Preview: Los Llanos Orientals and What's to Come

Hey everyone, this is going to be short because the last blog entry I attempted to write didn't save correctly and my internet briefly went out. It has happened to all of us and it is frustrating because all of us hate wasting time. Sorry but this is the shorter (a little bit frustrated) version:

I just got back from an incredible trip over the past few weeks in the llanos orientales (eastern plains) of Colombia. Diego and I (check out his website at: http://dsblox.com/) have proudly hitchhiked over 960km/600mi across this region of the country (100% of our time in Meta done completely by hitchhiking). We have tons of photos to share with you and the rest of the world but we have a bit of a dilemma, over 80% of our photos are on different computers throughout the llanos. You see, before I went to Puerto Berrío, Antioquia to celebrate Christmas with my girlfriend I realized that I had left my 4GB memory card in my computer. Without sufficient funds I had to settle for a 1GB memory card which sounds good until one takes hundreds of photos at 8mega-pixels and video; it fills up fast. Therefore, Diego and I had to upload them onto other peoples' computers and put them into Diego's dropbox (basically an online hard-drive). We are still waiting for all of the photos to upload.

So hang tight everyone, it very well could be a few weeks until a few months before I receive all of the photos we had taken of this forgotten region of Colombia. Remember that blogs regarding Puerto Berrío, Ibagué, our trip through the llanos (Meta, Casanare, & Arauca), and working in the llanos will be posted in the upcoming weeks.

Here is the route we took over the course of one month (click to enlarge photo):

(BLACK = Diego & I / BLUE = Me solo)

In other updates, Diego and I are talking about redesigning this blog to give it a cleaner look and create my own website. I have a lot of thinking to do because I don't even know why I have a blog in the first place so imagine how I would feel having a website to deal with (it costs money). If the website paid for itself maybe.

That is all for now, I have a lot of work, studying and visa renewal to take care of in the upcoming weeks. Take care and please keep in touch.

Un abrazo de oso (a bear hug)

Attentively,

-Kevin Post

A few days in Bogotá with a few moments in Guasca

Hey everyone, first I'd like to mention that it is so great to be back in Colombia (my second home). I loved seeing friends, family and former coworkers as well as meeting like-minded people with good vibes in my home town of Orlando; nevertheless, Colombia rocks my world.

I usually catch flights to Miami from Bogotá because it is usually less expensive than catching a flight from Medellín to Miami. I have two main motives for going to Bogotá:

1. to renew my student visa
2. to catch flights home

Although I enjoy my time in Bogotá seeing friends of mine, I really don't have any other reason to go there; I've been at least ten times and lots of money have gone down the tubes because Bogotá is a very expensive city weather or not you make Colombian pesos or U.S. Dollars. Still a fun city to kick back cheap boxes of wine in a park and enjoy illegal political urban art.

I honestly didn't take many pictures of Bogotá. As I have mentioned, I have been there many times and therefore no photos needed to be taken. Besides, I am sure that there are millions of photos of Bogotá in Google images.

(Click on photos to enlarge them)

This is what I would picture an eerie 1940's mental hospital would look like.


From left to right: Leo, Kevin, Joanna. I was honored to be Leo's first Couchsurfer and had a blast being simultaneously hosted with Joanna from the Netherlands. Leo is one of my all time favorite people and most definitely my favorite costeño (Valledupar, Colombia). He's moving to Madrid in a few months meaning I have to visit him while he's in Valledupar (I'll be there in a few weeks).

Being a traveler on a tight budget in an overpriced city makes free food a jump for joy occasion. Thanks Joanna for the awesome vegetarian lasagna along with an amazing salad (that was my dinner and breakfast the next morning).

The photo above and the rest of the stencils below are wonderful works of art that send a power yet subtle message to those whom pass by. A good friend of mine Ara took hundreds of photos throughout Bogotá of political graffiti. Bogotá is a goldmine for powerful political urban art. Now, Ara is taking a break from his blog which is smart because spending hours at a time on a computer screen while traveling is a huge waste of time unless it pays the bills. Anyway, check back on his graffiti page from time to time because eventually he will upload some killer stencil artwork from the streets of Bogotá:

http://thelifelesstravelled.com/search/label/Graffiti

Here are the rest:




These two above remind me of a line from a song called "Succexy" by Metric: "Let's drink to the military, their glass is empty"



By far some of my favorite pieces I've seen in Bogotá. The last piece is a game of tic-tac-toe saying "Nadie Gana" (Nobody wins). I've seen many more that I loved (like a "Falso Positivo" piece that I LOVE...coming eventually) but didn't have my camera with me. Again, I am sure that eventually Ara will post them in his blog.


These two photos above were taken by my good friend Catalina Rumbo. She's quite the photographer, many of her works can be found here:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/ktiusk/


Guasca, Cundinamarca

Guasca happened last minute and by accident. I had no idea this place existed and to be honest didn't really want to go at the time. I was supposed to catch a bus at 1am but to the CS Bogotá crew it was more important to drive out to a remote place away from light pollution. Of course, there were small towns everywhere with plenty of electricity to block the stars' beautiful, taken for granted shine and it just so happened to be cloudy everywhere we went. Long story short, we ended up driving for hours looking for stars and I ended up missing my bus back to Medellín.




