Santa Marta - Part 2/2

May 12 - 17

After a long day out at Playa Cristal on Saturday (and, let's admit, a bit of a hangover...) I relaxed a bit around the homestay on Sunday and went down to the Santa Marta beachfront in the afternoon with Nicole for a swim to relieve the humidity. In the evening, being a Sunday, most of the restaurants were all closed, but Nicole directed me to a little street where all the local street vendors set up their stalls to sell dinner and freshly squeezed juices. It was super cheap and yummy (though maybe not very healthy?!) and I got a jugo de tomate de arbol con leche - a tree tomato juice with milk base. A tree tomato, apparently is another name for a tamarillo.

Cheap street food and juices were one of my favourite things about South America

The Monday was a public holiday in Colombia, so there was no school and I took the opportunity to head up to a little village called Minca up in the jungle. I took a collectivo (a car that waits until full to go) to get there, and took the chance just to wander around in the jungle a bit by myself, enjoying the tranquility. I made my way to a swimming area called Pozo Azul and sat down for a bit of lunch and read my book with my feet in the river. There were lots of locals around who'd come up from Santa Marta for the day on their motorbikes, having picnics and doing lots of jumps into the water. I also spotted a few neat little birds along the way.

Cute bird #1

Cute bird #2

On the way back, the collectivo was nowhere to be seen - so I got a helmet handed to me and went back on the back of a motorbike! This is quite common in Colombia - these "taxis" ride around with their spare helmet on one arm and will take you just about anywhere. I was a bit sceptical, but the guy got me back to Santa Marta in one piece pretty safely.

After a very relaxing long weekend, I then headed back to the small school run by Fundacion Marisposas Amarillas. This was my first day "teaching", as such, since Thursday and Friday had both been pretty relaxed.

There's a reasonable variation in the abililty of these kids. Some of them, especially the youngest, were very shy and didn't recognise letters at all, certainly were not able to read or write - while others knew quite a bit. Some were just able to count to 5 or 10, while others would confidently get past 40. Regardless, there was a much greater need to really try and teach them things.

Tuesday's class ended up being a bit of a disaster - I'd expected Helga to be there, and possibly another local who sometimes came to help out. But it ended up being just me with 12 kids of greatly varying abilities. I had thought I'd been prepared but it was very hard to set exercises in their books as all the other kids would get distracted very quickly. Thankfully after a couple of hours, Susan (who'd been at Playa Cristal with us on Saturday) arrived to teach Ampara computer classes and agreed to help me out with the kids instead.

I spent the afternoon preparing some more exercises for the kids so I would have a better chance on Wednesday if I was alone again. When I arrived, though, Helga was there with three new volunteers, Megan (a Canadian now living in Australia), Allie and Stu (both Australians). The ability to split the class up between the brighter kids and the more challenged kids helped a lot, and we managed to have a pretty productive class. It was quite a relief and I enjoyed lunch and later a beer on the beach and dinner with the others.

Some games with the kids as a break from numbers and letters

Cutting and pasting exercise to learn about the letter sounds

Thursday was, of course, another sports day and we had lots of fun running around with all the kids again. The hot and humid climate made it pretty tiring though, and towards the end a lot of us were seeking the shade.

One of my favourite little kids - Luis Miguel, or Luismi for short!

I'd then agreed to have lunch with Ampara and Ricardo - it was a good way for Ampara to make a little bit of money - and Ampara explained I had to paint a New Zealand flag on the wall. There was an American, German, French, Swiss, British, Japanese and several other flags on the wall, but no NZ flag, so I was thrilled to be able to paint one (and before an Australian flag too!!).

My attempt at an NZ flag on the wall

Later in the afternoon I headed down to the beach with Nicole for a couple of beers. Nicole had befriended Eduardo, who puts up little shelters on the beach and charges people to use them, but also sold beers to people, and we enjoyed talking to him and his wife who ran a hair stylist operation on the beach too.

Santa Marta beachfront in the evening

Santa Marta beachfront in the evening

My last day at the school, Friday, was quite relaxed, and after having lunch made by Ampara again, her son Ricardo gave me a painting he'd done for me as a thanks for helping out at the school. It was very impressively painted and quite a special gift to get.

Ricardo and I with the awesome painting he made for me

The afternoon was spent getting ready for a 5-day trek to Ciudad Perdida, which I was leaving for the next morning. It would be my last night in Santa Marta, except for a quick stay after the trek, and Nicole's last night there too, so we enjoyed a few beers at a popular local plaza, where lots of people walked around with chilly bins full of beers, selling them to you where you sat for just 2,000 pesos (about NZ$1.30). Then we hit the town and danced the night away with the locals!

It was kinda sad to be leaving Santa Marta - I'd come to really enjoy my time there, and was even starting to get used to the humidity. However the trek to Ciudad Perdida promised to be really interesting, and was going to be the last major thing I did in South America, as I was due to fly out the following Friday. Time to make the most of my last week!