Hitting the Books, Colombian Style

With Carnival over Eric and I stuck around Barranquilla for a few days to regain our bearings. Our new Colombian friends were students at one of the local universities and we got to explore a day of Barranquilla college life. Obviously I haven't seen very many universities around South America but here is what I've learned through some observation and many talks with travelers:

College is certainly different than what we experienced in the states. First, no one else in the world calls it college, it is University or Uni for short (in Spanish "Universidad)." On-campus living is virtually non-existent - some students share apartments around the area but most people commute from home. I don't have any hard statistics but the student populations tend to be much smaller - there are very, very few universities with the mega-populations like UCLA, U-Michigan, etc. With no dorms to occupy space and less students, the campuses more closely resemble high schools rather than the picturesque frisbee-throwing quads that we are accustomed to. And, most interestingly, the highly prestigious and selective universities are the public schools: the top students compete for virtually free government-subsidized education while the private schools will take anyone that can pay the fees. Again there are always exceptions, I am sure there are some lovely dorms in a prestigious private university somewhere in South America, but that is not the norm.

Eric and I enjoyed a fun tour around campus. If it wasn't obvious enough we were required to wear a visitor's badge (student IDs were checked at each gate entrance).

On our tour we spotted a flyer for a delightful field trip. What better place to spend Sprang Break than Washington DC!

And here is a classroom:

After a tough day at school we were famished. As I mentioned way back in Bolivia, the nuances of Mexican cuisine remain a mystery to most South Americans. Naturally we had to enlighten our new friends to the deliciousness of chicken quesadillas.

Last random note. This happened a few days later but doesn't really fit with the next blog entry so I'm putting it here. We went to the beach one day and saw this awesome ice-cream man. Unfortunately I was into week 2 of giving up sweets so didn't get to sample to goods but he deserves a billablog shoutout.

                             

Carnival - Enough Said

From Montanita we headed to Cuenca, probably the nicest South American city I have ever seen. Usually you see some sort of dilapidation in the architecture, stray dogs roaming around, or at least some sign that you are in Latin America, but none of that was to be found. I only spent a few days here and honestly didn't do much worth writing about, but I will be back at some point with a more detailed description of the city.

I said goodbye to my travel family and began my 3-plane hop back to Colombia for Carnival. The port city of Barranquilla is Colombia's most famous Carnival destination and alledgedly South America's second most famous spot after Rio. After 4 days in Barranquilla I'm not quite sure what more Rio could offer. I still aspire at some point in my life to secure formal employment, so unfortunately I cannot provide many pictures or a play by play description of the bacchanal. But here is an idea of how it went down.

It was a party the moment I stepped off the plane. Scantily clad women were handing out free beer on the way to the baggage claim. Tables of aguardiente shots (miserable tasting Colombian licorice alcohol) lined the exit like water stands in the middle of a race. Other less-than-clothed females danced by the taxi stand. You get the idea.

I managed to convince my three best friends from home, Eric, Matt, and Gor, to meet me in Barranquilla for the festivities. I arrived a few hours before them and relaxed in the luxury of the only hotel we could book for the night.

They arrived late in the evening and we enjoyed a relatively quiet night of catching up, allowing the storm to build. The next morning we trekked to our base camp down the road and settled in for the next four days.

First thing we did was pick up supplies. Staying in a hotel eliminated the possibility of cooking but snacks were a necessity to bridge the gap between meals.
                                           
                                             

                                             

Fully stocked, we headed back to enjoy the hotel pool. From here on out it is probably best to offer a series of observations:

Tropical destinations lack distinct seasons - there is usually just a rainy season and a dry season but little fluctuation in temperature, foliage, etc. Carnival exhibits a similar phenomenon: day and night cease to exist as normally defined entities but rather exist as a continuous stream of time.

Carnival can best be described as a free for all. The streets are flooded with people of all ages singing, dancing, and of course consuming libations. Vendors sell giant canisters of foam and packets of flower and everyone is fair game to be drenched. To be fair, there are a few organized parades with floats but we elected to skip those in favor of the streets.

