Traveling to Colombia!

First off, it's Colombia, not Columbia. Haha. Columbia is like Washington D.C. Colombia is the South American country that Rhett and I traveled to just this month. It was a short trip, but it was super fun. Colombia is unique and beautiful, and the people are some of the kindest I've ever met. While there I kept notes on my phone whenever I had a thought come to my head about something cool/unique/different that I saw. Anything that would remind me of how awesome Colombia is, I wrote it down. So here are my thoughts about this beautiful country, from the city of Medellin (pronounced Med-e-yeen, or Med-e-jeen depending on who you talk to). Most of the notes are in present tense since I was in Colombia and thinking of them at the time of writing them.

Senora Rojas (the mother of our VRBO owner, who also lives in the apartment) is taking a hand-hold approach to guiding us around. Like we won't be able to go anywhere without getting lost and/or scared. She keeps telling everyone we don't speak Spanish haha. She even went so far as to get on the bus with us to help us pay for tickets and tell the driver where we were getting off at and that we don't speak Spanish. Even though Rhett does speak Portuguese and can speak/understand Spanish enough to get us around.

Our first day walking around in the city (after making it off the bus and onto the train), I hear someone behind me say, "Bonita," then something something "gringos." She was asking, "are you gringos? Then telling me and Rhett how beautiful I was.

I keep getting stared at. Is it my height? Because I'm a "gringo?" I'm not the only blonde, but I am the only blue eyed blonde. All the blondes here have it dyed blonde. And my hair is very short, no one here has short hair except for the older ladies who have it permed.

It's easier to understand Spanish than I thought it would be.  Not that I understand it, but I can pick up on the gist of it if people talk slowly. When Rhett talks to people, they typically talk back slowly enough that he can understand in his "Portanol" (Portuguese mingled with Spanish) and with him occasionally leaning over to translate to me, or by hand gestures of the Colombian, I picked up on the gist of things pretty well.

Ferdinand Botero is a Colombian artist who does "fat" paintings and statues. They are super famous. Half of a floor in the local art museum dedicated to his stuff. Something like 37 of his statues stand in the plaza.

People are either fluent in English or don't speak a lick of it. Most of them don't. Though people wear shirts with English phrases on them. Stuff like, "Forever sexy" and "I'm a limited edition" etc. It's kind of funny.

People sell wears on the street for dirt cheap. Everywhere. From hats to dresses to shoes to remote controls to phones and tablets (even ones with cracked screens), and on and on. I don't know how they make any money, but they're out there, every day.

The style for men is long pants, so Rhett sticks out today with his cargo shorts. Women wear sheer shirts and mostly tank tops. Plenty of skirts seen, lots of skinny jeans and shorts. Sandals and sneakers both seem to be in fashion.

There is such a range of skin color. Light olive to a dark black. No Asians to be seen anywhere, though. Advertisements definitely favor the lighter skin, which is interesting.

Everyone is very nice. Very, very nice. Not once has anyone gotten upset at us for not speaking Spanish. They always try to help, and even offer help when we look lost/confused.

Lunch consisted of fresh lemonade (DELICIOUS). Rhett had a pork/steak mixed plate with a cheese arepa. I had salted chicken, beans, rice, plantain, and a mini arepa with a fried egg.

The Metro is very spacious, it was odd at first to be in a train car with so much room between seats and stuff, until I saw it packed with people, they really pack people on. Its so smooth you don't need to hold onto anything, which is very different from Chicago's "L". The buses are as rough and bumpy as the movies always portray, but newer. There's no leg room, and my head hits the ceiling. No one else's does... Oh, there are also Gondolas as part of the metro system that take people up the mountain side. They have to use gondolas because the mountain is so steep. People just live right off the gondola stops. It's amazing. And beautiful!

Weather: super hot, then when the sun goes behind the clouds and a breeze kicks in its perfect. Even "chilly". Natives wear light jackets. I didn't even take a jacket out with me. Now I know why it is called the "city of eternal spring."

