The doctor didn`t speak English so I had a local girl there translating for me telling him my symptoms. He tells me it is possible that I have Malaria and that I will have to travel to Panama to get tested if my fever does not get better soon. I freak out and tell him more of my symptoms which makes him change his mind to “you don`t have malaria, you just need a massive needle of god knows what in the arse!” There was nothing sanctimonious about the massive horse needle he jabbed in my butt or the manner in which he did it. It was by far the most painful injection I have ever had and as a result I was unable to properly move my leg for half the day.
The injection did make me feel better though and that night I was up feeling not too bad. Unfortunately the next day I was back to having a fever and sleeping. So balking at the idea of having to go to Panama for medical treatment I booked a boat and bus ticket out the next day to head for Medellin should I need some proper treatment. As luck would have it I woke up totally fine the next day with a trip booked that would take me from Capurgana the place I really wanted to be. Ah well, I guess I had to head south at some point.
The boat ride was fun. I played a game of try not to spot the rotten sections of the speed boat as more and more people were crammed on and we attacked the less than ideal seas at top speed. Sitting near the middle of the speed boat had a not too bad ride but the old guy up the front was putting out some groans every time we hit a wave that had me feeling very sorry for him. To top off the experience, halfway through our two and a half hour journey the bimini shade top decides to let go and hit the old bloke and the tallest person in the boat (that would be me) in the head with its aluminium poles! Pleasant.... Now we get to smash our way to the port town of Turbo in a speed boat nursing headaches and coping the full brunt of the sun.
The change over at Turbo onto the bus to Medellin was quick and painless. It was another 11 hours later and i was back in Medellin staying at my favourite hostel Casa Kiwi. Medellin was pretty uneventful and served as a bit of an organising point for what I should do next. I did manage however to meet back up with a Spanish couple I had first met at the beginning of my trip around South America in Santiago. Meeting them again was fantastic as we shared a lot of stories about our travels which I seem to have heaps!
From Medellin I caught a bus to San Gil, a small town off in the countryside of Colombia. San Gil is famed for having the best white water rafting in South America as well as a whole heap of other adventure sports. Arriving in San Gil after what was a nightmarish 14 hours on a bus I was glad just to see a bed. The next day i met up with some other backpackers and we set about trying to raft. Unfortunately with the amount of rain Colombia has been experiencing the local companies had ceased rafting because of the dangers posed by high river water levels. This did not stop us from finding alternatives such as Hydrospeeding. Hydrospeeding is basically where you get a body board, some fins and a helmet and are let loose to shoot your way down the river rapids.
There was no safety inductions, no “can you swim?” it was just “here is your board, don`t loose it. I will be following you in a kayak in case of stuff. Lets go!”. Hawsome! And it was awesome, we road some more placid category 3 rapids and got smashed by some pretty big standing waves of the 2.5m variety. All you see is the guy in front of you (if there is one) just disappear before being shot up into the air! Then you know it`s your turn and this is gonna rock!
Afterwards we jumped from the water and into a spot of caving. This was a little of a surprise to me because almost immediately you found yourself crawling on your belly through some chilly water to pass through some very small spaces. The journey in was sooo much fun. At one point you were made to hold a rope and drag yourself underwater for a few meters to get to the next chamber. Very Man vs Wild.
To top off the day, we returned to the hostel, changed from our grubby clothes and headed for the local fair and some midget bull fighting. OH yeah....that`s right, there were midgets being stomped on by a bull. And there wasn`t just one midget, there was like eight and they were properies. No little kids or just plain old small people. Real midgets! I friggin love Colombia! When they want to have fun, they can really arrange some stuff! These poor little buggers were getting axed by this bull. Little legs really don`t do the trick when you have to run! And it doesn`t help when the bigger rodeo clowns throw you at the bulls cause they think it is funny!
Midget getting attacked bya bull. Awesomely cool!
What a day that day was though. The next was a rainy affair and we settled for hanging around the hostel, cooking up a good feed and getting into the sauna. That`s right, this hostel had a sauna and a dipping pool! Wicked. That night, all relaxed and well fed, myself and a Kiwi girl headed for Cali in the south of Colombia in preparation for a border crossing into Ecuador. But before that we decided to hang out in Cali for a few days and check out the sights. Right now I am off to the zoo to see a massive ant eater and some other Amazon crazies. Should be fun.
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