Day 72

Odometer   31,800  – 31,835 ——- 35  Miles (9135 Miles Total)

Minca, Colombia

Just waking up to another day in paradise I guess. My bed was pretty uncomfortable so I didn’t get to sleep much. I got up at 8am and walked right down to the river to jump in and “shower”. It woke me up straight away. I packed up my few things I had there, threw it in the topbox of my bike and went for a walk down to the breakfast place Im am a local at now. But first I stopped at the pharmacy to get a cream for the bug bites. The woman gave me something which I googled and it looked like it was for womens yeast infection. I asked her three times if it was for mosquito bite relief and she kept saying yes. I bought it and rubbed it on my legs. It worked a little bit but not enough.

I worked on the blog for a bit there but my breakfasts there might have to stop as it takes way too long for the whole thing. It took over 2 hours yesterday for breakfast and that’s getting a bit ridiculous. I went back to the hostel to grab my bike and bring it to the other hostel I stayed at the other night which is where i’ll be staying tonight. I unloaded a few things and decided I was going to go check out another waterfall today. I rode up about 10 minutes north of town and went for a 15 minute walk to  find it. There were lines of people going in and out. I couldn’t believe how busy this place was and it was only 10:30am. I had a feeling I wouldn’t stay long. I got there and yeah it was packed. I had a vision of hanging out there on a rock napping most of the day working on my spanish but nope that wasn’t going to happen.

I hung out there for 20 minutes and swam a bit. The water was really really cold and I enjoyed it. It was the coldest water of the trip. I got bit by more bugs and then walked back out to the bike. When i got back to my hostel i saw a guy i met a few nights ago and he told me the hostel has this special potion they made up to repel the mosquitoes and it worked like a charm for him. I lathered myself up with it and decided today was going to be a lazy day just laying by the pool at the hostel. That’s exactly what I did the rest of the day. I would lay on the net 10 feet off the ground reading my kindle, passing out every now and then and when I would wake up covered in sweat I would jump in the pool. Rinse and repeat the whole day! I did that for about 5 hours. Oh, it was perfect. People at home were talking about a snowstorm they’re getting tonight. Suckers! Hah

I made a few phone calls, video calls, sent a few pictures of people to make them hate me regarding their living situation and mine today. Mission accomplished. I washed my clothes in the rover which meant taking my blue linen shirt with my towel and just dipping it in the river. Looks like I’m good at wearing this stuff for another 3 days and my towel doesn’t smell anymore so I can use it to dry myself off after going for a swim now. I did a little push up workout. I’m excited to get to Cartagena tomorrow night to do 2-3 salsa classes a day and go to crossfit once a day hopefully.

After laying in the sun all day I went out for a little sandwich at the breakfast shop which they are usually quick with. I was meeting two friends in Santa Marta tonight so I got back to the hostel and threw some jeans on over my shorts and rode down into the city. Ugh i miss riding my bike with no luggage on it. It’s so much faster and nimble and I actually get to ride how I want. I was getting low in the turns ripping around everyone. I miss this so much. The weather slowly got warmer and more humid as I came off the mountain. I parked near the center in the city and went for a walk to the pier to get some mangos and meat sticks. I walked around a bit, got hit on by some prostitutes, the new norm now. I went back to the center and met up with Daniella and Nick. We sat down for dinner. It was so nice to see friends. I’ve seen Daniella around the skydiving world for a bit now but never really talked to her until this summer up north in Niagara Falls at a skydiving event. Same with Nick, I’ve talked to him a little bit here and there but never really got to know him. They are such good, honest, fun people. I like them alot.

We chatted for a while over dinner and laughed a lot. I bought dinner for them since Nick had to deal with bringing all my heavy motorcycle stuff down with him. I told them I knew a good spot for gelato after and they knew of one too. Funny how we all had the same favorite gelato shop in the whole city. We stuffed our faces, walked around a bunch and told stories. Ugh I loved every second of it. I’m going to be sad when I leave. While eating ice cream i heard some guy talking serbian. So I asked him where he was from in Serbian and the look on his face was hilarious. We chatted for a few minutes. He was from Montenegro but lived in Ohio now and he comes to Colombia every now and then because he loves it here so much.

We walked around another hour or so and found him in a park near where I parked my bike. This guy can talk forever and has some good stories. We chatted with him for about 30 minutes and then we parted ways. I made plans with Daniella and Nick to go to the beach tomorrow and then I would ride down to Cartagena after the beach where I would stay for three nights. I got on my bike and had a lovely ride back up the mountains in the dark. I watched a little netflix and passed out.