Coffeecoffeecoffeecoffeecoffeecoffeecoffeecoffeecoffeecoffeecoffee

Teresita Rosita has been drinking coffee. Lots and lots of coffee. She is in the coffee triangle in the south of Colombia and when in the coffee triangle what else does one do, but drink coffee. Did I mention lots and lots and lots of coffee?

And not the coffee that people normally drink in Colombia, which while they definitely have the quantity, they haven't quite got the quality bit down just yet. They may grow the majority of the worlds coffee, but all the good stuff gets sent away, leaving the Colombian population to make do with the leftovers.

Actually mentioning quantity... Teresita Rosita has been indulging in more coffee than her little body is normally used to since she arrived in Colombia. But it's not her fault at all! It's because there's people everywhere selling the stuff. She walks down the street and there is five different people with little carts selling "tinto" - very sweet, but not very strong black coffee in shot sized plastic cups. And if not in the streets, nearly every hostel Teresita Rosita has stayed in has had free, yes, free coffee 24 hours a day.

Sleep anyone!?

But saying that, it hasn't really been the most amazing coffee Teresita Rosita has had in her life. Until now that is...

In Salento, the sleepy town that Teresita Rosita has called home the past week, there is real coffee. Espresso. Latte. Well, yeah, those two, but it's still more variety there she has seen in a long time. And what espresso it is.... thick, dark and strong and sweetened with this delicious stuff called Panela, which is like sugar cane but less refined, sort of like chunky molasses. So Teresita Rosita has got herself a bit of an addiction. It involves about three coffees before breakfast, another couple to pass the day in various cafes around town, and then if she's feeling up for it maybe a couple before dinner.

 She has drunk coffee in art shops, cafes, pool halls, bars, farms, on streets, in buses, taxis, inside, al fresco, in the sun, in the rain...

Coffeecoffeecoffeecoffeecoffeecoffeecoffeecoffeecofffeecofffoeeoeoeoefnocheochecoehceeeeeeeer

Teresita Rosita even tried her hand at making it one day. No, not making it like putting a spoonful of Nescafe in a cup of tepid water! Sacrilege!!!!!

Teresita Rosita went to a coffee plantation, picked the beans herself, peeled them, roasted them, ground them, brewed them and drank them. And then drank some more. And then some more. And then her little heart started going patter patter patter patter, she starting talking really really really fast, and felt the urge to do much more activity than she had in a long time. Only the urge mind you...

Salento is such a relaxed, chilled out place that the doing of more activity than the casual daily stroll into town for more coffee is really a bit too much effort. Teresita Rosita may have all the energy in the world, but ain't nothing doing in this place.

So maybe she'll just have another coffee, read her book, and sit and watch the sun cross the sky above the brilliant green hills, grazing cows and flitting birds and beetles.

Lost cities, tropical beachs and soooooooooooo many mosquitoes - teresita rosita in Colombia

Teresita Rosita has been a very busy bunny these last few weeks. She escaped the cold and rain of Bogota and went north to Cartagena, a beautiful walled colonial city, full of bougainvillea, bright houses and HEAT!!!

In fact, it was so hot that Teresita Rosita and her new traveling companion, Steph bunkered down each day and just blissed out next to the hostel swimming pool.... it was all a bit hard really.

So hard that they decided to mix things up a bit and headed off to a (semi) deserted beach. Teresita Rosita and Steph joined a whole lot of other people in a little boat, and with a driver who couldn't actually see where he was going they bounced across the waves to Playa Blanca.

At Playa Blanca, Teresita Rosita lay on the beach, turned herself a lovely shade of crimson, ate lots of tasty tasty fish, slept in hammocks, and swam in the deliciously warm Caribbean sea.

3 days later Teresita Rosita was still laying on the beach, a slightly darker shade of crimson but incredibly relaxed and without any memory of the nasty cold she'd left behind in Bogota. Colombia was treating her very well so far.

