Back to Earth

Always such a strange feeling returning home... mixed emotions on our last night in Bogota. We spent a lot of time just sitting today. Thinking. Thinking about our trip, the people we have met, all that we have experienced and learned, and all that we have waiting for us when we get home. Weaving all these together can be difficult. So much excitement about going home, but at the same time so sad to be leaving South America.

¨Trips don´t end when we return home - in a sense it´s when they usually begin.¨

Old Town Cartagena

Inside the Womb of Mamapache...

Breathe in Experience...

         Climbing to the top of Volcan Totumo, it looks like a small anthill. You can feel the energy as you get closer to the top, we had no idea what to expect. The mud here is known to have healing properties, they say you are reborn as you climb out of the womb of Mother Earth, fully cleansed by the spiritual mud-bath. According to local folklore, the volcano used to spew fire, lava, and ashes, but it was turned into mud by a local priest who believed it was the work of the devil, and ensued to banish him by sprinkling holy water into the top of the volcano. It was so crazy lowering into the warm slippery mud. As much as you try to bob down into it, you are so buoyant that you just pop up like a cork! You have to have somebody help you submerge your head by pushing you down by your shoulders. I have no idea how deep it goes, but trying to swim through it is like trying to move through a bowl of jell-o in slow motion. It was the total spa treatment, the men gave us full body massages, and after we were done, the women lead us down to the river where they dumped buckets of water over our heads like a birdie-bath, and striped our swimsuits off (to our surprise) to scrub us down and wash out our suits! We stayed for a while to float around in the mud and soak it all in, I have never felt so weightless. Days later, we are still cleaning the mud out of our ears... THIS was a once in a lifetime experience.

Mamapache

Totumo - Mud Volcano from Julia Scheri on Vimeo.

Playa Concha

After spending Valentine´s day in the local air conditioned super market food court with torn up stomaches from too much comida typico and that damn pineapple with worms in it, we decided to have a romantic getaway to a nicer beach.  We headed to Tyrona National Park and basked the day away at Playa Concha.   Thanks and much respect to captain Luis for the boat ride back into town through crazy swells along the rocky shore line.  The tiny wooden boat was at serious risk of being swallowed by a wave or sharked by one of the many protruding rocks along the way.  

Reflections: Palomino, Colombia

Back to LOCOMBIA!! A vacation from our vacation, we relax on the Caribbean beach and soak everything in. A much needed reflection time, we look back on all that we have experienced and continue to appreciate and learn from our many adventures. WE ARE SO FORTUNATE!

Deciding to completely cut ourselves off from the rest of the world for a week to reflect on our trip without distractions, we found a beautiful sanctuary called "Eco Sirena" at the base of the Sierra Nevadas de Santa Marta. We stayed in hammocks on the beach and spent lazy days writing in our journals, reading our books, laying on the beach, stretching, and playing with the beach dogs. Some days I would just sit in the shade of the palm trees and look out at the water for hours. Time does not exist here. We awoke with the first rays of sun in the morning and walked along the beach in search of seashells; it was paradise.

The "town" of Palomino was about a 20 minute walk from the beach and we would walk there to buy some vegetables and water. It was a very poor town in the middle of nowhere, and only stretched for about a kilometer. Tribal people would come into town for some supplies but then head back to the mountains - most people seemed to keep to themselves in this area. The kids would run down the road barefoot spinning bike tires with sticks, or help their family hammer palm fronds to the roof. Sometimes we would find GIANT snakes (boas) with their heads smashed in with rocks on the side of the road... it was a little rugged in town so we mostly stayed in our little paradise on the beach.

We met some amazing people from all around the world and shared travel stories, it was so inspiring! Sometimes in the evening we would get together for a little pow-wow on the beach and dance around the fire!

"Without experience, there is little wisdom..."

The pelicans would dive in the mornings, the bats would swoop in the evenings, and the chickens would cluck all day long. With every step down a trail, tiny lizards would scurry in every direction, and giant iguanas and red-tailed squirrels would run up the palm trees. We would watch the fishermen take their tiny wooden boats into the crashing waves in the mornings, and come back with buckets full of fresh fish and lobsters in the afternoons. The local boys would walk up and down the beach with giant machetes, followed by a pack of wild beach dogs.

Of course there is always the cost of paradise...Being exposed to the great outdoors for a week we were ready to head to an actual hostel closer to town with an actual BED to sleep in. We are pretty bug bitten and it took quite a few showers to get the sand out of our ears. We are now buying fruit at the grocery store after a bad experience with a worm infested pineapple and severe stomach aches, but we are doing much better now! I think we have gotten all the bugs out of our bags (we don´t want to bring those nasty poisonous furry caterpillars with bad intentions home with us..) Ahhhh our last week of travel now, still soaking up the sun and every experience we can!

Watch for falling coconuts...

Checking out.....

www.ecosirena.com