Posts That I Did Not Want to Create A Post For...

Warning: This post has a few lewd connotations. You have been warned.

I recently made fun of a friend who created an album on Facebook because he created an album of random pictures he wanted to share, but (in his words) "did not want to create an album for".

Today, I find myself in the same situation. This post contains 4 mini-posts. Things we enjoyed and want to share, but by themselves, not momentous enough to expand and elucidate about.

First up - let's start with the one thing everybody seems to be crazy about - that four-letter word that begins with the letter F - the one thing that everybody wonders where to have it at least once a day.... you got it!

♫ Let's talk about food baby, let's talk about you and me, let's talk about all the things that go into our bellies, let's talk about food.... ♫


Part One - Food
When we arrived at Macondo Hostel in San Gil, we saw a note that directed us to the hostel next door for a breakfast set of freshly cut fruits, toast, eggs and coffee at COP 5,000 (USD 2.50). Decent enough. Pretty filling too. Then we were talking to 2 fellow hostellers and they told us of this this stall at the marketplace that offers a fruit salad that was unbelievable! Curiousity aroused, we checked it out.

Fruit salad at the marketplace in San Gil

Though we ordered from a different stall from our fellow hostellers, we were also amazed by the fruit salad. For a measly COP 2,000 (USD 1), you get something like half a kilo worth of freshly cut fruits - bananas, strawberries, papayas, watermelons, honeydews, kiwis, apples, guanabana (soursop) and peaches. All stacked into a mountain like an ice kacang, then topped with grated coconut, grated cheese and drizzled with a heavenly concoction of sweetened milk. I have never been so in love with fruits before!

For the rest of our stay, breakfast was always the fruit salad, sometimes with freshly squeezed juice as well. The stall owner was really nice too! COP 1,700 (US$0.85) doesn't just get you one glass of mora (raspberry) or guanabana (soursop) or mango con leche (i.e. fruity milk shakes) - before you're even done slurping up the last drop, she tops up your glass with the remainder milk shake in the blender. Always! And FOC too! We like! :)

The wife and her tasty bit.... of empanada

A few steps from the fruit stall was another stall selling empanadas. The wife really likes her empanadas - maybe they remind her of the curry puffs back home. The ones we tried in Bogota were only so-so, with skimpy fillings of tuna or extra tough minced meat. The ones in San Gil were much more generous, with eggs and rice added to the meat (tender pieces of shredded chicken) inside. Muy deliciosa!

For anyone searching for directions to the market:
1. Go to the church at Plaza Mayor
2. With your back facing the church, walk straight down the road
3. You will pass by an Exito supermarket on your left, and a yellow-edged building on your right. The yellow-edged building is a market.
4. At your forward-right (1 o'clock direction) you will see that the yellow-edged market continues across a small road. That is the building you want.
5. Enter the building, walk past the vegetable stalls and proceed all the way across the building, and you will see the cluster of fruit stalls there.
6. The one we ordered from would be on the right side of the aisle, across from another stall with juices called Matrimonial and Divorce (yeah... a real huh? moment right there!), but we reckon all the stalls there will sell you the same stuff. Try it and enjoy!


Part Two - Music
On our last day in San Gil, we made our way down to the marketplace for fruit salads and empanadas as usual.

Surprise, surprise, there was a marching band on the street!

Don't you just wish you had a bowling ball?

Some roads were closed to public, and there was some sort of announcement of appreciation being made. Unfortunately, our Espanol was too mediocre, and we were not able to understand exactly what the appreciation was for.

Fast and nimble hands. She will find appreciative men easily, I'm sure

I could appreciate, however, how good these kids were. This girl was holding this heavy-looking xylophone thingy and standing still while the speech was being made. Then, when the command was given, she started playing without even seeming to look at the instrument, and every note rang true. When it wasn't her turn to play, she was twirling her xylophone-thingy-stick as if it were a mini-baton. In fact, you could see this simple bit of showmanship from all the band members.

