Back in South America!

Hi again folks--

That´s right, I am back in South America! Ok, so I am actually sitting here in the hostel in Bogota getting ready to head to the airport in a couple of hours to head back to NYC yet again, but I have been back here in Colombia travelling with Shannon for the past couple of weeks. She left early this morning for her flight, which mostly means she will probably actually make it back to the states today. I, on the other hand, have an afternoon flight, which means I should arrive in the states within 72 hours or so.

I know this because that is how my trip to get back to Quito started off. I boarded a flight in NYC for a 3, or rather 7, hour flight to Miami. We cruised down there for a while, saw a spot of rain, and then decided to hang out in Palm Beach for a couple of hours. Note to self not to sit near the bathrooms again, as when you have people on a plane for twice as long as you are intending to, well, let´s just say that odor starts to creep out......anyhow, we finally move on to Miami, where my flight is delayed by an hour. This is OK, as virtually everyone else on the plane missed their connetions. Well, the one hour delay turned into 7. They finally put us on a plane, and after waiting 45 minutes to pull away from the gate they announce there is a ¨strange piece¨ inside one of the engines and they are hoping to scavenger up a new plane to take us to Quito. We wait another hour or so and mysteriously a spare plane materializes out of nowhere and off we go. Or off goes us and most of our luggage. My luggage enjoys a two day holiday in Miami before deciding to join me in Quito so we can move on to Colombia.

Colombia is, as always, an entertaining time. Some good memories for us to enjoy are such things as the waitress in Pasto, who, when Shannon asked for some chocolate ice cream for desert, gives us a look, disappers, turns up with two dishes of unidentified desert and says ¨this one is for you, this one is for her, eat it, you will like it, it is delicious¨. One desert was a cake and the other was a custard of some kind--good stuff, but not exactly ice cream. Another fun time was chatting in the back of the bus from Ipiales to Pasto with my new Colombian friend Jose, who is asking me about my taste in music, while telling me his favorites are Kansas and White Lion. Now I know all these folks are stuck in the 80´s, and the brand new Iron Maiden t-shirt I could have bought yesterday just underscores this, but are those really the best two bands he could find? I did my best to convince him they were both top notch. We did, at least, agree on the musical merits of the Scorpions.

Shannon, unfortunately, fell ill right before a 10 hour bus ride through the Andes to Cali. Considering the fact that it was also probably the 4th time we had crossed this mountain range in two days, and as they always do in Colombia--passing other cars on the curves and then slamming on the brakes when we go around a curve in the left lane and are confronted with a large truck coming at us about 15 feet away, this did not make for a comfortable day for Shannon. We later met some people from Cali, and the both of us are trying to smile (but mostly we probably looked pained and constipated) and say how nice that is with the recent memory of that city in our minds. No offence to the lovely Caleños we have met, but that town is a shithole if I have ever seen one. I would provide more details, but really don´t think there is any point.

Anyway, we got to go to Salento which you folks know is my favorite town in Colombia, so that was fun. We also did some time in Bogota and Villa de Leiva, which as lovely as it was, was rather disappointing as the town square (apparently one of the largest in the Americas) was also the most barren thing I have ever seen, constisting only of the rocks that make up the ground.

We did go see some live salsa music, which turned out to be an event so tramautic I can´t even go into details yet....