Adios, Colombia - Holaaa Ecuadorrr!

As I write this, the travel team is officially heading South to Ecuador! We just spent a short but sweet weekend in the small pueblito of Salento, Colombia where the population is only about 7000 & the scenary is breathtaking. We stayed at a really rad little hostel called La Serrana that had an incredible view of Salento Valley & was completely surrounded by mother nature. It was such a peaceful & relaxing little stop in our journey. We hiked for about an hour to a coffee plantation where we got a personal tour of the plantation, saw each step of the creation process & got to have a fresh cup of Colombian coffee - so delicious! Mariana, the wife of the couple who owned and lived on the coffee plantation, showed us around. We couldn't believe the plantation was their backyard, it was beautiful and ran right along the river.

We were suppose to arrive in Salento on Friday afternoon but due to weather conditions and mudslides, our 7 hour bus ride turned into 22 hours! Bummer. It was interesting because there was no communication between the driver and the passengers so we literally had no idea how long we'd be stuck. We think this was partly due to the driver himself not knowing, but also because we don't think it's that uncommon here for a bus ride to take 2 or 3 times longer than anticipated. We were stuck behind a ridiculously long line of trucks and cars that were trying to pass through too, and at one point a few local kids came onto the bus selling coffee & bread. Considering how no one had eatten dinner, that became a little chaotic. A bit later some guys with bread baskets on the back of their motorcycles came around to buses that were stuck selling juice boxes & bread. In the end, we eventually arrived safely in Salento & got to each a delicious & big breakfast at the hostel :)

Being stuck on the bus though was an experience in itself. At one point some man in the middle of the bus turned into a comedian and got the whole bus laughing. It was fun to watch everyone come together in a shitty situation. Sometimes we'd be stuck in 1 spot so long that the driver would just turn off the bus, and when he would turn it back on everyone would start cheering. A premature excitement to say the least, considering how most of the time we'd only move about 10 feet before we stopped again Haha Regardless, it seemed like everyone was trying to stay positive. It was also interesting to see the kids come onto the bus & sell the coffee & bread. The girl couldn't have been older than 11 and her little brother was probably 7. This isn't uncommon though. Everyday we have seen 7 year olds running up to cars trying to sell gum or 9 year olds walking through metros trying to sell candy. It's been hard to take in, to see these kids and feel like their childhood has almost been taken away from them. It's been nice though to see them doing these things and still smiling. I suppose everything is relative. It's just such a different way of life, so drastically different from our own childhood.

Before we arrived in Salento, we spent a fun 5 days in Colombia's capital, Bogota. Bogota was huge & beautiful, with grafitti on educational reform & laws covering city. The capital of 9 million bustles with character and flavor. We enjoyed wandering around, exploring & discovering it. We had a gracious host, Adam, who is Kevin's older brother's friend from college. Adam was so generous, sharing with us his beautiful apartment, hot shower, full fridge, laundry machine, and big screen TV. As Kevin said, we weren't exactly "roughin it" here, but grateful nonetheless to be in one of the safest parts of the city, in a warm home, with great company. We've been blessed to not find ourselves in any sort of intimidating, uncomfortable or unsafe situations. We would like to think this partly due to our constant vigilance & heightened awareness (not even going to lie, I have a whistle in my purse as we speak! haha), partly to the good, protective energy you are sending our way, and partly to the inherently friendly nature of Colombian culture. We found the people of Bogota to be just as friendly as those of Medellin, and while we realize we haven't gotten but a small taste of the country, what we've seen & experienced thus far has been wonderful & warm.

In Bogota we visited the Museo de Oro, Museo Botero, walked all over the main strip of the city, wandered into a Congressional plaza where we witnessed residents protesting infront of the main buildings, took an extremely steep cable car up to the top of a mountain to see a beautiful view of the city, ate delicious food, grabbed drinks with some of Adam's Colombian friends, saw those same friends again later for lunch & coffee, got told by multiple cab drivers that we close their doors too hard, nearly choked on the thick, black fumes that the cars here emit, ate a ridiculous/glorious amount of peanut butter, relaxed in beautiful green grass, walked in & listened to a lot of Colombian rain, bought $3 t-shirts, did some yoga & met some friendly Colombian strangers who helped us out when we were struggling with our Spanish and smiled to help push us along :)

The way of life in Colombian is definitely less stressful than in the States. Somehow they driving here is complete controlled chaos. It's been a miracle to not see a car accident. We don't know how they do it, but they pull it off. And what's most intriguing about this is that there is no road rage!! We seriously haven't seen or heard a single angry driver. Everyone honks, but it's not an angry honk, more like a "hey!". We've literally been in cabs that have almost been squished by crazy buses zipping around corners but no one seems to react to this near-accident experience except for us. haha We're learning to get use to buses passing lanes blindly around corners, and by "learning", I mean pretend like it's not happening & pray we just get there safe haha So far so good :) Colombia was great for celebrating the holidays with festive lights all over the city, in main plazas, on company buildings, on people's houses and apartment decks, etc. They definitely helped us feel like it was December :)

We'll be in Ecuador for awhile. From December 22 - January 20 the three of us will be working on a farm with a Shaman & his family! http://www.ecuadorecovolunteer.org/volunteer-work/amazon/paraiso-eco-lodge/ It's in a small town south of Quito. We are all really excited for this experience. We heard about it through a fellow traveler we met in Medellin who was just talking with us about a few places he'd been and mentioned the farm. He spent 2 months there & said it was incredible. We were, of course, interested, so got the information of the farm, contacted them that same night, and here we are, headed there now! Funny/beautiful how things work out <3

We're not sure how much internet access we'll have while on the farm. We'll try our best to stay in touch. We'll be spending Christmas, Jackie's 23rd birthday & New Years on the farm! We wish you a truly merry christmas that we hope is filled with loved ones & warmth, & an open heart to bring in the new year.

Until next time, XO -

A & J