Colombi-ahhhhhh... Part II: The Caribbean

Seven months had passed since I'd been on a beach-I mean a nice beach. The cold water, shadeless and windy beaches of Peru don't count. I had been looking forward to the Caribbean for a long, long time. After one last 18-hour bus ride, I was there, in Cartagena, at midnight on a Friday night. Locals and foreigners both sing it's praises and it's difficult to talk about Colombian tourism without mentioning Cartagena

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I was taken aback when, upon arriving-at midnight on a Friday night-the streets near my hostel were littered with garbage, drunks and the all-to-common salesmen that are found in Caribbean tourist towns. Was I lost? Where's the beautiful Cartagena everyone told me about? Fortunately, I found it the next day as I walked around the walls of the old city, down by the pier and in and out of the narrow cobblestone streets and under the clock tower at the main plaza. I found it again over a plate of fresh seafood and a glass of coconut lemonade. And again walking alongside huge iguanas in the central park. Each day presented another view of this popular city.

There are several day trips from Cartagena that are a lot of fun. The Islas de Rosario is one such trip which departs from the pier in the morning and include a slow boat ride out past the bay where the entire skyline of Cartagena is seen to a chain of small islands. One particular island has an impressive aquarium with a knowledgeable staff and beautiful animals. After visiting the aquarium we went to a nice white sand beach for a fried fish lunch and a dip in the water before starting the return journey back to the city.

One of the more unique experiences I've had was at the Volcan de Tutumo. This is a volcano about three stories high filled with creamy, lukewarm, saline mud. It's so salty in fact you can float effortlessly on the surface. To be honest it's impossible to sink! I've never been to the Dead Sea (yet!) but I imagine its very similiar. The depth of the volcano is said to be over 400 feet, however we all laid on the surface or stood vertically, perfectly and effortlessly suspended in the mud at chest level. Once you get over the weirdness of the experience, it's nice to cover your skin in the mud and relax. After an hour, you walk down the volcano to a nearby lake where everyone washes off, gets back on the bus and heads to the beach were another fish lunch is waiting for us. It's a fun experience I definitely recommend to others.

I was anxious to see what was under the water and spent a few days SCUBA diving in the national park of Tayrona. For a couple days I lived on the beach diving in the morning and afternoons while sleeping in a hammock at night. The Caribbean to me means sharks, unfortunately I didn't see any on my dives but I had a good time underwater and was happy to discover I could still dive after about eight months above water. On our excursion there was a group of dive students getting certified. I went under with them on two occasions and spent some time observing them under water. It had been just over a year since I earned my certification in Australia and I knew I struggled then with some of the skills they were struggling with now. It was fun to be the one to encourage new divers just like many people encouraged me on dive boats around southeast Asia. A lot can change in a year, and my SCUBA skills are proof.

Around this time I could see my time growing shorter and was eager to have another snake encounter before I left the continent. After my dive trip I continued east to the other side of the park and hiked over the mountains to the beach. The hike was fantastic. It wasn't too hot or humid like the rainforest in Bolivia and the activity of hiking was exhilarating. No snakes were found but I came across a different jewel of the rainforest; poison dart frogs. In my experience, dart frogs are common in the forests of Nicaragua, Costa Rica, Panama and Colombia. They are active during the day and eye-poppingly beautiful.

This one surprised me on the trail and gave me a good chase before I caught it. With the frog in one hand I retrieved my camera from my backpack with the other. I took a few photos and watched as he hopped away into the leaf litter. The excitement of the catch made me thirsty and I unscrewed my water bottle with the same hand I held the frog. When I took a drink some of the toxin must have washed from the bottle into my mouth because it tasted a little different, then began to get warmer and my tongue started going numb! I washed the bottle in a nearby stream and spit out what I could and the sensation faded. Never a dull moment huh!

The beach in the park is mostly unspoiled and uncrowded and unsuitable for swimming. I stayed for a few days walking along the beach, sleeping in hammocks, eating coconuts and mango and chatting with a few people along the way.

From Parque Tayrona I went directly to Barranquilla where I would fly out the following week. Many people questioned my desire to go to Barranquilla saying there was nothing special about it. It's not a tourist town, its not as pretty as Cartagena and therefore it's not special. On the other hand a select few told me it was even better than Cartagena because it wasn't a tourist town. After spending the weekend there I can tell you now, it's one of my favorite places in Colombia. It definitely isn't a tourist town, precisely why I like it. This is life for the majority of Colombians. Nobody is touting crappy souvenirs or day trips to the beach. This is what normal life feels like. I like normal life.

