CouchSurfing and paragliding in Medellin

I ended up staying quite some time in Medellin, mostly due to my sweet CouchSurfing hosts that showed me what real Colombian hospitaliy is, took time to show me the city and told me many stories about Medellin, such as the famous drug kind Pablo Escobar and the more famous plastic surgeries.

The first picture is of my very first CouchSurfing host (ever!!), Silvia, the born and bread Medellin chica, who is a  TV producer, university teacher, mother of two cats, diver and traveller. The picture is from the Minorista market in Medellin, THE place to go to when buying your groceries. It was one big market and I ended up buying so many fruits that I have never tried or seen before. Colombians, are notorious for their juices and I think every household has it´s own juicemaker as everyone seem to have delicous fruit juices for breakfast. I got to try some very very very good fruits and juices that I would just die for if we had it back home! Silvia and I had a lot of discussions around plastic surgeries as Medellin is famous for all its fake boobs, asses, lips, faces, you name it! Girls start as early as 15 years old to adjust their boody parts, sad but true. I have no idea why these women and men have plastic surgeries as Colombians are beautiful people. They defintely do not need it! One day on the metro I was guessing which girls had fake boobs and which did not. Think I counted tons more fake ones than real. So no I am all boobed-out! .....not to mention assed-out!

My second CouchSurfing exeprience was with the lovely and sweet couple Ana (the actress and teacher) and Jesus ("Chucho") (the arcitect and music collector). The picture is from downtown Medellin outside a typical Colombian restaurant, where they took me for dinner. Here we had the most food I have had in a long time and the most delicious Colombian "tipico" food I have tried so far! Colombians, as all latin Americans, tend to eat a lot of rice as well but what is famous in Colombia is their arepa, a sort of tortilla looking flat bread that is made of corn or flour, taste like nothing but is eaten daily as a bread with their food. I have gotten use to the arepa and today i bought some for myself to eat with a fried egg and cheese. Not so bad at all! Chucho has the most amazing music collection that I have ever seen. He simply just have the best world music ever, hence, we ended up talking a lot about music and of course dancing. He made me a very good DVD with the mest music and he took me to some salsa hot spots in town where we dances until late and where I got to try the famous Colombian "aquardiente". This alcoholic drink you drink as a shot with a glass of water. It was one damn strong shot!! you just have to have that glass of water afterwards otherwise u will get smashed drunk in seconds! Chuco also took me around the city of Medellin on his motorcycle and that was one good experience as well! Weeeeiiiiiiii, he drove fast!

He also told me the stories about the drugs in Medellin and the famous Pablo Escobar, who is worldly known as the biggest drug king on the planet. Well was, as he got killed about 20 years ago by the Colombian government. Ever since he got killed the city of Medellin has done a massive job in trying to remove the drug-city stamp from its pavements and invested billions of dollars in the city and its people. Now Medellin is more famous for its fashion and medical tourism than drugs. However, the drugs haven´t dissapeared from the city it is just dealt with more smootly and underground. As for me, no one offered me anything so I think the city has done a good job - not that I look like the want-to-be drug addict anyway..well...yet. LOL!

My last day in Medellin, me and Ana went Paragliding! Medellin is also famous for paragliding and it was just a must for me to try as it has been on my list for so long! We took the local bus up to the very top of one of the mountains surrounding the city and got ourselves two Colombian paragliding pilots! It was a tandem flight, thank God. We were quite excited and scared for the big jump but when looking at the others flying it looked so peaceful so the nerves calmed down quite a bit. The take off went smooth even though you run towards the edge of the mountain and you have no idea what is going to happen! But seconds later you are softly gliding in the air with the birds around you. It was one tranquilo, relaxing and peaceful moment :) I truly enjoyed it!! and the views of the mountains, the landscape and the city was just amazing! This must be how it is to be a bird :)

mondern Medellin, Colombia

The nightbus to Medellin went smooth with somewhat plenty of sleep. I had prepared the tbus rip with plenty of warm cloths but for sure it wasnt enough as the driver turned the heat down to north pole cold...brrrrr.... Why on earth do they do that?

I had arranged a couch to sleep on in Medellin through CouchSurfin.org before I arrived and I can proudly say that I am not a CouchSurfing virgin anymore! CouchSurfing is a website for people that want to meet local people and sleep on their couches and vice versa: locals offer couches to travellers from all over the world. I have known about the website for years but it wasnt until 2 months ago I actually created an account. After staying in tons of hostels throughout Central America, I decided that I had to do something different in Colombia, so my aim is to CouchSurf all of Colombia for 1 month (at least). I hope to meet loads of locals, who can show me the secrets of the city only the locals know about.

So far I have had a very good experience. At the moment I am CouchSurfing with a women called Silvia in Medellin, who is taking good care of me and showing me what to do in town. A very nice and friendly girl indeed and I get to know so much about Colombia and the people here (paisas) that I wouldnt have had a clue about staying in a hostel. I am also thankful she took me on board even though I had no references on my profile (you know I could have been a lunatic psycotic person)..hehehe. So Thanks!

