Day 2 - The Caribbean (updated 6/11/15)

Today, we had breakfast on the roof of our hotel/hostal. All of us were expecting one of those continental breakfasts where you grab your own food but no, they had menus and several different options that they would make for you once you ordered! At 8am, we left to take a boat to some different islands. We passed by a fort (see above picture) that was built since there were lots of problems with pirates at Cartagena de Las Indias (since Cartagena was one Spain's major ports for loading treasure onto ships). The first stop at Isla Barú had little hut-like things in the water with roofs made of branches.

We stayed there for 45 minutes. The water near the island was almost clear but the water a little ways from the island was normal "ocean color." (In the picture above, you can see how the water in lighter aroung the huts, but darker every place else.) In some areas of the water, the sand was extremely squishy. I've never felt anything like it in an ocean! It was almost like sludgy mud. Your feet would just sink in in those areas but a couple of steps to the side, and the sand would be normal again. Even in my hand, the mixture felt like those lotion and creams that have little beads in them. Some of us got coconuts to drink out of. There were some women who kept trying to give us massages. They would start massaging us and say things like, "You have lots of knots! You need to relax. Let me massage you!" and then they would begin massaging you to try to convince you to decide to get one. Someone noted that it's just like the Odyssey, which I thought was hilarious, cause it was so true! Later we went to another part of the island, where we had lunch. Everyone had fish, except for me (since I've never been a fan of seafood). It was red snapper and it definitely still looked like a fish - the head, teeth, tail, etc. were all still there. I had a try of a friend's, and it really was the best fish I've tasted so far (which I haven't tasted too much fish). Upon walking the beach, I found a lot of pieces of some fairly large conch shells, but none of them looked too pretty. They really looked like plain shell-shaped things that had been molded.

(The shell on the far right was actually about as big as my hand)

A friend found a miniature conch shell. It's seriously the cutest thing ever. I've never seen anything like it and I grew up in Hawaii! While at the beach, two other girls and I got a bowl of fresh fruit with sweetened consensed milk. We all agreed that papaya is not our favorite, but the bocadilla de guayaba was pretty good. Later on, some of us decided to take a ride on one of those rafts attached to boats where they try try to knock you off. So, we got lifejackets on, got on the raft, and then the man walked away. After like 5 minutes, we started looking around and we couldn't see the man anywhere. After a total of 10 minutes, and having the raft continually falling into the shorebreak, we started to drift toward a boat, almost hitting it. At that point, we all decided to finally get off, confused at where the heck the man was. About 5 minutes later, we saw him running down from the other side of the beach with the boat that was supposed to take us riding towards us. It was just an awkward situation since we really needed to hurry cause we were about to leave the island to go back to Cartagena and it took around 15-20 minutes for the guy to even come back to the boat! There was one of those banana boats attached to the boat and since we didn't have enough time for them to switch it, we rode the banana instead. At the very end, the driver made a sharp turn to knock us all off..which was almost successful, except for the fact that one of the students, Jude, was still holding on, and though the banana was upside down, we could see his feet extending from the water. It was clear that he was "sitting" on the boat still, just as he was before it flipped over (since the whole point is to try to not get knocked off)! We had a light dinner. What I ate was a pastry filled with ham, cheese, and chicken...which tasted a little odd, but it was good enough. For my drink, I decided to mix maracuyá (lilikoi/passion fruit) with lulo, even though I had no idea what lulo tasted like. It turns out it is VERY sour. Passion fruit tends to be sour, but I think that lulo must be even more sour due to the instensity of my drink. I had the woman put 2 helpings of sugar into it, and even after adding water every so often, it was still really sour! The rest of the day, I toured the city with various people. Today, there was a man that definitely drove past me, put his car in reverse to back up to where I was, put his hands at his mount and made a kiss (like what Italians tend to do to signal "delicious") and then crossed himself before starting to drive again! It was a little weird, but hey at least it wasn't a creepy blank-faced intense stare! A little later, I walked past a guy on the street who does fake tattoos. I got the exchange rate mixed up in my head, thinking it only cost $2,000 pesos, when it actually was $20,000. I was able to get the man to lower his price, so that was good. However, about 3 hours later, and the tattoo is completely faded. It's only slightly darker than the veins on my wrist! ..and there were a little bit of problems with the design, but I decided not to worry about it because, at the time, I had in my head that it was only $2,000 pesos so it really wasn't that big of a deal. I'm going to try talk to him about it tomorrow. UPDATE: When I woke up, the tattoo was fully visible and of course, it smeared a bit while I slept and it got transfered onto two spots on my stomach and other part of my wrist due to my sleeping positions. Note to self: THAT WAS A BAD IDEA.) I'm just hoping that some rubbing alcohol will take it off quicker! Shortly after getting my tattoo, we ran into a group doing cultural dances in a plaza-type area.

A little while afterward, Lauren and I decided to get something to eat. However, as it was late, there were not too many options, especially ones that weren't expensive. But then we saw a man with a food stand that sold hamburgers. He assured us that the meat was "meat meat" not the kind that is mixed in a factory and isn't really meat. While waiting 15-20 minutes or so for him to make our hamburgers, we noticed a man touch something in a tree, and then all of a sudden that something, a bird, flew out of the tree and flew straight into a wall, fell onto a ledge, and then fell onto the floor. It was the weirdest thing. The bird seemed to still be alive, but it wasn't moving from where it fell on the ground. The same guy picked up the bird and set it on a ledge. I'm not sure exactly what happened there. A little afterwards, the man brought us our hamburgers which were really big and looked pretty good and well worth the money. We decided to walk back to the hotel to eat them. It was super hard to eat them without getting sauce all over our faces and making a complete mess. The meat was a red color, but it was clear that it was not because it was undercooked, it was just the sauce and seasonings on it. However, as we started to eat, it became clear that the consistency was not like normal meet. I have never had hamburger meet that was as hard to pull apart as that one. ..and there were weird little seasoning type things in it. It seriously seemed likeit was meat that was held together by pieces of muscle that did not ended on letting go. It was really weird, and had a bit of an odd taste. After a bit, we both decided that we just couldn't eat it anymore and were not feeling too great. Nothing more really happened after that, but I don't think either of us want to get food from street vendors anymore! Also on the street, there were different performers, like a man dressed in Indian-style closed that looked like he was sitting criss-cross in mid air, and was holding a giant cane type thing next to him. (Bascially, it was just like Special Head on America's Got Talent a while back (starting aroun 1:57 in the video.) There was also a man dressed in all black that was supposed to look headless. Then, there was a man that looked like a mime, except he spoke. I saw him talking to people on a horse drawn carriage as it passed by. However, his voice was a complete squeak sound. It was the weirdest/scariest/creepiest thing ever. Later I saw another guy that looked just like the other "mime" thing that was trying to make a baby smile. He squeaked, but unlike the other one, didn't talk. It seemed like he may have had a horn in his pocket. Regardless, I'm suprised that baby wasn't in tears!