Columbia
A quick synopsis…
Two Sundays ago I spent my fourth night in a row in a different time zone. We landed in Medellin late in the evening. Our first day was spent in the head office in the city where we were introduced to some of the people that we’d be working with. With the exception of my two coworkers who accompanied me from Canada, all the employees are locals.
I suppose I had my own images of what the city would look like, based on very little admittedly. And as is expected when one stereotypes in this manner, I was quite shocked about the appearance of the city. Medellin is an extremely new city. Everything that I have seen has been clean and maintained… by Canadian/ a global standard. The city is beautiful. There are shrubberies and flowers everywhere, and even in the dt core there are trees everywhere. I’ve had the luxury of flying over the city twice now, both by helicopter and small plane, and it is truly a site to see. High rise apartment building and skyscrapers. No litter to be seen. The traffic is not congested, and seems to just flow (as a result of a clever set of traffic restrictions, which seems to just make so much sense). The weather is perfect. Due to its latitude and elevation, it has a consistent temperature year round, hence its title “the city of eternal spring”. It is very safe in the city (with the exception of certain neighborhoods, as with any large city), and a vibrant night life. The restaurant sector is huge, with hundreds of restaurants of all kinds.
On the morning of the second day we made our way to the heliport for our flight to camp (see video here). 40 minutes after takeoff we landed on a grassy hillside overlooking camp, some 150 kms to the NE of the city. After a few introductions and quick tour of the camp (which took about 90 seconds) we had a quick lunch (beans, rice, soup, and meat) we got our boots on and headed off for walking tour of the property. By the end of it I had been in two historic mines, one of which was quite inhabited by bats, who continually flew towards the lights on our hard hats (also known as my face) while wadding through knee deep water/bat shit. During the end of the walk a small single engine plane flew overhead, only a few hundred feet above our heads, which was being persued by a lare military helicopter. The two crafts passed overhead three or four times during the walk, each time coming from a different direction. “Coca” the locals said as they pointed towards the sky. All in all it was a good first day.
The heat, which can only be described as oppressive, is constant. I’ve been trying to come up with an analogy to describe it to others. As there is no escape from it, I have had plenty of time to develop one that I find very accurate, and not exaggerated in the least. Picture the hottest, muggiest day you have ever experienced in St. John’s. Next, try and imagine walking into a greenhouse during the hottest part of the afternoon. Now picture getting on a treadmill or exercise bike for a couple of hours. It’s easily high thirties in the shade, before taking into account the 90% humidity. The coolest we’ve ever had was around 28, which was sometime around midnight, and the humidity was just as high. It’s easily the hardest part of being here.
Other than that, it’s not bad at all. We have running water, which means plumbing for toilets and showers, which is a real luxury. The water is safe to drink, as they are taking it from a creek somewhere in the virgin jungle, far from the cattle. The camp is set up in a deforested patch of farmland. There is a dairy farm located directly next door, so there is a constant hint of farm in the air. Luckily for me I have a very poor sense of smell, which I have always believed is just as much of a blessing as it is a curse. But the worst aspect of the cows are their mooing throughout the night. I never realized how loud they were. Kind of feels like there are heards of brachiosaurus’ outside my window sometimes. My room (see pictures in albums) is kinda like a wooden shed. Very open, so there are lots of insects, which come and go as they please. The bug net keeps out anything that bites, but there are a bunch of micro sized ones that fit through the mesh that makes up my bug net. So far they haven’t caused any major problems other than the occasional feeling of having little things crawling over you. The open ceiling also allows other creatures to come and go as they please, including bats, which have woken me up more than once flying around my room and crawling on my bug net.
I’m making it sound much worse than I am finding it. The food has been quite satisfactory. Although beans and rice may get a little repetitive, the ladies do what they can with what they have. And with Tabasco on hand, nothing is ever without flavour. The greatest thing to eat though has got to be all of the fresh fruit that we eat when we’re out in the field. So far I’ve had coconut, oranges, mandarins, pineapples, “tomato of the tree”, guavas, bananas, star fruit, and a couple of others which I have not been able to determine the English name, but can best be described as custard in a spiny skin… fucking delicious. There’s a blender in camp, and one of the geo’s (a girl who happens to have been born on the same day of the same year as me) is an expert at making fresh juices out by mixing the fresh fruit with milk, also fucking delicious.
