life @ 13
Sunday, December 07, 2008
moving on
right now i'm in a little puebla called Planeta Rica. was planning on trying to stay at a farm again tonight, but the name was too good, and after 121k at 21k/hr i'm treating myself, a little.
not sure if i let on to this much, but yesterday i was really baked. my little bike hat was just not cutting it, and after two days of constant equatorial sun i think that half of my brain cells went into heat hibernation. anyway, today was much better for a number of reasons. 1) i got a sombrero which does a pretty good job of keeping the sun off my head. had to sew some twigs into in to prevent the front from flapping around. 2) i wore pants today which kept the sun off my legs so they can tan instead of blaze. surpisingly not that bad. 3) i'm starting to perfect the Gunnar method of wearing a longsleeve shirt -- cuffs buttoned to keep the sun off the arms and almost the entire shirt unbuttoned to keep cool. 4) i'm finding out what's good and cheap to eat: little bananas that taste 10x better than anything i've had at home, oranges are good and practically free, fried whole potatoes with a little meat in the middle for 20 cents, and fried arepas with egg for 40 cents. right now i'm drinking a little over 2 gallons of water a day. 5) the bike is performing admirably -- the index shifter seems to have fixed itself in the warm weather -- but i'm thinking about slimming things down considerably when i get to medellin. 6) yesterday i saw a guy travelling on a motorcycle get stopped by the police and he was being searched. today i was stopped for the first time and they just wanted to get a grip on exactly how crazy i am.
Colombia is very familiar but definitely not the same as the other central american countries. they use a lot of slang here -- it seems like every 3rd word i hear is "plata" (cash), fittng for a country that makes a lot of its money exporting something so frequently bought in cash. people are far less likely to wave when i pass by (fine by me) but they frequently say something to me, although either i can't understand their accent or they're using slang i don't understand or they're just talking to someone else but looking at me. i get a LOT of honks, but, then again, not nearly as many as the women on the street.
i PROMISE to have pictures next time...i remembered to bring my camera to the internet place today and even took the usb cable out of my bag but it didn't make it into my pocket
right now i'm in a little puebla called Planeta Rica. was planning on trying to stay at a farm again tonight, but the name was too good, and after 121k at 21k/hr i'm treating myself, a little.
not sure if i let on to this much, but yesterday i was really baked. my little bike hat was just not cutting it, and after two days of constant equatorial sun i think that half of my brain cells went into heat hibernation. anyway, today was much better for a number of reasons. 1) i got a sombrero which does a pretty good job of keeping the sun off my head. had to sew some twigs into in to prevent the front from flapping around. 2) i wore pants today which kept the sun off my legs so they can tan instead of blaze. surpisingly not that bad. 3) i'm starting to perfect the Gunnar method of wearing a longsleeve shirt -- cuffs buttoned to keep the sun off the arms and almost the entire shirt unbuttoned to keep cool. 4) i'm finding out what's good and cheap to eat: little bananas that taste 10x better than anything i've had at home, oranges are good and practically free, fried whole potatoes with a little meat in the middle for 20 cents, and fried arepas with egg for 40 cents. right now i'm drinking a little over 2 gallons of water a day. 5) the bike is performing admirably -- the index shifter seems to have fixed itself in the warm weather -- but i'm thinking about slimming things down considerably when i get to medellin. 6) yesterday i saw a guy travelling on a motorcycle get stopped by the police and he was being searched. today i was stopped for the first time and they just wanted to get a grip on exactly how crazy i am.
Colombia is very familiar but definitely not the same as the other central american countries. they use a lot of slang here -- it seems like every 3rd word i hear is "plata" (cash), fittng for a country that makes a lot of its money exporting something so frequently bought in cash. people are far less likely to wave when i pass by (fine by me) but they frequently say something to me, although either i can't understand their accent or they're using slang i don't understand or they're just talking to someone else but looking at me. i get a LOT of honks, but, then again, not nearly as many as the women on the street.
i PROMISE to have pictures next time...i remembered to bring my camera to the internet place today and even took the usb cable out of my bag but it didn't make it into my pocket
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