Adventures & Contrasts & Insights through Latin A.
Trip Start
Oct 06, 2006
1
76
Trip End
Sep 14, 2008
Bogota, Colombia
Monday, April 14, 2008
Adventures & Contrasts & Insights through Latin America
No, I didn't get kidnapped, if that's what you were wondering about! Yes, I'm in South America, to be exact, I'm in Colombia! Probably the first things that come to your mind when hearing Colombia are .... 1) Philipp are you crazy? 2) drugs, 3) guerrilla, and 4) kidnappings and that's what you get most of the time on the news. I will give you a completely different picture of a country that most likely classifies as the best place I have visited during this long Follow The Wind journey which I began by now many many months ago.
Apologies and excuses
Well... but before I go into detail and tell you about my adventures and travels I would like to apologize, as always, for not keeping everyone up-to-date as often as I would have liked to. The truth is, being on the road, living out of a bag, to be exact, a Kiteboarding bag and a backpack, isn't exactly the easiest thing at times. While there is Internet access in almost all places I have been, even in quite remote places, I haven't had the chance to really sit down, relax, think, write, and tell everyone at once the stories I'm about to tell you. I've been in contact obviously with my family and some specific friends who have wondered about my whereabouts (thanks!), at times my existence, and what has happened or where I've been. Additionally, I have had also several technical problems.
After sending my last update from the new website which has an Interactive map, photos, and blog entries of my trip I received hardly any responses from anyone and either thought people didn't care or the E-mails just never arrived in my Inbox. Well... it turns out that the E-mails never made it to my Inbox and I apologize for that to anyone who might have sent me a message after the last blog entry and never received a reply from me. I always write back, so if you didn't get a reply, you know why now. Additionally, I guess to keep my computer skills up-to-date my laptop was giving me lots of problems and work so I had to recover data, reinstall the operating system, do maintenance on the whole system, fix problems with the LCD screen with a paper-clip, clean it from sand and dust, etc. Well... as you can imagine, traveling with a laptop puts a lot of stress on the equipment (environmental & climate changes, etc.) and I've learned a lot from carrying a laptop while traveling - SIZE for now is the most important thing in my opinion as well as don't buy the latest model before your trip ... doh... because it won't be the same when you get back!
While I'm a systems engineer myself, fixing things on the road without any tools, CDs, original software, etc. ... which I always took for granted working at Microsoft .... was interesting as well but it forced me to make contact with technicians from these developing countries which was a good and interesting thing. It turns out, and I'm not very surprised about this, they do things the same way, they study for similar certifications like the MCSE (Microsoft Certified Systems Engineer), and fix things just like anywhere else. While it was a hassle here and there with my laptop it has been a valuable experience in the end.
Ok... enough of that... no need to bore you with my excuses! Where have I been since the last blog entry that I sent from San Juan del Sur, Nicaragua? Well... take a look at the interactive map to check out my route at http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog/globekiter/follow_the_wind/tpod.html and where I am currently.
Costa Rica
Bahia Salinas
After crossing the border from Nicaragua to Costa Rica I headed straight to La Cruz, the first small town about 20 minutes south of the Nicaragua-Costa Rica border. La Cruz lies on top of the hillside that leads down to a huge bay on the Pacific Coast, called BAHIA SALINAS. It's a bay that no ordinary tourist puts on a list of places to see but the truth is, it's one of the most beautiful places I have been to, natural and untouched by mass tourism. I chose to go to this place because it's considered one of the windiest places in Costa Rica from November until May and yeah ... the statistics were right! It blew from the day I got there to the day I left and probably it is still blowing strong today. For those of you who are new to this blog and are wondering what I'm talking about here's a little confession ...
My name is Philipp, I'm an addict, I'm a kiteboarder and I live for the wind and water!
