We spent the first few days in the capital of Bogata, immediately we sensed a difference to the other Latin American countries we have spent time in with the level of security and police presence, I'm not sure if this made us feel safer or more scared. Following a month in the US our Spanish had taken a bit of a nose dive, which didn't really make things easier. We checked into the airbnb a little bit out of the city centre, bought essentials and did a little planning for how we would spend the 2 days until we flew north to Cartagena.
Bogata is at 2640m above sea level, so even though it’s so close to the equator, it’s pretty cold. We explored the centre, saw the government buildings, squares, loads of street entertainment and even managed to get the kids to sit through a lovely restaurant lunch. We went to Monserrate - one of the key tourist destinations where we got the cable car to the look out at 3150m. It was spectacular, amazing view of the city.
That afternoon Tim started to feel a little sick, by the middle of the night I woke up and was crazy sick for the whole night and not feeling much better by the morning. Thankfully Tim was as we were checking out and heading to the airport that morning. I can honestly say I have never felt so sick going through an airport or getting on a plane. With literally nothing inside of me, a sip of water came out within 30 min…. I made it through the short flight and taxi to our apartment in Cartagena, before passing out in the safety of our next airbnb bed (and toilet).
We had been communicating with Domino Volunteers for a few months to help connect us to appropriate foundations / not for profit organisations where we could volunteer or contribute in a way that is helpful. They are a great organisation that help connect people and skills with the most appropriate and highest impact activity in Cartagena. They connected us with Amigos Del Mar. Amigos del Mar is an amazing organisation that is working with the people of Tierra Bomba, a small island off the coast of Cartagena, of strategic importance during the times of pirates and invasions - with Bocagrande channel protected by a large chain and rocks to make the waters shallow and many forts either side of the water at Bocachica. Today the island has 4 main towns, Tierra Bomba, Punta Arena, Cano de Loro and Bocachica. Tierra bomba has the most people and is the poorest, whilst there is a sewage system there is no running water, drinking water arrives in big vats and is passed through so many people before it reaches the person that needs it (which makes it more expensive and less clean) only in the last 2 years is there now a way to collect rubbish and take it off the island. Previous to that it was just dumped and the island is paying the price. Soft drink manufacturers have so much to answer for.
Amigos del Mar is dedicated to reintegrate and keep young people in school until graduation and support them in their first moves in university or working environment. Through water sports (surfing, SUP, windsurfing, kitesurfing), which motivate and develop them through discipline and values. Furthermore, they organize extracurricular activities with focus on recycling, environment, languages, health and productivity. To receive additional knowledge, learn to care about the environment and to look after their physical and mental health. Although located next to the mainland and city Cartagena, there is little development in the rural island-community Tierra Bomba that provides alternatives to alcohol, drugs, gangs or early sexual relations. Amigos del mar intervene by offering new opportunities of development and focus. The program gets young people away from the problematic environment by presenting surf as a gateway to sports and social change. Which, seeing other opportunities, makes them reintegrate school. This way, figures for school dropouts, drug and alcohol abuses by young people and early pregnancies have declined. Those practicing sports have chances to participate in tournaments, travel, appear in the media and become part of the national surf leagues. These athletes are in turn a motivating example for others to join the program.
We also worked with the elderly in Punta Arena, preparing meals, cleaning up and chattin with the people - challenging in my pigeon spanish, especially which a lovely lady who is blind - which is when I realised most of my 'spanish' communication is in facial features and sign language which is useless with someone who cannot see! She loved the boys and stroked their hair endlessly as they sat on her lap. I think thy understood what a difference they made to make someone smile if only for 10 minutes. In the Friday of our first week there was a party for over 250 of the elderly community of the island to celebrate Colombian Valentine’s Day. Dancing competition (I was amazed by the hip movements of these 80+ year olds!), who’s the oldest competition (only allowed to enter with ID... 97 year old lady won), singing with live band, raffle and finished with a meal cooked and served by the Amigos del mar volunteers.
To get to Tierra Bomba we had to get a lancha (small boat) everyday with the other volunteers. There were lots of volunteers that we worked with - some from Cartagena, some backpacking from Europe, some for other parts of Colombia. A mix of ages, backgrounds and abilities, thankfully we had Ana and Carolina while we were there, amazing ladies from Cartagena, both taking time out of their university studies - both spoke fluent english. This made our boat trips, working with the kids and elderly easier especially when my pigeon spanish didn't cut it.
Whilst this all sounds idyllic and charitable of us things didn’t always go smoothly....