Impressive!


Part Three - Haircut
For some reason, the state of my hair has become a major fixation amongst friends on Facebook and readers of this blog. Maybe it's because the wife made such an unforgettable post about my DIY haircut.

I had just wondered on Facebook whether I should cut my hair, and it somehow became a poll! Of course, because of WOW (Will of Wife, not World of Warcraft), it was actually already a foregone conclusion.

Snip Snip the Sequel

So yeah, four months and a bit after my last proper haircut in Singapore, and 2 months after my DIY attempt, I went for a haircut at the local peluquero.

Sigh.


Part Four - National Day
I had wanted to put this as Part One, actually, but I prefer the entries to be in chronological order. We celebrated National Day away from home in Bucaramanga, which is one of the nicer cities in Colombia.

Being 13 hours behind Singapore, we had to wake at 5am just to watch the webcast of the NDP. The alarm from the wife's iPhone rang, and we literally just rolled over and switched on my laptop, having already downloaded the necessary plugins and bookmarked the website earlier.

Good thing we had a private room this time round!

I have to confess that I snoozed a little more while el Presidente was inspecting the honor guard, but other than that, I thought the whole parade was really pretty interesting. Before we knew it, all 10 chapters were up, and the 8.22pm moment came and it was time to put on some clothes for our next picture.

I was looking at the laptop, not sleeptalking. Yi Lin was trying to remember the words

Because we love you, Singapore!

Hmm... Today newspaper just reported that there were viewers of the NDP webcast from USA, Australia and some other country. What about possibly the only viewers from Colombia, huh?!



P.S Yi Lin was not really trying to remember the words of the Pledge, but she can't say it in Mandarin either! So I win! :p

If Pigs Can Fly... Why Can't I

Paragliding didn't sound too exciting at first. Why waste a precious day in glorious San Gil strapped to a guy and floating through the air when there are more adrenalin-pumping activities to do? Like bungee jumping off a bridge over a rushing river for US$12? Or cooling off at the natural pools under the waterfalls FOC?

We've seen people paragliding countless times along the beach, strung along by a speedboat. I did it in Phuket when I was 15 - and wasn't exactly thrilled by the ride. In fact, I got rather bored up in the sky, all alone for 20 minutes without anybody to share the experience with.

Well our new friends from the Netherlands, Kamile and Iris just had to show us stunning photos of their paragliding experience in the hills of Curuti, a small town near San Gil. And boy were they nice photos! We realised that paragliding here relied solely on the instructor's ability to read the winds and guide the parachute through the air. You're not strapped to anything on land - like a fast-moving vehicle or speedboat - that drags you along. It was the closest you could get to flying without wings.

And so, off we went to the hills, COP 120,000 (US$60) poorer but nonetheless pretty excited. We were bundled off in a van with an American couple from California and a lovely, friendly couple from Belgium.

We chatted with the folks from Belgium who took a real interest in the languages spoken in Singapore. We learnt that half of Belgium speaks French while the other speaks Flemish - so it's possible that the people in the North have problems communicating with those in the South, and that seems to be leading to internal conflict. Can you imagine if we never made English the national language in Singapore?

We arrived at a farm in Curuti, apparently the starting point for our paragliding tour!

Bunches of sticks with legs...

This was no ordinary diary farm, pig pen or vegetable patch. Check out what was being cultivated:

Not your usual salad ingredients...

My brother's favourite plant: the tobacco leaf

Yups, we were right smack in a tobacco farm! We had to hike through the crops to get to the top of the hill.

See those tiny specks amidst the crops? Yeah, that's us

Tobacco flowers - the pretty side of smoking

Being the shortest and thus the lightest in the group (thankfully, still the lightest - would be monstrous if I were squat but heavier than everybody else), I was chosen to be the guinea pig to test the wind. If the wind couldn't pick me up, nobody would be soaring through the skies that day. I was strapped up and... and... left waiting in my snail shell for the wind to pick up.

