Bucaramanga the 5 Days of Craziness

Most people including myself use the Lonely Planet to figure out how to get around and live life on the road. Some people are against it cause it just brings you to the same places as everyone else or things have changed since it was written or perhaps just because its only one persons opinion. Still though its incredibly useful. Unfortunately it gave a really boring and bad description of Bucaramanga making it out to be a dull industrial city but we still decided to stop here and its absolutely incredible. Population of over one million people, a huge city built between the mountains. So many shopping malls, fancy restaurants big roads and real cool apartments. Colombia is probably the first country where were no longer seen as rich gringos but just poor backpackers. Cannot believe the wealth around here. The first day in Bucaramanga was prob one of the best days of my trip. As usual I've written this blog in stages and I'm now going to change that and say the last three days in Bucaramanga have been the best of the trip if not some of the best in my life!!

We went up into the hills to go hang gliding. A few of the others we know from the boat were doing a 10 day course learning how to become pilots. We decided on a tandem jump. First of all the weather was perfect. No more sweaty Caribbean humidity but just a lovely warm heat. Felt very like a nice warm Sept day in Ireland. Blue skies and amazing views of the city from the mountains. I got to go first and was meant to go for half an hour flight but only was about 15 Min's. Got up pretty high but the winds weren't strong enough. Then we tried again and instead of landing at the start point the winds brought us down to the bottom where we landed and got picked up. Got a lift back up the mountain and while the others took their goes sat there watching the sun go down over the city. Was so enthralling just flying through the air like that following the birds. Sitting down relaxing and doing twists and turns with these stunning views to enjoy. Def going to try it in a few more places. Especially in Rio de Janiero and probably a few more places in Colombia!

Was really due a sleep after a few sleepless nights in buses and hammocks but this is a student city and the owner of the hostel slash paragliding place told us where to head out. Ended up in this bar with some really friendly Colombians. Incredible how nice they are and I am amazed how similar in culture a lot of it is to Ireland. Besides the eating and drinking on the streets, if you get into the bar and nightclub scene it very much reminds me of Ireland. And of course this meant an after party at one of their apartments where the Aguardimente the Colombian drink was flowing. The apartment we went back to was crazy. 360 degree views of the city from from a near penthouse style apartment. Flat screen TVs music been played on surround sound system and people dancing and chatting. Absolutely incredible girls. Was a small enough party, not too many people but they were all so friendly and welcome to have us. And these people are absolutely loaded. The guy who owned the apartment and bar, really fun guy just a few yrs older than me was the lawyer for the Governor of the state. Really couldn't picture him as a lawyer though.

Following day another brilliant and shocking day of the hospitality of the Colombians. Victor, the guy who's riding his bike gets a lot of attention because of the bike. But a few days previous some guy had shown him directions to the hostel and they got talking. The guy then invited him for dinner at his house and me as well. This house was downtown a bit so the guy came to collect us and we drove downtown to meet his family. They were the most happiest smiliest people I{ve met and had such a great time with them. Victor speaks Spanish and my Spanish seems to be getting worse by the day which is pretty much nothing at this stage so was hard with the language barrier but still managed to get a view words in and understand a bit of what was going on. Victor did most of the talking though. It was the son who had invited us, so we met the parents and the two daughters. Ate some dinner and beers and then they took us around their neighbourhood for two hours showing us all the sights. As I said before they were all so cheerful and smiling non stop. I really loved it. I'm trying to find the words to describe some of these experiences lately in Colombia but just cant find them. After walking around town we went back to the house, turned on some music and their two beautiful daughters thought us how to dance Salsa. A lot more chatting and drinking lots more Aguardimente the Colombian drink before heading back to the hostel at midnight. Thinking this was the end of our night we arrive in and are given a phone number of some girl our friend Nathalie had gone out with. So again it just didn't stop. Met some more people. Made it out to a number of streets that were just buzzing with night clubs and bars and all the beautiful people of the world!!!

I guess at this stage a lot of this sounds like I'm repeating myself but just write it day by day so I wont forget! Saturday was ridiculous. Just when I thought it couldn't get any better and thought I'd seen it all we discover we've arrived at the start of Feria which is a big festival to celebrate the cities birthday. I don't know the exact size of these street parties but we had walked 10 to 12 blocks long and 4 or 5 blocks wide and the streets were full of music, people, drinking, beer and party. Traffic was closed off in some sections so when I say a lot of people I mean thousands. And it wasn't just parties from bars but also houses, big cars with massive sound systems blaring out music and even blockbuster video had a few hundred people in their parking lot dancing and drinking. Beautiful girls all over the place and everyone is so well dressed and smart. This went on all day and all night. And from minute one again the people offering us so many drinks and showing us where to go. The first few people were offering us a 12 year old whiskey. In the bars people wanted to buy shots and a lot of people invited us to come stay at their houses for a few nights. We've gotten to know a good few locals around as well over the last few days that come out with us each night. The street parties are just mad and again I'm struggling to find the words to describe the fun of it. And I love the way there is no violence or fights. Well I'm sure there is probably some but not in your face. At one point some small fight started and everyone started calling the police over to break it up. As I'm writing this we have all decided to stay in the hostel for the day just chilling out on the Internet, watching movies and trying to detox. Were nearly afraid to go out on the streets again in cause we stumble into some other big festival!! Originally only planned to stay in Bucaramanga for 1 night and its now going into five days so aiming to get out of here tomorrow!

Photos up at http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=237270&id=509199014&l=885d42a477