In the hills above Minca

It's been a few days since I've posted. Part of that is that I was off the grid at the hostel; part of it was that I hit that ennui where you get lazy about writing about things.  I did manage to last most of the trip now.

Minca was about as different as all the other stops of our trip as it could be.  We were on the middle of a forest atop hills in much more basic conditions than any of our other places.  It probably was the first time I've stayed in a hostel in over fifteen years. I actually liked that aspect.  You really do get to meet a lot of interesting people from all over the world. At the hostel, I met people from Australia, Hungary, England, Ireland, France, Amsterdam, and the U.S.   Many of the people were very recently removed from college and amidst months long journey through Colombia and other Latin American countries on a shoestring budget.  It was nice to see quite a few Americans. I like that there are people from the U.S. that don't have that visceral reaction about visiting Colombia that many people do.  This country is really an amazing and safe place (more about that in a post when I get back).

It was a fairly laidback stay at Minca. We had one home to a wonderful waterfall before getting caught in the rain five minutes from town. We ended up sheltering under the eaves of an aluminum siding roof with a few locals.  We had lunch at Lazy Cat, a burger and quesadilla place that was pretty good. I had climbed down the hill at night with my headlight and a few Irish girls and an American guy for dinner at the same place the previous night. It was so much easier taking that hill without the encumberance of bags!

The weather was a lot better than Santa Marta and Cartagena, being up in the hills. Unfortunately, my hope of it being a bug-free destination was in vain. I was okay but Kathy got eaten alive.  :-(

I personally enjoyed the stay at the hostel though I imagine more than a few days of shared bathrooms, cold showers, and paperthin walls would have gotten to me. Still, it was a nice change of pace...