My extra saggy butt acts as a chair once airborne and also as a spare chute

Smile! Sammy the Snail wants to take your photo!

It was not the best of days for flying - the wind was temperamental. Strong and gusty at times, followed by a sudden lull and complete stillness. Now, that is not good!

My instructor getting his parachute ready...

...while I relax in my snail shell

And then all of the sudden, we're ready to launch ourselves off the face of the cliff!

Great! Enough wind to get us going!

I didn't quite know what I was suppose to do... so I kinda did a combination of running while standing, running while sitting, scrambling forward, getting dragged forward... and somehow, I made it into the air!

All carabinas secured? Check!

I'm fllllyyyyiiiiinnnggg!!!

We spent a good 10-minutes soaring above the treetops and enjoying the view from above. Then we started to... descend? And I thought, wait this wasn't right! We were suppose to land back up on the plateau where we started!

Down... down... down... we went... and I landed, very surprised, right on my butt... on a farm.

With cows.

Er, captain? I think we've landed on the wrong planet

I looked around to find my instructor gathering up the parachute while muttering "muy mal, muy mal" (very bad). He unlatched me from my snail shell and chucked it into my arms and with a single word - "Vamos!" - we started walking back uphill. I was seriously dreading having to walk all the way back up onto the plateau when a van came rumbling along and rescued us from the gruesome climb.

After spending 10 minutes trying to get the van out of the ditch (it fell in there while trying to make a 3-point turn and the engine died), we were back up on the plateau. My instructor bundled me up in my seat again, saying "otra vez, otra vez" - one more time? Sure!

And up we went again!

Guiding the parachute using arm power

People watching is a favourite activity - even when up in the sky

Beautiful views all around of the lush green Colombian countryside

Tobacco farms

I thought the guy's control skills were pretty good - he could bring us pretty low to the ground, zooming in on the houses even... which was really, really low....

Wahhh, a close up on the roof tiles?

Then, I realised that we seemed to be nearing the ground at a rather high speed - he was going really near to the water holes and bushes.... gosh, when was he going to pull us back up?

All of the sudden, he exclaimed "otra vez, otra vez" and I thought he was trying to pull a fast one, tricking me into thinking that we were going to crash land again. I replied, "Hahahah, nonononono!"

And he replied, "SI SI SI SI SI SI!!!!"

CRASH! I was dragged through a wall of tall prickly bushes and landed heavily on my butt... again!

Sheepish look after achieving his 2nd crash landing for the day... with his first client of the day!

Okay, how are we going to get out now?!

Clutching my snail shell in front of me and using to bash my way through the tall plants, while hopping through pools of cow dung and slapping insects on my legs, we finally made it out of the bushes and onto the road.

Oh wait... I had to climb through some barbed wire first...

You're not suppose to go paragliding IN there!

Scratches galore from the barbed wire and bushes

And look who I found stranded along the road too!

Hola bebe! You crash landed too?

My instructor said, "Caminamos!" (Let's walk!)

I asked him, "Caminamos hasta....donde?" (We walk until....where?)

He replied... with a shrug of his shoulders!! And so, we started our walk back to nowhere.

Where are those donkeys when we need them now...

We stopped to gape at some chickens... while the villages gaped at us. Dan whipped out his camera to snap a few shots of the chickies, and the lady acceded by sprinkling more cornfeed to attract her whole entourage of hens for the photo shoot!

Calling all models!

Group picture!

My hen-some man

After almost half-an-hour, the van carrying the other American and Belgium tourists finally came rumbling down the road and rescued us from our miserable chicken-watching fate. What a luckless windless day it has been for us!

And that was just me griping. I'll let Dannie tell you about his experience through this spiffy HD video that he put together. I think he at least had a better flight than both my flights put together!

