Gwen is packing! I am so sad! The group who she was working for bought her a plane ticket that was a little earlier than we would have liked... i leave Monday.
We've had a beautiful tropical time in Cartagena and have drank a lot of different fruit jiuces (and ate a lot of tropical fruit gelato). Yesterday we went out to Playa Blanca, an island with a gorgeous, picture perfect Caribbean beach, where we lay around and had fresh fish and shrimp and coconut rice for lunch. That night we went out eating and drinking and dancing in the Gethsemani neighborhood... a grittier and hipper place than the beautifully manicured old city. First, ceviche on a rooftop in a little restaurant run by two young sisters, then stuffed calamari at a very hip place called the Bazurto Social Club. Then some salsa at Cafe Havana. Then back to Bazurto for some reggaton/cumbia/everything else fusion performed by the most handsome band in the world (I am not kidding) and then back to Havana for a final mojito (with Cuban rum) and one more turn on the dance floor with old tipsy salsa-ing men!
This morning we slept in and then did a little sight-seeing, but spent more time drinking juice and talking to people like Mara, who sold us some fresh coconut water and with whom we had a great conversation about poverty, justice, the US, Colombia... Also saw a very powerful exhibit of masks made by women who were displaced during "the Violence" and spoke with the women who runs the center that works with them, A good reminder that underneath the beauty and the hospitality and the dancing, Colombia is still struggling mightily with past and ongoing problems.
I'll be back on Monday night. Sigh. I highly recommend a trip to Colombia to all... this is a special place.
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