Add to that the fact I stayed with couchsurfers, Khris, Mickey and Jennifer the entire time I was there and saw even further into what a normal life is like, and made some great friends and had a lot of fun! Khris' family has a car which made seeing the city much easier and saved time. It was also a luxury I hadn't experienced-riding in a private vehicle-since I was in Argentina. Staying with Mickey and Jennifer exposed more luxuries I enjoyed; xbox, internet and local friends to hang out with. I had a great time eating, going to the movies, playing video games and playing pool with all of them. The most important thing of all was probably that I didn't spend my last days in South America alone. When I arrived in Buenos Aires I had a friend there to greet me and when I left Colombia, I had friends waving goodbye. Time with those friends, from Argentina to Colombia, is what I enjoyed the most.

Indonesia Revisited

The decision to return to Indonesia was becoming more and more appealing. A part of me had seriously questioned whether to leave Indonesia back in May, or postpone my outbound ticket and spend some more time in Java and neighboring Sulawesi. In the end, I took my friend Alison's advice and left. Six months later, there I was, full circle through Southeast Asia only a ferry ride from Sumatra, my Indonesian horizon.

I was surprised at how nostalgic I became when I arrived. Even the currency I'd exchanged into Rupiah brought back a comfortable familiarity. Hearing the language again was like hearing a favorite song on the radio. My tongue said words that I knew I'd said before, months earlier, but couldn't remember the meaning. My sentences would finish automatically, and then I'd ask the meaning of what I'd just said. Indonesian food isn't anything to brag about but I found myself salivating over the thought of my favorite local foods and couldn't wait to try them again.

In Dumai, where I arrived on the ferry, an English teacher found me waiting at the bus station's office. He said he heard there was a westerner in town and wanted to offer me free accommodation in return for English conversation with his students. Who told him I was in town? I'd just arrived less than ten minutes ago! So went the rest of my Sumatran experience. Especially on weekends, tourist traps were just that, traps set by adolescent English language students hunting for English speakers to practice with. The practice consisted of poorly worded questions that their teacher obviously advised they ask such as, "Do you agree with the economic crisis in America?" "Do you prefer Indonesia or America?" I couldn't believe that any twelve year-old was interested in the answers of their prepared questions (they weren't) so I changed the subject and instead asked them about where they came from, what was their favorite music or football team. Afterwards they all huddled around to get a picture of the tourist. The danger of speaking with one group of students is it gives the other groups a chance to move in where you repeat the same cycle of unanswerable questions-"Excuse me sir. What's the difference between America?"-then pictures and signatures while another group prepares to advance. There aren't many tourists in this part of the world so students would wait outside my guesthouse waiting for me to leave in the mornings. And to think some people are afraid to come here for fear of being attacked by radical Islamic terrorists. Forget about the terrorists, but keep a keen eye out for the English students!
Poor weather kept me from staying long at either Bukittinggi or Padang and I found myself on the island of Samosir in Lake Toba. It is said to be the largest island inside an island (that being Sumatra.) The lake is a crater lake and green hills surround the entire thing. Not much happens on the island so it's a nice place to relax, eat, explore waterfalls, take a swim or play chess-all of which I did my fair share of. The owner of my guesthouse and I played a minimum of five games of chess a day. I beat him once, drew twice and lost every game otherwise. After a week of staying and eating at the guesthouse he offered a challenge; one game of chess, I win and I leave without paying my bill, he wins and I have to stay another day. He won, I paid but still left that afternoon.

After a series of ferry, taxi and bus rides that lasted all night into the next morning I arrived in Pulau Weh, an island off the coast of Banda Aceh at the tip of Sumatra. Pulau Weh is gorgeous! I scored a wooden bungalow with a palm thatch roof and a hammock that's actually over the ocean. And not just any ocean, beautiful, calm, warm, blue-hued ocean full of colorful fish! The area I stayed was quite cozy. If anyone arrived we all knew about it. A surprising concentration of Americans arrived but also Germans, Belgians, French, Dutch, Chinese, Italians, Koreans and Malaysians.
Most of my days consisted of, or at least included snorkeling or scuba diving. The snorkeling was amazing. Beforehand I'd only seen a lionfish on two occasions in the Philippines. I saw seventeen of them here in an hour of snorkeling. Around dusk some beautiful blue fusiliers could be found schooling around some coral heads just in front of my bungalow. If classical music could be seen, visualized, it would take the form of these schooling fishes. That's how I'd describe it.

