagué, as we had to leave to Bogota Friday. Then we went to a nice bar with a group of friends, where we had a wonderful evening. As a good bye present everybody wrote something on a Colombian flag. I love it. Love them for that matter. Hopefully we will see each other again, in Belgium – you are extremely welcome to stay at my place!- or in Colombia. 

Hasta Luego Colombia, te quiero..

Villa de Leyva, Cartagena and Playa Blanca

Two weekends ago we went on a trip with a lot of international students. Saturday was a bit of a letdown; we spent the whole day in the bus en left the bus only to take pictures, but Sunday was really fun. A couple of us decided to go and see the village of Villa de Leyva. It was a beautiful small village. We explored the environment by horse with a 13 year old guide. It was fantastic! Afterwards I was stiff about everywhere, but it was worth it; It was between the mountains and bluegreen lakes.

 

After working for school  for a week–I was making a resume of the course- Sebastian, Marie and I took a flight to Cartagena. The bus trip to Bogota was 4 hours and the flight took 1,5 hours. Cartagena is a very touristic city in the north, at the Caraibic sea. I was very curious to see the city, as every Colombian had said it was beautiful. You have different parts of Cartagena; the new part with flats everywhere next to the beach, and the old part, surrounded by a wall. In my course of restauration I learnt that restauration isn’t really integrated in the Colombian culture and that the major of Cartagena wanted to destroy the whole wall to make room for more buildings! Luckily only a small part got destroyed.

Because we were exhausted from our trip, we spent the day on the beach. There were so many vendors; every 5 of 10 minutes thay passed! A popular profession was massaging. Most of the women just rubbed your back..

The afternoon of the second day we went to see the beautiful colourful old town. In the old part, every house has a different colour and a lot of them have pittoresque balcony’s that often hang over the sidewalks.

Most people say it’s at its prettiest at night. Pretty it is, but even at night it’s hot! One walks around at night time with shorts and t-shirt and still transpirates!

After our dinner we headed back home for yet another shower and then prepared us for a night out. We went with our new friends- an Argentine and a Belgian girl who were married- and some of their Colombian friends.

Day three we went to Playa Blanca, White Beach, where we met a nice Spanish girl and an English couple who accompanied us. Because it was a Carraibic island, we decided we had to go there. It was absolutely breathtaking! White beaches –as the name says- crystal blue water and coconut trees… Sigh…

PS We lost the pictures taken in Cartagena but Marta, our new Spanish friend, will sent us hers when she gets back to Spain. I'll probably upload the photo's then!

Week two and three in Ibagué

Monday morning of the first working week Jeroen and I went to a conference with the mayor. Sebas and Marie-Laure didn’t come because he had to work and she was –still- ill because she drank tap water on Thursday. I really had to concentrate to understand but I did understand quite a bit. People from the press took a picture of us –a few of the IAESTE people- with the mayor and his wife and a after that the mayor gave us his card and talked to every one of us. It struck me again how everything is so informal! At the hostel last Sunday in Medellin the woman of the hostel hugged us goodbye!

In the afternoon our - Jeroen and me- classes started. It is a two week course about restoration. Because the teacher is Italian, she speaks really slow and clear Spanish, unlike all the Colombians here. So I understood a lot! We’re with about 25-30 people in our class and they’re really nice!
 We visited the train station of Picaleña with the class to see our case study. It was beautiful but it was a ruin. About 4 families live there and they were refugees of another part of Colombia. It was really dangerous to live there; I was allowed on the first floor and I was actually afraid that I would fall through the floor!
The class was split up in four groups and each group investigated something else: materials, drawings, social context and history.

 


















That weekend was a quiet one; we visited Ibagué, did shopping and Sunday was a baby shower in our house. Not a baby of one of us, it was the baby shower of the daughter of Doña Marleny, our land lady. There were chairs throughout the whole street and you could hear the music two blocks further. There was one man who was fantastic; a small black man about 70 years old, big belly, a hat,… He danced the whole evening! And really good!
Week two of the course we worked in our groups and got ready for the presentation of Friday. The presentation was really nice and formal. After the presentation we – the whole class- went for a drink.

The weekend after that was three days because Monday was a holiday. We had an extra day off! (Well, we don’t really have that many days “on” so.. ) Friday we went with the whole group of IAESTE – an international organization – to a club of someone’s sister. And Saturday we went with the same group on a chiva and after that to Tereque, a famous bar in Ibagué. A chiva is a bus with less chairs than normal and with loud music. So while the bus is driving, everybody is partying. A nice experience, but I prefer a club that doesn’t move!

During the day – Saturday – there was an international meeting with presentations from different nationalities and a couple of little concerts and traditional dances.
Sunday we went to see the waterfalls of Payandé. Beautiful. Extremely hot, but the water was cold, so perfect combination. We were with a lot of nationalities; from Colombia, Belgium, Germany, Austria, Mexico, Portugal, Poland, China, …
Funny was that there were a couple of people wanted to take pictures of me and Marie-Laure. Our fifteen minutes of fame!

The week after that was a calm week; Jeroen and I are making a book; A kind of report of the two weeks and our reflections of it. I’m reading the book of our teacher, but it’s going very slowly because it is in Spanish. But I will succeed..