Thursday, July 14, 2011

Day 38 - Manizales (My Greatest Fear Realized, no lol)

Soo I woke up at 6am this morning and made an executive decision to head to Manizales and explore a new city. Now the responsible thing would have been to stay up, but I decided to go back to bed, lol. In the process of packing up all my things and having breakfast, I learned that one of the people I checked out last night did not pay for their dinners. Wellllllllll that means I had to pay for one of them. Boo @ that. I don’t believe in giving away money, but I digress. Lesson learned, too bad it had to be on my last day.

As I was closing out my final tab, I was reminded that today’s dinner was Mexican *sniffles* I almost changed my plans to leave on Wednesday, but I am determined to stay focused and leave. Although I must admit, it is verrry hard to do so.

Anywho, I manage to arrive in Manizales in one piece and after a few wrong turns made it to my hostel, Base Camp, a cute little place with fab colors, furniture, and designs. However, being able to enjoy the sites was shortly lived.. and I do mean short. As I was filling out my registration card, I reached down and noticed I did not have my passport.

Soo how did I lose it?! Some backpackers told me that I should always carry my passport physically on me when traveling on buses, airplanes, etc. Well that’s something I had never done before and I did not have the proper gear to carry anything on me, except pockets, which I did not use because it seemed soo obvious, lol. So today of all days, I attempted to abide by the rules and tucked it in my pants.  Well sometime between getting off the bus and walking through the terminal I dropped it.

Fast forward, I cut the person off at the hostel mid sentence and I am like I have to go. I run down the stairs and back up because I need my pocket dictionary and some paper and my bus ticket (that I just happened to save). I run to the cables quasi-frantic and trying to pull myself together. I am trying as best as I can to communicate while referencing my dictionary for words I do not know. This sweet senorita figures out what I am saying and then grabs another gentleman who speaks enough English for me to explain to him what has happened. He tells the policia and they make a few calls to have security check for my passport. They ask me to wait 10 minutes. It was the longest 10 minutes every, but I decided to right down my next messages (via the dictionary) for the next person I talk to. I know it will not be grammatically correct, but it is close enough to hopefully get the gist of what I am saying.

Well after waiting, they do not find anything. I feel myself start to crumble on the inside, but I am SOOO TRYING to hold myself together. This is my worst nightmare. Losing my passport in a place where I cannot fluently speak the language and not enough people around me speak my language. My next plan is to go to the bus terminal, find my bus company and ask them to call the bus driver to see if he sees my passport.

I go to the window and try to communicate what has happened. This fucker, Transporte Armenia, acts as if he can’t do anything and I need to call the police. Why in the hell do I need to talk to the police when its their company, their drivers.. SOOO a frustrated me, walks away and goes to the information desk with my handwritten Spanglish to try and explain to them what happens. Guys, I am still trying to hold myself together WHILE they really only understand 25% of what I am trying to say. Then the lady behind the desk asks a couple standing on the other side of me do they speak English. OH MY GOODNESS, they did and were able to communicate what happened. Around this same time, the tears just started flowing as I told them I dropped my passport in an effort to do what was recommended to me and I can’t find my passport, I leave next week, and I am frantic. People who know me, know I am not really outwardly emotional.. I was outwardly an effin mess.

So everyone is working with me to figure out what and where and who and what. This is about hour 3 into this ordeal and a man walks up behind me holding my passport. I cried like a baby. I have not really experienced the tears of happiness and the tears of sadness before, but I promise they were one in the same for me. It was a time where all I could do was be Thankful beyond belief. Passports go for over $1M pesos on the black market and I would have to get to Bogota without a passport and would have had to wait for an appointment to see someone. Let’s just say that it all worked out and I am back to my own methods for safeguarding my passport when traveling.

A new Mironda heads back to my hostel while trying to get my blood pressure to come back down. I take time to soak up the layout of the hostel.

You wouldn't know it by looking, but these beds are pretty comfy!


What a groovy way to refinish an old table!
Views from the rooftop. These were the cables I took from the bus terminal.


















I met up with a couple of people in the hostel and we decide to go and explore Manizales before it gets dark. It’s such a short city. From my understanding, it really is a college town, and caters to mostly that crowd. 

I can tell I am back in a city. Street vendors and fruit stands everywhere!

This is what you call a stuffed pig..

I think this is a government building..


A little Maize and Blue.. GO BLUE.. viva la Michigan.










One of the most notable things is the Cathedral. Gothic but interesting and well known.




















In an effort to get the lay of the land, we went to the official tourism office (not the one we should have really been at.. the government one, lol). And these were the FRIENDLIEST people I could have come across. They were all to happy to share with us their city and things to do. They brought us into their office and showed us these amazing views. I do not have pictures, but I wish I did. I mean hospitality to another level and all we wanted was a tourism brochure. 

They had a 13th floor in this building!














Quick pic!














From there we did a bit of walking.. the views of this short city are amazing.

















This church was beautiful..































And check out one of their shopping centers. Can you say cool?














After a whirlwind of a day, I decided to make me some dinner and sit. Porsche, lookie, lookie, a veggie pasta with all the fixings. ;-)









And as fate would have it, a couple from Belgium told me they spent the day at the Termales at Santa Rosa and it was worth me traveling to. These are thermal springs with beautiful views that are said to have medicinal powers, but I am more interested in a hot springs. I have never done one and this one has received rave reviews from everyone I’ve talked to who has been. I am set and ready to go. Off to bed!! 

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