Chapter 1

I believe that I promised some extended captions for the pictures I posted a while back...well it's time for me to pay up. I think I'll start with my first weekend trip to Guatavita.











The town itself is adorable. Paula told us it was modeled after a city somewhere in Europe, but she wasn't quite sure where. It's definitely Mediterranean with its white buildings and clay tiled roofs. Apparently the town itself is only about 40 years old. It was built in the late 60s after the original town was flooded by water from the Embalse de Tominé hydro-electric reservoir. If you walk down to the newly formed lake, Lago de Tominé, you can take boat tours over to the site of the old town. There they have diving tours that take you into to the water to the original town, which is now submerged underwater.

The town is rather empty, with actual for sale signs in some of the windows--a bit odd considering the town itself is a bit remote. I did some research and apparently the original town's people don't care for their new, modern town, and would rather live outside of its limits as opposed to inside the new, well kept, modern houses. Paula thinks they're adorable and said she'd love to live in one of them. Of course, we encouraged her to call one of the numbers on the "Se Vende" signs, but at the same time, we all imagined it to be way out of our budget.

We didn't spend much time in the small town. We wandered around a bit, headed down to the lake, and then stopped back in town for some chicha from a local woman. Chicha is an extremely traditional alcoholic drink in Colombia, made from fermented corn. In all honesty, it's not that good. It has a particularly sour taste, almost like bad fruit--which makes sense, given it's fermented through a "homemade" approach. I enjoyed the experience of trying it, but one small glass was plenty for me.



That same local "bar" (I use that term in the loosest possible way) was where I first tried Quatro as well. Quatro is a widely popular soft drink that is actually pretty good--a huge step up from the chicha. They always serve it in glass bottles (much like every other pop you order from a restaurant) and it tastes like it could fit right in with the Faygo family--fruity, carbonated, and sugary.

The most popular "attraction" in Guativita is the Laguna de Guatavita.





The Lake is the birth place of the legend of El Dorado. The legend itself was formed based on the rituals of the Muisca people. They believed that the lagoon had astral origins and that after it's formation, a golden god lived in the bottom of the lake. In actuality, it's believed that the lake was formed from a giant meteor some 2000 years ago, but the locals have a wide variety of speculations, including volcanoes and even a few involving aliens or some form of extra-terrestrial life.

Whatever its origins, the lake became a central location for the Muisca. Every leader went through a ritual requiring that they spend a number of years - 7 if memory serves me - starting at their 14th birthday, locked away in a cave. They weren't allowed to see daylight or a woman and they weren't allowed to eat anything seasoned with salt, sugar, or spice for the entire 7 years. They then performed rituals in a ceremonial hut, something involving women and a fire in the center of the floor (it got a bit lost in translation..sorry). The future leader was then covered in a sticky substance (some say honey, some resin) and then head to toe in gold dust. He entered the lake on a raft, dove into the center, and waited for the sun to rise.

The spaniards heard of the rituals of the Muisca and believed there to be a great deal of gold sitting at the bottom of the lake, and of course, wanted it. in the 1560s, Antonio de Sepúlveda attempted to drain the lake, in search of the gold and emeralds at its bottom. He succeeded in carving a path through the surrounding mountainside, but died before finding his riches. Several other explorers attempted to do the same, lowering the water level of the lake, but never finding their riches.



We took a guided tour up to a look out point above the lake. At the top, we took part in a tradition of offering our thoughts and hopes to the lake. We were instructed to hold our thoughts in our left hand -the hand of your heart- close our eyes, and after our guide recited three particular words, we were to blow our thoughts to the lake as an offering, and for safe keeping.



I think that's about all I've got in me for today. I'm actually enjoying going back and researching things now that I have a better idea of the country and where to look. Next time, I'll share Zipaquirá and the undground, salt cathedral.

He Llegado!

Hello from Colombia!

That's right...I have arrived! The internet is really spotty, so I'm going to keep this post short, but I thought I'd just send out a little hello and say that I made it safely! The city is really remarkable, and I'm excited to go do some more exploring today. Yesterday was a bit of a lazier day since I arrived at 5am after only about 4 hours of sleep. I surprisingly made it until about 10 or 11, but we just walked around La Candeleria for the day, so I didn't do anything too strenuous.

I'll try to post at least a few updates while I'm here, but I'm not sure how it'll all work with pictures and the internet posing as slight obstacles. We shall have to see!

On a quick note, to all of those who have asked--which there have been many--my spanish is actually coming back to me rather nicely. I have yet to run into any major difficulties in both speaking and understanding. Hopefully this means that my language skills will simply improve during my trip instead of requiring the time to resurface and then leaving me with no time to improve. Yay me!

Hopefully I'll have more for you soon!

Getting Excited!

I'm starting to get rather excited for my trip! Yay!

I haven't quite started packing, but I've got my suitcase and a few random articles of clothing spread out in the spare bedroom. Tomorrow is serious packing day. I like packing, but the whole airport security thing still gets me. I'm a nervous person, and even though I don't carry anything I shouldn't, I still get nervous passing through customs and security.

I bought a slew of tiny bathroom supplies yesterday. Oh tiny bottles.

Instead of sharing some nonsensical, excited babble, I think I'll just share some of my favorite photos of the people I'll be visiting soon...enjoy!

Bienvenidos

This is Colombia.

I'd like to presume that everyone knows that, but I have to admit, that I actually forget where it's located sometimes myself, so I won't presume anything.

I'm going to travel here in 9 days.

I haven't posted much about Colombia, because I've been having mixed feelings about it. On the one hand, I'm determined to go. The three people I lived with two years ago in Chile will all be there for my two week hiatus, and I'm thrilled to get a chance to see them again after so long. But I have to admit that I've been a bit nervous. If you go onto any United States Government web page, you'll see nothing but warnings about the unstable and unsafe nature of the country. There is so much literature warning against traveling to the country, that I can't help but be a bit nervous. But at the same time, I have complete faith in Paula and Mark, my ever so gracious and fantastic hosts. After all, Paula is Colombian. She lives in Bogota. And Mark now lives there too, at least for the next year. And Mark is foreign too. Granted his Mexican heritage shows a bit more than his English half, but he's still foreign, and according to my government, that makes you target #1 in Colombia. If there was any way I was in danger visiting them, I'm sure they would tell me to stay home.

I honestly can't help but that think that the US government is just covering its behind. I'm sure the extremely rural areas of Colombia are not somewhere you want to be wandering alone, but I don't think I'd do that anywhere, FARC or no FARC. And yeah, the city has its bad parts, but again, what big city doesn't. I'm not planning on running around by myself, so I'm pretty sure, I'll be okay (famous last words). It's a foreign country, you just have to be smart about where you go and who you're with. Walking down the streets of Santiago after Pinochet died wasn't always the safest thing. You had to be smart about what areas to stay out of in order to avoid a violent riot. It's just about being smart.

Also, I have to admit, that the government warning almost makes me want to go even more. True, if I thought there was an extreme threat (meaning even entering the capitol was a bad idea), I wouldn't be able to scrounge up the nerve-and recklessness-to go, but doesn't a warning of danger make things sound that much more appealing? I think so. I'm a rather cautious individual though, so diving head first into something that really isn't safe, isn't something I'm going to do. I trust my gut, and it says I'll be okay provided I'm smart about things.

Needless to say, I'm trusting my gut.

I guess I'd better start packing.