Locationless Living

From Santa Fe De Antioquia I took a short 2 hour ride back to Medellin. The highlight of this trip must have been two guys going for a ride on their bicycles on the highway while holding onto the back of a huge truck.

I arrived in Medellin’s huge bus terminal and spoke with nearly 5 bus companies before settling on the best price to Bogotá. I think the 9+ hour journey cost me about $15.

Of course the hostel was full when I arrived. The last few times I had stayed at Hostal Sue I felt a bit bad as it was nearly empty. To say I was a bit surprised that all the beds were taken is a bit of an understatement.

I spent 6am-noon using my laptop and watching the BBC news while waiting for a bed to free up. I finally slept at noon until 5pm when I met up with my buddy Carlos Andres from Manizales. He is studying in Bogota and so we met up at the mall.

My taxi driver was hilarious. He told me about how he is nuts for foreign women. In the 1970’s a student from New York did a homestay with his family. They fell in love and got married. But 2 years later he was unable to get a visa to the US and it ended.

No biggie. He met an Italian women and got married to her. He then lived with her in Italy for 15 years until they got divorced. But he is pretty into the women from New York. He recently looked her up on Google and found her contact information. One of these days he is going to call her up and see what happens.

But when I got to the mall the driver did not have enough change for my 50,000 note and so I ran and bought a donut and Juan Valdez and then paid him.

After the mall, Carlos, I, his brother Julian, and girlfriend Lili took a cab back to their apartemtn. We watched a bootleg copy of Slumdog Millionaire which we had just bought on the street. Carlos invited me to stay at his apartement while I was in Bogota. I was hesitant at first because I like having my own independence, being able to come and go when I please. But he convinced me and the next afternoon I moved my bags over to his apartement.

I, Carlos, Julian, and Lili lived at their place for the next week. The apartment is in Rosales, the nicest area of the city where all of the diplomats live. It came complete with a doorman, elevator, and just a block away from some of the most expensive restaurants in the city.

I slept in a comfortable bedroom by myself which was nice for a change!

The next day, Friday the 13th, was a bit dramatic.

A friend of Carlos’s from Manizales came to visit for the weekend and stay with us at the apartment. Her (Monica) came here so she could break up with her boyfriend of 4 months.

I was also on and off the phone with Marcela all day. Marcela and Carlos’s sort of girlfriend Ana planned to take the 11 hour bus from Manizales to Bogota to visit me for my birthday. But Ana backed out.

Marcela was not so sure about coming alone but I was able to convince her to change her mind. The only issue was that she could not afford the bus ride. So Carlos and I wired some money to her in Manizales for the bus ticket. I also attempted to just purchase her a ticket online but the payment system was not working. I even sent Carlos to the Bogota bus terminal to buy a ticket that she could pick up in Manizales but they were unable to let her get on in Manizales. It was late so every other bus company was closed. But the money was sucessfully wired to an office in Manizales and so I expected to spend the next few days with her in Bogota.

Meanwhile. the 3 of us (I, Carlos, and Monica) went to the mall where intel had told us her boyfriend would be. Thats when she asked me if I could pretend to be her boyfriend in order to make her real boyfriend jealous.

The problem was that her real boyfriend was not really showing any interest in her anymore and so she wanted to see if he cared that she as seeing someone new (me, but not really).

So Monica and I walked through the mall holding hands, smiling, etc. while we scanned the mall for her real boyfriend. With no luck we went down to the most visible place of the mall and ordered a drink at Juan Valdez.

Monica gave me instructions throughout the next hour; hug me, laugh now, tell me my eyes are pretty, give me your jacket. I was having a pretty great time acting and hoping to see some real drama.

I even saw another German traveler that I met in Medellin there by chance. Ihad to explain how she was not really my girlfriend.

He was not so convinced after we left because her real boyfriend never showed up.

We met up with Monica’s friend Angie outside of the mall and I took the four of us to La Candelaria to celebrate my birthday at Escobar Rosas. Escobar Rosas was an old pharmacy that was turned into a nightclub. It’s also a place that has given me some epic stories which I absolutely could not post here. But if you are really interested in hearing one just send me an email!

But when we got there, Angie and Monica ran off to make calls to Monica’s boyfriend to find out what was up and Carlos got a call from Ana so he was on the phone for nearly an hour.

But I went into Escobar Rosas and got a few drinks. I bumped into a different American guy I met in Medellin and we hung out a bit admiring the women. The rest of them joined me a bit later and we had a terrific night!

Carlos and I

Monica and I

Carlos and Angie




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The guy in the Western hat is the American guy of course

And at 12:30 I realized that I was now 21! But wait until the next update where I will write about how I celebrated my birthday the next day/night which was even better!

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