Medellin, there are so many things to see and do here. I am very impressed by the city and its good infrastructure. I am especially surprised by the metro cable cars the city has build over the favela slum areas so the poor people will have a chance to work downtown and be part of the city. It only costs 80cents to take the metro cable cars and the metro all over the city and it is fast, clean, and impressive. I went up and down the cable cars myself as I really enjoyed the ride (I could do this all day by the way :) and the views are just amazing!

Another big thing in Medellin is paragliding! They take you up the mountains and then you swoosh of the mountain gliding and sailing in the air over Medellin. Paragliding has been on my TO DO LIST for so long that I dont think I can resist the offer!! and for 40 bucks, who can say no to that!

Tomorrow, I have a picnic date with my Dutch girlfriend Dorien that I meet back in January in Honduras. It is so cool we are in the same town again!

in beautiful Cartagena, Colombia

The flight to Cartagena went smooth and fast (1h) in a propella plane across the Caribbean sea. I had company by this German young guy that is traveling from Alska to Argentina for 1 year. We bumped into each other the other day at the hostel in Panama City,  4.5 months after we bumped into each at the Mayan ruins in Palenque Mexico! The backpacker world is small. Lol!

Im very excited to finally be in Colombia, my last country on my Central America journey. However, it feels like I started a new chapter as I am officially in South America and Colombia is huge! It is double the size of France or California state. SO it is biiig. Nothing like the small countries in Central America.

Cartagena itself is a very beautiful Spanish colonial city from the 16th century with amazing buildings in the old town and new modern skyliners in the new part of town. Here is a good link about the city http://www.cartagenacaribe.com/ Salsa is played everywhere and last night I got to dance a bit myself :)

Staying at a really cool place as well called Media Lunas hostel http://www.medialunahostel.com/ a place I would recommend if you are ever in this part of the world. Cartagena though is HOT and I mean sweaty hot so I end up just lazing around all day... :) I have been here 4 days now and it is time to move on down south to the City of Eternal Spring - Medellin (which I really hope has cool spring weather!) It is a 13h bus journey so tonight I will hop on the night bus and hopefully sleep my way to Medellin.

See you there!

Off to Colombia!!!

Weeeeiiiiiii flying to Colombia today! See you in Cartagena :))

San Blas, Panama

Life is gooooooooooooooooooood what else can I say :) !! Had the most delicious coconuts ever in San Blas - real paradise islands. I have seen many beaches and places in my life but I have to admit that San Blas have the most beautiful beaches in the world! It was truly amazing and so relaxing. Days consisted of swimming, sunbathing, snorkling, eating, reading, napping, drinking coconuts... And so it continued for a whole week... ah such a hard life!

We were about 30 backpackers on the island and maybe 20 more local Kuna people - kid´s and families. You could easily walk around the whole island in 15 minutes. We also went on small trips to other beautiful isolated islands and managed to see how the local people lived all isolated on small islands. According to their law, no tourists were allowed to stay on these islands. They truly have an easy life even though it was pretty poor. But you really don´t need much to survive in this place. Funny enough everyone had mobile phones and you could see the kids wanting to be all Western with hip hop clothes while the older Kuna women was wearing traditional colourful dresses. You can see some pics in my albums on Picasa.

All good comes to an end and now I am back in Panama City for some salsa dancing :) aaarrribba!

...off to paradise...

...to relax and enjoy the Caribbean islands of San Blas in Panama. So Mum this is for you to know that I am still alive and alright even though I won't have internet and mobile for a week or two, hence not reachable... I like the sound of this already.. hehehe. So this is where I will be San Blas.

"So much of who we are is where we have been"

Got Lost in the mountains but found myself in Panama City

After celebrating my birthday for 1 week in Bocas it was time for some cool down time up in the Panamanian mountains. On my way there I found a Finnish girl Maria to travel with and as we hiked with our huge heavy backpacks up the steep hill to the hostel (why do they build hostels so damn up high?) it was nice to have a fellow country women along, who understand the meaning of Sisu! (if you don't know what it means, google it) I so needed one :)

It was so worth the tedious hike up that hill as the view from the LOST and FOUND hostel was truly beautiful and peaceful. You can check it out here http://www.lostandfoundlodge.com. The following day we even hiked some more, we did a 5h hike in the cloud forest and aaahhh so nice, beautiful and refreshing (I think I use the word nice and beautiful way too often in this blog by the way...) and it was so good for the nowadays unfit me.

At the hostel we met two sweet old American guys that kindly offered us a free ride into Panama city the following day. So off we went on a 7h road trip to the biggest city in Central America. I have to say that Panama is way more developed than I thought.... at moments it felt like we where driving through the States.. I mean we even stopped at McDonalds! Geeez.... Dont like it that they have taken over the world.

Anyways, the sweet gentlemen dropped us off in Panama city and we hailed a taxi to take us to the best hostel in town, Luna's Castle http://www.lunascastlehostel.com which feels like home already... I mean free pancake and banana breakfast, guys playing guitars, people singing, in house movie theater, tons of books to read, free internet, our own big balcony, beers in the fridge....who wouldn't feel at home??

And tomorrow is all about discovering what this city has to offer before it will go into Semana Santa (Easter) celebrations. (By the way, I cannot believe it is Easter already, it was just Christmas!!)

But first on my list is to for the first time try CEVICHE, which is suppose to be the best here. Thanks wikipedia for explaining what it is http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ceviche.