Shake it like Shakira

Friday May 6 I took the ever familiar train to ZRH to catch my flight. Zurich to Frankfurt to Bogotá to Barranquilla... the home town of Shakira... But yea it was as bad as it sounds. We got delayed several hours in Bogotá, which incidentally has one of the most confusing and crazy changes from the international to domestic terminal. After finally getting to Barranquilla, a driver picked us up and took us to the hotel. I was travelling with one of my coworkers.

After sleeping for what seemed like days, it was time for dinner Saturday. It was a quiet night and a pretty boring Sunday. Monday we went to the office in Barranquilla to get to work. It was a pretty hectic schedule. We flew out Tuesday morning to a mine, then I caught a lift to a different mine Wednesday and Thursday and back to the first Monday to catch the afternoon flight back to Barranquilla. It was funny being on a mine site where you had to be careful driving not to hit the iguanas or walking around and jumping when the occasional howler monkey started screeching - apparently they don't like the sound of the planes.

That weekend I decided to go over to Santa Marta - the sight of some good times and relaxing days back when I was backpacking. And I had meetings over there all day Monday so I had to go anyway. Also to top it off a friend from NC, Sim, was in town from Saturday night for a bachelor party. The party was really the next week in Cartagena (another favorite city) but he took some extra time off to check out part of Colombia.

So early Saturday morning a driver (company policy - all visitors are assigned a driver/escort when around town) picked me up and we drove a couple of hours east to Santa Marta. I checked in to my "hotel", actually a resort but it was the closest place to my meetings, at our port and rail terminal. When we got there I noticed a few more police than normal and then a Cardinal or Bishop or some other high religious muckity muck was leaving, with full military police escort. As I wandered around the hotel, I found out this included sharpshooters on the roof (relaxing in the shade by the little pol up there).

Later that day I met up with Sim and we had a few beers. We

went out that night to a few places over in Taganga (another crazy backpacker spot). However we realized we probably looked like narcos or something since we have this big dude with us who all the time. Anyway it was cool. We drove out to a beach in hopes of finding some surf on Sunday but it rained and the water was flat... oh well. We got Sim settled into a hostel in Taganga and I set off back to the hotel. It was good to see a familiar face. Sim and I realized it had been about 2 and a half years since we had hung out - in London. So this was the third country and continent we have hung out in.

Monday came around and I got my meetings done and headed back to Barranquilla. A few more days of work and Friday it was back to the airport to fly over to Amsterdam and then catch the train down to Rotterdam. It was nice being back in Colombia. The craziness of the roads, motorcycles zipping in and out, without apparent care for their own well being, the roadside fish stands with all sorts of fish - big, small, and some really colorful, and of course the sun and beach. But it can only last so long. Off to near freezing Netherlands.