Seeing as she was onto a good thing, Teresita Rosita decided she could probably handle a bit more of this beach lifestyle, so after returning to Cartagena for a decent shower and some slight recuperation from over exposure, the duo trooped off to Tayrona with a motley crew of Argentinians, Spaniards and various other nationalities.

Amazingly Tayrona was even more relaxed than Playa Blanca and Teresita Rosita got down and proper with her doing of nothingness.

She read a book (On The Road, by Jack Kerouac, just to get into the travel spirit of things a bit more), lay under the coconut palms (without becoming part of the statistic of those who die by coconut to the head), swam some more in the Caribbean, and generally chilled, and chilled and chilled some more.

There was guitar music at night, glow bugs, iguanas, fresh coconuts (the ones that didn't fall on her head), and more than frequent dips in the gentle waves. And this continued for a good 4 days, the only hiccup being a minor storm that decided to rip along the coast, making the once tranquil cabaña on the rocks a generally unpleasant place to be - complete with water logged clothes, howling frozen winds and swaying hammocks vaguely reminiscent of bumper cars.

Oh, and the mosquitoes... always with the mosquitoes! Teresita Rosita had always prided herself on the lack of tastiness in her blood, but it seemed Latin mosquitoes really savoured her foreign flavour, so much so that Teresita Rosita was once again resembling an overused human pincushion.

Maybe it was time to do something different? Maybe it was time to do something really, really different...

Teresita Rosita decided to go to The Lost City - a five day trek through the Colombian jungle, complete with guerrillas, cocaine plantations, wild animals and other hazardous Colombian stereotypes....

Well, not really... the trek part was real least anyway. And, it was a little bit hard on Teresita Rosita. Her little lungs were used to the tropical air of the beach, her little legs used to gliding through water not hiking up mountains, her little back used to soft sand not a hefty pack. Poor little Teresita Rosita!

Jokes!

Sure the walk was pretty tough at times, but no tears were shed, unlike other hikes Teresita had been taken on before, and really all Teresita Rosita had to carry was a few cloths and her water, while some horses kindly brought the rest of the supplies.

The majority of the time was actually spent swanning about in water holes, playing silly games with the lovely people who had tagged along for the hike as well, and the only dangerous situation Teresita Rosita found herself in was entirely self inflicted.

In one such afternoon spent frolicking in a cool fresh mountain stream, Teresita Rosita and her trekking associates decided it might be fun to ride a tree trunk down some rapids... sounds like a bit of a laugh I hear you say, and yes it was a bit of fun. They floated along peacefully through the calmly flowing water, feeling very Tom Sawyer-ish.

But then suddenly, the fun wasn't quite so fun, when the log riders found themselves heading towards a rapid a little bit too strong for their liking. Teresita Rosita leaped off the log in the nick of time, landing safely on a nearby rock and watched in dismay as her group of friends were sucked into the rapids or crushed by the log.

It was all over! What would she tell the parents of these newly made pals? It wasn't even the walk that had killed them. It was a crazy scheme thought up on an idyllic afternoon....

But all was not lost. Their heads emerged on the other side of the rapids, laughing and still alive! Phew! They would all live to climb to the Lost City the next day, up all 1200 steps -1200 steep, indigenous foot sized steps and all the way back down again.

They would all sweat like mad,  climb up and down hills, see various wild animals and eat a huge amount of food, including the carb-tastic and aptly named 'pasta-cracker', a combination of pasta on top of crackers and accompanied by nicely fried potatoes and bananas. Mmmm carbs....

Teresita Rosita arrived after her 5 days of hiking with a new group of awesome friends and a million more mosquito bites, but feeling highly accomplished and ready for more of what she does best - BEACH!!!

Rain, rain go away, this is Colombia it's supposed to be warm

Teresita Rosita has arrived in Colombia!
It's all a bit exciting - she's being a proper backpacker now, staying in a hostel, meeting travellers from all around the world, and exploring a new city with the fresh eyes of a tourist.

Teresita Rosita is in Bogotà, capital of Colombia and with an average temperature of 16°C, and unfortunately for Teresita Rosita she has arrived right on rainy season and it's been rainy!