There are motorcycles everywhere, and everyone rides tandem, very rarely is someone on a motorcycle by themselves. Police especially. It's kind of funny to watch. And the police drive with their lights flashing at all times. No undercover stuff, they are always very well labeled.

Next up, the botanical gardens. They are very beautiful, probably one of our favorite places, especially for people watching. They're right by the university campus. We saw students making out and studying on blankets on the grass. We watched a family feed a group of ducks and saw a wild kitten (Rhett keeps correcting me that it's feral, but I think wild kitten sounds cooler). It was great.

There is free city wide WiFi, it doesn't really work though. In certain spots it works well, so our phones would flood with messages for a minute, then we'd move and have no more wifi. We got messages at the botanical gardens, by the lagoon. We took a minute to message family from there and send pics. It was nice.

After the gardens and such, we just walked/wandered. The city is very run down, but they keep the streets and metro stations super clean. Very rarely do I smell things like urine, or garbage, like you'd expect in big cities, especially run down ones. Buildings are in ill repair from the outside, but most of the insides look good. There's lots of graffiti. The stuff that matters stays in good shape, the rest just kind of gets ignored.

Dinner was yogurt and a chicken pastry from the panderia here at the apartment complex. We ate by the water fountain and watched kids play for awhile. The yogurt here is all drinkable. Even when it's normally packaged, it's like liquid. Plus they have actual drinkable yogurts. There's almost no difference in consistency, though. Not as good as yogurt in the U.S., but it's yogurt and therefore yummy.

Breakfast: chorizo (sausage), toast, queso, and arepas. Sandra's mom was afraid we wouldn't like the chorizo. It was muy delicioso. Going to Parque Arvi today, a big nature reserve. We left at 10:30 am, they said we were leaving late but we don't care, we had plenty of time up there.

The rivers are all very dirty :( that looks like where they sweep the street trash. The smell near the rivers gets pretty bad, too.

The metro has announcements in Spanish and English, but the English speaker has such a thick accent, she may as well be speaking Spanish.

We saw a Mormon painting of the nativity in someone's home last night. It doesn't mean they're Mormon, but it was beautiful to see. Kind of a tender mercy from God reminding me that his children are everywhere.

Everything is orange brick. Probably clay. There are no yards/grass. Though there is still a lot of greenery on the ground. The dirt is the same reddish orange, and the trees are super green.

The electricity is constant, which is nice. Water temperature is not so constant, but its clean. Tap water is fine to drink, thankfully.

We got lost 3 or 5 or 6 times in the Colombian jungle (Parque Arvi). The trails are not marked well at all. Its awful haha. We ended up on a road going between a bunch of rural farm houses, had to backtrack and got lost a few more times. We did a lot of backtracking and walking. Sometimes the trail would almost disappear from under us. There were signs posted, but the posts were taken down, so it was always just a blank piece of wood sitting by the trail side. No directions. Nothing. Just graffitied.

The jungle smelled just enough like pine that I was reminded of the mountain canyons in Utah. Except it was a lot more humid. Utah could never hope for that level of humidity. Many of the trees that smelled like pine looked like some sort of cousin to a pine tree. The Colombian trees have never had to survive a hard winter.

Its more humid than Chicago, but not as bad as New Orleans.

No monkeys, possums, or jaguars, sadly. Just butterflies, which are gorgeous. There's road crossing signs with Jaguar shapes on them, though. And possum shapes.

I've decided my looks make me more likely to be pick pocketed, but my height makes me less likely to be threatened. People are still looking me up and down. Its a little funny. Lots of old men especially. Some will stop and tell me I'm pretty.

Everyone here has a dog. All the dogs are happy, and usually stay near their owners. There are advertisements that say "no more defenseless animals" and such. People let their dogs sit by them in their restaurants, etc. It's so great.

Yesterday we had a fresh mango sliced from a street vendor. Today we had a fresh cup of berries at the Parque Arvi. Eating fresh fruit from the area is my favorite thing about traveling abroad. The local fruit is so fresh and tasty. Mangoes that have to be shipped to the US just don't have the same flavor.

