Oops- a few more weeks have zoomed by and I haven´t done an update.
So what has Noah been up to these days? Let me try to remember everything.
I believe the last post was Iguaque, that lovely park in the mountains near Tunja. The next weekend we went with the exchangers to another site near Tunja, the "Desert" of the Candelaria, a famous monastery with Brazilian dominican monks. I was expecting a very austere setting complete with sand dunes, a tumbling piece of brush, and monks doing Gregorian chant. You know, something out of an old western in New Mexico. After walking a good way we arrived to find that it isn´t a desert at all, but a rather green strip of land in the middle of what might be considered desert, and while it has some lovely churches and adobe arquitecture, the monks are very normal, even boring, people, despite their cool robes, and that the whole operation is fairly commercial. They sell knicknacks and charge you for a tour of the courtyard and museum. And when we asked, one monk explained that it used to be a desert, but that the minks had greened it up with irrigation, and that, and I quote: "not all things are literal; it´s more of a spiritual desert." .... riiight.
But anyway, there is a nice river nearby where we reclined for a while and ate tasty arepas baked nearby. And then Milena and I hurriedly made the walk back to town in an hour in order to catch a bus so she wouldn´t miss her English lesson with a young student.
What else? Oh yeah, Saint Patrick{s day was quite epic. I went to Bogotá to play with the Shamrock Wings, the other Irish band in the city that are much more cool and laid back than Espiritu Celta. We played one at one bar riday, and another Saturday. Complete with two bagpipers (a German girl, and Felipe, resident Scottish culture nerd and quite a character, whose house I crashed at). There was the greatest dark beers the country has to offer on tap, and I also played a bluegrass set with a girl from Boston who i met through the band who sings really purty, and another girl from Boston (coincidentally) who is way cool, plays the irish fiddle and works for Witness for Peace. The two of us checked out the botanical garden and were excited to find huge demonstration gardens with all sorts of veggies in raised beds, water colletion systems, and fruit trees. Definitely going back there soon!
And then this last week was Semana Santa, Holy Week, which is taken more seriously here, complete with processions, endless prayer services, and a week of vacation! Woohoo! So Milena and I, both with colds, headed for warmer climates. There was a conference on English teaching in Pereira, inthe heart of the coffee producing region of Colombia, famous for beautiful rolling mountains and hills covered with plantain and coffee trees, and pretty colonial mansions. We stayed with Ancízar, a couchsurfing contact, and his fun family. While Milena went to conferences, I wandered around, and went to a workshop with Ancizar where i learned to play different drums used in traditional cumbia style (awesome!), and traded ideas with a great classical guitar player that hands around that foundation. The last day, we grabbed a bus up to an area an hour outside Pereira in the entrance to a big national park, but when we arrived it started puoring rain- and I mean pouring!! The rainy season is just starting here. We stopped to have lunch thinking we´d have to go back, but thankfully after an hour it cleared off and we hiked up and enjoyed beautiful mountains, first covered with little patches of farms, and then pure jungle with a big river running down and trees with cool vines and flowers.
Next stop was Cali, the third biggest city in the country in the Valley of Cauca, famous for sugar cane, world champion salsa dancers, and major drug cartels. We stayed with another couch contact, Angélica, a way cool Afro Colombia student of history (nerdy and well read like us!!). We talked a bunch in her apartment, soaking up the blazing heat of the city, wandered around the downtown, and ate typical food like chantaduro- a fruit that looks like a little pepper, but has flesh like a chestnut and tastes like a cooked carrot. Weird but yummy. The next day, we took a bus up into the mountains, follower the crystaline River Pance, where caleños take a break from the heat. We hiked up through jungle into a spot in the river with deeper pools, swam around and snacked, and then wandered down for another bumpy bus ride back to the city. Amazingly, we actually didn´t going out salsaing in Cali. A crime!! Thing is, there aren´t very many clubs open on Monday and Tuesday, and we were short on money, but we did go to a good slasa spot in Pereira, and we downloaded a buch of Angélica´s music to take back with us.
And now, after yet another long bumpy bus ride through mountains, we are back in Bogotá visiting Milena´s family. Today we lazed around, made tamales, and watched cheesy movies about jesus (a Semana Santa tradition), and tomorrow off to catch some street theatre from the huge festival going on right now in Bogotá, and then back to Tunja to rest and recharge for the last 2 months of work.
And that´s the news!! Good night and good luck.
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