Minca!

Up in the cloud-covered forests of the Sierra Nevada, far from the bustling heat of the city below, lies a small Colombian village. It has all the features of a typical coastal town - brightly painted restaurants, yellow taxi cabs, motorbikes parked on every corner - the only difference is the beautiful tranquility that transcends this location. A place for recharging your batteries, taking a deep breath and enjoying the simpler things in life.

To the end of the earth: Bocas de Ceniza

Barranquilla is a little-known tourist city. In fact, in the Lonely Planet guide to South America it states that 'there's little to detain the traveller here'. While this may be partly true - it is a mainly industrial city - there are still hidden delights to be found for those who look hard enough. And one of these is the ride out to where the Magdalena River meets with the Atlantic Ocean: Bocas de Ceniza.

Ocean to the left, river to the right:
the contrasting colours of Bocas de Ceniza

Cartagena: Land of the Pirates

Welcome back! I've not written for a couple of weeks, because I've been Just. So. Busy! However, this weekend I've got a bit of downtime, and I intend to capitalise on it to tell you lovely people all about what I've been up to these past few days. Apart from the time I spent sitting at home, planning lessons, and running around Barranquilla, being sociable (I know, it's a hard life), I managed to get a bit further afield and visit the beautiful city of Cartagena de Indias!

The atmospheric Cartagenero seafront

When it rains, it pours.

I've been waiting for a good moment to introduce this little graph to you all. It's a diagram that the British Council (my UK link to Colombia) gave to us at our training in Bogotá, that tracks the ups and downs of living abroad. I think it's pretty accurate (although the middle bit should definitely be higher) so I thought I'd share it with you lot, so you can have some idea of the roller-coaster ride that is life on the road!

British Council year abroad graph - click image to enlarge

Naturaleza

Two weeks in and Colombia continues to give. I am enjoying a lot of free time at present, mostly because my work at the University doesn't seem to start until the end of the month, and nobody seems too bothered about the fact that I'm just chilling at home (T.I.C.). However, the weekends are still as busy as ever. We decided to head out along the coast again this weekend, this time a little further along, to Parque Tayrona - a National Park, and place of outstanding natural beauty (especially for us foreigners!).

Our route to Parque Tayrona

When talking over plans with the group, there was a great discussion about what we'd have to take (everything), where we'd be able to sleep (on a campsite) and what we'd be able to eat (what we'd brought). There was even some talk of supermarkets and hotels. Given that Parque Tayrona is, basically, a jungle, this seemed unlikely. And faced with the question of what there was to see in the way of attractions, the appeal of a place with no wifi or good restaurants to go to seemed limited to some. But for those who went, the appeal was clear: naturaleza (nature)! And nature, on its part, definitely delivered...

A Snapshot.

Note: It's usually more sunny than this!

And so, the journey begins.

Only a few days in, but it seems a long time ago now that I was sitting in my bedroom writing my first post. It's not just the distance that separates me from that place now. The over-packed suitcase is gone, now my surroundings are quite different - I am in a white, reasonably big, slightly dirty kitchen with a large bay window at the front, looking out onto a paved courtyard, from which I can see the rolling hills of the Côte d'Azur, and hear the cicadas as they sing (very loudly!). An idyllic setting, really. And I can't complain - I feel that God has truly blessed me in these first few days of my stay here in France, and I hope that He continues to do so! There have ben a few teething problems (like the fact that I arrived, exhausted and rather sweaty, to be greeted with a very confused employer who wanted to know why I was here several days too early for my shift!), but these are massively outweighed by the gifts that God has given me - a friendly, helpful flatmate called Marie (who seems to know everyone!), a reasonably active social life, and of course, a few days to settle in and explore. It's still a challenge to understand everything that people are saying, and I am yet to build up the confidence to really step out and lead a conversation, but hopefully this will come with time. I look forward to the challenges that the next few days will bring me, as I start work on Monday, and pray for confidence in tackling them head-on. This was not a bad beginning!