En colombia!!

Marta and I made it to Colombia safe and sound. So far no huge hiccups, although it turns out marta has to get a new Colombian passport and Cedula tomorrow. That leaves me to explore a bit on my own, hopefully at the palacio de la inquisicion o lo que sea.

The plane flight was smooth, nothing crazy at all. Immigration went fine (not including Marta´s little passport snafu). Everyone in the immigration booths was wearing masks and rubber gloves, which was a bit intense. Swine flu pandemic fears are in the air I suppose. We exchanged out money and for about 2 dollars caught a taxi to where we thought we were staying, Casa Viena. Unfortunately, the website and photos had very little in common with the actual place. It was, in fact, pretty much a dump. We went across the street to an internet cafe to try to find other options. No real success, just a lot of hoping. We went back across the street to a little juice/smoothie stand and ask that lady where we could eat and if she knew of any hostels. Luckily, she was incredibly helpful on both accounts. We had lunch of arepas (con queso for me and con carne for marta) and the headed off to Hotel Marlin, where we are staying in a private room for 20,000 pesos/night, or roughly 10 dollars.

Already we´ve walked around a lot of the walled city, which is the historic part of the city. We went to a couple parks (there were little monkey like things EVERYWHERE) and got followed by a creepy homeless guy, and watched traditional dances in a plaza/parque area. We walked out to the wall and looked out over the ocean, which was super cool. I hope that tomorrow we can go to the Castillo and look around there and maybe hit up the beach...

Anyways, I think I´m gonna hit up a little food stand a couple places down and try to get a shower and sleep. My hostel has internet so maybe I will get to post more after all.

p.s. I tried some incredible sweet bread, pan con queso, and some frutas that are called something like marmoles...?

p.p.s It is SOOOO hot and humid.