From Quito to Columbia and back

I was officially through with my business in quito Ecuador and was very eager to get out of the smog filled city and make my way onto a new adventure. Before I had arrived in Ecuador I made the plan to Volunteer for a hostel where I was going to spend one month and come up with a good route to take after I left. I ended up being in Quito for 2 months and by the end I still had no clue in which direction to head. I had made plenty of aquaintances while working and many of them told me to meet them somewhere, Argentina, Peru, Columbia, Chile. Uhhh so many choices! I had finally decided that I was going to go to Peru after much thought. Since Ecuador only gives you a 3 month tourist visa, I decided that one month was not enough time to see everything I wanted to see. The problem was that in Ecuador they give you a 3 month tourist visa and you are not able to just cross the border and return and recieve 3 more months. If I were a rich "budget" backpacker I could have just booked a flight from another country but since that is not an option I have to come back to Quito to fly out. The only option was to go to immigration and file for an extra month which costs $60 or suffer the $250 over expired fine when I get to the airport. So I spent one morning putting all of my paperwork together to go to the immigration office. After Photos, petitions, fill in the blanks, copies, manilla folders and internet cafe I made my way proudly prepared to the office. I was prepared to just drop it off, pick up my passport a week later with a new stamp and have no problems. I waited in the office for no more than 3 minutes before the line guard called me up. I went to the officer, showed him what a good job I had did preparing for him to tell me in 30 seconds that I would have to come back the day before my visa expires to extend. My decision to go to Peru had gone down the drain because I didnt think I would have enough time to get down there and back. I went up to the hostel to moan about my day and how my Plan A had fallen through. A co/volunteer said I'm leaving for Columbia on Monday, why don't you come with me? Immediately I said yes and Plan B had been made! The very next day we went to buy tickets to go straight to Bogota from Quito. We had decided to skip Cali because we had heard that there is not much to see there for tourists and is a bit dangerous. We went to the bus station to buy our tickets for our bus ride that would take 32 hours! I wondered why I had to spend $85 to be tortured for a day and a half. I spent the next couple days anxiously awaiting my departure for Columbia. We put on a big party at the hotel where I live and drank and danced it up all night. The bus for Columbia left from the office next to Parque Carolina. While we waited for our bus to leave at 5>00 am we met a girl who decided at the spur of the moment she was going to go with us to Columbia if there was a seat available. I woke up my friend Jefferson at 3>30 to drive us to the bus station. We got there a bit early and had to wait for the bus for awhile because it was coming from Peru. We got on the bus and there were many people who were already on it that had riding the bus for days from other countries. A women who was sitting next to me had already been on the bus for 1 day and a half and her trip to Venezuela was a total of 3 days. Luckily a dear friend I met in Quito gave me plenty of pain killers to help me sleep. In between dinner and breakfast stops I slept the entire way! We ran into a major accident in the mountains so the journey ended up taking 36 hours. The trip felt like a dream thanks to the help of some sleeping pills. We arrived in Bogota mid day to a very nice bus station< we went to the tourist information who gave us information on how much a taxi would cost and some maps of the city. It was such a change of atmosphere going from Quito to Columbia. The air was fresh the people were friendly and I was excited to explore a new city. We spent about 1 weeks in Bogota exploring all the museums, street markets and vendors and went up to the Teleferico where we got to see the entirety of the city from above. Bogota is a very touristy, artsy and friendly city with plenty of things to see and do. The food was also very good with many options to choose from at a reasonable price. We stayed at 3 different hostels while we were there but out of the three I reccomend The Cranky Croc. The staff was very helpful, the food was very good, there was a Tv room with a huge widescreen stuffed with bean bags chairs and comfortable sofas. The beds were very new and quiet and the rooms were nestled in the back of the hostel away from the noise of the bar and the street. After we were through with seeing Bogota we made our 10 hour bus journey to Medellin through winding mountains and a driver who caused us to have nausea after the ride. We arrived in Medellin late at night and caught a taxi to our Hostel The Tiger Paw. We checked out very early the next morning due to very noisy rude maids and staff. We happily checked into the highly reccomended Casa kiwi where we enjoyed our time for about 5 days. At this point in my travels I was a bit sick of being in the city and heavily desiring some beach time. medellin has quite a bit to see and do but I was as motivated to explore much here. It is a very big city and takes quite a bit of time to go to many places. We were in desperate need of some nature after seeing too much concrete so we had to decided to do less museums churches and see more of the natural things the city has to offer. We wanted to go to the Aquarium and then found out it was way too expensive for our budget. The next day we wanted to go to the waterpark and relax. After 3 hours of transportation and walking to get there we only had about 30 minutes to enjoy ourselves. The next day I decided to do absolutely nothing but sit by the pool and read all day and that is exactly what I did (except when I got up a couple times to make pina coladas). I decided that it was definately time for beach so we thought it would be best to leave asap. The next day we bused it another 14 hours to cartagena. This time the bus ride wasn't so bad. Cartagena is a Spanish town and located along the Mediterranean Sea. Cartagena has a beautiful very historic center. The beaches are little to be desired but the romantic city is hard not to love. We met a couple people there and enjoyed the parties and the colonial history of the city. since the beaches there are a bust it was past due time to go to the small fishing village of Taganga for some R n R. We caught a bus from Cartagena to Baranquilla to Santa Marta and then a taxi to Taganga. The beaches in Taganga were very busy because of the Easter holiday (Semana Santa) but we found some secluded spots to hide from the Columbians. We met some more people there and all hung around the small town together for a few days. The food was a bit on the expensive side if you eat ocean front but we found a spot with dinners for $2.50 which were prepared out of a camper truck. Every night there were always some entertaining hippies twirling fire, doing handstands and playing rythmic beats on drums. We bought bottles of rum and coke and sat beach side listening and watching and socializing with new friends. I successffully got some much needed beach time before it was time to head back to Quito for my visa extention. After flying from Santa Marta to Bogota to Medellin and then back to Bogota, I finally made it back to Quito where Jefferson was waiting for me at the airport. After all the hassle of worrying about my extension, I recieved a present going through immigration at the airport. They gave me an extra 30 days on my passport! It turns out I didn't have to file for an extension after all! Now back in Quitooooooooooo. Next on the agenda...exploration Ecuador.