Just about ready

When I was in Quito and e-mailing back and forth with Bill trying to make plans to stay in Medellin he asked me how long I was going to be here for. I told him just two weeks, but if I´m having a good time I might extend it to three. Well one month after I got to town I´m finally ready to leave. The same thing happened to me when I started this trip 8 months ago. Two weeks turned into 35 days. Medellin is a great city, as addicting as it´s most famous export.

Marta and I continued our tradition of saying our goodbyes over a media botella de Ron Medellin. It certainly was a roller-coaster ride with her this time throught, but thankfully we managed to end on a high note. And seeing Bill again went swimmingly. I´ve got a feeling we´ll meet again soon, perhaps in Medellin again if one of these business ideas takes off, if not maybe in South Carolina once his new condo is done and the fish are biting again.

I spent the last two months hanging out with family and friends. And now I´m going to head to another city where I´ve never been before and don´t know anyone. Obstensibly I´m going to Santa Marta to take a scuba diving course. I was planning on doing that 8 months ago but I never left Medellin the first time and I realized I should probably learn how to swim before going scuba diving. So now that that´s taken care of there´s nothing to keep me out of the water. There´s also a rather famous archeological ruin 3 days away, which sounds tempting.

After that plans get thrown up in the air again. I´m actually basically ready to head back to the US and put the pieces of my life back together. I´m tempted to just be done with it and book a flight from Cartegena all the way back home. But actually I think I´ll try to find a boat heading to Colon, Panama and continue the rest of the journey by busses and trains eventually crossing the border from Tijuana to San Diego.

That also lets me hedge my bets just in case I´m wrong and that Cuban salsa band I´ve been dying to see does eventually get their visa situation straightened out and make it off the island for their Mexican tour. Actually most of them are there already, they´re just missing one of the singers. But I´m trying not to get my hopes up.

Either way this has been by far the best thing I´ve ever done in my life. When I reflect back on all the ridiculous experiences I´ve had and the hodgepodge band of hooligans I´ve met I can´t help but think how my life would be the same as it was before had I just stayed in Seattle working for Microsoft. My biggest concern now is that when I get back and try to acclimate myself to a ¨regular¨ lifestyle I´m just going to want to take off on another trip.

I hear Thailand and Vietnam are really fascinating, jungles, beaches and great food. But I never did get to the northern coast of Brazil and Portuguese is similar enough to Spanish I think I could pick it up pretty easily. Of course parts of Eastern Europe are still pretty cheap and it´s very accessible. And maybe I could just go work on my Hindi in India. Addicting indeed.