Colombia 2015 - Colombian LTG (Laundry, Tequila, Gym)

Before we flew to Colombia, Michael boasted to me that he was going to bring only a backpack with one shirt and one pair of jeans and maybe a toothbrush.  His idea was to buy the clothes he needed when he got to Colombia.  I thought it a fine idea but didn't not follow his extreme one-outfit minimum.  I brought enough for maybe 4 days and one workout session at the gym.  Guess how much Michael brought - a lot!  He had 2 button-up shirts, several T-shirts, and a polo.  He did only bring one pair of jeans, so he did have to buy another pair of pants. 

But since he had reserves and since it was only day 3, we didn't go shopping, but I did ask our teacher about it during class.  He gave us the lowdown on which mall had the best selection and warned us of the low quality, albeit high quantity, of the downtown's ("El Centro") shops.  We stored this information in the back of our heads and continued with our successful lessons in Spanish.



Exotic Fruits

The activity for the day was to taste the different fruits availble in South America.  I knew they would look weird, but I was excited to try new things.

Appetizing?

I look concerned (top right)

Don't let my furrowed brow in the picture above fool you.  Despite the foreign combination of textures and seed shapes, I was eager to try something new.  This picture was probably taken right before I bit into something. The most pleasant surprise was the granadilla.  It looked as if I were about to eat little beetle larvae, but it had a sweet, juicy flavor!  It makes me want to seek out the passion fruit here in America.  

Granadilla

That is one great thing about visiting Colombia - it has emboldened me to seek out new experiences.  I had never had papaya before, but one taste of the fruit in Medellin and of its juice in Cartagena, I had a new favorite on my fruit list.  One experience I sadly won't be able to recreate here in the US is the sweetness of the Colombian pineapple.  We regularly have pineapple at home about once a month when I get the real deal:  husk, green leaves, and fresh pulp in one natural, non-steel-can package.  I let it sit in our bus until it's at a ripe state and then we add it to juices and serve it to the kids in little chunks that they pick up with toothpicks.  I thought ours was sweet, but the slice I had in colombia was not only 150% larger in diameter but also that much sweeter!  If my kids had tasted it, they would never ask me for gummy bears over piña again! 

Our dance classmates from the previous day!  

Mary and Kat in the picture above met at Toucan and formed a strong bond that they would often hang out at night with each other's friends.  They probably were not giggling about the fruit but about the texts they sent each other.   Even more impressive of Mary and Kat is that they are solo women travelers.  They were on completely different itineraries and serendipity caused them to cross paths in Medellin.  They haven't come across dangerous situations in South America so far and I hope it continues.  I wish I had had the balls to do something like this when I was their age. 

After class, we took an alternate route back to our hostel and came across what seemed to be "motorcycle row."  There were shops upon shops of motorcycle dealers and mechanics on a neighboring street.  With the traffic of Colombia, it makes sense to choose two wheels instead of four.  Michael was salivating and wanted to rent one so badly.  We would later research the possibility of renting one and find out it was just not done in Colombia.  

Moto Row:  Disclaimer -  this picture was taken from Google maps street view and it's not officially named moto row by locals.  

First Gym Experience

After a quick rest, we went to the gym ready to sweat out all the meat we had been eating.  We were also ready to see the abundance of the famed Colombian beauties, but entered a very vacant gym.  We had arrived too early to see the locals do their routine workouts, but we appreciated having easy access to all the gym equipment.  

The gym we joined is one of the more expensive in Colombia and it shows in the cleanliness of the building, the variety of equipment, and the classes they offer.  But one thing they lacked was heavy free weights.  They did have 45 lb rings to rack onto dumbbells, but they seemed to have only 6 in the entire gym.  We then realized that we had not seen many buff body-builders the last three days.   We have discovered that men in Colombia just don't get big.  I'm sure they can because we have seen a handful, but for the most part, they are very much into the lean look.  Michael was the buffest dude for miles when we strolled around.  Over the next 4 weeks, we would also visit the Bodytech gyms in Cartagena and in Bogotá and we would still find a dearth of heavy weights.

Where's the beef-y weights?

Two other things we noticed that differed between US and Colombian gyms were the size of their locker locks and the absence of water fountains.

Not a lot of locals drink water, even outside the gym.  We Meyers guzzle it like it's liquid candy and we were already thirsty only 20 minutes into our workout.  We ended up just drinking tap water from the bathroom sinks because we were already drinking tap water at our hostel.

The problem with the locker locks, however, was not immediately remediable.  I had brought to the country my combination lock that I use at my home gym.  I like to shower at the gym right after the workout and this entails bringing shampoo, a towel, clothes to change into, soap, a comb, a blow dryer, curling iron, and a lock, to secure all my things so I don't have to skip from machine to machine with a gigantic bag following me.  The problem in Colombia is their lockers have tiny holes in the latches and only allow locks similar in size to ones people use on luggage.  We figured that for our first visit we would just stow our backpack in a visible corner and buy a suitable lock in the near future.  Well, we never got the new lock because we just decided to avoid the hassle and shower at our hostel/hotels. 



Fellow Travelers

For the evening's festivities, we planned to have a nice dinner and check out a club to maybe practice our newly learned dance moves.  We ate more meat at a steakhouse next to Parque Lleras and washed it down with some red wine.

We let our food digest while we sat in the park and people-watched.   We saw some of our classmates milling about off in the distance, but didn't call out to them.  Another classmate did see us and called out to us, "Hey I know you two!"  We talked and found out what an interesting, young (20-something) fellow he is.  He was going to travel Colombia for 3 months and his first stop was Medellín.  The night he had arrived, he headed straight for his hostel and then to a grocery store so he could cook for himself.  He was really trying to stretch out his money for his long journey.  He was writing his observations in hopes of returning one day to make a movie.   Maybe we'll see his name (shoot ... we only got his first name of James) up in lights in the future!

Many of the people we met were in a situation similar to James's.  They had finished college, worked a little, saved some money and were now trekking through South America to "check it out."  I can't say they were "finding themselves" because those words didn't come out of their mouths, but the sentiment seemed to emanate from them.   Michael and I envied their wonderful position in life.  To be young and have the means to explore the world outside one's childhood habitat sounded exhilarating.  We hope to be able to provide this opportunity for Max and Simone when they're older.   Our ship has sailed, but our kids' are just gearing up. 

Bottle Service

We found a club nearby that played a Latin song familiar to our gringo ears.  We were pleased to find out that there was no cover, but were perplexed that the waiter kept telling us about bottles and half-bottles of hard liquor.   Michael will have a sifter of rum or whiskey now and then, but a scant 2 ounces is all that graces his lips.  These guys were expecting patrons to down entire bottles of hard liquor down our throats!  Who does that?!?!  Well, I guess it's the Colombians because around us were locals with their glasses and maple-hued liquor and bottles that I usually only see in some old man's cabinet.   A bottle of wine is another story, however, because I can down that with pleasure.  Wouldn't you know it - most clubs don't have wine.  They want you to get plastered, man!  One club did have it and we were so excited that we ordered one.  When we noticed that no one else in the club had wine, we asked the waitress how much the bottle cost.  It was twice as much as the other bottles!  But we were happy, if a little bit poorer.