In Bahia Salinas I found a natural wild beach, fairly warm water, great conditions for kiteboarding, and most importantly awesome people! I met great people from all over the world from Europe, the USA, from Central and South America and we all shared the same passion - kiteboarding! I met a great couple from New York, Alina and Gene, who are good friends now, shared a house with them right on the beach and traveled part of Costa Rica with them because they offered to give me a ride in their rental car. Thanks again for being so fun! I shared a great time with you two! Nikola from Kiteboarding 2000 and Bob from Cometa Copal who both run kiteboarding schools in Playa Copal are both great guys as well. I have to especially thank Bob for giving me the opportunity to instruct kiteboarding in Bahia Salinas, something I always wanted to do and thoroughly enjoyed! I had a great time there and be assured that I will return some day! It was fun making my "office" be the beach so to speak! Also, I'd like to say thanks to Rupi and Dani from Germany and Canada respectively, they are awesome people and a truly inspiring couple that is living life to nature's rhythm. We shared a lot of time together on the beach and on the water and I hope our paths cross again very soon!
Lake Arenal
After some time in Bahia Salinas I took the opportunity to go with Gene and Alina to Lake Arenal, another fantastic spot for wind-sports like windsurfing or kitesurfing. This place is amazing and incredibly beautiful and different from the ocean. It's worth a visit for anybody, kiter, tourist, backpacker, etc.! Imagine the hillsides around the lake covered with huge wind-mills to generate electricity, a big and beautiful lake with clear water and Volcano Arenal glooming in the background. My friends Peter and Christl run a windsurfing and kitesurfing center there and invited us to their beautiful house one evening. Thanks for your hospitality! Supposedly we lucked out with the weather while being there because it was officially rainy season in the area. A few days after we left a storm hit the area and blow over one of the windmills with more than 150 km/h gusts. Imagine that! That said, Lake Arenal in Costa Rica ranks as one of the most beautiful places besides Lake Atitlan in Guatemala where I have kited and I hope to return one day again.
Nicoya Peninsula
Alina, Gene and I headed to the Pacific Coast on the Nicoya Peninsula, Costa Rica after a few days at Lake Arenal. In Playa Grande I had the first time the opportunity to ride real waves on a surfboard, thanks Gene! It was a good experience but the truth is, I will stick to kiting. Kiteboarding is immediate gratification - you get in the water for 3 hours and you kite for 3 hours - with surfing you need lots more patience and might catch a wave or not - it can be fun and for sure it is challenging, but I leave it to the surfers to battle out who gets the wave and who not while I fly over them with my kite. J
Costa Rica has beautiful and famous beaches along the Nicoya Peninsula and we traveled from Playa Grande all the way down to Samara through dirt roads and rivers. Without a 4 wheel drive vehicle we would not have made it and at some point we thought we'd have to spend the night in a riverbed, stuck in our Jeep Cherokee. When we finally got to the beach town Samara it was easy to spend a couple of nights relaxing in a beautiful place called Barracuda, an ex-nightclub with pool and an incredible panoramic view of the town of Samara and the beach. The club had burnt down many years ago and is now owned by a Czech lady who rents out apartments for a fair price. An incredible place and very relaxing, well worth a visit, especially if you have never heard howler monkeys and other animals in close proximity each morning and evening.
Finally in Samara I split from my friends and headed back to Bahia Salinas where I spent another month kiteboarding, instructing, and making new friends from around the world. Having a nice place to live and not having to pack my backpack and kiteboarding bag every couple of days, in other words, having a bit of a routine, a good bed, cook my own food and eating healthy, exercising daily, feeling a bit of stability again as well as responsibility teaching made me stay in Costa Rica for about two months in total. I was waiting there for Mariela to come down from Guatemala but for some reason it didn't happen. I really enjoyed the freedom of staying as long as I wanted but finally around the middle of January I scheduled a flight to fly to Miami, Florida where I would meet up with Mariela again.
