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!