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...