Planes cambian

Hola a tod@s, espero que este mensaje les encuentre bien. Bueno voy a saltar un poco de lo que escribí en ingles, porque fue demasiado. En general subimos muy rápido por el norte de Peru por Huaraz, donde la lluvia no nos dejo hacer mucho treking. Después de dos noches y un día entero de viaje en bus entramos a Ecuador y fuimos a un pueblito que se llama Vilcabamba. Nos quedamos en un hostal hermoso con una piscina rodeada de plantas tropicales en medio de las montañas, fue espectacular. De allí fuimos a Loja, donde no nos pensábamos quedar, pero el grupo Bacilos (cantan las canciones “Caraluna” y “Tabaco y Chanell”) iban a dar un concierto y todavía habían entradas. Entonces nos quedamos y valió la pena, el concierto fue buenísimo. Desde Loja viajamos a Cuenca pero otra ves con la lluvia no pudimos hacer mucho. Desde Cuenca salimos a Quito para pasar solo un día. Tengo que regresar a Ecuador cuando no sea la temporada de lluvia, y también visitar la costa, porque sentí que no vi casi nada.
Entonces cambiaron los planes. Cuando salimos de viaje pensábamos cruzar de Peru a Bazil e ir por las amazonas a Venezuela. Pero conocimos tanta gente que nos dijo que teníamos que ir a Colombia, entonces aquí estamos! Desde Quito salimos a Pasto, Colombia y desde el día que cruzamos nos enamoramos del país. Tomamos el bus a Popayán, un camino espectacular. Nunca en mi vida había visto montañas como esas, un paisaje increíble. Pasamos algunos días en Popayán, una ciudad muy bonita y viajamos al pueblo de Silvia donde cada martes bajan los indígenas de la región para el día del mercado. Fue muy bonito ver como han conservado sus tradiciones. De Popayán fuimos a Cali, la capital de la salsa. Salimos a bailar a la avenida sexta, pero como no estuvimos para un fin de semana no pudimos ver de verdad como son las noches de fiesta en Cali. De Cali fuimos A Medellín donde vimos la exhibición de Botero en el museo de arte. Como no teníamos mucho tiempo sentíamos que estábamos volando de ciudad a ciudad sin hacer una conexión con la gente del lugar. Y los otros turistas que conocíamos en los hostales eran un horror. Casi todos venían por las drogas y las prostitutas. En un hostal un chico en la misma frase me pregunto que hora era y cuanto costaba la cocaína por acá. No lo pude creer. Era una desgracia ver como los extranjeros venían a dañar más al país. Sentíamos que aunque estos extranjeros estaban en Colombia no tenían idea de donde estaban, de la situación socio-política. Y también sentía que la Colombia que estábamos viendo no era la que entendía por las historias de mis amigos colombianos o de mis padres que trabajan en el trabajo de solidaridad con Colombia. Y entonces llegamos a Cartagena muy desilusionadas y no era porque no teníamos contactos de gente que nos podía mostrar Colombia, sino que íbamos viajando tan rápido y como fue de último momento que decidimos ir a Colombia, so pudimos hacer los contactos antes. Pero en fin, llegamos a Cartagena y pudimos encontrar un amigo de Marie que es de Cartagena que conoció en Francia cuando estuvo estudiando allá. El es parte de una compañía de danza que se llama El Colegio del Cuerpo que trabaja con chicos de comunidades marginales de Cartagena y usan una metodología de empoderarse y respeto que es increíble. Y entonces pasamos una semana con el y su novia y sus amigos discutiendo política, hablando de racismo en Colombia en comparación a EEUU, de la inigualdad económica. Fue una semana increíble donde en verdad sentí una conexión humana, la formación de una amistad muy especial. Nos mostraron otro entendimiento de Colombia, compartieron su trabajo y sus experiencias con nosotras. Ella hace documentales y trabajo con un grupo de mujeres que se llama Liga de Mujeres Desplazadas y nos mostró las documentales que hizo sobre el trabajo de las mujeres. Fuimos a ver un concierto de Petrona Martinez, una cantante muy famosa de Palenque que canta música folklórica de Colombia. La pasamos supero bien en Cartagena, encontramos una comunidad de gente joven que están viviendo sus vidas tratando de cambiar las injusticias en el mundo poco a poco. No nos queríamos ir de Cartagena, pero en fin teníamos que irnos. Salimos de Cartagena a Santa Marta donde fuimos al Parque Tayrona. Un lugar espectacular con una combinación de playas hermosas y una selva tropical. Celebramos el cumpleaños de mariela allí con ron y música. Pero el parque queda en una región controlada por los paramilitares y no deje de pensar que dentro de tanta maravilla existía tanta violencia y opresión. En este país tan increíble hay tanta violencia y hay tantos que no pueden regresar a su país y que no pueden ver la hermosura que yo he visto en estas ultimas semanas, que no pueden ver sus familias. Sé que tengo que regresar a Colombia muy pronto. Esta visita me ha mostrado la superficie, pero sé que tengo que regresar y haber más conexiones y seguir el trabajo de la solidaridad en EEUU.
Mañana cruzamos a Venezuela por una semana antes de que regrese a Chicago. Este viaje ha sido increíble y seguiré procesando mis experiencias después que termine. Bueno entonces los dejo con esto y les cuento de Venezuela en el próximo mensaje.
Los quiero mucho.
Paz, Juanita.