There are only a couple of people who speak any English, and even then they aren’t fluent. The good part of this is that I’m learning Spanish. After being in camp for a mere ten days I can easily speak more Spanish that I can Albanian after being there for three years. Muy bueno.
The armed guards, which I’m sure you are all wondering about, are in fact the military. The area in which our land package is located happens to be in what they refer to as “the red zone”. I.e. it is heavily occupied by guerillas. The military presence, which is always present wherever we are, certainly deters any kinds of actions against us gringos, namely kidnapping. There are some 35-37 in the area at all times, and I have never gone in the field with any less than eight, and they always have a perimeter set up. All-in-all I personally feel quite safe at all times.
As for wildlife, there are 4 species of snakes in the area that are deadly. Thankfully, unlike in Albania, we have anti-venom on site at all times, and we never go in the field without it. I’ve only seen one snake so far (see photos), and it seemed very docile. After the man who fished it out of a stump with a stick killed it, we measured it (someone happened to have a measuring tape on them at the time) and it came in at 1.8m in length. Certainly the largest I’ve ever seen in the wild. Pretty sweet.
That pretty much sums it up. This was a little rushed, as my flight back to camp is in early in the am. I’ll be back to the city for a break in less than two weeks, so hopefully I’ll get a chance to touch base with a few more of you when I have internets again.
Peace on earth,
Jacob
Two Sundays ago I spent my fourth night in a row in a different time zone. We landed in Medellin late in the evening. Our first day was spent in the head office in the city where we were introduced to some of the people that we’d be working with. With the exception of my two coworkers who accompanied me from Canada, all the employees are locals.
I suppose I had my own images of what the city would look like, based on very little admittedly. And as is expected when one stereotypes in this manner, I was quite shocked about the appearance of the city. Medellin is an extremely new city. Everything that I have seen has been clean and maintained… by Canadian/ a global standard. The city is beautiful. There are shrubberies and flowers everywhere, and even in the dt core there are trees everywhere. I’ve had the luxury of flying over the city twice now, both by helicopter and small plane, and it is truly a site to see. High rise apartment building and skyscrapers. No litter to be seen. The traffic is not congested, and seems to just flow (as a result of a clever set of traffic restrictions, which seems to just make so much sense). The weather is perfect. Due to its latitude and elevation, it has a consistent temperature year round, hence its title “the city of eternal spring”. It is very safe in the city (with the exception of certain neighborhoods, as with any large city), and a vibrant night life. The restaurant sector is huge, with hundreds of restaurants of all kinds.
On the morning of the second day we made our way to the heliport for our flight to camp (see video here). 40 minutes after takeoff we landed on a grassy hillside overlooking camp, some 150 kms to the NE of the city. After a few introductions and quick tour of the camp (which took about 90 seconds) we had a quick lunch (beans, rice, soup, and meat) we got our boots on and headed off for walking tour of the property. By the end of it I had been in two historic mines, one of which was quite inhabited by bats, who continually flew towards the lights on our hard hats (also known as my face) while wadding through knee deep water/bat shit. During the end of the walk a small single engine plane flew overhead, only a few hundred feet above our heads, which was being persued by a lare military helicopter. The two crafts passed overhead three or four times during the walk, each time coming from a different direction. “Coca” the locals said as they pointed towards the sky. All in all it was a good first day.
The heat, which can only be described as oppressive, is constant. I’ve been trying to come up with an analogy to describe it to others. As there is no escape from it, I have had plenty of time to develop one that I find very accurate, and not exaggerated in the least. Picture the hottest, muggiest day you have ever experienced in St. John’s. Next, try and imagine walking into a greenhouse during the hottest part of the afternoon. Now picture getting on a treadmill or exercise bike for a couple of hours. It’s easily high thirties in the shade, before taking into account the 90% humidity. The coolest we’ve ever had was around 28, which was sometime around midnight, and the humidity was just as high. It’s easily the hardest part of being here.
