On the Monday the organiser of the projects met us and took us to meet the people we would be working with here. It was very disorganised (surprise surprise) but we managed to swap things round so as we do all of the teaching in the mornings and have or afternoons free. Then Laura showed us around the Old City and took us for lunch. The old city is amazing! Fantastic architecture, and such nice shops and cafe's. I keep describing it as a giant covent garden. In the afternoon we went to the beach - very eventful! They have lots of people trying to sell you everything imaginable! Alice and I went for a walk to try and find a beach ball - we came back with two rubber rings, two pairs of sunglasses, were given a massage - but no beach ball. Then the guy that had sold us the rubber rings came and found us with a beach ball! Apart from being hassled, the beaches are really nice. The sea is so warm! After the beach Alice and I went for a manicure and pedicure - neither of us had had one since Bogota. It took them forever! And they didn't seem to have done anyhting! And then they rang someone and were having a very rude conversation about how me and Alice couldn't speak Spanish, and laughing and things. Its very annoying becuause we can both understand a lot more than we can speak! Monday night we went to a bar just up the road from where we are staying, and then found out that the amazing hostel that it is in is where we were originally meant to be staying! But as amazing as it is, it probably wouldn't have been sensible as it is very lively and we have to get up early to go and teach,
On Tuesday we went to teach, though we had been told we would just be meeting the kids, not actualy doing any teaching and so were completely unprepared - Chris and I have to get a taxi to a police station, where three people meet us to take us to the placement. Which is in someones front porch! We have to call at someones house to collect the white board on the way. Kids come and go, they don;t speak a word of English, they don't want to learn English - its a nightmare! The people running it also speak no English, so can't translate things for us when we need it. Then we get escorted to our lunch, and then put in a taxi. We pay double to get a car - they expected us to take one of the mototaxis (The motorbikes) which are half the price, but definitely not going to risk it with how crazy the roads are here! It was fine in Oeticia were they just pottered along on empty streets. Tuesday afternoon we went to the beach - it wasn't fun. The women offering massages would not take no for an answer. You pull your leg off them and they snatch it back, then all gang up on you and demand money!! And the police on their litte beach buggies are nowhere to be seen!
On Wednesday morning the traffic was really bad going to the teaching pleacement so we were maybe 5 minutes late - and thats still considered early on Colombian time. Its not until you are 2 hours late that people start complaining. Anyway, we waited to be picked up from the police station. No one came. We waited in the scorching sun for over an hour. As we hadn't been allowed to walk anywhere by ourselves the day before, we didn;t want to risk going to find the place by ourselves so went back to the hotel. We rang Laura and got back to us later saying that we were meant to have walked there ourselves - very peculiar after being told very specifically that we were definitely not allowed to make our own way the day before. But Laura then arranged that someone woud meet us each day, and the next day it would be her. Whilst we waited for the others to come back we went for a walk around the old city, and had lunch in a very nice restaurant. It was really good food, but annoying that we had to pay - lunch is normally provided where we teach. In the afternoon wAlice and I had to go emergency clothes shopping - it is so hot here. You have to get changed several times a day because you sweat so much, and I had hardly anything suitable to wear. There were lots of cheap shops,l but their prices weren't that cheap but after uite a lot of searching we managed to get some things. There was a roof party on Wednesday night at the hostel we were meant to be staying at - it was really good; cheap mojitos, live music, lots fo dancing. But so hot! Even outside at 1am!
Laura met Chris and I on Thursday to teach - no kids turned up so they had to go and get them from their houses. We had a class of 6 by the end and played lots of games with them. It was quite fun and so much easier with a small group. When we got back to the hostel it was being fumigated! So we had to just meander for an hour, which is difficult to do when its so hot! In the afternoon we tried a different beach - no people trying to sell you things, which was really good, but the beach wasn't nearly as nice. So need to keep searching for something in between.
Friday was very annoying! Turned up to teach, no students turned up. None of them wanted to come. We got sent home, and have to go to the other centre next week with Jack and Alice - who only hae 3 students! Also annoying because it was a waste of another two taxi fares and we had to buy lunch again! Though we did find a very nice cafe with a very cheerful women running it. In the afternoon Jack, Chris and I went to the San Pedro convent. Outside you could buy corn to feed the pigeons - they land on you. I volunteered to be photographer! Afterwards we went to the modern art museum and spent the night playing pool! We were going to go to the Cuban Club which is meant to be really good, but it was empty.
San Pedro convent
On Saturday (when everyone finally got up) Jack and I walked to one of the beaches and stayed there for a while. We found some tiny little ones away for all the people selling thins, and again they weren't as nice but it was good to be able to read without being sold something every two seconds! I then attempted to go and buy more suncream. You have a choice of factors 2 or 4, or alternatively factor 70 or 100!! Nothing nice and sensible like factor 30! And it is really expensive. Went back to the nice cafe for lunch, withthe plan for us all to meet up to go to a mud volcano in the afternoon. But then it started raining - like rain you have never seen before! And incredible thunder and lightening. The streets were like rivers. We ran across the road to where we had to meet and were drenched. Then after hanging round for nearly an hour the tour guide told us the bus couldn't get there - there was three foot of water in the centre!
