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Waiting on a passport

We spent another week in Medellin, and as it turns out this is still a fairly wild city. No jazzercise classes thus far, but we have been enjoying the ridiculous amount of lights all over the city. The light festival here is definitely city-wide and each neighborhood is decked out in color and tinsel. The most popular area is by the river, where there is an entire section of the street closed off for food, crafts, booze, and lights. It’s a huge party with kids running everywhere, people strolling and spending time with family and friends. And it’s free!

More Christmas lights!

The lights are themed and numerous, and even outside this neighborhood they are very impressive.

We have also been fortunate enough to squeeze in some time for our amazing couchsurfing friends Ana and Chucho! We have enjoyed two delicious meals with them as well as attended their amazingly fun salsa house dance party. We are so very lucky and happy we met them because their friendship is amazing and they are THE reason we now have been able to accomplish our mission with my missing passport!

So here is the recap of the story with the passport: in October H and I returned to the Colombian capital of Bogota after our trip back to see the family in Wyoming. With my passport’s 6 month pre-expiration date coming up in January, our thoughts leaning towards staying in Colombia until February, and the US Embassy being only in Bogota or Barranquilla we decided to renew my passport while we were in town. To be allowed to even meet with the embassy required an appointment that at the earliest could be a week later. So we stayed in Bogota for a week.

The embassy workers were amazing. Well, the foreign service officers working in the embassy to help citizens were super friendly and helpful. The rest of the employees left quite a bit to be desired. They were hesitant to let us into the embassy at all, even though we were obviously both carrying US passports, and then H had to sit patiently outside the actual building waiting in the grassy mall while I filled out endless paperwork and stared blankly at American television shows. For the entire day.

Then they informed me it would be two to three weeks before the new passport came to Colombia. And we were cold and tired of Bogota. So we decided to send it to the only person we knew well enough to trust in Colombia, a friend who traveled with us from Panama and had a job in Medellin. So to appease the US passport delivery requirements I had to pester this English friend for all of his info, which he eventually gave over since the US was calling me every half hour and then I would message him every hour.

Except it turns out his job was not what one would call stabe since two days before my passport was delivered, he was unceremoniously kicked out of his hostel gig, and therefore, house. So the delivery company left a number for him to call and he informed us that the passport was received in Medellin. He neglected to mention that it was not quite delivered to him. Turns out, that number they gave him… They don’t answer it.

So when we arrived in Medellin to meet up with our friend, he did not have my passport. Or any real idea where it could be, other than the number no one answers. Our ridiculously awesome couch surfers (the same ones with the awesome party we went to this week) took over the hunt while we ran away to Guatape to save money and gather our plans (mind you, I was fairly nuts during this time).

Then we fast forward to coming back to Medellin because this same couch surfer (with the dance party and fantastic couch) had located the passport and was willing to help us get it into my hands. But first we moved in here at the Black Sheep Hostel, located at the bottom of the Poblado neighborhood. It is a kiwi-owned hostel, and the owner is definitely one of the best! It is a huge place, in a great great location, and currently full of a very interesting mix of travelers. One such is a wild kiwi who is quite talented with self portraits with unattended iPhones.

Yep, that’s a nose cut from being head-butted and a classy Panamanian hat. In fact this kiwi and his travel buddy have largely been our entertainment after their full-night-into-day benders, and sometimes taking us along on their adventures at night (until we slink home at an embarrassingly early hour, like 4am). Let’s visit a recent morning conversation: Kiwi: it’s too late at night to be eating granola!
H: It’s 10am, that’s why it’s so bright out, silly. Hey, how late we’re you guys out last night?
Kiwi: I don’t know, did we just get here?

H: you should really put the camera away, please.

R: I agree, it is far too early to have a camera out my friend. Also, it’s my iPhone.
Kiwi: do you want to give me your iPhone?
R: nope.

Kiwi: Brittany, Brittany Spears, tell your sister to give me her iPhone.
H: that’s unlikely. Wait, why do you have a hospital tag around your wrist Aussie friend’s name removed for privacy?

Aussie: Huh. I don’t know.
R: Is it possibly because you have a broken arm?
Aussie: no, I did that weeks ago motor biking in Bolivia.
-R GETS HER IPHONE BACK AND THINGS GET STRANGER- Kiwis are hiding under the table, forcing each other to drink water and attempting to get themselves onto an airplane:

Best sunglasses ever, right? They even look good on ridiculously tall, tough-looking kiwis!

