Goodbye

Adios, Colombia.....Adios, Latin America...Germany, see you real soon!

6,5 months of volunteering and travelling are over! It is time to go home, back to Germany...we still cant believe how fast time has passed by.
Looking back, it has been a really great experience! We met lots of amazing people and worked with two great organsiations, each of them very different and special in their own way. And while travelling, we saw lots of outstanding places in Central and South America.

We were a bit unlucky concerning our health (problems with the knee, ear infection, parasites...), but we guess this is part of the journey.

Thanks to everyone we met on our way, especially the volunteers of La Esperanza and Mariposas Amarillas for a life changing, unique experience and for all the unforgetable moments! We hope to see you soon in Germany or Spain!

"Certainly, travel is more than the seeing in sights; it is a change that goes on deep and permanent, in the ideas of living".

MM

Niña Turtles Goodbye Party

Yesterday was the pre-birthday party of our volunteer friend Lisa and at the same time her and others goodbye party. The theme was "niña turtles", so everyone wore green and black clothes and Lisa bought scarfs in red, purple, orange and blue, so everybody could make his or her own mask! We had a great time, with the other volunteers from our organisation, but also from the other NGO, Colombias sin Fronteras, which is working in another barrio in Santa Marta, and some colombian friends who they know from the intercambio-nights.

Final fiesta with English class

Having another 10 days in Santa Marta allowed us to be part of the farewell party of the English teacher Joana, who continued with our English class. While we were gone, more people showed up so that there are now 2 groups of English, one advanced and one beginner group. The farewell was combined with an exam and certificates for the students, and of course, a litte party.

It was a really great feeling to come back after 4 weeks and see that what we started has continued and will continue in the future!

Here is a picture with our former English class and the English teacher Joana of the last 4 weeks:

Back in the barrio

After being for 2h on the beach in the morning we decided to have lunch in our barrio, where we worked. We usually had lunch in one of the cheap restaurants here, where you get for 2euro a menu of soup and then a big plate of chicken, rice, vegetables and salad + a drink. We met there our friend/student Giovanni and we had a little present for him, a trikot of the german national team! He always asked for one...;-) After that we went to the house of another student, Maira. There we had our favorite juice, (Lulo, which we dont have in Germany but the taste is similar to gooseberry), a nice talk with them and Magdalena left Maira some of her clothes, which she would not take back to Germany. Giovanni skipped the classes after we left, but she continues with the rest of the group. 
Tonight we gonna see the new movie of Jonny Depp, Dark Shadows.

Last week in Santa Marta, Colombia

This week is our last week in Colombia before going back to Germany. It is hard to believe that almost 7 months of travelling and volunteering are over...the next couple of days we will spend visting our English class again, catching up with former volunteers of Mariposas Amarillas and our friends here in Santa Marta and, of course, enjoying the sun, the beach and the heat!

Family back in Germany....:(

My dad already left two weeks ago. This morning my sister Katharina left:( We had a great time travelling from Bogota to Salento and Medellin. The last couple of days we spent not only in Santa Marta but also Cabo de Vela (further north) and Costeno (a little place directly on the beach). 

For more information, check out our Travelling page (finally updated!!)


Magdalena

Happily arrived back in Santa Marta

After having travelled now for 3 weeks through Colombia, we happily came back to Santa Marta. Although we had suffered here a lot the heat, we really missed that at the end of our trip. Never imagined this would happen!;-)
We now have 2 weeks left before going back to Germany and our plans are actually only chilling, going to the beach and to the gym, meeting our friends here and think about the last incredible 7 months we had in latin america. We will for sure also visit our english class and see how they continue with the new teacher and have a talk to Meryleen, the person who took over our social program, organising free classes in different areas in the barrio.
Keep you updated regarding our last days in Colombia and we will also update our colombian travel page soon.
http://volunteertravellatinamerica.blogspot.com/p/colombia.html

Bogota....how freeezing!

