Wednesday 16 September 2009

Plastic bags in Colombia

Arriving in Colombia the same day as Ewelina flew to Cuba was odd. This was our first separation in literally months. Not only was I without my Ewelina, I was also camera-less and laptopless - my only gadgets were Ewelina's old Nokia and her mp3 player.

What was I thinking?

Well, the plan was to just take it easy, live cheaply and work on my Spanish, maybe explore Bogota a bit, but save the good stuff for when Ewelina joined me two weeks later. She got to take the gadgets with her to Cuba, it is safer there and I wanted to at least see pictures from there.

Also, this meant I didn't have many valuables for people to steal - Colombia's reputation as a dangerous place made that an oddly appealing way to travel.

Not that I had much trouble, the worst that happened was I lost my plastic bag with some allergy meds, snacks and, most importantly, my notebook of Spanish scribblings and potential blog entries. Maybe it was stolen from under my chair at the cafe, but honestly I probably just forgot it.

The people at my hostel had some worse stories, it seemed everyone knew someone who had been mugged. Or maybe they just knew someone who knew someone... or maybe they read about it somewhere.

But that is pretty much why I spent two weeks carrying stuff around in a plastic bag. People carrying things in plastic bags probably aren't worth mugging, right?

I wish I hadn't lost that notebook though.

The past!