Eventually we stopped in a small town called Guasca and decided to take some pictures so that our long drive didn't go completely to waste. However, most of us weren't in agreement because the people who had cars had no consideration that many of us had work early in the morning or in my case a bus to catch back home. I had an okay time but next time I would rather catch the bus and be home on time (I had a date to attend). By the way, these four photos above were not taken by me nor my camera, I forgot the name of the person who had taken them. I will give them credit a.s.a.p.





It was a cute little town and now that I look back I am glad that I went and spent more time with Leo and Catalina.

Reality bites. Here I am in this quaint little town in Cundinamarca with cute energy consuming Christmas decorations and I stumble upon this. It says, "AUC" which stands for Autodefensas Unidas de Colombia (United Self-Defence Forces of Colombia) and is the most dangerous armed group in the country (According to Human Rights Watch approximately 70% of all human rights violations in Colombia are caused by right-wing militias such as the AUC). This is Colombia at times, a quaint cute little town with a bloody past or a shinning grace with a dirty secret.

I am so happy to be back in Medellín. In a few days I will be on the road for several weeks before classes start back up again. That's all for now, I promise that while not traveling I will upload more photos and publish more posts.

Attentively,

-Kevin Post

P.S. Another photo taken of me by Catalina Rumbo in Guasca (I don't remember why or what I was doing when this photo was taken):

Cooking in Bogotá November 2009 (wine, police, 3am picnic & good times in Bogotá)

As many of you know, I love to learn just about anything on how to better my life as well as the life of others. That is what I love about learning to cook: it's more economical than eating out, it brings people together, makes people happy, it nourishes, introduces new ideas, ethics and flavors, and is all about sharing. It has become a little tradition that I cook and organize a picnic in Parque El Virrey (Virrey Park) every time I visit Bogotá. Below here are some photos from PIC-KEVIN-NIC NÚMERO II:

I forgot to add that although my hostess in Bogotá is AMAZING!!!!! and I absolutely love her apartment and location she has carpeting but no vacuum cleaner and as you can imagine my allergies over the period of a few days began to RAGE havoc on my life! So NO, although my eyes are bloodshot red in these photos I am not high and I don't have conjunctivitis.

(click photos to enlarge them)

I prepared pizza de pesto (pizza with pesto) which was a success hot or cold. It's easy but making the pesto from scratch without pine nuts proved to be a little challenging as well as a little expensive for Colombian standards (still well worth it!).

Ingredients: basil, olive oil, parmesan, pasteurized cheese (local cheese), tortilla, mozzarella and tomato. Optional is feta cheese in place of pasteurized cheese, preparing the pesto with pine nuts (recommended but incredibly expensive in Colombian supermarkets), and sun-dried tomatoes (also VERY expensive to obtain in Colombia).

I'm making this for my mom tomorrow evening :)

PIC-KEVIN-NIC NÚMERO II wasn't as successful as the first PIC-KEVIN-NIC only because I organized it on a Tuesday while most people were busy with exams or work. But I can always count on the Couchsurfing crew of Bogotá for a great time; they never disappoint.

We don't actually like each other all too much, we were just cold!



Playing "Cancion Del Mariachi" by Los Lobos on guitar which is always a hit with Latinos from México to Argentina at parties.



Parque El Virrey November 24, 2009.


Oh red wine...

...no comment.
Finished "mooning" another camera, I am still looking for those photos!


Ladies, if you are interested in kissing me tickling is a HUGE hint...I'm not that naïve.

I completely forgot why I made that face.
Notice the red wine on my right shoulder.

I even had a band play at my picnic. I'm not gonna lie, my picnics are epic and last forever.

The hardcore picnic enthusiasts, we lasted until 4:30am! Speaking of which it is a funny story that ended with some crazy results at my hostess's apartment until 5am. A group of us walked to a supermarket open 24/7 to buy several boxes of cheap red wine and as a result we laughed a lot, peed on a warehouse door due to lack of public restroom, I ended up getting kissed by a rola (a girl from Bogotá), and us being taken to a police outpost for drinking in public at 3:30-4am. Turns out the police had no proof of us drinking in public because a friend of mine carefully ditched to open box in the trash with 007-like precision and he filmed the police officers while they interrogated us (again, Leo is 007). In the end, the police let us go, we go back to my hostess's apartment, drink more wine, I take a shower, drop a glass of wine on my foot while in the shower, and the rest from there is none of your business :)

I'd love to write more but I am falling asleep at the keyboard. I'm flying from Miami to Bogotá Saturday morning and I can't wait to be back in Colombia even though I am going to miss my friends and family in Florida A LOT. If I could bring my Floridian friends and family to Colombia permanently and make them love it as much as I do, Colombia would be heaven and a half for me.

Goodnight for now! Thanks to everyone for the photos (after hunting you down on facebook under a strange name).

-Kevin Post