Macondo Guesthouse

If like us, you're looking for high adventure in San Gil, there's no better place to stay at than Macondo Guesthouse on Calle 12. This is the centre of activity in San Gil for waterfall-rappelling Tarzans and Janes, parapenting Winged Monkeys and crazy bungee Jumping Beans. Beyond catering for adventure sports enthusiasts, Macondo is also where all the social buzz is. Even non-guests are welcomed to gather in the common area for a game of Risk, Uno, Cranium or Jenga (They had Settlers of Catan too but no one seemed to wanna play that! Why?!) Be sure to pick the correct bathroom though - only one of them has a hot water shower!

The funny cat and the lovely staff in the background who has a smile for everyone (the lady, not the cat)

A huge wooden table makes a good setting for boardgames and group conversations. Too bad about the smoking though *cough cough*

Huge open roof in the courtyard, which lets in plenty of fresh air (but not enough to counter the cigarette smoke), sunshine ... and rain...

A wallful of hostel recommendations, a fridgeful of Coke, beer and cold water... and a ledgeful of empty liquour bottles...

Like I said, empty liquour bottles... but no drunks in the hostel though!

Our private double room

Inside our private double room... birds on a wire

The whiteboard where everyone signs up for the day's adventure tours

The funny cat again, which is oh-so-adorable. He makes me wanna turn into cat person!

Playing Dirty

It was only after we had signed up for caving at Cueva Vaca that I realised that we were in for a really dirty time!

This was not any ordinary visit to a cave - strolling along a wooden broadwalk, ooohing and aaahing at stalactites and stalagmites, playing with echoes, while staying dry and snugly bundled up in warm clothing.

We were going to get down and dirty! We started by hopping through a seriously icky minefield of ...

Guess how Cueva Vaca (Cow Cave) got it's name? Thankfully, I was wearing old sneakers borrowed from the hostel.

Then, we had to brave The Path Of Big Black Scary Birds. We joked that these ugly misfits looked like vultures all hanging around, waiting to pick the rotting flesh off our dead bodies should we not emerge from the cave alive...

Shopping vultures...

Holy Cow! I just found out that they ARE vultures! The Black American Vulture which locates carrion not only by sight, but also by it's keen sense of smell. It's comforting to know that if we really got lost underground in the deep bowels of the cave, somebody would be sure to find us... or smell us....

Their standard pose - as if waiting to take flight at the whiff of a potential meal. Muy feo.

And along with strange birds, the path was littered with strange plants... or rather, the skies... There were air-plants on all the overhead cables everywhere we looked!

Nyah, nyah, The Very Hungry Caterpillar can't get me here!

I remember my parents going nuts over these plants that literally live on air and water, even to the point of flying them back from Chaktuchak Market in Bangkok and waiting 5 years for the flowers to bloom. One of the perks of being the offspring of Botany grads: being surrounded by air-plants all my life while other tourists pay COP 4,000 (US$2) to view the very same plants at the botanic gardens in San Gil.

Rapunzel on a bad hair day. A sample photo taken in our garden back home.

"Landmines" and vultures successfully avoided, we finally arrived at the entrance to the cave. And down we went through the mossy stone gateways and into the black hole...

Our new friend Ivonne from Bolivia. If not for her, we would not understood our Spanish-speaking guide's instructions! Beside Ivonne is a Finnish guy whose name I've forgotten how to spell (it's only 4 letters long but isn't spelt like how it sounds!)

We were equipped with helmets and headlamps... and our own scruffy clothes! My white t-shirt had already been dyed a lovely shade of cafe from the rafting expedition (I wasn't expecting the river to be that brown) so I took it for another ride in the mud.

Everybody turn on your head lamps!

Ooooh, it's getting really dark in here!

We started off by navigating some really slippery muddy uphill slopes. I slipped and slid around so much that I was seriously starting to doubt my sense of balance.... so much for years on pointe shoes and pirouettes! I felt like an elephant in a china shop. Within the first 5 minutes, I had fallen so much that I looked like a chocolate Easter Bunny. At least the guide confirmed that the mud was good for our skin...