It was this spectacle I was on my way to witness when I thought the quest for a sea snake was over. Literally right in front on my bungalow, two meters from where I knelt to rinse the spit out of my mask was a snake, banded in black and white! It was searching for food in the cracks and holes around. As I watched it I began to have doubts. After all it just didn't act completely snakelike to me. Something was off. I was right, I found a picture of one in the dive shop's book on marine life. It was a harlequin snake eel. Not reptilian at all. I didn't have to wait long though. A few days later on my last day I found one and this time had no doubt as to what it was. A banded sea krait, potentially deadly but very placid. It took no notice of me as I watched it poke its head into cracks and under coral looking for small fish. I pushed my lungs to the limit as I dove down a few meters to where it was, and gently held it while still allowing it to hunt. As much as I was enjoying myself I was freezing from being in the water for nearly two hours and had to get out.

The diving was also nice although sometimes I felt like the snorkeling was better. A bit unfair to say probably as you don't have much to think about when you're snorkeling whereas I was concerned with my buoyancy, air consumption and decompression limits while I was diving. I dove six times over the course of two weeks, including once at night. I hadn't been too taken with diving previously. It's different, and interesting but I wasn't sure if the cost was worth the reward. Here in Indonesia I better realized what diving was-which is simply breathing underwater-and what it isn't-it's not a breathtaking experience every dive where you constantly see sharks, whales, turtles, etc.-and I think now that I realize this, I've become not only a better diver, but I appreciate diving more. I'll be excited to go again sometime. I'm sure it'll be even more enjoyable with old friends and my ultimate goal would be to dive with my dad who was certified nearly thirty years ago. [So here's a formal request to my father: When are we going diving together Dad?]

Indonesia remains my favorite Southeast Asian country and a place I hope dearly I'll get to return to someday. Before boarding my flight (which only cost $40!) to Malaysia I had one last straight-razor shave in a barber shop and went around town sampling my favorite foods one last time. It was then, while I was on the back of a motorbike receiving smiles from girls in headscarves, waves and salutations from businessmen and curious friendly glances in traffic that I confirmed it; I love this place! The landscape of Indonesia is beautiful and diverse, the people are friendly, the language is a joy and the climate is pleasant. I like how sandals are quickly kicked off before entering a home or shop, how Indonesians touch their hearts after shaking hands, the faint smell of cloves in the air and the sound of a pop star singing a love song on the radio in a language I almost speak.

Under the Sea

It's official! I have now scuba dove! It's fun! It's relaxing! It's challenging! It's interesting! And everything is so new! Like a lot of hobbies SCUBA is very social, in my certification class in Cairns there were about 15 students and on the live aboard boat we total 37, 31 divers and 6 crew. I passed my dive medical exam despite my injuries. The doctor gave me instructions to keep it clean and rinse with freshwater after each dive. Getting into and out of a wetsuit was a bit painful but it was all worth it. Once I was in the water there was no pain at all, even if there was, it would be easy to forget with all the fish and coral to look at.

The course I took is a 5 day Learn to Dive course. The first two days were spent in Cairns learning about the equipment and theory of diving, then for the next three days we went out on the ocean, living on a boat on the Great Barrier Reef! Our instructors warned us the schedule for the next three days would be little more than eating, diving and sleeping. The first day out on the boat my class went on two dives in the morning working on attaining our open water certification. It's difficult to explain the feeling of diving. The compressed air you breath is very dry, it's louder underwater than I expected it to be, a lot louder. I found diving relaxing though, focusing on my breathing, moving slowly and looking out for Nemo and his friends was quite enjoyable.

At the end of the first day while all of the students were watching from the top deck, the already certified divers were preparing for a night dive. It was so spooky! Sharks were circling behind the boat right where the divers were jumping in. As the divers descended, the beams of their flashlights eventually faded out until you could no longer see them. I couldn't wait for when we could go on a night dive the next day.

