Cartagena y Santa Marta

13 February I left the island, off to the coast of Colombia.

We spent our first day in the beautiful, historic, romantic city called Cartagena.

The day after we went to the islands in front of the city. It looked a lot like San Andrés: blue water and white beaches. Later in the afternoon we left to Santa Marta.

 On our way we visited a vulcano. It was not just a normal vulcano, it was a natural mud bath: very relaxing and amazing for the skin.

Simon Bolivar was an important discoverer in Latin America. We visited the museum where we learned a little more about his life.

Another thing out of the Colombian history are the Spanish people, they were here for the gold. We also visited this museum. The ones who used a lot of gold were the indian people, many pieces we saw were for their Gods.

Talking about indians, there are still some people who live in the traditional way, we had the chance to visit them.

We went kayaking in a river that comes together with the ocean at the same place, a beautiful place.

Tayrona is one of the biggest national parks, I also bet one of the most beautiful ones. Incredible how many diferent kind of beaches exist. The beaches are literly of gold, in the sand and in the water we could find some pieces.

We spent the night in the park, we slept in hammocks. To go back, we passed the 7 stones by horse.

Our last night was in a hotel in Santa Marta, time went really fast, it was an amazing trip.

I had to go back to Cartagena where I spent another night, I had my flight booked the 22 of february.

Back to San Andrés!

City of 7 rivers

After the carnaval in Pasto we went back by bus to Cali. I stayed there for 4 more days. Cali is the city of the 7 rivers. We went to one of the waterfalls, if there is a paradise, it would look like this.

Back on the island, time for a new school year. Since our old director became governor we have a new one. This one is a little stricter, certainly about the uniform. An example: the girls had to sit on their knees to see if the skirt touched the ground, a new experience for me. Hellooooo new schoolyear!!!!

Carnaval de blancos y negros

The 31 of December I went to Cali  to celebrate New Year with the other exchange students. After two days in Cali we went to Pasto by bus.
There are two big carnavals in Colombia: the most famous one in Branquilla and the one in Pasto. The one in Pasto: carnaval de blancos y negros is a more cultural festival. The first day we bought a poncho, a hat, sunglaces and foam, lots of foam, ready for carnaval! You may question yourself: why did I need this..? Well, in the first place carnaval is a parade of beautiful cars. After the parade, there is the war with flower, talk and foam. No one is safe for this war, NO ONE!  I can honestly say that I was really happy I bought these things to protect myself.

Like I already said, carnaval in Pasto is a cultural festival. It's called carnaval of the blancos y negros. They celebrate the fact that different kind of races can live together.

The people in Pasto prepare the whole year for this. There were several days, the first day some guys from our exchange participated in the parade. The next day was the day of the negros (black), when you walked in the street and you were white, you would go home black.

The last day was the most important day. Beautiful cars came by. Amazing how many imagination they have to build them. I was really lucky that I knew some people on one of the cars and I was able to enter it, I loved it!

Off to the next carnaval in Baranquilla!!!

Medellin

After the trip to the Amazone, I went for 2 weeks to Medellin with a friend from Belgium who lives there. Medellin is the capital city of Antioquia. The city is more known for Pablo Escobar, who was a leader in the drugs traffic. I know Medellin as a city of art, technology and beautiful people.
City of art: I visited the modern art museum in Medellin. A beautiful place where you can find art pieces over the whole world. One of the most famous artists of Colombia is Fernando Botero. He is known for his special technic: big!

It's almost Christmas and this is one of the highlights of the year everywhere in the world. This is not different in Colombia. They love to decorate their houses and everywhere you look, you can see lights, many lights. We went to see the lights with the chiva (partybus). The lights in Medellin are famous over whole Colombia and with reason, beautiful!

A loooonggg time ago, before lights and technology, a meteorite landed a little bit out of Medellin. I visited the Peñol, it's incredable.

We went all the way to the top. I can't describe the view with words...

I also visited pueblo paisa, this was the very beginning of the city. It is a beautiful little town where you can find the typical native houses from when the city was founded.

City of technology: Medellin is the first city in Colombia with a metro and a metrocable. When you go in the metrocable you have the most beautiful view over the city.

After 12 incredable days I had to go back to San Andres. Preparing everything for Christmas. Christmas was very cosy and very nice, but also a little weard to me, I've never been at the beach the 25th of december.
Merry Christmas!

The Amazone

The Amazone, the rainforest, the lungs of the world. All the amazing things you have ever heard of it are true.

28 of November: we started in Bogota, reunion with the other exchange students, the beginning of a new adventure. We were immediatly dropped into the life of the Amazone.

We went to Peru with the lanchas, these are the typical botes they use as a transport overthere. They told us we needed boots and a flashlight, at that moment I knew why. We had to walk at night true the forest to find our foresthouse. The life in the Amazone at night is totally different from the life by day. For example: I've never seen the stars shining so bright as I saw them there.

Day 1: after a short but good night, we stood up at 5 o'clock, the same time as the incredable nature and the beautifull animals stand up. Swimming, fishing, climbing in trees,... short: living in a dream.

At the end of day one we went back to the lanchas to travel to a little town in the middle of the Amazone (Colombian part). The most beautiful thing about the Amazone is that there are tree countries coming together at one place: when we looked to our right we could see Peru, the left was Brazil and in the front we could see Colombia.