Rainy and cold.

Teresita Rosita went walking her first day out in Bogota and after half an hour she was drenched to the bone, wishing she had some waterproof shoes (preferably of the gumboot variety), and that jeans weren't quite as absorbant as hers were proving to be. So she went back to her current home, got changed and tried again, and this time she had more luck. Well this time she jumped in a taxi instead, and went to see an Australian friend who just so happened to live in Bogota, what a happy coincidence...

Unfortunately he had to run away and work as the common people tend to, so Teresita Rosita stayed with his flatmates and enjoyed her first Colombian fiesta/rumba. It involved lots of aguadiente - the local drink enjoyed by the Colombian kids and lots of dancing... And at 3am when she went home Teresita Rosita felt like she had arrived in the right place.

And so her time in Bogota has unfolded, wandering the damp streets, perusing the street art that covers all the old area of town, going to the gold museum to look at lots and lots and lots and lots of gold, much of which supposedly hung from peoples noses and ears and lips.

At the Botero museum, Teresita Rosita saw lots of fat art, fat pears, fat violins, fat pigeons... What would Terisita Rosita look like if she was a Botero painting?

Big is beautiful as they say...maybe she should have stayed in Mexico a bit longer.

Then when night fell, Teresita Rosita set out with various groups of people - Danes, Germans, Belgians, Argentinians, Canadians, Colombians... They went drinking, they went dancing, they went exploring, they always tended to stay out a little too late as well, so Teresita Rosita was starting to get used to functioning with very little sleep.

And there was the rain. It rained and it rained and it rained some more. Pretty soon nothing Teresita Rosita owned was dry, but it didn't really matter because as soon as she left the hostel she was sopping wet. The roads became rivers, the potholes became lakes, and passing traffic became trecherous moving water falls.

So when on her last day in Bogota there was hints of blue in the sky, Teresita Rosita decided it was time to climb El Cerro de Monseratte, a 3000m mountain overlooking the city. Teresita Rosita joined the rest of the Sunday pligrams and started the steady, steep climb past all the food and trinket stands that the Latinos love to set up during these sorts of events. And it was pretty steep going. That, and the air was a bit thinner than she was used to back in Australia, so soon Teresita Rosita was huffing and puffing along with overweight Colombians, resting to take in the view whenever the clouds cleared slightly, until she made it to the top.

There she was met by the sounds of Sunday mass from the church atop the mountain as well as the next front of thunder, rain and lighting, this time a little to close for comfort. So she, waited and waited and waited, until she lost feeling in her fingers and toes and then she took the cable car down instead.

And so the rain continues, a lovely sound when you are safe and sound in a warm bed, but after 5 days of it, Teresita Rosita said enough was enough - she was going to the beach!

And now it's time to say goodbye

The time has come for Teresita Rosita to leave Mexico. So sad. So sad. Or as they say here "muy triste" ( it's probably time to start teaching you people the wonder of the Spanish language, as Teresita Rosita is gradually transforming herself into an almost competent speaker of two languages, well apart from that awkward phase she's passing through now where she can't actually speak either anymore).

So as we look back over the time Teresita Rosita has spent in this country of tacos, tequila and other things beginning with "T", there are a that have been omitted until now and now is as good a time as any to tell you about them.

First....

Early on in her trip, Teresita Rosita was taken to a futbol game - a true Latin American experience if there ever was one! And as everyone knows, a live sporting event is much more about the "atmosphere" than the game itself, which is a good thing in this case because the team Teresita Rosita was going for lost (again). So instead of paying too much attention to the abomination occurring onfield, she joined her companions in drinking quite a bit of fizzy apple juice, occasionally shouting out obscenities at the players and screaming along to the intelligible chant the crowd hollered whenever the puma shaped mascot came onto the field. So highlight numero uno ...

