Much ado about Colombia
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It has been quite the number of years since I visited Colombia. It seems to have changed quite a bit. I visited Cartagena with some fellows that were mother’s friends. We no longer hang out because of reasons. I think they secretly hated us because we were Cubans. The people from the US treat Latinos like one homogenous group. However, we are all different. It is like saying that the Americans are the same as the British or the Australians. Having the same language is not enough of a similarity. People rarely bond just because they speak the same tongue. Historically speaking, some of my few friends have always spoken English.
This is relating to recent temporary friends. They are just folks that coincided with my classes, and I developed a sort of candid conversation with the fellows. I was also friends with some of my brother’s friends. Well, I suppose it cannot be helped. I go from being social, to being all quiet years at a time. Now, I am going through one of those quiet ages. I just can’t seem to bother to have a prolonged conversations with the fellows I am so busy with my blogs, and my books and my paintings. I cannot talk, if I am doing any of the above. I am one of those, do one thing at a time type of fellows.
Now back to Colombia. I stayed in a hotel called Caribe, I think. It has been a couple years since I was there. Anyhow, the best thing about the hotel was the food. The hotel was not all inclusive, but that did not matter. The dollar was strong. With 10 bucks, we were able to eat both breakfast and dinner. Whatever breakfast you did not eat, the Toucans got to it. It was a pretty wild sort of place. I had never seen a toucan before. They were real cute, and they did not fly much. They simply jumped about on the floor. Their favorite food was eggs. People might consider it Toucan cannibalism, but not all birds are made the same way. All birds eat meat one way or another, for the most part. I can think of hundreds of birds that eat other birds.
Aside from the food, the pool pas pretty big. It was as good place to drown a fellow. It was designed the old fashioned way. The deep end was as big as four people standing on top of one another. I know, because that is how we measured it. We saw there some folks from a wedding party. They started to do a belly flop competition. They even got a Romanian folk to try it. They teased him by calling him Dracula. For those that do not know, Dracula is from Romania. At night, the bats would come down and drink from the kiddy pool, so that was nuts. Another animal I saw there was a deer. They kept sneaking into the hotel to eat the grasses.
The one thing I hated about the place, was going out to actual Colombia. There was a lot of poverty, it was further illustrated by the strays dying in the street. I did not feel safe, with all the weirdoes, just watching. I suppose some things cannot be helped. I never feel safe anywhere. I am like a cat, with my paranoid cat reflexes. I like cats. Safety is more like a feeling than an actual reality.
Just because you feel safe, doesn’t me that you are actually safe. Anyhow, when not in hotel, my folks went on tours. The tour guide was rather candid and informative. We explored the monastery in la Popa. It was on top of a mountain. All around the mountain was the Colombia equivalent of Favelas. Some of the roads had signs of having the borders broken. It was as if a bus had fallen off a mountain a couple of times.
They monastery had a pretty garden and all the usual things one would expect to find in a Catholic church. The best thing about it was the view. From there you could see the entire city of Cartagena. I also saw a tiny kitten. It was resting inside a weird chimney or something like it. On the way out, we got mobbed by a much of merchants. We bought for our mother a little purse that was like 15 bucks. Some of the prices those people put are real arbitrary. I suppose there is always an idiot that bites. From there, we went to explore a colonial naval fort. It was designed by a famous architect. The castle was called Castillo de San Felipe de Barajas. It is called castle of San Felipe of Playing Cards. Well, it is just a literal jokey translation.
Anyhow, the city used to get attack often by pirates. This was the main reason the castle was created. We explored all its fortifications. It was quite the climb. Just climbing to the top was really steep incline. It was a pretty entertaining visit. The last place we saw was the historical city. All the buildings were nicely painted. It was a good place for taking photos. I cannot tell you of the Pokemon Go situation there, because I went to Cartagena the game was not out. I assume that with so many pokestops, it should be a good place to play the game by now. I suppose that is just about it with Colombia. This was my trip in a nutshell.