Carnival's anthem was "El Serrucho," the Spanish word for "saw" with double entendre phallic connotations. Every few hours the song would blast and everyone in the street started singing and dancing. Hold out your left arm, pretend to saw it with your right, and you can dance like a Colombian. We were welcomed into these dancing circles with open arms and often posed for pictures. We actually never saw any other gringos throughout the entire carnival, although I did end up meeting quite a few who said they went so we must have just missed them.

Our hotel had a wonderful deserted rooftop that looked out upon the whole city, perfect for enjoying the sunset.

The pinnacle of the trip was certainly our second to last night. The previous evening we befriended a group of Colombian ladies. We agreed to meet up the next day with the promise of a beach bungalow discoteca - Kilymandiaro - a little ways outside the city. This was probably the most surreal experience I've had on my travels - sometimes it was difficult to tell if we were in Kilymandiaro or on the set of a movie. Multiple DJs dropped continuous beats while groups of the most beautiful people I have ever seen danced for what had to have been at least 6 straight hours.

All too quickly the chaos came to an end. Matt and Gor headed back to the US and Eric and I continued on our Colombian adventures. An unforgettable four days.

Montanita - Beach Living

Next stop after Baños was Montanita, a small beach town 3 hours north of Ecuador's largest city, Guayaquil. There were no direct buses from Baños but we found a night bus to take us to Santa Elena, an easy hour shuttle away from the beach. Unfortunately our bus decided it wanted to take a nap around 4:30am and the substitute bus was only going as far as Guayaquil. Still, our journey went remarkably smoothly - we waited for less than 10 minutes for a fresh bus to pick us up, the driver of our bus walked our group to the ticket booth in Guayaquil and purchased our tickets to Santa Elena, and 5 minutes later we were on our way. Well done Ecuadorian bus company.

When we stepped off the bus in Montanita we were greeted by a blast of beach heat and quickly changed into proper attire. Montanita is tiny - maybe 5 square blocks - and after a quick walk we had scoured its entirety and reserved a room for the night. We had been told of a beach oasis with cheap bungalows a little ways outside of town but since it was off the grid of the normal hostal-booking sites we needed a day to scope it out. A few of the other guys in our group confirmed this place did indeed exist and reserved our spots for the next 5 nights. With the logistics taken care of, all there was left to do was enjoy the beach!

               

              

I had actually been to Montanita 6 years ago to visit my cousin who ran a hostel there and it was amazing to see the development since. Dirt roads and a smattering of backpacker hostels have exploded into a bonanaza of bars, restaurants, and discotecas. Despite all the changes the hostel still stands!

2008

2014

We arrived at the beach bungalow hostel, Kamala, the next day, and to be completely honest my initial reaction was disappointment. I knew that the rumored $5/night bungalow right on the beach was too good to be true but I couldn't help get my hopes up just a bit. Accommodation was indeed $5/night but those were for dorm beds - a bungalow went for $50/night. And we were a few minute walk down an overgrown path to the beach - still incredibly close but not quite the same as watching the waves from your window.

But the longer we stayed there the more I appreciated how awesome Kamala really was. Perks like super fast wifi and hot water were incredibly unexpected, Santiago the host cooked a tasty breakfast, and best of all there was nobody else there besides our group until the last night. Santiago even managed to secure us a few cases of beer even though the entire country was dry for election weekend.

We ended up all piling into one bungalow to have our own space.

Santiago was very accommodating and added a bunch of double mattresses so we could all squeeze in. Despite the tight quarters I had some of my best sleeps on that lovely blue floor mattress.

And a lovely outdoor shower with piping hot water!

Days at Kamala can best be described as casual. Wake up, have breakfast, hang out in the shade, play ping pong, lounge around, consider walking to get lunch, jump in the ocean, hop in a hammock, more lounging. That is about it.

Frolicking in the waves at sunset was a must. And it was oddly reassuring that some things remain equally entertaining whether you are 5 or 25.
               
               

At night we would head to town to visit the sea of street vendors for empanadas, plates of meat and rice, and even burritos.

                         

5 days melted away, but I had to get to Cuenca to catch my flight back to Colombia for Carnival. I said goodbye to most of the group - they understandably stayed behind for a few extra beach days - but for once I had a schedule to follow.