There's only like 3 kinds of food here, and most of it is fried. Going to restaurants presents a difficult choice cuz you can't really find what you want, just what they have. Grilled meats, fried chicken, or empanadas and pastries. I did see a Chinese restaurant in a mall food court, it looked like fried rice with Colombian style meat on top.

Mannequins all have HUGE boobs... And pant mannequins all have big booties.

They have these fruit drinks made with milk or water. I got a Blackberry with water yesterday, and a guava banana with milk today. The milk one was less flavored but still sweet and delicioso. Rhett got passion fruit the first day, mango the second. They're so sweet and addicting. We almost became regulars at the place that sells them.

There aren't really any tourists. Mostly natives. Other tourists are mostly Latino, so they blend in easily.

I've seen a couple of nuns. White wimples and blue dresses. Its cool.

I got to talk to a little girl on the metro who kept staring at me. I asked her name, which she mumbled to me. Then I told her she was pretty. She smiled real big and hid her face in her moms leg. Her mom talked to us for awhile, but I had no idea what she was saying, so I just smiled and nodded at intervals and I don't think she even knew we didn't speak Spanish.

I ate some peanut contaminated ice cream tonight. That resulted in a fun trip to the Colombian hospital. It's a rather lengthy story, but it's full of miracles. I posted that story first, so just keep scrolling down after this post.

Church today. We arrived 40 minutes late cuz breakfast and the bus both got delayed. I'm feeling better today than I have since we got here. I think I was dehydrated. They rehydrated me at the hospital. Senora Rojas acted so surprised that I could even walk, and kept asking if I could eat.

Golden retrievers all over today. Out first night I saw lots of bull dogs. I've seen lots of small shituzu type dogs, a few chihuahuas, beagles, huskies, and a lot of mutts. Yesterday I saw a boxer, and a collie dog like Lassie. Some of them just find spots on the sidewalk against a building and go to sleep. Belly up, even, which says a lot. They've all looked so happy. And people actually take their dogs out and play with them. Sandra has never heard of a Galgo before though (the Spanish Greyhound). She and her mom still oooh'd and ahhh'd at Roxie's pictures. The Rojas' have a typical Spanish Labrador named Tony. He is very well behaved, and so cute. He's 10 years old and just a happy fellow who likes to sleep.

So church, it was good. Fast and testimony meeting today. 2 sets of elders, only one looked non-native. His name was elder Weber, he was very blonde and fair skinned. More so than me! After sacrament meeting everyone came to Rhett and I to welcome us. We would say Buenos Dias, and all the women leaned in to give me the standard greeting kiss. I heard "bonita" a few times. According to my count, there were about 130 members in attendance. Everyone is so nice. The ward building was very close to our VRBO. The cultural hall was accessible only from outside, and they left all the doors open and had ceiling fans (maybe 10) going. It was nice and cool. It was lovely on the inside. Cool tile, white floor walls and ceiling. Most people did have on nice church clothes. Rhett and I had to wear our jeans. It was a very active fast and testimony meeting, there was never a pause between testimonies. There were also a lot of kids. Elder Weber was not very talkative, I had hoped to ask more about the mission and the ward and his hometown, but he basically welcomed us, asked where we were from, answered one question I had, then left.

After church we went to Pablo Escobar's house here (the house he was living in when he got caught and killed anyways). It had big iron gates across the front, and there was some super nice furniture inside. It was in a really nice, really pretty area. Not crazy at all.

The children here run around without supervision, ride bikes without shoes, and there are no car seats. Toddlers stand in cars until an adult seats them. People either carry their babies, piggy back their toddlers, or push strollers.

I don't think anyone spays or neuters their pets. People also take their dogs out to the park and let them run around off leash for a while without much supervision. Guess it depends on the person. Some dogs have collars, most don't. Although a lot of the small dogs wear bows and bandannas.

