MOGOTES OR BUST! Part One

Poblado, Medellín

Hello again, cyberworld!  As many of you may have already gathered from my pictures on Facebook, I had quite an exciting Colombian Independence Day weekend a few weeks ago (July 20th is Colombia's Independence Day) while back in my birthtown of Mogotes, Santander.  But before I get into details about that special trip, I need to back up and recap my trip to Medellin, which happened the week before.

So Friday the 13th of July, Jeni and I set off for Medellin in the early afternoon.  We managed to get on probably the fanciest bus I've ever been on in Latin America (and perhaps in all of the Americas) from the Bolivariano company: the bus had wi-fi, personal tv screens embedded in the seat in front complete with movies and music, complimentary headphones, and plenty of legroom.  Since yours truly cannot for the life of her get any real sleep on a bus, plane, train or what have you, I was happily entertained with movies such as Pirates of the Caribbean, DaVinci Code, and others on my private tv screen.  It definitely helped me cope with the fact that what should normally be a 8-10 hour ride turned out to be 13 because of the daily horrendous traffic leaving Bogota and some pretty bad trancones in the campo as well. We made it to Medellin at roughly 2:30am or so, and didn't get to our hotel until about 3am. Our friend, Mark, was already staying at the hotel so he had reserved us a space in his room since the room had one big bed and a bunk bed and could easily fit more than 3 people. Naturally, we slept in late the next day but finally ventured outside around 10am to explore Poblado, the awesome barrio of Medellin where we were staying. The neighborhood has a lot of restaurants, bars, and hostels as it seems to cater to the tourist and extranjero crowd. Jeni and I ate brunch at an awesome little spot that shockingly could make an omelete with egg whites and had a pepper grinder on the table (two things you can NEVER find in Bogota).  Then we spent the rest of the afternoon having a few cocktails and enjoying the wonderful warm weather at the Medellin Beer Factory and in Parque Lleras along with Mark.

Mark, Jeni and I in Parque Lleras, Medellín

Sunday the 15th, Jeni and I decided to explore more of the city so we hopped on the metro (SHOCKING!! A Colombian city with a real transportation system, be still my heart!) to head off to Parque Berrio where the Museo de Antioquia is and all the Botero statues are.  We walked around for a bit and then inquired about how to take the air tram (also part of the metro) up to the Biblioteca Espana.  So we did (and the gondola ride wasn't nearly as scary as the one in Chicamocha, hooray!) and we walked around up in the neighborhood there as well.  That evening we had our "Black Sunday" tradition of fried chicken, but this time not at Frisby's but at KFC!!  And they had BISCUITS!!!!  Omg, I don't think I can stress enough how much I love KFC biscuits.  Anywho, so after my love affair with the biscuits we spent another chill evening in Parque Lleras taking advantage of the 3x1 happy hour specials on cocktails and just enjoying the cool-but no jacket required-evening.

Posing with Botero statue in Parque Berrio, Medellín

Monday the 15th we were back on the metro and back to Parque Berrio to enjoy some of the exhibits at the Museo de Antioquia, notably the permanent Botero exhibit and some others.  Then we were off to the Jardin Botanico where we walked around for several hours enjoying the foliage and just loving being outside in the warmth.  After the botanical garden we walked around some more, heading into the government center of town, past the Parque de Luces, and to the Parque de los pies descalzos, which ended up just being a big sand pit and water fountain.  Tuesday the 16th we hung out some more, did a bit of shopping, and rested up for our evening bus trip to Bucaramanga in order to head over to Santander and see my hometown. We said goodbye to Medellin at 9pm and made it to B/manga the next day around 6am. Unfortunately this time our Bolivariano wasn't as fancy, so I was stuck watching Colombiana again for the 3rd time on a shared screen and not having as much leg room as I would have liked and no Wi-Fi. Well, from B/manga we then had to get on another bus for the 3 hour ride to San Gil, the nearest "bigger town" to Mogotes.  Then from San Gil it was another hour and change on a smaller bus to Mogotes.

Parque Central, Mogotes

So I was impressed to see that most of the highway between San Gil and Mogotes was paved. Quite a change from back in the day when my parents came to get me because apparently back then most of it was not paved.  But that was 27+ years ago so I would hope they could get something done, jaja!  Anywho, only about three sections are still not paved, the longest being the stretch right into town.  The bus left us in the town center, which like pretty much every other Latin American small town has a central park, a church or two on one or two ends, a few restaurants, tiendas, bars and a police station. I was super happy to see that the town had a cajero automatico (ATM) and even more thrilled when I found out it was a Servibanca, the one that we need to use to pay our bills and stuff (which I had brought with me).  We had no problem finding hospedaje--there was a very nice hostel right off the parque central called Hotel Don Corzo.  Jeni and I were immediately impressed with how friendly the staff was, how clean and spacious the common areas were, and how simple, yet elegant the rooms were.  Two beds, cable, balcon, and a hot shower!  What more do I need in life??  There were soooooo many rooms too, each with multiple beds and their own private balcony.  Immediately after unpacking a bit and settling in, we went off to find lunch but the town looked like a ghost town!  Aha!  Hora de siesta!  But we did find a restaurant right across from the hotel which served some pretty decent food (jugo de maracuya, some churrasco for me, pollo sudado for Jeni) and then we just kicked it the rest of the day, walking around, hanging out in the hotel, watching a bit of TV, etc until falling asleep during a pretty tremendous rain storm and calling it a night early since we were both exhausted by our travels.

Yours truly cheesin at the Registraduría, Mogotes

The next morning (Thursday the 19th) we were awaken by the noise of drums and other instruments coming from the parque central.  As it turns out, there was a parade going on in honor of Colombian Independence Day, but being celebrated a day early.  We were still in bed half asleep while all of this went on so we didn't quite get out of the room in time to catch all the fanfare, but we definitely saw the marching band (a local colegio) and heard people talking on a megaphone.  After having a nice huevo perico (scrambled eggs) breakfast with some good (finally!) arepas and tinto (black coffee) I decided to head over to the Registraduría (National Registry) just for the hell of it, thinking maybe just maybe I could try and find some relative or something.  So we strolled on over there with just my adoption papers in tow.  Although I figured my adoption papers wouldn't really help since they would null any former registry, I got lucky when the woman said that there was a number corresponding to the nulled act (my original birth certificate).  Hooray!  So she was easily able to find my original birth certificate in an archaic book and low and behold there was me (formerly known as Yacqueline Murillo Garcia) with the name of my mother (Rosa Maria Murillo Garcia) and a supposed corresponding cédula number. So with that cédula number and I guess some other piece of information that was there she was able to call someone to see if that, indeed, was my mother.  Turns out the ID number belonged to someone else. Booooo!  So we were back at square one.  The woman checked a few other Murillo Garcias and some other Murillo Something-ruther combinations but none of them looked like a match cuz they were either too old or hadn't given away a child or what have you.  The woman did say, however, that a woman with the last name Murillo Socorro had come into the office the day before looking for some similar information and would be back either later that day or the following day so she  said she'd let me know if and when that woman returned.  Anywho, we left the Registraduría with no major leads so Jeni and I decided to walk around town and just talk to people.

Our next stop lead us to the cementery (weird, I know) where we met someone who really changed the course of our time there...

TO CONTINUE, PLEASE GO TO THE "MOGOTES OR BUST! PART 2" POST!!!