Cololololololololololololololmbia

            Por fin llegué en Colombia.  To be more exact my plane, which was noticeably more rickety than the average air machine, had a turbulent descent into the mountainside airport of Medellín.  Every shake and stomach curling drop was accompanied by audible gasps of displeasure coming from the mouths of us poor travelers, but all was well in the end and we landed safely to much applause ringing through the cabin.  It is strange how familiar and alien new places can seem.  The air was still breathable, the sun was still shining, and the water was wet, but just about everything else was different from the ever so scenic North Eastern United States.  Here the mountains seem more jagged and angular than those of the United States and in some ways less majestic in appearance, and I do not mean that in a degrading way at all.  When one envisions a mountain one usually things of a single conical peak set against the landscape, but the ones here are nothing like that.  They have more texture and movement and the peaks of a range look more like a series of rolling waves as apposed to jagged summits reaching towards the sky.  The green of the vegetation is even different.  Instead of a dark deep green of the forests we are all used to, it is a lighter hue, which looks more like grass.  I have no idea what kind of plants thrive on those peaks, but it would do me some good to find out I suppose.  And of course the people are quite different as well.  Everyone here is a little smaller, a little darker, and speaks a lot faster.  I love it.  Pretty much everything about it to be honest.

            The biggest issue coming into the county was that I didn’t (and still don’t) have a return ticket to the US.  Apparently if your stay is shorter than a certain amount of time (90 days I believe) than you cannot enter the country without an exit ticket.  Thankfully my visa is good for a year so I was whisked through customs and was thrust into the Medellín airport quite alone and more than a little confused.  Now my Spanish is pretty good.  It is passable in most situations and I can almost always at least get my point across in conversation.  I am pretty proud of that, butut my lord I am rusty at the old game.  It had been nearly a year since the last time I said a full sentence in the language.  Anyways, I knew that I had to get the city of Pereira, which was a half dozen hours away in the heart of the country so I began the task of playing role of any true gringo tourist and I started asking anyone with any sign of airport employment for directions to the nearest bus station.  Thankfully I had changed money before leaving customs because the journey was a little pricey.  If you are wondering there are slightly more than 1800 pesos to a dollar, but after the conversion most things cost almost what they cost in the US.  Anyways, I found myself in a minibus careening down a mountainside into Medellín and soon I was in the heart of the city.  And Medellín easily wins the “Most Beautiful City Matt Has Ever Seen Award”.  Man I wish I could describe it accurately.  The city occupies the valley of two semi parallel mountain ranges and is quite simply surreal.  There are skinny, but quite tall buildings dotting the bottom slope of the mountainside, which are intermingled with trees that only reach about 40% of the building’s total height.  And there are probably hundreds of these buildings intermixed with trees that go for as far as the eye can see.  At least superficially it looks like an artist’s rendition of what the cities of tomorrow could look like.  Anyways, these high rises continue to dot the city even as you approach the center and the trees fall away to a more classic urban structure.  Nevertheless, the vista entering and exiting the city is something to see.  I unfortunately didn’t have time to explore the place due to my relatively rigid schedule, but I would love to go back.  Someday I will, for the view if nothing else.

            “Five” hours later (something more like 7) my bus arrived in Pereira long after the sun had set and I made my way to the hotel with my new found Nukanti amigos.  The first three people whom I met that were not native to Colombia were Australian.  Go figure.  Anyways I was fortunate enough to make it to the hotel with the group and I settled in nicely and such had a slice of pizza conveniently.  Anyways my good friend Jakob is also in Colombia at the moment, just that he is being an actual student in Pereira as he is studying at a university here in Pereira.  He is studying abroad here and more or less getting paid to do it.  Pretty dope in my humble opinion.  Anyways, another volunteer named David, one of the triad of Australians, and I went and hung out with Jakob and some of his university friends at one of their houses, which conviently has this amazing abandoned house without a roof, which has an amazing view of the city.  Unfortunatly the night did not get any brighter as the hour grew later and I could not see much of the surrounding area.  However, Pereira is also nestled in the mountains.  Not in the same awe inspiring manner as Medellín, but quite amazing all the same.  Soon we went back to the hotel, got a few hours of shut eye, and I awoke bright and early to my first full day in Colombia.