Dan comes to Colombia

Hello friends!

Sorry again for the late posting. My excuse this time is that I wanted to wait until after Semana Santa -- that is the week leading up to Easter -- because Dan came to visit and I wanted to talk about what we did!

A quick note: most of the pictures are panoramas of Dan, somewhat intentionally. I got a little into taking panoramas and quickly realized that he would be a great social media sensation - #panoramadan ;)

Dan at the springs in Minca

So, Semana Santa here (as in other Latin American countries) is a big deal because mostly everyone is Catholic. School is out and many offices shut down for the entire week, and everyone heads out for a week-long vacation. Since I had the week off, Dan flew down to visit me!

I met in him Barranquilla, where his flight came in, and then we headed to Santa Marta, several hours up the coast of the Caribbean. We first spent a day in Minca, which is a small town that is a drive a little bit up into the Sierra Nevada, and swam in some spring water and tried some of the coffee that Minca is known for. Our second day we went to Parque Tayrona, a national park in Colombia that is really cool because it's basically jungle meets beach. To get to the beaches, you have to walk/hike for several hours. I won't lie, I was cranky by the end --  but the beach was worth it! The beach was beautiful, and we saw some monkeys on our walk in.

Parque Tayrona, where jungle meets beach!

We then headed down to Cartagena so that I could show Dan a little of my city. We spent some good time wandering around the walled city -- the old colonial part of town that is still standing from the Spaniards -- and we hit up the Castillo de San Felipe, a lookout castle they built to fend off pirates and other countries wanting access to Cartagena, one of the entry points to Latin America!

Atop the Castillo de San Felipe

Dan got to meet my host mom and my co-teacher, in addition to her entire family. They took us out to smoothies one night and we had some great conversation about the differences between the U.S. and Colombia, our cultures and the good and bad points of each. My co-teacher loves American culture and has visited several times, and she had some great points to make.

On our last day in Cartagena, we went out to Playa Blanca, the beach that is quickly becoming a weekend regular spot for me and a few friends here in Cartagena. It was a bit crowded because of Semana Santa, but that didn't put us out. We even payed a few bucks each to rent some snorkel goggles to take a look at some of the coral just a short swim out. And Dan got to try the typical beachside lunch that is famous at Playa Blanca, with coconut rice and fired plantains. I love it there because each tent for rent sort of doubles as a restaurant, so we get our lunches and beers delivered right to our spot! Not to mention to the plate of fresh fish that I got to pick from, straight from the sea! Playa Blanca is a magical place ;)

About to snorkel on Playa Blanca

On our last day, we headed back up to Barranquilla and caught a Colombian soccer game! This was an Olympic qualifier game, so it was just the younger players of the national Colombian soccer team who were playing. Even so, Colombians love their soccer. It's a great experience being surrounded by fans who are truly dedicated and glued to what is going on in the field.

Soccer game!

Some friends in my program

The next day, Dan was headed home, which was difficult for both of us. But, his visit was so fun, and we were glad to have had the chance to spend some time together. Dan loved Colombian culture, and is hoping to come back in September maybe so that we can check out Bogota and maybe the coffee country and Andes mountains.

OK, I am going to stop there and then do another update on other things soon so I can break things up into pieces!

Love and miss you all!