Then we got to the fun part - we slid down a natural mud-caked slope on our butts! It was a seriously fun side-splitting enjoyable wheeeeeee!-moment. We felt like kids at the playground all over again! Once again, my trusty Sony Cybershot and waterproof housing came in handy for some wet, muddy, splashy shots!

And Ivonne from Bolivia hits the mud pool at the end of the slide!

Kamile from the Netherlands comes in a splashing second!

Then it was time to test our flexibility. I regretted being lazy and not finding more opportunities to practise some yoga stretches and poses over the past weeks. If I knew we had to twist like pretzels to get through the tight spaces in the tunnels, I would have put more effort into warming up before getting into the cave!

This one's easy - tunnel is big enough for me to crawl through it like a baby.

This ones a bit more of a tight squeeze... I really shouldn't have eaten an entire fruit salad and Colombian set meal for lunch...

Made it through to the other end of the tunnel!

Getting down flat on my belly and squirming like a snake to get through this one

It's a tight squeeze but just enough space to pose for a picture!

This is definitely not an activity for the claustrophobic. I'm surprised that I signed up for it without a second thought (the COP 25,000 or US$12 price tag probably did the trick!) When I was a child, I hated crawling through any tunnel of sorts in which I could not immediately see the opening at other end. I had a phobia of being lost forever inside the curly intestines of the cartoon worm/snake/dragon/eel and that my parents would never find me and just wander off home without me :( Those of you who celebrated your childhood in the early 1980's and lived in the eastern part of Singapore, would remember a rooftop playground called PlayDeck on the 7th floor of Parkway Parade. There were these twisted white tubes which kids could crawl through. The one time I agreed to attempt to conquer the tube, I ended up panicking halfway through and out of desperation to escape, squeezed myself out of a small breathing hole. I then gave my mum, who had her head in other end of the tunnel and cheering me on, a fright by walking up behind her and going "Hi Mum! I'm here!"

Well, the tunnels were just the easy part. We reached a point where the water level was so high (or rather, the ceiling was so low) that the only way to cross was to totally submerge ourselves and swim underwater to the next air pocket.

As if this wasn't scary enough, we didn't fully understand the guide's instructions in Spanish. Thank god for Ivonne who translated the instructions into English and then bravely plunged herself into the murky waters and disappeared from sight. A few seconds later, we heard an echo-ey "Hey guys, I'm okay! It's okay! Just take a deep breath when the guide counts uno, dos, tres and he'll pull you through the water to this side."

One by one, we watched the others dive and go.... dive and go... dive and go.... Then it was my turn *GULP* I took a deep breath, closed my eyes, felt the tug on the rope in my hand, dived down and kicked my way through the watery brown wall. I surfaced with the upward pull of the rope a few seconds later to a lungful of air and cheers from my team mates. I had made it!

There's no way around that but to swim underwater

My fingertips are the last to go down...

A murky swirl is all that's left of me on this side of the wall

We all crossed safely to the other side! Caving champions from left: me, Ivonne, Finnish Guy, Iris, Kamile and our guide

We trekked onwards while the guide pointed out some stalactite and stalagmite formations, from delicate spindly needles to thick sturdy columns. After he let us revel in the mindless fun of striking silly poses, he dropped the bomb...

Bearing the weight of the world on our shoulders...

...the cave only had one entrance... and one exit. Which meant that we would have to backtrack and go through the entire obstacle course again in order go get out! Thankfully, the water level had fallen slightly on the way out and we didn't have to submerge ourselves entirely and swim underwater again. We had just enough breathing space if we tilted our heads to the max...

Air... precious air...

And with that, we made it out alive and in one piece!

I used to be a Brownie... I still am one but I've stopped dancing around toadstools

Freezing our way back to the civilisation in the rain...

We had a helluva time painting the town brown that day (or maybe just ourselves!)

Cueva Vaca - highly recommended! 5 outta 5 stars!