And then there was this one time, when Teresita Rosita thought it would be a good idea to go to a 3 day music festival in D.F. A music festival of punk, ska, rock and other such genres with more than 150 000 Mexican punk/hipsters to go along with it. And you know what... it was AWESOME!!! Teresita Rosita packed her backpack, consulted her highlighted timetable, and went crazy. She danced, and danced, and drank more fizzy apple juice.

She resisted the temptation to be thrown up in the air on bits of carpet ripped off the ground by groups of overly enthusiastic youth and to go into the insane moshpits of the same youths running around in circles and smashing into each other with great vigor. Instead she ran between the many stages, saw many of her favorite Latino bands and hung out with Mexican Mel until they were both ready to collapse from complete and utter exhaustion.

And then after all her travels back and forth between Xalapa and D.F. Mexican Mel granted Teresita Rosita the one wish she had made when she had arrived in Mexico - to go to Xochimilco.

Xochimilco (pronounced zo-chi-mil-co) is a series of canals left over from when Mexico City was constructed on top of a giant lake. It is now a wonderfully kitsch Mexican tourist outing, where you hire out a brightly painted boat and get pushed around the oil-like body of water, listening to passing boats of Mariarchis, choosing between every type of food you can imagine (also served from boats), and if you haven't brought you're own esky (as Mel and Teresita Rosita had done) there are, of course, a selection of beverages offered from more passing boats. And then there's so many keepsakes to buy - sombreos, ukelalaes, dolls, bonsai plants, bouquets, etc etc etc etc. And lots and lots and lots of mexicans in their own brightly boats, drinking and eating, and occasionally falling or getting pushed in the "water".

So Teresita Rosita and Mexican Mel wound their way through the waterways, past a freaky island of dolls, supposedly to protect the owner from bad spirits, but Teresita Rosita was pretty sure the dolls would have been harboring their fair share of bad spirits, scary things!

They heard the story of the Xochimilco manatees, where a pair of manatees were introduced into the canals to eat all the weeds and to reproduce, however the locals didn't quite know what to think of these giant friendly beasts, so they just ate them...

They made friends with people of passing boats, and they ate, and drank, and generally enjoyed the experience. Yet another highlight!


And last but not least, and who could ever forget.... THE FOOD!!!!!
Teresita Rosita ate tacos, quesadillas, enchiladas, tostadas, chilaquiles, empanadas, gorditas, barbacoa, tlacoyos, huevos a la Mexicana, platanos fritos, pozole, tortas, mojarra... the list goes on, but to get an idea of what it was most of the time - tortilla, meat and salsa, lots and lots of salsa.

Ughhhhhhhhhhhhhhh, but mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm, what a highlight!

The White Witch (commonly known as the fear of dying)

When Teresita Rosita had decided to go to Mexico she had thought things would be dangerous, scary, outrageous.

 And yes, the food was often a tad dubious and made her stomach feel like a washing machine stuck on tumble dry. The roads were full of crazy people who didn't know what an indicator was, and if they did, they obviously preferred the spontaneity of changing lanes at the last minute without so much as a glance over their shoulder. And there was the slight risk that she was slowly dying from the amounts of carbon dioxide/monoxide/other noxious fumes that hung over D.F on a daily basis. And sure there had been some earthquakes going on, though Teresita Rosita always seemed to miss out on actually feeling them.

Yes there were some things in Mexico that were exciting and maybe a little bit life threatening... but it wasn't enough for Teresita Rosita. If she was goijg to have an adventure she may as well make it as extreme an adventure as possible. It was time to go a little bit crazy - crazier than crowded buses, crazier than political rallies, crazier than 3 day long concerts - it was time for some extreme sports!

Luckily Mexican Mel was just as crazy as Teresita Rosita, if not more so. So off they set on a road trip to Jalcomulco, Veracruz, home of white water rafting, enormous flying foxes (not the fauna variety) and a gazillion tiny mosquitoes (yes, the fauna variety). And even the road trip didn't disappoint Teresita Rosita with its share of dangers. There were potholes the size of tyres, bone jarring speed bumps that appeared out of nowhere, and a half built concrete highway with rocks for traffic cones, mysteriously missing sections that resulted in giant holes with severe right angle edges that required some serious maneuvering, and yes, of course no sign of where or when any of these obstacles would next appear.

