Land of the Gods

III.II.II LAND OF THE GODS I might be in love with travelling, but if there’s one thing I hate, it’s long-haul flights. Seriously, hate them with a passion. My nose alternates between being as dry as a fistful of Martian soil and bleeding like a stuck pig, my joints and muscles age by fifty years, and my hypothalamus suddenly decides […]

Gearing Up

III.II.I GEARING UP Islander lifestyle be damned. Something much better was in store for me. Something my friends and I had been planning for months on end was now just around the corner. Something… Okay, I’m done with all the suspense. As soon as exams were done and dusted, we were gonna fly off to Nepal! But it wasn’t just […]

Rose-Coloured Glasses

III.I.III ROSE-COLOURED GLASSES I was never a summer person. You know how everyone just goes bonkers at the simple mention of the season? Not me. I’m a sucker for autumn. I think I have Gilmore Girls to thank for that – is there a more autumny TV show out there?   There’s just something about autumn that makes me feel […]

Moving On

III.I.II MOVING ON And life went on. I now had all the time in the world for my studies and for myself. The second semester of our third year in med school is renowned for its trials and tribulations, so this freedom seemed to be god-sent. The catch? The me time soon started taking over the study time and before […]

Back

III.I.I BACK I arrived back home in one piece, unprostituted and as sober as ever. I had been expecting to come back a different person, and that I did. Only I couldn’t quite recognise what was so different about me.  On the outside I was still the same – though lighter, and my skin now perfect, shiny and tan in […]

Home

II.III.IX HOME Constantly moving on from one adventure to another, I failed to notice my time in Colombia was almost up. On my last day, I opened my eyes and I was wide awake. I wanted to keep them closed, to go back to sleep. I wanted to stay in that moment right before you wake up, when things are […]

Wandering

II.III.VIII WANDERING Just before we’d get to enjoy the city of Bogotá, we had one final road trip planned in order to cover as much ground as possible. Luckily, Pedro’s father offered his car for that. Our first stop was the Catedral de Sal de Zipaquirá, salt mines extending some 650 feet underground with a church at their epicentre. Apart from […]

Adrenaline

II.III.VII ADRENALINE As expected, tomorrow did come, and as hungover as we were, we had yet another trip to make. We took a plane to Bucaramanga, a city north of Bogotá where we’d start a road trip down south – a cascade of adventures along the way. We visited Barichara, a Spanish colonial town known for its cobbled streets and whitewashed […]

Recovery

II.III.VI RECOVERY Our adventures in Santa Marta were soon over and the rest of Colombia was awaiting. We headed down south back to Bogotá once again, where we were given the warmest welcome by Pedro’s family before being cordially escorted to their bathroom. After four days without a hot shower, I could finally scrub myself clean from all the dirt […]

Reconnected

II.III.V RECONNECTED read on the doe The long-awaited third day was finally upon us. The day we’d get to see the Lost City. I couldn’t believe we were almost there. All battered, bruised and blistered, I had persevered. It would still be a long way to go and really, we had only covered half the trek so far. But I […]