Change of Plans

Hello everyone. I hope that this e-mail finds you all well. Since my last update we headed to Huaraz in the north of Peru and unfortunately were met with rainy weather and so were not able to do that much hiking as we had hoped in the Cordillera Blanca (the highest mountain range in Peru). But we enjoyed a lovely hostel and used the time to work on our artesanias and we made three sales in the hostel! It was quite exciting. From Huaraz we spent two nights and one full day taking one bus after another to get to Ecuador. We made it to Vilcabamba, Ecuador, a lovely little town in the mountains that is called the town of longevity because people are supposed to live to be 100 years old. In Vilcabamba we stayed in this hostel that was a complete paradise. There was a swimming pool and tropical flowers and plants all over. We re-energized from our long days of travel and headed on to Loja. We hadn’t planned on staying in Loja, but found out that the musical group Bacilos was playing there the following night and tickets were still available, so we changed out plans and saw them in concert. The group is made up of a colombia, a puertorican, and a brazilian who all met up in miami. They sing the songs "Caraluna" and "Tabaco y Channel" for those of you who might know those songs. It was a great concert, totally worth it! From Loja we headed to Cuenca, a lovely colonial city surrounded by mountains. We stayed in Cuenca for about a week, although because of the rain we weren’t able to do much. The rainy season is definitely upon us, and so our activities were a lot more limited. But we’re reading and writing a lot and working on our artesanias, so it’s all good. From Cuenca we headed to Quito, but because of our limited time line we only stayed in Quito for one day. Our time in Ecuador went by fast and because of the rain we didn’t get to do all the national parks that we had originally hoped. So I definitely have to go back to Ecuador and spend more time there to get to know the coastal region and see all the beautiful parks in the mountains. You can see my pictures of Ecuador under the link of "Grinnell Gallery Photos" on my blog.

And then there were a change in plans. We originally planned to go back down to peru and get to venezuela via the amazon. But, we talked to so many travelers who said that we just had to go to colombia, and so guess where I am? Colombia! We have spent the last three weeks traveling in Colombia and head to Venezuela tomorrow for the last week of the trip. I must say I am so happy we decided to come to Colombia, it’s an amazing country. From Quito we took a bus to the border and crossed with no problems at all and then headed to the city of Pasto, that is three hours from the border. We were told that it’s safest if we travel by day, and so we spent the night in Pasto before heading to Popayan. The scenery on the road between Pasto and Popayan is incredible. The skyline is covered in lush green mountains with trees and fruits of all kinds. It’s definitely one of my favorite views thus far, it seemed like it was out of a fairytale. Yet, amongst the beautiful scenery I couldn’t help but think of the people who are living in those mountains. It’s crazy to think that people continue on with their daily lives even with a war going on, a war that has been going on for over 40 years. And as I have traveled through Colombia I can’t help but think of all of my friends who are in exile from this country and who cannot see the amazing scenery or taste the traditional arepas or see the beautiful faces of their people.
And so the from Popayan we headed to Cali, the salsa capital of the world. We were only there for two days but were able to go out on Avenida Sexta and check out the dancing. From Cali we headed to Medellin for two days and we went to the art museum where they have a wonderful Botero exhibit and the park in front is full of his sculptures (you can check out some of the pictures).
We had really been enjoying seeing the beautiful cities, museums, parks, etc. but were really missing a human element. We were disgusted by tourist who com to colombia for the drugs and prostitutes, which happens all over, but we really saw it here more than anywhere else in our trip. The other day a guy asked me what time it was and how much cocaine costs around here all in the same breath as if it was a totally normal question. And so as we headed to Cartagena we were very disillusioned with the type of tourists we were meeting and because we were only spending short periods of time in each place it was hard to meet colombians. We arrived in Cartagena, a beautiful city where it’s hot and humid all the time. Marie had met a friend when she was studying in France who was from Cartagena and part of a dance company here and so we decided to look him up and we found him! The dance company is called Colegio del Cuerpo and is a school that started nine years a go to work with youth from poor and struggling neighborhoods in Cartagena and teach them how to dance but with a very specific methodology of empowerment and consciousness-raising. They do some amazing work and are very well recognized for the work they have done in Colombia. And so we have been in Cartagena for the past week having an amazing time. He and his girlfriend and their friends are very politically conscious and our first night having dinner with them we talked all night about colombian politics, US politics, racism, classism, everything under the sun. And we just kept wanting to stay longer to go to different cultural events like a concert of Petrona Martinez a very famous singer of African descent from Palenque who sings traditional folkloric music of the coast.
She also worked with an organization called Liga de Mujeres Desplazadas and so we have had a great time talking with her about her work with them and watching two documentary films that she made about the group. Finding the two of them and their community here in Cartagena was exactly what we needed. We have felt so welcomed and included here and that it’s made me feel like I want to come and live here. It’s great to find a group of people who are living their lives to try and make the world a better place each using his-her talents in a different way. He using dance as a tool for change, she using her skills in communication and film making as a tool. Each one of us using what we know as a way to educate people, to inspire people, to connect with people to try and fight against all the injustices that exist in the world. My time in Cartagena was inspirational for me: A time of personal reflection, of deep thought provoking discussions, formation of great friendships. Although we didn’t want to leave we left Cartagena for Santa Marta where we stayed for a few days before heading to Parque Tayrona, a beautiful national park with spectacular beaches and tropical jungle all in the same place. We celebrated Marie`s b-day with rum and drums on the water front, it was a great celebration. But the park is in a region controlled by the paramilitaries and so although It was an amazing place I couldn’t help but think of all the violence that has and continues to occur in that paradise. From Tayrona we headed back to Santa Marta to try and head into Venezuela, but missed the bus, so will head there tomorrow and spend a week on the coast before I fly back from Caracas on the 19th. The trip is coming to an end so soon. I can’t believe that I will be back in cold Chicago in a week! It’s been an amazing adventure, and it’s not over yet. So i`ll let you know how the last week goes.
Love, Jenny