We stayed in the hotel we had to meet in until the rain died down, then ran back to our hotel. Our room had flooded! It has sky light type windows whcih don't shut, but luckily the staff had relised and gone and moved all of our things. We then decided we may as well go round museums whilst the weather was bad. No taxis would go into the cente, so we had to walk - or rather paddle! It was crazy! The only worrying thing is tht because they are not used to getting much rain all the drains were overflowing and the smell was disgusting. We decided to go to the Inquisition museums which has all the torture devices they used to use. Alot of it was outside! So still got quite wet.
We decided to find somewhere with good seafood for dinner - we went to a restaurant in a nice area of town called San Diego and the food was amazing! But so filling! Then we headed back to Media Luna (which is the main street where our hotel is) and went to a few bars. Then we found a rock bar which played really good music and had an outdoor seating area. The staff all came out and sat with us, which was really fun.
On Sunday Jack and I went to Parque Bolivar and sat with the locals reading the Sunday papers and feeding the pigeons for a while, then walked along the wall which surrounds the city. The views are really good - the sea one side, and all the old architecture of the city the other with the modern buildings of the new area in the distance.
In the afternoon we went to the mud volcano - incredible experience! You climb up the volcano, then get into a bath of mud. It is such a strange feeling. You sink in, but then just float and you can lie down and they push you along. You get a massage (which was a bit weird) and then just sit in there. If your legs get too high it flips you up and it feels like you are going to go upside down, but then just stop. Afterwards you go in the lagoon to wash off.
We had booked to go on the Rumba Chiva bus that night, so once we were bak in Cartagena we had to rush and shower - which took forever to get the last of the mud off - then run across the road for Pizza. Which was amazing, but nearly thought we were going to have to leave it as they make them to order and it barely came in time. Then we had to ctch a taxi to somewhere in Bocagrande. The tour guide had written int down for us and said any taxi driver will know where it i because it is the only one in Cartagena. We jokingly said it looked like she had written McDonalds. After driving round for quite a while and asking several people, we realised she had written McDonalds! By this time we were late, and had missed the bus. Then we were told not to worry as there is one every 15 minutes. The bus is amazing. You pay around £7 and they have a band playing traditional music whilst you go on a tour of the city, drinking unlimited amounts of rum and coke. Then they stop for a while in the old city where you get food, and the musicians go up onto the walls and everyone salsa's on the walls! After this, you go back on the bus with more rum and end up at a salsa club. Really good fun. They get you to stand up and dance on teh way ass well. And there are people of all ages! Apart from two very young children, we were the youngest. And the oldest were probably in their seventies.
Today we went on a bit of an adventure because it is a festival, so no teaching (they seem to have a festival at least once a fortnight!). I'd read about a beach you can canoe to through mangroves on wikitravel. If its on wikitravel you know its a good thing to do, but you don;t always get that much information on how to do it. It sai to catch a bus to the local fishing village La Boquilla, then to rent a canoe to Playa de Oro. We eventually found the bus, and got off it at the last stop as the guide had said. Then everyone started trying to take us to the beach - we didn't think we needed to go to the beach, because we wanted the mangroves so ignored them and walked off. We couldn't find anything so, as we knew there were restaurants on the beach, we thought we could get some food and ask there how to get to the mangroves. n the way a "tour" person found us and started saying something about mangroves and canoes. We took a chance and risked following him - we weaved our way through lots of little alleys and paths through the village and eventually came to the beach. We then walked quite a long way alog the beach and then made it to an eco-tourism centre. So for once it was a good idea to trust people. We canoed through mangroves and lagoonas for around an hour - it was idyllic. Then we got to a small beach and were offered a selection of freshly caught fish for lunch - including an alive lobster that nearly leapt onto Alice's knee! We picked some fish, and successfully bartered down the price. It was really good. Then we had a few hours just on the beach - the water was really clear and we went crab spotting, and could sunbathe in peace without anyone hassling us at all! Then we were taken back through the mangroves to La Boquilla, and they walked us through the maze of a village (good job otherwise we'd still be there now!) and put us on the right bus back to Cartagena. It was such a fun day! And so much better than if we had done one of the proper tours - we literally had the entire beach to ourselves. There was also another storm whilst we were there! We had to shelter in the kitchen - which was very nice of them but rather wish we hadn't seen the kitchen! The food was really good though.
Back to teaching in the morning. Hopefully going to go to the theatre, possibly to see the local ballet, one night this week. And also going to try and go to the San Blas Islands in Panama next weekend - they are meant to be amazing, with white beaches and coral reefs.