Miami, USA
Culture shock
I always had plans to go to Miami and Fort Lauderdale and get to know the area a bit better and on January 15, almost one year after leaving the US for Central America, I set foot on US ground again. Wow... I would say I had a bit of a culture shock and thought at first I just want to leave again. Everything felt so sterile! I'm sure those of you who have traveled a bit to developing countries know what I'm talking about. Everything seems very clean, straight, cut, painted, paved, and organized. In comparison to the part of the world where I just came from where there's people on the streets walking, talking, playing, and making business getting back to the western world seemed like it was a place where everyone sits in their cars, most of the time alone, and nobody talks with anyone. Really strange, but after spending first a couple of nights in Fort Lauderdale with Mariela and then making my way down to Miami things started to change and it felt much more Latino in Miami than any other part of the US that I've been to. In Miami there are Cubans, Puerto Ricans, Colombians, Guatemalans, and many other Latinos and it almost feels more like a Latin American city than a US city. Spanish is spoken pretty much everywhere. In Miami you speak Spanish like you would speak English anywhere else. It doesn't matter, English or Spanish is the same there and my Spanish once again paid off. I'm very thankful to the people, the time and investment I have made in Central America studying this language. These days it almost becomes a necessity in the US to be bi-lingual and be able to speak English AND Spanish. So... get to class!
Consumer world
It is interesting that after a few weeks, for some already after a few days, of being in a different or new environment you get used to what is around you and the initial culture shock you experience in the first few days after your arrival just fades away. One thing that really sticks out in my mind though is how of a consuming culture we are. You walk through the streets of South Beach, Miami for example, there are first of all beautiful people everywhere and there is stuff to buy everywhere and people are consuming and consuming what the wallet, or let's say the credit-card, can hold. We buy stuff and buy more stuff, we show off stuff, and people are concerned more with their image or brand they are wearing than just simply worrying about having clothes on their body. It is really strange, but even I felt like after a little while that my clothes that I had been using all over Central America and which were just fine were not "good enough" and had to buy some new things. I guess I hadn't bought any new clothes for a while so I justified it that way, but I felt like I wanted to look good too to fit in. Strange, but an interesting experience for sure especially when you think about how little or nothing people a thousand or 2000 miles south of you have or need.
Kiteboarding
I stayed in Miami about a month and a half. I actually had a great time there and did a lot of things. First of all, as you can imagine, I kiteboarded as much as possible and it turns out it's a great area for that activity. The beaches in Fort Lauderdale, Miami, and the water in the Florida Keys are just incredible. I also met some really cool people, and like I said before once, this sport gets you in contact with all kinds of people from all walks of life. One of my best friends I can say now is a Colombian named Andres, a kiteboarder and network engineer like myself, with whom I spent lots time in Miami and with whom I would also meet up in Colombia again in the future. After having all the experience of teaching kiting in Costa Rica I also took the opportunity to teach people in Miami and had a blast and really enjoyed teaching the passion I have to other passionate and excited people from all over the world. I spent more time than I originally wanted in Miami but after all it has become one of my favorite big cities and I would highly consider it as a place to move to due to its Latino atmosphere, Spanish, beautiful weather, wonderful beaches, big city with cultural offerings and jobs, great nightlife, closeness to Latin America and the Caribbean, and easy and fairly inexpensive access from and to Europe, or for that matter, from and to anywhere in the world.
Couchsurfing
While you can stay 6 nights in a hostel in your private room in Central America, you can stay only 1 night in a hostel sharing a dorm room with 5 strangers in Miami for exactly the same price. In other words, staying in Miami becomes expensive even when you're staying at budget places. Let's not even talk about going out to eat! Well... while money is of course somewhat important while you travel I also figured I wanted to get some new experience and give couchsurfing a try. Since I had sold my kiteboarding gear and had to wait for some new equipment to be shipped to Miami I had time to try couchsurfing which was always on my list of things to do. What the heck is couchsurfing you might be asking? Well... let me explain briefly.
Couchsurfing is a social network of like-minded people who offer travelers a couch, sofa, mattress, bed, floor space, hammock, or whatever... free of charge while fostering inter-cultural exchanges. In other words if you like meeting people and making friends from all over the world you can offer them to stay at your home, show them your city, teach them something new about your culture while at the same time learn something new as well. Couchsurfers and hosts have an online profile with references and friend links that can be reviewed before accepting a couchsurfing request. The system is awesome and I am convinced that it's one of the best ways to travel and get to know the people and places you are visiting - from a local perspective and not just from a typical tourist point of view. Check out www.couchsurfing.com or look at my profile at http://www.couchsurfing.com/people/globekiter
I had my first couchsurfing experience in Miami and it was great and I knew that this would be the way to go once I headed to Colombia!