But we finally went to finish our passport adventure, which involved a semi-dangerous neighborhood, security cameras, holding rooms with no windows, and convincing the security officials to let me use a washed-out copy of my old passport (i had forgotten to bring my old one with me, I can be such an airhead) to claim my bright shiny new one.

For some reason the iPhone makes the building look a lot more pretty and less sketch than it felt.

But largely this week in Medellin has been about exploring the holiday festivities, including snow in the mall.

Tags: Bogotá, Colombia, Guatape, Medellin, travel blog

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Categories Colombia, Our Travel Stories
Author R:

Bogotá, in pictures

30 Oct

We have spent a week in Bogotá, which has surprised both of us. We have been staying with a couch surfer, who has been kind enough to let us have our own room and bathroom in his high rise apartment. The best thing about our living arrangements is his dog.

Her name is Oyuki, and she is the most adorable, playful puppy! But she needs a lot of attention and will demand it incessantly with her high-pitched, ear-bursting yips. How could you not want to play with her? She is a bundle of white, fluffy, wild fun!

We also have the advantage of an awesome location in the north of Bogotá, with sweeping vistas of the city.

That, for example, is a view from the roof. We also enjoy evening lightening storms over the surrounding mountains.

We stroll about the city during the day while our host is at work. We frequent La Candelaria, where the colonial buildings are mixed with the new modern high rises in an interesting juxtaposition.

The Plaza de Bolivar is the heart of the area, and the backdrop of the mountains is just 7 blocks away.

The city is modern and absolutely huge, but still has its random moments of horse drawn carriages mixing with the rushing daily traffic.

But there is a general feeling of boredom in this city. Whether from the sea of dead faces that ride with us on public transportation, or the listless strollers through the streets, everyone seems to be detached from the feverish spirit of Colombia we were used to on the Caribbean Coast. For this reason, we have been very good about going on day trips to Zipaquirá, attending comic conventions, watching zombie walks, hiking up the nearby mountains, and spending entire days at the US Embassy. Ok, so that last one is not so exciting, but it was the reason we had to stay as long as we have here.

Our couch surfing host took us to H’s first comic convention, and we all decided to get into the spirit and dress accordingly. We raided his mother’s closet (she is a HUGE Halloween fan, even had her second marriage on the day in theme) and came up with an M&M costume for H and a vampire cape for me. Easy. Then we joined the serious costumers, an anime character, Frodo, and the Frank from Donnie Darko.

We toured the site, tempting ourselves with Japanese Pocky and strange foods with faces. There was even a full-size Quidditch field, interactive Angry Birds, graffiti art by one of our favorite artists here in Bogota, archery and sword-fighting ranges, inline skate obstacle course, and dance area for the evenings. Random and awesome!

On the Saturday night before Halloween we went downtown to watch zombies march through the pedestrian street in La Candeleria. They gathered beforehand in a park where we saw them “attacking” non-zombies, and with my irrational fears on display I convinced H that we should watch from a safe distance. H was of the opinion that we would be safest if we just went and joined them, and undoubtably she is correct. But my fear is irrational, so we hid in a coffee shop until I was sure they were not of the intimidating, crowd-attacking variety of zombies I was used to from living in Seattle.

Sunday we decided to shake off the cobwebs and get back into the hiking and exercise options in our southern lives. We braved the elevation and climbed the graded steps to the top of Monserrate. The elevation here is brutal to begin with (something like 2,580 meters) and then climbing an additional 2,000 meters is ridiculous. Also, every guidebook we read says that this is a bit of a dangerous hike, so we were glad to do the walk up the mountain with thousands of locals so we could blend in (we can actually do that here, everyone is pale from the cloudy weather/epically strong sun combo that leaves them sunburned easily as well!).

The hike was intense, and we are out of shape (our diet had been leaving much to be desired lately), but after gasping up untold number of stairs and inclines, we made it!

Our view from the top:

There was a church, with mass in session (I still don’t know the etiquette regarding pictures with that, so no interior for you. Although it was interesting).

The panoramic view of the massive size of Bogotá was impressive.

After it all, we have finally completed our task for Bogotá, and I have a new passport coming my way (eventually) in the next few weeks/months. This only took an appointment online and then an entire day alternating between pushing papers and staring at walls at the embassy. (H could not keep me company as she was not allowed inside the building for some reason. Instead she sat in the large grass mall inside the two layers of security fencing)

We move on tomorrow, but some small part of me will miss the impressive amount of time we spend either riding the TransMilenio bus system, or being in grocery stores here in Bogotá.

My map to the bus system, so good! Their buses are their own section of road, and have free transfer points across the city, so we could get basically anywhere for less than a dollar a piece.