But the girls made it in one piece, and settled into their lovely cabaña up on the cliff, with the river rushing past far below and the local wildlife curled up in their beds keeping them warm at night.

The first day saw Teresita Rosita and Mel easing themselves gently into their life threating escapades. A walk through the jungle with only the risk of falling mangoes, attacks from wild ferocious cows and donkeys and death by the gentle nibbling of little fish as they relaxed in pristine waterholes fed by warm waterfalls. It was a tough start to the trip.

It was during the second day of the trip that Teresita Rosita (finally) feared for her life. Now being the beginning of Spring in Mexico, it hadn't really rained that much so the river was quite low, the rapids only level 2-3. So the girls opted to go in the smaller raft with some guides in training, make things a bit more exciting.

And at the beginning of the downstream journey Teresita Rosita was glad they made this decision. They chose the wildest routes possible - getting stuck on rocks, surfing amongst the white water and generally being a little bit crazy. But then they arrived at "the white witch" - a tight corner of the river where the entire force of the water smashed against a sheer cliff - fun....

Now, as Teresita Rosita got older, her sense of mortality was getting greater and greater, and so, while she enjoyed the adrenalin rush of getting herself into life threatening situations, she also had at the back of her mind the thought that maybe this would be her last adrenalin rush ever.

So down the rapid they went. And SMASH!!! Yep, right into the wall. The raft flipped up on one side, and over the edge went Mexican Mel. With the sudden loss of weight on one side the raft tipped to the other side and Teresita Rosita found herself flung into the tumultuous water. She was instantly caught in the whirl of the water, spun head over heels into the rock, the paddle ripped out of her hands and the air knocked out of her lungs.

They tell you to relax if you're ever thrown overboard while white water rafting. Ha! Like you can relax when you believe you are going to die trapped under the crush of freezing water! And so Teresita Rosita freaked out! She struggled, she farewelled her loved ones and prepared for her watery death.

And then just as suddenly as she had gone under, her head popped up and she gasped delicious gulps of air, grabbed her floating paddle and drifted to the edge of the river.

Hmmm that wasn't so bad after all. Like she was going to die, she was only under the water a few seconds. Gee whiz! what kind of wimp thinks they're drowning as soon as they're under water. Ahhh, it's so easy to be brave when you're still alive. And so Teresita Rosita decided she better keep doing crazy things, though maybe not involving quite as much water this time.

It was time to take to the sky.  Attached to a wire 180 metres in the air, hurtling across a cañon 150 wide... why not? Teresita Rosita was obviously invincible after her earlier brush with death.

But you know what? Even after the near drowning, the risk of falling to certain death, and a drive through pounding rain with lighting bolts a little close for comfort on twisting turning roads, the thing that got to Teresita Rosita most of all was...

The damn mosquitoes!

After the first night, Teresita Rosita and Mexican Mel found themselves covered in a maze of red spots, that, as day progressed, got itchier, and itchier, and itchier, until there was nothing else to do but scratch them. And ahhhhhhhhh what sweet relief.... for a moment. And then the itchiness came back even worse than before. And that was only the first day. On the second day, Teresita Rosita had accumulated bites on her arms, her legs, her feet, her hands and so many on her face that she looked like she had some sort of highly contagious disease or the worst case of acne known to humankind.

Maybe this whole living life on the edge thing wasn't everything people said it was...
It was time for some anti-itch cream, a hot shower, and a note in her diary to buy some of the deadliest, most potent bug spray she could get her hands on.

Flying High

It's been a busy little while for Teresita Rosita.

After having a thoroughly enjoyable and relaxing time in D.F. with Mexican Mel she decided to set off exploring properly. Rather than getting on her normal big red bus, she got on another red bus, one that took her all the way to Xalapa.