Colombia
Cartagena - Arrival by Kite
On February 23rd I took a one way flight to Cartagena, Colombia, supposedly one of the most beautiful cities of South America. I always had eyeballed Colombia, and in particular Cartagena as a good place to visit, maybe even to live, and finally it was time to go there. After a short flight from Miami to Cartagena I headed straight to the kitebeach I read about on the web. It was late already, around 4:30 p.m. when I got there but was immediately convinced by the friendly local kiteboarders to go on a downwinder to Cartagena. To Cartagena? Yes, I was like 8 miles outside of town in a neighborhood called La Boquilla and my first sight of Cartagena would be on my kite from the water! How cool is that? Not everybody can say that they arrived in Cartagena by kite, right? Well... it was an awesome introduction to a beautiful city, kitesurfing through the waves in front of the old historic colonial city, in front of Café del Mar, with 7 other passionate sportsmen. Taxis, moto-taxis, buses, locals, and tourists stopped to enjoy the show while the sun was setting with a deep red in the background. Even the newspaper got "wind" of the action on the water and an article was published a day later http://www.eluniversal.com.co/noticias/20080225/ctg_dep_el_kate_surf_en_todo_su_esplendor.html
Cartagena is a fascinating place! Situated on the Caribbean coast of Colombia its full name is Cartagena de Indias. For me, the city is full of distinctive contrasts particularly between the poor neighborhoods with houses put together by tin plates, the rich area with apartment buildings with pools, trendy shops, and close to the beach, and the beautiful historic, colonial, well-maintained, walled-in city-center. Yes, it's a bit mind-boggling at times if you look at the city this way because reality is that there's a ton of extremely poor people there while only a short distance away live rather wealthy people. The difference between poor and rich has been in my experience a bit more obvious here in Colombia although these class differences exist in any of the countries in Central or South America that I have visited. Nevertheless, Cartagena has a magical vibe especially when you stroll through the walled-in city center, which is so different than the rest and could make you think at the blink of eye, as soon as you enter through the gates, that you were transported in time and space back to when the Spaniards ruled.
Kite Adventure
Knowing that I would come back to Cartagena I decided to join a very enthusiastic Colombian adventurer named Chamey from San Andres Island, Colombia and Rebecca from Switzerland to go on a kite adventure trip a few hours south of Cartagena to explore the beaches and feasibility for kiteboarding. How could I say NO to that? We found ideal conditions in Coveñas, a small fishing village along the Caribbean where we attracted quite a local crowd and interest once the kites were pumped up and flying in the air. One of the locals invited us to go to the Islands of San Bernando the following day to explore kiteboarding spots as well and sleep in hammocks under star-filled skies. Crystal clear, flat waters and strong winds awaited us when we headed to Isla Palma and another unforgettable memory was made here in Colombia.
A few days after the island trip I found myself 2 hours north of Cartagena in Puerto Velero where the Colombian National Windsurfing Championships were held. A fantastic event with lots of enthusiastic young Colombians that came from all over the country to compete. With my new Naish Cult kite in the air I surely made an impression among all the spectators and within minutes of being on the water and getting some big air, the cameras changed from being focused on the windsurfers to being pointed at me. It was really funny and I wish I had a picture of the beach scene while I was on the water. In the end another article in the local newspaper was published that talked about the windsurfing event but had a picture of me "dominating" the wind. Check it out http://www.elheraldo.com.co/ELHERALDO/BancoConocimiento/D/definal_de_nacional_de_windsurf/definal_de_nacional_de_windsurf.asp
From Puerto Velero I headed north to Barranquilla, further to Santa Marta, went to the incredibly beautiful and picturesque Parque Tayrona, then to Buritaca, back to Santa Marta and eventually back to Cartagena again where I got the pleasure to spend nearly 3 weeks including Semana Santa (Holy Week / Easter). The Holy Week here in Cartagena was a completely different story from the experience I had a year ago in Antigua, Guatemala. Take a look at that blog entry and you know how culturally intensive this experience was in Guatemala. There's supposed to be a place in Colombia as well that celebrates Semana Santa more traditionally with processions and the like but for the most part Semana Santa is more of a Holiday week for people these days and a reason to come to the beaches, party, and drink, and have a good time.