Nobody wears backpacks on their backs. Its always on one shoulder, and then when there's a lot of people around, or they get on the train, they hold it in front of them. Rhett and I followed suite.They still use payphones. No one really has a smart phone, if they do its an old version, and mostly used to listen to music. I see a lot of mothers with their young children, in the evenings and on weekends there is almost always a father with them. Grandparents are also often involved, and the elders are treated with a lot of respect. It's beautiful how family oriented everyone is.

There's a lot of street gambling that goes on.

I see a lot of Chicago bulls merchandise. Just the bulls. However, there's more New York City and Paris general merchandise.

Everyone holds hands :) father's and daughters, couples, young siblings, grandsons and grandma's, etc. I love it.

Colombians are not good singers... Not at church, not the Sunday choir in Plaza Botero, not any I've heard except Shakira on the radio.

I tried my first empanada. Not as greasy as it could have been, and very tasty. I ordered 2 of them and a 7 up with minimal help from Rhett. It was great.

Every car and bus is a stick shift. This makes it really fun on hills and pot holed roads.

Rhett and I bought flowers and wrote thank you notes to the Rojas' and to Ricardo and Natalia for helping us the night of my peanut attack. Senora Rojas didn't know exactly where Ricardo lived, but she knew it was around the 5th floor, and had a view of the pool. So we went knocking on doors. Whenever someone answered the door, they would always stop and think hard if they knew Ricardo, then try to offer advice to find him more quickly. Most of these people were complete strangers, yet they answered the door with a smile, and took time to try and help. No one slammed a door or even closed it after stating they didn't know Ricardo. Every single person tried to help somehow. The kindness of the Colombian people still astounds me. We never found him, but Senora Rojas promised she would keep looking so she could deliver our thank you note.

We had arepas with fresh cheese and hot chocolate for our last breakfast. Sandra harvested the corn herself to make the arepas by hand. Sandra and Senora Rojas were the kindest people, we were so lucky to stay with them.

One more thing we noticed: There are no drinking fountains in Colombia anywhere. Not even in the airport. Time to go home. We loved it here! Thanks for the memories, Medellin!

For all our pictures, you can click here.

Foreign Healthcare and the Elusive Colombian Peanut

You may think the most dangerous things to watch out for in Colombia would be drug related. Maybe a run in with a gang or the cartel, perhaps in the form of a brutal kidnapping. Especially in Medellin, which was once rated the most dangerous city in the WORLD. (True story). You may be afraid of a jaguar coming at you from the depths of the jungles, as there are even road crossing signs with jaguar warnings on them. Perhaps it would be the crazy drivers on winding roads. There is of course always the dangers of pick-pockets and such. No wonder our mothers were both so worried about us traveling to this crazy country. However, Rhett and I found the most dangerous thing of all. The elusive Colombian PEANUT!!!

8:20 pm Saturday, February 6th. Senora Rojas gave me toffee ice cream. There were 2 bowls of it on the table, one for me, one for Rhett. Rhett was using the restroom, so I started on mine.

I tried to ask in Spanish if there were nuts in it. I don't know if she didn't understand me, or if she didn't think it did have nuts, because she just looked at me and kind of shook her head, then made an eating gesture while saying "es gusta, gusta." So I ate a bite slowly, but it only tasted like toffee (sweet and delicious). So I had another bite. I was on my 3rd bite when Rhett came out to join me and I was starting to feel uncomfortable and itchy. Rhett got worried, I stopped eating and Rhett quickly ate all of my ice cream so we wouldn't offend Señora Rojas. I went right back to the room and took 2 benadryl. I was still itchy, so I took 2 more. About 10 mins later I tried to puke it up, but I think my stomach had already emptied. So I laid down and I waited. 

As per usual, the stomach cramps started. I told Rhett if they lasted more than an hour to take me in. Rhett gave me a Priesthood blessing, which was a comfort. We waited 10 or 15 more minutes and it got really bad. Rhett went to get Señora Rojas, and tell her we needed to go to the hospital because I was having bad allergies. She asked if we needed to go to the drug store. Rhett said no, the hospital. She asked if we could wait until Sandra got home, but Rhett said no, and she started to panic. She was pacing, and pulled out a card with the taxi company number on it, but it took her awhile since she was panicking. Rhett stayed very calm. I stayed doubled over on the bed. Well when the taxi was called Rhett and I scrambled to get our passports, my wallet, my epi pen, and my medications together. We also had to get me dressed again.