This first day the rain was so crazy school was cancelled on the island - que boys meltdown (mainly due to the fact we had bigged up seeing the kids...), Maggie from Domino kindly showed us around the old town instead which was fascinating, so much history, beautiful buildings even in the rain. Other times we were over on the island, it’s was stinking hot, and not a lot for the boys to be involved with causing some spectacular Archie meltdowns. It was a fine line to tread with the boys as we wanted them to want to come across to the island but it also wasn’t all play and they were there to help. Dexter took this in his stride, he loved hanging out with the kids, teaching English was fun for him and he came up with all kinds of ideas and suggestions to ‘help’.
We got into a routine of school work first thing (we are literally at the basics of read a book and do 2 pages of an exercise book now....), then mornings on tierra bomba and afternoons back at the apartment normally to chill inside away from the heat and humidity! Also exploring the town, local beaches and our amazing rooftop pool.
Thank you to all that donated money, we raised over $1000 which we were able to give them towards funding their art festival in a few months time. As part of the global beach clean up day Dexter and Tim also participated in a beach clean up collecting over 100kgs of rubbish (including 40kg of plastic bottles....) they were also going to paint the local school at this beach but unfortunately the rain prevented that. As you can imagine Dex was gutted.
The previous day we supported Amigos Del mar in the March for climate action. A small group of us met in the centre of the old town to protest and March through the business streets on a Friday afternoon, This coincided with the global school strike for climate change.
On one of our days off to went to the bird sanctuary and playa blanca for the day. Happened to be the day the rain came and stayed for hours. We have been lugging around rain jackets for each of us for the last 6 months, would have been a perfect time to use them but I left them at home... we all got soaking wet instead. Playa Blanca is a tourist day trip hot spot, not our favourite place to be but was good to see... We had lunch and sat on the beach for a bit, lovely apart from the horrendous amount of trash just behind all the restaurants, the boys loved playing in the ocean.
It’s pretty obvious that we are not locals... we are like shining beacons of money and 'gringoness' to all the locals... Everyone trying to sell us anything and everything, whether on the beach or walking down the street. 'No gracias' is a standard response, if you make any kind of eye contact they quickly lock you in, the boys know how to play it if they want to buy a new bracelet thats for sure.
Maggie at domino volunteers was kind enough to organise a babysitter for us so we could go out for the night. We hadn't been on a date night since Canada so it was a real treat! After sunset cocktails we went to a restaurant called Interno which means inmate and the restaurant is in the women’s prison in the old town. The food was delicious, Colombian and reasonably priced. It’s a fantastic initiative with really positive results for more details and background check out this article. The rest of the night gets a bit blurry with more cocktails and salsa dancing late into the night. The next day was a slow one.....
27th September was Archie’s 7th birthday, he had been counting down the days for weeks and was super excited. Archie is really missing his friends, a routine, his bedroom, his bike - he was worried about his birthday because we were in Colombia ‘just the four of us’ on bad days he indicated that it would be the worst birthday in the world as the only people around are his parents and his brother... He had a brilliant birthday. It was a Friday so arts and craft day, Laura, one of the coordinators let us run the class. We talked about Australian animals and showed them some pictures. Tim drew a lovely kangaroo on the board which they all copied, then we talked about boomerangs. Earlier in the week Archie and I had cut out some boomerang shapes from cardboard boxes and we gave one to each kid to decorate with sequins, fluffy balls, and their own drawings. It was great fun.
After the class we went back to the foundation to the Jurassic world cake one of the volunteers helped organise (thankfully as I had no idea how I was going to create this on my own!), happy birthday in Spanish and English followed by mass sugar consumption craziness. A little bit of play time with the kitten we had rescued (found abandoned) a few days earlier then we went to our local beach for the boys to have a banana boat ride before we went to the outdoor park and finished the day with burgers... pretty epic! Archie was happy with his ‘best birthday ever’ we even managed to speak to two of his best buddies from home via FaceTime which was perfect.
The last day we went to Castillo San Felipe de Baraja, huge fortress with underground tunnels and strategic importance in all the battles between the spanish and the english. So many forts in such a small space highlighting Cartagena's importance of the city as a gateway to South America, the boys were more interested in the 'bloody' battles that had happened, how far a cannon ball can really go and how to chase each other through the tunnels.
We flew back to Bogata for a day, got to go to Museo de Oro - the Gold museum and star attraction. Kids didn’t think it was a star attraction but we all learnt more about metals, and metal work throughout the ages. The afternoon we had a lovely local meal for lunch followed by stumbling into a great restaurant / bar that had only opened that day. The food, cocktails and wine were amazing, perfect end to our time in Colombia.
Another plane this time overnight to Santiago, to our final country for this trip - Chile!
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