Colombians
From the time I got into Colombia I made contact and eventually friends with many Colombians, especially Couchsurfing Colombians. Remember www.couchsurfing.com? In general Colombians are super friendly people, very open, happy, interested and hospitable. They treat foreigners well in my experience. Ready to chat with you in the street, over a coffee or in the park, or on the bus, Colombians are not as shaded by tourism as many other countries and most likely you will be chatting with someone right away or pay exactly the same for goods or services as a local would which you might not be able to expect in other countries. While Cartagena is certainly the most touristy spot I have seen in Colombia, the number of foreigners is still low. During my time in Cartagena I met once again some great people from Colombia and from other parts of the world. Although I got robbed at knifepoint on my last night together with my Swiss friend Kersten, this has not changed my view that Cartagena counts as one of the most beautiful Latino cities.
Having had a great and intensive month on the coast I decided it was time to move inland. Before doing so I took the opportunity to sell my kites because locals were interested and especially impressed by the performance and quality of my Naish gear, especially the new 2008 Cult I brought down here. This was a welcome opportunity because I would now travel much lighter the rest of my time in Colombia, for sure a luxury that I didn't have the whole time during this entire trip. I still carried my board in my kitebag but at least it was much lighter.
Safety
Colombia has cleaned up its act significantly in the last couple of years as far as security is concerned. While I had a question or two in my head whether it would be a smart idea to travel during the night or during the day the 13 hours between Cartagena and Medellin I was assured by everyone I asked that there was no problem and that the trip was perfectly safe. In the Colombian news the topics of FARC, paramilitaries, guerrilla, and secuestros (kidnappings) is still a very serious problem but security and military presence is so obvious nowadays like in no other country that these issues most likely don't affect the average traveler unless they go to completely remote areas, have some political influence or links in Colombia, or maybe appear to have a ton of money. What obviously made big news all around the world was the threat of a South American War with Colombia, Venezuela and Ecuador after Colombians had crossed Ecuadorian boarders and killed one of the FARC leaders at the beginning of March. The situation became a bit tense after Hugo Chavez, the Venezuelan president, started to send troops to the Venezuela-Colombia boarder. It surely is crazy how fragile the stability is in this region and how it can change literally from one minute to another. Nevertheless Colombians maintained their coolness during this without any fear and worries because first of all that's the way they are and secondly they have a president who people love and who they can trust and who has moved this country forward in a positive direction with his actions.
I arrived safely in Medellin, couchsurfed with a Colombian friend named Raul, met various other "couchsurfistas", checked out this huge city, jumped on the metrocable which is a cable car system that transports people to low-income neighborhoods, checked out the bronze statues of the famous Colombian artist Botero, and finally danced the night away to Colombian rhythms. There I met Vicky, another couchsurfer who is traveling around South America and is working for the Guardian in the UK writing articles about various travel hosting systems. One of her latest articles talks about the experience and even mentions me - yahoo ... I'm famous! http://www.guardian.co.uk/travel/2008/apr/12/colombia.adventure.
While it seemed like any other day, the day I am about to leave from Medellin my couchsurfing host Raul informs me that an attempted kidnapping of one of his relatives failed this morning. Wow ... yes, I definitely was surprised and didn't expect this but it just meant that this issue is still very real and not something to joke about.