After one week on the north coast with my family and another couple of days in San Gil and Villa de Leyva (about half way between the coast and Bogota) we arrived in Bogota 3 days ago. It is 18 degrees.....after 6 months of absolute heat and summer (30 to 40 degrees every day) we are shivering here...unbelieveable how the body gets used to the warm climate! But it is just another week until we are back in Santa Marta!

on holidays with magdalenas family

A week ago, Magdalenas sister, Katharina and her father arrived in Santa Marta and we now have been travelling with them for already one week. We spent some days in the surroundings of Santa Marta, visited Minca again and the National Park Tayrona, which is amazing! Then we took a nightbus to San Gil and spent here the last 3 days. Have a look at our colombia travel page to see more pix!
http://volunteertravellatinamerica.blogspot.com/p/colombia.html

Playa Blanca

A nice saturday morning spending on a beach where we headed to by a boat. Could be a really nice beach, with a bit less people...:-)

pollo asado

mmmhh delicious

 

Excursion to Bonda with our English Class

On monday was again a "festivo", a day off without any reason. That happens often here in Colombia. So we decided to take advantage of this day and organised an excursion with our english class instead of giving class. We prepared a typical german "Kartoffelsalat" for the picnic which all of our students loved! (Thanks to god, it took us about 4 hours preparing it.. ) The place was nice, it is a river with many stones and you can lie down and enjoy the fresh water. As it was "festivo", the later it got, the more people arrived and around 2pm it was sooo crowded that it was not fun anymore to go into the water. Colombians love to eat and drink also in the water, so you can imagine how it looked like with hundreds of people doing it. And it is not that they eat a sandwich and have a coke, no, they have their proper food ( rice with chicken or the typical soup with chicken and vegetables, called Sancocho) and drinks like Whiskey and Beer! ;-)  It was fun though, above all to see where the locals head to when they want to break out from the heat in the city.

Colombia vs Ecuador - a colombian soccer match

We watched the Qualification Match of Colombia vs Ecuador in a place called "La plaza de la cerveza" It was full of yellow shirt wearing colombians, including us! We bought us a tricot of Colombia, too and are proud wearing them! ;-) But compared to the European Championship, they play so badly here... ppuuh. In the end they lost against Ecuador 0:1 but this was no reason for the colombians being sad. They kept on drinking and dancing as nothing happened...

Colombian Birthday Party

Our landlady was so nice to invite us to the birthday party of her father in law. We were really excited about how a colombian birthday party of a middle-class family will be alike and we did not get disappointed! We joined the party around 9pm and the whole patio of the house just around the corner was full off people sitting in a cirlce of chairs, with loud, colombian music playing. As soon as they recognized us, they opened us the door, gave us chairs and we congratulated the birthday-child who was actually now 79 years old! But believe us, this guy was the one who drank the most! Every five minutes one of the men passed all guests with a bottle of whiskey and handed out endless shots...to which you can almost not refuse..:-) They started dancing in the middle of this big chair-circle while others gave food to the guests. We had dinner between 10 and 11pm! The highlight was when a group of 4 men came and started making live music! Once they started ALL guests (incl.us! ) jumped off their chairs and started freaking out! Really! Imagine all uncles, aunts, cousins of all ages just dancing, laughing and having fun. It was hard to keep this in pictures. We really enjoyed this colombian night.

 

Kayaking in Rodadero

On Saturday morning we went kayaking in Rodadero, a posh (Colombian standard), little beach town, with Lore, our Couchsurfing friend and some of her friends. That was fun, even though it was a bit warm...Our actual plan was to go to Playa Blanca, which lies in the next bay, by kayak....but the coastal police told us we are not allowed to....:( So, we went to two other nice beaches, each of them about 20 minutes away.
 For some pix click here to our Travel Colombia page: http://volunteertravellatinamerica.blogspot.com/p/colombia.html

Nice weekend in Minca

Minca is a small, nice village, only 15km from Santa Marta but already around 600m above sealevel! So it is colder than in Santa Marta, to what we were really looking forward! We went there with our couchsurfing friend Lore because her Mum has a small house there. We arrived in the late afternoon and went straight up to the hostel Casa Loma, which is a 15 min hike up the hill. We arrived perfectly to sunset and had a cold Aguila while enjoying the beautiful view! In the evening we joined Lore and her brother + girlfriend for dinner and for a drink in a bar. We played some funny games and had a good time with them!
The night was ok, as the standard of the mothers house was very low... but it was ok. Just have a look at the pix.
The next day we hiked up 1h to a waterfall - really a nice trek with beautiful views and the 2 waterfalls were also very nice.

For some pix click here to our Travel Colombia page: http://volunteertravellatinamerica.blogspot.com/p/colombia.html

Lesson learned: never leave your stuff outside on your balcony during the night

After the big rainshower on that one Saturday night, we left couple of clothes on our balcony for a few days. The next day I also put my nice, green towel, which I got during Spring Break in Florida, and some of our flipflops and shoes, including my Nike sports shoes, outside. So, guess what happened...someone took some (not all of it!) of our stuff during the night. The next day towel, sports shoes and Michaels flipflops were gone...