We headed out and towards the gate where the taxi was supposed to wait for us. On our way down, the taxi passed us going toward our building. The gate workers had let him in! I didn't know what to do at that point, because I didn't think I could make it back to the building. Right at that moment another car was passing, and the driver rolled down the window and asked what was wrong. Señora Rojas explained what was going on, and it turns out the guy spoke English! He got out and told us to get in his car. He then sped us to the Clinica las Americas while asking us all sorts of questions so he could help check us in when we got there. 

His name was Ricardo, his wife was Natalia. They rolled down the windows and yelled at other drivers to please let us pass, which they did. He said if I have a passport and a health insurance card, I would be given attention. Luckily I had brought my insurance card. Had I been more alert, I probably would've been terrified of his driving. As it was, I wasn't even wearing a seat belt. The roads in Colombia are crazy twisted. And I was grateful for Ricardo's speed and agility on the road as well as Natalia's loud voice out the window. We got there around 9:20pm and he got out with us while Natalia went to park. I sat down, Rhett stayed close, and Ricardo did all of our paperwork for us. What an amazing man. 

They put me at the top of the triage list and I was taken back almost immediately. Only one Dr. spoke English, and she was available to see me right then. It was a miracle.

Rhett and I went back to exam room 1 where the doctor, Carolina, asked me what was going on. I gave her my symptoms and medication list, she read the pill bottle, I told her I had taken some advil, etc. The doc told us to be extra careful here because peanut allergies are so rare, they just put peanuts in everything here in Colombia without thinking about it. They probably wouldn't understand a peanut allergy (Señoras Rojas didn't, she acted confused at an allergia de maní). Which means they probably don't understand the dangers of peanut oils, or cross contamination. Because my symptoms were starting to lighten she diagnosed my allergy as "mild," but said she'd give me some medication and keep me an hour or 2 for observation. All my vital signs were well within normal limits (my O2 SATs were 99), and my lungs sounded clear. She moved me to a clinic bed and said they'd start some medication. 

It took a few minutes of waiting then my nurse, Margarita, came in with some medications. She started an IV and hung a bag of solumedrol (a steroid), gave me a shot of epinephrine in my arm that burned like the sun, and gave Rhett some paperwork. While he was filling it out the first dose of benadryl wore off and I started to get redder and redder, then I started wheezing. Loudly. Rhett grabbed the doctor who came in and listened to me and saw my hives. My O2 sats at that point had dropped to 96 (still not horrible, but it was a 3% drop). Shortly thereafter Margarita came in with a nebulizer treatment. It helped a lot. 

I was talking to Rhett as he was trying to fill out the paperwork, and a nice lady who was there for the person in the room over kept peeking in at me. Then she stuck her head in and in Spanish told me to stop talking so the breathing treatment could work. 

At this point I noticed that my feet hung off the bed, because I'm so much taller than the average Colombian. Haha. Rhett finished the paperwork and went out to update the others. They were all so relieved to hear I was doing okay. Ricardo and Natalia said they would stay until Sandra got there, and she was on her way. Then Rhett came back to my bedside. After awhile Margarita came in and hung 10mg of IV benadryl. That's when I started to get loopy, and my fingers and hands stopped cooperating with me. I was pretty trembly from the meds. Rhett taught me the Spanish word for loopy: Chiflado. I guess I was singing songs (about being chiflado) and flapping my arms around aimlessly. 

It was really uncomfortable because the epinephrine, the steroid, and the nebulizer together gave me an energy boost, raising my heart rate, blood pressure, etc. But all I wanted to do was rest. The benadryl was putting me to sleep. Then I started picking at my dressing on the IV cuz the tape was itching me. It was awful. And Rhett had the nerve to laugh at me and tell me to stop because I was being like the patients of mine that bug me when they pick off their dressings. I rebutted that I don't put that nasty itchy tape on my patients, I do good dressings. 

