5 DAY GLOBALIZED SLUMBER PARTY IN FARC RED ZONE

TRAVELING WITH 9 WORLDLY WOMEN

So we just had a 5-day weekend because May 1st is Labor Day in Colombia, and May 5th is some saint holiday. So since the 1st fell on a Thursday and the 5th fell on a Monday, they gave us Friday off as well, giving us 5 days of vacation.

Taking advantage of this long weekend, a group of friends and I made our way down to a town called San Agustin, which is located about 10 hours southwest of Bogotá. We were 9 girls, from various countries....4 from the US, 3 from Brazil, 1 Bolivian, and 1 from French Guyana. Our only common language was Spanish, but throughout the trip it was one big mix of Spanish, English, French, and Portuguese, and in general we could all pretty much understand each other, even if it was in one of the languages we don't speak.

In order to arrive in San Agustin, we had to travel through one mountain range of the Andes, into a valley and up into the central Andes mountain range (in Colombia the Andes split into three mountain ranges, and Bogotá is located in the easternmost range). So the weather was changing from cold to hot to cold all the time.

DESIERTO TATACOA

Our first night we stayed in a town called Villa Vieja, which about halfway to San Agustin, and is located close to a desert called Tatacoa. This "desert" didn't really seem like a desert, since it was completely muddy (it rained the day before....but that usually doesn't matter in a desert, right??). So we walked through this "desert" barefooted, passing cacti but at the same time sloshing through the mud..

At one point we passed a tree called "the tree of desires". When you pass the tree of desires you are supposed to take one of the closed leaves from a branch, open it up and make 3 wishes. We all opened our leaves and thought about our three desires. Hopefully they will come true!

As you can see from the pictures, this wasn't any normal desert, and we came out of there with really really dirty feet. The picture above is of one of my Brazilian friends named Edna. Edna started the trek through the "desert" wearing her shoes before she decided to go barefoot, and afterwards her shoes were pretty much ruined.




SAN AGUSTIN

Our second day we continued on our way to San Agustin. In order to get to San Agustin, we had to go through a town called Pitalito, which, unbeknownst to me at the time, is controlled by the FARC. I thought this was pretty cool, and was hoping that I would get to see some guerrillas. And I DID get to see guerrillas (at least I think so). But I think I will refrain from putting details on the internet, it might not be safe......

In San Agustin, which is a town of only about 2000, we met up with two guy friends, one Colombian/Gringo and one Canadian from Quebec. They were familiar with the area and knew people in the town, so we were able to get deals on our hostel and horseback riding.

One of the days we went to an archaeological park with old indigenous ruins. This was pretty cool, but I felt like all the ruins looked pretty much the same. Nevertheless, it was still interesting. This indigenous group must have been obsessed with sex and phallic symbols and giving birth and stuff, because every statue we saw was either in the shape of a penis or was of a woman giving birth.

So in the picture of the ruins you will see two phallic symbols, which are supposed to signify the symbol of life, and in the middle is another character with a recently born child.




The last day there we all went horseback riding. We rented the horses for 4 hours and went riding through the countryside, uphill, downhill, through a river, and to a valley with an amazing view. We started at around 9am and finished at 1pm. The weather wasn't the greatest, it was lightly misting, but it wasn't too bad. But towards the end it was pouring buckets of water and we were very far away from the hostel, so we had to do our best to gallop back as fast as possible while soaking wet. It was my first time ever horseback riding. Very cool, but OH MY GOD MY BODY HURT THE NEXT DAY!








The picture to the left is of the valley we rode to. Pretty sweet huh?







Then on Monday morning we made our way back to Bogota, leaving at 6:30am and arriving close to 6:30pm. Now it's back to my classes, for one more month before my next adventures begin!