Arroz de coco....mhhhhhh

On friday our English group invited us to eat coconut rice and chicken with them. We love coconut rice and wanted to learn how it is prepared. So, we met up with two of our English class before and they showed....it is soooo complicated....

1. You rasp a couple of coconuts and cook the rasps in the liquid which comes out of the rasps.

2. You cook this until all the milk is evaporated and the rasps are black.

3. You take the rasps and cook those and the rice in the water of the coconut.

4. You add sugar and oil...and wait until its done.

This takes about 1 to 1.5 hours...after that, we had a short English class and then enjoyed the dinner.

It was so tasty.....but we dont know if we will ever prepare it ourselves...:)

group picture in front of the school of Mariposas Amarillas

cooking arroz de coco

our English class

Rain, rain, rain...

On the one hand we are constantly complainig about the heat...on the other hand rain is not that much better...if it rains only 30minutes, streets start to become flooded, esp. in the barrio where we work. Also, trash is then flowing through the street because people here throw the trash on the street instead of into a garbage bin.

Oh yes, and read about the worst rain showers ever on our tab Living Colombia/Nicargua...we have never seen sth like this before:

3 hours of rain during the night and it took as 2 hours to get back to our apartment from the centre because no taxi wanted to take us. The next morning streets were still flooded...

More details under the living tab:
http://volunteertravellatinamerica.blogspot.com/p/living.htm

Finally settled in....how complicated it can be...

After two weeks in Santa Marta, we finally have our apartment and know what we are doing with the NGO. Everything here is even more unorganized and complicated than in Central America.

First of all, there is only a little amount of volunteers and hence, there are no volunteer houses. So, we had to find our own place or host family. We were fortunate that the owner of the Hotel Colonial, where we stayed before, rents a really nice apartment. So, we moved in there. The decision wasnt too easy, because there are some downsides too, e.g. the apartment is not in the centre and it gets quite hot in the kitchen because there is only a little fan. But the rest is perfect!! We even have air con in our room!!!

Second of all, the NGO...it is really small, a lot smaller than La Esperanza, and it is not as established as La Esperanza. Hence, there are lots of things you can do as a volunteer. We figured out that we dont want to work with kids, so we came up with our own project...giving English classes to adults in the barrio, every day from 4 to 5.30pm...the adults love it!
Furthermore, we help another volunteer Cameron with a Community Needs Assessment of the barrio we work in. We go from house to house, ask the people to take part in the survey. This is exhausting but fun! In the end we hope to get some good results in order to know which services are really needed, e.g. it is education for older kids, help with construction work in the barrio, medical services...

our community assessment group with Cameron and Alix

Last but not least, we found a great gym....so, it was not an easy start, but we finally have great projects to work with!

And we got in touch with a few people via Couchsurfing to get to know more locals from Santa Marta.

1st day Santa Marta

Today we arrived in Santa Marta. We took a Shuttlebus from Cartagena to Santa Marta instead of the local bus. This was a bit more expensive but compared to the local bus prices plus taxi to the busstations it was not bad, so we decided to take the comfortable option, which would have been nice, if we had not had the flattire of our minibus (mercedes benz by the way....) just 5km before Santa Marta....haha.
So Santa Marta will be our city for the next 2 and 1/2 months. We were quite excited about how it will look like and feel like, compared to Granada in Nicaragua, were we lived also almost 3 months.
But from 1st sight on, we fall in love! Colonial city, with nice places to chill, directly on the sea with a, well, nice beach, lots of bars and restaurants, many places to eat in the street and above all, so nice people! We talked so some of them today in the street and they were all so friendly, incredible.
Furthermore we stay for the first 2 nights in a cheap but good hotel called Colonial HOtel ( we have for us two a room with 6 beds, 2 big fans and private bathroom ) and had already a short talk about the possibility to rent an appartement with the help of the hotelowner, which could be nice. Our organisation, Mariposas Amarillas, offers a volunteerhouse and homestays, but actually we would prefer staying in a flat with local people... lets see.
So till now, before having seen our work, school, volunteercolleagues, we might say having selected the right place, feels good!
Keep you informed about how our new volunteerexperience will start on monday!

 

 

Bienvenido a Cartagena, Colombia!

After our sailing trip we arrived safely in Cartagena...what a nice colonial city! and soo many fruits....mmhh...cant wait to eat them all. And they also sell nice coffee on the street, espresso size. The only bad thing, it is incredible hot...we can not go outside before 3pm, it is just too hot!

And we had a great reunion in Cartagena with Nigel, the Australian guy we met in Nicargua who is biking through Central and South America! It was so great to see him, talking about good old times and enjoying a cup of espresso, some mangos and a beer here and there....