Cali
If you are blond and tall like myself you stand out like a sore thumb and people will approach you to ask for money. This doesn't really bother me because I take the opportunity to chat with people but I also explain to them that looking like a foreigner doesn't mean $$$ and that there are plenty of locals that have a much thicker wallet than a backpacker. In fact, after spending a few nice days in Manizales, in Colombia's coffee region (beautiful!), I headed straight to Cali, the Salsa and Silicon Capital of Latin America! There I met up with my good Colombian kiteboarder friend Andres who I met in Miami and wow ... what an experience I had there. Cali is not a nice city but it vibrates at night with Salsa rhythms and good "rumba" atmosphere in the many clubs. Friday and Saturday are the nights to go out and "rumbiar" (party). While Cali back then was famous for its Cali drug cartel, narco-traficantes (drug-lords) obviously still exist which I realized after seeing how easily money got spent in bars and clubs and after ending up in a luxury Penthouse overlooking the city of Cali one night. Enough said!
Lago Calima
About an hour and a half from the city of Cali is a lake called LAGO CALIMA. It is not mentioned in my guidebook and most people miss it during their trip through Colombia. Andres and his family took me to the lake to go kitesurfing because it is windy there 365 days a year. It's a beautiful man-made dam lake surrounded by hills and small villages. Very quiet and relaxing. I met some of the local kiteboarders, surfed, and went to the town of Darien to visit Harold (who I met in Cartagena) and his kiteboard factory. Yes, you read correctly, basically in the middle of nowhere there's someone manufacturing some of the coolest, high-quality, custom-built kiteboards I have seen in a long-time. The brand name is called Cogua and it is basically a one-man operation. There is no website yet because demand of these boards exceeds production at the moment but if you are a kiter, be sure to keep an eye out for these boards.
Somewhat tired of hauling my kiteboard still with me (knowing I won't get any use out of it for the rest of the trip in Colombia) I dropped the bag and board with my friend Andres who would take it with him back to Miami. I headed to Armenia, not the country in Europe J, but a nice city with perfect climate up in the Colombian Coffee Zone, la zona cafetera, where I spent a few days exploring the area, including the 'Valle de Cocora' before taking a bus to Bogota, a huge and somewhat intimidating metropolis situated at more than 2600m above sea-level and the capital of Colombia where my flight out of Colombia would leave from.
Paraglide in Villavicencio
Before heading out of Colombia though I met up with my friend Pablo and his girlfriend Andrea. Pablo, an ambitious paraglider and adrenaline junkie like myself convinced me to spend the weekend with them in Villavicencio to go paragliding. Wow! Wow! Wow! My instructor Juanco was awesome and made the experience incredible flying like a bird over the jungle down to the plains of Colombia, once during the day and once at night on my last evening in Colombia. There couldn't have been a more magnificent way to end my trip in Colombia.
Good bye Colombia
After so many experiences and traveling through so many countries, meeting so many people, seeing the good, the bad, and the ugly so to speak it just hit me while being in Cali, Colombia that for now I had seen and done enough and decided that I should head to Europe a few weeks earlier than originally planned. My brother's wedding will be at the end of May as well and I also wanted to be there. I kind of felt a bit tired of traveling, weird, but I am sure you know what I mean. At the moment I really don't have any desire to go to any other South American countries anymore (besides Brazil of course J) because I had such an excellent experience in Colombia and overall good experience of this journey and I felt like Colombia was the country I was most interested in due to its dubious fame and the fact that few tourists make it their destination - and I had visited and experienced this country now for real. It's strange but I was really hoping for this to happen to me, to be able to say, wow, I've done and been to the places I wanted to, it's my choice to go home now instead of someone calling me and saying you have to come home. For some people this only takes a few months for others like me, much longer. Traveling will always be a part of me and this Follow the Wind journey by no means has come to an end but will continue throughout my life because the passion for travel, wind & water, and new experiences and living out of the comfort zone exists deep in my heart. I'm just ready for something different now, a bit more stability, responsibility, a place to come home to, a nice bed, a bit more comfort, a job, etc. I organized my tickets to fly to Europe on the 23rd of April, a day after my 30th birthday. I would say good timing for a big change again!
My travels wouldn't just end without making a stop in Panama (which I haven't been to) and Guatemala (where I spent about 8 months last year). I had a nice couple of days there before heading to Miami where I am actually sending this update from and where I now close the Latin American chapter of this Follow the Wind adventure.
Hope to hear from you! Send me a message!
Philipp a.k.a.' Felipe del Mar' and Globekiter