We visited several indians, we learned about their food, their believes, the way they dance,... It was really interesting to see how people still live by the power of nature in this modern 21st century. They also paint themselves with the plants they find in the nature. We had the chance to make some tattoos ourselves too.

We played tribal games during our stay in the Amazone. They seperated us in 3 groups. The tribal games are games where you need logical knowledge and strength. It was a lot of fun and the group became a lot closer to eachother.

You can find lots of special animals in the Amazone. For example: pink dolphins, parrots, crocodils, beautiful colorfull birds, monkeys, snakes, spiders like tarantulas,... every animal you can imagine you find in the Amazone. Also mosquitos, but we didn't really liked those ones.

The last day we spent in a hotel in Leticia, that's the city at the boarder of the tree countries. There is also the airport. At night we went to Brazil where we ate the brazilian food and danced the brazilian dances: sambaaaa!!! Their was a dancegroup who gave a show and they picked a person out of the public to dance with them: I was that person and it was awesome.

After 5 incredable, unforgettable days we had to leave the longs of the world, back to the real (still really nice) Colombian life.

My vacation isn't over yet, I am now in Medellin for two weeks.

So greetings from Medellin!

Graduation in Latin-American style

November was all about the graduation. The first weekend was a spiritual weekend. Most of my classmates lived their whole life on the island. When they graduate, everyone is going to the big cities in Colombia to study, saying goodbye to the good life in beautiful San Andrés. That weekend was a really special and really emotional weekend. We ended the weekend with a visit to Johnny Cay, that's one of the smaller islands in front of the coast of San Andrés.

The rotary organised a walk in the center of San Andrés to support breast cancer in which I participated.

At the end of the month, we started decorating the house with a Christmas tree and lots of lights. The whole family was coming together for the graduation of my host brother. It was really cosy, everyone lives far from eachother and it was fun to have everyone here. It was very busy in the house, but it was totally worth it.
We went diving with the family, it was my first diving experience, I already did freediving and snorkling but I never dived with oxygin. It was amazing and I can't wait to go diving again. When you're 12 meters down in the water, you forget all about the world next to the beautiful underwaterworld.

26 November: thanksgiving day, a day which is very known in the states, a day to say thank you for the things you have. 26 of November was also the graduation day. A lot of work was finally going to pay off. I had to get up at 6.30 in the morning. The celebration was at 8.30. It was with the special clothes and the hat and everyting you can imagin or that you've ever seen in the movies. After lots of speeches, we received our diploma, moment of glory! Done with college, starting a new life. For me: I am graduated for the second time, this time in Latin-American style.

I'm writing this blog at 3 o'clock. Like I already said, they have a reason to party for everything here, and graduation day is a BIG reason. Tonight everyone is going to dress up in beautifull dresses who were bought or made a lot of time before this day. The party is going to be on a boat called MonteCarlo who's going around the island. It will be a long and unforgettable night.

Tomorrow I'll be flying to Bogota for my trip to the Amazone, I'm really exited, I hope I'll be able to get up in the morning after the celebration for our graduation.
Greetings from San Andrés.

Pirates of the Caribbean

Everyone knows the famous movies 'Pirates of the Caribbean' with Jack Sparrow. I think it was kind of based on a true story. The history of the Caribbean islands is all about pirates. One of the most fierce pirates out of the history is Captain Morgan. They say he hide his treasure in a cave in San Andrés. I visited the cave, it's amazing. I searched for the treasure, but they probably already removed it. The guy who was leading us around told me he had been diving in the cave and said he came out in the ocean. I think that had probably been the way out for Captain Morgan too.

Also the thunderstorms you see in the movies aren't fiction. When it storms here in the Caribbean, you can feel the ground shake under your feet. I have never been afraid of storms in Belgium, but the first time I experienced it here, I pulled my pillow over my head.
12 October 2011: Dia de la raza or day of the races. Here in San Andrés you can find all kind of people and all kind of cultures: black, white, rastas, Christian, Jewish,... That's one of the most beautiful things about this place. They accept you for who you are, no matter how you look like, what your believes are or what your culture is. El dia de la raza is a very important holiday for the people here. All the schools of the island had to march in one big orkest. It was an honor to be a part of it.

From the day I arrived in Colombia, I could tell that there were going to be elections. Everywhere you looked you could see the campaigns. The rules of the rotary exchange program say that an exchange student can't be involved with politics, but it was kind of hard not to get involved. There were two contestants in the running to become the new governor of the island, one of them was the principal of our school.
The day of the truth: 30 of october, a really busy and stressy day. All the islanders had to go to give their vote, the traffic was crazy. Everyone was really excited to know who would win. At night around 6 o'clock we knew who had won. We were really happy to know that the new governor would be the director of Colegio Luis Amigo. She starts the first of January and within 4 years there will be new elections.
Latino people like to party, so when it was halloween you could notice it. They really like this day here. Everywhere people dressed up and little children with a bucket in their hand to collect some candy. Even at school we could come in disguise, that was something I couldn't imagine happening in Belgium.

At this time everyone is really busy to search clothes and arrange everything for another really important day: the graduation day.
Greetings from San Andrés!