Day two was an exciting day since it was the day we'd gain our certification and be able to dive unguided. We still had two dives to complete and perform some skills in the water, by noon we were all certified divers! For my first fun dive I chose to go with my dive buddy whom I knew didn't use much air. I wanted to spend as much time underwater as possible and I'd gained the reputation in class as the one who uses the least amount of air. Our dives up to this point had been between thirty and forty minutes long. On our first fun dive, my buddy and I stayed under for fifty three minutes! It was a blast, even though we kind of got lost and didn't know where we were going most of the time. I noticed that without a guide, I didn't see as much because I was always concerned about where to go next or where my buddy was instead of just following the leader. Over the next few dives I worked out how to navigate better underwater and it made it much more enjoyable when I knew where I was.

Night dive! Just like the last one, sharks were circling the back of the boat as we jumped in. We descended to the bottom and made a loop through the coral and back to the boat. The reef is interesting at night, I'd like to do more night dives. Little shrimps were out on the coral peering up at us with their orange eyes, the soldierfish who are tucked away in holes and under shelves during the day, are swimming about at night. We came across a painted crayfish too which is like a lobster. It's antennae were huge! At one point I was following Oscar, our guide, through this hallway of reef. He shined his flashlight under a big shelf and there was the biggest green sea turtle I've ever seen! It was bigger than the leatherbacks I'd seen in Costa Rica! He was sleeping and had to be over 7 feet long. His tail was as big around as my arm! I couldn't believe it.

We didn't see much else as we made our way back t the boat. We held on to a bar that had been suspended about 5 meters below the boat. Oscar pulled out a plastic pop bottle and began rolling it between his hands and crinkling it, twisting it and bending it. It made a very loud sound underwater, it was a deep, loud rumbling sound... and it was attracting sharks! We couldn't see the bottom and our visibility was limited to the faint glow of the boat's floodlights from above, coupled with our flashlights. Oscar pointed to the edge of our visible limit and I could just make out the green eye shine of the shark. Then it disappeared! Pretty soon it came back again and left again .It was getting closer and closer, staying longer and longer. It was a grey reef shark about two meters long. I was focusing on it with my flashlight when two others came up underneath us! Whoa! It was so fun! As we ascended to the boat ladder the bigger one came closer. I was following it with my light when it turned and came towards me! Ahh! It wasn't enough to get me swimming towards the steps but it definitely got the adrenaline going. That was a really fun dive!

The first dive the next morning, my seventh, took the cake. I had a new dive buddy for this dive, Adam, also from America. Where do I begin? It was very early and we were in the water just as the sun was rising so all the night-time stuff was still out and the day-time fish and turtles were coming out too. We saw the usual things, Christmas tree worms, some really good clown fish in anemones and then a shark! A black-tipped reef shark just swam past and Adam didn't see it! I was trying to get his attention but I didn't want to miss the shark so I kept my eye on it while swimming backwards to grab Adam. He missed it in the end which I thought was a bummer, we probably wouldn't see another one right? We went around a corner and I took a course about 3 feet above Adam and there was a turtle eating! We could have gone right past it. After Adam snapped a couple pictures of the turtle we went around a mound of coral and there was a white-tipped reef shark sleeping on the sand! Wow! We watched it and tried to get closer and closer until finally it woke up and slowly swam away. A little further away were some other divers coming our way, something wasn't right though, one diver looked funny. As it got closer I realized it wasn't a diver at all, but a turtle swimming gracefully towards us! I thought, "This couldn't get any better!." I was wrong again. Only a few seconds later as Adam was taking pictures of some blue staghorn coral I just happened to peer between two towers of reef and I could just make out the outline of a sleeping shark about ten meters away! We swam over to it and watched it for awhile. It was bigger than all the others at about 7 feet long. Sharks look pretty peaceful when they're sleeping. Their gills move a little bit and they open and close their mouths slightly but generally they just lay on the bottom. By this time it was time to go back to the boat and eat breakfast. Nobody could believe everything that we saw in that single dive!

All in all, I went on nine dives, ate some great food and met some interesting people. I'm not ready to sell the farm and make my living from diving, but I am looking forward to diving some more. I would especially like to go with some friends of mine, and maybe, just maybe my parents will dust off their certification cards they got way back in the day and we can be dive buddies someday.