Santa Veronica and Cartegena
Mike and I enjoyed the day touring Cali with our moms on the day after the finals, but we were both anxious to return to our teammates, lest fomo (fear of missing out) set in with its full and terrible weight. We caught an early flight out of Cali to meet up with the team in Cartegena, on the northern coast of Colombia.
Part of our pre-Colombia preparations included reviewing "Romancing the Stone", an early 90s Michael Douglas film set in Colombia and Cartegena. Not quite the classic we both remembered, and Cartegena was portreyed as a crime and crocodile ridden trash heap. We had also been warned by Colombian friends that Cartegena, while a picturesque walled colonial city on the water, was also tainted by the mass tourism it received. So I was keen to skip it until we found out that Opi´s girlfriend (and my 2009 teammate) Alicia White had a landlord in D.C. who owned a palatial house on the Carribean coast near Cartegena, in a small town called Santa Veronica.
We met the team at their hostel, walked down the quaint colonial streets, grabbed some incredible pastries and fresh juice (jugo naturale), and made plans to fill the 10 hours before we arranged to meet her contact back at the hostel. We decided on a nearby "volcano mud bath" called Volcan de Tortuma. After a few hours of confusing transportation navigation and negotiations, thankfully led by Spanish-speaking Cree, we arrived..
Volcan de Tortuma
The not-so-aptly named volcano turned out to more closely resemble a large 5th grade science project than a volcano.
Beau, Harrison (Cree´s brother), Georgia, Nicky, Geoge, Mac, Ashlin, and Mike in the mud pit.
Though cautious at first of exactly what were getting into, both figuratively and literally, we eventually shed our inhibitions (and for some, clothes), and jumped in. It was truly the oddest physical feeling I have ever experienced. Floating with a sensation of being dragged down. Heavy, but light. Smooth, but gritty. We stayed there suspended in the mud, feeling wonderfully strange, until a gaggle of local high school students arrived to crowd us out. After you get out and climb down the ant hill, you are led to the nearby lake (Tortuma) and attended to by a group of local women who force you to remove all of your clothes and get down to business aggressively washing you clean of all the mud. They then charge you a reasonable service fee for allowing them to physically assault you.
Georgia, Surge, and Mike playing Yaniv and drinking Poker while waiting to figure out how exactly we were going to get back to Cartegena.
Cree once again saved the day by organizing a series of transportation miracles involving motor bikes, a bus, and taxis to get us safely back to Cartegena just in time to meet with Ramiro and get groceries for our next few days of beach living.
Silly frisbee games to wile away the Colombian time until the bus arrived (always late).
While waiting for the autobus we busied ourselves with more beer and Yaniv, played silly games on the side of the road, and crashed a male only birthday party rave in the nearby village. We finally made it back to Cartegena to make an epic three-cart shopping trip to Exito and meet Ramiro before taking a sweaty van ride to his house in Santa Veronica.
This house...was...incredible.
A gazebo with 4 hammocks sat in the back yard, which was filled with coconut trees. If Ryan and Surge weren´t around, it was a good bet they were in a hammock.
The back yard opened up to the Caribbean Sea.
Something like 15 pet tortoises roamed the yard.
Arrepa con juevo. Arrepa is a super common meal accompaniment made of corn meal, kind of like a super thick tortilla made with corn meal. Though found all over Colombia, the Carribe coast claims ownership. This one has a fried egg inside.
I can´t begin to name all of the incredible food we ate, prepared by a woman they hired to cook. Like many other countries, it is the norm for middle class families in Colombia to have someone who cooks and cleans. Every family we have stayed with has had someone helping out.
Teachers unite!
Ramiro and Narda (friend of Ramiro) are primary teachers in D.C. and Nicky, Surge, and Mac have also all given their souls to the future of America.
Team picture on the beach at sunset. Plus incredible photo bomb by the older man who is friends of Ramiro´s partner and was also staying at the mansion with his wife.
Mortal combat fun with photos!
Our last night all together we decided to have a prom night. Everyone put on their best for dinner. Note Beau´s outfit choice.
Three incredible days soaked in coconut water, rum, and salt water. We swam in the ocean during the days, laid in the hammocks, napped, read, ate amazing food, slept in and stayed up late, collected coconuts, chased copulating tortoises, made a bonfire on the beach, and swam some more.
The morning that Mike and I had to leave we awoke to find the older couple, Ramiro, and Narda eating breakfast. I spent some amount of our time there worrying that our late night antics were bothering them and preventing them from sleep, but as we prepared to leave the older woman told me that she would miss having us around. Expecting a lecture and absolutely stunned, I asked why. Through Narda´s translations and additions, they said that it was invigorating and incredibly special to be around a group of people that were so young, fit, full of life, and who clearly loved each other very much.
Though I was super sad that our whole team adventure was drawing to a close, that observation made parting ways with George, Georgia, Dylan, Opi, Ryan, and Nicky a tiny bit easier to handle. There´s nothing I can say here about the whole experience that won´t sound like a poorly worded cliche about memories and relationships to last a lifetime (all true), so I´ll just leave it at our team motto: los dos.