Other than that, it’s not bad at all. We have running water, which means plumbing for toilets and showers, which is a real luxury. The water is safe to drink, as they are taking it from a creek somewhere in the virgin jungle, far from the cattle. The camp is set up in a deforested patch of farmland. There is a dairy farm located directly next door, so there is a constant hint of farm in the air. Luckily for me I have a very poor sense of smell, which I have always believed is just as much of a blessing as it is a curse. But the worst aspect of the cows are their mooing throughout the night. I never realized how loud they were. Kind of feels like there are heards of brachiosaurus’ outside my window sometimes. My room (see pictures in albums) is kinda like a wooden shed. Very open, so there are lots of insects, which come and go as they please. The bug net keeps out anything that bites, but there are a bunch of micro sized ones that fit through the mesh that makes up my bug net. So far they haven’t caused any major problems other than the occasional feeling of having little things crawling over you. The open ceiling also allows other creatures to come and go as they please, including bats, which have woken me up more than once flying around my room and crawling on my bug net.
I’m making it sound much worse than I am finding it. The food has been quite satisfactory. Although beans and rice may get a little repetitive, the ladies do what they can with what they have. And with Tabasco on hand, nothing is ever without flavour. The greatest thing to eat though has got to be all of the fresh fruit that we eat when we’re out in the field. So far I’ve had coconut, oranges, mandarins, pineapples, “tomato of the tree”, guavas, bananas, star fruit, and a couple of others which I have not been able to determine the English name, but can best be described as custard in a spiny skin… fucking delicious. There’s a blender in camp, and one of the geo’s (a girl who happens to have been born on the same day of the same year as me) is an expert at making fresh juices out by mixing the fresh fruit with milk, also fucking delicious.
There are only a couple of people who speak any English, and even then they aren’t fluent. The good part of this is that I’m learning Spanish. After being in camp for a mere ten days I can easily speak more Spanish that I can Albanian after being there for three years. Muy bueno.
The armed guards, which I’m sure you are all wondering about, are in fact the military. The area in which our land package is located happens to be in what they refer to as “the red zone”. I.e. it is heavily occupied by guerillas. The military presence, which is always present wherever we are, certainly deters any kinds of actions against us gringos, namely kidnapping. There are some 35-37 in the area at all times, and I have never gone in the field with any less than eight, and they always have a perimeter set up. All-in-all I personally feel quite safe at all times.
As for wildlife, there are 4 species of snakes in the area that are deadly. Thankfully, unlike in Albania, we have anti-venom on site at all times, and we never go in the field without it. I’ve only seen one snake so far (see photos), and it seemed very docile. After the man who fished it out of a stump with a stick killed it, we measured it (someone happened to have a measuring tape on them at the time) and it came in at 1.8m in length. Certainly the largest I’ve ever seen in the wild. Pretty sweet.
That pretty much sums it up. This was a little rushed, as my flight back to camp is in early in the am. I’ll be back to the city for a break in less than two weeks, so hopefully I’ll get a chance to touch base with a few more of you when I have internets again.
Peace on earth,
Jacob
Labels: Guerilla Killaz, Rice'n Beans, Some like it hot
posted by Jaboc at 1:07 AM
5 Comments:
That's incredible, Jacob! Sounds like quite the experience. Enjoy yourself and stay safe!
Juice girl sounds hot.
Yeah, pics plz.
Also, we should continue our skype discussion of gorillas vs guerillas and which you'd rather run into in the flesh, so others can chime in.
To recap for other huddlers, Jaboc argued that guerillas have guns and that this makes them scarier than gorillas, but.. what if we gave the gorillas guns too?
Yes, very incredible stuff! Although in the beginning, it does sound like you've been kidnapped and are writing what they are telling you to write... But the heat part sounds pretty legit. How long are you staying/ any chance you'll be going back regularly?
Loving this... Surprised to hear about Medellin. Actually, a nice contrast to consider next to St. John's recent development path (which is consistently depressing), though obviously they're on different.
I feel you on the heat issue. A lot of humidity-highs in the top 80s there. I'm sure it's hard to sleep at night. You need a fan, but there probably aren't any forthcoming. So, even when it cools off in the morning and night the heat lingers.
I got into the habit of drinking water constantly down here---probably something close to 3/4 of a gallon a day.
On a related note, March in Texas is pretty perfect. I mean, LA sounds nice enough, but it can’t compare to SXSW :) House is open.
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