In Xalapa, Teresita Rosita met people, ate food, drank drinks, wandered streets, heard music, saw sights and then she left, for there was something extra exciting waiting for her in the north.... MUSIC!

You see, Teresita Rosita is a bit of a music fan. In fact it used to be that she couldn't go a week without seeing some live music, so she had been having some minor withdrawals since she had started her grand overseas adventure.

But yes, all was well in the world. Teresita was in for 3 whole days of music. Teresita Rosita transformed into Teresita Rockita.

However, it was not only music - it was music, workshops and culture all rolled into one at El Cumbre de Tajin in Papantla, Veracruz. Teresita learned how to cha cha, screen print, weave, and make things all glittery and pretty. She saw all types of crazy characters dressed up as scary moss men, or wearing giant and very heavy looking fans on their heads.

The real icing on the cake was up the top of a giant pole though. Now in Papantla they have this interesting, some may say crazy, habit of dressing up in bright clothes, climbing to the top of a really really tall post, tying some rope around their waists and then flipping off it backwards and spiraling to the ground. Yes, crazy I tell you. But crazy enough to give it a shot hey?!

Well...

"Not a chance", thought Teresita Rosita. So she went to the kids version instead. That post was only 30 metres high instead of 60 metres, though saying that, the age of the participants was only ten-years-old as well.

Maybe she should just leave it to the professionals...

And so she did. She watched from a safe distance and did what she had come to do in the first place - see some music. So she made some friends, had some fizzy apple juice and danced like a crazy person.

 It was fun. And probably a little bit safer than that whole pole thingy.

the rebirth of teresita rosita

So.. everyone knows that Mexico is a good catholic country, and sometimes when one travels they find themselves wanting to immerse themselves enpirely in the culture they are visiting. Sometimes they find themselves believing things they didn't used to believe, feeling more spiritual, more at one with the world...

This did not happen to Teresita Rosita when she went on her latest adventure in Mexico City, although there is still time for miracles to happen.

While we have already heard about Teresita Rosita's experience on the Metrobus in her last adventure, something happened the other day that warrants repeating.

Teresita Rosita went into the city again, did the usual stuff, went to a museum, had some food, went for a walk and then decided to go home again.

She got on the big red bus she had grown so accustomed to, she even got to sit down this time. Everything was fine, everything was normal, everything was in it's right place... or was it?

At the very next stop the bus suddenly filled with people. Many more people than you would think could fit on a bus. And then at the next stop even more people crammed into what little breathing space there was left. Of course, it was after 6pm...peak hour - and not just any peak hour - Mexico City, home to 20-25 million people sort of peak hour. But still, Teresita Rosita was okay. She had her seat and a little pocket of air around her head.
 
Now on the metrobus it is common knowledge that if it's busy you need to get close to the door at least one stop before the one you want to get off at, and so this is what Teresita Rosita did. She got much more intimate with the other passengers than she thought was possible, there are bumps and curves that even clothes can't hide when you're pushed up against them.

 
But Teresita Rosita endured and finally without too much of a struggle she made it off the bus and at the right stop and everything.

And that's whan it happened. For Teresita Rosita's journey wasn't over yet, in fact it had only just begun. Teresita Rosita has no memory of her birth, but she now has a pretty good idea of what it may be like.

After alighting the big red bus, Teresita Rosita found herself at the start of a long dark tunnel, a warm tunnel that pushed at her from every side. Something pressured her back and she sas forced further and further into the heaving mass ahead of her. At times she thought she was stuck, trapped in the hot, sticky mass for ever, but then with a heave the throng would surge forward and little by little Teresita Rosita could see more and more light at the end of the tunnel.

For the first time since she had arrived in Mexico Teresita Rosita was grateful she was just that little bit taller than most of the people around her. So while her body felt like it was passing through the most Mexican pasta maker she's ever seen, at least her head remained its original shape.

And then, POP! She was free! She filled her lungs with the comparatively fresh air, filling her lungs with the fresh combination of exhaust, sewerage, mango, and taco. She was alive! She was reborn!