Mike and I enjoyed the day touring Cali with our moms on the day after the finals, but we were both anxious to return to our teammates, lest fomo (fear of missing out) set in with its full and terrible weight. We caught an early flight out of Cali to meet up with the team in Cartegena, on the northern coast of Colombia.
Part of our pre-Colombia preparations included reviewing "Romancing the Stone", an early 90s Michael Douglas film set in Colombia and Cartegena. Not quite the classic we both remembered, and Cartegena was portreyed as a crime and crocodile ridden trash heap. We had also been warned by Colombian friends that Cartegena, while a picturesque walled colonial city on the water, was also tainted by the mass tourism it received. So I was keen to skip it until we found out that Opi´s girlfriend (and my 2009 teammate) Alicia White had a landlord in D.C. who owned a palatial house on the Carribean coast near Cartegena, in a small town called Santa Veronica.
We met the team at their hostel, walked down the quaint colonial streets, grabbed some incredible pastries and fresh juice (jugo naturale), and made plans to fill the 10 hours before we arranged to meet her contact back at the hostel. We decided on a nearby "volcano mud bath" called Volcan de Tortuma. After a few hours of confusing transportation navigation and negotiations, thankfully led by Spanish-speaking Cree, we arrived..
Volcan de Tortuma
The not-so-aptly named volcano turned out to more closely resemble a large 5th grade science project than a volcano.
Beau, Harrison (Cree´s brother), Georgia, Nicky, Geoge, Mac, Ashlin, and Mike in the mud pit.
Though cautious at first of exactly what were getting into, both figuratively and literally, we eventually shed our inhibitions (and for some, clothes), and jumped in. It was truly the oddest physical feeling I have ever experienced. Floating with a sensation of being dragged down. Heavy, but light. Smooth, but gritty. We stayed there suspended in the mud, feeling wonderfully strange, until a gaggle of local high school students arrived to crowd us out. After you get out and climb down the ant hill, you are led to the nearby lake (Tortuma) and attended to by a group of local women who force you to remove all of your clothes and get down to business aggressively washing you clean of all the mud. They then charge you a reasonable service fee for allowing them to physically assault you.
Georgia, Surge, and Mike playing Yaniv and drinking Poker while waiting to figure out how exactly we were going to get back to Cartegena.
Cree once again saved the day by organizing a series of transportation miracles involving motor bikes, a bus, and taxis to get us safely back to Cartegena just in time to meet with Ramiro and get groceries for our next few days of beach living.
Silly frisbee games to wile away the Colombian time until the bus arrived (always late).
While waiting for the autobus we busied ourselves with more beer and Yaniv, played silly games on the side of the road, and crashed a male only birthday party rave in the nearby village. We finally made it back to Cartegena to make an epic three-cart shopping trip to Exito and meet Ramiro before taking a sweaty van ride to his house in Santa Veronica.
This house...was...incredible.
A gazebo with 4 hammocks sat in the back yard, which was filled with coconut trees. If Ryan and Surge weren´t around, it was a good bet they were in a hammock.
The back yard opened up to the Caribbean Sea.
Something like 15 pet tortoises roamed the yard.
Arrepa con juevo. Arrepa is a super common meal accompaniment made of corn meal, kind of like a super thick tortilla made with corn meal. Though found all over Colombia, the Carribe coast claims ownership. This one has a fried egg inside.
I can´t begin to name all of the incredible food we ate, prepared by a woman they hired to cook. Like many other countries, it is the norm for middle class families in Colombia to have someone who cooks and cleans. Every family we have stayed with has had someone helping out.
Teachers unite!
Ramiro and Narda (friend of Ramiro) are primary teachers in D.C. and Nicky, Surge, and Mac have also all given their souls to the future of America.
Team picture on the beach at sunset. Plus incredible photo bomb by the older man who is friends of Ramiro´s partner and was also staying at the mansion with his wife.
Mortal combat fun with photos!
Our last night all together we decided to have a prom night. Everyone put on their best for dinner. Note Beau´s outfit choice.
Three incredible days soaked in coconut water, rum, and salt water. We swam in the ocean during the days, laid in the hammocks, napped, read, ate amazing food, slept in and stayed up late, collected coconuts, chased copulating tortoises, made a bonfire on the beach, and swam some more.
The morning that Mike and I had to leave we awoke to find the older couple, Ramiro, and Narda eating breakfast. I spent some amount of our time there worrying that our late night antics were bothering them and preventing them from sleep, but as we prepared to leave the older woman told me that she would miss having us around. Expecting a lecture and absolutely stunned, I asked why. Through Narda´s translations and additions, they said that it was invigorating and incredibly special to be around a group of people that were so young, fit, full of life, and who clearly loved each other very much.
Though I was super sad that our whole team adventure was drawing to a close, that observation made parting ways with George, Georgia, Dylan, Opi, Ryan, and Nicky a tiny bit easier to handle. There´s nothing I can say here about the whole experience that won´t sound like a poorly worded cliche about memories and relationships to last a lifetime (all true), so I´ll just leave it at our team motto: los dos.
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