Then my butt started to hurt cuz the gurney bed wasn't very soft. So I had to wiggle around a lot. Apparently I tried to grab at Rhett's face. I think I was probably trying to stroke it nicely or bring him in for a kiss, buy he rejected me every time. He says I was just being annoying and laughing at him. I was just so uncomfortable but I knew I needed to stay still and get my meds in me. I just felt like I had no control over my arms and fingers. The good news is that my hives were going away and I had stopped wheezing. The next med was IV zantac. (Ranitidine). For my stomach. After that they gave me like half a bag of saline (which was wonderful, I was so dehydrated.) 

That last half hour or so was the most uncomfortable. The saline bag was cold, so my whole left arm was freezing. There were no iv pumps, Margarita just titrated the drips with the clamps, which was interesting to me. I was also still pretty fidgety. Then it was finally time to go. Margerita came and unhooked my IV. It wasn't like American IVs, where they lay nicely against the skin, it was an older version of an IV, and I felt it bruise my hand coming out. Oh well. I told her "muchas gracias." She was very sweet, but also no nonsense. My favorite kind of nurse. 

We left and went to the pay counter. This is when I really started to pray hard. It took them a very long time to pull all my information together, I kept falling asleep in the chair there. I thought it was going to get expensive, then we got the bill. I was shocked. 198,000 (198 mil) pesos. They asked Rhett how many payments he wanted to make on it, he just said one. They explained that they printed off my assessment, documentation, and receipts so we could go back to Chicago and get reimbursed by our insurance company. Ha! A copay for an ER visit is $250 on our insurance. 198 mil pesos is roughly $60. We're not getting reimbursed, and we don't even care. So its official, we went to Colombia and I got cheap drugs. What else do you do in Colombia? 

As we left the facility Señora Rojas just kept holding on to my arm and making clucking type sounds as if she just felt so bad for me. Sandra had arrived and she took us all home. We got back around midnight and I went straight to bed. I woke up once with another stomach ache, took some more benadryl per the Dr orders, and went back to sleep. The next morning I actually felt better than I had the first 2 days there. Probably because I was finally hydrated properly. We drank as much as we could, but it never seemed to be adequate. The next morning Señora Rojas seemed shocked that I could even eat, let alone go out after looking so terrible the night before. I think she thought it was a miracle. The benadryl helped a lot with my sleep, too, so that was good.

The next day we brought flowers for señoras Rojas and Ricardo y Natalia. We also wrote both families nice thank you notes in horrible and broken Spanish. I think they understood the meaning :)

List of miracles:
I packed my pill bottle (so my meds could be identified if need be)
I bought 2 brand new boxes of benadryl the night before leaving and replaced all my expired benadryl.
Ricardo driving by at that exact moment.
Ricardo speaking English.
Ricardo knowing what clinic to take us Americans to.
Ricardo not crashing on the way to the clinic.
Ricardo doing all of our paperwork to check us in.
Ricardo and Natalia being willing to drop whatever they were doing to take us to the clinic and make sure I was ok.
Ricardo knew about peanut allergies and how serious they were (he had to explain them to his wife and señora Rojas - not sure if it made the señora panic more though. At least she understood the severity of the situation.)
A doctor who spoke English.
The doctor who spoke English being available right then to see me.
Rhett being able to translate.
Me knowing the medical field and what was going on.
Modern, clean medicine practices in Colombia (the largest country for surgical tourism in the world-- prolly cuz it's so cheap).
Being triaged to the front of the line.
An amazing husband who did my paperwork and stayed by my side the whole time.
A kind nurse, even though we could only communicate with single words. (Me saying gracias for everything, her telling me when to take a breath cuz she was about to poke me "respirator... Si si si" *poke*)
An extremely affordable bill.
Sandra driving us home.
The kindness of the Colombian people.
Getting good sleep and rehydrated.