One Man’s Walk through life

Look What I Found

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It’s Charles

Took long enough, sheesh… Hehe.

The long awaited IM came on Thursday that Charles had finally made it onto Colombian soil, and was in Cartagena. And that was it. I said goodbye to Santa Marta, and Taganga, and went back to meet him in Cartagena.

It’s good to see an old friend, I have to say. I’ve talked more in English in the past few days than I think I have since I’ve been in Colombia. But Charles’ Spanish is pretty good (and actually better than mine, though I think my accent is better than his) and when there are Colombiano’s around we switch easily enough. The problem is that geek talk is a lot easier in English, so…yeah.

Anyway, today we’re spending the night in Caucasia, on our way to Medillin from Cartagena. Charles also brought another motorcycle packing friend with him from Panama, an American from Seattle named Paul. The three of us are travelling together for now.

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Even so, the oft asked question from my friends of exactly how we’re going to travel together has yet to be answered. The shocks on Zulu, Charles’ motorcycle, don’t seem capable of supporting me and my pack. So. Our options seem to be a) replace the shocks or b) get a sidecar. Only time will tell. …but we both think the sidecar would make a MUCH better story. For now, I’m taking the bus and they’re riding the highways…

As far as WHERE we’re going… Charles wants to take a Spanish course, and I could probably stand one of those myself. I want to cut some code with the cogent dude, so I’m not too bothered about where we end up. We’ve both had a lot of the coast and the heat, and I think we’re both ready to go back to the mountains for a while to escape it. So, first it’s off to Medellin to pick up some packages for Charles, then it’s off to Bogotá, maybe?

I will say this, Charles and Paul do NOT pass as Colombians. Tonight someone thought I was their translater???

I am quite liking that people go through several other countries and Colombian cities and pretty much never hit the states when guessing my origin. Spain, Bogotá, Italy, Israel, etc, etc. I was quite flattered yesterday when a cab driver thought I was from Spain even after talking to me in Spanish for a few minutes. Apparently my Spanish has improved. Go me!