Nigel and the skyline of Cartagena

Michael and Nigel strolling through the old town of Cartagena

Watching the sun set in Cartagena

Sailingtrip with One World to Cartagena, Colombia

We had an amazing trip sailing through San Blas and finally to Cartagena. It is hard to put our experience in words...we had a great crew, tasty food and great people on board with us. The highlights were our lobster dinner, an amazing sun set, a beach full of starfish on one of the San Blas islands, we saw the smallest island of entire San Blas and for the first time in our lives we saw the moon rise. It is a great feeling to sail on the ocean and the only thing you see around you is lots of water and the horizon...




Michael enjoying his first cup of coffee in San Blas

 

 

our ship, Oneworld, in the background




Most amazing sunset we have seen so far



Check out our Panama tab for a more detailed article and more pictures!!!





Watching the sunset



Off to San Blas

After one week in Panama City, some relaxing and sight seeeing, we are embarking on our sailing boat to Colombia today. We already met our sailing group. 3 crew members, 5 people from Australia, one couple from Scotland, one German girl and we! Seems like a good group, everyone is the same age and seems nice!

Exciting times...

Internet, Skype and Mall incl. Cineday

After sleeping quite long (yesterday we went out to Casco Viejo, had a nice Aperetif on a rooftop bar, good dinner and a "Absacker" Drink in a nice bar ), today we called some people and will now after updating the blog go to a Mall. It is so damn hot here in town, that we are really looking forward to hanging around there with Aircondition!;-) In the evening we will watch the new movie of the American Pie series.

Welcome to Panama City

Welcome to Panama City! As we heard and read lots of good things about the capital of Panama, we decided to spend almost a week here. It is really impressive, they have skyskrapers alla New York and also lots of traffic as it is in big cities, but we really like it. After travelling around beaches, forests and mountains we are happy to join again a big city life, at least for a while...haha.

old and new in one picture

Look for some news and pictures at http://volunteertravellatinamerica.blogspot.com/p/panama.html

Celebrating my 26th birthday in Panama

Lots of people must think, wow, celebrating your birthday in panama...how special. In fact, it is not that different, actually i am missing my friends and family bit but Michael makes up for it all....after a  nice breakfast with a little present from Michael we did a little hike in the morning to a waterfall and got back right when it started to rain. In the afternoon I called my parents and sister so they can congratulate me...:) I even got a birthday cake from Michael, baked by the woman at the hostel. Unfortunately, it wasnt 100% done, so we just ate little parts of it! And tonight, Michael will invite me to a nice pizzeria.....cant wait!

Magdalena

Flight back home...

We did not book a flight back from Germany as we were not sure from where to fly back... now, as we finally will go to Colombia, we had to look for a flight. It was very strange to think and discuss about the date when we should fly back, as we are at the moment just in the middle of our whole trip... In the end it was all about the price of the flight ticket - so we booked a flight departing from Bogota, Colombia, on the 31st of july and arriving in Frankfurt, Germany, the 1st of August 22h local time.
But enough of thinking about home...;-)

Our search for a sailing boat to colombia...

The first time we heard about crossing the boarder from Panama to Colombia with a sailing boat, passing 2 days on the magic caribbean islands of San Blas, we decided: this is a must on our trip! There are several boats and captains offering this, some with great, some with bad reputation in the web... There is a nice hostel, called mamallena, in Panama City which provides all backpackers with the information, departures and descriptions of all boats, which is very useful.
Well, we have the option between 3 boats, which leave around the date we want. One of them, Ave maria, was out from the beginning because of bad things in the web. The next, Fritz the Cat, with an austrian captain, seemed nice and we booked it also because of the quite cheap price of 480USD, but then we read also some strange things about him. And as we really want it to be THE perfect trip, we discussed again and decided to take the even more expensive boat called One World, departing on the 4th of may. Now we are happy, hopefully chosen the right boat ! ;-)

Panamaaaaaa, here we come!

We arrived safe and sound in Panama! Our first stop in Panama is Bocas del Toro, a group of islands in the Carribbean see. We haven`t had time to write any articles but check out the pictures under the tab "Panama". Oh yeah, and we had a really interesting taxi ride with a guy who usually works as a soldier on the Panama-Colombia-border! For the ones who dont know anything about that border....you cant cross the Panama-Colombia border by foot, it is pure jungle! The area is dangerous due to drug trafficking and people who try to cross the border illegally.


     

Here is the direct link to the Panama tab: http://www.volunteertravellatinamerica.blogspot.com/p/panama.html