Day 142, Cartagena: Life in Colombia never ceases to amaze me.

First things first, we have started to celebrate our birthdays with S. This of course fully enjoying the fact that we are in Colombia, by the Caribbean Sea and under the ever so shining sun: with a beach party and a pool party. However, I will wait until my actual birthday (on Thursday!) to write about that, stay tuned.
 
Right now I just wanted to share some random Colombian things with you, that are again beyond my understanding, and that I find hilarious. I realized I don’t have any pictures of what I’m writing about so I will have to post some others just to make this post more colourful.

On day 100 when I wrote about the oh so very Colombian life I had experienced here so far, I told you a lot about the traffic and transportation. Since then I have kept exploring and I have to add a couple of funny facts:

• I’ve understood that there are various bus companies because all the bus lines look completely different and have different names. What I don’t get is the competition between them. It is the same show every morning when I’m at the bus stop and wait for my bus (Vehitrans). In every bus that passes by there is a guy who is hanging out from the front door and “advertising” their route: “This goes to Bocagrande, come here, Bocagrande” and so on. Since I look like a tourist they disturb me even more than others and it is quite annoying. Instead of being polite and just saying no thanks I would like to scream and shout that no, I have been sitting at this bus stop almost every morning for the past three months and I always take the bus to La Boquilla. And even if you keep insisting I am not going to change my mind one day and take another one to Bocagrande, thank you.
• For my first two and a half months here in Cartagena, and I don’t know for how long time before that, the Vehitrans route was Marbella-Crespo-La Boquilla. Crespo is a popular residential neighborhood, where also the airport is, thus a lot of people take the bus there. However, two weeks ago the city of Cartagena was proud to inaugurate a tunnel that connects La Boquilla and Marbella. For some reason, the bus going from Marbella to La Boquilla still does a tour around Crespo, but the one coming back goes from the tunnel. I don’t complain, I now save 20 minutes every afternoon coming home from work. But I just wonder, what about those poor people who live in Crespo and who now have a bus going to one direction only? Seriously, who planned this...
  
• A third thing that I have trouble understanding is why they change the directions of one-way streets here. Yes, you heard me right, every two months or so, the directions suddenly change. If before a road went to left, now it goes to right and soon it will go to left again. You can imagine how confused I get each time and don’t know where to take a taxi. Also the taxi drivers get confused and do weird tours around the city trying to find out which way to go. And the chances of getting hit by a car....

 
So I roll my eyes, forget about the chaos and go jumping on the beach.

So yes, transportation in Cartagena, go figure. But the next thing, I’m still laughing out loud. On Sunday evening when I came home I went to my room and started casually organizing my things. Until I freezed because on the floor I saw something that looked like A GIGANTIC FISH! I am not kidding, there it was right next to my bed, a creature that was at least 50cm long but, thank God, didn’t move. I started screaming like crazy and run out of my room. Hyperventilating I tried to explain to my roommate and her friend what was happening so they came to see and then we all screamed hysterically. I still can't believe that my roommate A really did it but when she had calmed down she went to my room, grabbed the fish and carried it to the trash. Credits to A for that. I was so shocked I didn’t think to take a picture but the vision of her holding the enormous fish will always remain in my mind. We couldn’t come up with any other explanation to this than that someone had thrown the fish in through the window that was open (now my windows stay closed). Seriously, what the hell. 
 
Take a breath and enjoy this stunning beach sunset view.

This is not funny but on Sunday evening I also got to see a Colombian hospital and emergency room. No worries mum, I’m fine! But a friend of mine had been feeling very sick for several days and nothing seemed to help so he finally ended up there. I was worried so I went to see him and some hours later brought him back to his place. I must say, I’m impressed! Compared to my stay at a French hospital last October, luckily one day only since it was awful in every way, being hospitalized in Cartagena looked like a relaxing visit to a spa. The place was clean and quiet, and every patient had their own private section. There were lots of personnel, they were all extremely friendly and they let me in to see my friend without any waiting or trouble. When he got his test results (that was very fast as well) the doctor explained everything thoroughly and even tried to speak English with us. If something happens to me here (fingers crossed nothing won’t), I want to go to Nuevo Hospital de Bocagrande and I wouldn’t mind staying there for a while, in their good care. Still let’s hope that I stay healthy and escape accidents. But I feel reassured.
 
I think this is enough of Colombian adventures (good and bad) for now, birthday post coming next. :)
 
xx Emi

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